USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 59
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The late John T. Spencer was born in Gaston County June 9, 1838, a son of William and Nancy Spencer. His birth place was iu the Olney Church neighborhood. What he accomplished during his long life was the more remarkable because of the absence of much of the training and influence which surround most boys in their homes. When he was eleven years of age his mother died. His father died during the war. At his mother's death he went to live with Andy Detter, in whose home he had a place until he was fourteen. Then. alone, and he weut west to Dardanelle in Yell County, Arkansas, and lived there until the out- break of the war.
The Confederacy had no more faithful aud gallant soldier than the late John T. Spencer. He enlisted in the First Arkansas Mounted Rifle- men, a scouting organization. During the first two years of the war he was engaged in the very dangerous and arduous service involved in the
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operations of the contending armies in northwest Arkansas, Missouri and Indian Territory. He had many thrilling experiences and narrow es- capes from death. He was at the battles of Boonville, Carthage, Athens and Willow Creek in Missouri, and at Pea Ridge in Arkansas. His command was subsequently transferred to the east side of the Mississippi and he took part in the battles of Corinth, Chickasaw Bayou, Stone River, Fort Gibson, Big Black River, Chicka- mauga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. During the Georgia campaign he was in the bat- tles of Resaca, New Hope Church, Kenesaw Moun- tain, Peach Tree Creek, the siege of Atlanta, and after the fall of that city went with Hood in the campaign through Tennessee. He participated in the bloody battles of Franklin and Nashville, and following that campaign his command was moved into North Carolina, and that part of the army with which he was connected surrendered at the close of the war at Jamestown. He was twice wounded, at the battle of New Hope Church and the battle of Peach Tree Creek.
After receiving his parole it was his iutentiou to return to Arkansas. He abandoned that plan and instead returned to his native place in Gaston county. In 1876 John T. Spencer built the first house in what is now the thriving and prosperous city of Gastonia. His home for a number of years was in what is known as Old Gastonia, in the eastern part of the present city. Through his business as a contractor aud builder he ren- dered a real public service. Later he established a mill and manufactured sash, blinds, doors and other building material. He continued in busi- ness for many years in Gastonia as a contractor and builder, and it is said that he erected and furnished the material for numberless houses in and about Gastonia, and carried out every con- tract with scrupulous fidelity and without the scratch of a pen on his part. It is literally true this his word was as good as his bond. When he said he would do a thing, every one knew that he would do it, at whatever sacrifice it might involve to him personally. Such a record of business fidelity is deserving of more commendation in this world of human affairs thau the sum of many greater achievements. It represents those solid and fundamental virtues of character which alone bring true success. He was one of the strong men of the community which he helped to found and build, and that community will long remember him. John T. Spencer died at his home in Gas- tonia in 1910. He married Lenora Catherine McAllister, and she is still living in Gastonia.
George Rush Spencer, who for several years has carried and has helped increase the business responsibilities formerly devolving upon his fa- ther, was born in Gaston county in 1870. He attended the public schools of Gastonia, and part of his early experience was with his father in the contracting and building business. For twenty years he was connected with the cotton mill in- dustry, and followed that business at Gastonia and also in South Carolina and at Opelika, Ala- bama. In 1910, the year of his father's death, he returned to his native town of Gastonia, and bought out a lumber and lumber mill business and organized the Spencer Lumber Company, of which he is presideut, with his brother, S. L. Spencer, secretary and treasurer.
The Spencer Lumber Company is one of the largest and most important local industries at Gastonia. The company 's mill manufactures sash,
doors, blinds and other building material, and does both a wholesale and retail business in lum- ber.
Mr. Spencer is also president of the Cocker Machine and Foundry Company, manufacturers of some of the finest lines of cotton mill machinery in the South, He is secretary and treasurer of the Price Real Estate and Insurance Company; vice president of the Home Building and Loan Association; identified with other industrial and financial organizations in his part of the state; is a member of the Gastonia Chamber of Com- merce, and is a live and enterprising citizen who is doing all in his power to make a "Greater Gastonia. "
By his marriage to Miss Rachel Elizabeth Gardner, a native of Cleveland County, North Carolina, he has two children: Lee and Ruby Spencer.
