USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 28
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James Hackett, their son, was born just three days after his parents landed in Charleston. Brought up in North Carolina, he spent the earlier years of lris life near Statesville, Iredell County, and during the War of 1812 took an active part in many of its engagements. After the war he bought land in Wilkes County, not far from North Wilkesboro, and in addition to farming engaged in business as a contractor and builder. He was well patronized, erecting among other buildings of note a fine residence for General Wellborn and the Chapman Gordon home on Kensington Heights. The latter house has since been moved from its original site, and is still in good condition. Very successful in all of his operations, he bought land at various times, acquiring title to about 1,600 acres, including the family home on Mulberry Creek. The maiden name of his second wife, the grandmother of Mr. Hackett, was Fanny Isabelle Johnson. She bore him six children, Elizabeth, James W., Robert Franklin, Alexander L., Rich- ard Rush and Charles Carroll, while by his first marriage he reared three children, Oliver Perry, Joseph W. and William.
Completing his preparatory studies in the Jones- ville Academy, Charles Carroll Hackett was sub- sequently graduated from Emory and Henry Col- lege, after which he began his active career as a teacher in the private schools of the state. During the administration of President Pierce he was in the United States Government employ, serving in the bureau of equipment, construction and repairs, and during the Civil war he was a member of the Home Guards. At the close of the conflict he again entered upon a professional life, and for six years taught school, first in Jonesville and later at Swans- boro. Then resuming farming on Miller's Creek, he there continued his agricultural labors until his death, at the age of sixty-six years.
Charles Carroll Hackett married Jane Cuthbert Sturgis, who was born in Thomaston, Upson County, Georgia, a daughter of Hon. Joseph Stur- gis, for many years justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. It is said that Judge Sturgis, who was
acknowledged as one of the foremost judges of his time, learned to read after his marriage. The Judge's father was born and reared in Hungary, and was an associate of Thaddeus Sobieski, a Polish revolutionist, who for political reasons was forced to flee his country, and came to America. Mrs. Charles C. Hackett died when but sixty years old. She was the mother of four children, as fol- lows: Frank Dobbin, the special subject of this brief biographical record; Joseph J., deceased; Charles Sturgis, deceased; and Richard Arthur.
An ambitious student from his youth up, Frank D. Hackett under the instruction of his father acquired a sure foundation of broad general knowl- edge, and later studied law under Maj. H. Bing- ham of Statesville, North Carolina. In 1890 he was admitted to the bar, and during the next two years was engaged in the practice of law in States- ville, this state. In 1892 he moved to Bluefield, West Virginia, where he resided for some time. Re- turning to North Carolina in 1894, Mr. Hackett opened a law office in North Wilkesboro, where he has been in continuous practice ever since, his clientage being large and constantly increasing.
Mr. Hackett married, in 1883, Miss Mary Alice Phillips, who was born on a farm in Beaver Creek Township, Ashe County, where her father, George H. Phillips, a farmer and stock raiser, is now living, being an esteemed and highly respected citizen of four score and four years. During the Civil war Mr. Phillips served as a soldier in the Confederate Army. He married for his first wife, the mother of Mrs. Hackett, Martha Walters, who spent her entire life in Ashe County. Mr. and Mrs. Hackett have four children, namely: Martha Jennie, wlio married Hugh Armfield Craner, and has two chil- dren, Hugh A., Jr., and Robert Hackett; Charles W. married Bernice Raoulle Smith; Nena mar- ried Dempsey Wood Vinson; and Frank D., Jr., married Ethel Lee Cullens, of Hertford County.
Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Hackett are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of North Wilkesboro, of which he is a steward and for a number of years has been superintendent of the Sunday school. Politically Mr. Hackett has been actively identified with the democratic party since casting his first presidential vote in 1880 for Gen. W. S. Hancock. Prominent and influential in public affairs, he has served as mayor of North Wilkesboro, was a member of the finance com- mittee of the county in 1915 and 1916; and is now, county auditor. In 1895 Mr. Hackett was appointed special deputy collector of United States internal revenue, and from '1899 until 1901 was assistant clerk of the House of Representa- tives. In 1903-1905 and 1907 he served as chief clerk of the House, and 1902 and 1903 he was state bank examiner. Fraternally Mr. Hackett is a member of Wilkesboro Lodge No. 23, Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows, and is past grand mas- ter of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. He also belongs to Wilkes Encampment No. 9, and both he and his wife are members of the Faith Lodge, Daughters of Rebekah.
