USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 106
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Mr. Whitlock is a member of the Trinity Meth- odist Church. He married Miss Maude Crosland, of Richmond County, daughter of William E. Crosland. Their four children are: Virginia Le- Grande, Paul Cameron, Jr., Caroline Elizabeth and Neil.
RICHARD FENNER YARBOROUGH, M. D. A physi- cian of wide and successful experience who has practiced at Louisburg nearly twenty years, Dr. Richard Fenner Yarborough had the best of early training and natural qualifications preliminary to his work in the profession.
Born in Louisburg March 21, 1872, son of Col. William Henry and Lula (Davis) Yarborough, his father formerly a merchant and at one time col- lector of internal revenue for the United States Government, Doctor Yarborough's early education was supervised in private schools, followed by a course in the Raleigh Male Academy, the Uni- versity of North Carolina, and from there he went
to Washington, District of Columbia, and was a student in the medical department of Columbian University, now the George Washington. He grad- uated M. D. in 1898 and during 1899 did post- graduate work. In the same year he came to Louisburg and has since been busied with a large general practice. He is president of the Franklin County Medical Society, a former member of the Central State Hospital Board, active in the State Medical Society, and is a former superintendent of the County Board of Health.
November 29, 1916, Doctor Yarborough mar- ried Miss Martha Harriett Ballard, of Franklinton, daughter of Benjamin W. Ballard, a well known merchant and cotton factor of Franklinton.
JOHN OSCAR REDDING has for a number of years been identified with the industrial interests of Ashboro, especially the manufacturing of furniture. He is a man of splendid ability, and he has earned and well deserves the esteem he enjoys in that community.
Mr. Redding was born at Hoover Hill Gold Mines, in Randolph County. His great-grand- father, John Redding, is known to have spent his life in Randolph County. The grandfather, John Redding, was born three miles west of Ashboro in old Redding settlement, and he, too, was a farmer and lifelong resident of the county. He married Diza Steed, who was born three miles west of Ashboro, daughter of Charles Steed .. Both the Reddings and Steed families were among the pion- eers of what is now Randolph County.
John Stanley Redding, father of John O., was born on a farm seven miles southwest of Ashboro in 1840, grew up there, and when the war broke out entered the service of the Confederacy, being detailed for special work at the salt works near Wilmington. He was there until after the war, and then bought the farm upon which his son, John O., was born. He still directs the opera- tions of his fields, and is now a resident of Trinity Township, hale and hearty in his seventy-eighth year. He married Eugenia Andrew, who was reared at Wytherville, Virginia, daughter of Na- than and Anna (Stanton) Andrew. She is also still living, now in her seventy-sixth year. They had a family of five children : Thomas H., John Oscar, . Charles W., Ocia and Virginia. Ocia is the wife of Robert L. M. Blair.
The early environment of John Oscar Redding was his father's farm and Hoover Hill gold mines. He is a man of education, having supplemented his work in the public schools with a class in Guil- ford College, from which he was graduated in 1898. Besides taking up a business career, he taught for one year in Guilford College. At High Point he was employed for two years by J. Elwood Cox, and then came to Ashboro and has been a rising figure in the woodworking industries of this city. After a year in the general lumber business he organized the Ashboro Chair Company in 1903, and has directed the affairs of that enterprise with competence and success and profit as mau- ager ever since.
In 1905 Mr. Redding married Blanche Wood. Mrs. Redding is a daughter of William Penn and Henrietta (Gunter) Wood. Her father is now one of the prominent state officials, being auditor of North Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Redding have two sons, John O., Jr., and Penn Wood.
Mr. and Mrs. Redding are bothı active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he lias served on the official board of the church and is superintendent of its Sunday school. For fifteen
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years he has been secretary of the Ashboro School Board, and has always maintained a vigorous in- terest in local affairs. He is affiliated with Bal- four Lodge No. 188, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, with the Knights of Pythias and with Ashboro Council, Junior Order United American Mechanics.
