USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 74
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In April, 1904, he married Miss Helen C. Prim- rose, of Raleigh. They became the parents of four children: Rufus Alexander, William Primrose, Primrose, and a daughter, Helen, now deceased.
ALDRICH HENRY VANN was graduated from the University of North Carolina with the class of 1902, and since then has been a man of rising prominence in the milling industries of Franklin County. He is secretary and treasurer of the Sterling Cotton Mills Company, president of the Sterling Stores Company, and vice president of the Franklin Lumber & Power Company. These various industries require the services of 300, and their welfare and happiness have been care- fully safeguarded by Mr. Vann.
He was born at Franklinton, North Carolina, the town which is still his home, May 10. 1880, a son of Samuel Cannaday and Bettie Blanch (Henley) Vann. He grew up there and was edu- cated in the public schools before entering the State University. Mr. Vann is a Knight Tem- plar Mason and Shriner, member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon college fraternity, and trustee of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Frank- linton.
November 14, 1912, he married Elizabeth Mc- Donald Dixon, of Edenton, North Carolina. They have two children: Sarah Dixon and Elizabeth Frances.
FREDERICK DELMAR HAMRICK. In the fifteen years since he began practice at Rutherfordton, Frederick Delmar Hamrick has justified the ex- pectations of all his friends and well wishers in the profession and has attained rank and dignity among the able lawyers of the North Carolina bar.
He was born on his father's farm in Cleveland County, North Carolina, April 12, 1880, a son of James Young and Kansas (Byers) Hamrick. His father in addition to his vocation as a farmer has been a figure in state affairs and for four years was commissioner of labor and mining for North Carolina. The son had a public school education and finished with the literary and law course of Wake Forest College in 1902. Admitted to the bar, he began practice in Cleveland County and remained there from January, 1903 to 1907. Since the latter date his home has been at Ruther- fordton. Besides a splendid general practice he is attorney for the C. C. & O. Railway and for the Seaboard Air Line. Mr. Hamrick is a mem- ber of the State Bar Association, belongs to the Baptist Church and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias.
December 12, 1906, he married Natalie Rose Harris, member of a prominent family of Vir- ginia. Her old home was Fredericks Hall. She is a daughter of Nathaniel Claybrook and Rose Virginia (Pettit) Harris. Her paternal grand- father, N. W. Harris, was a tobacco manufacturer. Her maternal grandfather, Col. W. B. Pettit, was an attorney by profession and served as a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Hamrick have two children: Fred- erick Delmar, Jr., and James Nathaniel.
WILLIAM PRESTON HOLT, M. D. The work with which Dr. Holt has been most prominently iden- tified in a public way in North Carolina is as physician and sanitarian at Duke, the model man- ufacturing town of Harnett County. Doctor Holt located there in 1904 at the request of Mr. W. A. Erwin of Durham, who desired that Dr. Holt take charge of the medical and sanitary work at Erwin Mill No. 2, then in course of construction. Mr. Erwin built this mill and practically built the entire town of Duke. Duke is justly famed as one of the model mill towns of the South. From the health standpoint too much praise cannot be given to Dr. Holt's services. Now as never before in the history of the world it is recognized that the efficiency of the workers is as much dependent upon sanitary and wholesome housing conditions as upon the environment in which the working hours are spent. From the first Dr. Holt recog- nized this relationship and exerted his influence wisely and tactfully to obtain appropriate material conditions and educate the people to a proper use of them.
Dr. Holt conducts a large general practice not only among the mill people but over a large radius of surrounding country. The Duke Hos- pital, which was built and is maintained under his supervision, though a small institution, is one of the model hospitals of the South and is fully
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equipped for all medical and surgical cases. While it is very high praise, it is only the expression of the conviction of some of Dr. Holt's contempo- raries that he is one of the most skillful, talented and successful physicians in the state.
His family position and the environment of his entire life serves to account in part at least for his successful attainments. Dr. Holt was born in Durham, then a part of Orange County, North Carolina, in 1869, a son of Dr. Edwin Michael and Nannie (Parker) Holt. His grandfather, Isaac Holt, was a cousin to the noted Edwin Michael Holt whose name figures so pre-eminently in the industrial history of North Carolina. The Holt family comes from Alamance County, and the senior Edwin Michael Holt was the founder of the cotton mill industry of North Carolina, building the old Alamance Mill at Burlington, in which the colored cotton fabrics in the South were woven.
