USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 67
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Mr. Clayton was married November 1, 1898, to. Ora Belle Ziglar. Mrs. Clayton was born in Bethania Township, January 8, 1879, a daughter of James and Martha (Moore) Ziglar. They have two living children, Virginia and Mary Belle.
SAMUEL WESTRAY BATTLE, M. D., retired medical officer of the United States Navy, physician and surgeon of long experience and many influential associations, one of the eminent sons of North Carolina, has during a residence of more than thirty years probably conferred more substantial
Bance
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benefits upon the City of Asheville than any other man.
He was born in Nash County, North Carolina, August 4, 1854, son of William S. and Mary Eliza- beth (Dancy) Battle, and grandson of James Smith Battle and Frances L. Dancy. The Battle family was established on the Cool Spring Plantation in Edgecombe County by his ancestor Elisha Battle as early as 1748.
Doctor Battle was reared in a home of wealth and utmost culture and refinement. He was edu- cated at Horner's Classical and Mathematical School at Oxford, at Bellevue High School in Bed- ford County, Virginia, at the University of Vir- ginia, where he attended both the classical and the medical courses, and in 1874 entered the Bellvue Hospital Medical College of New York City, from which he received the degree Doctor of Medicine in March, 1875. He then stood the examination for the medical service of the United States Navy. It was a most rigorous test, and the fact that he was passed, and was commissioned assistant surgeon in October, 1875, when he was only twenty-one, was not only gratifying to him but a testimonial to the efficiency of his early training and to his per- sonal talents.
Doctor Battle was in active service in the navy for nearly ten years. His last shore duty was as surgeon in charge of the naval hospital at Pensa- cola, Florida. In 1878 he was on the United States ship Marion, one of the vessels detailed to escort General Grant around the world. This ship was at Smyrna when war broke out between Russia and Turkey in 1878, and the vessel was required to pro- tect American interests in the East and therefore remained on the coast of Asia Minor for some months. Doctor Battle's first duty at sea was in connection with the demonstration made by the United States following the historic Virginius af- fair. The Virginius had been captured by a Spanish vessel on charge of piracy, and half of its crew were executed at Santiago, Cuba, before a British warship intervened and threatened to bom- bard the city unless the murders were stopped.
Doctor Battle served on a number of warships, but on account of injuries received while cruising he was put on the retired list in 1884.
Doctor Battle took up his residence at Asheville in 1885. He had made a study of the meteorologi- cal reports of the United States Government and was impressed by the fact that the Asheville Plateau was the dryest atmospheric area east of the Mississippi River. The peculiar value of the location for the cure of throat and pulmonary troubles was widely advertised by him among his professional brethren. Mr. John P. Arthur in a sketch of Doctor Battle, from which the facts of the present article are taken, described one feature of his early residence which must be quoted in full:
"Dr. Battle occupied a cottage near which lived Bill Nye in a domicile described in one of his let- ters as of 'perforated architecture,' because of the many cracks and seams in its walls, through which the winter air penetrated with uncomfortable frequency and intensity. He and the Doctor were fast friends and together they did much to herald the fame of the rising city to the world. In wit and humor the Doctor was a match for the genial humorist, and as a raconteur was his superior. He remembered the best and wittiest things Nye said or wrote, and gave additional point and relish to them by his inimitable manner of telling them. To- gether they made the little community laugh and grow fat. Nye's letter to the New York World and the Doctor's letters to medical journals and periodi-
cals seemed to reach every class in the United States, and there probably never was a city so well advertised as Asheville with so small an out- lay in cash. And the advertisement blessed not only the town but the authors of the good things said for it; for Nye's reputation as a humorist grew and the Doctor's practice surpassed his ability to attend to all of it. He had to secure the services of two assistants, and even with their help was barely able to keep up with it, notwith- standing his strenuous efforts to do so."'
