USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 104
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Doctor Maness has resided in the south central part of North Carolina all his life. He was born at Elise, a town in the north part of Moore County, in 1878, and is a son of Enoch and Julia Ann (Kennedy ) Maness. Mrs. Maness died in 1913, and the father is making his home with his son at Ellerbe. Enoch Maness was born at Elise, being a member of an old-time and well- known family of Moore County, where the old Moore family home was located in the center of what was then a flourishing gold-mining section. During the war between the states he served in the Confederate Army, his services consisting prin- cipally of guard duty in the eastern part of Northern Carolina. He is of Scotch ancestry and belongs to a family that has always been noted for its high character and principles of integrity.
John M. Maness received his early education in the local schools of Moore County, this attendance being followed by a course at Shiloh Academy in Randolph County. He next enrolled on the mem- bership list of the University of North Carolina, and after a literary course took up the study of medicine, a profession for which he had shown a preference from youth. His studies were prose- euted at the university, from which he was gradu- ated with his degree in 1909, but before this had commenced practice, having dropped out of the university a year and returned in 1909 to con- plete his eourse. He began his professional labors in the northern part of the County of Richmond, where he has continued to make his home, having located at what is now the Town of Ellerbe in 1906. When he first came to this community it was still only a little hamlet, which was severely handicapped because of lack of railroad or other good transportation facilities. Still, it was only awaiting the opportunity to grow and develop and this came when the Norfolk & Southern Railroad was built through in 1910. Immediately the little village took on new life, its men began to energetically promote its interests, and now this is one of the most thriving among the smaller cities of the state. In this work Doctor Maness has played no insignificant part. He is widely known as a skilled and thoroughly learned and practical physician and surgeon, occupying a high place in his profession as well as in the esteem and con- fidence of a large practice; and is also accounted a good business man, with various interests of an important character. One of the matters which he has given a large amount of his attention is the commendable work of getting more land opened up for cultivation. Not alone at Ellerbe, but in the northern part of Richmond County, he has large holdings. While he has not sought
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public preferment of a political character, he has been an energetic worker in a number of beneficial movements, and has always performed faithfully the duties of good citizenship.
Doctor Maness was married to Miss Cassie O'Brien, daughter of Elijah Bascom O'Brien, a large and successful farmer near Ellerbe. Mr. O'Brien is one of the notable self-made men of Richmond County. When he commenced opera- tions here he was absolutely without capital and his struggle to get a foothold on the ladder of success was one which taxed his energies to the full. Once started, he rose rapidly, accumulated a plantation that is one of the most profitable and successful in this section of the state, and reared a family of eight daughters and four sons, all of whom grew up to be useful and industrious members of society. Doctor Maness and wife are the parents of a very fine little son, John M., Jr., whose birth occurred in August, 1916.
JOHN BRYANT LANE, of Fremont, is an expert authority on the manufacture of cotton seed oil and the various by-products of the cotton plant, and has been largely responsible for making the Fremont Oil Mill Company one of the leading industries of that section.
Mr. Lane was born in Wayne County, North Carolina, January 14, 1875, a son of George H. and Elizabeth (Carr) Lane. His father was a farmer and the son grew up on a farm and learned all the practical details of agriculture long be- fore he entered a business career in which he comes into more or less close contact with farm- ers and agricultural problems. He was educated in the public schools at Fremont and subsequently attended Trinity College at Durham.
In January, 1905, Mr. Lane came from the farm to identify himself with the Fremont Oil Com- pany and has since been its secretary, treasurer and general manager. This company operates with a capital of $72,000. It has a capacity for the manufacture of 5,000 tons of cotton seed products every year, and it turns out 3,000 tons of fertilizers. The company also operates an ex- tensive cotton storage warehouse.
Mr. Lane is a member and chairman of the board of education of Fremont, a position he has filled for the past four years, and is an active member with his family of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South. He was married January 10, 1901, to Miss Louise Person, of Wayne County. They have three living children, Percy Clare, John Bryant, Jr., and Edgar Rudolph.