DAVID YOUNG COOPER. It not infrequently happens that the life of the individual becomes a central feature of the life of the entire com- munity. As there is a certain harmony of arrange- ment and grouping in nature's direct manifesta- tions, so also human activities seem to collect them- selves in proper order around some central indi- viduality or institution. Illustrations of this are not uncommon in these pages. The history of.
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an individual is not merely concerned with his personal activities, but grows and broadens to include many of the chief interests of a town, county or even the state.
This point of view is necessary at the outset in reading the following sketch of David Young Cooper. It is not merely a record of his life, but becomes an historical biography, reflecting much of the spirit and of the enterprise which in the past forty or fifty years have entered into and made the communities of Henderson and Vance counties what they are today. The story of his personal life and of the close interrelations with the business and civic institutions surrounding him are admirably told in the words of Thomas M. Pittman and nothing is detracted from the value of that well written sketch because it was pre- pared several years ago.
About the middle of the eighteenth century a tide of emigration from Virginia was turned toward Granville County in North Carolina. Near Grassy Creek, in the northern part of the county, some sixteen miles from the present county seat, the Baptists and Presbyterians located churches in close proximity, each called Grassy Creek. Around these were formed settlements of thrifty, intelligent, God-fearing tillers of the soil who have maintained a good report for a century and a half. Here, near the close of the century, came .James Cooper from Glasgow, Scotland, and gladly found in the near neighborhood the Venables, Hamiltons, Steeds and others, men of tartan and bag-pipe ancestry, followers of Calvin and Knox. And here his son Alexander was born and spent his days. He was the father of our subject. An elder in Little Grassy Creek Presbyterian Church, a justice of the peace, a successful farmer and slave owner, honest and just, he was respected by his neighbors and noted for doing well what- ever he undertook. The wife of Alexander Cooper was Harriet J. Young, daughter of David J. Young, who came to Granville County from Vir- ginia. This family was prominent and influential. Many of its members have won deserved recogni- tion outside of their social circles. Among such may be named William Hamilton Young, lawyer and accomplished scholar; Col. John D. Young, a gallant soldier in the Confederate army; Dr. Wesley Young, the Oxford physician; Col. I. J. Young, a prominent politician during the period following the Civil war; and James R. Young, insurance commissioner of North Carolina, and author of the "North Carolina Insurance Law."
In this community and of such stock David Young Cooper was born April 21, 1847. During his childhood he attended the country schools near his home, and when not so engaged was required with his brothers to cultivate parcels of land allotted to them, that they might learn industry and respect for labor. On Sundays he was required to attend church .. These early habits of industry and church attendance have continued and greatly contributed to his usefulness and success. From 1858 to 1863 he attended Horner School at Oxford, North Carolina, after which he served a year in the Confederate army.
In 1867, when twenty years of age, Mr. Cooper began farming on his own account at his old home; and five years later moved to Henderson and entered upon that course of commercial enter- prise which has brought him both wealth and reputation, and where during the past twenty years he has influenced the life of the community in a measure not attained by any other. In
cooperation with his uncle, the late J. Crawford Cooper of Oxford, he inaugurated the tobacco warehouse business, since known as Cooper's ware- house. He understood men, and possessed in un- usual measure the elements of success. A cordial and hearty friendliness, untiring energy, industry that kept him early and late about his business, close attention to details, large comprehension, sound judgment, an indomitable will and a liberal and enterprising spirit characterized his life and brought him phenomenal success. He takes a natural pride in the fact that, although he began business with small means, he has kept his affairs so well in hand that he has never given a note.
Cooper's Warehouse has been twice driven into larger quarters. Mr. Cooper built the present large brick warehouse, well equipped for every demand of the trade, in 1886. At that time he bought out the interests of his uncle in the busi- ness, and continued it in his own name until 1902.
From 1875 to 1895. Mr. Cooper was probably the largest seller of fine tobacco in the world.
