USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 101
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pital at Baltimore. He began practice at Ayden, North Carolina, but after five years sought a larger field and after another post-graduate course in the New York Polyclinic located in 1908 at Green- ville. Doctor Skinner is a member in good standing of the Pitt County and North Carolina State Medi- cal societies, and is a director of the Home Build- ing and Loan Association. He belongs to St. Paul's Episcopal Church and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. December 29, 1909, he married Miss. Daisy Minor, of Oxford, North Carolina. They have four children: Elizabeth Minor, Harriet Cot- ton, Louis Cotton, Jr., and Edward Ficklen, the last two being twins.
HENRY WINFIELD FRASER. Henry Winfield Fraser, who for upwards of forty years has been identified with different manufacturing concerns in North Carolina, was responsible for the found- ing of the Myrtle Desk Company at High Point, a corporation of which he is president. This is one of the notable manufacturing concerns of this city and has contributed much to the fame by which that town is known throughout the United States and even abroad.
Mr. Fraser was born on a farm a mile from Mount Gilead, in Montgomery County, North Caro- lina. He comes of Colonial and Revolutionary stock. His great-grandfather was born in Scot- land and his people were members of the famous Fraser Clan. From Scotland he removed to Eng- land and from there came to America in colonial days. On the outbreak of the Revolutionary war he joined the colonies in their struggle for inde- pendence and was a member of Washington 's army, serving the entire seven years without an injury. He was noted for his bravery under fire.
Thomas Fraser, grandfather of Henry W., was probably born in Virginia. He served in the War of 1812, and one of his sons was a soldier in the Mexican war. He was an early settler near Mount Gilead in Montgomery County. By trade he was a silversmith and gunmaker. He lived in Mont- gomery County the rest of his days.
William Fraser, father of Henry W., was born in Montgomery County, and inherited the natural mechanical skill of his father. He learned the arts of silversmith, blacksmith, wagon and buggy maker, and was in that line of business at Mount. Gilead up to the time of his death. His home was on a farm a mile from town, and there he died in 1851, at the early age of thirty-seven. He married Harriet Williams, also born near Mount Gilead, daughter of Merrett and Mrs. (Smith) Williams. Merrett Williams was a planter in Montgomery County. He was a soldier in the War of 1812 and one of his sons, William Henry Williams, was in the Mexican war. It was he who named the sub- ject of this sketch, giving him the name of Henry Winfield, in honor of General Winfield Scott, under whom he served in the Mexican war. Mrs. Har- riet Fraser died at the age of sixty-five, the mother of two children, a daughter named Mary Frances, who died at the age of eighteen, and Henry Win- field, who now survives.
Henry Winfield Fraser was so young when his father died that he does not remember him. He was educated in the schools of Montgomery County and also at Franklinville in Randolph County. At the age of eighteen he began teaching at Frank- linville, but when nineteen years old entered the service of the Randolph Manufacturing Company at Franklinville as clerk and bookkeeper. He held.
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that position eight years and in 1876 gave up his employment and visited in Texas. On returning to Franklinville he became clerk and bookkeeper with Hugh Parks, proprietor of the Franklinville Manufacturing Company. He was with that in- dustry for nineteen consecutive years.
On resigning he came to High Point and organ- ized here the Alma Furniture Company, of which he was secretary and treasurer. Two years later he sold this, and removing to Marion, North Caro- lina, became associated with T. F. Wren in estab- lishing the Catawba Furniture Company. From this he also retired eighteen months later, and resuming his residence at High Point, acquired an interest in the High Point Furniture Company and was its secretary and treasurer for six months. He sold out to M. J. Wren and then established the Myrtle Desk Company, naming the company in honor of his only daughter, Myrtle being her mid- dle name. Manufacturing a high quality of desks of different types and styles, Mr. Fraser built up an extensive trade.
In 1907 he took his son-in-law, L. C. Sinclair, and his daughter, Isla Myrtle, in the business as his partners, at which time the business was incorporated. The products of this factory have gone all over the United States and to foreign lands, including Australia, England, Egypt and the various South American Republics.
