USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 36
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Mr. Woodell had almost lived out his allotted three-score-and-ten years when, in October, 1908, he was elected editor of the North Carolina Odd Fellow, the state organ of the order, a position which he continued to hold for more than eight years, discharging its duties faithfully in addition to those strenuous ones pertaining to the office of grand secretary, and through this medium has imparted a great deal of valuable information to . the membership of the Odd Fellows order in the Old North State.
Mr. Woodell has been a consistent member of the Edenton Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for more than forty years. He served on
the official board of this church for a number of years, and has ever been ready to contribute his share to the institutions of his church, having also been active and generous in his support of enterprises making for civic, educational or moral betterment.
JAMES FRANCIS POST. The discipline of the railway service has developed some of the greatest figures in American commercial and industrial affairs. When James Francis Post was nineteeu years of age he began working in a minor posi- tiou in the freight department of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and rose to the position of treasurer of the entire Atlantic Coast Line system.
He was a native of Wilmington, and spent all his life iu that city, which takes the more pride, therefore, in his achievements and career. Born at Wilmington February 24, 1851, he was a son of James F. aud Mary Ann (Russell) Post. His father, who served with distinction as a lieu- tenant in the Confederate army during the war, was one of the first men to devote himself ex- clusively to the practice of architecture in North Carolina.
James Francis Post had a good education, though he was not a college man, and his first experience in business life was as bookkeeper for a building company. Then at the age of nineteeu he became connected with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and filled all the positions in the freight department up to and including agent. At the age of twenty-six he was appointed to the respon- sibilities of through freight agent, and held that office eight years. At thirty-four he became as- sistant treasurer for all the Atlantic Coast Line and subsidiary lines and companies. Then in 1887 he was made secretary and treasurer of the company, and was treasurer for the entire system from 1902 to the date of his death.
Recognized as a man of spleudid financial ability, and burdened with heavy responsibilities, Mr. Post was, nevertheless, deeply devoted for many years to the welfare of his home city and to many larger projects of educational and benevolent work. He served four years as alder- man of Wilmington, filled the position of mag- istrate ten years, and was also mayor pro tem. For fourteen years Mr. Post was chairman of the Wilmington City School Board. His efforts in behalf of education were not confined to his home city. He was a former trustee of the agricultural School for Negroes, and served as trustee of the State Normal for Women for seven years. He was vice president and director of several com- panies, and was a director of the Peoples Bank.
Outside of home and business perhaps his great- est iuterest was the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, and for twenty-five years he was chair- man of its board of trustees, and filled all other positions and was one of the largest contributors to the new edifice of that church.
Mr. Post was a member of the Society of Rail- way Financial Officials of America. He was hou- orary fellow of the American Geological Society and a member of the National Society of Political Economy. For twenty-five years he was a mem- ber of St. John Lodge No. 1, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, and was a Knight Templar Mason. He was also a Knights of Pythias, a member of the Woodmen of the World and was identified with the Cape Fear Club and the Cape Fear Country Club.
On April 6, 1876, Mr. Post married Miss Sarah
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Virginia Jacobs, of an old and prominent North Carolina family. Seven 'children were born to them, one of whom, Virginia, died at the age of four years. Those still living are: Robert E., James F., Jr., William N., Mary Russell, Julia B., and Lydia, Mrs. Herbert Scott Snead. James Francis Post died at his home in Wilmington, North Carolina, on January 5, 1918.
ABEL C. LINEBERGER. During the fifteen years that Abel C. Lineberger has figured prominently in the cotton mill industry of Gaston County he has proven his ability as an executive and his worth as a man. Upon no other class do the responsibilities of this community rest so heavily as they do on the shoulders of the men who direct the operations of this industry. As the cotton mills of the various towns and cities are, so are the communities themselves, so do they prosper, or so do they sink into decay. The very life of this section depends upon the strength and probity of those who control the cotton mills. Every man is not fitted by nature and training to assume the duties pertaining to the handling of these interests, so that it is a self-evident fact that when a man makes a success of this kind of work he must be possessed of unusual ability and strict probity of character.
