USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 6
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Having an industrious temperament and a versatile mind, Doctor Hill has never been content to spend all his time in his study or in the shadow of college walls. He has been an active partici- pant in many forms of state and national life. He was one of the founders of the State Literary and Historical Association and of the Southern Educational Association. He was president of the State Teachers' Assembly in 1909, of the State Forestry Association in 1910, of the State Folk Lore Society in 1916. For some years he was a member of the Executive Committee of the American Association of Agricultural colleges. In 1907 Governor Glenn appointed him a member of the North Carolina Historical Commission. At the opening of the great European war he accepted the Chairmanship of the North Carolina
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Council of Defense, and has organized and developed that useful body of zealous workers.
In July 1885, he married Pauline White, daughter of Dr. Samuel G. White of Milledge- ville, Georgia. Doctor and Mrs. Hill have five children, namely, Pauline, Daniel Harvey, Jr., Elizabeth, Samuel White, and Randolph.
ALEXANDER ROUNTREE FOUSHEE. The founding and maintaining of large business enterprises which have entered into and been a part of the life of a community, are achievements in which any man may take a measure of pride as years pass by, whatever else he may worthily have accom- plished. One who has had much to do with the important business interests of Roxboro for many years, is Alexander Rountree Foushee, who is president of the Peoples Bank of this city.
Alexander Rountree Foushee was born March 31, 1839, in Person County, North Carolina, prob- ably of Revolutionary stock, and certainly of stable and dependable ancestral lines. His parents were Adnah Campbell and Frances (Rountree) Foushee. His father in the old days, was a farmer and a manufacturer of furniture. He reared his family in comparative comfort and his children were set an example of industry and uprightness.
When Alexander R. Foushee was a boy, the private tutor and the private schools were general educational features in the South rather more fre- quently perhaps at that time than in the North, where the public school system was a little earlier inaugurated, but after his preliminary training was over, the youth attended an academy at Lees- burg. A natural inclination toward a business life led to his becoming a clerk in a general store and he was learning the mercantile business at the time the Civil war became a fact. He entered the Confederate army and because of his clerk- ing experience, was detailed clerk in the office of Col. Peter Matille, at Raleigh and continued as military clerk until the end of the war, when he returned to private life.
In 1865 Mr. Foushee embarked in the mercantile business at Roxboro and for thirty-five years was the leading merchant here, carrying a heavy stock and supplying merchandise to a wide territory. He did not confine his energies, however, to one line of activity, but interested himself in various directions and gave substantial encouragement to many enterprises that have since become prosper- ous. Mr. Foushee carried on farming for many years, operated a tannery and also engaged in the manufacture of tobacco for the market, and was one of the first capitalists to recognize the expedi- ency of starting what has become the great cotton mill industry. At present he is vice president of the Roxboro Cotton Mill, and since, 1915, has been president of the Peoples Bank. While his busi- ness interests have often been absorbing, Mr. Foushee has not forgotten the responsible position in which a capitalist stands in relation to his com- munity and fellow citizens, and his liberality to . member was appointed to the Supreme Court worthy causes has many times been shown. He has acceptably filled positions of public trust, serv- ing for many years as a magistrate, also one term as county treasurer, and was county commissioner two years and trustee of Wake Forest College many years.
Mr. Foushee was married first on January 5, 1869, to Miss Bettie Wilkerson, of Person County, who was survived by three sons: Judge Howard Alexander, deceased, mentioned on other pages; William Linwood of Durham, also mentioned on
other pages, who is a practicing attorney; and James Louis, who died while preparing for a medical career.
The second marriage of Mr. Foushee took place on July 17, 1906, to Miss Alice M. Tucker, who belongs to a rather noted old family of Charlotte County, Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Foushee are members of the Missionary Baptist Church. For many years he was identified with the Masonic Fraternity at Roxboro and has been a member of the chapter at Hillsboro, North Carolina.
