USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 58
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At his own home, under the instruction of a gov- erness, William Franklin Carter laid a substantial foundation for his future education, and at the age of eleven years entered the Wentworth Acad- emy. He subsequently attended the high school at Lenoir for a year, afterwards continuing his studies at home under private tutorship. Thus, well prepared, he entered Davidson College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1876, in the month of June. Mr. Carter then accepted . a position as principal of the Male Academy at Wentworth, Rockingham County, where he taught for a year, at the end of that time refusing a re-election.
Coming then to Mount Airy, Mr. Carter entered the office of Judge Jesse Franklin Graves, and while there studying law tutored the judges' chil- dren. In January, 1879, he was admitted to the bar, being granted his license to practice by the Supreme Court. With very limited means, his sole capital being a good education, good health, and a few law books, Mr. Carter then opened an office in Mount Airy. His keen perceptive faculties, combined with rare legal ability and skill, soon won him prestige in his chosen profession, and gained for him a large and lucrative practice throughout this section of North Carolina. An up-to-date student, thoroughly versed in legal lore, he loses no opportunity to advance his knowledge,
and now possesses oue of the most complete pri- vately owned law libraries in the state.
Mr. Carter is also a man of excellent business judgment, and sagacity, and is associated with various business organizations, being president of the Surry County Loan and Trust Company; a director in the North Carolina Granite Company ; and a stockholder in various industrial concerns.
On December 3, 1884, Mr. Carter was united in marriage with Miss Annie Hollingsworth, who was born in Mount Airy, a daughter of Joseph and Mary L. (Banner) Hollingsworth. Into the house- hold thus established eight children have been born and reared, namely: Joseph Hollingsworth, Cora Carter, William Franklin, Jr., John Edwin, Robert Cecil, Walter Wilson, William Hollingsworth, and Archibald Banner. Joseph H., now serving as postmaster at Mouut Airy, married Elizabeth Bright, and they have one child, Anuie Jeannette Carter. Cora is the wife of John H. McSween, of Timmonsville, South Carolina. William Franklin, Jr., married Carrie Young, of Greensboro.
Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Carter and all of their children are members of the Presbyterian Church, in which Mr. Carter has served as an elder for thirty-two years, while for thirty-five years he has been superintendent of its Sunday school. Politi- cally Mr. Carter cast his first presidential vote, in 1880, for Gen. W. S. Hancock, and siuce that time has served as a delegate to every democratic state convention, and to many of the district conven- tions of that party. For four years Mr. Carter served his home city as mayor; for six years was city attorney, and for a period of ten years was chairman of the Mount Airy Board of Education. As a public official Mr. Carter rendered most ac- ceptable service, administering the affairs of his office in au efficient manner, and at all times being a loyal and liberal supporter of all movements tending toward the betterment of city and county.
JESSE MACK RHODES through an active career of nearly twenty years has worked his way to a substantial positiou among the business. men and financiers of Henderson County aud has added something definite to the prosperity of the com- munity. The keynote of his success has been the constant endeavor to make the most of such opportunities as presented themselves.
Mr. Rhodes was born in Henderson County, North Carolina, May 22, 1881, a son of Jesse Sherrill and Frances A. (Morris) Rhodes. His father was long a prominent citizen of Henderson County, was a farmer and raiser of fine stock, and for a total of eighteen years was in the service of the county in the offices of sheriff, treasurer and also as representative to the Legis- lature.
J. Mack Rhodes acquired his education iu the public schools, in Judson College and finished at the Oak Ridge Institute in 1899, He opened his carcer in business as bookkeeper for a wholesale grocery establishment, for one year was deputy clerk of courts at Spartansburg, South Carolina, and from 1901 to 1903 was a general merchant on his own account in Henderson County. Since then he has been a banker, beginning as book- keeper with the Bank of Hendersonville, Iu 1905 he was promoted to cashier, and has aided in several consolidations of banking establishments, including the Commercial Bank and the Bank of Hendersonville, the First National Bank and the Wanteska Trust & Bauking Company, and is now cashier of the First Bank & Trust Company of
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Hendersonville. He is also vice president of the Hendersonville Wholesale Grocery Company, and he organized and was formerly president of the Rhodes Automobile Company.
