USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 21
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Reared to habits of industry and thrift, Wiley S. Reich attended the district school during his boyhood days, and while assisting in the labors of the farm obtained a practical knowledge of agriculture. He also became an expert brick maker, and when, at the age of sixteen years, his father gave him his time he began the manu- facture of bricks on his own account, and in his operations met with gratifying success. Going, in 1892, to Pilot Mountain, then but a hamlet, Mr. Reich was there engaged in business as a building contractor for eight years. Coming to Elkin in 1900, he formed a partnership with Henry Whittaker, and under the firm name of Whittaker & Reich embarked in the furniture business. At the end of a year he purchased his partner's interest in the firm and continued the business alone until 1906, when it was incor- porated under its present name of the Reich Walsh Furniture Company, of which Mr. Reich is president and general manager, while his son Paul, who has the distinction of being the youngest graduate of Renouard's School of Em- balming, New York City, is the secretary and treasurer.
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Mr. Reich married, September 30, 1893, Mary Etta Whittaker, who was born in Surry County, a daughter of Henry G. and Sarah Adaline (Marion) Whittaker. Mr. and Mrs. Reich have eight children living, namely: Gladys, Paul C., Nell, Mabel, Hazel Imogene, Ralph Sylvester, Mary Margaret, John Whittaker and Clyde Graham. Their oldest child, Clyde Arvel, died at the age of nineteen years. Mr. and Mrs. Reich are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which he has served as steward and in which he is now serving as a teacher in the Sunday school. Fraternally Mr. Reich is a member of Elkin Lodge No. 454, Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons, which he repre- sented in the North Carolina Grand Lodge in 1916 and 1917; and of Elkin Council, Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
FRANK NASH, a lawyer who has carried un- usually heavy burdens of practice during the past forty years, has enjoyed many of the most dis- tinctive honors paid a member of his profession and also in the public life of his home county and state. At the present time Mr. Nash is a candi- date for member of the State Senate.
He was born in Robeson County, North Caro- lina, January 29, 1855, a son of Frederick K. and Anna M. (McLean) Nash. His father was a native of Hillsboro and for many years an active Presbyterian minister. Senator Frank Nash was educated in the well known private schools of Misses Nash & Kollock, also the R. H. Graves School. As the son of a minister his early life was not one of luxury and he found it necessary to labor for his own support. He worked in a tobacco factory, and later a wholesale grocery, at which time he took up the study of law at night, and by industry was admitted to the bar in June, 1877. From that year until 1885 he practiced law at Tarboro. He was elected mayor of that city, and from 1881 to 1885 served as judge of the Criminal Court.
His rigorous application to work brought about a failure of health, and for nearly ten years he was practically retired from regular practice. In the early '90s he came to Hillsboro and in that city has done his best work. He has served as Referee in Bankruptcy, was mayor of Hillsboro from 1907 to 1911, and served as county attorney from 1910 to 1915 and in 1915 was again elected but resigned that office when he entered the State Senate. As senator he was a representative of the Eighteenth District including Durham, Orange, Alamance and Caswell counties.
Senator Nash is a charter member of the North Carolina Bar Association, and was a second vice president in the organization during 1914-15. He is also a member of the American Bar Asso- ciation, of the State Literary and Historical Association, which he served as second vice presi- dent in 1913-14, and in 1917 was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the State Bar Association. For many years Mr. Nash has given time to literary and historical research and has contributed much of value to the historical litera- ture of the state. He is author of "Colonial and Revolutionary History of Hillsboro and also of Orange County,"' has written much on the Recon- struction period, and has also prepared many biographical sketches of men of note in the state. Senator Nash is a deacon of the Presbyterian church.
November 26, 1879, he married Jessie Powell
Baker of Tarboro. Mrs. Nash died July 9, 1896, leaving two daughters. The older, Susan, is a teacher in the State Normal School. Catherine married Claud R. McIver, a prosperous farmer of Greensboro, North Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. McIver have four children, Claud R. Jr., Staton, Catherine and Charles D.
ERNEST DEANS, who was born at Wilson, North Carolina, August 8, 1869, has spent his active career in that city with a growing diversity of interests and responsibilities. For a quarter of a century he has been in the insurance and real estate business and since 1896 has been secre- tary and treasurer of the Wilson Home Loan Association, and is also manager of the Wilson Cotton Storage Warehouse and manager of the Wilson Real Estate, Loan and Trust Company.
