USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 44
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HENRY W. WARNER. To make thousands of highly specialized workmen and machines work to- gether harmoniously and effectively, to keep them contented, happy and healthy, such is the responsi- bility resting upon the superintendent of the great industrial plants in modern days. While this statement does not cover all the duties of such careful, conscientious and capable superintendents as Henry W. Warner, of the Ivey Mills Com- pany, at Hickory, North Carolina, it indicates the scope of his work and the ability necessary to
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properly perform it. Mr. Warner is an experi- enced cotton mill man and has been connected with this manufacturing industry since boyhood.
Henry W. Warner was born at Mount Gilead, in Montgomery County, North Carolina, in 1869. His parents were John A. and Elizabeth J. (Sig- ler) Warner, both of whom are deceased. His maternal grandfather was born in England, and when he first came to North Carolina engaged for a time in gold mining. The father of Mr. Warner was born in Montgomery County, North Carolina, and for many years lived in the vicinity of Mount Gilead. By trade he was a miller, was also a farmer and additionally operated the old yarn mill on Swift Island. During the war between the states, he used his mill to grind grain for the Confederacy.
When seventeen years of age Henry W. Warner started to work in a cotton mill and has been iden- tified with the industry ever since. He had fewer educational advantages than many youths, but none excelled him in ambition and industry. The cotton mill in which he took his first industrial lessons, was located at Randleman, in Randolph County, beginning naturally at the bottom of the ladder, later working for better wages in Vir- ginia and in South Carolina, and in the course of time he became foreman of a mill. In that capac- ity he worked for some years but in 1904 he was appointed mill superintendent and for the eighteen years preceding his coming to Hickory, he was foreman and superintendent of different mills at Charlotte, North Carolina.
For six years Mr. Warner was with the Highland Park mills at Charlotte, and for twelve years was with the Chadwick-Hoskins mill, the latter be- ing one of the largest mill establishments in the South, its builder being E. A. Smith. Through Mr. Smith's recommendation to the Ivey Mills Company of Hickory, he was invited to come to this place and take charge of the Ivey mill, an enterprise that was not succeeding, in fact was losing money for its owners. Although Mr. Warner was called on to face many discouraging conditons he did not give up, but, on the other hand, worked night and day for more than a year. His cf- forts were carried on with so much intelligence and good judgment that gradually the great change was effected and now the mill is one of the most profitable industries of its kind at Hickory.
Too great credit cannot be given Mr. Warner. He has every detail of the mill systematized, its different departments co-ordinated and working in harmony all the machinery and equipment in first class condition, and everything in fine running or- der. Not the least of what he has accomplished is the spirit of enthusiasm that he has aroused in the employes. Formerly, on account of neglected surroundings illness had prevailed and neither workmanship, pride nor fidelity to em- ployers were notable features of the mill worker's life.
Mr. Warner soon had the mill and its surround- ings on a clean and thoroughly sanitary basis and since then there has not been a single case of fever, and additionally he interested himself personally in the welfare of every employe and urged and assisted in bringing about changes that have actually regenerated the mill community and have made adjacent sections anxious to be neigh- borly as never before. Mr. Warner has taught the people concerning the preservation of their health and has shown approval in all their efforts to improve their homes and grounds and has
given them a great deal of substantial assistance. It was Mr. Warner who secured from the Ivey Mills Company an appropriation that made possi- ble the erection of a community house, for the ex- clusive use of the employes of this mill. It has proved a wonderfully helpful factor. It is a neat club house, free to all, of frame construc- tion. In its commodious assembly hall educational classes are held, concerts are given by the mill band and other entertainments amuse and instruct, while reading matter is provided for those of quieter taste. One of the most appreciated features per- haps, are the swimming pool and shower baths in the basement. The community house is under the direct management of Mr. Warner.
"Captain" Warner, as he is familiarly known, was married to Miss Hattie Lassiter, who belongs to one of the old families of Randolph County. They have two children, Ola Lee and Robert .Jackson Warner. The former is a student in Lenoir College, Hickory, and the latter attends the public school.
