USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 69
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Mr. McIntosh belongs to one of the old families of Gaston County, originally part of Lincoln County. He was born near Stanley in Gaston County, a son of Joseph Craig and Elvira Eliza- beth (Davis) McIntosh. His mother is deceased and his father now lives at Denver in Lincoln County. His grandfather William McIntosh was born in Scotland and some time between 1800 and 1820 came with his mother from that country and settled in what is now the northeast part of Gaston County. William McIntosh subsequently saw active service in the Confederate army throughout the war between the states. Joseph Craig McIntosh was born in 1857, and for many years has been a resi- dent of Denver in Lincoln County, where Professor McIntosh was reared.
Charles E. McIntosh was reared in a home of substantial comforts and of high ideals, but was not given a generous allowance which permitted him to finish a university course consecutively. It is probable therefore that he received much more practical benefit from his school training than many who passed through school without a definite purpose to guide them in applying their knowledge. He taught school three years before he entered the University of North Carolina, and his course in the university was not consecutive. By teaching in the meantime his graduation from the State University was delayed until 1911. During his last year at Chapel Hill he was tutor of history in the fresh-
man class. For two years he was head of the department of history of the city schools of Dur- ham, for three years was chief clerk in the office of the state superintendent of public instruction at Raleigh, and in July, 1916, he came to Hickory to take the position of superintendent of city schools. His presence at Hickory means much to the school system of a city which is rapidly becoming one of the leading industrial centers of the state.
Mr. McIntosh has never been an exponent and exemplar of the dry as dust curricula of public school work. He has shown a practical interest in every means and method by which the school becomes a vital part of community life. He has been interested in athletics, but more than any- thing else deserves credit for a movement which he originated while a student in university. He was the mainspring and founder of what is now known as the State High School Debating Union. That began with a very few schools as members, but in 1917 it embraces about 350 schools in North Carolina, and more are constantly being added. This feature of public school life has proved a most wholesome influence in the educational affairs of North Carolina, and is a source of practical benefit and inspiration to thousands of students as well as the public generally. It is noteworthy that the organization of the North Carolina De- bating Union has since been copied as a model by similar state organizations throughout the country.
Mr. McIntosh married Miss Linda Shuford of Catawba County. Her father, Hon. Alonzo Craig Shuford is a former congressman and one of the most distinguished members of the pioneer Shu- ford family of the county. Mr. and Mrs. McIntosh have two sons, Craig Shuford McIntosh and Charles Eugene McIntosh, Jr.
WILLIAM N. POINDEXTER, a tobacco manufac- turer of Forsyth County, is a member of a family that has been identified with this section of the state since colonial days.
The Poindexters came originally from France. His great-grandfather was named David Poindex- ter. He was a native of France and in colonial times crossed the ocean to America with two brothers. One of these brothers settled in Vir- ginia and another in Mississippi. David Poin- dexter fought with the colonists for independence in the Revolutionary war. He purchased some land bordering the Dan River in Western North Caro- lina in Stokes County, and spent many happy and prosperous years in that community. He acquired slaves and used them to develop and cultivate his plantation.
William Poindexter, grandfather of William N., was born in Stokes County and in his early man- hood bought some land near Germanton in that county and was also a slave owner. He fought with the American army in the War of 1812. His death occurred at the age of seventy-four. William Poindexter married Eliza Nelson, who was born at Germanton in Stokes County. Her father, Isaac Nelson, married Susan Scales, of the well known and prominent Scales family, dating from the pioneer epoch of North Carolina. Both William Poindexter and his wife lived to a good old age. They reared nine children, Susan Frances, Mary Ann, Elizabeth, David, William, Caroline, Lena, Martha and John.
David Poindexter, father of William N. Poin- dexter, was born in Sauratown Township of Stokes County in 1838. He was well educated in the Masonic school at Germanton and as a young man
ver
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in 1861 enlisted in the Twenty-first Regiment of North Carolina troops and saw some active service in the Confederate army. Besides land he inher- ited he purchased other tracts iu Sauratown Town- ship and was a successful general farmer there until his death. He married Susan C. Davis, a native of Halifax County, Virginia. She died at the early age of thirty-one, having three children, Eliza Sue, Martha Sherman and William N.