Mr. Deans is a son of William Elbert and Margaret Franklin (Rountree) Deans. His fa- ther was for years a merchant at Wilson and at one time served as city tax collector. Ernest Deans besides the public schools at Wilson at- tended Trinity College, and his first practical business experience was as bookkeeper, an oc- cupation he followed five years before entering business for himself.
He was married September 29, 1897, to Mary Hunter Gray, of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Their three children are Mary Hunter, Aylmer Gray and Margaret Rountree. Mr. Deans is a steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church at Wilson.
WILLIAM J. HERRING. Some of the most pro- gressive and enterprising farmers of North Caro- lina will be found in Surry County, and among them is William J. Herring, whose well managed and productive estate lies near Mount Airy in the township of that name.
His birth occurred on a farm in the same township of Surry County May 27, 1866. He has an interesting lineage. His great-grandfather, Henry Herring, came from Virginia to Surry county in colonial times, and bought a tract of land bordering Stuart Creek. He contracted to pay for this land in tobacco. He lived only a few years, and the perfecting of the title to the land was left to other members of the family.
His son Hardin Herring, grandfather of Wil- liam J., was born in Surry County, had a farm rearing and made farming his lifelong occupation in Surry County. He married Betty Dudley. Her grandfather, the great-great-grandfather of Wil- liam J. Herring, was Charles Dudley, a native of England. He is said to have been a younger son of a wealthy nobleman. When a youth, seeking adventure, he ran away and accompanied a neigh- bor to America. In this country he acquired land on Ararat River in Surry County, and here he reproduced so far as possible the circumstances and environment of the typical sporting English squire. He evinced a great fondness for fast horses and kept up a free handed hospitality. His son Robert, father of Betty Dudley, was born in Surry County and after reaching manhood he took his family to Georgia, but did not find that state entirely to his heart's desire and soon re- turned, having made the round trip with wagon and team. He subsequently owned and occupied a farm on Stuart Creek.
Hardin Herring died at the age of eighty-eight and his wife at eighty-seven. Their son Henry Herring, father of William J., was born in Mount Airy Township and his active years were spent
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
on a farm on Stuart Creek. At the time of the war he was lieutenant in a company of Home Guards. His death occurred at the age of sixty- eight. He married Mildred Johnson, who was born in Wilkes County, North Carolina, a daugh- ter of William and Letitia Johnson, who removed from Wilkes County to Surry County in '1839, and bought a large tract of land on Stuart Creek. This land they operated with their slaves and they became substantial and well-to-do people of that community. Mrs. Henry Herring died at the age of eighty years. Her children were named William J .; Elizabeth; Robert, a Baptist minister; Philip, who lived in Missouri; Frank, of Surry County; Lettie, who died at the age of ten years; Elizabeth, wife of Samuel Critz; and Minnie, single.
William J. Herring had all the early advan- tages in some of the country schools of Surry county. The first school he ever attended was in a log cabin. In the absence of a window a sec- tion of a log was taken out to admit the light. There were slab benches for seats, an earth and stick chimney, and fireplace. Subsequently Mr. Herring attended school in a better equipped building at Mount Airy. The year he was twenty- one he worked a part of his father's land on the shares, and then went west to Missouri and was employed as a farm hand for three years. Re- turning to Surry County, he lived for ten years at the old homestead and looked after his aged parents. He then bought eighty acres of land, a part of which is included in his present fine farm situated two miles west of Mount Airy. Mr. Her- ring now has under his direct management and supervision 125 acres, with excellent buildings and with every facility for maximum production of crops and livestock. Mr. Herring married Cora Critz, who was born in Stuart Creek Township, a daughter of Samuel and Eveline (Simmons) Critz. Mr. and Mrs. Herring have one daughter, Mary, now a member of the class of 1918 in the Mount Airy High School. Mr. Herring is affil- iated with Granite City Lodge No. 322, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
MISS KATE STUART. For the notable service she has rendered as a pioneer educator in North Caro- lina, Kate Stuarí deserves a specific place in the annals of the state, though the esteem and affec- tion paid her name are safe and secure in the grateful memory of the many hundreds whose lives and characters she has helped form and de- velop.