HERBERT FLOYD SEAWELL. The Easteru District of North Carolina has no lawyer of nobler promise, no stronger example of what enterprise, perse- verance and never-ending application can achieve than Herbert Floyd Seawell of Carthage. Faithful attention to the interests of his clients, every de- tail in each case fully weighed and properly con- sidered, have contributed to the attainment of Mr. Seawell's success in his profession. His hon- orable conduct in each and every position in which he has found himself and the display of abilities of the very highest order account for the honor which was accorded him in his appointment to the office of United States district attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, a position in which he served most capably for a period of nearly four years.
Herbert F. Seawell was born near Wallace, Du- plin County, North Carolina, in 1869, his parents
being Dr. V. N. and Ellen (Croom) Seawell. The Seawell family is of English origin and has pro- duced some notable characters, in the North as well as in the South. In some branches of the family the name is spelled Sewall, as notably Arthur Sewall, the Maine shipbuilder, who was a candidate for vice president. In some sections of the country the name became changed to Sowell, this being particularly the case with those branches of the family that were pioneer settlers in the newer parts of the South and of the far South- west. Judge Henry Seawell, who was one of the prominent lawyers and jurists of his day, was born in Moore County and lived here until he was a young man. He was a member of the court of conference, was twice superior court judge, resided in Raleigh and is buried near Raleigh on the road leading out to Crabtree Creek.
The grandfather of Herbert F. Seawell was E. Quimby Seawell, a prosperous farmer of Moore County, He was the son of Rev. Jesse Seawell, a noted Baptist preacher of the early years, a pioneer preacher of the western part of North Carolina. He married Mary Dixon Phillips, a daughter of Rev. Eli Phillips, who was for years moderator of the Sandy Creek Baptist Association. She was descended from O'Connor Dowd, who came from Ireland to North Carolina and was the progenitor of the famous Dowd family of which the late Maj. Clement Dowd of Charlotte was a noted member. The maternal grandmother of Herbert F. Seawell was a Moore of Moore's Creek, Pender County, North Carolina.
Dr. V. N. Seawell, the father of Herbert F. Seawell, was born in 1839, in Moore County, on the old Seawell place near Carthage. He was well educated, both in a literary and medical way, adopted medicine as his profession, and began practice as a physician and surgeon before the outbreak of the war between the South and the North, continuing in active practice until within the last few years. For several years past, ever since his retirement, his home has been at Faison in Duplin County. In his young manhood he fol- lowed the vocation of teaching before beginning the practice of medicine, and about 1860 left Moore County, and for some time taught school in Bladen and Pender counties. Later he went to Wayne County, and in 1887 returned to Moore County, where he remained in successful practice until his retirement. During his active career he was accounted one of the leading and representa- tive members of his profession in the various com- munities in which his activities were centered, and at all times was known as a dependable, reliable and public-spirited citizen, with a keen interest in the welfare of the locality in which his home was made. He has led an industrious and useful life, and in his declining years is in the enjoy- ment of the comforts that a long life of energetic labor brings. Mrs. Seawell, who also belonged to an old and honored family of North Carolina, has been dead for many years, having passed away when her son, Herbert F., was still a child.
Within recent years Herbert F. Seawell' has purchased the land which constituted part of the old Seawell home place in Moore County, situated about seven miles west of Carthage and near Friendship Church. It was here that Rev. Jesse Seawell built a home, mostly with his own hands. He was, in addition to being a brilliant and in- spired minister, an expert stonecutter, a trade which he had learned in his early youth, and the specimens of the almost perfect stone work which
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still exist at the old home place form eloquent evidence of the thoroughness and enduring quality of his handicraft.
Herbert F. Seawell had the distinction when a boy of being a student in the seventh grade at Goldsboro under Dr. E. A. Alderman, who is now the president of the University of Virginia. He was also a student at Wake Forest College, in the academic department, and his legal studies were prosecuted in the meantime during his spare hours. Subsequently he studied for his profession in the law department of the University of North Caro- lina, and in 1887 accompanied his father to Moore County. In 1891 and 1892 he taught the graded school at Clarkeville, Virginia, and in the summer of the latter year established himself in the prac- tice of his profession at Carthage. Here he has since resided and has become one of the leading and most successful lawyers of this section of the state. In 1894 he was elected solicitor of the district which at that time embraced the counties of Moore, Anson, Richmond, Scotland, Cumberland, Bladen, Columbus and Brunswick, and served in that capacity for four years. President Roosevelt appointed him United States judge to succeed Judge T. R. Purnell, but this appointment was never acted on by the Senate. In 1910 he was appointed by President Taft to the position of United States district attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, a position which he filled with distinction for nearly four years. Mr. Seawell, in addition to being a finished, learned and thorough lawyer, expert alike as counsellor or trial lawyer, is a brilliant orator and of unusual charm and manner of speech. He is a republican in politics and in campaign years his services as a speaker are greatly sought.