William N. Poindexter was born on a. farm in Sauratown Township of Stokes County and had good advantages during his youth. He attended the district schools, the high school at Germantou and the Baltimore Business College in Maryland. His early inclinations were for a business career, and at the age of twenty-one he became a travel- ing salesman and sold goods all over South Caro- lina, Georgia and Alabama. This was his work until his marriage, when he located at Walkertown and became actively associated with his father-in- law in the manufacture of tobacco. He is still connected with the Sullivan tobacco interests and has done much to build them up and maintain them at a point where they contribute to the fame of this section as a tobacco producing center.
The business enterprise of the inconspicuous hamlet of Walkertown is naturally considered in the larger group of industrial connections of Win- ston-Salem, and it is with that city that Mr. Poin- dexter's name is properly associated as a business man and citizen. He has been active in the business life of Winston and has been one of those live and intelligent men who have promoted its growth and development so actively within recent decades.
Mr. Poindexter married December 16, 1890, Miss Elizabeth R. Sullivan, who was born at old Walker- town, daughter of Nathaniel D. and Elizabeth (Moir) Sullivan, elsewhere referred to. Mr. and Mrs. Poindexter have three children, named Nathaniel Sullivan, Bettie Moir and William N., Jr. Both Mr. and Mrs. Poindexter are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and for several years he has served on the official board and for nineteen years as superin- tendent of the Sunday school. Fraternally he is affiliated with Walkertown Lodge No. 167, Junior Order of United American Mechanics. The Poin- dexter home is one of the very beautiful places in the vicinity of Winston. It is situated in Salem Chapel Township, a mile from Walkertown station, and the large and commodious house is framed in a landscape of trees, shrubbery and an environment which in itself has every element of beauty and good taste.
NATHANIEL D. SULLIVAN was a conspicuous figure in the tobacco industry of Western North Carolina. The Sullivan family may be considered as among the pioneers in developing that business in what is now one of the most famous tobacco growing and manufacturing districts of America. The home of Nathaniel D. Sullivan for nearly all his years was at Walkertown, but though that was the center of his manufacturing enterprise, he was even more a factor in building up the community in and around Winston-Salem. He was enterprising, industrious and a very popular and successful business man, all his dealings being characterized by the strictest honesty.
He was born in Belew Creek Township in what is now Forsyth County, in 1828. His father was. born near the present site of Walkertown in what was then Stokes County and was of pioneer stock
in North Carolina. The father was a farmer and was one of the first tobacco manufacturers in the Piedmont district of North Carolina. The maiden name of his wife was Alsee Carr Vance, a mem- ber of the well known and prominent Vance fam- ily of North Carolina. Mr. Sullivan's father died at the age of seventy-five and his mother at about fifty.
Nathaniel D. Sullivan spent his early life on a farm and at a very early age began assisting his father in the manufacture of tobacco. He learned that business in all its details and for years there was none considered a more expert authority on all lines of the tobacco industry. In 1858 he estab- lished his factory at Walkertown and the Sulli- van tobacco interests have been the only sustain- ing interest in that community. Walkertown is now kept on the map merely by the presence of a tobacco factory. Naturally Mr. Sullivan's business affairs were of such importance as to gravitate toward the larger center of Winston, and he more and more gave liberally of his time and means to the upbuilding of that chief city of Western North Carolina He was prominent in business affairs there and a silent partner in several mer- cantile houses
However, he continued a resident of his estate at Walkertown until his death in 1910 in his eighty-second year. He married Elizabeth Moir, a daughter of Robert Moir, who was born at Forres, Scotland, October 15, 1796, and came to America when a young man. Robert Moir married Elizabeth Perry Porter, who was born in Madison County, Virginia, May 10, 1801. Robert Moir ac- quired a plantation near Leeksville in Rockingham County, North Carolina, and at the time of the war had fifty slaves. His home was on his farm in Rockingham County until his death.