Miss Stuart, who still lives at Southport, was born in the old village of Smithville, the original name of Southport. Her grandparents were of Revolutionary stock, and her maternal grandfather, John Garland was wounded in the Battle of New Orleans at the close of the War of 1812, while fighting under General Jackson, and he died of his wounds three days later. Miss Stuart is a daughter of Charles Henry and Mary Elizabeth Stuart.
She grew up in war times, and has many vivid memories of the days when North and South were gripped in a deadly struggle for supremacy. As a girl she was one of the most loyal and enthusiastic upholders of the Southern cause, and the glory and traditions of the Southland are a living reality to her.
On May 24, 1862, Miss Stuart graduated in the English course from the Glen Anna Female Semi- nary at Thomasville, North Carolina. Nearly all
the years since then she has spent as a teacher, and her work began at a time which entitles her to the distinction of being a pioneer educator of North Carolina. All over the state if not all over the South there are children and grandchildren of her old pupils and her name has a significance to them all. Her principal work in the educational field was performed as principal of the Southport Academy and as principal of the Peabody School.
Miss Stuart is the only woman member of the Chamber of Commerce of Southport, and that is a distinction as creditable to the Chamber as to herself. She is president of the Civic Club of Southport and an active member of the Methodist Church.
Of the many incidents in her life which have become familiar to the people of Cape Fear through widely published stories, one may be briefly referred to here. A number of years ago, at great personal risk to herself, she saved the life of Mary Hunter, whose father was captain of a vessel in the Clyde line. For her heroism she was presented a gold watch and chain, and the Clyde steamers which came into the port near her home always made it a rule to salute in honor of her presence.
ALEXANDER J. MACKINNON. It would be diffi- cult to say just through what one line of achieve- ment and interest Major Mackinnon has contrib- uted his greatest service to his native State of North Carolina. He is Major Mackinnon because of his long and active service in the State National Guard. His intimate friends know him as "Sandy" Mackinnon, and that title is perhaps ·more expressive of his genial personality and his ready enterprise.
He was born about four miles west of Laurin- burg, in Richmond, now Scotland County, North Carolina, in 1862, was reared and received his early education in the section of the state where he was born, and in that one community he has spent his life. He is one of the most genial and amiable gentlemen that one would meet in many a day- characteristics which, coupled with his unvarying success in the business world, make him a man of very wide influence.
He is a son of Alexander C. and Sallie (Mac- Queen) Mackinnon, both now deceased. His fa- ther was born in what is now Scotland County, formerly part of Richmond County, and belongs to a large and influential family of Scotch an- cestry whose descendants at this day are numbered among the most worthy and substantial citizens of the state. He married Mrs. Sallie Currie, whose maiden name was Sallie MacQueen. She was a granddaughter of that distinguished Scotch colonial character in North Carolina, Col. James Mac- Queen, who founded the family of MacQueens at Queensdale in what is now Robeson County during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Alex- ander C. Mackinnon and wife had the following children : Archibald, Martin, Alexander J., Angus C. and Katie Mackinnon.
Alexander J. Mackinnon was a member of the North Carolina State Guards for many years, held various offices, and finally retired with the rank of major. His present interests extend to a great variety of business, industrial and agricultural af- fairs. He is president of the Maxton, Alma & Southbound Railroad; president of the Alma Lum- her Company of Alma; president of the A. J. Mackinnon Corporation of Maxton; vice president and troasurer of the Southern Exchange Company,
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
extensive cotton buyers, with offices at Maxton, North Carolina, and New York City; vice presi- dent of the Bank of Maxton; vice president of the Town Creek Lumber Company of Town Creek, North Carolina; secretary of Carolina College of Maxton, a school for young women; and chair- man of the board of stewards of the Methodist Church of Maxton.
Major MacKinnon believes in doing good by encouraging others to make the best of their op- portunities. He has no sympathy with that be- nevolence which merely works in a circle and ere- ates the greater need for continued charity. He is first of all a business man and his method of doing good to others strictly conforms to the most exacting demands of business standards.