Dr. Edwin Michael Holt, a native of Alamance County, moved from there to what is now Dur- ham County/ when it was a part of Orange County. He went there when a young man to take up the practice of his profession, and for more than half a century was busily engaged with a practice that came from a large scope of country. He was born in 1831 and died in 1913, at the age of eighty-two. His wife, Nannie (Par- ker) Holt, also deceased, was closely related to Judge William P. Mangum, North Carolina's dis- tinguished United States Senator of ante-bellum days.
It was in honor of this maternal ancestor's son, William Preston Mangum, that Dr. William Preston Holt was named. His father's home in Durham County was the Flat River section, and was one of the notable country homes of that region, his father being a planter as well as a physician. It was on that farm that Dr. Holt was born and there he grew to manhood. Most of his education was acquired in Oak Ridge In- stitution, a school that was founded by another branch of the Holt family. His medical prepara- tion was made in Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, from which he graduated in 1895. Returning home, he practiced with his father until 1904, when he removed to his present home at Duke in Harnett County. Dr. Holt is a member in good standing of the County, State and South- ern Medical Societies, is a member of the Metho- dist Church and a director of the Bank of Harnett at Duke. He married Miss Elizabeth Holman, daughter of S. W. Holman, of Durham County. Their two children are William Preston, Jr., and Elizabeth Whitney Holt.
VICTOR SILAS BRYANT. One of the best known attorneys of the Durham County bar bears the name Victor Silas Bryant, who has been engaged in the practice of law for over a quarter of a century. Not only does he possess the respect and confidence of the bench and bar of Durham County, but the unqualified regard of a numerous clientage, whose interests he has faithfully struggled to protect and whose rights no other honorable advo- cate could have better preserved.
Mr. Bryant is a native of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, where he was born December 10, 1867, a son of Henry and Julia S. (Parks) Bryant. His father was a merchant and planter. The son was educated in the Carolina Academy in Meck- lenberg County, finished his literary education in the University of North Carolina in 1890 and his
law course in the same school in 1891. In October of the latter year he began practice at Roxboro, but since July, 1895, his home has been in Dur- ham. He has been an active member of several of the best known law partnerships in the city during the last twenty years. He was first a partner with R. B. Boone under the name Boone & Bryant until 1900. It then became Boone, Bryant & Biggs. The partnership was dissolved in 1902, at which time Mr. Bryant formed a partnership with R. W. Winston. In 1909 he established the present firm of Bryant & Brogden, his associate being W. J. Brogden.
Mr. Bryant has long been prominently identified with public education. He served as a member of the Durham City School Board, and since 1901 has been one of the trustees of the University of North Carolina, and for seven years member of its executive committee. In 1912 he was elected a member of the State Senate from Durham County. Mr. Bryant is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association, has been identified with the Com- monwealth Club since its organization, is a director of the Fidelity Bank of Durham, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
December 8, 1897, he married Matilda Dewey Harrt, daughter of Maj. Leo D. Harrt. They have four children: Victor Silas, Jr., a student in the University of North Carolina; Leo Harrt, who is also in the university; Matilda Parks, in the Dur- ham High School; and Julia Dewey.
RAYMOND ABNER SMITH, A. M., B. D., has been prominently identified with the ministry of the Christian Church since 1900, was pastor of several large churches in Philadelphia and Indianapolis and since 1916 has been president and professor of education in the Atlantic Christian College at Wilson.