Doctor Battle's services to Asheville did not stop merely with advertising its fame and advan- tages. He was one of the promoters of a company which secured a charter for a general system of street car service and undertook the building and equipment of a road, the idea of which was fur- nished by the Sprague system of street railway at Richmond, Virginia. Doctor Battle was elected vice president of the- company, subscribed largely to its stocks and bonds, and has generally been credited with being the father of the very efficient street car system of Asheville. He also contributed from his means, and loyally supported many local industries, such as furniture and wood working plants, and though some of those enterprises failed to meet the expectations of those who supported them, Doctor Battle refused to become a pessimist and his continued generosity has more than once set the pace for the progressive spirit of the com- munity. While he has done so much in a material sense to build up the city, Doctor Battle's most important contribution has been described as of a social character. A cosmopolitan, a world wide traveler, and a man of most diverse interests, and of understanding of life from the world point of view rather than from the provincial or local stand- point, Doctor Battle was well fitted to bring into social contact congenial spirits of both the North and the South in the City of Asheville, which in character of population is one of the most cos- mopolitan centers of America. Thus Doctor Bat- tle has helped to make Asheville a common meeting ground for the people of the North and the South, where sectional prejudices are thrown down and where men meet as men, face to face, and upon their merits.
Doctor Battle has enjoyed many honorable asso- ciations and distinctions. He has been medical director of the Clarence Barker Memorial Hos- pital and Dispensary at Biltmore since its begin- ning in 1900; served as colonel and surgeon-gen- eral of the North Carolina State Guard for a num- ber of years, and retired June 22, 1915, with the rank of Brigadier General; is a member of the Buncombe County Medical Society, North Carolina State Medical Society, long time a member of the Tri-State Medical Society, Mississippi Valley Medi- cal Society and the American Medical Association. He also belongs to the professional organizations of Rhinological, Otological and Laryngological So- cieties, American Climatological Society, American Public Health Association, Association of Military Surgeons and State Board of Health. Socially he is a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, Sons of the American Revolution, Naval Order of the United States, Army and Navy Clubs of New York and Washington, Metropolitan Club of Washington, Swannanoa Country Club of Asheville, Asheville Club, Catawba Game Association, which he has served as president, Asheville Gun Club, of which ho has been vice president, Mottfield Club at George- town, South Carolina, and others.
Though a Southerner by birth and son of one of the delegates to the North Carolina Secession Con-
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vention, Doctor Battle chose as his wife the daugh- ter of a naval officer who had fought against the establishment of the Southern Confederacy. In 1880 he married Alice Maude Belknap, daughter of Admiral George E. Belknap, who was not only a fine sailor and naval commander but a man of lit- erary and scientific attainments. Doctor and Mrs. Battle had four children, Madelon, Maude Dancy, S. Westray, Jr., and Belknap. Three came to mature age, Madelon, wife of Capt. Mortimer Hancock, S. Westray, Jr., and Belknap, but the older son, S. Westray Battle, Jr., died at the age of twenty- one years upon the eve of his graduation from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1905.
Mrs. Battle died in 1899 and Doctor Battle re- mained a widower until February, 1918, when he was married to Mrs. Vinton Liddell, a widow of northern birth, but for most of her life a resident of North Carolina. The present Mrs. Battle was born at Jane Hyde Hall and was the daughter of Hon. John G. Hall and Mrs. Hall of Pennsylvania. Mr. Hall was a distinguished lawyer in his day and an older brother of Judge Harry Alvan Hall of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Battle has one daughter by her former marriage, Miss Vinton Liddell, of whom it may be said that she is one of Doctor Battle's most devoted admirers.
In conclusiou two other paragraphs should be quoted from the biographer already drawn upon for the principal materials of this sketch. "It is as a physician that Dr. Battle shows to the best advantage. He chose the right calling in life. He is as essentially a physician as was the ‘Weelum McClure' of the Bonnie Briar Bush, or the "'Doc Sifert' of Whitcomb Riley, and withal without any of their peculiarities. The essential factor in the makeup of the physician is human sympathy. That quality Dr. Battle possesses in an overwhelm- ing degree. The sufferings and troubles of his patients are in very truth his own.
"There is still another aspect of Dr. Battle's character that is especially dear to the writer of this imperfect sketch, and that is his loyal friend- ship to his friends. Jonathan's love for David was not greater than his for those he numbers among his friends. There is today many a wreck on the highway of life who knows of but one staunch friend left to him in his low estate, and that friend is Dr. S. Westray Battle. Hence he is poor; hence he is of the salt of the earth-that man possessing the essentials of the truest Christianity, love for his neighbor.
