USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 80
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Charles Ross is a thoroughly educated man and well prepared to complete any undertaking which he assumes. His earlier education was pursued in Asheboro schools and at the University of North Carolina. He studied law in Columbian University (now George Washington University), at the na- tional capital, receiving his professional degree and license to practice in 1912. For some years previously he had engaged in the lumber business, and in 1906 established his residence at Lillington. Since beginning his practice there in 1912 he has become one of the leading lawyers in that section of the state.
A number of years before commencing practice Mr. Ross had become well known as a democratic leader. In the session of 1901 he represented Randolph County in the Lower House of the Gen- eral Assembly, and in 1910 he was again elected a member of that body from Harnett County. For the campaign in the general election of 1916 he was chosen chairman of the Democratic County
Chas. Ross 1
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Executive Committee, and in that capacity brought his county over from the republican columns to the democracy. Both as a mauager and a legisla- tor he has deserved aud received high credit from leaders and people.
Mr. Ross married Miss Frances Reid Mckay, daughter of the late Rev. Neill Mckay, D. D., and Margaret (Murchison) McKay, the latter of whom is living at the old Mckay residence in Summer- ville. Mr. and Mrs. Ross have six children- Charles Reid, Neill Mckay, Frances Ramsey, Rom- ulus Rudolph, Margaret Murchison, and Robert Page Ross.
Doctor MeKay, the father of Mrs. Ross, was one of the state's most notable characters as a min- ister and a promoter of education. There are few men identified with the progress of North Caro- lina who have weilded so deep and widespread an influence as the deceased; for he not only poured his spirit and the inspiration of his fine character into the church of his choice, thus influencing for good those of all ages and classes, but fathered with his wisdom and his material assistance the famous Summerville Academy for Boys, which, in the many years of its life, sent forth some of the choicest spirits of North Carolina. In his active years Doctor Mckay was the leading character in the Fayetteville Presbytery, and the extension of its usefulness is largely due to his ceaseless efforts, forethought and patient leadership. As
his home was at old Summerville, it is natural that he should become interested in the Academy, or preparatory school for boys; and to become inter- ested in a project, or an institution, invariably re- sulted in earnest and practical work for its ad- vancement. So that, as the years passed, the good and distinguished doctor became first respected, then honored and finally revered for his faithful brooding and his continuous generosity in behalf of the institution to which he had given his soul, and through which he had started so many of the young generation along the paths of legitimate and Christian honor. The chief patron of the Summer- ville Academy could not have financially supported it as he did had he not been a successful man of business affairs. For many years he was asso- ciated with his brother, Dr. John W. McKay, a physician, but extensively engaged in the turpen- tine and naval stores industries. This combination in one character of business ability, deep scholar- ship, intellectual keenness and sustained morality and spiritual elevation, constituted almost a unique personality.
Mrs. McKay was born at Manchester, Cumber- land County, North Carolina, and is the daughter of the late Duncan Murchison, who, with his sons, was one of the wealthiest and most prominent busi- ness men of North Carolina. The headquarters of their interests were at Wilmington. The Murchi- sons have always occupied a very prominent place in the commercial and industrial development of the Cape Fear section of North Carolina.
JAMES OTHO LUNSFORD, postmaster of , Dur- ham, had as precedent and qualifications for his present office a long and active experience in business affairs at Durham, and has been a leader in business and politics in that city and county for many years.
He was born in Person County, North Carolina, May 12, 1874, son of Paschall and Laura Eliza- beth (Daniel) Lunsford. His father carried on farming operations until 1884, in which year he was elected register of deeds and later county
treasurer, and filled those offices steadily until his death on September 22, 1906.
In the meantime the son was educated in the Durham public schools, a Baptist seminary, and for three years attended Trinity College at Dur- ham. While in college he was assistant register of deeds under his father and for two years was bookkeeper for M. A. Angier Company at Dur- ham. For three years he was secretary and treas- urer of the Golden Belt Hosiery Mills, and for the next four years was bookkeeper and salesman in the grocery house of Thomas Howard Company. About that time he established the Lunsford Horse & Mule Company, dealers in horses, main- taining a sales stables, and dealing in wholesale feed supplies. He discontinued the horse busi- ness, but continued to conduct the wholesale feed business until April, 1911. Following that for several years he was sales manager of the Austin- Heaton Company, and retired from that position to accept the postmastership of Durham, to which he was appointed during President Wilson's first term in June, 1914. Mr. Lunsford was quite ac- tive in local politics until accepting his present office. He at one time served as secretary of the Democratic Executive Committee. He is affiliated with the Junior Order of United American Me- chanics, the Knights of Pythias and the United Commercial Travellers.
