USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 50
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It was in 1882 that Mr. Erwin first became identified with the business which has brought him in a large way in close touch with the indus- trial life of the state. From that year until 1893 he was treasurer and general manager of the E. M. Holt Plaid Mills in Alamance County. Since 1893 Mr. Erwin's home has been at West Durham, where he built the large Erwin Cotton Mills.
Mr. Erwin directs the operation of a very large cotton Mill interest in the State of North Caro- lina. Under his leadership and control are the following: The four mills of the Erwin Cot- ton Mills Company, namely Nos. 1 and 4 Mills at West Durham, containing 75,000 spindles, 903 narrow and 1,030 broad looms; the Erwin Cot- ton Mill No. 2 at Duke, containing 35,000 spin- dles and 1,024 looms; the Erwin Cotton Mill No. 3 at Cooleemee, containing 48,000 spindles and 1,296 looms; the Durham Cotton Manufac- turing Company, East Durham, 24,000 spindles and 820 looms; Pearl Cotton Mill, East Durham, 11,000 spindles and 248 looms; Oxford Cotton Mills, Oxford, 6,200 spindles; and the Locke Cot- ton Mills Company, Concord, 35,000 spindles and 976 looms. These mills altogether employ a cap- ital of about $10,000,000, and in the aggregate form a large part of the industrial resources of the state.
For more than thirty years Mr. Erwin has, without interruption, given devoted service as su- perintendent to the Sunday schools of Burling- ton and West Durham, and is one of the strong- est and most influential laymen in the South of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
On October 23, 1889, Mr. Erwin married Sadie L. Smedes, daughter of Aldert Smedes, D. D., founder of St. Mary's Episcopal School at Ra- leigh. Mr. and Mrs. Erwin have four children, three daughters and one son. The oldest daugh-
ter, Bessie Smedes, married Hon. Hamilton C. Jones, an attorney of Charlotte, North Carolina. The second daughter, Margaret Locke, married James W. Glenn, of Winston-Salem, North Car- olina, and youngest daughter, Sarah Lyell, mar- ried Hargrove Bellamy, of Wilmington, North Carolina, now first lieutenant of infantry in the American army in France. Their only son, Wil- liam Allen Erwin, Jr., in March, 1917, married Miss Haffye Louise Barton, of Florida, and after having occupied a responsible position with the Erwin Cotton Mills Company, has recently vol- unteered and is now in the Officers Training School of the United States Army at Camp Jack- son, Columbia, South Carolina. Each of the daugh- ters of Mr. and Mrs. Erwin embody the highest type of Southern womanhood and the son has proven himself a worthy son of high ideals and noble ambitions.
COL. ALEXANDER BOYD ANDREWS was born in Franklin County, North Carolina, July 23, 1841, and died at his home in Raleigh April 17, 1915. He lived nearly seventy-four years. He was a brave soldier in the war between the states, and for nearly half a century after the war was identified with railway extension and management, with banking and other large business affairs.
His career throughout was constructive. To tell the story of his life in full would involve a detailed reference to many of the important depart- ments of the state's industrial system and organization. It is said that he built more miles of railway in North Carolina than any other individual, and in building it his primary purpose was the solid and substantial development of the state's resources and he was never actuated by the spirit of exploitation and speculation which have been impelling motives with so many capita- lists. All his work was closely connected with the development of the State, and no better proof of this can be found than in the following state- ment made by The State Journal of Raleigh at the time of his death: "It is a remarkable fact that out of the millions of dollars invested by the state of North Carolina in aiding railroad building, it has never lost a dollar invested in a railroad enterprise with which Colonel Andrews was ever connected, and has lost almost every dollar put into railroad building in which he had no in- terest."
He was not yet grown when the war broke out. The beginning of hostilities found him in South Carolina with his uncle Gen. P. B. Hawkins, engaged in the construction of the Blue Ridge Railway. Returning home he answered the call for volunteers, was appointed a second lieutenant of cavalry in May, 1861, promoted to first lieuten- ant in September and to captain in June, 1862. During the remainder of the war he served with the rauk of captain. At Upperville, Virginia, in June, 1862, he had a horse shot from under him, and in September, 1863, he was desperately wounded at Jack's Shop, Virginia. He was shot through the left lung and for several years after the war suffered from this injury aud it is believed that the immediate cause of his death was this old wound received more than half a century earlier.
