USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 83
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William Snody, Jr., father of Alexander F., was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, Jan- uary 18, 1818, and was seven years of age when brought to Surry County. He grew up here in the midst of pioneer scenes. On attaining his ma- jority he bought a tract of land in Westfield Township. A small clearing and a log house con- stituted the improvements. In that log house Alexander Franklin Snody first saw the light of day. His father gave his time to general farming and his industrious career was terminated by his death at the age of sixty-five. He married Julia A. Hall, who was born in Virginia, a daughter of Solomon and Morning (Ingram) Hall, both natives of Virginia and pioneer settlers in Surry County, North Carolina. Mrs. Julia Snody died at the age of sixty-three. Her five children were named Allen, Martha, Alexander Franklin, Jane and Mary Alice. Allen enlisted in 1862 in the Second Regiment of North Carloina troops, went to the front with his command, and died while still in service in February, 1863.
Alexander F. Snody acquired his early education in the neighboring schools, and the schools were taught in log cabins and practically all the fami- lies of Surry County during his youth lived in log structures. His mother was a typical pioneer housewife, carding and spinning and weaving and dressing her family in homespun clothing fash- ioned by her own hands. She also did the cooking by the open fireplace. For many years the sur- plus products of Surry County were transported over rough roads with wagons and teams to High Point, the nearest railroad station. In such con- ditions habits of industry and thrift were deeply impressed upon the formative character of Alex- ander F. Snody. As the only surviving son he eventually bought the interests of the other heirs in the homestead and has thus had the pleasure of living on and developing the land which was set- tled by his parents and which he has made fruit- ful and productive during an occupancy and active career of fully half a century. At the same time he has added to his landed estate by the purchase of other adjoining tracts of land, and now owns four separate farms, each one supplied with good buildings and other improvements.
Mr. Snody married Harriet Cook, who was born in Surry County, a daughter of Newell and Rebecca (Jessup) Cook. Mr. and Mrs. Snody have reared four children : Reed, Mark, Powell and Pearl. Reed married Jennie Hill and their three children are named Marvin, Herbert and Jessie. Mark mar- ried Jennie Cook. Powell married Allie Arrington. Pearl is the wife of Lester E. Vaughan. Her two children are Stella and Frank.
Mr. Snody has always taken a deep interest in local affairs, has done his duty at the polls, and in 1892 he was elected justice of the peace of his precinct and was continued in that office by re- election for twenty years.
WILLIAM JAMES BERRY. When about eighteen years of age William J. Berry was placed on the
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pay roll of the Cotton Mill at Durham. From the first he realized that he was in a congenial field. All his ambition and abilities were aroused to the most rapid development and utilization of his talents and opportunities. Purely as a result of hard work, growing experience and broadening outlook Mr. Berry has earned a place among the independent manufacturers of North Carolina, and is still only a little past thirty years of age. He was born in Orange County, North Carolina, November 14, 1886, a son of John Thomas and Bettie Elizabeth (Gates) Berry. His father had a farm in that section of the state and also op- erated a grist mill. William J. Berry received most of his early training in the public schools of Durham County. Then at the age of seventeen he found employment in a minor capacity with a wholesale grocery house at Durham, but eighteen months later in 1904 accepted an opening in a minor capacity with the Durham Hosiery Mills. He applied himself to learning every detail of the business, and has worked through and in every grade and capacity. In 1913 he was able with his own means and other capital to buy a few machines and construct a plant which is now known as the North State Knitting Mills, In- corporated, a growing and flourishing enterprise that comprises the group of cotton mills of E. Durham. Mr. Berry is vice president, secretary and general manager of the business.
Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Junior Order United American Mechan- ics, the Modern Woodmen of America and is a steward of Branson Methodist Episcopal Church South. On December 23, 1908, he married Miss Lalla Rook Stone of Durham. They are the parents of four children: Mary Ruth, Chester, William James, Jr., and Ida May.