Mr. Rhodes served as city treasurer and alder- man of Hendersonville. In the line of patriotismn he did duty as a member of the local exemption board. He is affiliated with the Masonic Order and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a steward of the Methodist Episcopal Church. May 22, 1900, Mr. Rhodes married Ora Knight, of Guilford County. She was educated, like her husband, in the Oak Ridge Institute. They have three sons, Jesse Allen, William Gaither and Cecil Mack.
ISAAC HARRISON MCKAUGHAN. At the age of eighty years, still hale and vigorous, Isaac Harrison McKaughan lives retired in the Village of Kerners- ville in Forsyth County. He grew up and had his first business experiences before the war. During the war he served faithfully and loyally as a Con- federate soldier, and after the final surrender he returned home and took up again the threads of civil existence. Mr. McKaughan was a very pros- perous farmer for many years, and still owns a very large and handsome estate.
He was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, August 26, 1837. His grandfather, McKaughan, of Scotch ancestry, reared his family in Guilford County. In the early years of the last century he determined to seek a home in the new country then opening to American settlers in that part of the Dominion of Mexico known as Texas. It was such an adventure as many pioneers were willing to en- gage in at the risk of considerable personal danger. His son Archibald received from him a letter writ- ten at Natchitoches, Louisiana, and the border of Texas, and soon afterward there came a notice to the effect that Hugh McKaughan was dead. Hugh married Phebe Pope, who survived her hus- band many years and died at the home of her son Forester in Guilford County. Her six children were named George, Archibald, William, Forester, Jesse and Jane.
Archibald McKaughan, father of Isaac H., was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, Decem- ber 15, 1808. He grew up in country surroundings and lived in Guilford County until 1839, when he removed to Stokes County, settling near Friedland, now in Forsyth County. Here he became a general farmer and he remained in that locality an honored and useful citizen until his death in 1879. He married Mary Welch. She was born in Guilford County, February 3, 1810. Her father, Isaac Welch, was a native of the same county and her grandfather, William Welch, was a farmer who spent his last years in Guilford County, where he died about 1841. Isaac Welch was also a farmer and spent all his days in Guilford County. The Welch settlement is about three or four miles from High Point. Isaac Welch married Martha Paine, who was probably a life long resident of Guilford County. Mrs. Archibald McKaughan died January 26, 1877. Her six children were William, Isaac H., Richard, Charlotte, Phoebe Jane and John. The sons William, Isaac and Richard were all Con- federate soldiers.
Isaac Harrison McKaughan grew up in Stokes County on his father's farm. When nineteen years of age he started for South Carolina for the purpose of selling tobacco. He hired a team from his uncle and bought a stock of tobacco from N. D. Sullivan. As a tobacco peddler he did considerable
business and was in South Carolina until 1862. In the spring of that year he enrolled in the Clemons Company and was attached to the Seventh Con- federate Regiment under Colonel Clayburn. He was subsequently transferred to the Sixteenth: North Carolina Battalion. His service took him all over the great battlefields of Virginia, and while constantly on duty and ever ready for the hazards and fortunes of a soldier's life he suffered neithe .: sickness or wounds or capture and was with his command until the surrender at Appomattox. He and sixteen of his comrades were able to retain their horses, and they rode home and were paroled at Greensboro.
Bravely facing the conditions of life in a de- vastated country, he at once rented a tract of land in Abbotts Creek Township and spent the spring and summer farming, while the rest of the year he was again a tobacco salesman in South Carolina. In 1869 Mr. McKaughan bought a tract of land in Abbotts Creek Township and was steadily en- gaged in farming there until 1876. In that year he sold his farm and removed to Kernersville. His first purchase of land there was fifty acres close to the town, and in 1884 he bought a lot in the village and erected a. commodious brick house, where he has since lived. Much of Mr. McKaug- han's prosperity in business was acquired as a tobacco dealer, and for upwards of forty years he made his annual trips to South Carolina. He continued to invest in land until he had upwards of 350 acres, and has a financial independence that enables him to live well and take life leisurely.