After the war Colonel Andrews went to Weldon, North Carolina, and undertook a contract with the Petersburg Railroad to carry its freight and passengers across the Roanoke River to Gaston. All the bridges had been destroyed, and he held this contract for over a year. In July, 1867, he
F. D. M-Lean
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became superintendent of the Raleigh and Gaston Railway. From this time forward the responsi- bilities and duties placed upon him rapidly increased, but he had that genius which consisted in a growth of ability in proportion to the needs of accomplishment. For many years he was the real constructive genius of the Southern Railway System. He is given credit for having constructed the Western North Carolina Murphy branch, the North Carolina Midland Railway (the line from Winston-Salem to Mooresville), the Yadkin Rail- way, the High Point-Randleman-Asheboro and Southern Railroad, the Statesville and Western, between Statesville and Taylorsville, the North- western North Carolina from Pomona to North Wilkesboro, and a number of other short lines all now included in the Southern Railway System. For many years and up to the date of his death he was first vice president of the Southern Rail- way. An impressive tribute to his official posi- tion and to the splendid work he had performed for his corporation was the order that went out from the executive offices that every wheel on the Southern system and all work in shops and elsewhere should cease for five minutes at the time of his funeral.
Colonel Andrews for many years held the po- sition of vice president and director of the Citizens National Bank of Raleigh. He was the founder and from its beginning until his death was president of the Soldiers Home for Con- federate Veterans. He was a trustee of the Uni- versity of North Carolina. These and many other trusts were given him, and in every case he faithfully fulfilled every duty and considered every official position an opportunity for real personal service. He was an active member of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd at Raleigh, and a large concourse of his friends and of leading business men from all over the state and the South gathered to pay respect to his memory while Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire conducted the funeral service.
September 1, 1869, Colonel Andrews married Miss Julia M. Johnston, a daughter of Col. Wil- liam M. Johnston of Charlotte, North Carolina. Mrs. Andrews, who still lives in Raleigh, has five surviving children: W. J. Andrews, A. B. An- drews, Jr., John H. Andrews, Graham Andrews, all of Raleigh, and Mrs. W. M. Marks of Mont- gomery, Alabama.
GRAHAM HARRIS ANDREWS. A son of the late distinguished Col. Alexander Boyd Andrews, first vice president of the Southern Railway System, Graham Harris Andrews, has used the opportuni- ties that came to him by reason of the high posi- tion his father occupied in commercial affairs to render a valuable service on his own part to his native state.
Born at Raleigh, April 21, 1883, educated in the Raleigh Male Academy and graduating from the University of North Carolina, A. B. in 1903, he at once entered the employ of the Citizens National Bank as collector, and advanced through the various grades until July 5, 1913, he became cashier. He is also secretary, treasurer and director of the Raleigh Cotton Oil Company; director of the Raleigh Real Estate and Trust Company; vice president and dircetor of the Raleigh Savings Bank and Trust Company, an office his father held before him; director of the Atlantic Fire Insurance Company; director of the
Raleigh Building and Loan Association; and president of the Citizens Insurance Agency.
He is a man of many interests, is a trustee ot St. Mary's School and active as a member and senior warden of the Church of the Good Shep- herd, Protestant Episcopal, at Raleigh. He be- longs to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon college fra- ternity, the Capital Club, Country Club, and the Neuseco Fishing Club. Fraternally he is identi- fied with the Knights of Pythias and the Bencvo- lent and Protective Order of Elks.
November 6, 1907, Mr. Andrews married Eliza Humphrey Simmons of Newbern, North Carolina. Three children have been born to their union: Julia Johnston, Mary Simmons and Graham Harris, Jr.
HON. F. DAYTON MCLEAN. Among the fore- most men of Bladen County stands Hon. F. Day- ton McLean, ex-member of the State Legislature, . a prominent political leader, greatly interested in public education, concerned in the oil and cotton industries of this section, and the owner and op- erator of the old McLean homestead farm, on which he resides. Here he was born in 1862, and his parents were Duncan and Sallie (Singletary ) Mc- Lean.
