USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 40
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107
Major Bolles remained in the Confederate serv- ice during the entire period of the war, but soon afterward was doing duty for the United States. For many years he was with the navy in hydro- graphic and scientific work. Some of these years ยท were spent with Captain, afterwards Admiral. Philip, especially known to fame as commander of
the Texas in the Spanish-American war. With Captain Philip, Major Bolles did special work along the Pacinc from Mare Island southward to the l'anama, and he made a great many hydro- graphic charts of the Pacific from his own sound- ings. His technical skill and highly specialized knowledge in making soundings received the most generous commendations from Captain Philip and the higher officials of the navy department. On these expeditions he also made astronomical ob- servations and was constantly employed in some phase of scientific investigation. As a diversion, and illustrating his unusual talents in other direc- tions, he made a large number of pencil drawings, many of them touched up with water colors, of scenes in wild and unknown places of the tropics. He was so modest about all of his work that he kept these exclusively beautiful drawings among his private papers, and they were only discovered after his death.
In the later years of his life he was stationed at Washington in the hydrographic department of the navy. Here his special duty was to correct and issue all charts furnished to ships of the United States Navy before going on a cruise. When the Atlantic Squadron was sent on its famous cruise around the world a dozen years ago Major Bolles made the charts that were issued to all of these vessels. It was not alone his great skill and knowledge which secured for him the admiration of the staff of the hydrographic department, but he was personally beloved and esteemed by his co-ordinates on account of the kindly fatherly in- terest he showed in their welfare and in their work.
Few men find it in their power or inclination to continue work into the deepening shadows of old age so long as Major Bolles. When he finally parted with his friends and severed his cherished associations with his charts and instruments at Washington he was eighty-four years and seven months old, and even then he resigned only at the earnest solicitation of his children. In response to his resignation the secretary of the navy wrote him a letter expressing regret and stating that Major Bolles had the best record of any man in the naval department in respect to length of serv- ice, efficiency and punctuality. Although his duties in the navy kept him away from his family for long periods he always considered his home at Wil- mington, and to that city he returned after his resignation.
Major Bolles married for his first wife Eliza Walker. On her mother's side she was the grand- daughter of Gen. Thomas Davis, who commanded the famous Fayetteville Independent Light In- fantry during the War of 1812. Maj. John Walker, father of Mrs. Eliza Bolles, was an officer in the War of 1812 and was the nephew of Col. Jack Walker, aide to General Washington in the Revo- lution. Maj. John Walker in his day owned great bodies of land devoted to rice and cotton cul- ture on the Lower Cape Fear, including Smith's Island. Major Bolles by his first marriage had two children, John Walker Bolles and Miss Han- nah Pattison Bolles. Their mother died at Fay- etteville in 1862, where Major Bolles was stationed at the time as an officer of the Confederacy.
In 1873 he married Louise (DeBrutz) Reston, who survives him and makes her home in Wil- mington. Mrs. Bolles is a daughter of Dr. Joseph and Catharine (Beck) DeBrutz, the former a na- tive of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and son of Gabriel de Brutz. Gabriel de Brutz, a native of
150
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
France, was a French naval officer and came to America with the French expeditionary forces to aid the cause of the Revolution. He was at the Battle of Yorktown with General Lafayette and was wounded there. After the war he remained in America, locating at Fayetteville, North Carolina. He found a bride in this country, the talented Deborah Montgomery, daughter of John Montgom- ery, who commanded the American forces in the Battle of Alamance, North Carolina, May 16, 1771. A brother-in-law of John Montgomery was John Wilcox, another American officer who gained re- nown in the Revolutionary period, Dr. Joseph DeBrutz was a graduate of the University of North Carolina, became a successful physician, and prior to the war moved to Alabama, locating at Demopolis, where his danghter, Louise, was born.
The five children of Maj. and Mrs. Louise Bolles are: Dr. Charles Pattison Bolles; Mary Mont- gomery Wilcox, wife of Dr. Andrew H. Harris; Edith Hemenway, wife of Dr. B. R. Graham; Frederick DeBrutz Bolles; and Miss Bessie Bolles.