As indicative of the quality of the goods turned out by the Myrtle Desk Company, a news dispatch reported the fact that a deal had been closed whereby the Myrtle Desk Company was given an order for a number of desks to be placed in the White House at Washington.
Mr. Fraser is a director of the Commercial Na- tional Bank of High Point and the High Point Savings & Trust Company. He is a member of Numa F. Reid Lodge No. 344, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and with his wife is an active member and is on the Board of Stewards of the Wesley Memorial Church.
In June, 1881, he married Pandora Hayworth. She was born at Springfield, in Guilford County, daughter of Dr. M. M. and Mary (McMasters) Hayworth. The only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fraser is Isla Myrtle, now the wife of Major L. C. Sinclair. Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair have three children, Carson Fraser, Henry McLean and Ira Hayworth.
GEORGE H. HUMBER. One of the successful mem- bers of the Moore County legal fraternity who by industry and perseverance, united with pro- fessional skill and ability, has obtained a high standing in his vocation and at the same time has gained the respect and esteem of those with whom he has come into contact either in a pro- fessional or social way is George H. Humber, of Carthage. Mr. Humber was born at Carthage and here his entire career as a lawyer has been passed, and the city has in the meanwhile profited by his stable, public-spirited citizenship and by the abilities he has directed toward its betterment in the discharge of the duties of official position.
George H. Humber belongs to a family of Ger- man-English origin, is a son of S. W. and Rosanna (Cole) Humber, and was born in 1877, at Car- thage, Moore County, North Carolina. S. W. Hum- ber was born at Richmond, Virginia, and there gained his education and as a youth learned the trade of carriage trimming. As a journeyman he went to Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, where he met and became in a way
associated with W. T. Jones, a carriage painter who was at that time working in one of the larger shops of that city. In the year 1857 the elder Thomas Bethune Tyson, on one of his regu- lar business trips from Carthage to Fayetteville, became acquainted with Mr. Jones and induced him to locate at Carthage to take charge of the little paint shop connected with the infant con- cern which has since developed into the great manufacturing enterprise of Tyson & Jones Buggy Company. In accepting this position Mr. Jones took with him to Carthage S. W. Humber, and placed him in charge of the trimming work in the paint shop. From that time to the present Mr. Humber has been connected with this enter- prise and has assisted in the work which has developed it into one of the large and important concerns of this kind in the South. His service, covering a period of fifty-nine years, is one that has seldom been equaled for continuity, for faith- fulness and for ability. When the Civil war came on Mr. Humber, with several of his asso- ciates, including Mr. Jones, enlisted for service in the Confederate army, becoming a private in the Thirty-fifth Regiment, North Carolina Volun- teer Infantry, an organization with which he served until peace was declared. With a splendid record as a soldier and the added self-confidence and discipline that army life gives, he returned to the duties of his position and once again started to help the company in its development. In 1876 he was foreman trimmer for the greatly increased enterprise, a position he continued to hold, and when the business was incorporated in 1889 as the Tyson & Jones Buggy Company, with a capital stock of $30,000, he became one of the original stockholders by purchasing four shares at fifty dollars per share. Also, at that time, he became a member of the first board of directors. Mr. Humber is the oldest man, in point of service, now connected with this business and is one of the most highly esteemed men connected with the company, being popular alike with officials and employes. His whole attention has been devoted to the success of the company and he has there- fore had no time to engage in outside affairs, either political or fraternal, except as a good citizen and as a man who has always found pleasure in the companionship of his fellowmen. Mrs. Rosanna (Cole) Humber is a daughter of the late Dr. Wil- liam Cole, who was a well known Moore County physician, and is descended in a direct line from Esther Ball, whose sister was the mother of George Washington. Her great-grandfather was George Glascock, M. D., a grandson of Esther Ball, and who was a surgeon in the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, in addition to being a prominent figure in the life of North Carolina during that day.