Mr. McKaughan was married in 1864 to Esther Robertson. She was born five miles south of Kernersville October 6, 1839, daughter of William Haley and Mahala Robertson. They were happily married for thirty-four years until the death of Mrs. McKaughan on May 20, 1898. In 1899'Mr. McKaughan married Mary Newton Pegram, a na- tive of Guilford County and a daughter of John F. and Nancy (Jones) Pegram. Mr. McKaughan is an active member of the Kornersville Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and both his wives have also been members of that society. He is affiliated with Norfleet Camp of the United Confederate Veterans.
By his first marriage he has six children, Miranda, Mary, David, Cornelius M., Arminius Harrison and Charles R. Miranda is the wife of Robert E. Steele of Greensboro. Mary married Charles Hester, and their son Homer is a dentist. David married Minnie Hooker, their seven children being Bessie, Roy, Hooker, Gates, Olivia, David and Esther. Cornelius by his marriage to Leota Reed has a son Robert Steele. Arminius married Hettie Gentry, and they have seven children, Elah, Duke, Robert, Ralph, Darnold, John and Phyllis. Charles married Nona Brown, and their three chil- dren are William, Charles and Mary.
WILLIAM FRANKLIN SPARGER has given the years of his active life chiefly to the Dixie Manu- facturing Company of Lexington of which he is secretary and treasurer. This is one of the large furniture manufacturing houses that give character to the industry of Davidson County.
Mr. Sparger was born at Mount Airy in Surry County, North Carolina, January 4, 1882. He is of German ancestry in the paternal line, and the first of the family in America spelled the name Wolfenbarger. Surry County has been the home of the family for many generations. The great- grandfather was a farmer and spent his life there.
A. J.M - Nulhan
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
The grandfather William Sparger was born in the vicinity of Mount Airy, and acquired much land, which he used as a plantation and spent his life in Surry County. He and his wife reared four sons, Joseph B., William, James A. and Allen L., and two daughters Mary and Joyce. Mary married J. Granville King, and Joyce became the wife of W. D. Wall.
Allen L. Sparger, father of William F., was born on a farm east of and near Mount Airy, and grew up in a country environment and made the best possible use of his educational opportunities. On attaining his majority he left the farm and went to Mount Airy, of which town he has ever since been a resident and his chief business activities have centered there. He has been a merchant and for several terms served as postmaster. He mar- ried Martha Griffith. She was born on the farm a mile east of Mount Airy, daughter of Benjamin and Rebecca (Dix) Griffith. Benjamin Griffith had a farm adjoining Mount Airy on the east. Mrs. Allen Sparger died at the age of thirty-four and her husband afterwards married Nora Clark.
William Franklin Sparger, the only child of his mother, was reared and educated in Mount Airy, graduating from the high school and later taking a business course at Oak Ridge. With this prepara- tion for a business career he came to Lexington and was made bookkeeper for the Dixie Furniture Company. He has been connected with that in- dustry ever since with the exception of four years while he was with the Peacock Coach Com- pany. Mr. Sparger was elected secretary and treasurer of the Dixie Manufacturing Company in January, 1916.
In 1911 he married Miss Edna Yarbrough. She was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, daughter of William B. and Martha (Arnold) Yarbrough. They have two children, Margaret and Allen. Mr. and Mrs. Sparger are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Fraternally he is affiliated with Lexington Lodge No. 473 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Lex- ington Council No. 21 Junior Order United Ameri -. can Mechanics, and Lexington Lodge No. 1255 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
A. TILDEN MCKEITHAN. The present clerk of the Superior Court of Brunswick County, A. Til- den McKeithan, has, since his election to the posi- tion in December, 1914, shown himself an efficient, conscientious and energetic official, worthy of the confidence placed in him by the people who elected him to represent them in his office. Prior to his election, Mr. Tilden had a somewhat varied career, including experiences in school teaching and mer- chandising, which no doubt has assisted him in the discharge of his official duties.
