USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 31
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Mr. McLean's grandfather was Dr. William Mc- Lean, a prominent physician of early times. He was one of the Revolutionary patriots from Gas-
ton, then a part of Lincoln County, and served as assistant surgeon with the American troops at the battle of King's Mountain. That famous Revo- lutionary battlefield was only a few miles from his home.
Mr. McLean's father, Dr. John McLean, added to his duties and responsibilities as a planter the profession of physician. He practiced more than sixty years in Gaston County. He was one of the fine and upright characters of his day. The country doctor has been celebrated in literature, and justly so, and it had no better representa- tive in this section of North Carolina in the early days than Dr. John McLean. He practiced far and wide, rode horseback through all kinds of weather and over every class of roads, and in the absence of apothecaries he carried his medi- cines in the saddle bags. During the war he was beyond the age for active military service, but none the less proved his devotion to his country by attending to the women and children left at home and furnishing medical attention to wounded soldiers who returned from the front.
The McLean locality, where several members of the family still live, is in the southeast part of Gaston County, between Catawba Creek and the South Fork River, near the South Carolina line. It is in South Point Township and about seven miles southwest of the Town of Belmont. Mr. McLean's fine plantation there consists of some- thing over 600 acres of land. He is a prosperous and high class farmer and knows his business in that line, as has been true of so many of his fam- ily and ancestors.
Again and again he has been honored by his fellow citizens and has shown both efficiency and ability in offices of responsibility. In 1908 he was elected county commissioner, filling the post for two terms. In 1910 he was elected sheriff of Gaston County and was reelected in 1912, being a very efficient and very popular sheriff for four years.
Mr. McLean married Miss Annie Erwin, of Chester County, South Carolina. Their seven chil- dren are named John D. McLean; Dr. C. E. Mc- Lean, a physician; Mrs. Bessie King; Mrs. Edith Stringfellow; Mrs. Margaret Nichols; Mrs. Annie Guion; and Mrs. Nellie Mckenzie. The family are all active members of the Presbyterian Church.
NEILL A. THOMPSON, M. D. The profession of medicine is one of the oldest known to mankind, but it has been given to the physicians of the past half a century to make more valuable dis- coveries and to reach greater heights of useful- ness than did all who went before them, eminent . though they were. Wonderful scientific achieve- ments have startled the world and wrought mighty revolutions in the treatment and cure of diseases. Men of profound learning have spent their lives in research that has been rewarded by discovery, and even the most humble worker in the medical field is entitled to the applause and gratitude of mankind for the humane labor in which he is engaged. Prominent among the men who have raised the calling of medical and surgical service to a high plane in Robeson County is Dr. Neill A. Thompson, of Lumberton, whose career, stretch- ing over a period of more than twenty years, has been characterized by an ever-increasing success, and among whose numerous achievements has been the founding of the Thompson Hospital at Lumberton, of which he is now the owner.
Doctor Thompson was born on a farm about
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nine miles southwest of Lumberton, in Robeson County, North Carolina, in 1872, being a son of Neill A. and Julia A. (Smith) Thompson, both of whom are at present deceased. This family is of Scotch Irish origin, and is one of the oldest ones in the County of Robeson, where was born Jacob Thompson, the doctor's grandfather. . Ja- cob Thompson was a life long agriculturist and for some years carried on operations on a farm which was located on the Lumber River, between Lumberton and Maxton, in Robeson county, and was known as the old Thompson Place. There he passed away, one of the highly esteemed and substantial men of his community. Neill A. Thompson, the elder, was born on the old Thomp- son place on the Lumber River in 1830, but in young manhood removed to a property about nine miles southwest of Lumberton. He had been reared as a farmer and made that his occupation until the outbreak of the war between the states, at which time he joined the forces of the Confed- eracy as a private in the Fifty-first Regiment, North Carolina Volunteer Infantry. He contin- ued to serve with this regiment throughout the period of the war and established an excellent record, as a faithful and courageous soldier. At the resuming of peace he returned to his home in Robeson County and again took up planting, following that occupation until his retirement some years before his death, which occurred in 1908, when he was seventy-eight years of age. Mr. Thompson was widely and favorably known in the community in which he made his home for so many years, and his reputation was that of a sterling business man and public-spirited citizen, and a kind and considerate friend and neighbor. Mrs. Thompson, who was related to the Townsend family, which has been well known in Robeson County for many years, died in that county in 1913.