George H. Humber received his early training in the local public schools, following which he en- rolled as a student at Trinity College, being grad- uated therefrom in the class of 1898. His legal studies were pursued in the law department of the University of North Carolina, where he was gradu- ated in 1900 with his degree, and in that same year he opened an office and began the practice of his profession at Carthage. To lead in the profession chosen for his life work is the laudable ambition of every man possessed of the ability to understand what worldly success means, and it is the closeness with which such desires are realized that constitutes eminence and prosperity. Such being the case, Mr. Humber may be justly ac-
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counted one of the leading as he is certainly one of the best known members of the Moore County bar. He has always been a public-spirited, active participant in the varied affairs of the city and county, and for six years served as mayor of Carthage, a position in which he comported him- self with dignity, energy and ability, his adminis- tration doing much to advance the city in a num- ber of ways.
Mr. and Mrs. Humber are the parents of two children, namely : Ruth Virginia and Sam W., Jr.
KENNETH ALEXANDRIA PITTMAN is a young and rising attorney at Ayden, and has already received one favorable mark of public esteem by his elec- tion as mayor of that town.
Mr. Pittman was born in Franklin County, North Carolina, November 22, 1892, a son of John and Pattie S. (Horton) Pittman. His father was a farmer, and the son grew up in a rural at- mosphere. He attended the district schools, the high school at Delway,' North Carolina, and took both the literary and law courses of Wake Forest College, where he graduated in 1916. He at once came to Ayden and entered upon a general prac- tice, in which he has made very favorable progress. He was elected to the office of mayor in 1917. Mr. Pittman is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association.
ALEXANDER MCNEILL BLUE, M. D. After gradu- ating in medicine from Tulane University, New Orleans, in 1915, Doctor Blue located in his old home town of Carthage, and has become one of the prominent physicians and surgeons of that town and Moore County. He is assistant in surgery on the staff of the James McConnell Memorial Hos- pital at Eureka, and is one of the high minded and progressive men of his profession in this part of the state. He is a member in good standing of the County and State Medical societies, and the Amer- ican Medical Association.
Doctor Blue represents a family of prominence in North Carolina. He was born at Carthage in 1887, son of Dr. J. C. and Evelyn (McNeill) Blue. His mother, who is still living, is a daughter of the late A. H. McNeill of Carthage, the McNeills rep- resenting some of the fine old stock in the Upper Cape Fear section. The father Dr. J. C. Blue, who died in 1892, was born in Moore County in 1846, and though only a boy he served as a courier in the Confederate army. He was a graduate of Jefferson Medical College, and was for about a quarter of a century in active practice at Carthage and Moore County.
Of Scotch origin, the Blue family has lived for several generations in Moore, Richmond and Scot- land counties of this state and also in the adjoin- ing counties of upper South Carolina. The two best known members of the family from the South Carolina branch are Dr. Rupert Blue, for many years sanitarian in the United States Public Health Service, and now chief medical officer in the United States Navy, and Victor Blue, an officer in the United States Navy for thirty years, and for a number of years member of the General Naval Board. Both these men were born in North Caro- lina, but were reared in South Carolina.
ARCHIE NIXON BULLA. It is not so much geo- graphical position and natural resources as the quality of individual enterprise which gives dis- tinction to any community. An example of this fact is found in the Town of Randleman, in Ran-
dolph County, where much of the industrial activi- ties and business and civic life center around the figure of Archie Nixon Bulla. Mr. Bulla is a manufacturer, has been prominent in public af- fairs many years, and is the present postmaster of the town.
He was born in Back Creek Township of Ran- dolph County, a son of Joseph Chapman and Lydia (Henley) Bulla and a grandson of Archie and Millicent (Rush) Bulla. His maternal grandfather was Nixon Henley. The Bulla family was estab- lished in Randolph County by Thomas Bulla, who was born in Pennsylvania. He came to the state in colonial days, acquiring a large tract of land in Back Creek Township, and was one of the first to make a permanent home in that region. Before his death he had cleared and improved quite a tract of land, and some of that property is still owned by his descendants. Archie Bulla, grand- father of Archie Nixon Bulla, was an old-time country physician, spent his life in Back Creek Township, and in the days of horseback riding and saddle bags carried his services to patients over a district many miles in extent. Both he and his wife attained a good old age. They had the fol- lowing children: Joseph C., Flora, Margaret, Al- fred, Jefferson, Sarah, Hattie, Amanda and Cora. Joseph Chapman Bulla grew up on a farm, and made farming his chief pursuit. He still owns and occupies a farm in Back Creek about two miles from his birthplace. He and his wife reared eight children: Nora, Archie Nixon, Minnie, Sadie, Thomas, Nellie, Minty and Mary.