A. Tilden McKeithan was born on a farm in Brunswick County, North Carolina, October 20, 1876, and has resided here all his life. His fam- ily is well known in Southeastern North Carolina, and his parents are Kilby and Margaret (Moore) McKeithan, farming people of this region and good, dependable citizens. The public schools fur- nished him with his early education, but this was subsequently supplemented by attendance at Sa- lemsburg Academy, Sampson County, North Caro- lina, and his schooling was completed at 'Bladen- boro Academy, Bladen County, North Carolina. Thus equipped, he secured his teacher's certificate and in 1900 began his career as an educator, which extended over a period of seven years, during which
time he furnished numerous schools in various sec- teacher, he felt that better opportunities were awaiting him in mercantile affairs, and in 1907 returned to Brunswick County and opened a gen- eral store at Supply, a thriving little community of several hundred inhabitants. There Mr. Mc- Keithan built up a modest business, which had grown to respectable proportions when, in Deeem- ber, 1914, he was elected clerk of the Superior Court and gave up his business to give all his attention to his official duties. Mr. McKeithan is an energetic worker, accurate and careful, and conscientious in all that he does. He has proven an admirable clerk of the court and has given to his duties the same close attention that character- ized his private actions in his business enterprises. He has long been an active factor in republican politics in the county and stands high in the coun- cils of his party here. Fraternally, he belongs to. the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
Mr. McKeithan was married June 26, 1912, to Miss Lizzie D. Piggott, of Supply, North Caro- lina, and to this union there have been born two children: Maie Belle and A. Tilden, Jr. Mr. McKeithan is a member of the Southport Baptist Church.
J. STEVEN BROWN, M. D. As a criterion of professional ability and assured success, Doctor Brown, of Hendersonville, moves easily on a plane of fellowship with the leading physicians of North Carolina. He has done much to justify his own worthy ambitions to be a source of use- fulness to humanity, and has in many ways justified his choice of this noble calling.
Doctor Brown was born at Mount Ulla, North Carolina, November 14, 1866, a son of G. Henry and Mattie A. (Lowrance) Brown. His father was a farmer and early in the war enlisted in the Confederate Army and was in the ranks through the battle of Gettysburg, where he suf- fered a severe wound in the head which tempo- rarily disqualified him for active duty. Doctor Brown grew up in a country community and from an early age learned to work and earn the ob- ject of his aspirations. He was educated in pub- lic schools, in a high school, and in' 1889 finished the course of Davidson College. For a year he was a teacher, and then entered Northwestern University Medical School at Chicago, where he was graduated M. D. in 1893. Since then for a period of a quarter of a century he has been diligently engaged in the practice of medicine, three years at Mount Ulla, his native community, ten years at Salisbury, and since 1906 at Hen- dersonville. While a general practitioner he is in high favor as an obstetrician. Doctor Brown served as county physician both while at Salis- bury and Hendersonville. He has done his pa- triotic duty as medical examiner for the exemp- tion board in his district. Doctor Brown is a member of the Henderson and Polk Counties, the North Carolina State and Tri-State Medical societies and the American Medical Association. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World, Junior Order of United American Mechanics, is an elder in the Presbyterian Church and is active in the Hendersonville Board of Trade. As an avocation and means of diversion from the ardu- ous responsibilities of practice Doctor Brown uses all the time he has available to the super-
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vision of his fine orchard of 5,000 apple trees. This is one of the largest orchards in Western North Carolina.
September 30, 1896, he married Mattie Phleger of Floyd, Virginia. Mrs. Brown is a highly educated woman, prominent socially, is president of the local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy, is secretary of the chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a member of the Hendersonville Woman's Club. They have five children: James Steven, Jr., a student in Davidson College; Mary Phleger, Ben- jamin George, Mattie Pauline, and John Low- rance.
JOSEPH HENRY ROBERTSON. A rising young business man of Salisbury, Joseph Henry Robert- son, manager of the North Carolina Public Service Company 's plant in this city, holds a position of importance and responsibility, and in the perform- ance of the duties devolving upon him has in- variably displayed excellent executive ability and good judgment. A son of John C. Robertson, Jr., he was born, July 19, 1889, in Burlington, Ala- mance County, North Carolina. His grandfather, John C. Robertson, Sr., a native of Scotland, was the only member of his family to immigrate to America. Coming to North Carolina, he spent his last years in Burlington, dying at a good old age.
Born and bred in North Carolina, John C. Robertson, Jr., learned the trade of a boiler maker, and after serving an apprenticeship was employed in the Burlington Shops, in Burlington, where he continued a resident until his death, at the age of fifty-eight years. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary E. Cobb, was a life-long resident of North Carolina. Of her children, three sons are now living, John A., James W., and Joseph Henry.