HOWARD ALEXANDER FOUSHEE was born at Rox- boro, Person County, North Carolina, May 13, 1870, and died at Durham January 31, 1916, in his forty-sixth year. Death came to him early. But few men at any age are able to leave behind them . such clear-cut and distinctive records of undoubted high service, a living under the highest ideals, and finished and perfected achievements. A host of friends, leaders of the bench and bar, the public press, the pulpit, all bore tribute to his life, and to describe his career and furnish a just and adequate appreciation of the manner of man he was is a task limited only by the handicap of space and involving a selection of the more pertinent things that have been written and spoken.
He was well described as one of the gentlest, one of the strongest, one of the purest of men, and the facts which bear out that testimony are per- haps most succinctly and fittingly stated by James S. Manning of Raleigh, former justice of the Su- preme Court of North Carolina, and at one time a law partner of Judge Foushee. Judge Manning made the memorial address to Mr. Foushee at the meeting of the North Carolina Bar Association, and from the minutes of that association the fol- lowing sentences are largely taken.
The oldest son of Alexander R. and Elizabeth Foushee, he was reared in his native town of Rox- boro, where he attended the public schools and later Henderson Academy. In 1885 he entered Wake Forest College, and was graduated as val- edictorian of his class at the commencement of 1889, having attained the Master of Arts degree in four years. He taught school as so many lawyers have done to test the accuracy of their scholarship, to have the time to digest more thoroughly their own learning, to have time to read and think, to study character as it is manifested and developed in children and to earn a livelihood. Judge Foushee taught in Selma, Durham, Charlotte and in Mur- freesboro, beginning the study of law in the last named place under Judge B. B. Winborne. He completed his law course at the University of North Carolina in the summer of 1893 and was licensed to practice at the fall term of that year. About November 1, 1893, he entered the law of- fice of J. S. Manning at Durham and the partner- ship of Manning & Foushee was then formed, which continued until June, 1909, when the senior bench of the state.
Mr. Foushee represented Durham County in the Legislature of 1899, and was a senator from the Durham District in 1901 and 1905. Upon the resignation of Judge Biggs as the judge of the Superior Court of that district, Judge Foushee was appointed his successor on September 11, 1911, but was compelled on account of ill health to resign on September 21, 1913. For several years Judge Foushee was the chairman of the Demo- cratic Executive Committee of Durham, and under
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his careful, wise and efficient leadership the demo- cratic party did not fail to carry the county; and it has since been continuously democratic. Judge Foushee was an organizer of great ability; he was painstaking, active, persistent and wise. He took no chances and wasted no opportunity to strengthen his party. He knew the people of his county well and they knew and trusted him. A man of the highest character, of unyielding in- tegrity, of the highest sense of honor, of clean life, of splendid common sense, he made an ideal leader, implicitly trusted by his fellows.
As a lawyer he was careful, studious, wise in counsel, addressing his thought and research to the main questions involved. As a man he was of the strictest integrity, gentle, considerate, sincere, sympathetic, always ready to advise and counsel his younger brethren. As a citizen he possessed strong and well considered opinions, always advocating those measures which made for the uplift and betterment of his community. When his own judgment and conscience approved a measure, he became its fearless advocate, but while fearless in its advocacy he was neither rash nor abusive of those who might differ from him. His nature was too gentle and his wisdom too broad, to permit him to indulge in abuse as the means to strengthen a righteous and just cause. As a friend he was loyal and devoted, no under- taking was too great for him to attempt for his friends, but he was withal frank and candid.
As a judge of the Superior Court he was dig- nified, impartial, courteous, deeply conscientious in his efforts to discharge his duties in such a way as to have the approval of his judgment and his conscience, and in such a way as accorded with his conception of how should be discharged the duties of the most important and useful office in our system of Government. Of his service on the bench I quote the language of R. H. Sykes of the Durham bar in his address at the memorial ceremony of the Durham lawyers: "In the two years during which Judge Foushec presided over our Superior Court he visited many counties of the state and from every section the judgment of those with whom he came in contact was that in temperament, character, ability and industry, and with all the qualities that go with the making of a judge of this honorable court, he was ideally endowed. To the lawyers practicing before him he was courteous and affable, firm and resolute in his judgment; to the court officials, witnesses and litigants he was agreeable and sociable. And to all classes he was the same straightforward, high- minded Christian gentleman that he had been dur- ing all the previous years of his life. Elevation to high and responsible public office did not cor- rode the pure gold of his nature, nor affect him with those vanities which under similar conditions so often betoken the littleness of human nature. His court was one of dignity without austerity; of accomplishment without bluster, and of justness without harshness."