The Ivey Mills Company is a large corporation. Its president is G. H. Geitner, and its secretary and treasurer is A. A. Shuford, Jr. The Ivey mill at Hickory, over which Captain Warner pre- sides, has 15,360 spindles and 400 looms, and man- ufactures sateens, its fine product being distributed over the entire country.
D. MATT THOMPSON. Success has many ratings and methods of measurement. Some men won battles and military campaigns, some achieved position as captains of industry, others build bridges and railroads, some win high political for- tune, other accumulate wealth. It is sufficient to estimate their achievements by pointing out the things done. With another class of successful men estimate and measurement are vastly differ- ent and more difficult. Their success is the re- sult of long and constant human service, a doing well of commonplace and routine tasks in years of close relationship with their fellow men. Such men and women contribute the finest things to the sum total of human happiness and welfare, but very often are unconscious of their own value and the world seldom gives them the credit that is due.
It is this kind and type of success that has been achieved by D. Matt Thompson of States- ville, North Carolina. He is a veteran educator, has been at his various posts of responsibility for over forty-five years, and a year or so ago com- pleted a quarter century's continuous work as superintendent of the city schools of Statesville. In that city at least his work has had some con- siderable measure of appreciation. This appreci- ation was happily set forth in the editorial col- umns of a local paper at the time Superintendent Thompson completed his twenty-fifth year, 1916, as head of the schools. He is still head of these schools, 1918. Some of the editorial deserves quotation as a matter of public record.
"Superintendent Thompson has filled a most difficult and trying place in the community serv- ice. Coming to Statesville when the public schools. were established he took charge and by his faith- ful and untiring efforts through the years he has. brought the Statesville schools to first rank among the city schools of the state. The fact that he has served-and successfully-the whole community for a quarter of a century, has in a way managed about all the children of Statesville for twenty-
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five years, and through it all maintained the re- spect and esteem and confidence of the community, proclaims him an unusual man. In that period he has had the great burden of selecting, super- vising and being responsible for the teachers under him. Ot hearing the troubles of children-en- couraging the dull and the backward, restraining and disciplining the vicious, arbitrating and com- posing differences between children and teachers, and worse still- hearing and reconciling the com- plaints of some parents who should have helped him but instead added to his burdens by unde- served complaints and reproaches. Through it all Superintendent Thompson has managed the schools with patience and firmness and ability and tact that would give him first rank in the diplo- matic service in any country; and has made the Statesville public schools an institution of which every citizen is justly proud; an institution that will stand through the years as a monument to the first superintendent-a monument more enduring than brass or marble.
"And Superintendent Thompson has not only labored to train the children in the schoolroom. With little or no means and little help or en- couragement he has made the grounds of the first school building, with grass and trees and shrub- bery, about the most attractive place in town; and if he lives long enough he will have similar grounds at the new school building. While train- ing the children mentally and morally, he has taught them habits of neatness and love for the beautiful, so that in Statesville today will be found the best kept school buildings in the state- buildings practically unmarred by marks left by any of the hundreds of children who have gone in and out for twenty-five years.
" All honor to the honored head of the States- ville Public Schools on this twenty-fifth anni- versary of his work here. The 'Landmark' con- gratulates him on his successful achievement-on his splendid work in the community and that he has lived to see it reach in a measure at least what he had hoped and planned for. But it con- gratulates him most of all that his work is re- ceiving recognition while he is here to know it- and that he is made to know in some measure the appreciation of his work by the community and the esteem in which he is held. And the com- munity is to be congratulated on its good fortune in securing at the beginning, to manage its schools, one whose service has been so successful and so acceptable."
D. Matt Thompson was born at Long's Mills in Randolph County, North Carolina, and has an early colonial ancestry. In the paternal line the Thompsons came out of England at an early period of American colonization and some of them fought in the Revolutionary war. Samuel Thompson, fa- ther of the veteran educator, married in 1843 Elizabeth Moser, whose ancestors had come to the American colonies from Holland. Some of the Mosers were more or less prominent in the Revolu- tionary war. One of them was hanged by Gov- ernor Tryon.
