USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 72
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Donald MacRackan attended the public schools and Wake Forest College, and completed his legal education in the law school conducted by Dick & Dillard at Greensboro, being admitted to the bar in 1897. Since his admission to the bar he has been engaged in practice at Whiteville.
Mr. MacRackan has represented his home con- stituency, being a member of the State Senate in 1915, and of the Lower House in 1907 and again in 1917, and in that body he was a mem- ber of corporation committee, public service cor- poration committee, committee on salaries and fees, of which he was chairman, and a member of many other important committees in 1907, and in 1917 was chairman of the judiciary committee. He is a member of the North Carolina Bar Asso- ciation, of the Masonic Order, and is identified with the Baptist Church, and has served as trustee of its missionary organization.
On December 12, 1890, Mr. MacRackan married Ada Keithan, a native of Bladen County, North Carolina. They have one daughter, Ada Amanda.
JOHN THOMAS ALDERMAN, who filled the in- terim office of superintendent of the State School for the Blind and Deaf at Raleigh during 1918, has given the best years of his life to the cause of North Carolina education. He is a member of a family of scholars and men of distinction in various fields.
John Thomas Alderman, whose home for many years has been at Henderson, North Carolina, was
Donald MacRackau
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born at Salemburg in Sampson County June 26, 1853, son of Rev. A. B. and Pennie E. (Howard) Alderman.
A brief record of Mr. Alderman's ancestry in- dicates that he comes naturally by his profession and the talents which have brought him high and honorable station in life. John Alderman, of Ipswich, England, landed in Massachusetts in 1635 and settled at Dorchester. Various branches of the Alderman family in America trace their descent from these early settlers in New Eng- land. In England they were of the landed gen- try. William Alderman moved from Massachu- setts to Connecticut in 1670. In 1679 he mar- ried Mary Case, daughter of Joli Case, a wealthy citizen of Connecticut. Their son, Thomas Alder- man, of the third generation, was born Jannary 11, 1683. In 1702 Thomas married Mary Sea- grove in East Hampton, Long Island. From there they removed to Cohansey Precinct in Salem County, New Jersey. In 1708 he and his wife signed the constitution at the organization of a Presbyterian Church in that vicinity. Thomas Alderman died August 15, 1715, leaving several children: Thomas, Mary, William and Daniel. Daniel, the youngest of these, was the great-great- grandfather of John Thomas Alderman of Hen- derson.
Abont 1740 Daniel Alderman married Abigail Harris. They had three sous and fonr daugh- ters. The sons were John, Daniel and David, all of whom have descendants in North Carolina and states farther sonth. Daniel, a Revolutionary sol- dier, was born in 1748. He was the direct an- cestor of Dr. E. A. Alderman, now president of the University of Virginia. David was the an- cestor of the Aldermans who now live in Greens- boro, North Carolina, and in many parts of Georgia and Florida. John Alderman, great- grandfather of John Thomas, was born in 1742 and married Mary Cashwell. These sons, with their father, Daniel Alderman, left Cohansey, New Jersey, in 1755 and removed to Wilmington, North Carolina, thence going to what is now Duplin County, where they permanently located and where succeeding generations of the Aldermans have lived.
The grandfather of John T. Alderman was John Alderman, born in 1780, whose son, Rev. A. B. Alderman, was born and reared in Duplin County. A. B. Alderman was a student in Wake- Forest College, and spent his active life in the ministry of the Baptist Church in Sampson and adjoining counties.
Reverend Mr. Alderman married Pennie E. How- ard in 1851, who was born in Sampson County in 1835, daughter of Thomas and Pennie (Cooper) Howard. Pennie Cooper was a daughter of Rev. Fleet Cooper, whose signature to the "resolves" gives him a special interest in Revolutionary his- tory. The mother of Thomas Howard was a daughter of Capt. John Williams, who was a captain in the State Militia in the Revolutionary war.
Thus John Thomas Alderman did not have to go outside his own family record to find men and women of distinction and high character as his early ideals. Most of his preparatory education was obtained at home under the direction of his father and mother. He began teaching as early as 1873 in a local school. He received his degree and was graduated from Wake Forest College in 1880. After that he taught at Salemburg in his
native town, and then for ten years conducted Fork Academy in Davie Connty. For eight years of that period he was connty superintendent of public instruction. In 1891 he removed to Reids- ville and had charge of the city schools as su- perintendent until 1894.