Archie Nixon Bulla acquired a good education as a preparation for the serious duties and respon- sibilities of life. From the district schools he entered the old New Garden Boarding School. He was a student there the last term it was known under that name, and also attended at the opening of Guilford College. When he left school he located at Randleman and soon established the Randleman Hosiery Mills. With this important local institution his name has ever since been iden- tified, and he is secretary, treasurer and general manager of the company. He has also given much of his time to public affairs. Besides his present office he served five years as mayor of Randleman, seventeen years as a member of the Board of Edu- cation, and five years as a member of the Board of County Commissioners. Mr. Bulla is affiliated with Randleman Lodge No. 209, F. and A. M. He was reared a Quaker and his wife with the Meth- odist Protestant Church, and both are now affil- iated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Mr. Bulla married in 1892 Miss Dora Julian. She was born in Providence Township of Randolph County, a daughter of Wesley and Mary Julian. They are the parents of five children: Mary Allen, Robert Chapman, Frances Willard, John C. and Eugene A.
ROBERT L. GASH. Not a few of the important successes of the able lawyer have come to Robert L. Gash during his practice at Brevard. Mr. Gash has had a wide experience in the world and was a business man before he took up the law.
He represents an old family of this section of North Carolina and was born at Brevard, October 6, 1877, son of Thomas Lenoir and Dovey (Deaver) Gash. His father was both a merchant and farmer and also had an important public record, serving as clerk of courts and master in equity and also as a member of the Legislature. Robert L. Gash was educated in public schools and in the famous
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Bingham Military School. He graduated from the law department of the University of North Carolina in February, 1906. In the meantime, from 1895 to 1904, he accumulated much business experience and knowledge of the world as a travel- ing salesman and bookkeeper. Since his admission to the bar he has been in general practice at Brevard and during that time gave valuable pub- lic service by his ten years incumbency of the office of county attorney. Mr. Gash is a thirty- second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and is a past noble grand and past chief patri- arch of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He belongs to the Brevard Club, the Asheville Club and is an elder in the Presbyterian Church.
MARVIN LEE RITCH. The combiuation of super- lative skill in athletics and eminent abilities in the law is perhaps an unusual one, and it is still more unusual to find the possessor of these at- tainments actively engaged in the widely diverg- ing fields of endeavor. That au individual can make a success of both these vocations at the same time, however, is being displayed in the ac- tivities of Marvin Lee Ritch, of Charlotte, city attorney, one of the leading and brilliant young legists of the city, and a famous football coach.
Mr. Ritch was born March 7, 1889, in Union County, North Carolina, being a son of W. C. and Martha (Lee) Ritch, the former now deceased and the latter still surviving. His father was a farmer, and Marvin L. Ritch was reared amid rural surroundings, but very carly in life began to work seriously in the way of obtaining an ad- vanced education, something more than could be obtained in the country districts. Eventually he spent three years in attendance at the Univer- sity of North Carolina, where he did thorough work in the academic department, and then re- ceived an appointment to the position of pri- vate secretary to Congressman Yates Webb, of North Carolina, and went to Washington, D. C. After two years of association with that gentle- man he became private secretary to United States Senator Hollis Bankhead, of Alabama, with whom he remained for one year, and during the en- tire three years studied law at Georgetown University, from which institution he was duly graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1914. He crowded work into every day and es- tablished a most creditable record as a student, but as the duties of his office were so exacting he was compelled to do a great deal of his study- ing at night. Beside the fine facilities for ac- quiring law which Mr. Ritch enjoyed, he also ob- tained a knowledge of and experience in politics and public affairs which Washington affords, through his association with the two distinguished statesmen mentioned above, and which are rarely possessed by so young a man. Instead of yield- ing to the temptation, as so many young men 'have done in similar position, to remain in Wash- ington in easy circumstances, after he had com- pleted his law course there he decided to return to North Carolina, get married, and settle down to the earnest business of life. He has been re- markably successful, for, besides his brilliant tal- ents, fortune seems to have smiled upon him. On leaving the law school he came directly to Char- lotte in June, 1914, and in May of the following year was elected city attorney, a position which he has since filled with particular fituess and pro- ficiency. He enjoys, in addition, a fine profes-
sional business in the general practice of law in all the courts.