WALTER B. COVINGTON. Perhaps no one factor has had more to do with the remarkable develop- ment within the past few years of many sections of the county than the good roads movement, and Richmond County, North Carolina, is indisputable proof of its operative value. Looking back but thirteen years, citizens can recall neglected high- ways in every township over which travel was dangerous and hauling practically impossible dur- ing some seasons. These are very apt to be enthusiastic over the change that has been brought about through the earnest, well directed efforts of Walter B. Covington, an expert in road making, who filled office of county superintendent of roads for seven years, and who is also one of the large planters and stockraisers of Richmond County. He resigned his office. on the 1st of August, 1918.
Walter B. Covington was born in 1869, within three miles of Rockingham, Richmond County, North Carolina. His parents were J. E. and Amanda (McKinzey) Covington, and his grand- parents were W. K. Covington and B. B. McKinzie. The Covington family is one of the oldest and most prolific in this section of the state and is of English origin. Its arrival here from near the Great Peedee River Valley, South Carolina, was about the time of the Revolutionary War, and its members settled within three miles of Rocking- ham, up and down the creek, upon sites now occupied by cotton mills. The family has always been largely agricultural.
Walter B. Covington was reared ou the home farm and has devoted his life in large part to agricultural industries. His fine plantation, com- prising 500 acres, lies five miles north of Rock- ingham, on the Ellerbe road. In addition to ex- tensive farming he has given much attention to the breeding of fine stock, horses, Jersey cows and Duroc-Jersey and Essex hogs. At present he is interested in experimenting in the hope of develop- ing from the Percheron and a cross with common work horse a new mixed breed which will possess the strong bone and sinew but will be smaller in size and less clumsy than the full-blooded Per- cheron and has reason to hope that his experiments will be successful.
As stated above, Mr. Covington was county superintendent of roads of Richmond County, which section he has made famous over the state for its beautiful and durable sand-clay roads. At the instance of the late Capt. W. I. Everett, of Rockingham, Mr. Covington, in 1905 made a beginning on the present Ellerbe road extending between Rockingham and Ellerbe. Under Captain Everett he learned the principles of modern road making, and ever since that time has been con- tinuously engaged in the work. Following the completion of the road mentioned above, Mr. Cov- ington under Captain Everett, built the first road in Mark's Creek Township. He was then employed to make good roads in Stewartsville Township, in the adjoining County of Scotland, upon which he was engaged for seven months, working in asso- ciation with the government civil engineer. Then Richmond County really awakened to the value of his work, offered him a fair salary and urged him to become county superintendent of their road
system. When Mr. Covington took charge of this work the county had four mules and one road machine and work had been done on 225 miles of road. The present equipment includes two good chain gang outfits, eighteen head of mules, a traction engine outfit, and in six years he has built 500 miles of road, including the widening of many sections to the standard width of twenty feet. Under his management the road building was carried on with a view of benefiting the most people and preparing for further development in the future. Every town in the county, even the smallest, in any direction from Rockingham, the county seat, is on a good road. This has brought about increased travel, increased sociability and consequent prosperity.
Mr. Covington was married to Miss Ida P. Em- merson, who was born in Montgomery County, North Carolina, and they have the following children : Alma, Mrs. Hutchison; and Ethel, Chloe, Pratt, Catherine, George, Robert, Walter K., Josephine and Alice. The family belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Covington is interested, as becomes a good citizen, in public affairs and shirks no responsibility. He belongs to two well known fraternal organizations, the Royal Arcanum and the Woodmen of the World.
WILLIAM HOPTON SMITH, M. D. The work of Doctor Smith as a physician and surgeon has largely been done in his native City of Goldsboro. He has been in active practice nearly ten years, and has become recognized as a man of excep- tional attainment, with the skill of the thorough. surgeon, and with that broad wisdom and human understanding which gives a true physician his. best power and ability to serve.
A member of an old and prominent family of Goldsboro, Doctor Smith was born in that city May 29, 1882, a son of Wiley Hopton and Mary Elizabeth (McArthur) Smith. . His father was. a well known manufacturer and merchant. Doc- tor Smith was educated in the Goldsboro grammar and high schools, took his literary courses in the University of North Carolina, and then entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in 1906. For three years he practiced at Bailey, North Carolina, and then after 11% years of further preparation in the Polyclinic Hospital at Phil- adelphia he returned to Goldsboro and has since given his best energies to his large and growing general practice. He is a member of the Wayne County, the Fourth District and the North Caro- lina Medical societies and the American Medical Association. In 1916 he became county physician of Wayne County, his term expiring in 1919.