The late Duncan McLean was born near Lilling- ton, Harnett County, North Carolina, and was a son of Lauchlin McLean, of Scotch ancestry, and a near kinsman of Hon. Dan Hugh McLean, who still resides at Lillington. Duncan McLean mar- ried Sallie Singletary, who was a daughter of Joshua Singletary, of Bladen County, and a de- scendant of one of the earliest families here, the date of their advent being about the same as the Robeson family, in 1721. Col. Thomas Robeson, for whom Robeson County was named, married a Sallie Singletary, her family being of Welsh de- scent. Years before the outbreak of the war be- tween the states Duncan McLean came from Har- nett to Bladen County and settled in the extreme southwestern part, near the Robeson County line, in what was known as the back woods of Bladen County. He cleared a farm out of the wilderness, 21% miles southwest of Bladenboro, and spent his life there.
During boyhood F. Dayton McLean attended private schools, but in 1885 he went to Lexington, in Davidson County, and as a student entered the Southern Normal School, which had been estab- lished that year, and completed the teachers' course, and the next three years were spent in teaching school in Bladen and Robeson counties. While this quiet, peaceful vocation did not prepare him very well for military duty, nevertheless when the Spanish-American war came on he was found ready to assume his patriotic duty and enlisted in the famous "Hornet's Nest Rifles," an organization that well deserved its name, which was commanded by Capt. T. R. Robertson, of Charlotte, and be- came a part of the First North Carolina Infantry, commanded by Colonel Armfield, of Statesville. The First North Carolina had the distinction of being the first American regiment to march through the streets of Havana, and Mr. McLean is justly proud of his connection with this organ- ization and of his own personal war record.
Since 1901 Mr. McLean has been engaged in farming on his old home place, but for ten years or more he was identified with the Butters Lumber Company, of Boardman, principally as engineer in that company 's extensive canal and drainage work
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in Columbus, Bladen and Robeson counties, a work of the greatest importance to this wide section and which has been carried on with extreme thorough- ness. A loyal supporter of home enterprises, Mr. McLean is interested in a number of the local in- dustries and is a member of the directing board of the Bladenboro Cotton Mill.
Since early manhood Mr. McLean has been more or less interested in politics, believing an earnest citizen's duty lies in that direction to some extent, and today he is recognized as a lead- ing factor in the democratic party in Bladen County. He has served usefully in many public offices, for several years being magistrate of his district, and also has been road overseer, school committeeman and deputy sheriff. He was fur- ther honored by his fellow citizens by election to the General Assembly and served through the ses-
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sions of 1907-8, and took a particularly active part in legislation affecting education and state- wide prohibition, being a most ardent advocate of . both causes. He made a highly creditable record and one greatly appreciated by his constituents. He lent especial aid in furthering the organization of the state high school system, and at present is a member of the county board of education, work- ing zealously for the establishment and advance- ment of the public schools and for sound public school advantages for the masses. A scholarly man himself, he has felt, more than many others, the great lack of educational privileges and consequent lamentable state of ignorance that may yet be found in a state that stands so well to the front among others of the South. His influence and efforts have not been without results. As a mem- ber of the county board he was mainly instru- mental in securing the building of the magnificent new school edifice at Bladenboro, which was com- pleted in 1917. It is a solid brick structure equipped with its own electric lights and with every modern invention suitable to first class school plants, with due regard to ventilation and sanita- tion, its cost being $30,000. The school has a farm of forty acres adjoining it, for farm life teaching, Mr. McLean being greatly in favor of vocational methods. Not only would he offer the youth of the country exceptional advantages and opportunities, but he would favor universal com- pulsory education. He takes an active part in all state educational organizations and assisted to found the State Teachers' Board of Education. Personally he is a man of engaging presence, genial and companionable, and in addition to his popularity in public affairs has a very wide circle of warm and appreciative personal friends.
Mr. McLean married into one of the very old and influential families of Bladen County, when Miss Lummie White, who is a daughter of James White, became his wife. They have had four chil- dren : Duncan, Sallie, F. Dayton and Dan Hugh. In the summer of 1917 sorrow came to the family circle through the accidental drowning of their un- usually bright and promising eldest son.
JAMES H. GREENWOOD. One of the more ex- tensive landholders of Western North Carolina, James H. Greenwood, of Elkin, Surry County, has made an excellent use of every offered opportunity, allowing nothing to escape him that might im- prove his chances of advancing his material in- terests or adding to the welfare of the community in which he resides. A son of Thomas Greenwood, he was born January 11, 1853, in Carroll County, Virginia. His grandfather, James Greenwood, a
native of the eastern part of Virginia, came from there to Yadkin County, this state, when young, and having purchased land in the Yadkin River Valley was there engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, while yet in manhood's prime.