Abel C. Lineberger belongs to one of the earliest families of Gaston County, and was born in this county on his father's farm, about 11/2 miles from the present industrial Town of Lowell, in 1859, his parents being Caleb J. and Fannie (Line- berger) Lineberger. The parents were of the same remote ancestral origin, but of no immediate relationship. The Linebergers are one of the fam- ilies of German origin which settled in what are now Catawba, Gaston and the surrounding coun- ties many years before the Revolutionary war. They were of the same stock that in Pennsylvania is known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. Through their character, industry and progressiveness they have played a decidedly important part in the settlement of Western North Carolina. Three Lineberger brothers, Peter, Lewis and John, came from Germany and probably lived for a time in Pennsylvania, near York and Lancaster, and came to what is now Gaston County, North Carolina, about 1765. They had lost their parents at sea. Of these three brothers Abel C. Lineberger is de- scended in direct line from Capt. Lewis ยท Lineber- ger, who was one of the Revolutionary patriots of North Carolina, and captain of his district in the Continental line. He was a man of great strength and force of character, of unblemished reputation, and one who left his impress npon the affairs of his day and community. He located upon a branch of Hoyle's Creek, about four miles northeast of the present Town of Dallas in Gaston County, and several generations of his descendants lived on the same place, the house that he erected still standing, although not in use at this time. The paternal grandfather of Abel C. Lineberger was John Lineberger, and his maternal grandfather bore the name of Lewis Lineberger.
Caleb J. Lineberger, father of Abel C., lived for a long number of years on his farm in Gaston County, about 11/2 miles from the Town of Lowell. He is noted in local history for having built the first cotton mill in Gaston County, it being located on the Catawba River, two miles above the present Town of McAndeville, and was operated by water power. Although lacking the machinery and facilities of the modern mill, it was a good one
for its day and Mr. Lineberger made money out of it. He was a very industrious man, a trait which he inherited from his ancestors, and it was his custom to go on horseback every day from his farm to his mill, starting early in the morning, working all day and returning to his homestead in the evening. Physically he was very active and athletic, living a healthful, vigorous life, and lived to the remarkable age of ninety-six years, dying in 1914. His mill was three miles from his plantation.
Abel C. Lineberger was reared on the farm near Lowell referred to above, a property which he still owns, and one very dear to him as the scene of his childhood and a reminder of many pleasant memories. When he was eighteen years old, in 1886, he left the country school which he had been attending and entered his father's mill of- fice as bookkeeper, etc. Subsequently he secured employment with Mr. A. - P. Rhyne, of Mount Holly, and was employed under him first as a clerk in the store of the Tuckaseege Mill, later as bookkeeper, and still later as general manager of the mercantile and manufacturing business of the Tuckaseege Manufacturing Company, in which business he eventually secured a financial interest. Mr. Lineberger remained with these interests at Mount Holly until the year 1902, when he dis- posed of his holdings there and removed to Bel- mont, where he had purchased stock in the Bel- mont Mills. Since that time there have been five cotton mills built at Belmont, and Mr. Lineberger has been elected president of each of them as it has been built, and still retains that position. The Chronicle Mill, built in 1901, has a capital stock of $125,000, and operates 10,270 spindles; the Imperial Yarn Mill, built in 1906, is capitalized at $200,000 and operates 14,544 spindles; the mills of the Majestic Manufacturing Company were built in 1908, have a capital stock of $200,000, and operate 12,768 spindles; the National Yarn Mills, 15,232 spindles, were built in 1914; and in 1916 the Climax Spinning Company Mills, 21,760 spin- dles, were built. Mr. Lineberger is also president of the Vance Cotton Mills at Salisbury. These mills operate 10,000 spindles. The business of these great plants is highly prosperous and at- tracts trade from over a wide territory, the mills being always in operation and giving employment to many operators. The products are various in their nature and include ply yarns, skeins, tubes, combed yarns, combed Egyptian and Sea Island yarns, and others. In addition to being president of these mills Mr. Lineberger is a director of the Bank of Belmont and of the Bank of Mount Holly. He largely confines his energies to the upbuilding of the cotton mills, and has every reason to be satisfied with the success that has attended his efforts in this direction.
Mr. Lineberger married Miss Mattie Hippe, and they are the parents of seven children: Julia Elizabeth, Archibald, Henry, Harold, Martha, Frances and Joe. Until moving to Belmont Mr. Lineberger had always lived on his farm place, where he has 400 acres. The family now resides in a beautiful home at Belmont. He is interested in all that pertains to modern progress along material, intellectual and moral lines, and his charities extend to many worthy enterprises.