In April, 1910, he married Miss Mayde Mos- ley of Durham. They have two children, Laura Ellen and Margaret Mosley.
GEORGE CHANCELLOR GREEN. The work and service by which Mr. Green has been most closely identified and has become best known in his part of North Carolina has been performed as a very able attorney at Weldon, his native city.
With the exception of a few years when he was away at school his years have been spent in the Town of Weldon, where he was born November 22, 1878, a son of Dr. Isaac E. and Helen (Day) Green. His father was an honored physician of Halifax County for many years. The son was ed- ucated in private schools at Warrenton, and in 1901 graduated from the University of George- town, D. C. The next year he taught school at Weldon, and then entered the law department of the Universtiy of North Carolina, where he con- tinued his studies until admitted to the bar in February, 1904. Since then, a period of four- teen years, has been devoted to the building up and handling of a large and prosperous general practice at Weldon.
For the past ten years he has served as county attorney and he also filled the offices of mayor of Weldon for two terms. He is now a trustee of the University of North Carolina, and is vestrymau and lay reader of the Episcopal Church. While in university he was affiliated with the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and the Ghimgoul col- lege society.
April 11, 1907, Mr. Green married Virginia Suiter, of Garysburg, North Carolina. They have five children: Elizabeth Fuller, Virginia Suiter, George Chancellor, Jr., Mary Cook and Tempe Joyner.
PHILIP GRADY SAWYER. The substantial re- sults that sometimes attend the progress of an individual very seldom comes by chance. The gifts of nature and fortunate environment may be accepted, but many elements and attributes must be present to make enduring the achievements
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that built up solid popularity and establish a worthy reputation. Iu considering the unusually successful career of Elizabeth City's young mayor, Hon. Philip Grady Sawyer, it will be found that this quiet, unassuming, self-contained, capable young man has strength, force and character. He is a man with honorable business ideals, he accepts no responsibility without willingly bearing it, and is a level-headed man with a clear and proper perspective on life.
Philip Grady Sawyer bears an old and honorable name of Pasquotank County, as well as of Camden County, and he was born in the latter January 22, 1889. His parents are Mack N. and Nancy (Sawyer) Sawyer, aud probably the ancestral line may be traced to Irelaud. The father has long been interested in the real estate business.
After completing the high school course at Elizabeth City, Philip G. Sawyer entered Wake Forest College and pursued his studies there until 1910, when he was graduated with his A. B. de- gree, and continued in the University law depart- ment until he completed the LL. B. degree course, in 1909, beiug admitted to the North Carolina bar, one of its youngest members. He located in Eliza- beth City for the practice of his profession and his ability in every department of the law has frequently been demonstrated and has given him unusual prestige. For one year he served as clerk of the District and United States Circuit courts.
Elizabeth City is the central point of many im- portant partly undeveloped business interests, while its citizens as a whole are progressive and enterprising and with modern ideas are awake to their natural advantages and ready to cooperate for the general good. When they came, a few years ago, to realize that they needed a mayor who cherished the same ambitions and had the wisdom to carry out large undertakings, they turned to their brilliant young townsman, believ- ing that under his able and understanding leader- ship civic improvements could be brought about and reforms inaugurated that would be of inestim- able benefit to every one. They elected Mr. Saw- yer mayor in June, 1915, and so ably and completely did he take matters in hand that com- mendation came from every side, and with in- creased majority he was reelected in 1917.
Mayor Sawyer among other things has brought about the building and repairing of the city utilities; has instituted changes iu the various municipal offices for the city's benefit; has widened the field of honorable business competi- tion as far as the present unsettled conditions of trade has permitted, and has encouraged public recreations and such cultural enterprises as the yearly Chautauqua. In the meanwhile he has not been swayed by politicians but has maintained the dignity of his office and on every public oc- casion when his presence has been necessary, has worthily represented the city as its municipal head. Additionally Mayor Sawyer is a member of the county board of health.