One of a family consisting of seven sons and one daughter, Thomas Greenwood was born on the home farm in Knob Township, Yadkin County, and there was reared and educated. After his marriage, taking advantage of the cheap land in Virginia, he bought a tract in Carroll County, about six miles from Mount Airy, in Virginia, and there improved a farm. In 1870 he sold his land at an advanced price, and returning to Yadkin County purchased land in Knob Township, where he continued his agricultural labors. Very suc- cessful in his operations, he invested his money in other tracts of land, becoming owner of much valuable real estate, and was there a resident until his death, at the age of seventy-two years. His wife, whose maiden name was Belinda Burch, was born in Surry County, North Carolina, where her father, Isaac Burch, was a life-long farmer. She lived to the age of seventy-three years. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Greenwood reared eight children, as follows: Elizabeth, Plutina E., Sarah, James H., Johnnie, Houston, Tommie and Alice.
James H. Greenwood obtained his preliminary education in the rural schools of Virginia, later completing his studies at the Jonesville Academy in Yadkin County, this state. Leaving the home farm at the age of twenty-one years, he learned the photographer's art, which he followed for thirteen years, traveling in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, in each state being well patronized. Giving up his artistic work, Mr. Greenwood bought a farm in Knob Township, Yadkin County, in close proximity to Elkin, and there, in addition to carrying on general farming most profitably, estab- lished a distillery and a rectifying plant, both of which he operated for a number of years.
In 1897 Mr. Greenwood again made a wise in- vestment of his money, buying a farm situated about 11/2 miles below Elkin, and was there engaged in his favorite pursuit until 1913. In that year he erected his present attractive home, a large, mod- ernly constructed house, pleasantly located on East Main Street in Elkin, where he has since re- mained, a valued and esteemed citizen. Mr. Green- wood has extensive farming interests, having title to five farms lying in the vicinity of Elkin, three in Yadkin County, and to two others in Surry County, these estates being operated by nine ten- ants. In addition to these farms he is the owner of much valuable real estate in Elkin, and is ac- tively identified with its financial and business in- terests, being vice president of the Elkin National Bank and one of the directorate of the Elkin Furniture Company.
Mr. Greenwood married, at the age of twenty- two years, Harriet L. Dozier, who was born in Booneville, North Carolina, a daughter of Dr. Nathan Dozier. Mr. and Mrs. Greenwood are the parents of six children, namely: Mabel, Andrew, Maude, Bessie, James and Philip.
WILLIAM JORDAN THIGPEN, M. D., physician and surgeon at Tarboro, entered the profession with the qualifications of a thorough education. and profound natural talents and inclinations for his calling, and has become one of the best known members of the medical fraternity in Edgecombe County.
He was born on a farm in Edgecombe County
A
Ist. Stace
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June 5, 1875, son of Frank L. and Martha (Thig- pen) Thigpen. Much of his early education was supervised by the noted educator, Professor F. S. Wilkinson, and he began the study of medicine in the University of North Carolina, but finished in Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, where he graduated M. D. in May, 1900. Doc- tor Thigpen at once located and opened his of- fice at Tarboro and has had a large practice both in medicine and surgery. He is a former super- intendent of health of Edgecombe County, ex- county coroner, is a local surgeon of the Atlantic Coast Line Railway, is now president of the Edgecombe County Medical Society and a member of the staff of the Edgecombe General Hospital. He belongs to the Fourth District, the North Carolina State and Sea Board Medical societies and the American Medical Association.
Doctor Thigpen has served as a member of the board of aldermen of Tarboro, is a director of the Edgecombe Homestead & Loan Associ- ation. He is a Royal Arch Mason, a past master of the Masonic Lodge, and a member of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
October 7, 1903, he married Miss L. Virginia Gray, of Norfolk, Virginia. Mrs. Thigpen is a graduate nurse and practiced her profession before her marriage. They have three children: Virginia Gray, Martha and Annie Snow.
WALTER LYNDALL WATSON. Admitted to the bar in February, 1895, Walter Lyndall Watson has now been an active member of the Raleigh bar for more than twenty years. He is a prominent and successful lawyer, and has given conscientious care and skillful service to his large clientage.