By his marriage on February 24, 1876, with Leah Hilliard Perry, daughter of Dr. Sidney Perry of Franklin County, Mr. Cooper added to his connection a group of the most prominent families in Franklin, Nash and Warren counties, embracing such well known names as Alston, Boddie, Carr, Crudup, Hilliard and Williams. The Perrys were most likely settled in old Gran- ville before the creation of Bute County. It is certain that they were well known in Bute dur- ing the Revolutionary period, and were long distinguished for wealth, refinement, culture and an elegant but simple old-time hospitality. Mrs. Cooper brought to her new relation the traditional characteristics of her family, and, we may add, of her county, and quickly created one of the most delightful homes in Henderson. Her death in 1897 bereaved the whole community, and the blessings of the poor followed her to the grave. Four sons and a daughter survive this marriage.
Soon after entering business in Henderson Mr. Cooper recognized the need of a new county, of which Henderson should be the capital, and he entered heartily into plans to secure its creation. After several failures an act was finally obtained from the General Assembly establishing Vance County from portions of the old counties Frank- lin, Granville and Warren, subject to the approval of the qualified voters of the new county. The campaign which ensued was one of great warmth, even bitterness. The traditions of these old counties were treasured as a part of the life history of many old families, which they were loath to lose. Their attachments and associations centered around Louisburg, Oxford and Warren- ton, and they fought
to preserve them. The younger men of vigor and industry, who saw better opportunities for youth and enterprise iu a new county, warmly supported the movement. It was before the day of the constitutional amendment, and the leaning of the colored vote, then in the majority, added to the complications of the situa- tion. Among the leaders of the movement were Mr. Cooper, Col. I. J. Young, Dr. W. T. Cheatham, Harrison Lassiter, Col. Harvie Harris and James R. Young. The vote resulted in favor of the new county, and Henderson entered upon a course of great prosperity.
With the rapid increase of his owu business and wealth, Mr. Cooper developed fine capacity for large enterprises, which during the past few years has led to many demands for his services,
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the most important of which have been in con- nection with financial and industrial enterprises at his own home.
The Henderson Storage Warehouse was the first of these enterprises. Its significance was not at first apparent to casual observers. Indeed, members of the company scarcely realized its full import. For years it had been customary to store tobacco in Richmond and Petersburg, obtain ad- vances on warehouse certificates in those cities, and sell upon the samples certified by their warehouse inspectors. The storage company largely trans- ferred this business to Henderson. It erected a large warehouse for storage, and appointed Wyndham E, Gary, a well known tobacco expert, as inspector. His certificates and samples were accepted without question for advances and sales at home and elsewhere. A double purpose was ยท accomplished, a new and profitable line of busi- ness was inaugurated, and the financial interests of the community were coordinated for the first time, opening the way for co-operation in larger undertakings. The Citizens' Bank followed in January, 1889. Mr. J. B. Owen, a young gentle- man of high character and large fortune, came to Henderson from Mecklenburg County, Virginia, and proposed the organization of a bank with a capital of $45,000. The only bank previous to that time was the uncapitalized private Bank of Henderson. This was soon absorbed by the Citizens' Bank, which, until the recent opening of the First National Bank, furnished the entire banking facilities of the community. It has been an eminently successful institution, and has now a capital and surplus of $125,000 with $450,000 deposits, $385,000 loans and discounts and $587,000 of total resources. Mr. Cooper has been a director from the time of its organization.
But Mr. Cooper's greatest work outside of his tobacco business has been in the creation of the cotton manufacturing interests of Henderson. The Henderson Cotton Mill was organized in 1895, with a capital of $90,000, which was increased to $125,000 before operations were begun, and subsequently to $240,000. The mill has been enlarged from time to time from its earnings. It consumed 1,000 bales of cotton the first year of its operation, and its capacity has increased to 10,000 bales. The stock is largely held in Henderson, and has steadily realized an annual dividend of 8 per cent. Upon the increase in stock there were offers for more than twice the amount of the issue in a very short time. Mr. Cooper has been president of the company from the beginning.
The Harriet Cotton Mill, named in honor of Mr. Cooper's mother, was organized in 1898, with a capital of $240.000, which was increased to $300,000 in 1900. This mill has also been greatly enlarged from its earnings, while steadily paying its annual dividends, and consumes about $10,000 bales of cotton annually. It also largely represents local capital, and Mr. Cooper has been its only president.