Mayor Sawyer was married June 10, 1914, to Miss Evelyn Aydlett, who was born in Elizabeth City and belongs to a family prominent both in business and social life. They are members of the Blackwell Memorial Baptist Church and Mr. Sawyer heads the finance committee of the same. He leads a busy, useful life and finds contentment in duties well done. He is a Knight Templar Mason and is past exalted ruler of lodge No. 856, of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
JOHN R. BAGGETT. Not infrequently men and women achieve success (so called) by ignoring family duties and plain moralities, leaving all such considerations heartlessly behind and going so far into the world that the burdens of parents, or other kindred, shall not interfere with the free develop- ment of their ambitions. We all know of such cases, but we do not know of the instances, not a few, in which the lives of those who are out- wardly successful are shot through and through with the pangs of conscience and ceaseless regrets that they commenced to mount on the bent and weakly shoulders of those whom they should have protected with self-sacrificing love.
The life of John R. Baggett, who was born in Sampson County, October 1, 1871, prominent lawyer and mayor of Lillington, illustrates the realization of worldly comfort and progress at a comparatively late period, but unaccompanied by a retrospect of pain and regret. His strong Welsh blood doubtless has much to do with the faithfulness with which he maintained the ties and duties of kinship, at the cost of its own early advancement.
The parents of John R. Baggett were Silas E. and Winnifred (Wilson) Baggett, both deceased. The mother was the daughter of Jesse Wilson, one of the most substantial citizens of Sampson County. The father was the son of Joyner Baggett, also representing an old and respected family in that county. Its progenitors were of Welsh nativity who landed at Jamestown in the early history of America. Their descendants afterward crossed the Alleghenies, settled in the upper Ohio Valley, and, prior to the Revolution, returned to Virginia, and thence migrated to Sampson County, North Caro- lina. John Baggett, great-great-grandfather of John R., of this notice, was the founder of the North Carolina branch ..
Mr. Baggett's father was a school teacher for many years before the Civil war, and his service as a Confederate soldier made him practically an in- valid; the mother, also, suffered from illness al- most continuously. As John R. was the oldest in the family of childreu, he shouldered the respon- sibilities of their support when a mere boy. When very young he had received some instruction from his father, but until he was twenty-one years of age had no other systematic schooling and gave his entire time and all his energies to the develop- ment of the home farm in Mingo Township and the establishment of a comfortable household for his parents and his brothers and sisters. His burdens were eased by the hearty and unselfish cooperation of every member of the household, each contrib- uting as much as possible to its maintenance. At length the prime end was reached-a substantial, well improved farm and a comfortable, sheltering home for all.
It was only after this duty had been courage- ously, faithfully and lovingly fulfilled that the young man turned to the task of self-improvement. He had practically forgotten all that he had ever learned, and in September, 1892, after he had just passed his majority, he bravely entered the primary department of the Glencoe school, Sampson County, his fellow pupils ranging from seven years of age upward. That was a step which took pluck and was in direct line with his determined character. He pursued his studies with such avidity, and ab- sorbed the knowledge offered to him with such voracity, that on April 12th of the following year (1893) he received a first-grade certificate for teaching. The West School in Sampson County, to which he was assigned, was at a very low stage
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of efficiency and order, and the new teacher soon found that he had a man's work before him. He entered into it with such vim and confidence that he soon had completely stamped out rowdyism and obtained the warm support of the parents, who had previously been lukewarm and almost discour- aged. Knowledge of this achievement in country school reform spread abroad, and Mr. Baggett's services were brought into demand wherever similar conditions existed, with the same good results which he had brought about in the West School. In the meantime he continued his own studies, took preparatory work at Salemburg Academy and in 1896 entered the University of North Carolina. At that institution he pursued the four year course, receiving his degree with the class of 1900. He then became principal of the Salemburg School, to which he added a boarding department, and at the end of the year had an attendance of 170. In 1901 he joined J. A. Campbell as co-principal of Buie's Creek Academy in Harnett County, and in that institution much of his most beneficent and useful work as an educator was accomplished. He brought to it one hundred students from the Salemburg School, and for ten years cooperated with Mr. Campbell in the development of what became a famous institution preparatory for college. Both teachers and proprietors were in hearty accord with the modern and advanced idea that such an aca- demy should not stop at the border-line of scholastic education, but endeavor to lay the foundation of a solid and serious character and the groundwork of a laudable ambition. In this vital part of the work Mr. Baggett's influence and exertions were invaluable. All his boyhood and youthful expe- riences tended to give him a deep sympathy for the poor youth struggling to prepare himself worthily for the conflicts of independent life; and he not only made it an especial duty and pleasure to assist such cases with their studies, but often ex- tended them credit and other substantial assistance. For such humane and warm-hearted treatment of the deserving he receives a rich reward in the whole-hearted esteem and friendship of many men scattered throughout the country who stand high in the business and professional fields. At the time he completed his work at Buie's Creek Academy there were thirty-two of its former pupils in the University of North Carolina and 128 at Wake Forest College. He had taught more than 5,000 boys and girls, and one of his most val- ued possessions is a record comprising all their names and a notation of their careers after leav- ing his school.