" Having known Judge Foushee intimately for many years," says Judge Manning, "I can say that he was the most dependable man I have ever known-dependable in judgment, in friendship, in character, in integrity, in his common sense and in the correctness of his conclusions and in his convictions. His life was so well spent and he so lived that when 'his summons came to join the innumerable caravan' it found him ready with the simple faith and assured confidence of an earnest and devoted Christian."
To the words of Judge Manning, charged with fullness of meaning and appreciation, it would be difficult to add from the numerous other tributes at hand anything that would give a more adequate estimate of the life and services of Judge Foushee. The one other quotation permissable is from the Raleigh News and Observer, which contained the following editorial:
"The early days of a man's life are the days which tell in the after years. From that reason it could but be expected that Howard Alexander Foushee would prove a man of the staunch and true kind. That was the influence of the home surroundings of young Foushee in the days in which he grew to manhood in Roxboro. Straight- forwardness and honesty have ever been marked in the life of the sons of Alexander R. Foushee.
"And so former Judge Howard Foushee passes into the Beyond, leaving a high name as a heritage for his children. Forty-six years God gave him, and in those forty-six years he rendered good ac- count of himself in his profession, as a citizen, and in his home life. A Wake Forest graduate, the valedictorian of his class, a graduate in law of the University of North Carolina, he took high place at the bar in Durham, where he located after teaching school for a while. His ability and devotion to principle recognized, he became the democratic chairman in Durham County, repre- sented it in both the house and senate, making reputation of the best as a legislator. Later as a Superior Court judge he added to his reputation, winning encomiums because of his conduct of the courts, the ability with which he presided.
"Howard Foushee was of the best type of the young manhood of the state. To know him was to esteem him and the great number of friends whom he won and held found in him a man of the worthy kind, of high ideals, and of faithful service. There will be deep grief among all who knew him that he has been called to answer the final summons. "
April 13, 1904, Judge Foushee married Miss Annie Wall, only daughter of Hon. Henry Clay Wall of Rockingham. Surviving the honored hus- band and father are Mrs. Foushee and three chil- dren, Annie Wall, Frances Leak, and Alexander Foushee.
WILLIAM LINWOOD FOUSHEE, one of the most scholarly members of the Durham bar, represents a family with steadfast ideals of honor, integrity, and the polish and culture of the old and the new South.
He was born at Roxboro, Person County, North Carolina, a son of Alexander Rountree and Eliza- beth (Wilkerson) Foushee. His father was a merchant and farmer, and not only was the family position a most creditable one in the economic af- fairs of Roxboro but the home associations were such as to afford an ideal environment in which young men might grow up and prepare for worthy achievement in the world. Mr. Foushee was the second of three brothers. The oldest was the late Judge Howard A. Foushee, concerning whom an extended sketch appears on other pages. The other and youngest brother, James L. Foushee, died in 1906.
William L. Foushee was educated in the Rox- boro schools, in Wake Forest College, and in 1900 received the degree of Ph. D. from Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, and brings, therefore, scholarship to his work in the legal profession. Before taking up the law he spent a number of
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
years in college work, having the Chair of Latin for one year in Mercer University at Macon, Georgia, and for eight years was a member of the faculty of Richmond College in Virginia. In the meantime he studied law at Richmond College and later in the University of North Carolina. He was licensed to practice law in 1909, and since then has been in general practice at Durham, being an associate of his brother Howard until the latter went on the bench. His interest extends also to civic and social activities of the city in which he lives; he is a director of the Durham Traction Company, president of the Durham Chamber of Commerce, director of the Young Men's Christian Association, a member of the North Carolina and American Bar Associations, and belongs to the Country Club and the Commonwealth Club of Dur- ham.
WILLIAM THOMAS WILSON, a well known and prominent lawyer of Winston-Salem, represents the sixth consecutive generation of the Wilson family in North Carolina. An old Colonial family, it has furnished a large number of worthy men and women to the useful service of the state whether in private or public capacity.