He has conducted the operations of these mills with such signal ability that he has never had occasion to leave Henderson to secure a dollar for the use of either enterprise. The two plants are worth nearly or quite $1,000,000 now, and do an annual business of some million and a half dollars. Mr. Cooper claims these mills to be the largest producers and sellers of hosiery yarns in the South. One important result of their location
has been to greatly enhance the position of Hen- derson as a cotton market.
Mr. Cooper would resent any claim that he alone has accomplished these things. It is doubt- ful if there are combined in any enterprise in the state an abler or more efficient body of men than are associated in the Henderson ventures. They have accorded Mr. Cooper a leading position, and he has justified their confidence.
It is not unfitting in this connection to men- tion Mr. Cooper's relations with those in his employ. He takes a deep personal interest in their welfare. This is particularly noticeable in respect to young men who prove themselves capable and deserving. In nearly every instance when he has advanced them as far as he can in his own business, he goes outside and secures them promotion elsewhere commensurate with their deserts. His interest in the operatives of his mills is almost paternal. He has secured the location of branches of the Henderson graded school near each mill. He has been the largest contributor to their churches and Sunday Schools. The fact that he is an Episcopalian and they almost entirely Baptists and Methodists seems forgotten on both sides. He is as much interested in getting reports of the Sunday School work as members of their own denominations. On a recent occasion when a prominent minister of a leading denomination discredited the religious and moral " influence thrown around mill settlements, Mr. Cooper drew from his pocket a report of the Sunday School of the South Henderson Baptist Church (Harriet Mill) and challenged compari- son with any school of that minister's denomina- tion in the state. Naturally, he is held in high esteem by his employees.
While exerting his best efforts for the develop- ment of home interests, Mr. Cooper has not been insensible to the demands and opportunities out- side. In 1892 he was a delegate from North Carolina to the Nicaragua Canal Convention at New Orleans. Under the Hoffman administration he was a director in the Durham and Northern Railway Company, a director in the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company, and a member of the Finance Committee of the latter. He has been for some years a director of the Commercial and Farmers Bank, Raleigh, North Carolina, and is interested in the Wachovia Loan and Trust Company, and many other financial and industrial enterprises both in and out of the state.
In 1902, upon the coming of age of his two elder sons, Sydney P. and Alexander, he partly relieved himself of the burdens of his warehouse business by converting it into a corporation and shifting much of the labor upon their younger shoulders.
Aside from the large enterprises that have been noted, Mr. Cooper is concerned in nearly all. the public enterprises of Henderson. He may justly be called the founder of the Henderson graded schools. In 1899 he joined with a few other gentlemen of the town in organizing the Central School without legislative charter or provision of law for its support. They undertook its support, the people of the community making such contributions as they pleased. Professor J. T. Alderman, formerly of this state but then con- nected with the public schools of Columbus, Georgia, was secured as superintendent, and the movement was a success from the beginning. In 1901 the General Assembly passed an act establish-
A.BAfendrick
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ing the school upon a legal basis and providing for its support. Mr. Cooper was one of the original trustees, and upon the retirement of Dr. J. D. Huffham, D. D., succeeded him as president of the board. The school has outgrown its present facilities, and a splendid lot, well located, has been purchased, upon which a new building will be erected during the present or coming year at a cost of $20,000 or $25,000. He has also served the town as a member of its Board of Internal Improvements, but otherwise he has not sought or held any public office.
But in common with most representative men of Henderson, it is his home that most engages his affections. In 1898 he was joined in marriage with Mrs. Florence M. Davis, a daughter of Mr. Nicholas H. Chavasse, of Henderson, grand- daughter of Sir Thomas Chavasse, an eminent English surgeon, niece of the present Bishop of Liverpool, England, ond kinswoman of George Eliot, the novelist. It is a most congenial and sympathetic union, and their home is a center of social life and hospitality. Both are deeply interested in their church, the Episcopal, of which he has been a vestryman and treasurer for many years, and concern themselves actively in its various enterprises. He was one of the moving spirits in acquiring St. Mary's School for the church and has been one of its trustees from the time of its acquisition.
