USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 86
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He was one of the original directors of the Commercial Bank of Rutherfordton and served
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as its cashier from September, 1909, to January 1, 1915. He also helped organize the Citizens Bank & Trust Company, a reorganization of the Citizens Bank, and has since been president of the new company. In 1915 he was one to erect the handsome brick and terra cotta building in which the Bank and Trust Company has its home, a structure 32x80 feet. Mr. Miller is also a director of the Cleghorn Cotton Mill and the Spencer Cotton Mills. He is one of the owners of the Miller Hardware Company. Always ac- tive in politics, Mr. Miller served four years as chairman of the Democratic Committee, and is affiliated with the Junior Order of United Amer- ican Mechanics.
JOHN WESLEY WHITE, M. D., has been practic- ing his profession as a physician and surgeon at Wilkesboro for over a quarter of a century. Success has come to him in generous measure as well as high standing in professional circles over the state. He is a former vice president of the North Carolina State Medical Society.
Doctor White was born on a farm in Deep Creek Township of Yadkin County, North Carolina, a son of William White. His people have been identified with this section of North Carolina for several generations. His father learned the trade of carpenter when a young man and afterwards became a building contractor. He erected among other structures the courthouse at Yadkinville. He also bought a farm in Deep Creek Township, improved it and had slaves to cultivate the fields until the war. During the war he was a member of the Home Guard. His death occurred in 1867. William White married Sarah Nicholson, who was born at Eagle Mills in Iredell County, North Carolina, daughter of John Nicholson. At her husband's death she was left a widow with three children : John Wesley; George Anderson, now in the hardware business at North Wilkesboro; and Charles Henry, who is a brilliant scholar and now holds a chair in the faculty of instruction of Harvard University. The mother of these three sons continued to live on the old farm and reared her sons there to habits of industry. She spent her last years at the home of her son Doctor White at Wilkesboro, where she died at the age of eighty- four.
While Doctor White was not reared in a luxuri- ous home he made the best of his opportunities and at the age of eighteen began teaching in the rural schools of Yadkin County. While teaching he pursued the study of medicine and subsequently, with the means earned by his own labors, he attended a course of lectures in Baltimore College of Physicians and Surgeons and later entered the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, from which he was graduated M. D. in 1889. On being licensed to practice he located at Wilkesboro and in a few years had a paying and promising prac- tice. Some years ago in order the better to care for his own patients and afford a general service Doctor White established a hospital in Wilkesboro. This is the only hospital in the county and is an institution in which the people take a great deal of just pride.
Besides his active membership in and former official connection with the State Medical Society, Doctor White belongs to the Wilkes County and the Tri-State Medical societies.
He was married in 1898 to Pearl Sydnor, who was born near Richmond, Virginia, member of the prominent Sydnor family of that state. She is a
daughter of John' Lincoln and Nellie (Catlin) Sydnor. Doctor and Mrs. White have two children: Nellie, now a student in Greensboro Woman's College; and John, who is still in school at Wilkes- boro. Doctor White has found time in the midst of his busy professional duties to serve as mayor of Wilkesboro and also as county physician. For twelve years he was a member of the High School Committee. He is now chairman of the Medical Advisory Board, War Department, Fifth District.
GUY BERRYMAN PHILLIPS is superintendent of the city schools of Oxford. He is a native of North Carolina, a graduate of the State University, and has both training and fine natural qualifica- tions for his duties and responsibilities as a teacher.
He was born in Ashboro in Randolph County this state November 26, 1890, son of Jesse Lee and Fannie Polk (Waddell) Phillips. His people were farmers, and in a rural atmosphere he spent his boyhood. He attended the Trinity High School and in 1913 graduated from the University of North Carolina. For a time he taught school at Raleigh, and attended sessions of summer school at Columbia University in New York City. Mr. Phillips came to Oxford in 1916 to take up his present duties as superintendent of public schools.
He is a member of the North Carolina Teachers' Assembly and is assistant superintendent of the Sunday school of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Oxford. His fraternal affiliations are with the Junior Order United American Mechanics. June 27, 1917, he married Anna Elizabeth Craig, daugh- ter of Braxton and Helen (Wilson) Craig. Her father is a well known Baptist minister.