JOHN LAWRENCE DABBS, of Charlotte, is a man of national reputation in the commercial dye in- dustry of this country and is now southern man- ager at Charlotte for the National Aniliue' and Chemical Company. Because of the popular at- tention that has been given to the subject of dye' stuffs since the outbreak of the World war, the career and experience of Mr. Dabbs and his asso- ciation with a great industry has particular in- terest.
He was born in York County, South Carolina, in 1872, a son of Lemuel Jackson and Nancy (Comer) Dabbs. On both sides his ancestors were Virginians and the families have lived in South Carolina for several generations. Johu L. Dabbs grew up on his father's farm near Rock- hill, York County, and at the age of fourteen went to work in a cotton mill. From that period of his early boyhood to the present time he has been connected directly or indirectly with the great cotton mill industry of the South.
Since 1900 Mr. Dabbs has had his chief busi- uess relation with the dye stuff and chemical in- dustry, an industry which is of course inseparably connected with the manufacture of cotton. As he had learned the cotton mill business from the lowest round, starting in as a sweeper boy, he like- wise acquired a thorough commercial and technical knowledge of the dyeing industry from its first principles and applied himself to it with such energy and intelligence that he has become today one of the best equipped technical and commercial experts in America. For a long time he has been regarded as without a peer in the South iu this special field.
More than once he has been solicited to take responsible positions with the great chemical and dye stuffs concerns in New York and vicinity, but being a Southeruer he prefers to live in the South and with the exception of short periods in New York has confined his operations to the southern trade end of the industry and for sev- eral years has made his home in Charlotte.
For a number of years Mr. Dabbs was man- ager of the southern branch office of A. Klipstein & Company. It was his highly specialized abil- ities that led to his selection to this post, and at one time he also had charge of the big plant of the E. C. Klipstein & Sons Company near New York, when, as a result of war conditions, the firm began the manufacture of special dyes.
In September, 1916, the National Aniline and Chemical Company made Mr. Dabbs an offer to take charge of its southern business, and he ac-
John, L. Dable
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cepted the more readily since it would enable him to continue his residence in Charlotte. A word should now be said regarding some general aspects of this industry, with which the public in general is perhaps not familiar.
In April, 1917, a new $20,000,000 dye stuff cor- poration was formed by the reorganization of the National Aniline and Chemical Company, to include the old interests of the original company and the plants and interests of a number of other dye stuff manufacturers. This great amal- gamated concern absorbed the former Schoelkopf Aniline and Chemical Works, the W. Beckers Ani- line and Chemical Works, the Benzol Products Company of Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, and such sections of the plants of the Semet-Solvay Company of Syracuse; the Barrett Company Works at Frankfort, Pennsylvania; the General Chemical Company of New York; and other factories which produce those coal tar intermediates entering into the manufacture of the finished colors. The en- tire business of this new amalgamation is under the control and is known by the name of the National Aniline and Chemical Company, Incor- porated, of which Mr. William J. Matheson is president, and the general office headquarters are in New York.
This was the first step taken since the war began in Europe toward the mobilization of all the factors entering into the creation of a strictly American dye stuffs industry, for the purpose of insuring its permanency and to meet upon more approximately even terms the business compe- tition with foreign dye stuff manufacturers which must ensue inevitably at the close of the war. The amalgamated interests are not a trust or combination in the accepted sense of the word, but is an effective "pooling" or centralization of productive efforts and capital in the coal tar and chemical industries of this country against the possibilities of all future foreign competi- tion. This great corporation actually delivers its product from the coal mine to the consumer, hav- ing control of every process from one end of the line to the other. It owns its own mines, and also utilizes various coke oven by-products plants, and manufactures all intermediates and acids. The primary purpose, as already stated, is to meet the post-bellum competition with a united front and with a strength of resource which can be found alone in such industrial co-operation.