Mr. Alderman married in 1894 Miss Lillian Frances Watson, danghter of William and Lou Virginia Watson, of Warren County. Mrs. Alder- man has for years been prominent in the literary and civic interests of the state. She was for two years, 1905-1907, president of the State Federa- tion of Woman's Literary Clnb of North Carolina. She is descended from the Wrights, Gays, and Nosworthys, of Eastern Virginia, and she is also connected with the prominent Bowling family of Virginia. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Alderman moved to Columbus, Georgia, where Professor Alderman was principal of the City High School until 1899. He was then called to Henderson, North Carolina, to organize the graded schools and was superintendent of the city schools there until 1917. - This ronnded out a period of more than forty years of educational work. Feel- ing the strain of this long service and the re- sults of close application, he retired temporarily to gain a much needed rest. He was not permit- ted to enjoy his vacation long. Upon the death of Dr. J. E. Ray, the beloved superintendent of the State School for the Blind at Raleigh, Pro- fessor Alderman, who had for many years been a member of the board of trustees of this school, was prevailed upon to take charge of the insti- tution, a responsibility he assumed in January, 1918, with the understanding that a permanent superintendent wonld be chosen in the summer of the same year. Professor Alderman still re- tains his home at Henderson.
For years he has been one of the leading Ma- sons of North Carolina, and may well be proud of the unstinted honors that have been bestowed upon him in that order. He took his first degrees in Mingo Lodge in Sampson County in 1874. In 1900 he transferred his lodge membership to Hen- derson Lodge, where he served as worshipful mas- ter for a number of years. He was made a mem- ber of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina and by successive elevations was promoted until in 1914 he was elected grand master of the state. In 1911 he was grand master of the Grand Coun- cil of North Carolina, and in 1913 was chosen grand high priest of the Royal Arch Masons of the state. During 1912 he served as president of the Order of High Priesthood of North Caro- lina. A Shriner, member of Soudan Temple at Newbern, he was sent as a representative to the Imperial Shrine at St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1908. In 1914 he attended a meeting composed of all the grand masters of Masons in North America, the meeting having been held in St. Louis.
Mr. Alderman has been senior deacon of the Baptist Church at Henderson since 1900. In the summer of 1916 as a member of the board of the State School for the Blind he attended an inspiring gathering at Halifax, Nova Scotia, com- prising representatives of institutions for the blind from all the states and provinces in North America.
Mr. and Mrs. Alderman have two children, Virginia Gay, wife of Mr. J. M. Peace, of Hen- derson; and John Thomas, Jr.
EDWIN A. ALDERMAN, former president of the University of North Carolina, and a native of the
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state, has for many years been regarded as one of the most brilliant and resourceful educators of the South. His high position is due to the fact that he has brought to his work not merely the formal fruits of scholarship but a breadth of understanding, a sympathy, and an administrative faculty that well qualify him for intellectual lead- ership.
He was born at Wilmington, North Carolina, May 15, 1861, son of James and Susan (Corbitt) Alderman. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1882. Honorary degrees have been bestowed upon him by Tulane, Johns Hop- kins, Columbia, Yale, University of North Caro- lina, Williams College, Harvard University, Dart- mouth and-Harvard. S A
After leaving the State University he was su- perintendent of schools at Goldsboro four years, and then was a state lecturer on education four years. He was also professor of pedagogy in the State Normal at Greenville and from 1892 to 1896 was professor of education at the University of North Carolina, being then called to the presi- dency of that institution, where he remained un- til 1900. He was president of Tulane University at New Orleans from 1900 to 1904, and since June 14, 1904, has been president of the Univer- sity of Virginia. He has served on a number of educational boards and his career has been of special value because of his keen and interesting participation in a broad scope of affairs outside his immediate duties and responsibilities. Doc- tor Alderman is author of a brief history of North Carolina, of Southern Idealism, The Spirit of the South, Sectionalism and Nationality, The Grow- ing South, and a number of other books and con- tributions to periodical literature.
In 1886 he married Emma Graves, of Hillsboro, North Carolina, who died in 1896. February 11, 1904, he married Bessie Green Hearn, of New Orleans. .