Doctor Smith is a member of the Masonic Or- der, the Woodmen of the World and the Junior- Order of United American Mechanics, and be- longs to the Algonquin Club of Goldsboro. He was married January 5, 1903, to Miss Mary Eliza- beth Pool, daughter of David and Lydia (Mc- Comas) Pool, both of whom are natives of Ohio. They have one child, Mary Elizabeth.
WILLIAM C. MUDGETT, M. D. As one of the most . noted winter resorts of North Carolina Southern Pines in Moore County has a wealth of advantages such as would not ordinarily be expected of a town of its size. Not least among these is the presence of one of the very able surgeons of the state, who is also chief of staff of a recently established hospital which has brought no little fame to the . town and the district surrounding it.
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Doctor Mudgett came to North Carolina from the atmosphere of the best schools and from a train- ing and experience that already had made him recognized as one of the capable surgeons of New England. He is of New England birth and an- cestry and was born at Hopkinton, New Hampshire, in 1880. His parents, William E. and Salome (Chase) Mudgett, were also natives of New Hamp- shire and of old families of that state. The mother was descended from Thomas Chase of Williamsport, Massachusetts, one of the three brothers who founded the noted Chase family in America, a name that is intimately interwoven with the history of New England and the nation.
Doctor Mudgett was reared at Hopkinton, edu- cated in the public schools and also attended the New Hampton School, one of the best preparatory schools of the New England states. He finished his literary education in Dartmouth College and took his medical courses in Baltimore Medical College and. graduated with the class of 1903. Following that he had the special advantages of hospital work at Springfield, Massachusetts. While there his time and services were largely employed in operative surgery.
With this equipment Doctor Mudgett came to Southern Pines, North Carolina, in the fall of 1907. He has since been busily and successfully engaged in the practice of his profession. He is primarily a surgeon, though his work calls him into a gen- eral and varied practice. Himself a man of varied attainments, he keeps in close touch with every- thing connected with his professional life and is a helpful leader in the public health movement, sanitation and the general public welfare.
From the public standpoint perhaps the most in- teresting phase of his work is as surgeon and head of the staff of the James McConnell Memorial Hospital at Eureka in Moore County. This hos- pital was opened in May, 1917, and Doctor Mud- gett was given the distinction of performing the first operation. Though not a large one, the hos- pital is almost ideal in its location and in its entirely modern equipment and facilities for sur- gical and medical cases. It was built under the auspices of the Sand Hills Board of Trade, pri- marily for carrying out the recommendations of the State Board of Health relating especially to the Sand Hills region, which embraces all of Moore County and sections of adjoining counties. The State Board of Health had made a thorough sur- vey of the children of this district, their congenital and acquired ailments, and their reconimendations for the hospital were based upon this survey. As an instance of the good results already accom- plished by the hospital, there were treated suc- cessfully up to October 1, 1917, about 35 per cent of a total of 317 cases of enlarged tonsils and adenoids reported by the board.
The hospital is constructed with a central ad- ministration building, with an extension or wing on each side, after plans approved by the best hos- pital practices. The operating room, under the skylight from the top floor, is 20 by 20 feet. The equipment and instruments in themselves repre- sent a large investment. Other features of the hospital are an exercising room, a recovery room, a laboratory, a diet kitchen, work kitchen, surgeons and nurses lavatories, lavatories, resident physi- cian's office and nurses' bed rooms, four private rooms for patients, two with private' baths, while two large bath rooms furnish facilities for the wards. The male and female wards are separate.
The hospital has proved so popular that already extensions to its capacity are planned, including an X-ray room. Every Friday a general clinic is held, at which the physicians of the staff give their services free. There is a regular staff of four graduate nurses.
Besides the individual cases probably the best work accomplished by the hospital is in diagnosis. Patients are given the most thorough and skillful examination and diagnosis, equal to that available in the largest hospitals, and this work affords a basis and a scientific standard which is bound to result in great improvement in general medical practice and methods throughout the entire dis- trict.