"There is no finer character than Dr. Battle's. Of large and commanding presence, distinguished air and polished manner, he is a striking figure in the most distinguished company. One would hardly believe that beneath the somewhat foreign appear- ance of this striking personality is to be found by those who know him best the plain and unpreten- tious Tar Heel citizen, with no false notions as to his own importance and no very exalted opinion of himself. He loves his fellow-countrymen, and is proud of all that makes the Old North State dis- tinguished and excellent among the sisterhood of states. He is that best of all men, a good citizen, & kind friend, and good neighbor. All who know him love and respect him, and his life and example aro an inspiration to all."
ADDISON HEWLETT is one of the fortunate men of North Carolina. He has a successful business, being proprietor of a highly developed truck grow- ing farm. The business is an adjunct to a beauti- ful rural retreat, and few families anywhere enjoy
more of the comforts and pleasures of life than can be found in the Hewlett home on Hewlett's Creek, Masonboro Sound, New Hanover County. Mr. Hewlett is also fortunate in the possession of good family connections, and his wife is a highly cultured woman and belongs to a family of edu- cators and scholars.
The farm where he now lives was the birthplace of Mr. Addison Hewlett in 1876. He is a son of Elijah and Almira (Craig) Hewlett. The Hew- lett home is on Hewlett's Creek not far from where it discharges into Masonboro Sound, and within a short distance of the Atlantic Ocean. It is seven miles southeast of Wilmington on the Grainger's Point Road. The name of the place is "Waterside Farm." It is a part of the old Lilling- ton plantation owned by General Lillington before and during the Revolutionary war. It was pur- chased from Lillington by John Hewlett, grand- father of the present owner. The Hewletts are of English descent, and of the same ancestry as is the noted English author of this generation, Maurice Hewlett. This branch of the family has lived in New Hanover County since prior to the Revolutionary war.
One member of the Hewlett family is the vener- able Elijah Hewlett, who was born in July, 1828, and attained the remarkable age of ninety years in July, 1918. He has lived on the Hewlett farm for more than seventy years. During the war between the states he was a captain of Home Guards in New Hanover County and also entrusted with the important civil duties under the Con- federate government of transporting and storing salt. One of the oldest living citizens of North Carolina, he is also the oldest living Mason, his affiliations with that order antedating those of any other man now living. He is a member of St. John's Lodge No. 1, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Wilmington.
Almira (Craig) Hewlett, mother of Addison Hewlett, is now deceased. Her father was Jesse Craig of Federal Point, New Hanover County. She was a cousin of the late James William ("Jim Billy") Craig, the famous pilot of blockade run- ners during the war. Reference to this famous character will be found on other pages of this publication.
Mr. Addison Hewlett grew up on the old home- stead, and was educated in local schools and Wake Forest College. Of late years he has gone quite extensively into the commercial truck farming business, and has made of it a splendid success. He is one of the large shippers from Wilmington to the northern markets. Waterside Farm comprises something more than fifty acres. Its principal erops are lettuce, potatoes, beans, cucumbers and peas. These are the crops for shipment while for home consumption he also raises corn and sweet potatoes. The farm has an exceedingly pleasant and happy location. Its position on the waterside furnishes the delightful pleasures of boating, fish- ing and other aquatic sports both on fresh and salt waters, and the entire surroundings constitute an ideal home and a climate that cannot be surpassed for healthfulness. Mr. Hewlett was elected county commissioner in 1916 for a term of four years.
Mr. Hewlett married Miss Ethel Herring. She was born at Long Creek, Pender County, and her ancestry includes a number of names of distinction in North Carolina history. Her father was George A. Herring of Pender County, son of James and Jane (Alderman) Herring. Jane Alderman was born in 1800, and was a granddaughter of a Patriot
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Revolutionary soldier who fought at the famous battle of Moore's Creek in Pender County, his widow afterwards receiving a pension on account of his military service. Dr. E. A. Alderman, presi- dent of the University of Virginia and one of the South 's and the nation's most distinguished edu- cators, is a cousin of Mrs. Hewlett's father, as is also Rev. E. S. Alderman, D. D., a prominent Baptist minister of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Another cousin is Prof. J. T. Alderman, who for several years was superintendent of the city schools of Henderson, North Carolina, and is now tempo- rarily by appointment of Governor Bickett, filling the position of superintendent of the State Institu- tion for the Blind at Raleigh. The Alderman fam- ily goes back to prominent English aneestry.