Mrs. Nathaniel D. Sullivan died at the age of seventy-two years. Her two children were: Sally H., who married Philip Henry Booe, and Elizabeth R., now wife of William N. Poindexter. The late Mr. Sullivan and his wife were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
WILLIAM THOMAS LEE. It is not given to every individual to excel both in business and politics. Every line of endeavor demands certain specific talents, and few there are who have so many dif- ferentiating ones or are able to adapt those they possess so as to make them eminently fitting for diverging avenues of progress. Yet there are found men in each community whose names are equally well known in political and in business circles and perhaps no one who can honestly lay claim to this distinction is more widely recognized as entitled to the honor than is William Thomas Lee, of Waynesville and Raleigh, successful busi- ness man over a long period of years, and newly reelected corporation commissioner of North Caro- lina.
Mr. Lee was born August 14, 1858, on Jona- than's Creek, near Waynesville, Haywood County, North Carolina. His father, Henry C. Lee, was a native of Cabarrus County, but moved to Hay- wood County in 1856 and settled in the Jonathan's Creek Valley. He was a prominent and successful merchant and farmer, and married Margaret Henry, a daughter of Lorenzo Henry, of Haywood County. As a boy William T. Lee was sent to the common schools of the county, where he received the rudiments of an education. He further pursued his studies at the Waynesville Academy, thus re- ceiving a substantial education that has stood hin
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in good stead in all the different experiences he has met with since. At the age of twenty-one he engaged in the mercantile business at Waynesville, which he has continued without interruption to the present time. Mr. Lee has always been closely identified with all matters pertaining to Haywood County. He has, also, been deeply interested in all the affairs of Waynesville. He has held the office of mayor of the city, as well as those of treasurer and alderman; in 1903 was appointed by Governor Aycock as a member of the commis- sion ordered by the Legislature to examine the condition of the Atlantic & North Carolina Rail- road, and later served as president of the Waynes- ville Board of Trade and of the Haywood County Fair Association. However, Mr. Lee's interest in public and political affairs has been largely an unselfish interest, and he has rarely sought political honors or preferment for himself. Many public men of the state, who have been honored by the democratic party and who have honored that party, have tested the quality and the value of his friendship and have found it lacking in no particular. For twenty years consecutively he was a member of the State Democratic Executive Committee from the Tenth District. He was chairman of the Tenth Congressional District Democratic Executice Committee and managed the campaign of his lifelong friend, Hon. W. T. Crawford, in 1906, when Mr. Crawford defeated the present congressman from that district, Hon. J. J. Britt. Mr. Lee was elected a member of the North Carolina Legislature from Haywood County in 1894, the year in which the fusionists made such a clean sweep in the state, and was one of the lonesome minority in that Legislature that made such a determined fight against the fusion- ists' plans. He had enacted for his county at that session the first dispensary law adopted in this state, establishing a dispensary at Waynesville, superseding the bar rooms, which was operated quite successfully until the time came for the dis- pensary, in turn, to give way to state-wide pro- hibition. Mr. Lee was again elected to the Legislature in 1909, and in 1910 secured the nomination for corporation commissioner in a state-wide contest with two distinguished North Carolinians, and was duly elected. In 1916 he stood upon his record, and this was sufficient to gain him reelection to the same important posi- tion.
In speaking of Mr. Lee's career, the State Journal, of May 5, 1916, says in part: "Hon. W. T. Lee (Tom Lee, as he is familiarly known to a large number of business, personal and political friends) has one unusual claim to dis- tinction. It is some achievement for a man to succeed in business, and in the same business, in the same town, for thirty-odd consecutive years. He has for many years conducted at Waynesville, Haywood County, North Carolina, one of the largest mercantile businesses in the tier of counties west of Asheville, and while he has not made enough money to become an undesirable citizen, it may be fairly said that he has been a successful business man. It is some distinction for a man to have been successfully associated in an in- fluential way in the management and direction of public affairs for a long period of years. Time is the acid test of the genuine, and a position of influence in public affairs can only be maintained for a long period of time when it is based on an unselfish ambition to serve. It takes an old in- habitant to remember the time when Tom Lee did
not have an influential part in the public affairs of his county and district, and the people of his county and district have never failed to stand by him in any enterprise he has undertaken, or to support him in any political ambition. Mr. Lee's distinction does not rest upon his success in either of these worthy lines of effort, but in his consistent and continuous success in both of them together. It is quite generally understood that business and politics do not mix, but it is one of Mr. Lee's political maxims that 'politics is business,' and that success in the management of public affairs require the same high standards of candor and fair dealing that is required for sustained success in business. Another of his maxims is that 'you can fool yourself easier that you can fool anybody else.' He has great faith in the ability of the people to distinguish the genuine from the spur- ious. ''
Mr. Lee was married in 1883 to Miss Margaret Rhinehart, of Waynesville, They have nine children four boys and five girls all living.