The local schools of Robeson County furnished Neill A. Thompson with his preliminary educa- tional training, and his collegiate training was commenced at Davidson College, where he com- pleted the curriculum of the freshman and sopho- more years. He also studied for his calling in the medical department of Davidson College and completed his professional course at the Maryland Medical College, Baltimore, from which institu- tion he was graduated in 1905. Subsequently, Doctor Thompson took post-graduate work in gen- eral and operative surgery at the Marvland Post Graduate School and the New York Post Grad- uate School of Medicine. His professional labors were commenced at Whiteville. the county seat of Columbus County, where he carried on a general practice for 91% years, and then came to his pres- ent place of residence, Lumberton, which has con-' tinued to be his home without interruption. Here he built up a large general practice, and in 1906, having realized the need for an institution of the kind, established the Thompson Hospital, a high- class modern hospital of the best equipment and facilities for caring for all kinds of cases, but especially for those demanding surgery, a field in which Doctor Thompson specializes, and in which he has gained an enviable and something more than local reputation. He has made a splen- did success of his profession. The modern hospital is too often looked upon as a convenience or a luxury of the rich, but this theory is both in- jurious and unfounded. The modern hospital should be designated for what it is, not only
the highest development of science for the alle- viation and cure of the swarming bodily ills of mankind, but a wonderful organization into which the best thought and experience of experts at work the world over have entered, and a great philanthropic enterprise. Doctor Thompson be- longs to the various organizations of his pro- fession and stands high in the esteem of his fel- low-practitioners.
Doctor Thompson has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Sallie Townsend, who died in 1906, the daughter of Neill Townsend, of Robe- sou County. By this marriage there are three daughters: Miss Sadie, who graduated from the Eastern Carolina Training School at Greenville, North Carolina, in 1918; Miss Ruth, who is a student at Flora Macdonald College, at Red Springs, this state; and Miss Julia, who is at- tending the public school at Lumberton. The present Mrs. Thompson was before her marriage Miss Catharine Monroe, a native of Cumberland County, North Carolina. Doctor and Mrs. Thomp- son have one son, Neill Archer, Jr.
BURTON CRAIGE has gained an enviable reputa- tion as a lawyer, being a prominent member of the bar of North Carolina. Scotch hardihood and other sterling virtues of that race have distin- guished the Craiges since pioneer times. The lineage goes back in direct line to Archibald and Mary Craige, both of whom were natives of the Highlands of Scotland, living as tradition has it, in the Town of Inverness. Archibald Craige was a supporter of the beloved "Prince Charles"' in his pretensions to the throne and when the Battle of Culloden dissipated and destroyed the hopes of his followers Archibald Craige was exiled from Scotland and settled in America on the Yadkin River in the wilds of what is now Rowan County, North Carolina, about 1750. He survived the hard- ships of this transplanting from his native land only a few years, dying May 20, 1758; but he established his family as one of the earliest and soon to be one of the largest property owners in the county. He was one of the first purchasers of lots in Salisbury and his oldest son married in the family of Hugh Foster who was one of Earl Granville's township trustees for the 635 acres of land on which the town was built, the date of this deed being February 11, 1755. He left two sons. David and James, the latter of whom was sheriff of Rowan County. the southern boundary of which at that time being Earl Granville's line, the northern. the Virginia line, the eastern, Anson County, including what is now Guilford and Randolph counties. and the western, as far as habitation extended. David, the next in direct line, married Polly Foster July 23. 1776, nineteen days after the Declaration of Independence, hav- ing been appointed, therefore. by the Colonial Congress, on April 16. 1776, as 2d lieutenant in the Colonial Militia. Wheeler's History of North Carolina states, quoting his Colonel, William Temple Cole, that "he was distinguished for his bravery and patriotic daring." He bore an active and patriotic part in the struggle for independence and died in November, 1784. David and James Craige appear on the record as the purchasers of considerable landed interests in Rowan County, which, in addition to the early grants of their father gave them a good estate. Craige's son David was born on January 27, 1780. David Craige married his cousin Mary Foster. Hon. Bur-
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ton Craige, the son of David Craige, junior, was the grandfather of Burton Craige, the subject of this sketch.