CALVIN WOODARD. It would be difficult to find in Wilson County a more highly esteemed citizen than C. Woodard, who is owner and general man- ager of the C. Woodard Company, wholesale gro-
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cers, at Wilson, North Carolina. He has had a long, profitable and honorable business career, and, as a home product, his fellow citizens generally have taken interest and pride in his success and in a citizenship that exerts a wholesome influ- ence. In these day it is not such a difficult mat- ter to accumulate something of a fortune or to succeed to political place, but not always are these desirable things brought about, as in Mr. Woodard's case, with the continued respect and confidence that makes life worth while.
Calvin Woodard was born at Wilson, North Carolina, July 17, 1865. He was reared on his father's farm and was afforded educational ad- vantages among the best, after completing his high school course entering the Wilson Collegiate Institute and was graduated in the usual branches and also in bookkeeping and commercial law. When he entered the business field he was fortu- nate in having as employer and preceptor such a merchant as A. Branch, who in his day was called the merchant prince of Eastern North Car- olina. Mr. Woodard remained with Mr. Branch for nine years in the general mercantile line. He then engaged for nine years more with the Howard-Graves Company, of which through busi- ness changes he later became a partner, when the firm style became Howard & Woodard, and this partnership continued until 1907, when Mr. Wood- ard withdrew in order to establish an individual business, which continues under the title of the Woodard Company. This business is in a very prosperous condition and its trade connections ex- tend all over Eastern North Carolina. The con- fidence reposed in him by his fellow merchants may be noted in that he is serving as chairman of the finance committee of the Merchants As- sociation of North Carolina, and he was elected president of the Chamber of Commerce of Wil- son, but resigned on account of business mat- ters.
Mr. Woodard was married December 3, 1890, to Miss Susan Eugenia Faircloth, who is a daugh- ter of J. B. and Fannie M. (Dixon) Faircloth, of Green County, North Carolina, and a niece of Justice Faircloth. Mr. and Mrs. Woodard have two children: Susie Gray and William Windsor, the latter being associated with his father in the wholesale grocery business.
In Masonic circles Mr. Woodard is well known and is a Knight Templar Mason and also be- longs to the Mystic Shrine at New Bern, North Carolina. He has been active in Odd Fellowship for many years and has served as deputy grand master of the order in North Carolina and on May 15, 1917, became grand master. He be- longs also to the Travelers Protective Association and the Junior Order of United American Me- chanics. In local polities he has been a hearty worker for progress and reform and for six years served as alderman of his ward.
WESLEY NORWOOD JONES of Raleigh has gained some of the high honors and dignities of his profes- sion as a lawyer and of active participation in the civic and social affairs of his home state.
He was born in Wake County, July 2, 1852, a son of Wesley M. and Leasy (Norwood) Jones. His father was a substantial farmer and the son grew up on the farm with the environment of the country. He attended public schools and graduated A. B. from Wake Forest College in 1879. He finished his studies in Strong's Law School and
was admitted to the bar in 1880. Since then for more than thirty-five years he has been engaged in a general practice at Raleigh, and for a number of years has had his choice of a large and select legal business.
Again and again he has been called upon to serve the interests of his community and the state. He was at one time commissioner of labor of North Carolina, for several terms was an alder- man of Raleigh, was chairman of the dispensary board for Raleigh for two years, and for ten years was commissioner of charity for the state. He is now attorney and vice president of the Raleigh Bank & Trust Company and attorney of the Mechanics Savings Bank, and is legal adviser and attorney for Wake Forest College.
Mr. Jones is a member of the Raleigh Country Club, the Raleigh Cemetery Association, is a deacon in the First Baptist Church, is ex-president of the North Carolina State Convention, and is president of the board of trustees of Meridith College.
In February, 1887, he married Miss Sallie Bailey, daughter of Rev. C. T. Bailey. They are the parents of three children, Annie B., Sallie W. and William Bailey Jones. Sallie W. is the wife of Wade M. Gallant, who lives at Raleigh but his duties as an electric engineer call him all over the states of North and South Carolina and Georgia.
WILBERT HUGH YOUNG for nearly twenty years has been active in business, public and civic af- fairs, generally at Durham. He was educated for the law, but owing to his health failing him near the close of his college work, he followed the practice for only a short while.
Mr. Young was born near Cary, Wake County, North Carolina, September 6, 1874. His birth- place was at his father's farm. He is the young- est son of William and Martha Adams Young.
His father having died while he was quite small and his mother being left with six small children, with only limited means of support, it fell to his lot to make largely his own way in the world.