JOHN W. MCCRARY. An honored and highly esteemed citizen of Lexington, John W. McCrary, president of the Commercial & Savings Bank, was for many years a prominent factor in the mercan- tile life of Davidson County, but is now living retired from active pursuits, enjoying to the ut- most the fruits of his successful and creditable business career. A native of Davidson County, he was born, August 3, 1839, on a farm lying two miles from Lexington, on the Salem road, in the same locality that the birth of his father, John MeCrary, occurred. His paternal grandfather, who married a Miss Yount, was of Scotch-Irish an- cestry, and after settling in Davidson County was engaged in agricultural pursuits on the plantation where the bodies of both himself and wife are buried, that plot having been reserved for a fam- ily burying ground.
His father, John MeCrary, born and brought up on a farm, succeeded to the free and independent occupation to which he was reared, and spent his entire life of fifty-two years on a Davidson County farm. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Raker, was a life-long resident of Davidson County. She died at the age of fifty-three years, her death being the result of an accident. She was the mother of nine children, four sons and five daughters.
In the days of his boyhood and youth, John W. McCrary attended the district schools and worked on the farm. He subsequently served an appren- ticeship at the cabinet maker's trade, and being endowed with much mechanical ability and in- genuity, he became an expert workman. Going to Thomasville, Davidson County, in 1861, Mr. Mc- Crary embarked in the cabinet-maker and retail furniture business, with which he was there iden- tified for four years. During the Civil war, he was not in active service in the army, but served in the Home Guard, being commissioned lieutenant of his company. Coming to Lexington in 1865, Mr. MeCrary was here actively and successfully engaged in the retail furniture and undertaking business for a period of fifty years, being one of the leading merchants of the community. He was elected county treasurer of Davidson County in 1880 and was re-elected from time to time and served in this official position for eighteen years. He is a republican in politics.
Mr. Mccrary married, at the age of twenty-one years, Drusilla Leonard, who was born in Davidson
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County, five miles north of Lexixngton, November 20, 1840, being a daughter of Daniel and Catherine (Wagner) Leonard, and grand-daughter of Val- entine Leonard, Jr. Her great-grandfather, Val- entine Leonard, Sr., born October 13, 1718, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and partici- pated in the battle of Guilford Court House. Later he was shot by the tories. He was a farmer in Davidson County, where the birth of his son, Val- entine Leonard, Jr., occurred in 1762. Mr. and Mrs. McCrary reared five children, namely: Lou, wife of Rev. L. E. Thompson, has four children, Edna R., Hartwell, John McCrary, and Earl Me- Crary ; Theodore Earl; John Raymond; Clayton M., widow of William H. Walker, has one child, Katherine; and J. Edna MeCrary. Mrs. MeCrary passed to the life beyond May 26, 1915. She was a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to which Mr. MeCrary also belongs, and toward the support of which he is a liberal contributor. He has always been an active and faithful member and loyal to all its institutions, supporting its colleges and asylums.
HON. THEODORE EARL MCCRARY. A member of the North Carolina bar, Hon. Theodore E. Mc- Crary, of Lexington, is widely known as one of the leading attorneys of Davidson County. He is a native-born citizen, his birth having occurred, June 5, 1867, in Lexington. He is a son of John W. and Drusilla (Leonard) MeCrary, and a brother of Hon. John R. MeCrary.
As a boy, he received excellent educational ad- vantages, after leaving the public schools of Lex- ington having continued his studies at the South- ern Normal School, an excellent educational insti- tution, located in Lexington. Mr. McCrary sub- sequently attended old Trinity College, at which he graduated in 1888, with the B. A. degree, and in 1907 entered the law department of the Univer- sity of North Carolina. Being admitted to prac- tice. in 1908, he became associated with his brother, John R. MeCrary, under the firm name of Mccrary & McCrary, and has since been actively and suc- cessfully engaged in his professional work.