BYNUM HILLIARD SUMNER is head of the well known real estate and brokerage house of Ashe- ville, B. H. Sumner & Son. He is a North Caro- lina man by birth, and his abilities and judgment have been fortified by extensive experience and travel all over the South. Mr. Sumner was born in Rutherford County, North Carolina, July 23, 1872, son of Frank Alexander and Mary (Clarke) Sumner. His father for many years was in the general merchandise business at Asheville. The son was educated in the private school of Mary and Ellen Sawyer at Old Fort, North Carolina, under Professor Morris at Spartansburg, South Carolina, and in Rutherford College and Judson College at Hendersonville, North Carolina. With this thorough and liberal education Mr. Sumner went to work, and for several years was a hotel clerk. Afterwards, until 1903, he was associated with his father in the dry goods business at Ashe- ville, and from 1903 to 1915 was traveling sales- man, traveling all over the Southern states, doing an excellent business for his firm and acquiring an extensive knowledge of the people and conditions in different localities. And this knowledge and experience he has utilized in many ways, since in 1915 he established himself in the real estate brokerage business at Asheville.
Mr. Sumner formerly lived at Woolsey, North Carolina, and was mayor of that town. He is a member of the Asheville Board of Trade, of the
Central Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and of the Travelers Protective Association.
On June 12, 1895, Mr. Sumner married Miss Annie May Reynolds, daughter of Capt. F. S. H. and Katherine (Baird) Reynolds. Mrs. Sumner's father Captain Reynolds lacked only a year of finishing his course at the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia when the war between the states broke out. He immediately left school and entered the army and served all through that struggle in the capacity of physician and surgeon. Later he engaged in farming and the land trading business and was one of the most substantial operators in this part of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Sumner have four children, Theodore Bynum, Mary Katherine, Ann Louise and Alice Reynolds. The son Theodore, a partner in his father's busi- . ness, is now enrolled as a soldier in the National Army with the Three Hundred and Twenty-first Regiment.
JOHN RICHARD BARR ADAMS, M. D. Represent- ing a family that has been known by its services and activities in Iredell County for more than a century and a half, the late Dr. John Richard Barr Adams was a noted country practitioner in that section, and measured by all human standards was one of the great and good men of his gen- eration.
The Adams family was established in what is now Iredell County in 1764. What has usually been called in American school books the French and Indian war had been concluded only a year before the Adams family came to North Carolina. The founder of the name was James Adams, a native of the north of Ireland. Leaving that country in 1760, after a voyage of seven weeks and three days, he landed at Philadelphia and subse- quently moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there to Augusta County, Virginia. Then in 1764 he came to old Rowan, now Iredell County, North Carolina. His early work there was as a teacher. This pioneer had a son also named James Adams, who was the father of Dr. Richard Barr Adams. James Adams, second, married Amelia Barr.
John Richard Barr Adams was born April 7, 1820, in what was then known as Liberty Neigh- borhood in Sharpesburg Township, Iredell County. He was educated in the common schools and in Davidson College, entering the latter institution in 1837, the second year after it was founded. After four years of Davidson he went to Alabama, taught school near Selma and also began reading medicine. His medical education was finished in the University of New York, where he graduated in 1844.
Returning to his native state he began practice at what was called County Line at the eastern edge of Iredell County, and in 1849 moved to another locality in the eastern part of the county, Cool Spring. Here he continued his work as a country physician, taking long rides and endur- ing all the hardships and trials of practice until October, 1890. Giving up his profession, he re- moved to Statesville, where he died June 9, 1901. He had practiced medicine forty-five or six years, and no amount of statistics could properly estimate the value of his services.
He was also active in civic and religious mat- ters. In 1851-52 he represented Iredell County in the House of Commons. Early in life he united with the Presbyterian Church, and in 1854 was elected a ruling elder of the Fifth Creek Presby-
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terian Church. He was one of its most liberal contributors and stanch supporters. Outside of his profession one of his strongest interests was the matter of local history. He knew personally or by his researches all the more prominent characters of his section of the state and came to be regarded as a storehouse of historical wisdom.
Mary Elizabeth Gracey, who died in 1913, was his wife. She was educated at the famous Salem Academy, and her children, of whom there were nine, seven still living, knew and loved her as one of the finest types of womanhood and motherhood.