The City of Wilson is ideally situated as a center of institutions of higher education. As a city it is not too large to distract the attention of the students from their proper work and at the same time it is large enough to afford the advantages that go with the larger centers. Thus it was with appropriate wisdom that the North Carolina Christian Missionary Convention chose this city as the seat of the Atlantic Christian College. The convention endorsed the action of its committee on education for the purchase of the old Kinsey Seminary at Wilson in the meet- ing at Kinston, North Carolina, in October and November, 1901. The board of managers of the convention were appointed agents to acquire the college property and the Atlantic Christian Col- lege was incorporated May 1, 1902, with Mr. George Hackney of Wilson as treasurer of the college. The building was taxed to its full capac- ity with students at the opening of the school in September, 1902. By 1911 the bonded in- debtedness on the college property was paid off, and in the same year a modern brick dormitory was erected on the campus at a cost of about $15,000. The payment of the bonded debt made accessible the "W. N. and Orpah Hackney Memorial Fund," which had been bequeathed "for the education of worthy young men and women." In 1914 the college acquired a large farm of 672 acres in Onslow County. The campus in the northern part of Wilson contains about six acres and at the present time is adorned with two substantial brick structures. On January 2, 1918, the college purchased a new site on the prin-
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cipal thoroughfare of Wilson, comprising 252 acres of campus. A garden and dairy farm is main- taiued on this tract at the present time. The col- lege has had a steady development both in material circumstances and improvement and its influence aud prestige as a center of higher learning. The presidents of the school from the beginning have been: J. C. Coggins, 1902-04; J. J. Harper, 1904- 07; J. C. Caldwell, 1907-16; and R. A. Smith, 1916-
Raymond Abner Smith was born in Gibson County, Indiana, January 14, 1875, a son of Dr. William Franklin and Rosa Frances ( Williams) Smith. He acquired a liberal education. From the country schools he entered Vincennes Uni- versity at historic old Vincennes, Indiana, where he was graduated from the junior college in 1894. He subsequently attended Butler College at In- dianapolis, where he was graduated A. B. in 1900 and in the same year was ordained a minister of the Christian Church. In the intervals of his work as a teacher and minister Mr. Smith pur- sued graduate courses in philosophy at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania during 1902-03, rec ived his Master of Arts degree from Butler College in 1904, in 1905 was graduated Bachelor of Di- vinity by Yale University; and in 1914 was a graduate student in education in the West Vir- ginia University summer school.
Mr. Smith was first connected with the Atlantic Christian College as one of its instructors during 1905-06. His first post as a minister was as pastor of the Kensington Christian Church in Philadelphia, 1900 to 1903. He served as min- ister of the Hillside Christian Church at Indian- apolis in 1903 and again in 1907, and from 1909 to 1913 was pastor of the Centenary Christian Church at Indianapolis. Prior to assuming his present duties Mr. Smith was principal of Beck- ley Institute, and professor of history and educa- tion in the Beckley Institute at Beckley, West Virginia, from 1913 to 1916.
He is a former president of the Association of Christian Ministers in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is a member of the North Carolina State Teach- ers' Association and of the Wilson Chamber of Commerce. During his earlier residence in Indian- . apolis he was for several years engaged in the veneer manufacturing business, and in that city was a member of the Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Smith was married December 27, 19 5, to Miss Grace Clifford, of Indianapolis, daughter of Amos and Rebecca Clifford. Her father is a retired merchant in that city. Three children have been born to their marriage: Raymond Clif- ford, Marian Frances and Ralph Emerson.
WILLIAM SMITH STEVENS. It was forty years ago that William Smith Stevens was admitted to the North Carolina bar. The formal practice of the law has engaged less of his time than the duties of official position. For more than a quar- ter of a century he has been clerk of the Superior Court of Johnston County, and his is not only one the the longest consecutive records of official performance in the state, but has distinctions and values of service apart from length of years. It is doubtful if Johnston County has a more honored and more useful citizen than this old time lawyer and public official.
Mr. Stevens was born in Wayne County, North Carolina, where his people have been prominent for many generations. His birth occurred May 20, 1852. His parents were Needham Bryant and
Mary (Smith) Stevens. His mother was daughter of William Smith of Wayne. Mr. Stevens was educated in his native county, and the institution from which he derived most of his knowledge and inspiration as a youth was Prof. Samuel W. Hughes' Institute near Hillsboro. For two years he was a teacher and in the meau- time took up and vigorously prosecuted the study of law with H. F. Granger at Goldsboro, and also with Chief Justice Richmond M. Pearson. Mr. Stevens was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1877, and in March of that year came to Smithfield in Johnston County and proffered his services as a budding lawyer to the community. He soon had a living practice and whether a practicing lawyer or a public official has always used his knowledge of law to promote the best interests of the community. From 1882 to 1885 he was practically retired from practice and en- gaged in conducting a farm. He then went to the office of deputy collector at Raleigh, and in 1890 was elected clerk of the Superior Court of Johns- ton County, and from that time to this has been kept in that office and has given it his entire time and the best of his abilities. Besides hand- ling the official routine with the precision and efficiency that have brought him many commenda- tions, he has been extremely zealous to promote the welfare and safeguard the interests of children and widows whose cares are committed to the courts. Mr. Stevens is an honored member of the Masonic fraternity and is steward of Sanders Chapel, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and teacher of its Bible class.