CHARLES PATTISON BOLLES, M. D. During the twenty years since he graduated from medical col- lege Doctor Bolles has proved his attainments and successful ability in a difficult and most exacting profession in such a manner as to justify the name which he bears and his honored and dis- tinguished ancestry.
Doctor Bolles was born at Wilmington, the city of his present residence, on February 18, 1874, a son of Major Charles Pattison and Mary Louise (DeBrutz) Bolles. A review of the life and achievements of the late Major Bolles is contained in a separate article.
Doctor Bolles was educated in the public schools of Wilmington, in the University of Virginia, from the medical department of which he graduated in 1897, and further took post-graduate work for one year at Cornell University. Then followed a resi- dence of several years in New York City, where unusual opportunities and experience awaited him. He was connected with the New York Health Department in contagious disease work, and was also associated with the Roosevelt Hospital and the Good Samaritan Dispensary. Later he served a period as house surgeon at St. Joseph's Hos- pital at Providence, Rhode Island, and from that city returned to Wilmington in 1901. In Wilming- ton he devoted a year to the work of the City Hos- pital before taking up private practice.
Doctor Bolles is a widely known specialist in obstetrics and diseases of women, a branch of the profession for which his long and serious study and experience have admirably equipped him for successful work. He is a member of the New Hanover County Medical Society, which he has served as president, of the North Carolina State Medical Society, is a fellow of the American Med- ical Association and is a member of the New York Geriatric Society, whose limited membership is made of physicians interested in or specialists in treating the diseases of old age. Doctor Bolles is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
He married for his first wife Abbie Ellis Chad- win, of Wilmington. She became the mother of four children: Blanche Chadwin, James, Charles Pattison. 3d. and Marie Louise. Doctor Bolles married for his present wife Miss Christine Black. They have one daughter, Mary.
HENRY BLOUNT BEST, M. D. To lead an hon- orable and useful life is undoubtedly the aim of
every young man of character as he enters trade, business or profession, and that this is a most cherished ambition of those who make choice of medicine as a career is certain. They enter upon no easy, flower-strewn path when they take np this science and, thongh professional eminence and great emoluments may come to them in time, they will be called upon to earn them through physical endurance and unbelievable strain of mind and spirit. The physicans in a community are recognized to be the most progressive, de- pendable and representative citizens, and one of this class who occupies a position of esteem and confidence at Wilson, North Cholina, is Dr. Henry Blount Best.
Henry Blount Best was born April 30, 1883, in Greene County, North Carolina, and is a son of Thomas Hayward and Mary (Blount) Best. Thomas H. Best was a business man and for many years was a traveling salesman. His death oc- enrred in 1915.
When twelve years old Henry B. Best ac- companied his parents to Wilson and practically this pleasant city has been his home ever since. He attended a well known private school here for two years before entering the University of North Carolina, and was graduated from the medical department of this institution in 1907 and imme- diately afterward established himself in prac- tice at Wilson, where he has built up a profes- sional reputation.
Doctor Best has shown great interest in the Wilson County Medical Society and worked hard for its success. He has held all the offices in the society, has been its president and for four years was secretary and treasurer, and also has been treasurer of the Fourth District Medical Society of Wilson County, and is a member also of the North Carolina State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. In all these or- ganizations he is a leading spirit and is ever on the alert concerning modern discoveries in his beloved science. He takes merely a good citi- zen's interest in politics and has never accepted any political office except that of city physician, in which he served faithfully and effectively.
Doctor Best is a member of the First Metho- dist Episcopal Church and belongs to the Baraca- hee class connected with this church. Frater- ually he has long been identified with the Wood- men of the World and the Odd Fellows, and re- tains membership in his old college Greek letter fraternities, the Phi Delta Theta and the Phi Chi. He believes in moderate recreation for every one, even the hard-worked physician, and in a reasonable amount of outdoor sport, and values his membership highly in the Country and the Rotary clubs.
WALTER A, MONTGOMERY. While many of the highest honors of his profession and public life have been showered upon him in the past half cen- tury, the distinctive part of Judge Montgomery 's long career was his brilliant service as a boy soldier in the Confederate army during the war between the states.