CHARLES HALL ROBINSON. With all that rep- resents stability and progress during the last half century in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, no man has been more continuously and consistently iden- tified than has Charles Hall Robinson, president of the First National Bank and the moving spirit in and connected officially or otherwise with nu- merous other successful business enterprises. With youthful ambition and unlimited energy Mr. Robinson came here at a time when the effects of the Civil war just closed, had caused business de- pression in every field. In a comparatively short time, however, despite his youth, he became a recognized factor in the upbuilding of the stable and dependable enterprises upon which, in great measure, rests the community's present prosperity.
Charles Hall Robinson was born at Theresa in Jefferson County, New York, October 13, 1848, the youngest child and the only son in a family of four children born to Thomas Oakley and Pa- melia (Hall) Robinson. The three daughters were: Frances, who was born in 1836, died in 1854; Emma, who was born in 1840, is the widow of R. E. Munson and is a resident of Philipsburg, Pennsylvania; and Ellen, who was born in 1844, is the widow of William L. Quigley and resides at Rockford, Illinois.
Tracing far back it is found that the Robin- sons and Halls were families of substance and influential connections. The genealogical record discloses that Mr. Robinson is in direct line of descent from the Robinsons of Rokeby Park, in the north of England. Thomas Robinson, Baro- net at Law, colonel in the Parliamentary army, raised a company of horse at his own expense, and was slain near Leeds in 1643.
Sir Leonard Robinson, third son of Thomas, was chamberlain of the City of London, was
Chaist Robinson
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knighted at Guild Hall by King William in 1692 and died in 1696. The following describes the arms of Sir Leonard Robinson: Vert, a chevron between three stags at gaze-on a shield, on a green field, divided by a golden chevron separat- ing three stags at gaze (or standing looking face on, indicating a green park with tame deer). The Crest-a stag as in arms. The Motto, Res Non Verba (Deeds not Words).
Thomas Robinson, only son of Sir Leonard, of Enfield Chase, Middlesex, and West Layton, York- shire, died in 1700.
Matthew Robinson, oldest son of Thomas, West Layton, Yorkshire, died in 1778, aged eighty-four years.
Thomas, second son of Matthew Robinson, cler- gyman, of Edgeley, Yorkshire, died in 1798.
Richard Robinson, son of Thomas, was the grandfather of Charles Hall Robinson. He was in the Royal Navy and was killed in a sea engage- ment in 1812.
Thomas Oakley Robinson, son of Richard and of his wife, Frances Oakley, and father of Charles Hall Robinson, was born in 1806, in the City of London, England, and in 1828 immigrated to Northern New York in the United States. He was married on February 7, 1836, to Pamelia Hall, who was born March 20, 1815, and died January 20, 1889, and was buried at Montour Falls, New York. Her parents were Joseph and Margaret (Beeman) Hall, the former of whom was born August 23, 1772, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and died February 8, 1859. The latter was a daughter of a soldier of the Revolu- tion and was born February 12, 1777, and died September 5, 1868, having survived to the un- usual age of ninety-two years. Joseph Hall and his wife were buried at La Fargeville in Jeffer- son County, New York. Thomas Oakley Robin- son, born November 11, 1806, died in 1881 and was buried at Montour Falls, New York.
Charles H. Robinson was taken from school at the age of sixteen years, during the Civil war, and placed in a mercantile office, the father thus early recognizing in the youth a dormant business faculty that should be given a chance to develop. In 1866 he took a course in bookkeeping at the Eastman Commercial College, Poughkeepsie, New York, and two years later, in 1868, when twenty years old, he came to Elizabeth City, delegated to look after his father's interests in a vast tract of land, 31,000 acres, this being locally known as the "General Park estate." In 1869 the prop- erty was placed in a stock company, the Land & Lumber Company of North Carolina, of which con- cern Mr. Robinson continued secretary until its failure in 1873, whereby Mr. Robinson and his father suffered a total loss in their first North Carolina investment.
Benefited by this experience, unpleasant as it was, Mr. Robinson exercised caution in 1874 when he embarked in the sawmill business. and was able to sell out at a good profit in 1875, at the same time retaining valuable timber lands. Alert to further business opportunity, in February, 1877, he entered into the mercantile business at Eliza- beth City, establishing what is now known as the C. H. Robinson Company, which has been success- ful from the start and at present does a large jobbing business in Northeastern North Carolina. Its business has been continuous, there never hav- ing been a stringency in its financial affairs nor have there ever been any fire losses. Progressive Vol. IV-21
and enterprising, Mr. Robinson was the first to enter the wholesale trade and his was the first firm to send out traveling representatives. His en- tire method of doing business has been along modern lines and the success that has attended this and all his other enterprises has been marked.