On December 20, 1877, soon after establishing himself in practice at Smithfield, he married Mary B. Sanders, daughter of a well known attorney of that town. Seven children have been born to their marriage. Ada is the wife of W. H. Austin, of Smithfield. Zilla married J. E. Stevens, of Richmond, Virginia. Bertha is the wife of Dr. T. L. Ginn, of Goldsboro, North Carolina. Dr. Ralph S. Stevens, who married Eva Hood, daughter of T. R. Hood, a Smithfield druggist, is now serving with the rank of lieutenant in the United States Army in France. Leon Gladstone, an at- torney at law by profession, married Ethel Sefton, of Cornwall, Canada. Erma is a graduate of the Greensboro Female College and is now a teacher in the public schools of Smithfield. Everett Smith, the youngest of the family, is attending Horner 's Military Institute at Charlotte.
WILLIAM I. WRIGHT. It is probable that with the shift of emphasis made in recent years and the increased importance of the farm and its products as vital and indispensable factors in the world's life, some of the true romance of agriculture will be developed and exploited, as has been true of other newer industries and arts. The story of invention and discovery in farming is a matter of long, laborious, patient investiga- tion, experiment and trial. Patience is perhaps the greatest factor of all, since the processes of nature cannot be hurried. In a mechanical or physical laboratory the elements may be com- bined and the results noted and verified in a few hours or a few days. In every test and experiment made by the agricultural discoverer some of the chief factors are the months of the year, the seasons' change, and all the variety of conditions imposed by the annual cycle of climate and weather. And the results of one year must be added to those of many succeeding years before
W. Wright
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the process is perfected and the result verified for practical uses.
Such at least has been the experience of one of North Carolina's most noted farmers, William I. Wright, whose chief fame in agricultural circles is due to his perfection and introduction of "Wright's Prolific" corn and cotton seed.
The scene of Mr. Wright's career as a farmer has been at Ingold in Sampson County, only a short distance from where he was born in 1868. He is the oldest of the children of John C. and Bettie V. (Herring) Wright, a family of uotable distinction as teachers, lawyers, farmers and in other pursuits and avocations. The family have lived for a number of generations in the southern half of Sampson County. Going back several generations, Isaac Wright was born in Bladen County. John Wright, great-grandfather of Wil- liam I., was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and afterwards spent his life at the old Wright homestead five miles east of Parkersburg in Samp- son County. The grandfather of William I. Wright was also named Isaac. John C. Wright, the father, was born in 1832 and died in 1898. He served as lieutenant in a company of the Second North Carolina Regiment in the Confederate army. He married Bettie V. Herring, who is still living. She has been a distinguished educator, training her own children and other young people as well, and for a number of years conducting a private school at her home. Her father, Bryan Whitfield Herring, at one time represented Duplin County in the General Assembly and was related to the well known Whitfields of Eastern North Carolina.
William I. Wright, who owns the old Wright homestead, was educated by his mother aud in the local schools and spent one term in the Uni- versity of North Carolina. His interests have always been in practical and experimental farm- ing, his large estate of 1,950 acres of land is in Sampson County, and of this land he has a large portion cleared and in cultivation, divided into several farms.
In producing "Wright's Prolific" seed corn, Mr. Wright took a type of corn that had been developed and used for many years by his father, and crossed it with the "big seven year"' variety, producing a type that has taken the first prize at the State Fair at Raleigh and is everywhere hailed as one of the big successes in modern agricultural science. To the production of a reliable disease- resisting cotton seed he has given equal attention, and the cotton seed bearing the name Wright's Prolific has achieved a fame equal to that of his seed corn.