Born at Warrenton, North Carolina, February 17, 1845, he was only sixteen when he enlisted in 1861 as a private in Company E of the North Caro- lina First Cavalry. A month later he was dis- charged because of physical disability. Within ten days, however, he had again enlisted, this time
151
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
in Company A of the Second North Carolina In- fantry. With that organization he remained throughout the struggle of the war and at the end of four years, coming home a veteran, he was still under age. The Second Regiment was known after its reorganization in May, 1862, as the Twelfth North Carolina Infantry and its service was with the army of Northern Virginia. In 1862 Mr. Montgomery was promoted to sergeant, and in the fall of 1864 became second lieutenant of Company F, formerly Company A. He was in the Battle of Hanover Courthouse in May, 1862, at Fredericksburg in December, 1862, and partici- pated in the sanguinary Battle of Chancellorsville, where he was wounded, and at Brandy Station on the 9th of June, 1863. A month later he fought on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, and there again was wounded. In the closing month of that year he was at Kelly's Ford, and Mine Run. In 1864 he participated in the battles of the Wild- erness, Spottsylvania Court House, Winchester and Belle Grove. He was at the Hatches Run battle on the 6th of February, 1865, and in March, 1865, he was in the trenches at Petersburg. He partici- pated in the famous sortie under General Gordon on March 25, 1865, and was in the fight at Sailor's Creek on the 6th day of April, 1865. He followed with the armies of Lee until the surrender at Ap- pomattox, where he was paroled.
After the war Judge Montgomery took up his studies at Warrenton Academy and in June, 1867, was admitted to the bar. He began practice at Warrenton, was a member of the bar at Memphis, Tennessee, in 1873-75, but with that exception has spent all his professional career in his native state.
In 1894 Mr. Montgomery was elected associate justice to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Bench and in 1896 was elected for the full term of eight years.
On the 27th of September, 1871, Mr. Montgom- ery and Miss Lizzie Wilson, of Salem, Virginia, were married at Roanoke, Virginia. There are two children of the marriage, Walter A., who is now professor of Latin at Richmond College, Virginia, and Elizabeth, who now resides with her father and mother at Raleigh, North Carolina.
WILLARD FRANKLIN TROGDON. In North Wilkes- boro very little inquiry is needed to establish the fact that the citizen who is credited with the most important constructive enterprise in the founding and upbuilding of that commercial and civic center is Willard Franklin Trogdon, whose work and influence justify more than a local reputation. North Carolina is a very old state, and therefore Mr. Trogdon is one of the few living men who can be credited with the founding of an important town. He has been a very successful business man, and has used his means and personal influence largely to advance and extend the prosperity of his home community. It is said between 1900 and 1910 he spent of his own means $50,000 building up and advertising North Wilkesboro, thereby causing the population to more than double in ten years.
Mr. Trogdon was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, February 5, 1854, a son of Solo- mon. F. and Dorcas Aretta (Odell) Trogdon, grandson of Samuel Trogdon, great-grandson of Samuel M. Trogdon and great-great-grandson of William Trogdon. His father, Solomon Franklin Trogdon, born July 17, 1828, married his second consin, Dorcas Aretta Odell, April 10, 1853, and died September 19, 1860, before the beginning of the Civil war. His mother, Mrs. Dorcas Aretta
(Odell) Trogdon-Swain, is still living at the ad- vanced age of ninety years. She is a member of the well known Odell family of this state. Her brother, Wm. B. Odell of Iowa and J. A. Odell, founder of the Odell Hardware Company of Greensboro, and another brother, Major Laban Odell was killed at the battle of Chancellorsville, Va., and another brother, J. M. Odell, pioneer cotton manufacturer and banker of Concord. The ancestors of the Odells came to this state from the State of New York. The Trogdon generations have been large land and slave owners in Ran- dolph County, North Carolina, since long before the Revolutionary war.