STEPHEN CAMBRELENG BRAGAW. Few citizens of North Carolina have better earned the real dis- tinctions of professional success, business enter- prise and public leadership than Stephen Cambre- leng Bragaw of Washington, Beaufort County. The keynote to this success is found in a careful estimate of his career made some years ago in the following words: "Stephen Bragaw has al- ways shown by his every act, public and private, a careful preparation for its undertaking and thor- oughness in its completion. Although a young man he is recognized as being one of the best lawyers in his section of the state and as an advo- cate he has no superior. Calm and collected in his manner, his logical presentation of his subjects, chaste and ornate language and compelling elo- quence are sources of pleasure and profit and the admiration of all who hear him. He believes in thoroughness of preparation, and he believes fur- ther that a lack of preparation is the most fre- quent cause of failure-whether complete or partial. His motto has always been to have a definite purpose in life, to prepare himself for the fulfillment of that purpose and to adhere to it at all times and in all places."
It is said that Mr. Bragaw definitely deter- mined upon a vocation as a lawyer when he was only ten years of age. He pursued that purpose through various changing circumstances and against many offers that might have attracted a less positive character from the original purpose.
Mr. Bragaw was born at Washington, Beaufort County, North Carolina, February 22, 1868, second son in a family of eight children whose parents
were John Goldsmith and Anne Cambreleng ( Hoyt) Bragaw. In the paternal line he is of French Huguenot descent, one of his ancestors having settled on Long Island in 1726. The Bragaws were Revolutionary soldiers. John Goldsmith Bragaw, who was born on Long Island, came to North Carolina in 1857 and subsequently became prominent in connection with the transportation companies in and around Washington. He showed himself a man of broad public spirit and while never engaged in practical politics was intensely interested in all public questions. His wife, whom he married in 1864, was a daughter of Henry C. Hoyt and granddaughter of Eli Hoyt, one of the largest merchants of Eastern Carolina before the war. Her great-grandmother was Ann Caldon, a native of Scotland, who settled with her father on the Pamlico River and married John Patten of Beaufort County. John Patten was captain of a Beaufort County company in 1771 and dis- tinguished himself at the Battle of Alamance. Dur- ing the Revolution he was appointed lieutenant- colonel and afterwards colonel of the Second Con- tinental Regiment and from 1777 to 1779 was in the principal battles fought by Washington in the North, and in May, 1780, surrendered with his regiment at the fall of Charleston. Two of Cap- tain Patten's descendants were Churchill Caldon Cambreleng and Stephen Cambreleng, the latter of whom became an eminent lawyer in New York City and the former served as a congressman from New York and in 1840 was appointed minister to Russia.
Mr. Stephen Bragaw's mother has been described as a woman of great personal beauty and of equal sweetness and strength of character. Though for years an invalid, she directed personally the af- fairs of a large household and exercised upon her children an influence calculated to stimulate and excite in them all that goes to the upbuilding and complete development of intellectual, moral and spiritual life.
Stephen C. Bragaw's early childhood was spent in a community which had been devastated by the war and in which its wealthiest citizens had been reduced to comparative poverty. At an early age he manifested strong inclination for studious pur- suits as well as for the healthy outdoor sports of boyhood. He was educated in private schools of his home town, for one year attended Trinity School at Chocowinity, North Carolina. As his family did not possess the means to send him to college, he secured an appointment as a cadet in the Naval Academy at Annapolis, but deferred to the wishes of his mother and declined a naval career. Along with other duties he prepared him- self for college by night study, and with his own savings and what he was able to borrow he re- mained at the university three years. Lack of funds compelled him to abandon the course. While in the university he became known as an all around student, active in athletics and social affairs, and was captain of the football team which played the first game of intercollegiate football of the University of North Carolina. He was also a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
After leaving university he taught school at Pollocksville in Jones County, and from 1889 to the summer of 1891 was a teacher in the New- bern Collegiate Institute. During the summer va- cation of 1891 he accomplished the remarkable task of completing the full law course at Chapel Hill in two months and ten days. The Supreme Court gave him a license to practice in September, 1891.
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With a cash capital of only $25 Mr. Bragaw began practice at Newbern, and in 1893 was elected city attorney. In 1894, removing to St. Louis, he became president of the Gilbert Elliott Collection Company, but disposed of that interest and returned to North Carolina in 1895, locating as a permanent home at Washington.