His tests, experiments and scientific work in corn and cotton seed production, extending over a long number of years and requiring studious and patient repetitions of selections and cross breed- ings, have undoubtedly contributed as much as some of the more widely heralded inventions to the sum total of modern agricultural knowledge and of benefit to the world at large. Mr. Wright spent many years in producing seed that would run true to type, and even yet he is not satisfied that he has obtained the best results possible, and realizes that perfection in farm seed is a matter of constant diligence and vigilance and that the standard must be held up from year to year to prevent recurrence and regeneration. Mr. Wright is both a student as well as a practical farmer and exemplifies the success that comes from the combination of these two qualifications.
While best known as a breeder of corn and cot-
ton seed, he produces a wide variety of general crops ou his farm and has also gone into horti- culture quite extensively. He is a hard worker, always busy attendiug to the details and the planning and carrying out his farm work, and loses no opportunity to improve his methods of practice.
Mr. Wright married Miss Julia Herring, who was born in Sampson County. They have seven living children, Clyde E., Bettie H., William I., Julia H., John F., Rachel and Henry. Mr. and Mrs. Wright are members of the Methodist Church.
CLAIBORN MCDOWELL CARR is a business leader at Durham, where for a number of years his in- terests have been chiefly identified with hosiery manufacturing, though they have extended to various other lines of business and to the leading organizations in a business and social way, in all of which he has held some executive responsibili- ties.
Mr. Carr was born at Durham September 26, 1884, a son of Gen. Junius S. and Nannie Gra- ham (Parrish) Carr. From high school at an early age he entered the University of North Carolina where he completed his work in 1905. He returned home to take up a business career and for a number of years has been connected with the Durham Hosiery Mills, of which he is treasurer. He is also a director of the First Na- tional Bank of Durham, of the Durham and South- ern Railroad, and has always been found responsive to those organizations and movements which are part of the civic and business life of his com- munity.
Mr. Carr served on the first board of police and fire commissioners of Durham, holding that office four years. He was the first president of the Chamber of Commerce, has been president of the local Y. M. C. A., and is now president of the Rotary Club.
November 15, 1911, he married Miss Margaret Jordan Boylan, daughter of James A. and Maggie (Tucker) Boylan. They have three sons: Claiborn McDowell, Jr., Montfort Boylan and John Wesley.
A. G. MYERS. There are few more rapidly de- veloping cities in Gaston County than Gastonia, partly because of its fine location, but mainly on account of the able business men and public spirited citizens who take an interest in pro- moting her welfare. One of these is found in A. G. Myers, who is active vice president of The Citizens National Bank.
A. G. Myers was born at Chesterfield, South Carolina. His parents were Stephen Huntley and Winifred (Crump) Myers, the latter of whom sur- vives. The late Stephen Huntley Myers, whose death occurred June 21, 1917, was a prominent citizen of Charlotte, North Carolina, and a Con- federate veteran. He was born in Anson County, North Carolina, July 29, 1844, and was a sou of Ransom J. and Matilda (Huntley) Myers. Tmn family came at an early day from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, and at one time the grand- father lived near Roanoke Island, but subse- quently settled in Anson County.
Stephen H. Myers grew to the age of seveuteen years on the old Myers homestead on Dead Fall Creek, twelve miles west of Wadesboro. In the old cemetery in that neighborhood several gener- ations of that family lie buried. When war be- tween the states broke out young Myers was one of the first to offer his services to the Confeder-
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ate commander, and as the latter did uot know he was under the prescribed age, he was permitt- 1 to enlist iu the Twenty-third North Carolina In- fantry, and as a member of this organization he took part in the battle of Sharpsburg, but shortly afterward was discharged because of his youth. He had determined, however, to be a soldier, and as further preparation returned to his home in Auson Couuty, secured a horse and returned to Wadesboro and there enlisted in an- other branch of the service, the Fourth North Car- olina Cavalry. He participated in many of the most serious battles of the war, including the first battle of Manassas and Gettysburg, bi- was never injured uutil near its close, when he was wounded in the arm. Afterward he returned to Anson County for a time, then went to South Carolina for some years, and in 1889 located at Charlotte, North Carolina, and there, at his home ou North Long Street, after a very brief illness, he passed away. He was a man of sterling char- acter in every relation of life, a brave defender at all times of the principles he believed to be right. In the city where he had lived for so many years he was known to every one and was uni- versally respected and esteemed.
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