As population increased and conditions changed, Mr. Robinson kept pace, his business vision being clear and his foresight seldom at fault. In 1891 he organized the First National Bank of Elizabeth City, of which he has been president ever since. He was one of the prime movers in the organiza- tion of the first electric light company and the first telephone company. He is president of the Elizabeth City Cotton Mill, and is vice-president of the Elizabeth City Hosiery Company. He has always taken a deep interest in every movement for the betterment of the community and has fre- quently demonstrated his public spirit and civic pride.
Mr. Robinson was married June 5, 1879, to Miss Adele Le Page, who was a daughter of Louis and Marie Le Page, residents of Norfolk, Virginia. Mrs. Robinson died without issue De- cember 10, 1884. Mr. Robinson was married sec- ond, on January 20, 1886, to Miss Mary E. Leigh, who is a daughter of James and Sarah Leigh, of Durant's Neck, North Carolina, and a granddaughter of Col. James Leigh, a large planter of Pasquotank and Perquimans counties. The ancestral Leigh home, built at Durant's Neck in 1842, is now owned by Mrs. Robinson. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Robin- son, namely: Mary Leigh, who married Alexan- der S. Hanes, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and they have three children, Elizabeth, Charles and Alexander; Charles Oakley, who married Ivy Blades, a daughter of W. B. Blades, of Newbern, North Carolina, and they have two children, Charles O. and William B .; Helen, wife of W. G. Gaither, Jr., cashier of the First National Bank; and Eloise, who resides with her parents in the beautiful home in Elizabeth City. Mr. Robinson and family attend the Episcopal Church, all being communicants.
In his political views Mr. Robinson is a demo- crat but has never taken any very active part in politics. consenting as a public duty, however, to serve two terms as county commissioner and two terms as alderman of Elizabeth City, these offices being rather forced upon him than solicited. Clubs and social organizations as such have never appealed strongly to Mr. Robinson, but he has long been identified with the Masons. He was mas- ter of Eureka Lodge, F. & A. M., 1884-1885; be- longs to Cherokee Chapter, Royal Arch; to Griggs Commandery, Knights Templar, and to Khedive Temple, of the Mystic Shrine. Personally Mr. Robinson is a man of dignity and culture, and one whose unfaltering adherence to honorable methods through his long career has won for him un- qualified respect and the trust of his fellow men.
MATT MOBRAYER is in point of continuous service one of the oldest attorneys of the Ruther- fordton bar. He has been in practice forty years and has well earned the dignity and success he enjoys professionally and as a citizen in that part of the state.
Mr. MeBrayer was born at Mooreshoro in Cleve- land Countv. North Carolina, August 4, 1852, son of Reuben Hill and Elizabeth (Stroud) McBrayer. His early life was spent on his father's farm.
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He attended public schools, the Shelby Academy and also high school. At the early age of eighteen he became an independent merchant. He sold goods four years, and in the meantime read law and in 1877 was licensed to practice. From that year to the present he has been identified with much of the law business in Rutherford County, served a number of years as county attorney, and his clientage also includes a number of banks and other business firms that have availed them- selves of his experience and ability. In Novem- ber, 1916, Mr. McBrayer was elected recorder, and that office has since taken most of his time and energies.
For many years he served as a trustee of the graded schools at Rutherfordton. He has been a member of the Masonic Order since 1880, and for a number of years was master of his lodge. He is a member of the Baptist Church.
December 12, 1877, the same year that he be- gan law practice, Mr. McBrayer married Louisa Eugenia Wilkins, of Rutherford County. They are the parents of five children: Fred W., an attorney at law at Rutherfordton; Matt, a dentist at Andrews, North Carolina, married Sallie Kate Fisher and has a son named Matt III., and Nellie, Annie and Agnes, the three daughters are all still at home.