The Gracey family has been identified with this part of North Carolina even longer than the Adamses, since the year 1752. It was founded by Patrick Gracey, a native of the north of Ireland, who brought his family to North Carolina in 1752, locating in what is now Iredell County. His son, Capt. Robert Gracey, grandfather of Mary Elizabeth, was a gallant officer in the Revolution- ary war, serving with the rank of captain in the North Carolina troops. His body is buried in the cemetery of Old Bethany Church north of States- ville. Capt. Robert Gracey was born and reared at Cool Springs, about eleven miles east of States- ville.
Mary Elizabeth Gracey was the daughter of James Barnet and Clementine ( Hall) Gracey. Her mother was a niece of the famous Dr. James Hall, reference to whom is made in a sketch of the Hall family of Iredell County found on other pages.
MINOR REVERE ADAMS, M. D., son of the late Dr. John Richard Barr Adams elsewhere referred to, was born at Cool Springs in Iredell County Oc- tober 14, 1854. After a good preliminary educa- tion he studied medicine in the University of Mary- land, graduating in 1878. His post-graduate work was done in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College and in the New York Polyclinic. After gradua- tion he practiced one year at Cool Springs, for two years was physician for the Ore Knob Copper Com- pany in Ashe County, and in 1884 located per- manently at Statesville. For many years he served as superintendent of public health and is now city physician. He has been vice president of the North Carolina State Medical Society, is now counselor for that society for the Tenth District, and is a member of the County Medical Society and the American Medical Association. In busi- ness affairs Doctor Adams is a director of the First National Bank and of the Statesville Cotton Mills. Like his father and other ancestors he is a Presby- terian and an elder in his home church.
Doctor Adams married Miss Lulu M. Rhyne. Her father was the late Hugh T. Rhyne of Rhyne Station, Mecklenburg County. Doctor and Mrs. Adams have two children: Sarah Gracey and Minor Revere.
GEORGE D. ELLIOT. There are, doubtless, among the older residents of Harnett County those who . remember well the magnificent estate, the home of the Elliots, long known as Ellerslie Plantation and can recall its former greatness and gracious hospitality. There many of the Elliots were born, including the present head of the family, George D. Elliot, an extensive and successful cotton planter near Linden, and the destruction of this fine property during the dire years of war is one of the unforgotten calamities of the time. The Elliot family has long been a foremost one in Harnett County and was founded here by George
Elliot, the paternal grandfather of George D. Elliot.
George D. Elliot was born at Ellerslie, on the Little River, in the extreme southern part of Harnett County, North Carolina, in 1851. His parents were Col. Alexander and Jane (Evans) Elliot. His grandfather, George Elliot, was born in Scotland, in 1755, and came to the American colonies when a young man, before the Revolu- tionary war, and settled in Harnett County at the place that subsequently was known so long and well as Ellerslie Plantation. He was a son of Henry Elliot, of Peel, an estate in the shire of Dumfries. The Scotch Elliots trace their ancestry in direct line to an Elliot of Normandy, who was an officer of distinguished rank under William the Conqueror, who, because of an act of chivalry and devotion to William, on the occasion of that monarch 's landing on English soil had added to his coat of arms "Fortiter et reste." Another mem- ber of this family was General Elliot, who was the defender of Gibraltar during the four years of siege, beginning in 1782, and for this feat of arms was created Lord Heatherfield. Military prowess marked the family in later years in America. Henry Elliot, the eldest son of George Elliot, mentioned above, served in the War of 1812, and his son, Alexander Elliot, held a com- mission in the Confederate Army during the war between the states and was mortally wounded while leading a charge in battle.
George Elliot, the grandfather of George D. Elliot, after settling at Ellerslie, engaged in the lumber business and later became a very exten- sive planter and large slave . owner. His enter- prise and activities yielded him fortune and, im- mersed as he was in large affairs, he ever demon- strated a broad, generous and liberal spirit. He spent large sums in educating his children. In 1790 he married Mary Turner and they had eight children, and four of his sons, including the late Col. Alexander Elliot, father of George D., were educated in the University of North Carolina. The latter, after the death of his father, lived with his widowed mother and inherited the ances- tral home. Colonel Elliot was a student, a scholar, a man of genuine culture, and his home, Ellerslie, reflected in its atmosphere the refinements that such a character gives to surroundings. For many years before the war between the states he had been a colonel in the North Carolina state militia. In January, 1847, he was married to Miss Jane Evans.