Burton Craige, senior, was born on a plantation on the south fork of the Yadkin River five miles above Salisbury, in Rowan County, March 13, 1811, soon after which his father died, leaving him a good estate. He was prepared for college at a private school taught by Rev. Jonathan Otis Freeman, and, following his graduation from the University of North Carolina in 1829, he edited the Western North Carolinian, at the same time, study- ing law with Judge D. F. Caldwell. Admitted to the bar in 1832, in that year he was elected a mem- ber of the State Legislature to represent Salis- bury and was one . of the last Borongh representatives from that town. He then spent a year abroad and returned to North Carolina to resume active practice and was eminently success- ful at the bar, taking foremost rank among the leading advocates of his day. In 1853 he was honored by election to Congress and was a member of Congress from North Carolina until 1861. In that year he was elected a delegate to the con- vention at Raleigh to pass upon the ordinance of secession, and he offered the ordinance which sub- sequently was adopted. As one of the leading men of North Carolina, at the time, he was elected to the first Confederate Congress, but at the ex- piration of his term he retired to private life and to the practice of his profession and died December 30, 1875. Hon. Burton Craige married Elizabeth (Phifer) Erwin, daughter of Col. James Erwin and his wife Margaret (Phifer) Erwin, and great- granddaughter of Gen. Matthew Locke and his wife who was the daughter of Richard Brandon, of Rowan County. Their son, Hon. Kerr Craige, father of Burton Craige, was born in Catawba County, North Carolina, March 14, 1843, where his parents had large landed interests. He was given all the advantages his early ambitions craved and after a preparatory course at Catawba College, entered the University of North Carolina. The war broke out before he had completed his university course, and in August, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company F of the First Regiment, North Caro- lina Cavalry. This regiment formed a part of Hampton's, later Gordon's Brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was made sergeant and on October 1, 1861, promoted to second lieu- tenant. On his transfer to Company I, he was promoted to first lieutenant and then captain of the company. He was tendered the office of adjutant of the regiment by Col. Thomas Ruffin just a few days before that gallant officer was killed. He was appointed aide de camp to Gen. James B. Gordon and served under him until that com- mander's death. The First North Carolina Cavalry was almost constantly in action and was distinguished for its dash and courage. Kerr Craige was himself an intrepid cavalry officer and was almost constantly engaged in hard scout- ing, skirmishing, and the larger battles in which his command participated. He had two horses shot under him while in the service. He and his com- mand were captured on April 3, 1865. and he remained a prisoner of war on Johnson's Island, Lake Erie, until the following July. After the war Kerr Craige took up the study of law under Chief Justice Pearson, and his father, with whom he was associated from 1867 until his father's death in 1875. Public promotion and honor came rapidly. In 1870 he was elected reading clerk of the House of Representatives and at the next
election was selected to represent Rowan County. In 1884 he was chosen, without solicitation, demo- cratic nominee for Congress in a district over- whelmingly democratic, but declined the nomi- nation. In 1887 he was appointed collector of internal revenue for the western district of North Carolina and in 1893 was called to Washington to become third assistant postmaster general in President Cleveland 's administration. For a number of years he was trustee of the University of North Carolina. For several years prior to his death in September, 1904, he was president of the First National Bank of Salisbury. He was not ambitious of public office but preferred the practice of his profession in which he was eminently successful and in which he took and held high rank until his death. He was married in 1871 to Josephine Branch, daughter of Gen. L. O'B. Branch and Nancy (Haywood) Branch, the latter being the daughter of Gen. William A. Blount and Nancy (Haywood) Blount and granddaughter of John Guy Blount and Mary ( Harvey) Blount. General Branch was killed at Sharpsburg, being then ranking Brigadier General in A. P. Hill's Corps, Jackson's Division. Their seven children were: Nannie, who died in 1898; Burton Branch, an eminent physician of El Paso, Texas; Josephine, who married Dr. Clarence Kluttz; Elizabeth, who married John E. Ramsay; Kerr, and William, who died in infancy.