Negative qualities are wanting in Mr. Cooper. To be positive and aggressive is his ideal of a business man. In his personal relations he is of a friendly disposition, both approachable and accessible. He recognizes an obligation to the community growing out of his wealth, and is one of the first men approached for aid to any object that appeals to public or private beneficence. He is democratic by instinct as well as conviction, because he is interested in his fellowmen. His early purpose in life, as stated by himself, was "to become a first-class business man, to surpass my competitors by doing things better than they can, and to be of real service to my community and fellow-men. " How far this has been accomplished may be judged in a measure from the record here given.
WILLIAM JACQUELIN BOYKIN. In the business life of Wilson, William Jacquelin Boykin has been an important factor since his arrival in this city in 1893. During a quarter of a century he has been identified with a number of enterprises, all con- nected with the steady growth and progress of the commercial interests of the community, and the concerns with which he has linked his name have been founded and maintained upon sound principles and honorable policies. His career has been characteristic of the men who have assisted in the locality's business development.
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Mr. Boykin was born in the City of Richmond, Virginia, July 12, 1862. and is a son of Samuel Henry and Frances ( Taylor) Boykin. His father was for a number of years prominently known in publie circles of the Virginia capital, where he served in the capacity of register of land of the Old Dominion State. The public schools of his native city furnished William J. Boykin with his educational training, and his first experience in a commercial way was secured in the tobacco busi- ness, which he entered as a youth of seventeen years. and with which he continued to be con- nected until 1904. In the meantime, in 1893. he came to Wilson, where he established himself in
business as a tobacco leaf dealer and exporter, and until 1902 centered his activities in this line of commercial enterprise. In the year mentioned he entered another field, when he founded and es- tablished the Wilson Ice and Fuel Company, of which he became secretary, treasurer and gen- eral manager. He still retains these positions, and since 1904 has given his undivided attention to the interests of the company, having disposed of his holdings in the tobacco industry. Mr. Boy- kin's business has been one of sound and steady advancement, and a gratifying success has re- warded his good management and energetic labor. In addition to the handling of ice he deals also in coal and wood, and both departments have grown commensurately with the growth of the community. In business circles he is known as a man who can be relied upon to observe a high standard of commercial ethics, and in ventures in which he has been associated with others his as- sociates have had reason to feel secure in his judg- ment and foresight. Mr. Boykin is a valued and popular member of the Country and Common- wealth clubs. He is a Mason in high standing, and belongs to the Lodge, Chapter, Commandery and Shrine of that order. He and his family belong to Saint Timothy's Episcopal Church of Wilson, and Mr. Boykin now occupies the post of senior warden.
On June 22, 1887, at Richmond, Mr. Boykin was united in marriage with Miss Rosa Harris, who was born in Goochland County, Virginia, and they are the parents of one daughter: Frances, who is now the wife of Thomas D. Meares, Jr., income tax inspector at Wilson, North Carolina, for the United States Government.
NOAH B. KENDRICK was born on a farm in No. 5 Township near Waco, Cleveland County. North Carolina, November 22, 1869, The date of his birth is of special importance since it indicates that period in which his early youth was spent. His father, Larkin S. Kendrick, was a farmer by occupation, and had given practically his all to the cause of the South during the war. With the close of that struggle his family, like thousands of others, was left in very humble circumstances, and the father died when Noah B. Kendrick was an infant.
The latter's earliest childhood recollections re- volve around the humble home and circumstances in which the family lived, He takes a great deal of natural pride in the little memento he has in the form of a picture of the dimunitive log cabin in which he was born. Very early in life he went to work to support himself. and for that reason was deprived of getting a full extent of even such limited facilities as were offered in the public schools of that day. This was a period when the South was at the lowest ebb financially and indus- trially, and Mr. Kendrick had to overcome the heavy handicans imposed upon the youth of that enoch. He was given no outside advantages what- ever and his individual snecess has been achieved on the score of his native ability plus a superabun- dant energy and initiative. Thus it is possible to give all the more credit to a man who today is one of the leading men of Gaston County finan- cially, a. prominent merchant and manufacturer, possessed of resources and influence, and a leader in civic and educational enterprises. His success, considering all the conditions, has been nothing short of phenomenal.
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