Before her marriage Mrs. Seawell was Miss Ella MacNeill, daughter of the late Col. Alexander H. MacNeill, of Moore County, for thirty-two consecu- tive years clerk of the Superior Court of Moore County, and a member of a family whose history is closely intertwined with that of the county. They are the parents of three bright and talented children : Ella Mead, Herbert Floyd, Jr., and Henry.
MANLEFF JARRELL WRENN. The distinguishing feature of High Point as an industrial center of North Carolina is its great woodworking estab- lishment, involving in the aggregate a production of millions of dollars' worth of furniture and other woodenware annually. One of the men most prominently identified with this industry over a long period of years has been Mr. Manleff Jarrell Wrenn, whose name is also closely associated with the city's progress and welfare through his official service as mayor and in other capacities.
Mr. Wrenn was born near Liberty in Randolph County, North Carolina. The founder of the fam- ily in this state was his great-grandfather, Kilby Wrenn, who came here in colonial times and se- cured six hundred acres of land, the title to which was granted by the Crown. The Christian name Kilby has been handed down through the differ- ent generations of his descendants. James Wrenn, a native of Randolph County, and grandfather of the High Point manufacturer, succeeded to the ownership of a part of the old homestead and spent his entire life there. He was widely known as "Colonel Jimmie" Wrenn. He married Sally Hardin, sister of the wife of Edwin M. Holt, a pioneer North Carolina cotton manufacturer. They
reared six sons and several daughters, the names of the sons being William, Kilby, John, James C., Jr., Merritt C., and Frank. The three youngest sons all wore the uniforms of Confederate sol- diers, and Merritt and Frank lost their lives dur- ing the war.
Merritt C. Wrenn, father of Manleff Jarrell, was born in Randolph County, grew up on the farm, and after his marriage settled on part of the ancestry estate. With the breaking out of the war he enlisted in the Confederate army, and as his physical strength and health did not per- mit the arduous service of the field, he was detailed for duty in the dispensary of the medical depart- ment at Raleigh. He died while at the capital city and his remains were buried there. He mar- ried Nancy Elizabeth Jarrell, who was born near the present site of Guilford College, daughter of Absalom and Lydia (Cude) Jarrell. Lydia (Cude) was a daughter of Timothy Cude, a pioneer set- tler of Guilford County. Absalom Jarrell owned a farm ten miles south of Greensboro. Nancy Elizabeth Jarrell was educated in the New Gar- den Boarding School and was a teacher before her marriage.
Manleff Jarrell Wrenn was a small child when his father died, and he grew up to the age of twenty-one in the home of his uncle, Manleff Jar- rell, at High Point. He worked in his uncle's hotel and attended school, and began his inde- pendent career as clerk in a grocery store. By careful saving of his earnings he was able two years later to engage in the grocery business for himself, starting with a very small stock in trade. Patronage came to him and by degrees he en- larged his business, and finally his brother Thomas F. became associated with him. This partner- ship was continued for about ten years. In the meantime Mr. Wrenn had also become interested in the furniture business established by his brother Thomas, and out of this has grown the great industry now known as the High Point Furniture Company, of which Mr. Wrenn is sole proprietor. The High Point Furniture Company is the oldest furniture industry in the State of North Caro- lina. He is also interested in the Wrenn-Columbia Furniture Company, and is sole owner of the Union Brokerage Company, taking the output of a number of manufacturers, and is identified with various other enterprises.