In the law, business and public affairs Mr. Bragaw has been one of the prominent men of Washington over twenty years. In 1897-98 he was mayor of the city, and from 1900 to 1906 filled the office of city attorney. In 1902-03 he was county superintendent of schools, and his serv- ice there deserves some particular mention because of the effective work he did in raising the stand- ards of the local schools and establishing a condi- tion from which the community still derives large advantages. The efficient system graded schools at Washington is largely due to his influence as county superintendent and still later as trustee of the town schools.
In 1904 Mr. Bragaw was elected state senator for the Second Senatorial District. In 1911 he was appointed judge of the Superior Court of North Carolina for the First Judicial District, and in 1912 was nominated unanimously by the demo- cratic convention for that office. The republican party placed no candidate in opposition and he took his seat on the bench as an elected judge with the complete confidence of all classes and parties, and that confidence was justified by the impartial and dignified administration which fol- lowed. After nearly three years on the bench he resigned, his resignation becoming effective on January 1, 1914. Judge Bragaw is now associated in the practice of law with John H. Small, con- gressman of the First District, A. D. Maclean and N. B. Rodman, Jr.
Judge Bragaw has shown exceptional ability in handling business affairs, has been identified with the formation of many business and industrial en- terprises in his home town, and has acquired per- haps as large a commercial practice as any man of his years in the state. He has been a leader in the democratic party while in public office and through many campaigns. He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since early manhood, and has filled many chairs in the different branches of that order. He has also been active in the Protestant Episcopal Church, both in his home parish and as a member of the Diocesan Council. Judge Bragaw served as a trustee of the Univer- sity of North Carolina from 1905 to 1913. He was the first president of the North Carolina Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and is a member of the Order of Cincinnati. He belongs to the North Carolina and American Bar Association. The interest he manifested as a boy in good litera- ture has been developed and matured through all his subsequent years and even with the heavy bur- den of official and professional responsibilities. From the study of lives of eminent men he has derived constant pleasure and the greatest advan- tage. In 1893, soon after he began his practice at Newbern, Judge Bragaw married Maude Hay- ward Amyette of Newbern. She is one of North Carolina's most charming women.
Judge Bragaw is the author of the poem entitled "We're Coming," which follows this sketch, and which was read in 1918 during an address at Washington, North Carolina, to a body of young men of Beaufort County on the eve of their de- parture in response to their country's call to battle
for the safety of democracy and the preservation of civilization. This poem received instant and nation-wide recognition, was published in London and Paris papers, and was designated by Lloyd's Weekly of London as "America's Battle Hymn."
WE'RE COMING
We are coming, Mother England, we are coming millions strong;
Hands across the sea are reaching, gripped to rid the world of wrong.
We are coming, stricken Belgium, there with you to face the foe,
Pledged to make the haughty Prussian pay in full for all your woe.
We are coming, France, our sister, France, the glorious and fair ;
By your side we'll soon be fighting in the trenches, in the air;
And the Hun shall feel the power of the men from o'er the sea ;
We are coming and are swearing that this whole world shall be free.
We are coming, fair Italia, land from which Co- lumbus came;
We, Columbia's sons, are coming, coming in Co- lumbia 's name,
Now to raise the flag of freedom where a Caesar wore the crown,
Knowing that when once we raise it, naught on earth shall tear it down.
We are coming, German Kaiser, call your hosts from hill and plain;
Mass your men and mass your cannon, but your work will be in vain.
We are coming, German Kaiser, and our coming sounds the knell
Of your boasted German Kultur that has made of earth a hell.
We are coming, men of Europe, we are coming millions strong,
There to stay and ne'er to falter, though the fight be hard and long.
"To the end" shall be our slogan, for the world it SHALL be free,
And the evil power of despots crushed at last on land and sea.
Hohenzollerns, Hapsburgs, harken to the fast ap- proaching beat
Of the footsteps of a nation that has never known defeat ; Clad in armor of the righteous, caring naught for German might,
We are coming, we are coming there to win or die for right.
JUDGE STEPHEN C. BRAGAW, Washington, N. C.
WILLIAM CALDWELL MCRORIE is a lawyer by profession, a member of the Rutherfordton bar, and during fifteen years of faithful work has proved his ability and skill in many hard fought and important legal engagements.