Mrs. Hewlett's mother was Margaret E. (Wells) Herring, daughter of Rev. David Wells, a Baptist minister of Sampson County. The ancestors of the Wells family came from Holland in 1751, and set- tled in Duplin and Sampson counties.
One of Mrs. Hewlett's brothers is Mr. J. P. Herring, a successful farmer of the Masonboro community and county farm demonstration agent for New Hanover County. Another brother is Rev. D. W. Herring, a Baptist minister and noted mis- sionary in China, where he has lived for many years. One of the sons of this missionary, a notably fine specimen of young American manhood of whom the family are all justly proud, is George Nutt Herring, a young surgeon, graduate of the Jeffer- son Medical College of Philadelphia, and now in the United States Navy as a surgeon with the rank of lieutenant on the U. S. S. North Dakota.
Mr. and Mrs. Hewlett are members of the Baptist Church. Mrs. Hewlett was educated in Oxford College. She has been greatly interested in educa- tion, not only for the sake of her own children but for that of others. She contributed a very inter- esting and historically valuable artiele containing a history of the Masonboro School to the Wilming- ton Star of February 9, 1913. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Hewlett consists of five children: Roger Wells, Bettie Herring, Dorris Alderman, George Addison and David Carlyle.
EVERETT FLETCHER LONG, M. D. After building up a fine general practice as a physician and surgeon at Lexington, Doctor Long was recently called to take an official part in the public health movement in Davidson County and is now devoting his whole time to his work as county health officer. Doctor Long was born on a farm in old Richmond Township of Forsyth County, North Carolina.
The Long family has been identified with West- ern North Carolina for more than a century. His great-grandfather, a native of Germany, was one of three brothers that came to this country, one setting in what is now Forsyth, then Stokes County; one in Yadkin County, and the other in Iredell County. The great-grandfather lived first in Pennsylvania for a time before coming South to North Carolina and established his home in the wilderness in that part of Stokes County which is now Old Richmond Township of Forsyth County. Land in abundance could be obtained on almost any terms, and he chose a tract which he developed for general farming purposes. There were of course no railroads and the principal market for supplies was at Fayetteville, nearly 150 miles away. Most of the merchandise consumed in those backwoods distriets was transported from Fayetteville with wagons and teams over the rough country roads to the points of distribution. Some of those early
pioneer farmers manufactured tobacco which was grown in their fields, and at the end of each season would load the tobacco in wagons and market it through South Carolina and Georgia.
Thomas Long, grandfather of Doetor Long, was born in Old Richmond Township in 1804, and when he grew up inherited a part of the old homestead. Before he married he erected a complete set of farm buildings. He had learned the trade of cabinet maker, and besides superintending his farm he made furniture and was ealled upon to make nearly all the coffins over a wide territory. He made the coffins for himself and wife several years before they died. He married Elizabeth Doub. Her brother, Rev. John B. Doub, was a prominent Methodist Episcopal preacher and the Doub family, among the first in Western North Carolina, furnished several names that were prom- inent in organizing and establishing churches of this denomination. Grandfather Long died at the age of eighty-six and his wife at seventy-eight. Their only son was John M., but they had several daughters, namely: Martha, who married Alex- ander Waldraven; Mary, who became the wife of William Strupe; Rebecca, who married Aquilla Hunter; Sarah, who married John Trest; and Jane, who married Columbus Slate.
John M. Long, father of Doctor Long, was born on the same old homestead in Forsyth County in 1847 and grew up in that neighborhood and re- ceived his education in the local schools. At the age of seventeen he was called upon for duty in the Confederate army, went to the front with his com- mand, and soon afterward was captured. He was taken first to Maryland and afterwards to Ohio, and was kept a prisoner of war until the close of hostilities, when he was paroled. Soon after his return home he went to Missouri and lived in that state four years. On returning to North Carolina he succeeded to the ownership of the old home farm and is still living there, having been quietly engaged in the vocation of agriculture for nearly half a century. He married Elizabeth Doub, a native of Vienna Township of Forsyth County and daughter of Elijah and Lucy (Newsom) Doub. She was a grandniece of Rev. Peter Doub, one of the most prominent members of the family already noted in establishing Methodist churches in West- ern North Carolina, John M. Long and wife had two sons and two daughters named Flora, Arthur, Sarah and Everett Fletcher. Both parents are ac- tive members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. John M. Long served several terms as county com- missioner of Forsyth County.