The interest in which he takes the greatest pride and contains the most potential good for his com- munity and state is his farm about five miles south of his home city of Maxton. While he would not call it a model farm, it really is an important center of experimental agriculture and is serving as a splendid instrument of agricultural advance- ment. He bought the land a few years ago as a timber investment. Aside from the timber there was hardly an acre that was worth anything from an agricultural standpoint. At the present time he has 200 acres cleared and in cultivation. On this farm Major Mackinnon is endeavoring to show the practical value of diversified farming, and the means and methods to accomplish that object. His purpose is not to lead away from the old stand ard crop of cotton, for he himself still pins his faith to the cotton crop. It is rather to demon- strate how by the rotation of crops and the pro- duction of various legumes, together with the rais- . ing of good breeds of livestock, the land can be made more productive with a less expense for arti- ficial fertilizer. He is thus endeavoring to open a way out for the successful production of the staple money crop cotton, at a less expense to the farmer and with an incidental result of larger profit. While Major Mackinnon reads and gathers information from agricultural journals and from bulletins, yet he is as far as possible from the theoretical or book farmer. His idea is the very practical one of simply making good money out of the farm and showing other farmers how to do likewise. The distinguishing part of his plan is that its successful operation requires brain, study, unceasing attention to detail, and hard work. So far his success has been nothing less than remarkable, and it has acted as an in- spiration to others and undoubtedly the fruits of his experiment will continue to benefit that locality for years to come. As a stock man Major MacKin- non is raising pure bred hogs of the Duroc-Jersey type and some pure bred cattle and is constantly grading up his stock. Several acres of his land are devoted to pasture, being sodded in Bermuda grass, and recently he has been endeavoring to set it with burr clover, and has also experimented with Abruzzi rye for forage. He has succeeded in getting such a rotation of crops and of the va- rious legumes that his hogs and cattle have good grazing practically during the entire year. His farm is an experiment ground for various kinds of forage and feed crops, and some notable re- sults have already been attained. The Mackinnon farm also produces canteloupes, watermelons, and various other fruits and vegetables. The primary object throughout is to give the land plenty of humus, and that by such a system of rotation as will make it productive with the least outlay for
fertilizer. Under ordinary conditions, without such a system, the bills for guano or other fertilizing agents 'to supply the natural lack of humus makes profitable farming on such land practically out of the question.
At his home in Maxton Major Mackinnon is at the head of a very happy family. He married Miss Jennie MacKinney, daughter of the late Cap- tain MacKinney, who was a highly respected citi- zen of Robeson County and died at Maxton several years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Mackinnon have four children, Sallie Lou, Henry A., Katie Lee and Arthur J. Mackinnon. Sallie Lou is a Hu Choow, China, missionary. The son, Henry, practiced law two years and has volunteered in the United States army. He is a second lieutenant and now in France.
GEORGE WASHINGTON STANTON, who has be- come well known at Wilson in banking and in- surance circles, was born in Wilson County and his birthplace was near the Town of Stantons- burg, with which section his family have been identified for many years.
Mr. Stanton was born October 19, 1878, and is a son of George Washington and Georgia (Wil- kinson) Stanton. His father was a well known farmer and represented his home county in the State Legislature in 1876.
George W. Stanton, Jr., grew up on his fa- ther's farm, attended the Wilson High School and in 1895 was a student in Professor Yerkes Military Institute. In 1896, at the age of eigh- teen, he entered the employ of the Branch Bank- ing Company at Wilson in the capacity of a "runner." He remained with that institution with increasing efficiency and with increasing re- sponsibilities until August, 1909, and when he resigned he was cashier. Since leaving the bank Mr. Stanton has been a successful insurance man at Wilson, and is now general agent of the Jef- ferson Standard Life Insurance Company of Greensboro, North Carolina.
He is a member of the Rotary Club, Country Club and Commonwealth Club of Wilson, is past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias Lodge and the Dramatic Order Knights of Korassan and is active in St. Timothy Episcopal Church, serving as superintendent of its Sunday school.
On November 12, 1902, Mr. Stanton married Effie L. Baker, of Emporia, Virginia. They have one daughter, Lucie Claiborn Stanton, now at- tending the public schools of Wilson.