As a citizen of Charlotte Mr. Dabbs is known for his public spirit aud helpfulness in forward- ing every progressive movement. One of the chief factors in this progressive era of the city is the Rotarians, of which Mr. Dabbs is a mem- ber and officer, and also the Chamber of Com- merce, with which he is actively connected. Mr. Dabbs is a high degree Mason, a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite, has filled chairs in all the orders and degrees, and is a past potentate of Oasis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charlotte. Mr. Dabbs married Miss Zoe Baker, of Chesterfield County, South Carolina. Their two children are Miss Mabel Dabbs and John L. Dabbs.
BENJAMIN KITTRELL LASSITER is a prominent business man of Oxford and is also serving the town as postmaster.
Mr. Lassiter is a native of Oxford, born No- vember 25, 1884, a son of Robert W. and Letty (Kittrell) Lassiter. His father is a well known banker of this section of North Carolina. The
son was educated in Oxford's most famous insti- tution, the Horner Military School, and from there entered the University of North Carolina, where he was graduated in the literary course in 1905 and obtained his LL. B. degree from the law de- partment in 1907. Mr. Lassiter practiced law five years with Gen. B. S. Royster, after which he was alone in the profession, and is now a member of the firm of Parham & Lassiter, his partner being B. W. Parham.
Besides a general practice as a lawyer Mr. Lassi- ter is treasurer of Robert W. Lassiter & Company, treasurer of the Raleigh Granite Company, and came to his responsibilities and duties as post- master of Oxford by open competition with rivals for that office, a primary having been held on April 6, 1917, at which Mr. Lassiter polled a plurality of votes. He has been active in demo- cratic party affairs, was chairman of the Executive Committee of Granville County in 1911, and in 1912 was elected chairman of the County Board of Education. He is a member of the Masonic Order, the Woodmen of the World, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, and in 1916 was delegate to the Grand Lodge of the latter order at Raleigh. He is junior warden in St. Stephen 's Episcopal Church.
December 29, 1915, Mr. Lassiter married Doro- thea Coggeshall Niles, daughter of Dr. G. A. and Eliza S. Coggeshall. They have one daughter, Letty Kittrell Lassiter.
JOHN A. PARK. A leading representative of the Raleigh press, John A. Park has proved himself one of the most forceful of the younger genera- tion of citizens of Raleigh having always used his fine journalistic talents in the furtherance of what he has conceived to be for the best interests of the city, and merging the two characters of citizen and newspaper man into a high personal combination which has been generally recognized as an example well worthy of emulation.
Mr. Park was born at Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1885, and secured his education in the public schools of his native city. Seeking further training he entered the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege, and in order to secure the means for his higher education did newspaper work during his vacation periods and also conducted several col- lege magazines. During his college career he won considerable reputation as an orator, in proof of which he can show two medals won in this direction. Upon his graduation, with the degree of Mechanical Engineer, he began teaching higher mathematics in the Agricultural and Mechanical College and con- tinued to be so engaged for three years, in the meantime selling automobiles as a side line. Also, he had experience as a cowboy and as a fireman on a steamship, and finally went to Paris to study art, but returned to the land of his birth when con- vinced that other pursuits called him. On his return Mr. Park became proprietor of an automo- bile garage, but found this not profitable in that day of poor roads, and in 1912 disposed of his interests in the automobile line to become manager of the Raleigh Times, an evening newspaper which, under his management, has grown to large pro- portions and is now considered in the light of a necessary journalistic adjunct.
Mr. Park is decidedly what is known as a "live wire." No movement for tl , betterment of civic conditions is considered complete without his name upon its list of supporters, and he has been the leader of a number of enterprises which have re-
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sulted in progress and advancement, particularly along the lines of good roads and better schools. He was chairman of the committee which success- fully launched commission government in Raleigh, and led the fight for a bond issue which resulted in magnificent streets for his home city. Also, he has promoted various concerts by eminent artists, a market house opening and several trade extension movements. Mr. Park is a director of the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Southern Association of Newspaper Publishers, is vice president of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, and is actively identified with the Merchants Association, the Baraca Union, the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and the North Carolina Press Association. He belongs to the Edenton Street Methodist Church, is assistant superintendent of the Sunday school, and for several years has served as a member of the board of stewards.
In 1909 Mr. Park was united in marriage with Miss Lily Helen Pair, of Johnston County, North Carolina, and they are the parents of three children.