While a small boy he attended the public schools in his native county. With a determination and being inspired by his mother, who was not able to offer financial aid, at the age of nineteen he entered Elon College, in which institution he spent nearly three and one-half years. While at Elon Mr. Young was a very active member of the Philologian Literary Society, and it was while thus associated that he became interested and wished for all poor boys the opportunity to obtain an education.
So to him is due the honor of promoting and organizing what is known as The Loan Fund of the Phi Society at Elon College, which has made possible the education of quite a large number of poor boys.
After this he studied law at the university and obtained his license to practice in 1898. Having failed to follow the practice because of bad health, as before stated, he engaged in farming for a short time, and upon partially regaining his health he entered the mercantile business and for about six years was numbered among the most active merchants of Durham. Following this he was connected with the Durham Loan and Trust Company of Durham for about two years. He has always shown an active interest in school matters and things of public enterprise in his community.
On February 27, 1900, he was married to Miss
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Annie Clark, of Durham. Their family consists of seven children: Vernon Victor, Foye Louise, Margaret Urdine, Claiborne Clark, William H., Jr., Adam Deronda and Kenneth Wharton.
In November, 1916, Mr. Young was elected clerk of the Superior Court of Durham County. In July, 1917, he was one of the organizers and was elected the first secretary and treasurer of the Association of Superior Court Clerks of the state. This is an organization that promises some substantial results through the active association of all the court clerks of the state, and by inter- change and co-operation improving the general standard of service.
HENRY CLAY MCQUEEN. An outstanding figure in North Carolina's financial and business affairs for many years, Henry Clay McQueen was one of the useful citizens of this state who took up arms at the time of the war between the states and fought gallantly for the South until the cessation of hostilities. For a quarter of a century he has been prominent in the banking and finan- cial life of Wilmington.
Mr. McQueen was born at Lumberton, North Carolina, July 16, 1846, a son of Dr. Edmund and Susan Ann (Moore) McQueen. He came of a family of honorable and influential connections and was well educated, attending the Bingham School at Oaks and Hillsboro Military Academy.
When only seventeen years of age he entered the Confederate army as a private in Company D of the First Battalion Heavy Artillery, North Carolina Volunteers, in 1863, and was with the fighting troops of the state until June, 1865. At Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in January, 1865, he was wounded and taken prisoner.
After the war he identified himself with busi- ness affairs, and in 1893 entered banking at Wilmington.
Mr. McQueen has been president of the Murchi- son National Bank of Wilmington since 1899, and is president of the Bank of Duplin at Wallace, president of the Carolina Insurance Company of Wilmington, vice president of the Jefferson Stan- dard Life Insurance Company of Greensboro, chairman of the board of directors of the Peoples Savings Bank of Wilmington, and director and treasurer of the Wilmington, Brunswick & South- ern Railroad Company.
He has taken an active part in public affairs, though almost entirely his service has been in those offices that carry heavy responsibilities with no remuneration. For many years he was com- missioner of the sinking fund of Wilmington and was formerly president of the Produce Exchange of that city. He is a democrat, a member of the Presbyterian Church, and belongs to the Cape Fear Club. Mr. McQueen married at Asheville, North Carolina, November 9, 1871, Miss Mary Agnes Hall, who passed away in 1904, leaving two daughters, Sue Moore McQueen and Agnes Mc- Queen, now Mrs. William P. Emerson, with two boys, W. P. Emerson, Jr., and Henry McQueen Emerson.
SIDNEY GRAHAM MEWBORN was for a number of years actively engaged in general practice of law at Wilson, but in later years his time and abilities have been more and more taken up with official duties and with banking. He is a success- ful and highly able financier, and the energy ac- cumulated in his youth on a farm and from sev- eral generations of hard working and rugged an-
cestors he has applied to achievement in profes- sional and commercial affairs.
Mr. Mewborn was born on his father's farm in Greene County, North Carolina, November 8, 1868, son of Levi Jesse Hardy and Ruth ( Whitted) Mewborn. His father was a man of influence in Greene County and at one time represented that district in the Legislature and was a member of the County Board of Education.
Sidney Graham Mewborn received his early ed- ucation in the public schools, and subsequently entered the law department of the University of North Carolina, where he was graduated in Aug- ust, 1895. From that year until 1906 he prac- ticed actively at Wilson and then was made clerk of the Superior Court of Wilson County. He was engaged in those official duties until August, 1915, when he was elected president of the Branch Banking and Trust Company. He now gives all his time to banking and keeps a law office only for the transaction of an office practice. In 1895 Mr. Mewborn was elected a member of the Leg- islature from Greene County. He is a member of the Wilson Country Club, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, the Royal Arcanum, and is an elder in the Disciples Church.