Mr. Ritch became famous as a football player on the team of the University of North Carolina, and especially distinguishing himself in the games played between his university and the University of Virginia, Georgetown University, Washington, D. C., and soon after coming to Charlotte inter- ested himself enthusiastically in local foot ball and became the coach of the Charlotte High School Team. On this team he has developed a number of brilliant young players and has placed the team in a high rank with schools of this class. His success and brilliant achievements as a coach are naturally a source of great pride to Mr. Ritch, as they have demonstrated that North Carolina and the other universities and colleges of the state can develop coaches that are equal to if not su- perior to those of the northern universities, and that it is not necessary therefore to send to the North for coaches for North Carolina teams. All the way through he is an enthusiastic and profi- cient athlete.
Mr. Ritch married Miss Hazel Morris Robinsou, who was born and reared in Gaston County, North Carolina. They are faithful members of the Meth- odist Church, and Mr. Ritch belongs to the local Young Men's Christian Association, in which he has been an active worker.
GILBERT MCLEOD, M. D. Work as a skillful phy- sician and surgeon for over thirty years at Car- thage in Moore County has brought Dr. Gilbert McLeod a vast esteem and respect as a citizen, while in his profession he is universally regarded as the best type of medical man. Besides his large general practice his career is of public interest be- cause of his position as head of the general medical work connected with the James McConnell Memo- rial Hospital at Eureka in Moore County.
The object and work of this institution deserve something more than passing mention. The hos- pital was established in April, 1917, as a result of the benefactions of a number of wealthy citizens of the county who had already become interested in the Farm Life School at Eureka. The hospital is in realty an outgrowth of the latter institution, and is conducted largely as an adjunct to the school. It is therefore in the nature of a gift to all of Moore County. The hospital is carried on under the direction of a number of leading physicians and surgeons of the county and under the general supervision of Doctor McLeod. Doctor McLeod has been enthusiastically devoted to this enterprise from the beginning. It is a unique and in mauy respects a remarkable institution. Located in the midst of the quiet and healthful section of the famous Sand Hills country, away from railroads and other distractions, surrounded by pine clad hills, there is every inducement for the cure and quick recovery of patients. The hospital, which cost about fifteen thousand dollars, was designed and built in a way to take every advantage of the situation, combining scientific equipment with the co-operation of nature in outdoor life. There are four private rooms and two wards, one for male and one for female patients, with fifteen beds in each. The hospital is equipped with an operating room that in its facilities for successful surgery is said to be equal to anything of its kind in the country. Many visiting surgeons have pronounced this feature of the institution ideal. There is also a complete arrangement of baths, heating, electric.
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light, sanitary sewerage and other modern con- veniences. The local staff consists of a resident physician and a corps of graduate nurses.
The institution has become a factor in promot- ing the child conservation movement. Members of the staff undertake examination and treatment of the children of the county which follows a survey that is regularly made of this district. The hos- pital is supplied with vegetables and fruit from the Farm Life School, and also has pure milk from a herd of dairy cattle. During the winter season the hospital is patronized by many of the wealthy tourists from the North who spend the winter at the neighboring Pinehurst, and who have made many substantial gifts to the hospital. Most of the work of the hospital, however, is carried on along the lines for which it was primarily intended.
Doctor McLeod represents one of the old High- land Scotch families that have been identified with the Upper Cape Fear region of North Carolina for nearly a century and a half. His grandfather, John McLeod, was a small boy when brought from Scotland by his parents, who located a few miles south of Deep River in the northern part of what is now Moore County. They settled there about a year before the Revolution.
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