WILLIAM CLINTON HARRIS. When William Clinton Harris was elected judge of the Municipal Court of Raleigh, after one year's service in the office of prosecuting attorney, his abilities and integrity were but given their deserved recogni- tion. After two years in the office he had so strengthened his hold upon public confidence that he was chosen again for this office, one of the most important in the civic government. Mr. Harris is one of the younger members of North Carolina 's judiciary, but his career has been one characterized by a display of sterling legal ability, and those who have watched his rise have been gratified by the showing of this native son of Raleigh.
Judge Harris was born August 18, 1886, and is a son of J. C. L. and Florence C. (Upchurch) Harris. He comes by his predilection for the law naturally, for his father has long been one of the prominent attorneys of the Raleigh bar. After attending the public schools he completed a course in the Raleigh Male Academy. He then entered the University of North Carolina and also began the study of the profession which he has made his life work and finished his law course in the same institution in 1909. Entering at once into general practice, his talents and general ability soon attracted to him a large and representative clientele, and it was not long before he came before the people in a number of cases in which he convinced them he was a good man to hold official position. His election as prosecuting attorney came as a natural sequence, and in 1913 the citizens of Raleigh demonstrated that they believed he was of judicial timber when they sent him to preside over the Municipal Court. Judge Harris has the reputation of being an indefati- gable worker, combining scholarship with an active energy and a forceful personality. His record is absolutely clean and one upon which he is not afraid to stand. Politically a democrat, he has not allowed his party ties to affect his judicial labors in any way. He is a popular member of the Capital and Country clubs, and, with Mrs. Harris, belong to Christ Episcopal Church.
Judge Harris was married November 8, 1911, to Miss Juliet Crews, of Raleigh, daughter of the late W. J. Crews. They have one son, William Clinton, Jr., born January 1, 1913, and a daughter, Katherine Crews, born March 7, 1917.
JOHN A. PUGH. While his early opportunities and advantages were as commonplace as those of the most ordinary North Carolina boy, John A. Pugh by his energy and ambition has raised him- selt to a place of authority and influence in his business affairs and is one of the leaders in the manufacturing circles of Durham.
He was born in Wake County, North Carolina, May 22, 1876, a son of James Monroe and Mary Ellen (Collier) Pugh. His father was a country merchant. The son attended the common schools a few terms and later the Davis Military School. His first business experience was clerk in a dry goods store for a year, after which he acquired a vast and detailed information of the hardware busi- ness through nine years of practical experience in various capacities. This was supplemented by an- other two years spent as an employe of the South- ern Railway.
In 1902 Mr. Pugh became secretary and treas- urer of the Commonwealth Cotton Manufacturing Company. Here he found the real field of his work and his individual possibilities. In 1909 he re- signed his commission with the Commonwealth Cot- ton Company to become superintendent of Mills No. 6 and 7 of the Durham Hosiery Company. He directed these mills for six years and on June 1, 1916, became general manager of the Duke Yarn Mill at Durham.
Mr. Pugh is a life member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. On June 10, 1914, he married Miss Vivian Blackwell. Mrs. Pugh is a niece of W. T. Blackwell, the creator of the famous Bull Durham tobacco.
GEN. THOMAS R. ROBERTSON, former adju- tant-general of North Carolina, former colonel of the First North Carolina Infantry and cap- tain of the famous Hornet's Nest Riflemen of Charlotte in the Spanish-American war, has been a resident of Charlotte for many years and ac- tive in public affairs and the bar, but since the spring of 1917 has been superintendent of public buildings and grounds at the state capital of Raleigh.
General Robertson is a native of South Caro- lina, born in Fairfield County in 1849, son of Judge William R. and Elizabeth (Rabb) Robert- son. Judge William R. Robertson was a lawyer by profession and for a number of years held a dignified place on the bench. He was a native of South Carolina, as was also his father. The great-grandfather of General Robertson was born in Prince William County, Virginia, the ancestral home of the Robertsons. The Robertsons have been identified both with Virginia and the Caro- linas. From the Carolinas the party of Robert- sons passed over the western mountains into Ten- nessee. Col. Sterling Robertson was a promi- nent figure in the early history of Nashville, Tennessee, and afterwards gained renown and distinction in the Republic and State of Texas. He was a figure in the winning of Texas inde- pendence from Mexico in 1836, being present at the battle of San Jacinto under Gen. Sam Houston. Later he acquired one of the large colonial grants in the state, and out of the old Robertson colony has since been carved many
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of the counties of Texas. Colonel Robertson was a cousin of General Robertson's father. One of his family was the late Judge Sawnie Robertson, judge of the State Supreme Court of Texas, who died in 1910.