HON. SHADRACH C. FRANKLIN has made his years and his efforts count chiefly as a farmer and stock raiser in Surray County, near Mount Airy. He has also served in the Legislature, and has filled various other places of trust and responsibility. Mr. Frank- lin is a member of an old and noted family of Western North Carolina. It is the same family which produced Governor Jesse Franklin, one of the early governors of this state and also a United States senator.
Mr. Franklin was born on a farm in the locality known as Haystack in Surry County July 23, 1845. He was not yet sixteen when the war broke out, and at the age of eighteen he entered the Confederate army as a member of Company E of the 45th Regiment, Virginia Troops. He was with that regiment in many of its battles and campaigns until in June, 1864, he was captured and as a prisoner of war was confined at In-
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dianapolis. When the war was over he was released on parole.
The founder of the family in North Carolina was his great-grandfather, Bernard Franklin, who was born in Virginia of early English an- cestry. Prior to the Revolutionary war he came to North Carolina and settled on Mitchell's River in Surry County. He was a pioneer there and helped redeem a portion of the wilderness. It was his son Jesse, afterwards governor and United States senator, who had first come to this region and while visiting his uncle, General Ben- jamin Cleveland, had selected the site where Ber- nard Franklin settled. The latter improved his farm and continued to live in that locality until his death. He married Mary Cleveland, a sister of the Revolutionary hero, Colonel Ben Cleveland. They reared five children: Jesse, Shadrach,
Meshach, Abednego and
Mary. Grandfather Shadrach Franklin was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, but grew upon a farm in Surry County. He finally succeeded to the ownership of part of the old homestead and had his slaves to cultivate the fields. Late in life he went to live in the home of his son Wiley T., and died there at the age of ninety-two. Shadrach Franklin mar- ried Judith Taliaferro, who was born in Albe- marle County, Virginia. Her father, Dr. John Taliaferro, a native of the same county, came to North Carolina in colonial times and was one of the very early settlers in what is now Stuart Creek Township, Surry County. In the Revolu- tionary war he acted as a surgeon and looked after the wounded following the battle of Gilbert Courthouse. The farm which he improved is still owned by his descendants. Grandmother Franklin died at the age of eighty-two. Their children were seven in number, Bernard, Taliaferro, Wiley T., Polly, Lucy, Martha and Bettie.
Wiley T. Franklin was born on a farm that bordered Mitchell's River in Surry County, in December, 1801. On that farm he spent his early days and after reaching manhood he bought an- other place on Mitchell's River but subsequently sold that and bought land on Fisher's River. He owned slaves and enjoyed the easy circumstances of the substantial planter. He occupied his old homestead until his death at the age of ninety years. The maiden name of his wife was Mary Taliaferro, a daughter of Charles Taliaferro and a granddaughter of the Dr. John Taliaferro, above named. She died at the age of ninety years and two months. She was the mother of seven children: Virginia, Martha, Bettie, Judith, Matilda, Lucinda and Shadrach C.
The only son in this family, Shadrach C. Frank- lin, had a farm training and acquired his educa- tion in the local schools before the war. When the war was over he went to Tennessee, but soon returned to Surry County and bought the farm he now occupies two miles west of Mount Airy. He has used a great deal of care and invested a large amount of capital in developing this place according to his ideals of an efficient farm. It consists of 200 acres and has ample buildings and other facilities for the handling of his live- stock and his crops. His favorite cattle are the Shorthorns and he also raises Red Duroc swine.
Mr. Franklin has been twice married. His first wife was Martha Whitlock, who was born in Stuart Creek Township of Surry County, a daugh- ter of Charles and Celia (Roberts) Whitlock. Mrs. Franklin died four years after her mar- riage. Her two sons are James W. and Charles W., the former of whom married Alice McGee.
For his second wife Mr. Franklin married Bettie Kapp, who was born on a farm bordering Mit- chell's River in Surry County, a daughter of Adolphus and Mary (Thompson) Knapp. By the second union there are also two sons: Lee Fries and Bernard F.
Politically Mr. Franklin has always been a sturdy and stanch democrat. His election to the Legislature occurred in 1887, and besides the service he thus rendered his community he was for five years a member of the County School Board and two years county commissioner. He is affiliated with Surry Camp No. 797 of the United Confederate Veterans, and has been com- mander of that camp most of the time since it was organized.
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