Doctor Long as a boy attended the district schools near his old home, and received a portion of his edueation in a subscription school taught by Professor Jordan, His early life was one cal- culated to discipline him in the habits of industry and thrift, and when not in school he was doing much of the work on the farm. He finally turned his attention to the study of medicine, entering the Medical College of Virginia at Richmond, where he was graduated M. D. in 1909. After a brief practice in Forsyth County he moved to Bethany and in 1912 came to Denton, where he carried the burdens of a large private practice until 1916. In that year he was elected health officer for Davidson County and has since made his home at Lexington, the county seat. Doctor Long is a member in good standing of the David- son County and North Carolina State Medical societies, the Southern Medical Association and the American Medical Association. He and his
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wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1911 he married Esther A. Irby. She is a native of Virginia, daughter of Charles Irby.
MARSDEN BELLAMY. No name has Lad more intimate and honorable association with the legal profession at Wilmington than that of Bellamy. Marsden Bellamy is a son of Marsden Bellamy, Sr., and his wife, Harriet Bellamy, and befor ' the junior Bellamy took up practice there was the old firm of Bellamy & Bellamy, made up of Marsden Bellamy, Sr., and John D. Bellamy, Jr.
Boru at Wilmington December 4, 1878, Marsden Bellamy, Jr., was educated in the Cape Fear Acad- emy and in Horner's Military School at Oxford, and completed his literary course by graduating A. B. in 1899 from the University of North Caro- lina. He studied law in the office of his father and completed his course in the University of North Carolina in 1900. Since his admission to the bar in September, 1900, he has been in general practice, and is now a member of the firm of Bellamy & Bellamy.
His fellow citizens have called him to positions of trust and from 1905 to 1909 he was city attor- ney of Wilmington, and from 1909 to 1913 was county attorney. He is a former chairman of the Democratic Committee of the county and was elected member of the State Senate for the session of 1913. During 1915-16 Mr. Bellamy was mem- ber and chairman of the Board of Governors of the North Carolina Bar Association.
Fraternally he is a Mason, a member of the Junior Order of the United American Mechanics, the Improved Order of Red Men, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and also belongs to the College Societies Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Alpha Epsilon. He is also a member of the Rotary Club of Wilmington, North Caroli .. .. He and his family attend St. James Episcopal Church.
November 14, 1906, Mr. Bellamy married Miss Sue Clark, of Tarboro, North Carolina. The have three children, Marsden, Jr., Virginia C. and William Clark.
ABRAHAM G. JONES, M. D. For much the greater part of a century members of the Jones family have been prominent and have rendered distinctive service in various professions and oc- cupations in Western North Carolina. Doctor Jones has practiced medicine at Walnut Cove during most of the years since the war, in which he played a gallant part as a Confederate soldier. His fa- ther was a prominent physician in the same lo- cality and he is a brother of Judge E. B. Jones, whose career has lent distinction to the legal profession.
Doctor Jones was born at Bethania in Forsyth County in 1844. He is of Welsh lineage, and the family at one time lived in the City of Baltimore, a creek in that city being known as Jones Creek, because of the activities of the family in the operation of a grist mill along its banks. From Baltimore the family moved to Virginia, and Doctor Jones' father, Dr. Beverly Jones, was born on a farm in Henry County. He was graduated in medicine from the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and coming to North Carolina practiced about half a dozen years at Germanton in Stokes County. For his permanent home he settled on a farm near Bethania and looked after his plantation while attending to his country prac- tice. His was a life of unceasing service to his
fellowmen. His practice extended for many miles around his plantation and he was obliged to keep several horses for riding and driving. He rode horseback most of the time, carrying his instru- ments and medicines in saddle bags. Though his life was a strenuous one he lived to the age of ninety-two. Dr. Beverly Jones married Julia A. Conrad, who was born at Bethania, and died at the age of eighty-seven. She was a daughter of Abra- ham and Phillipina (Lash) Conrad, both the Lashes and Conrads having been prominent as. early settlers, farmers, merchants, and in other vocations in Forsyth County. Dr. Beverly Jones and wife had ten children: Abraham G., James B., Alexander C., Robert H., Erastus B., Ella, Virginia E., Julia P., Catherine E. and Lucian G.
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