Mr. Wrenn has long been a figure in local dem- ocratic politics. He served as a member of the Board of Aldermen seven years and his term as mayor was for four years, a period in which much of the substantial municipal progress of High Point was effected. Mr. Wrenn has been delegate to various county, district and state conventions of his party. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
On June 11, 1918, Mr. Wrenn was married to Miss Louise Clinard, a daughter of the late Hiram F. Clinard, a veteran of the Civil war, and Desde- mona Charles Clinard, also a niece of the Capt. Harper Charles, who was a graduate in law and president of an old Virginia college, but resigned and helped to organize the Guilford Grays, fighting bravely until he fell on the last evening of the seven days' fight at Richmond. The last utter- ance of Captain Charles was, "Follow me, boys, and I will follow the enemy."
Mrs. Wrenn is a graduate of the State Normal College, and a woman of extraordinary business ability, having been Mr. Wrenn's private secre- tary for a number of years.
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
GEN. BRYAN GRIMES was born November 2, 1828, in Pitt County, North Carolina, youngest child of Bryan and Nancy Grimes. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1848 and soon after graduating his father gave him a valuable plantation in Pitt County, whereon he resided until the time of his death with the exception of his four years of service in the Confederate Army. April 9, 1851, he married Elizabeth Hilliard, daughter of Dr. Thomas Davis of Franklin County. She died in 1857. September 5, 1863, he married Miss Charlotte Emily Bryan, daughter of Hon. John H. Bryan of Raleigh.
General Grimes took part in the secession con- vention of May, 1861, but soon resigned to ac- cept field duty in the army. His first service was as major of the Fourth Regiment of State Troops, and on May 1, 1862, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the regiment. After con- spicuous bravery and leadership in the battle of Seven Pines he was promoted June 19, 1862, to colonel of the regiment and with it took part in the first Maryland campaign, was in the thick of the battle of Chancellorsville, and led the ad- vance into the Town of Gettysburg, and subse- quently assisted most efficiently in protecting the rear guard after that battle.
It was conspicuous action on May 19, 1864, during the battle of the Wilderness, by personally leading his brigade in a gallant charge he was accredited by General Lee himself with having saved the army, and was promoted to brigadier- general. He led his brigade in the early move- ments of the great campaign through the valley of Virginia and after the battle of October 19th, where General Ramseur was mortally wounded, General Grimes was put in command of the divi- sion and the following February was commissioned as major-general. He was one of the division commanders in many of the terrific struggles which marked the beginning of the end, and without recounting in detail this record which can be found in many published works, there re- mains one event in his military career that de- serves to be especially remembered by North Carolina people.
It was General Grimes who planned and led the last charge made by the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. He was called into a council headed by General Lee. After much dis- cussion and indecision as to what should be done, General Grimes finally became impatient and declared that it was someone's duty to make an attack and . that he personally would under- take it. Receiving consent, he at once made all the necessary arrangements, placed the troops in proper position, and gave the signal to advance, which was done in gallant style. General Grimes then sent a message to his superior, General Gor- don, announcing his success and that the road to Lynchburg was open for the escape of the wagons. To his great surprise he received orders to re- tire, but declined to do so. The orders were re- peated, and General Grimes continued to disre- gard them, thinking that General Gordon was in ignorance of his position. Finally came an order from General Lee himself, and he reluctantly withdrew his troops from the advanced position they had gained. As the withdrawal began in an orderly manner, the Federal forces made a sudden rush until they were met by a withering volley from one of the Confederate brigades, and that volley, which allowed the troops to retire without further molestation, was the last volley fired at
Appomatox and the last one by the old Army of Northern Virginia.
Upou reporting to his superior officer General Grimes was informed that General Lee was nego- tiating a surrender. He was so astounded and chagrined that he immediately turned his horse and started toward his command with the inten- tion of informing his men that if they desired they might escape with him. General Gordou quickly .overtook him and calmly reasoned with him that such action would be a reflection upon General Lee and a disgrace upon an officer of such high rank as General Grimes. The appeal had an immediate effect, but probably no com- manding officer of the old army chafed more un- der the restraint imposed by these negotiations than General Grimes.
After the war he led the quiet life of a coun- try gentleman on his farm and plantation, and dispensed hospitality with a lavish hand, especially doing what he could to relieve the wants of the needy and repair the wounds made to his beloved state and its people. August 14, 1880, while re- turning home from the Town of Washington in his home county, General Grimes was shot from `he roadside by a concealed assassin and almost instantly killed.