Although too young for military service during the war, Mr. Elliot, because of his robust figure and manly appearance, frequently found himself uncomfortably conspicuous when the Federal troops were on their war march through Harnett County. He grew up under hard conditions be- cause of the state of the country at that time, when both educational and industrial opportunities were largely lacking. More credit, therefore, be- longs to Mr. Elliot because of his courage and enterprise in accepting circumstances at first as they were and changing them through his own efforts as rapidly as possible, calling to his assist- ance the old indomitable spirit of his ancestors. About the time he came of age, he took charge of the family home, which he had assisted to re- habilitate, and continued to live there until 1893.
Mr. Elliot then bought land about ten miles below Ellerslie, at Little River, a mile and a half east of the present town of Linden, Harnett
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County, and continued to buy adjacent tracts and thus built up a fine plantation that now contains about 650 acres. Hc named the new home Linden, and from his place the town lying on the Raleigh & Southport kailroad took its name. In addition to Linden, Mr. Elliot owns other farms and lands in this section. He has become one of the most successful cotton planters in North Carolina, hav- ing had cotton experience since early youth, and thoroughly understands this business from the planting of the seed to the marketing. His ex- perience covers the interval between the time when only the primitive plow was thought to be the only necessary tool in the cotton field, on down to the present when entirely new methods are in vogue and modern tools and machinery are used in cotton cultivation. Mr. Elliot is a practical busi- ness man and has systematized his industries according to rules he has made for his own direc- tion and has found them highly advantageous. He never sells his entire yield of cotton and thus always has on hand a considerable stock with which to take advantage of a favorable market change.
Mr. Elliot was married to Miss Cornelia Mc- Neill, and they have the following children: Nellie, who is the wife of E. S. Yarborough; Alexander; Mary, who is the wife of Henry M. London; and George Douglas, Eunice, Henry and Emily.
Mrs. Elliot was born on her father's planta- tion, Mill Grove, in Harnett County, situated about five miles above Linden. Her parents were John and Roxana (Worth) McNeill, the latter of whom was the eldest daughter of former Governor Jona- than Worth, and through this connection has kindred in many of the historic families of the state. The McNeills, like the Elliots, are of true Scotch ancestry. Her grandfather, known as "Red" John McNeill as a distinguishing name, was an extensive land owner and had many slaves. Her father, also named John, was designated "Pious" John McNeill, because of his religious principles and his strict adherence to them.
Mr. Elliot erected a stately mansion at Linden and in this beautiful home old-time hospitality prevails and kindred and friends gladly gather here.
CHARLES OAKLEY ROBINSON. Prominent in the younger generation of successful business men at Elizabeth City, North Carolina, is Charles Oakley Robinson, known all through Eastern North Car- olina in the wholesale dry goods and notion trade. In his firm grasp of business problems Mr. Rob- inson has proved the value of the educated young man in trade.
Charles O. Robinson was born at Elizabeth City, January 26, 1888, and is a son of Charles H. and Mary (Leigh) Robinson. His father has been one of the city's upbuilding men for many years, and his mother belongs to one of the old and ex- clusive families of the state.
Mr. Robinson was afforded both social and edu- cational advantages as he grew to manhood. He was a student in a military school for some years and then entered the University of North Caro- lina, from which he was graduated in 1910, and shortly afterward entered his father's wholesale house, which has long been operated here under the style of The C. H. Robinson Company, it be- ing one of the pioneers in the wholesale trade. Mr. Robinson has thoroughly identified himself with the business and in such a manner as to se- cure the confidence of his fellow merchants and
the business world generally. Additionally he is vice president of the Elizabeth City Cotton Mills, is a director of the Elizabeth City Knitting Mills, the First National Bank, and also is a director of the Savings Bank & Trust Company, of Elizabeth City.
Mr. Robinson was married November 11, 1913, to Miss Ivy Blades, of Newbern, North Carolina. She is a daughter of William B. Blades, promi- neut in the lumber industry. Mr. and Mrs. Rob- inson have two children: Charles Oakley and Wil- liam Blades. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson attend the Episcopal Church of which Mr. Robinson is a ves- tryman. He is prominent in Masonry, a Knight Templar, and belongs also to the Mystic Shrine. Mr. Robinson is also an Elk, and in both orders is highly regarded because of his honorable princi- ples and his genial and agreeable personality.
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