He was born in Union County, North Carolina, December 22. 1874, son of Cyrus A. and Sylvania ( Helms) McRorie. Like many other successful North Carolina lawyers, his early life was spent on a farm, with advantages supplied by the coun-
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try schools. He also attended high school at Un- ionville and before getting his bearings in the matter of a future career he spent about nine years as a teacher and as a farmer. He finally entered the law department of the University of North Carolina, and was admitted to the bar in September, 1903. Since then he has been in gen- eral practice at Rutherfordton. Mr. McRorie is a member of the State Bar Association, is a trus- tee of the graded schools of Rutherfordton, and is affiliated with the Masonic Order and the Knights of Pythias.
December 31, 1897, he married Cassie Wilma Hagler, of Union County. They have seven chil- dren, Bertha Odessa, William Carlisle, Robert Grant, Cyrus Brown, Margaret Elizabeth, Wilma Virginia and George Spencer.
FESTUS E. SIGMAN. Especially worthy of hon- orable mention in a work of this character is Festus E. Sigman, registrar of deeds for David- son County, an able and influential citizen of Lexington, and a conspicuous factor in the ad- vancement of the higher interests of town and county. A native of Catawba County, North Car- olina, he was born in Cline Township, coming from pioneer and revolutionary stock. He is a lineal descendant of John Sigman, one of the orig- inal settlers of Catawba County, the line of descent being thus traced: John, Polser, George, George, Nelson E., and Festus C.
John Sigman, a native of Germany, immigrated to America in colonial days, and after spending a few months in Pennsylvania came to North Carolina, settling as a pioneer in Catawba County. Prominent in public affairs, he was made com- mander of a company of militia, and assisted the colonists in their brave struggle for independence. He fought at Kings Mountain and at Ramseurs Hill. Subsequently crossing the Catawba River, he took part, under command of General Greene, in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. He reared two sons, Barnett Sigman and Polser Sigman. The latter also reared two sons, Henry Sigman, and George Sigman. George Sigman was the father of three sons, George Sigman, William, and David. George Sigman, grandfather of Festus E., died in 1851, in the forty-seventh year of his age. He reared three sons, Julius, Davault, and Nelson E., and three daughters, Susan, Frances and Lovina.
Nelson E. Sigman was born in August, 1847, in Cline Township, Catawba County, which was like- wise the birthplace of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather on the paternal side. In 1861 while yet a beardless youth, he enlisted in Com- pany F, Thirty-eighth Regiment, North Carolina Volunteers, and was with his command the greater part of the time until the close of the conflict. Remaining through the following winter in camp at Raleigh, he went in March, 1862, with his regi- ment to Weldon, North Carolina, thence to Hali- fax, and from there proceeding to Richmond, Virginia, where he took part in the "Seven Days"' fight before that city. On June 26, 1862, he was wounded in the engagement at Mechanicsville, and was absent from his regiment until September 20th, when he rejoined it at Winchester, where he participated in several engagements of minor im- portance. About the first of December, 1862, barefooted, and not very heavily clothed, he crossed the Blue Ridge, the weather being cold and snowy. On December 12 and 13, 1862, he fought in the battle at Fredericksburg, Virginia. In
May, 1863, he was stricken with typhoid fever, and after an absence of several weeks from his regiment joined it at Culpeper Court House, and with it took part in many engagements, including the battles of the Wilderness, where he was in two charges. Going from there to Spottsylvania Court House, he was at the front in the engage- ment called the Bloody Angle, and assisted in recapturing some of the works. It was there, in one of the battles in which he fought that the trunk of a tree eighteen inches in diameter was cut off by minie balls, and is now preserved in a museum at Washington, District of Columbia. Later he took part in the engagements at Cold Harbor and Turkey Ridge, and in three of the battles in front of Petersburg. There, on June 22, 1864, he was severely wounded, and incapaci- tated for further duty, either in field or camp. He served while in the army in Stonewall Jack- son's Corps, A. P. Hill's Division, and Pender's Brigade, until the death of General Jackson.
After the close of the war, Nelson E. Sigman returned to Catawba County, and resumed his agricultural labors in Cline Township. He in- herited land, and being quite successful in its management he added to his estate by purchase, and on the farm which he so finely improved is still living, and though he has passed the allotted three score and ten years of man's life is hale and hearty. He married Martha Rackett, who was born in Catawba County, a daughter of William and Martha Rackett. Seven children blessed their union, Festus E., Elizabeth, Vernon, Laura, Martin, Loy, and Detlev.