He was married April 19, 1904, to Miss Ava Gray, of Lenoir County, North Carolina. They have one daughter, Ava Mewborn.
ISAAC A. PIKE has long been an industrious citizen of Western North Carolina, was a successful farmer many years, and is now engaged in his business as a building contractor at Winston-Salem.
His family and all his connections have been identified with North Carolina since pioneer times. Mr. Pike was born near the Virginia line in Stokes County, North Carolina, July 22, 1857. His grandfather was named Isaac Pike and was a resident of Stokes County. His father, Gabriel Pike, was born in Stokes County and was a natural mechanic, having an ability to handle almost any kind of tools. He learned the trade of black- smith and carriage making, and was busily engaged in those occupations until the outbreak of the war in 1861. He then enlisted in the Fife and Drum Corps for the Confederate army, but was stricken with fever just before ready to leave home and died. He married Frances Fry, who survived her husband about two years. She left two sons, Wil- liam J. and Isaac A. William is now living at Damascus, Virginia.
At the death of his mother Isaac A. Pike went to live with an uncle, John Fry. From the age of nine until fourteen he lived with this uncle's daughter in Patrick County, Virginia. He had limited advantages in the way of schooling and is strictly a self-made man. Returning to Stokes County at the age of fourteen, he worked on a farm a part of the year and the rest of the seasou sold tobacco. It was his custom to start ont with a wagon and team from Stokes County and make long journeys through South Carolina, peddling tobacco on the road. This business he kept up for a number of years and from its proceeds he bought in 1882 a farm in Surry County. There he pros- pered as a general farmer and went steadily ahead with his work until 1901. In that year he sold his Surry County place and bought another farm in Stokes County. With the operation of this place he was concerned for six years.
Mr. Pike then removed to Winston-Salem and for about five years worked as a journeyman
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carpenter, and from that entered the contracting business, which he has continued successfully to the present time.
In 1882, the year he bought his farm in Surry County, Mr. Pike married Laura E. Boyles, daugh- ter of John Henry and Sarah (Needham) Boyles. Her great-grandfather was Hughey Boyles, a native or North Carolina and of very early Scotch ancestry. He owned and occupied a farm in Yadkin Township of Surry County. He married Miss Hughes, and both lived to old age and reared five sons, Noah, Alexander, Solomon, Carey and William. Alexander Boyles, grandfather of Mrs. Pike, was born in Yadkin Township of Stokes County, May 7, 1813, was reared on a farm and inherited part of his father's estate and subse- quently bought a farm adjoining that. He was successfully engaged in farming and spent all his life in Yadkin Township, where he died at the age of sixty-four. His wife, who died at the age of seventy-two, was Nancy Culler. She was born in Yadkin Township of Stokes County, a daughter of Joseph and Sally (Moser) Culler, both natives and life long residents of Stokes County. Alex- ander Boyles and wife reared ten children: John Henry, Robert, Julia, Annie, Sarah, Irena, Solomon, Louisa, Mary and Pauline. Mrs. Pike's father, John Henry Boyles, was born on a farm in Yadkin Township June 12, 1838, and after he reached manhood he received a tract of land from his father in Surry County. He located upon that place in 1853, and by purchase of additional land acquired a somewhat extensive estate. During the war he was detailed by the Confederate Government to work at the iron forges in Surry County. With the close of hostilities he resumed farming and remained a resident of Surry County until 1914, when he sold his possessions there and came to Winston-Salem, where he is now living retired. He was married in 1858 to Sarah Needham, who was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, in June, 1836. Her parents were Rev. James and Hannah (Frazier) Needham. Rev. James Need- ham was converted in his youth, and after being licensed to preach joined the North Carolina Con- ference and was active in the ministry for seventy- six years. He was born in Randolph County and moved from there to Surry County. The last text from which he preached was taken from the last chapter in the Bible. This venerable minister died in his hundredth year. John Henry Boyles and wife reared nine children: Laura, Lucy, William, Isaac S., Frank, David F., Edna, Jennie and Nealy. Mrs. Pike's parents were very active members of the Missionary Baptist Church and reared all their children in the same faith. Her father was a deacon in the church for forty years.
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