Thomas R. Robertson was reared in Fairfield County, South Carolina, finishing his education in South Carolina University at Columbia. He moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1881, and that city was his permanent home until 1906. For sev- eral years he practiced law and by appointment from Governor Holt was for eight years clerk of the Criminal Court of Charlotte. He also served on the Board of Aldermen several years and in every way was one of the leading and active spir- its of the city.
General Robertson has been especially distin- guished in his record with the North Carolina National Guard. He joined the famous Hornet's Nest Riflemen in 1883, being made lieutenant. He rose to the rank of captain and commanded the company, officially designated as Company A, First North Carolina Infantry, in the Spanish- American war. This company was at the head of the First North Carolina Regiment when it marched as the first American troops through the streets of Havana, Cuba. General Robertson re- mained in command of his company at Havana during the winter of 1898-99, returning to Char- lotte in April, 1899. Later he was elected colonel of the First North Carolina Regiment.
General Robertson removed to Raleigh in 1906 to take the position of adjutant general of the state by appointment from Governor Glenn. His service of four years in that position made an enviable record for efficiency and usefulness and did much to build up the personnel and the equip- ment of the state military organization.
In May, 1917, General Robertson was appointed to his present position as superintendent of state buildings at Raleigh. He was elected by a com- mittee composed of Governor T. W. Bickett, Sec- retary of State J. Bryan Grimes, State Treasurer B. R. Lacy and Attorney-General Manning.
General Robertson's first wife was Miss Cora Johnston, of Charlotte, daughter of Col. William Johnston, a prominent figure of that city. She was a sister of the wife of Col. A. B. Andrews of Raleigh. Governor William A. Graham was her great-uncle. Of this union there were three children : Maj. William R. Robertson, now in the National Army at the front in France in com- mand of a machine gun battalion; Elizabeth, wife of E. M. Brevard, of Tallahassee, Florida ; and Miss Julia J. Robertson.
After the death of his first wife General Rob- ertson married in 1906 Miss Jean Clarkson, of Prince William County, Virginia. Her father, the late Dr. Henry Clarkson, was a well known Virginia physician and served as a soldier in the Confederate Army.
MONTGOMERY HERMAN BIGGS, M. D., F. A. C. S. One of the important institutions that mark out Rutherfordton among the cities in that part of the state is Rutherford Hospital, which was founded by Doctor Biggs and Doctor Norris in 1906. Doctor Biggs came to the state at that time, a surgeon of long and thorough experience, and his work in this state has demonstrated that he is one of the men in the front rank of that profession in North Carolina.
Doctor Biggs was born at Hinsdale, Illinois,
May 17, 1870, son of a distinguished Union officer in the Civil war. His parents were Herman and Anna (King) Biggs. His father graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1856, and was an instructor at West Point when the war broke out. He at once took up arms in defense of the Union, served for a time as quartermaster in the Army of the Potomac, was advanced to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and finally was brevetted a brigadier-general. He was in the war from the beginning to the end but at the close resigned his commission in the regular army. He was wounded in one of the engagements in North Carolina, Morehead. General Biggs died October 9, 1887.
Doctor Biggs in course of a liberal education attended high school at Hammonton, New Jersey, and in 1892 entered the University of Pennsyl- vania Medical School, where he spent four years, graduating in 1897. For over twenty years he has found his field of work and experience al- most entirely in surgery and in hospital prac- tice. For two years he was resident physician to the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, was chief resident physician there one year, for three years was assistant with Dr. Charles H. Frazier, clinical professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, and from 1900 to 1903 was assist- ant instructor in surgery and assistant surgeon of the University Hospital, and for three years chief resident physician of the Philadelphia Gen- eral Hospital.
These responsibilities and exceptional opportu- nities made Doctor Biggs already a man of dis- tinction in his profession before he came to Rutherfordton and with Dr. Henry Norris estab- lished the Rutherford Hospital. This is a hospital almost exclusively for surgical cases, and in point of equipment and personnel it is one of the best in the state. The hospital's home is a solid brick building, with most modern equipment, and furnishes accommodations for fifty beds. Doctor Biggs and Doctor Norris own land around the hospital of about 200 acres.
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