Completing the course of study in the graded schools of Burlington, Joseph Henry Robertson was subsequently graduated from the Burlington High School. Going then to Raleigh, he entered the Agricultural and Mechanical College, from which he received the degre of A. B. at his gradua- tion with the class of 1909. Mr. Robertson has since that time been continuously in the employ of the North Carolina Public Service Company, and in whatever position he has been placed has proved himself eminently capable and trustworthy. In 1912 he was transferred to Salisbury, and on January 23, 1917, was appointed manager of the company 's plant in this city. The position is one of much importance, the plant of which Mr. Robertson is the manager operating the Salisbury Electric Railroad, and the Salisbury Electric Light and Power Plant.
Mr. Robertson married, in 1917, Mary Ramsay, a native of Salisbury. Religiously Mr. Robertson is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while Mrs. Robertson worships in the Presbyterian Church, with which she united when young. Fra- ternally Mr. Robertson is a member of Salisbury Lodge No. 699, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of which he is now Exalted Ruler.
DAVID SIMEON SICELOFF, a member of the pres- ent board of county commissioners of Davidson County and an active business man of Lexington, is member of a family that came into Davidson County in pioneer days and has been successively identified with the county chiefly in the sphere of agriculture for nearly a century.
The founder of the family in America was his great-great-grandfather, a native of Germany, who
came to this country in colonial times aud settled in Pennsylvania. His son, Erhardt Siceloff, with brothers and sisters and their respective families, set out from Pennsylvania to find new homes in Western North Carolina. They made this eventful journey with wagons and teams, and while en route were attacked by hostile Indians, several of the party being killed. The survivors came on and settled in what is now Midway Township of David- son County, where their descendants are still found in considerable numbers. Erhardt Siceloff married Elizabeth Clinard.
One of their children was . Alexander Siceloff, grandfather of David S. He was born in Midway Township, and became one of the most prosperous citizens of that locality. As a planter he operated his land with the aid of slaves and his prosperity was sufficient to enable him to give each of his sons a farm and also assist each of his daughters to a home of their own. He married Eliza Weir, a lifelong resident of Midway Township. Their four sons were named John C., Joseph, David L., and Edward Leroy. Their five daughters were: Adeline, who married DeWitt Harris; Elizabeth, who became the wife of Samuel Eller; Frances, who married Andrew Beckerdite; Augusta, who married George Hauser; and Antoinette, the wife of John C. Thomas.
David Lumsden Siceloff, father of David S., was born in Midway Township of Davidson County and spent his early life on a farm. From the quiet routine and vocation of the agriculturist he was called to duty for his country at the time of the war between the states. He enlisted in the Forty-second Regiment of North Carolina troops, and being a good musician was assigned to the regimental band. He went with his regiment through every battle, campaign and march until the close of the war. The war over he located on land given him by his father, and later bought a saw and grist mill on Brushy Fork Creek. He operated this as a custom mill, and was highly successful both in his milling enterprise and his ยท farming. He bought additional land, and kept up the operation of his mills and the supervision of his landed estate until his death when in the prime of years at the age of forty-six. He married Martha Caroline Pledger. She was born near Lewisville in Forsyth County, North Carolina. Her father, James Pledger, a native of Robeson County, North Carolina, went to what is now Forsyth County and was a well-to-do resident near Lewis- ville. His wife, Mary Stipe, died in middle life, while he attained old age. Mrs. David L. Siceloff is still living and owns the old homestead in Mid- way Township, though her home is at Lexington with her son, David S. She reared" five children: Mary Lela, wife of J. M. Nifong; Ella Elizabeth, who married A. T. Delap; James A .; Carrie P., who became the wife of P. J. Leonard; and David Simeon, the youngest of the family.
Mr. Siceloff while a boy was given the advan- tages of the local district schools, but at the age of twelve, when his father died, he gave up his books and was diligently working on the farm and in the mill until the age of twenty. He then . spent a year in Yadkin College and subsequently com- pleted the literary and business courses in the Oak Ridge Institute. He left school to seek a position as a stenographer in 1904. There was no opening available, and he took what he could get. For about thirty days he clerked in a general store at Spencer, and on coming to Lexington held another minor position for about two weeks until he was
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