WILLIAM WELDON HUSKE, of Fayetteville, is a member of one of the old and prominent families of this section of North Carolina. He is a son of Major Wright and Harriet (Hall) Huske. His grandfather was John Huske. One of Major Wright Huske's brothers was Rev. Joseph Cald- well Huske who was an Episcopal clergyman and one of the finest characters and most beloved men among the people of Cumberland County.
Major Wright Huske was born at Fayetteville and prior to the war was a member and an officer of the Fayette Independent Light Infan- try. He held the rank of major at the time the organization volunteered for service in the Confederate Army at the time of the war. He was with his command at Bethel, the first battle of the war, and was in service during the six months' term of enlistment. The members of the organization then returned home and joined other regiments. Major Huske became an officer in McNeill's Cavalry and performed some of the strenuous work laid upon the cavalry branch of the Confederate Army during the oper- ations in Virginia. After about two years his health gave way under the hard service, and after that he was in charge of Camp Mangum nntil the close of the war.
Before the war Major Huske had been teller in the old Bank of Cape Fear at Fayettville. Following the war he was engaged in farming in Cumberland County, was also a successful tur- pentine and lumber operator for some years, but for a considerable time before his death, which occurred in 1907, was engaged in the seed and grocery business with his nephew A. S. Huske.
Major Huske's first wife was Miss Harriet Hall. She was a beautiful and cultured young woman who died in 1857, before reaching her twenty-second year. Hers was a distinguished an- cestory. Born in Halifax County, North Caro- lina she was a great-granddaughter of Judge Hall, of the Supreme Court of this state, and was a great-great-granddaughter of Gen. H. W. Har- rington. General Harrington was one of the historic characters in North Carolina and helped make glorious the Revolutionary annals of Rich- mond County. William W. Huske in his home at Fayetteville has some interesting relics and heirlooms on his mother's side of the family. Among these are the private desk and bookcase
of General Harrington and also a hand wrought silver inkstand, quill pen, sword, cane, and other relics of Revolutionary times once the posses- sions of General Harrington. Mr. Huske also has a complete set of daguerrotype portraits of his mother and of four grandmothers up to the time of General Harrington, including one of that Revolutionary patriot. There is also in the collectiou a daguerrotype of William W. Huske, taken in 1860, when he was five years of age. This portrait shows him dressed iu the full dress uniform of the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry, his father's old regiment.
Just before the war Major Huske married Miss Annie McDiarmid, member of one of the early Scotch families of Cumberland County.
William Weldon Huske was born at Fayette- ville in 1855, grew up and received his education in his native city, and for several years of his young manhood was engaged in the retail shoe business at Thomasville. However, agriculture has been the vocation to which he has given long- est and sturdiest allegiance. He has a beauti- ful home on his farm, which consists of from ninety to a hundred acres and lies on the west side of the city, adjoining Haymount, the fashionable residence district. Mr. Huske was for some time a vestryman of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, situated three miles west of Fayetteville, and this was founded by his un' le Rev. J. C. Huske After that church organization was abandoned Mr. Huske became a communicant of St. John's Church in Fayetteville, where he still worships.
His wife was before her marriage Miss Eliza Hall Manning. Her father, Judge John Manning, was for many years dean of the Law School of the University of North Carolina. Mrs. Huske is also a sister of Judge J. S. Manning of Raleigh. Various members of the Manning family are re- ferred to on other pages. Mrs. Huske was born at Pittsboro, North Carolina, but was reared at Chapel Hill. Like her husband, she reckons among her ancestors Judge John Hall of Hali- fax County. Mr. and Mrs. Huske have five children: Mary Weldon, wife of Dick Lewis, Jr., of Oxford; Louise Manning, wife of Dr. John W. S. Jordan, of Fayetteville; Harriet Eleanor; John Manning, is now with the United States Army; and Isaac Fall Huske.
CHARLES COLEMAN COVINGTON. Wilmington has long honored Charles Coleman Covington as one of its leading importing jobbers who has been an effective factor in building up a large trade in im- ported molasses. This is especially true of the best grades made in the West Indies. He is also ac- tively interested in every movement for the moral and industrial advancement of the city.