Doctor Mudgett is a member of the County and State Medical societies, the Southern Medical Asso- ciation, the American Medical Association and the Clinical Congress of Surgeons. He is an unusually active man in his profession and during his resi- dence has contributed not a little to the local service and facilities by which Southern Pines is judged as a home resort by its large number of winter residents.
Doctor Mudgett married Miss Edith Heizmann. Her father, A. A. Heizmann, is a resident of Reading, Pennsylvania, and with his family spent several winters at Southern Pines. Doctor and Mrs. Mudgett have two children, Lucile Heizmann and William Chase.
WILLIAM GATEWOOD SHIPMAN has the unique distinction of having built up and developed the only organ manufactory in the South. This great industry, turning out thousands of high class organs every year, instruments of wonderful tone and quality, is located at High Point in Guilford County. It is a great addition to the industrial resources of that city, which already ranks as the foremost furniture manufacturing center in the South and is one of the greatest in America.
Mr. Shipman is a Southern man, and was born at Salem, Virginia, a son of A. M. and Willie (Smith) Shipman, the father deceased but the mother is still living. Both the Shipmans and Gatewoods, the latter in the maternal ancestry, were prominent and old families of Virginia. Mr. Shipman was educated in Roanoke College and his primary purpose was to become a physician. He studied two years for that profession, when owing to failing eyesight he gave up his studies and went West. Locating in Colorado, he was for about fifteen years engaged in business in that state.
Leaving that city in 1904, he traveled over various sections of the South in search of an eligi- ble place where he might engage in the manufac- ture of organs. He studied the situation care- fully and thoroughly and in 1905 determined upon High Point. This town had already become noted for its extensive furniture manufacturing plants and possessed many other advantages which Mr. Shipman considered as contributory for an ideal location for his own industry.
The manufacture of organs is only in a slight degree allied with furniture making. Thus Mr. Shipman could not count upon drawing from the furniture-making trade for his own industry beyond a certain limited degree. He had to overcome many obstacles and handicaps. There was almost total lack of skilled labor in the South, either in the piano or organ working trades. In the old- time piano and organ concerns of the North and East positions of skilled labor are handed down
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from father to son, and those who hold them are considered a permanent part of the organization. Mr. Shipman thoroughly realized and understood the traditions of the organ-making trade. In order to succeed he felt that he must develop similar conditions in his own factory. By hard and per- sistent work he took in and trained young and ambitious men for the skilled positions, and has gradually been building up an organization which will in time rank with the big factory organiza- tions of the North. Some of the men who were with him at the start are still in the plant, and the idea of permanence has been emphasized and has been to a large degree responsible for the remarkable results. From a labor standpoint the Shipman establishment is an ideal one. There is not the slightest indication of any distinction between "capital and labor." A high and gen- erous wage scale is maintained, only men of good character are employed, and nearly all of them are home owners and good citizens. There is a spirit of good fellowship and comradeship between em- ployer and employe, though in no sense does it result in slackening of discipline or shop effi- cieney. It was a wise and wholesome policy under- taken at the first and carefully worked out in all its details that has given the Shipman concern its great power and prosperity. The men who make the Shipman organs are greatly attached to Mr. Shipman personally and have shown their regard on numerous occasions.
Mr. Shipman himself is a man of remarkable initiative, as needs no further proof than the es- tablishment of an industry unheard of in this state, and has the ability and energy to carry out plans and ideas. The industry he has established promises to be a most gratifying life work for himself and a fine heritage for his children. Any- one might justly take pride in such an industry as he has built up unaided and alone. He had to encounter the competition of the older and larger concerns of the East and North, and while his first thought and purpose was to make instruments of a high quality and reliable workmanship, he has not been less successful in building up and broadening his trade, During the first year of its existence the Shipman Organ Company turned out a very few organs as compared with older industries else- where in the United States. Among all manufac- turers in this country the Shipman Company now stands third in point of output. With a contin- uation of the present growth it is only a question of time when this will rank first. In 1917 the rate of manufacture was six thousand organs per year. In 1911 a disastrous fire almost destroyed the entire plant. It did not discourage Mr. Shipman for a minute, and he began rebuilding within a few days. The new plant has fifty thousand feet of floor space and all modern facilities, equipment and machinery.