Since casting his first presidential vote for Ben- jamin Harrison, Mr. Mccrary has been a stalwart supporter of the principles of the republican party, and influential in public affairs. He was appointed postmaster at Lexington by President Harrison, and served four years. He was again appointed to the same position by President McKinley, but resigned the office at the end of ten months. He then became chief office deputy marshal in the office of the United States marshal at Greensboro, North Carolina, which position he held for nine years.
In 1908 Mr. MeCrary was elected as a represen- tative to the State Legislature, as member of the House of Representatives, in which he served ac- ceptably, being ever mindful of the highest and best interests of his constituents. He has served as a delegate to numerous county, district and state conventions, and was a delegate from the Seventh Congressional District to the National Republican Convention held in Chicago in the year 1908. For a number of years he has served his party as chairman of its county executive com- mittee, and in 1914 was candidate for Congress from the Seventh Congressional District.
On February 21, 1894, Mr. MeCrary was united in marriage with Etta Shemwell, who was born in Lexington, June 30, 1870, a daughter of Dr. O. M. Shemwell. She died January 2, 1901, leav-
ing one child, Helen, now attending the Greensboro College for Women. Mr. McCrary married second, Mrs. Ida (Jordan) Beeson, of Guilford County, North Carolina. Mr. MeCrary is identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is loyal in the support of its institutions. His wife is a Presbyterian and active in local charitable movements and local movements for the betterment of society.
HON. JOHN RAYMOND MCCRARY. Public spirited, energetic, and possessing pronounced business acumen, and a thorough comprehension of juris- prudence, Hon. John Raymond MeCrary, of Lex- ington, has won a place of distinction in legal circles, and has served most acceptably in various public positions, his clear intuitions of law and statecraft making him a leader among men. A son of John W. and Drusilla (Leonard) MeCrary, he was born in Lexington, his home city, April 23, 1871, coming from Revolutionary stock and pio- neer ancestry.
Scholarly in his ambitions as a youth, he was graduated from the Southern Normal School, in Lexington, with the class of 1886, and in 1891 was graduated from Trinity College with the degree of A. B. Subsequently taking a post graduate course, he entered the University of Michigan, where he received the degree of Master of Arts in the year 1892. He then studied law under Dr. John Manning at the University of North Carolina and in 1894 began to practice law in Lexington, where he has since built up an extensive clientele, his legal skill and ability being recognized and appreciated.
Mr. MeCrary has always taken an active interest in public affairs, being a prominent member of the republican party, and an earnest advocate of all movements of a beneficial nature. In 1897 he was elected to the State Legislature, in which he rep- resented Davidson County that year, receiving the largest majority of votes that had ever been given in the county. He was again elected as a repre- sentative to the State Legislature, being a member in 1917, and at that election received a larger majority of votes than any other candidate since his first election. Mr. McCrary was at one time a candidate for solicitor but was defeated by W. C. Hammer. In 1900 he was candidate for elector at large on the Mckinley ticket, and for ten years following the passage of the Bankrupt Law, he served as referee in bankruptcy.
During the 1917 session of the State Legisla- ture, Mr. MeCrary prepared, and caused to become a law, two state-wide measures, namely: The Rural Public Cemetery Act, and the act to estab- lish memorials at every historical site in the state. Both of these acts carry appropriations, and have been spoken of most favorably. During that ses- sion, Mr. MeCrary was selected by the republican element as minority leader, and served acceptably in that capacity to both parties, receiving favor- able comment from Governor Bickett and from the democratic press.
In 1900, Mr. MeCrary inaugurated a movement to commemorate the life of Daniel Boone, and in May of that year a replica of the Boone cabin was erected in Davidson County, in Boone Park. A Boone monument, surmounted by an arrow head, was placed in the same park, and at its unveiling, in May, 1910, 20,000 people, it is estimated, were in attendance, and listened to the eloquent ad- dresses given by Judge Pritchard, Congressman Robert N. Page, and other noted speakers. Many
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