D. Matt Thompson grew up on a farm, worked in the fields and attended public and private schools during his boyhood. Later he completed the course in the Sylvan Academy in Alamance County, and afterward attended the Cook County Normal School at Englewood, Illinois. Later he received the degree of A. M.
He is not only a veteran in educational work but
also of the great war between the states. From 1862 to 1865, he, a mere boy, was with the Con- federate army. He was severely wounded on July 3, 1863, at the last day of the battle of Gettys- burg. He was a member of Company H, Third North Carolina Infantry. Again on August 15, 1864, at Deep Bottom near Richmond, Virginia, he was wounded and permanently disabled for active duty. He was then a member of Company F, Second North Carolina Cavalry. After that he was attached to the Confederates States Provost Marshal's Corps at Richmond until the time of General Lee's surrender on April 9, 1865. See map on page 198, volume 4, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Mr. Thompson has been continu- ously either principal or superintendent of schools since the year 1870. For the year 1870-71 he was principal of Aurora Academy, Chatham County, was principal of Sylvan High School from 1871 to 1873, of Piedmont Seminary, Denver, North Caro- lina, 1873-84, and head of Piedmont Seminary, Lincolnton, North Carolina, from 1884 to 1890. During about eight years of this period he was county superintendent of public instruction and chairman of the county board of education in Lin- coln County, North Carolina. During 1890-91 he served as superintendent of public schools at Gainesville, Florida, and in 1891 came to his pres- ent office as superintendent of the Statesville pub- lic schools. When he took charge of the local schools there were only seven teachers including himself, and he has not only improved the build- ing equipment, the standards of training, and the efficiency of the personnel, but is now head of a staff of teachers numbering twenty-seven.
Mr. Thompson has been continuously a mem- ber of the North Carolina Teachers Assembly from its organization, was a member of its executive committee for a number of years, was its vice president in 1899, and president in 1900. In 1898 he was also president of the City Superintendents Association of the State. He is a member of the National Education Association, a member of the National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C., and of the North Carolina Historical and Lit- erary Association, the Commercial Club of States- ville and for many years has been prominent as a member and official of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He has filled the office of stew- ard in the church from boyhood, was superintend- ent of Sunday school for more than thirty years, and has been a member of either the Board of Education or the Board of Missions of the North Carolina and then of the Western North Carolina conferences since 1886. During all that time he has missed but two sessions of conference. In the way of public service besides his office as county superintendent of public instruction in Lincoln County from 1882 to 1890 he was mayor of the village of Denver from 1878 to 1880. Mr. Thomp- son is a director of the Liberty Hosiery Manu- facturing Company. He has always been a dem- ocrat, though he has at times exercised a choice in selection of men for local office.
August 1, 1872, at Farmer, Randolph County, North Carolina, he married Mary Elizabeth Rice, daughter of Captain Thomas and Absilah (Win- bourne) Rice. Mrs. Thompson was a teacher when she married and taught for some years afterward. Her father was widely known in Ran- dolph County and for many years filled the office of justice of the peace. Her mother was of Welsh descent. The Rice and Winbourne families have long been prominent in Randolph and Guilford
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counties. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have three children. Holland Thompson, Ph. D., is now pro- fessor in the department of history in the City College of New York. He married Isabel Aitkins, New York City. Walter Thompson is superin- tendent of the Children's Home at Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and married Emily Gregory of Greensboro. Dorman Thompson is a prominent attorney-at-law at Statesville and has served two terms as senator in the Legislature of North Carolina, and is a member of the general confer- ences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for the years, 1914 and 1918. He married Luda Morrison of Statesville. Mr. and Mrs. D. Matt Thompson also have an adopted daughter, Lucy, still with them in their home at Statesville.
WALTER THOMPSON. A man of scholarly attain- ments and much executive ability, Walter Thomp- son, superintendent of the Children's Home at Winston-Salem, is devoting his time and energies to the uplifting of the children under his care, more especially along the lines of industrial de- velopment. A son of Prof. D. Matt Thompson, superintendent of the public schools of States- ville, he was born, in 1875, in Denver, Lincoln County, North Carolina, and received his elemen- tary education in Lincolnton.