Burton Craige .was born at Salisbury in Rowan County December 23, 1875, was educated in private and public schools and at the age of fourteen entered Davis Military Academy at Winston, and was then prepared for college at Horner's Mili- tary Academy in Oxford. Entering the University of North Carolina, he was graduated with high honors in 1897. His first active experience after leaving the university was in newspaper work, and subsequently he was instructor in Horner Military Academy. He read law under Kerr Craige, his father and also at the University Law School and after being licensed was associated with his father until his death in 1904. He served a term in the Legislature representing Rowan County and has since enjoyed an extensive and varied practice being now associated in the practice of the law with his brother Kerr Craige who maintains offices at Salis- bury, North Carolina, and being also a member of the firm of Craige & Vogler at Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he takes an active interest in the life of that community.
Burton Craige was married November 9, 1911, to Jane Caroline Henderson Boyden. She is a dangh- ter of Archibald Henderson and May Wheat (Sho- ber) Boyden. Mr. and Mrs. Craige have had three children: Burton, who recently died, and Jane and Archibald, who are still living.
BENEHAN CAMERON, a gentleman of the old school by instinet and associations, a lawyer by training, Benehan Cameron, of Stagville, has found his greatest joy in tasks of large and broad accomplishment, as a farmer, a leader in country life movements, a builder of highways and rail- ways, and a consistent and constant worker for the public good through all his varied relation- shins with his home community, his state and the nation at large.
He owns and occupies the old family seat of Fairntosh at Stagville in Durham County. He was born there September 9, 1854, son of Paul Carrington and Anne ( Ruffin) Cameron. He is descended from Scotch Highlanders of the famous
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Cameron clan. His great-grandfather, the Rev. John Cameron, was a minister of the Church of England and located at Petersburg, Virginia, in 1771. He was a local preacher for some years and afterwards was supervising clergyman of the state of Virginia.
Judge Duncan Cameron, son of Rev. Mr. Camer- ou married Miss Benehan, of Orange County, North Carolina, and was the founder of the Fairn- tosh country estate at Stagville.
Benelian Cameron is a fortunate man not only as to the inheritance and environment to which he was born but by reason of the possession of abilities and ambition that have made him a dis- tinctive leader among men. He was liberally edu- cated, attending successively the Hughes School, the Horner Military Academy, the Eastman Busi- ness College at Poughkeepsie, New York, and the Virginia Military Institute. He was graduated from the last named institution in 1875. Two years later he was admitted to the bar, but never took up practice.
The one pursuit which he has steadily main- tained since carly youth has been farming. He has mnade Fairntosh one of the most beautiful as well as one of the most progressively managed farms of North Carolina. What he has done as an agri- culturist has not been altogether for personal profit. It has served as an inspiration and source of encouragement to the farmers and stock raisers of the state and many a successful experiment has been carried out at Fairntosh to demonstrate new and improved methods of handling the resources of the soil.
He has served as president of the Farmers National Congress, and due to his influence that Congress met at Raleigh in 1909. He is also a director of the Southern Cotton Growers Protec- tive Association and of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. He has been president of the North Carolina State Agricultural Society.
A great many people know him best as a rail- way builder and official. He was interested in the building of the Lynchburg & Durham Railway, the Oxford & Clarksville Railroad, the Durham & Northern Railroads and the Knoxville & Dicker- son branch line; was one of the organizers of the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company, was a director in the Raleigh and Augusta Air Lines, and served as president from 1911 to 1913 of the North Carolina Railroad. His financial assistance has also gone to support some of the leading industries of North Carolina.