Willard Franklin Trogdon has only one brother, Cicero Laban Trogdon, born February 26, 1857. He has never married but is a very successful farmer, owning the old Trogdon-Odell-Trogdon Farm near Millboro, North Carolina, which has been in the family for more than 150 years. Mr. Trogdon's twice widowed mother lives with her son, Cicero, in her ninetieth year, where she has lived nearly all of her life. Mr. Trogdon's grandmother on his father's side was Susan Ferree from near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His grand- mother on his mother's side was Anna Trogdon, daughter of Solomon Trogdon, original owner of the Trogdon-Odell-Trogdon Farm. Mr. Trogdon's widowed mother, Dorcas Aretta (Odell) Trogdon, married Joshua Swain February 1, 1866, by whom she had one daughter, Nancy Jane Swain, now the wife of Rev. C. F. Sherrill, of the Western North Carolina Methodist Conference. To this union have been born five children, Ollie Lenoir, Nannie Belle, Frank, Charles M. and James Edgar. Of the above Sherrill children, Nannie Belle mar- ried J. D. Lineberger, of Shelby, North Carolina, by whom she has two children, viz .: John Trogdon and Sherrill Munday.
Willard Franklin Trogdon grew up at the old Trogdon homestead, a farm two miles east of Mill- boro in Randolph County. In that environment he lived until he was sixteen, and then going to Greensboro, made his home with his uncle J. A. Odell, head of the big wholesale hardware firm which bears his name, one of the leading concerns of its kind in the South. Mr. Trogdon worked as a clerk in his uncle's establishment and later be- came a traveling salesman. For twenty-two years he was on the road in the South Atlantic states, selling confectionery, representing Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York houses. For two years of this time he traveled for E. Larribee & Son, wholesale leather and tannery products of Balti- more, with a large tannery in West Virginia.
In 1890 Mr. Trogdon left the road and became secretary and treasurer of the Winston Land & Improvement Company of Winston, now Winston- Salem. Acting in this position he became the active promoter in establishing for his company the new town of North Wilkesboro. In that year, 1890, he and his associates bought something over a thousand acres of land in Wilkes County on the Yadkin River, where the Town of North Wilkes- boro now stands. More than ten miles of streets were laid out and graded, other improvements made, and the place was christened North Wilkes- boro. The railroad, now the North Wilkesboro branch of the Southern System, was just then being completed. Mr. Trogdon entered vigorously into the work of building up and developing this promising new site, and he can tell more of the early history of North Wilkesboro than any other man.
152
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Some years ago Mr. Trogdou had occasion to address himself to the publie and recall some of the interesting early things in connection with the transactions and activities that brought about the establishment of North Wilkesboro. From what he wrote at the time some seutences are quoted for their historical value.
"In June, 1890, I came to Wilkes county by team, prospecting for a site on which to build a town. A railroad was then being built along up the north side of the Yadkin River from Winston to a point one mile north of Wilkesboro, on the opposite side of the river. I immediately began negotiations for the purchase of the farms at aud near the proposed terminus of this, Wilkes couuty's only railroad. During the summer and fall of 1890, G .. W. Hinshaw and I secured $125,000 worth of subscriptions to the capital stock of the corporation, which Mr. Hinshaw had had chartered under the name of the Winston Land & Improvement Company. On November 30, 1890, the Winston Land & Improvement Company was organized by the election of a board of directors, who elected G. W. Hinshaw president and W. F. Trogdon secretary and treasurer, for the purpose of completing purchases of the above farm lands aud building thereon a town. The purchases were completed, and in November, 1890, I immediately entered upon my duties as secretary and treasurer of the company and in addition thereto had , general supervision of the entire development of the town. The company spent more than $200,000 in the work of a staff of engineers. in surveying and laying out the land into streets and blocks, in establishing grades of streets, grading ten miles of highway, building bridges, and in erecting the first structures of the new town. The first lot was sold January 10, 1891, and the first general lot auction sale was held December 4, 1891. The town was incorporated as the town of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, by an Act of the General Assembly March 4, 1891, On April 30, 1891, the town government was for- mally organized and a postoffice was established in September, 1891. The railroad was completed to North Wilkesboro in August, 1890."
.