After teaching for a short time in Statesville and Concord, Mr. Thompson entered the Univer- sity of North Carolina, from which he was grad- uated with the class of 1898. Resuming his for- mer profession, he subsequently taught in Greens- boro, and later was superintendent of the city public schools of Concord, Cabarrus County. He resigned that position to become superintendent of the Jackson Training School, where he remained until 1913. Since that time he has had charge of the Children's Home in Winston, and in its supervision has been eminently successful, his work being carried along on a high plane of effi- ciency.
Mr. Thompson married, in 1901, Miss Emily Gregory, who was born in Greensboro, North Car- olina, a daughter of George H. and Emily (Mul- len) Gregory. Three children have blessed their marriage, Winbourne, Evelyn and Jack. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are members of the Methodist Church. .
PROF. GRIFFIN G. WALL. Scholarly in his at- tainments, and possessing excellent business talent and judgment, Prof. Griffin G. Wall, of South- mont, is widely known as a successful educator, and as an enterprising manufacturer, at the present time being associated with one of the prominent industries of Davidson County, the Southmont plant of the G. W. & C. M. Wall Com- pany. He was born, April 23, 1890, in Wallburg, Davidson County, a son of George W. and Hasel- tine V. (Charles) Wall.
Hon. Samuel W. Wall, the professor's grand- father, was for many years the leading carriage manufacturer of Davidson County, and was a large slave holder, at one time having upwards of sixty, all of whom he kept busily employed if old enough to work. Now, an honored and venerable man of eighty-four years, he is living retired from active pursuits. Prominent in public affairs, he has served as a representative to the State Leg- islature, and as Congressman, in both bodies being active, and ever loyal to the interests of his con- stituents. The maiden name of his wife was Christina Teague.
George W. Wall was for many years associated with his brother, Charles M. Wall, in the manu- facture of wagons, with a plant at Wallburg. The business grew apace, and in addition to manu- facturing lumber the firm of G. W. & C. M. Wall enlarged its operations, establishing at Southmont a large plant that is now devoted to the manu- facture of building materials and box shooks. George W. and Charles M. Wall have ever been interested in the public welfare, and as a stimulus to the advancement of education in town and county founded the Liberty Piedmont Institute, at Wallburg.
Prof. Griffin G. Wall received his first instruc- tion in books at a private school, and later at- tended the Wallburg High School, which, through the generosity of his father and uncle, is now the Liberty Piedmont Institute. Continuing his studies, he entered Wake Forest College, and there was graduated, in 1912, with the degree of bachelor of arts. The ensuing year, Professor Wall taught school in Southmont, and then accepted a position in the Liberty Piedmont Institute, with which he was connected until 1916. Becoming in that year associated with the G. W. & C. M. Wall Company, he came to Southmont to take charge of the company's plant, and in its management has met with eminent success.
On December 25, 1916, Professor Wall was united in marriage with Maude V. Brown, a woman of culture. Religiously the professor is a member of the Baptist Church, and Mrs. Wall of the Lutheran Church. Fraternally Professor Wall belongs to Wallburg Council, Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
THEODORE S. MORRISON of Asheville, is one of the men of commanding influence and position in business, industrial and civic affairs in West- ern North Carolina.
He was born March 14, 1852, on the Swananea River, six miles east of Asheville in Buncombe County, North Carolina, a son of Rev. William Newton and Sarah Varick (Cozens) Morrison. His great-grandfather, James M. Morrison, was a native of Scotland and came to this country and settled in Pennsylvania in 1750. The grandfather, John M. Morrison, came to Cabbarus County, North Carolina, in 1764, and was a planter in that section of the state. Rev. William Newton Morrison was born in Cabarrus County, was edu- cated in Rockbridge, Virginia, under his oldest brother, James, a minister and teacher, and also attended Washington College, now Washington and Lee University. He took his theological course in Princeton Theological Seminary of New Jersey and completed his work in the Union Theological Seminary of Virginia. For a time he was pastor of Goshen Church in Lincoln County, North Carolina, and then became a pioneer in upbuilding the cause of the Presbyterian Church in Western North Carolina. For many years he was located at Piney Grove, twelve miles above Asheville on the Swananea, and afterward carried on extensive missionary work and labored assidu- ously in the development of many remote congre- gations in the western part of the state. He was licensed to the ministry at the age of twenty-five and followed it unremittingly for half a century. He was born in 1810 and died in 1885, at the age of seventy-five. He spent his last days at the home of his youngest son, Theodore S. Morrison. His wife, Miss Cozens, was born on the Hudson River in New York in 1814. She moved to
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Charlotte, North Carolina, with her parents in 1820 and was married to Rev. William Morrison in 1835. Her last years were spent in the home of her son Theodore S. Morrison, dying August 11, 1888, at the age of seventy-five years.