The founder of the family in North Carolina was William Wilson, a native of Scotland. He emigrated to the American colonies in 1720, locat- ing in Perquimans County, in what is now the State of North Carolina. He possessed all the rectitude and thrift of the typical Scotchman, and did his task as a pioneer thoroughly. Securing a tract of land, he improved a plantation, and spent the rest of his days in Perquimans County.
His son, Thomas Wilson, was a native of Per- quimans County and spent all his life there. The Christian name Thomas has been a characteristic in practically all the successive generations of the family. This Thomas Wilson, of the second gen- eration, was married about 1770 to Elizabeth Newby. Both were faithful members of the Quaker Church.
Thomas Wilson, of the third generation, grew up on the plantation in Perquimans County and from there moved to the western part of the state to Stokes County. He bought land west of Ker- nersville but several years later moved to Salem and leased the community tavern known as the Old Salem Tavern, which was operated under his supervision as a landlord for some years. This early pioneer of Forsyth County was born in 1783. Though not a member of the Moravian Church his remains were laid to rest in the Moravian grave- yard. He married Elizabeth Johnston, who died when nearly ninety years of age and was laid to rest in the Winston Cemetery.
The City of Winston pays special honor to the memory of the late Thomas Johnston Wilson of the fourth North Carolina generation of the family. Thomas Johnston Wilson was born on a plantation near Kernersville, in what was then Stokes but is now Forsyth County, in 1815. He received most of his early training in the Clem- monsville Academy, and studied law with George C. Mendenhall at Greensboro. He was licensed to practice in 1840. He soon afterwards settled on the present site of Winston. There he had the distinction of erecting the first house. That house was at what is now the corner of Main and Second streets. On the building that now occupies the site is attached a bronze tablet commemorating
the fact that here was the first building erected in Winston and also that its builder was the lawyer and citizen whose name has so many prominent associations. Thomas J. Wilson opened an office for practice at Salem, and continued a member of the Forsyth County bar for fully half a cen- tury. He died in 1900 at the age of eighty-five. His wife, whose name was Julia E. Lindsay was a native of Guilford County, North Carolina, died when about sixty-four. Thomas J. Wilson was always prominent in public affairs. He served as county solicitor for Davidson and Stokes County, and when Forsyth County was organized he filled the same position for that county. He was a member of the convention called to vote upon the question of secession at the beginning of the war. His personal views were against seces- sion, and he voted that the matter should be referred to the people, but was overruled by a majority of the convention and afterwards he signed his name to the articles of secession. In 1874, after he had bren in practice for more than a generation, he was elected judge of the Eighth Judicial District, and served six months. In 1876 he was elected to the State Senate, and for several terms was mayor of Winston. Among other things he deserves to be remembered as one of the founders of Presbyterianism in Winston. He organized the first Presbyterian Church in 1860 and donated the land on which the church edifice now stands. For many years he was a ruling elder in the congregation. He and his wife reared three children: Thomas A., Josephine E. and Edgar H.
Edgar H. Wilson, of the fifth generation of the family, was born in Winston and was an active business man for many years until his death' in
1915 at the age of fifty-seven. He served several years as treasurer of the City of Winston and four years as postmaster. For about twenty years he was manager of the Bell Telephone Company. Edgar H. Wilson married Lula A. Champion, who was born in Granville County, North Carolina, daughter of Charles W. and Edna (Thompson) Champion. Her father, a native of North Caro- lina, was a planter in that section of Granville County which is now Vance County. At the out- break of the war he went away as captain of a cavalry company in the Confederate army and was attached to the famous Pickett's Brigade. He was killed in the memorable charge of that brigade at Gettysburg. Mrs. Edgar H. Wilson is still liv- ing at Winston. Her five children were: William T., Edna E., Henry L., Elsie T., and Elizabeth.
William Thomas Wilson, whose line of ancestry has thus been briefly traded, was born at Winston- Salem May 10, 1884. He attended the public schools of Winston, the Salem Boys' School and then entered the University of North Carolina, where he took the course of the law department and was graduated in 1905. Since then he has been in active practice at Winston and has acquired a reputation as a skillful lawyer and gained much prominence in the bar and in the ranks of public spirited citizens.