The Shipman organs are shipped to every state in the South. Until the European war put an end to the export trade large numbers of the instru- ments were sent across the ocean. Perhaps the highest proof of Shipman quality and business efficiency is that this is the only organ factory in the country that has not lessened its output since the beginning of the war. In fact, no business in North Carolina has shown so large a growth in so short a time. The company almost doubled its capacity on two different occasions, and in 1914 its capital stock was doubled.
Mr. Shipman has a beautiful and spacious home in the Quaker Woods section of High Point. Both
he and his family take the greatest of pleasure in that home. Mrs. Shipman before her marriage was Miss Hazel Fisher, the daughter of George F. Fisher, a native of North Carolina, but who resided in Chicago for many years, where Mrs. Shipman was born. They are the parents of four children: Elizabeth, Hazel, Marian and Gatewood. The family are members of the Presbyterian Church.
JAMES BENJAMIN CUMMINGS has for over thirty years been an active factor in Kinston's commer- cial life, for fully thirty years in the general merchandise business and more recently he has had the general agency over five counties in Eastern North Carolina for the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company. He has done much to strengthen that company 's business and standing in this section of the state, and has proved a very able and aggressive business getter. As the fruit of his long and active career he has acquired much property in Kinston, and is one of that city's. most substantial men.
Mr. Cummings was born at Kinston, December 11, 1861, a son of James Benpamin and Matilda (Singletary) Cummings. His mother was of the Singletary family of Bladen County. His father was a tailor by trade. Mr. Cummings was educated in the public schools of Kinston, and in his early life he served five and a half years as clerk in a general merchandise store. The proprietor, Mr. Chauncey Gray, then gave him a half interest in the profits of the store and after four years he was able to set up in business for himself.
Mr. Cummings is a member of the Masonic Order, the Royal Arcanum, the Mystic Cirele, the Woodmen of the World and the Knights of Har- mony. His church home is with the Methodist Episcopal denomination.
At the age of twenty-four, on January 14, 1884, he married Miss Fleter Eliza Cox. She was a granddaughter of General James W. Cox, a. daughter of James Gabriel Cox of Kinston, and was also a granddaughter of General William A. Pollock, one of North Carolina's noted citizens. Mrs. Cummings died May 10, 1896, leaving four children: Charles Gehrmann, who is a salesman at Newbern, North Carolina; Irma, Mrs. R. C. Tunsdall, of Kinston; Essie B .; Olive B., Mrs. Frank Provanga, a lumber dealer at Newbern. On January 20, 1897, Mr. Cummings married Mary Bryan, of Institute, North Carolina. There are also four children by the second marriage: James Benjamin, Jr., who is now a member of Company B of the Second North Carolina Infantry; Henry Bryan; Lloyd Frizzell; and John Wilber.
REV. ARTHUR RAINE FREEMAN. As priest in charge of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church at Goldsboro, Rev. Arthur Raine Freeman occupies a position of great responsibility, his spiritual ministrations covering a parish that includes thirty families and 100 communicants. Many of these have known him from boyhood and with lo- cal pride have watched his progress from studi- ous youth to priestly ministrations.
Arthur Raine Freeman was born at Goldsboro, North Carolina, April 29, 1886. His parents are Arthur Baker and Georgia (Raine) Freeman, old residents, his father serving in the office of chief of police. After completing the public school course the youth entered Mount St. Mary's Col- lege at Emmitsburg, Maryland, from which old in- stitution he was graduated in 1907 with the de- gree of A. B. and in 1909 that of A. M.
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During 1907 and 1908 Mr. Freeman taught in Mount St. Mary's College, and during 1909 and 1910 he served as principal of the high school at Pikeville, Wayne County, North Carolina, fol- lowing which for two years he was connected in a business way with the Southern Cotton Oil Company. In 1912 he resumed his studies, enter- ing Belmont Seminary, at Belmont, North Caro- lina, where he continued until 1915, in June of which year he was ordained to the priesthood and was stationed at St. Mary's, Goldsboro. Dur- ing his pastorate both the material and spiritual progress of the parish has been marked and his Christian zeal and influence are helpful in every direction.
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