CHARLES DEWEY is one of the most capable citizens and business men of Goldsboro. His has not been an easy life. When a boy he accepted responsibilities, and these responsibilities have in- creased until he is now a directing factor in half a dozen large business institutions and also in other institutions closely connected with the pub- lic welfare.
He was born in Goldsboro December 10, 1851, a son of Dr. Charles Francis and Harriet Maria (Borden) Dewey. His father, who was a physi- cian, came originally of a Connecticut family.
Charles Dewey was educated in private schools in Goldsboro and Raleigh, attending Mrs. Whit- taker and the Ray schools and Doctor Lacy's pri- . vate school, but most of his literary acquire- ments he gained by self study and his own efforts. When a boy thirteen or fourteen years old he sold tobacco to Union soldiers when Sherman's army passed through. He made 20 cents on every dollar's worth which he sold, and his aunt allowed him to keep this earning. For eight years he was clerk in a hardware store and learned the busi- ness which in its kindred lines he has followed more or less ever since.
On December 16, 1874, Mr. Dewey married Mary Alice Steele, of Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 1875 he entered business for himself in partner- ship with W. F. Kornegay, selling hardware and agricultural implements. In 1880 another depart- meut was added for the sale of engines and boil- . ers, and about that time Mr. Dewey was burned out, and he has since been giving his chief at- tention to the machinery business. In 1885 his partner sold out and he then reorganized as Dewey Brothers. In 1904 this firm was incorporated under that name, with Mr. Charles Dewey as pres- ident, and he is now president of Dewey Broth- ers, Incorporated.
He is president of the Wayne Agricultural Works, of the Goldsboro Garage and Transport Company, is vice president of the Whiteville Lum- ber Company, vice president of the Goldsboro Ice Company, and a director in the Goldsboro Furni- ture Company, the Enterprise Lumber Company, the Wayne National Bank, the Borden Cotton
.
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Mills, the A. T. Griffin Manufacturing Company, and the Empire Manufacturing Company.
His civic spirit can be best understood by ref- erence to some of the organizations in which he has an official part. He is a director of the Wayne County Fair Association, is chairman of the Wayne County Highway Commission, is resident trustee of the Odd Fellows Orphans Home at Goldsboro, to which he has given liberally both of his means and his time, is a member of the board of trustees of the Knights of Pythias Orphanage, and is a trustee of the Caswell Train- ing School, a state institution at Kinston. Mr. Dewey is a steward of St. Paul's Methodist Epis- copal Church.
His first wife died in 1893. There are four living children: George Steele, Thomas Augustus, Ernest Miller and Harriet Maria. One daughter, Hannah, died at the age of twenty-four, as Mrs. J. Langhorne Barham, wife of the well known at- torney of Goldsboro. There were other children who died in infancy. On February 16, 1898, Mr. Dewey married Annie Lawrence Snow, of Ra- leigh, daughter of Theophilus and Mary Elizabeth (Murdock) Snow, the former a farmer, merchant and lumberman.
George Steele Dewey, son of Charles Dewey, was born at Goldsboro, August 19, 1881. He was edu- cated in the public schools, Guilford College (N. C.), Virginia Military Institute, where he graduated in 1903, and then spent two years at Cornell, graduating as mechanical engineer in 1906. Since that date he has filled the position of general manager of Dewey Brothers, Incorpo- rated, machine shops and foundry. Since 1915 he has also been president of the Goldsboro Street Railway system.
Thomas Augustus Dewey, a son of Mr. Charles Dewey by his first wife, was born at Goldsboro June 6, 1883, was educated in the public schools, the University of North Carolina, the Virginia Military Institute, where he graduated in 1903, and spent two years as a technical student in Cor- nell University, where he finished his course in 1906. As an electrical engineer he practiced one year in Erie, Pennsylvania, and in December, 1907, became identified with Dewey Brothers, Incorpo- rated, and since the following year has been sec- retary and treasurer of the company. He is also a director of the Utility Manufacturing Company. Socially he has membership in the Algonquin Club, of which he is a member of the board of governors, and belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Or- der of Elks and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
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