In 1909 he married Miss Alice Franklin. She was born in Winston, daughter of Walter E. and Alice (Rawls) Franklin, both natives of Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have three children: William T., Jr., Thomas J. and Franklin. The family are members of the West End Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Wilson belongs to Twin City Camp No. 27, Woodmen of the World.
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
JOSEPH CONRAD WATKINS, D. D. S. Of the va- rious professions to which men of talent, ability and broad mental capacity are devoting their lives, not one is of more importance and practical value to mankind than that of dental surgery, a fact that each year is becoming more and more widely recognized. Realizing the pressing need of more scientific methods in the care of teeth, Joseph C. Watkins, D. D. S., of Winston-Salem, one of the foremost dentists, not only of his city, county, and state, but of the United States, is giving his entire attention to his profession, and through con- stant study and experiment is contributing ma- terially toward the perfecting of dentistry as mod- ernly practiced. A son of Dr. Charles J. Watkins, he was born in Yadkin County, North Carolina, November 27, 1873, of pioneer ancestry. His great-grandfather, Joseph Watkins, a Virginian by birth, came to North Carolina when young, and having purchased land in Guilford County, was there engaged in farming until his death, in 1810.
Abel Watkins, the doctor's grandfather, was born in Guilford County, and there grew to man- hood. He, too, made farming his life work, and having settled in Forsyth County, near Kerners- ville, was there employed in agricultural pursuits until his death, in 1872. He married Hannah Teague, a daughter of Isaac Teague, of Davidson County, and to them eleven children were born.
Charles J. Watkins was born on the home farm, near Kernersville, August 4, 1836, and began his education in the district schools. Later, after at- tending Smith Grove Academy, he taught school in Forsyth, Davie and Davidson counties. Abandon- ing the teacher's desk in 1862, he enlisted as a private in the Sixteenth North Carolina Battalion, and was made first sergeant of his company, later being promoted to brigade forage sergeant, and continuing as such to the close of the conflict. In 1866, he entered the Old Pennsylvania Dental College, from which he was graduated in the fall of 1868. Beginning the practice of dentistry in Kernersville, he remained there until 1873, when he removed to Salem, where he was one of the leading dentists during the remainder of his life, his death occurring there June 14, 1900.
Dr. Charles J. Watkins married, in 1873, Flora C. Conrad. She was born in Yadkin County, a daughter of John Joseph and Elizabeth (Stauber) Conrad, and granddaughter of John and Catherine (Romig) Conrad, whose ancestors emigrated from Germany to this country, and settled as pioneers in North Carolina. Her father was a successful agriculturist of Yadkin County, and at his death his body was interred beside that of his wife in the family burying ground, on the home plantation. Although Mr. Conrad was an extensive holder of slaves, he never sold but two, and they were in- corrigible.
Dr. Charles J. Watkins was one of the charter members of the North Carolina State Dental So- ciety, and served as a member of its examining board. He was a devoted member of the First Baptist Church, in which he served as a deacon for many years, and was one of the prime movers in the building of both the old and the new church edifices of that denomination. He was an earnest advocate of temperance, even at a time when many in favor of that movement hesitated to admit their interest in the cause. He and his good wife, who now resides in Winston, on Main Street, reared three children, namely: Joseph Conrad; William Henry; and Alice Elizabeth, wife of
Talcott N. Brewer, of Raleigh, North Carolina. William Henry is proprietor of a large book and stationery store in Winston-Salem, and his daugh- ter, Mildred Elizabeth, is a pupil in Meredith Col- lege, at Raleigh.
After his graduation from the Boys' School in Salem, Joseph Conrad Watkins entered Wake Forest College, from which he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1897. In the meantime, with characteristic ambition, he had taken, in the same institution, the full course in law, and was grad- uated with the degree of LL. B. In addition to completing both the literary and the law course during the four years he was in that institution, Mr. Watkins was assistant teacher of chemistry. In February, 1897, going before the Supreme Court for examination, he obtained a license to practice law, and was admitted to the bar, being introduced in Winston-Salem by Hon. J. C. Buxton.
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