Leaving the district school, Festus E. Sigman continued his studies at Concordia College, and later attended the University of Kentucky. At the age of nineteen years he began teaching school in his home district, and for six years taught a part of each year. Subsequently Mr. Sigman became associated with the Thomasville Spoke Company, and still later with the Thomasville Hardware Company, two prosperous concerns in which he still retains an interest, although he devotes his time and attention to the duties of his position as registrar of deeds, to which he was elected in 1916.
Mr. Sigman married, in 1911, Mamie Cox. She was born at Liberty, North Carolina, a daughter of Rev. D. C. and Mary Cox. Her father is a well-known preacher in the German Reformed Church. Mr. Sigman is a Lutheran in his religi- ous belief, and his wife is a member of the Society of Friends. Mr. Sigman has filled vari- ous public positions of trust and responsibility, having served for four years as a member of the Thomasville Board of Town Commissioners; for two years having been clerk of the Recorder's Court; and having rendered acceptable service as town treasurer. Fraternally he belongs to Thomasville Lodge No. 214, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; and to Thomasville Lodge, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows.
WILLIAM THOMAS COLE was born in Chatham County, North Carolina, September 22, 1858. Two and a half years later in April, 1861, his father Solomon N. Cole, who up to that time had been engaged in the quiet vocations of mechanic and farmer, left home to enter the Confederate army as a private. He proved the last full measure of devotion to the cause, and gave up his life for the South at Petersburg, Virginia, in August, 1864. William T. Cole was six years of age when his
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father died, and that calamity of war left the fam- ily in greatly reduced circumstances and cut off many opportunities and advantages which other- wise might have been bestowed upon his early youth. He grew up with his widowed mother Mrs. Sarah E. (Whitledge) Cole, attended private school, made the best of his advantages, and after- ward by his own earnings he paid for several terms of instruction in Rutherford College. In 1868, when ten years of age he went to work in a cotton mill and continued that employment until he was eighteen. Following that he had three years of experience in a country store, and then for three years held the post of increased responsibility as general manager of the Holman Cotton Manu- facturing Company at Holman's Mills. It was at this point in his career, when already a grown man, he left business to gain a better education and spent three years in Rutherford College. After that he was for seven years a general merchant in Durham, and Durham County, then for six years was with the Commonwealth Yarn Mills, and that was followed by another period of merchandising.
In 1906 Mr. Cole bought a small knitting fac- tory, and in 1907 incorporated the Chatham Knitting Mills Company, of which he has since been secretary, treasurer and general manager. This has grown to be one of the important indus- tries of the Durham District, and employs 150 operators. Mr. Cole is also director of the Louise Knitting Mills Company, at East Durham, and was one of the organizers of that business.
In the intervals of a busy career he has found time to serve the public welfare and for four years was a member of the board of aldermen at Durham. He is active as a steward and trustee of the Branson Methodist Episcopal Church South, and is affiliated with the Royal Arcanum.
June 11, 1888, Mr. Cole married Jimmie Ann Estes, daughter of James C. Estes of Burke County, North Carolina. Six children have been born into their home. Minnie Helen is. now Mrs. Lockhill McDonald of Durham; Lessia A., de- ceased; Marvin Baird is serving in the United States Navy Hospital Corps; Nellie Eugenia is a talented musician and teacher; James Baxter is bookkeeper in his father's business and a member of the Home Guards; Mary Louise is a student in Trinity College.
JOHN BRYAN WRIGHT, M. D., specialist in eye, ear, nose and throat, is a member of what is generally regarded as the foremost firm of spe- cialists in this branch of medicine and surgery in North Carolina, the firm of Lewis, Battle & Wright at Raleigh.
There are few families whose membership have represented and fulfilled larger and broader lines. of useful service than the Wrights of Sampson County. Some special reference to the different members of the family now living is made on other pages of this publication. Dr. Wright, a son of John C. and Bettie V. (Herring) Wright, was born September 4, 1874, at the ancestral Wright home at Coharie in Sampson County. The Wrights have owned and lived upon continuously the old Wright lands at the junction of the Big and Little Coharie rivers since English colonial times, the grants of those lands coming to the family direct from the Crown.
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