Theodore S. Morrison's years from nine to twenty cover the period of the Civil war and the subsequent Reconstruction. His father lost practi- cally all his property during that time and the son lacked many of the advantages and the school opportunities which otherwise would have been given him. Part of his education was acquired in the school near Asheville conducted by Col. Stephen D. Lee and later at the Academy of Faucett and Dixon, Lenoir, North Carolina. At the age of nineteen he left the home farm and went to work as clerk in a mercantile and naval store business on the Pee Dee river in South Carolina. He was there two years and then came back home to take care of his parents, who were in ill health. For two years he clerked in Ashe- ville, and then established a general store on his own account, which was the beginning of his successful career. He later had stores at Marshall and Alexander, North Carolina and had his home at the latter town for five years. On selling out these interests and returning to Asheville in 1887, he resumed general merchandising on North Main Street, and soon established an agricultural imple- ment house, which has grown until now it is. one of the leading firms in Western North Carolina, handling agricultural implements, engines, mills and other machinery. In 1899 he retired from general merchandise to concentrate his attention upon his other interests.
Mr. Morrison was a charter stockholder of Battery Park Bank, established in 1891, and was a director for a number of years. He is vice president and director of the Wachovia Bank and Trust Company of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and has been chairman of the Board of Directors of the Asheville branch since it was established. He is also a director of the Nakomis Cotton Mills at Lexington, North Carolina, and of the Maline Cotton Mills at Winston-Salem. In 1916 he was elected president of the North Carolina Electric Power Company and has since been at the head of one of the largest hydro-electric companies in the state, the company having three plants, two of them on the French Broad River. The hydro- electric plants have a capacity of developing ten- thousand horse power, and they also maintain a steam auxiliary. plant producing four thousand horse power.
Mr. Morrison is one of the prominent Presby- terians in Western North Carolina. He is an elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Ashe- ville, is a member of the Home Mission Committee of Asheville Presbytery, and is president of that committee.
On June 12, 1877, he married Miss Ella Hen- rietta Davidson, a daughter of Col. Allen Turner and Adeline (Howell) Davidson. Her father was a lawyer of prominence in Western North Caro- lina, and a member of the Confederate Congress of the '60s. Mrs. Morrison is of Revolution- ary antecedents, and is one of the most prominent members of the Daughters of the American Revo- lution in North Carolina, being state regent at the present time and also served for several years as regent of the Edward Buncombe Chapter and as vice regent of the state.
Mr. and Mrs. Morrison became the parents of
four children, James Harold, who died at the age of five years, Theodore Davidson, Allen Turner and Eleanor Varrick. The daughter, wife of Dr. Paul H. Ringer of Asheville, was prepared for college in Asheville and graduated from Converse College, Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Theodore Davidson Morrison, the elder son, was born at Alexander, North Carolina, February 9, 1883, was educated in the Bingham School at Ashe- ville, in Davidson College and finished his course in the University of North Carolina in 1904, graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Science. For two years he was connected with the Wachovia Bank and Trust Company, and then entered the firm of T. S. Morrison and Company, agricultural implements, vehicles, etc., at Asheville. December 15, 1909, he married Miss Eleanor Fakes. They have four children: Thomas Slayden, Theodore Davidson, Jr., Martha and James Fakes. Mr. T. D. Morrison is a member of the Presbyterian Church and is a member of the Asheville Reserve Infantry, Second Company, North Carolina Reserve Militia.
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