In the nation-wide movement for the building of good roads there has been no abler champion in all the South than Colonel Cameron. Through every avenue of his influence he has sought to build good roads, not only locally but as part of a general scheme of national progress. While representing Durham County in the Legislature in 1913 he procured the passage of the bill pro- viding for the Central Highway of North Caro- lina. This highway extends from Morehead City on the Atlantic Coast to the Tennessee line across the Blue Ridge Mountains, connection with the Southern National Highway, a continuous road from Washington, D. C., to San Diego, California. It was Colonel Cameron who conceived the idea of the great highway through the South which resulted in the building of the Southern National Highway, of which he is vice president. He was one of those who explored this route by automo- bile. Colonel Cameron is one of the organizers and a director in the Quebec-Miami International
Highway, which counects with the Southeru National Highway, and is part of a large and comprehensive circuit of automobile highways extending from Quebec to the eastern, southern and western states around to Vancouver, British Columbia. Another feature of his legislative record was his authorship of the bill establishing the North Carolina Highway Commission, of of which he is a member.
He is a director of the American Automobile Association; is vice president of the North Caro- lina Sons of the American Revolution; a member of the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati; ex-president of the Scottish Society of America. For years he has taken an active interest in North Carolina military organizations, has served as captain of the Orange County Guards and was a member of the staff of Governors Vance, Jarvis and Scales with the rank of captain, and on the staffs of Governors Fowle, Holt and Carr with the rank of colonel. Colonel Cameron recently became a candidate for the State Senate from the districts composed of Durham, Orange, Alamance and Caswell counties.
In 1891 he married Miss Sallie T. Mayo, of Richmond, Virginia. Their two daughters are Isabelle M. and Sallie T. Cameron.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN KEITH, SR., son. of Will- iam and Margaret Larkins Keith, was born May 20, 1820, near Moores Creek Battle Ground. He died January 15, 1895, near Keith, North Carolina, aud is buried at Bethlehem Church.
He was of noble Scottish descent. As the his- torian Buchan says in writing of the noble family of Keiths, they were one of the most noted fam- ilies Scotland ever produced-noted for their fine diplomacy, honesty, justice and bravery.
The grandfather, William Keith, landed at Fernandina, Florida, when his son William was an infant. William Keith and wife with two other sons and one daughter, Lydia, first settled on the St. Mary's River in Florida. They fiually made their way into South Carolina, near Charles- ton. During the Revolution William, Jr., was a lad of sixteen years, and with his father was fighting with Marion's army when the war closed. William, Jr., though but sixteen years old, was designated by General Marion to grind meal at an old water mill near Marion, South Carolina. He ground at this mill day and night until the rocks finally became so hot that they crumbled like clay.
Finally coming to the Cape Fear section of North Carolina soon after the war he and his two brothers entered large tracts of land from Southport to where Newberlin is today and in the Lyon Swamp section, now Pender County. His last home was near Moores Creek Battle Ground, between Moores Creek and Caledonia, the latter place he having named after the old Keith home in Scotland.
B. F. Keith, the subject of this sketch, was only fifteen years old when his father died. The coun- try being almost uninhabited at this time the ad- vantages of schooling were very limited. Conse- quently this branch of the family was deprived of the privileges of his progenitors when for 700 years the family held the most important office after the king of Scotland, that of Earl of Mari- chal. But being a great student and reader he acquired a fair education and was capable of fine business qualities. He was open and noble in his character and his life was such as to prove
3.7. Keith
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that noble ancestors' blessings will follow their children. He was kindhearted and spurned every- thing that pertained to dishonesty and littleness. He always said it was no disgrace to be poor if honor and frugality accompanied it, as for- tune had wings and could soon fly away. He knew how his kindred in Scotland had lost their vast estates as well as himself during the war between the states.
He was married three times. His first wife was a daughter of Mr. J. L. Corbitt, with whom he was associated in business at Wilmington in later years. He had one son by this marriage, William C. Keith. After her death he married Mrs. Mary Pridgen Marshall. He then moved back to the country where he was born. He had three chil- dren by this union, two daughters, Hattie and Eliza, and one son, B. F. Keith, Jr. After her death he married a daughter of Mr. J. R. Cor- bett. There are no children by this marriage. His last wife, Mrs. Martha Keith, is still living at the ripe old age of eighty-three years.
He and his brother William were not in favor of the Civil war, thinking a compromise would be better, still a devotion to their homeland caused them to take up arms in its defense. While the older brother was too old to join the regular army he volunteered, leaving his large estate in charge of his overseer. He died suddenly at Fort Fisher without having married.
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