He was born in Rockingham, Richmond County, North Carolina, July 3, 1857, and represents an old and distinguished family of North Carolina on both maternal and paternal lines. His parents were Edwin Poythress and Louisa (Coleman) Cov- ington. His father was a commission merchant for many years in Wilmington.
Mr. Covington is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, a Pythian and is also a member of the Society of the Cincinnati by reason of his lineage on both sides of the house. He is a great-great-grandson of Lieut. William Covington and Capt. Benjamin Andrew Coleman of the North Carolina Continental Line.
He was prepared for College by the late George W. Jewett and entered the University of North
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Carolina in 1875 where he was graduated in 1878. He at once embarked upon an active business career.
In December, 1884, he was married to Miss Emmie Cromartie, a daughter of the late Duncan and Mary A. Cromartie of Bladen County, North Carolina.
JULIAN PERCIVAL KITCHIN is a lawyer who has sustained a high reputation and a record for most efficient work, has for a number of years been identified with Asheville and that section of the state where he is member of the law firm Britt & Kitchin, his partner being former con- gressman J. J. Britt.
Mr. Kitchin was born in Scotland Neck, Halifax County, North Carolina, March 10, 1879, son of Lewis L. and Addie G. (Smith) Kitchin. His father was a farmer and lumberman. Julian P. Kitchin attended the Vine Hill Male Academy at Scotland Neck, and spent three years in the Vir- ginia Polytechnic School. For a year he worked in the electrical engineering department of the Southern Bell Telephone Company at Norfolk, Virginia, and returning to North Carolina was secretary to the superintendent of the North Carolina School for the Deaf and Dumb at Mor- ganton. During one year he was a student of law in private offices, and much of his time while a student of law and since admission to the bar has been taken up with business affairs. He was secretary-treasurer of the Scotland Neck Cotton Mills three years.
April 9, 1902, Mr. Kitchin married Hesta Reed of Biltmore, daughter of M. L. Reed, a farmer and former county commissioner of Buncombe County. Mr. and Mrs. Kitchin have two children, Mark Reed and Julian Percival, Jr.
On account of the ill health of his wife, Mr. Kitchin moved to the Asheville district of the state, and for eight years he was secretary and assistant to the manager of the Biltmore Farms. In August, 1913, he was admitted to the bar, and soon afterward entered practice with J. J. Britt under the firm name of Britt & Kitchin at Ashe- ville. From 1907 to 1910 Mr. Kitchin served as mayor of Biltmore, and after returning to that town to reside was elected to the same office in 1912, and has continued the chief executive of the municipality ever since. He organized the Bilt- more Board of Trade, has been president of that organization from the beginning, is a former secretary of the Biltmore Forest School, is attorney for South Biltmore and is one of the men of chief influence upon whom devolve most of the responsi- bilities of leadership in civic affairs in his home community. He is superintendent of the Baptist Sunday School and is chairman of the Democratic Precinct Committee.
EDMUND BURWELL CROW. Raleigh has long been distinguished for its high rank in its banking sys- tem, and in this field of activity the business here is represented by many men of high standing and state-wide prominence. Among the alert and enter- prising financiers of this city who during the past decade, have utilized the opportunities offered for business preferment and have attained thereby a notable success, and whose careers are typical of modern progress and advancement, one who is well known is Edmund Burwell Crow, cashier of the Commercial National Bank.
Mr. Crow is a native son of Raleigh, and was born August 18, 1875, his parents being William H.
and Nanuie (Burwell) Crow. His father was identified with the insurance business throughout his life, and was a pioneer in that line of activity in North Carolina. Edmund B. Crow received his education in the Raleigh city schools and Morson Academy, and when he graduated from the last- named institution, at the age of seventeen years, became identified with banking. His first position was as collector for the Commercial and Farmers Bank, which subsequently became the Commercial National Bank of Raleigh, as now. He applied himself to his work with industry and fidelity and was gradually advanced to position after position of added importance and responsibility until in 1910 he was made cashier of the institution, which post he still retains. He is widely known in bank- ing circles as a skilled and well-trained financier, and various other enterprises and corporations have had the benefit of his business skill and finan- cial foresight.
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