In the line of his profession he has also rendered public service, having been city attorney of Raleigh for six years and police justice for twenty months until he resigned that office.
He was born in Johnson County, North Caro- lina, near Smithfield, November 30, 1870, a son of Henry Lyndall and Fannie Eliza (Moore) Wat- son. His father was a merchant. He was edu- cated in the Academy at Salem and in the Raleigh Male Academy and carried on his law studies privately until he was admitted to practice. He is an active democrat and for four years was chairman of the Wake County Board of Elections. Fraternally he is a Mason. June 28, 1911, Mr. Watson married Miss Lily Sherrod of High Point, North Carolina.
COL. GEORGE H. HALL, whose rank and title in- dicates his position in the United Confederate Veterans, Department of North Carolina, is pay- master general of the Army of Northern Virginia, United Confederate Veterans. He was a very small boy and one of the youngest Confederate soldiers. His life since the war has been spent in important business affairs. For many years he was in the lumber business in Eastern North Caro- lina and in later years has identified himself chiefly with agriculture in Robeson County. His home is at Red Springs.
Colonel Hall was born at Fayetteville in Cumber- land County, in 1847, a son of Egbert and Susan (Hodges) Hall. His father was born in Con- nectieut and was two years of age when the family moved to North Carolina and settled at Fayette- ville about 1830. Tho grandfather, John H. Hall, was a pioneer steamboat owner and operator on the Cape Fear River. For many years he was engaged in the extensive steamboat traffic between
Fayetteville and Wilmington which made Fay- etteville a great trading center before the war and before the building of railroads. John H. Hall was a man of typical New England industry and constructiveness. He built either the first or the second cotton mill in Fayetteville, and de- veloped an industry for the manufacture of cotton yarns on an extensive scale.
Not only in the paternal line did Colonel Hall inherit qualities of New England enterprise, but his maternal grandfather, George S. Hodges, was a distinguished eugineer of Virginia. He helped build the original Fortress Monroe in Virginia. Some years before the war he removed to Fayette- ville and superintended the construction of the Fayetteville arsenal. This arsenal was taken over by the citizen soldiery of Fayetteville at the be- ginning of the war between the states.
Colonel Hall was only sixteen years of age when he enlisted for service in the Confederate Army at Fayetteville. He joined Company B of the Thir- teenth Battalion of North Carolina Light Artil- lery, and made a most creditable record as a young soldier in the concluding months of the war. He was under the command of Col. J. B. Starr.
After the war he turned his attention to business affairs and for a number of years was active in the timber and naval stores business throughout East- ern North Carolina. Eventually he concentrated his energies upon lumbering and developed that upon an extensive scale both as a manufacturer and dealer. Since 1887 Colonel Hall has had his home at Red Springs. He owns a fine farm in Robeson County near Red Springs, and has given his active supervision to its cultivation. He is in- terested in other business affairs and is a man of substance and influence.
In the session of 1903 Colonel Hall represeuted Robeson County in the State Legislature. His name has frequently been before the people of the state in political action. Governor Vance gave him a commission in the North Carolina National Guard ' with the rank of lieutenant, and he was made a major in this service by Governor Jarvis.
Colonel Hall married Miss Delia B. Woodward, of Cumberland County. Their six children com- prise an interesting family : The names of the chil- dren are, George H., James M., Charles, a mem- ber of the United States Army and now in France, Miss Alice, David and William.
WILLIAM LAFAYETTE HORAH. An active, enter- prising and progressive business man of Salisbury, William L. Horah has contributed largely toward the advancement of the industrial and manufactur- ing interests of this section of the state, and as proprietor of the Meredith Hosiery Mill is num- bered among the leading manufacturers of the city. He was born in Salisbury, August 3, 1875, of dis- tinguished ancestry, being a lineal descendant of the immigrant ancestor, the line of descent being as follows: Henry, Hugh, William Henry, Rowan, and William Lafayette.
Henry Horah was born in Ireland, of Scotch ancestry. A brave and gallant young mau, he wooed and won fair Margaret Gardner, whose father, Lord Gardner, opposed the marriage. Iu consequence young Henry Horah, with his bride, came to America and settled as a pioneer in Rowan County, North Carolina, locating on a creek that was afterwards named in his honor. Securing a large tract of land, he improved the farm on which he and his wife spent their remaining years. They reared three children, Henry, Hugh and Esther.
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