In addition to handling the formidable array of duties imposed upon him by The Winston Land and Improvement Company Mr. Trogdon was also at the head of the American, Home, Mineral & Timber Land Company, the North Wilkesboro Publishing Company, The State Company, the Wilkes Industrial Company, in all which he owned ninety per cent of all the capital stock, and he personally became owner and builder of one- third of the brick buildings in the town and many of the dwelling houses. From the first he utilized his individual position and the companies with which he was connected in making North Wilkesboro a center of industry. It is said that his name is attached to ninety per cent of the deeds for town lots in North Wilkesboro. Mr. Trogdon assisted very materially in establishing the Bank of North Wilkesboro and was one of its first stockholders. He is still one of the largest property owners of that city. He was one of the owners and publishers of the North Wilkesboro News, the first newspaper published in North Wilkesboro, and later became sole owner and editor.
In addition to the building operations and other developments thus briefly noted, Mr. Trogdon had constantly in mind the plan for the location of some substantial manufacturing industry that
would put the town upon a solid foundation of prosperity. When he was with the leather firm mentioned above he had been impressed with the importance of the tanning industry. It now occurred to him that the enormous quantities of chestnut oak bark in the region surrounding North Wilkesboro would make the new town an ideal location for a large taunery. He accordingly wrote to Messrs. Lees & McViddy, tanners of Philadelphia, to know if they could locate a tannery here. Mr. McViddy of that firm came to North Wilkesboro, investigated, found the con- ditious satisfactory, but subsequently on account of failure to make satisfactory arrangements as to freight rates with the railroad company, decided not to establish a tannery. After this failure Mr. Trogdon entered into uego- tiations with the C. C. Smoot Sons' Company, a large tannery concern of Alexandria, Virginia. After investigation they decided to locate a plant. The Smoot tannery was thus established in North Wilkesboro and it has remained the backbone of the town's industrial and commercial life. It is one of the largest tanneries in the country, and is today one of the big southern industries.
Following this important achievement furniture factories and other woodworking plants were located at North Wilkesboro, and these, together with wholesale houses and industries, combine to make the town one of the leading industrial and commercial centers of North Carolina. North Wilkesboro is the center of a large and rich terri- tory, extending up and down the Yadkin Valley and into the mountain counties of the northwest part of the state. Its geographical situation is most fortunate, and with the groundwork of its industry so carefully laid by Mr. Trogdon the town has a future promise not exceeded by any other locality in the state.
As a matter of historical record the original officers of The Winston Land and Improvement Company should be named. They were: Col. G. W. Hinshaw, president; W. F. Trogdon, secretary and treasurer; P. H. Hanes, Col. F. H. Fries and Dr. W. L. Brown of Winston-Salem, Col. J. M. Wiustead of Greensboro, Channing M. Bolton ot Washington, D. C., and A. A. Finley, directors. In the course of time Mr. Trogdon bought the interest of the other stockholders, and now for some years has been president of the company and practically its sole owner. In 1903 he established the Deposit & Savings Bank, owning a majority of its stock, was its president for more than seven years. On November 19, 1910, on account of his numerous other interests needing his attention, Mr. Trogdon sold a majority of the stock of the Deposit & Savings Bank to Con- gressman R. L. Doughton, who became its presi- dent.
An important feature of his business has always been the handling of real estate, and the fact that he was first on the ground gives him a kuowledge of real estate values and opportunities that has been the means of constituting a splendid service in every local transaction with which he has had to do.
Naturally Mr. Trogdon has been brought iuto close touch with local affairs to as great an extent as his time and inclinations would permit. He has served as town commissioner and as mayor of North Wilkesboro, and for four years was a couuty commissioner of Wilkes County and chairman of the board. In politics he is a republican. Some
153
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
years ago he built at the corner of D and Eighth streets a home that is said to be the finest resi- dence in Wilkes County.
Mr. Trogdon is now president of the North Wilkesboro Building and Loan Association, suc- ceeding Col. J. C. Smoot two years ago and before that for twelve years he had been vice president and was one of the original promoters and organizers of the association. This organiza- tion has done much for the building up of the town. Mr. Trogdon was one of the founders and for many years the principal advertiser and up- builder of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, for which service mention is due. The Trogdon family is a very old and honorable one both in this country and England. The records in the Ulver- stone region of England on July 23, 1546, show the christening of one of the family. There were in this the northern part of England about this time some thirty or forty families of this name. The name was spelled variously "Trogdon, Troughton, Troghton, Troughtown and Trouton. "
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.