Mr. Baggett studied in the law department of the University of North Carolina, and received his certificate to practice in 1908. He did not com- , mence active practice, however, until 1910, when he opened an office at Lillington. In that year he was elected to the State Senate, representing the district which comprised Harnett, Johnson and Sampson counties. Previous to that time the dis- trict had been republican, but he carried it for the democrats by a safe majority. As a state legislator he centered his activities and abilities on measures tending toward better educational opportunities for the masses, for improved social and industrial conditions, and for reform along the broad ideas of modern investigators in
the management of state hospitals, asylums and penal institutions. He also championed the bill for the establishment of the Cas- well Training School for the feeble minded, and has continuously served as a member of its Board
of Trustees. Mr. Baggett also earnestly supported the measure for the establishment of farmlife schools in North Carolina, and under its provisions was established the Lillington institution of that character now in operation. He pushed through the bill by which Lillington was authorized to issue bonds to build its present excellent system of electric lightiug, sewers and water supply, and has served as the public spirited mayor of the city since 1911. Besides his lucrative law prac- tice of a private nature, he is managing various interests of the Atlantic & Western Railroad, of which he is the counsel and a director. That line now runs from Lillington to Sanford, and an ex- tensiou is projected to the Atlantic coast. He also was instrumental in the building of the Lillingtou Oil Mill, of which he is an official. So that, al- though by force of circumstances, he may be said to have matured slowly, he has certainly "made up for lost time," and his final progress and pres- ent standing make records of which any man might be proud whose earlier years were smoothly paved.
Mr. Baggett was married to Miss Aline Keeter, who was born aud reared in Halifax County, North Carolina, and the six children born to them have beeu Venable, Miriam, John Robert, Jr., Wiuni- fred, Margaret Wilson and Joseph Woodrow Baggett. Mr. Baggett has long been a leading member of the Baptist Church, and the hand- some brick structure dedicated to the local organ- ization was erected largely through his labors as chairman of the building committee. Outside of his home and his church duties he gives much of his attention to Masonic matters and the work of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
ROBERT PERCIVAL READE has shown talent both as a lawyer and business man and in the course of a few years has placed himself among the leading citizens of Durham.
He was born at Roxboro, North Carolina, Au- gust 5, 1877, son of William Franklin and Martha Emma (Moore) Reade. His father was a farmer, and it was on a farm that Robert P. Reade spent his early years. He was educated in private schools, spent two years in the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Raleigh, was in Trinity College with the class of 1900, and took his law work in the University of Michigan, where he graduated LL. B. in 1903. Since then he has been in general practice at Durham and is now a member of the firm of Fuller, Reade & Fuller. Mr. Reade is a director of the Citizens National Bank of Durham, has served six years as county attorney, is ex-city attorney, and has employed his wide experience and training as a lawyer for the benefit of his alma mater, Trinity College, where for ten years he was associate professor of law. He is a member of the North Carolina Bar Asso- ciation and for six years was chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee of his county.
June 24, 1908, he married Miss Lela Reade, daughter of James Robert and Adelaide (Lans- dell) Reade, her father being a farmer at Mount Tirzah, North Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Reade have three children: Lela Lansdell, Marian Eliza- beth and Edith Victoria.
RICHARD K. DAVENPORT is a veteran merchant at Mount Holly in Gaston County, and while in business there almost since the founding of the town his chief work has been as a farmer and de- veloper of the agricultural interests in that sec-
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tion of the county. He has carried his leadership in such matters into public life, has served in the legislature and is now chairman of the board of county commissioners of Gaston County.
The home he now occupies, situated 11/8 miles . north of the Town of Mount Holly, is his birth- place and the home of all his years. He was born there in 1859, a son of Wesley and Mary (Cans- ler) Davenport.
Mr. Davenport is one of the very few surviving grandsons of an active participant in the Revo- lutionary war. His grandfather, William Daven- port, was born in Scotland and when a young man came to North Carolina. That was several years before the Revolution. At that time he located on the land where his grandson now lives. This was then a part of Lincoln County. The grant to this land was given him by the King of England. William Davenport joined the colonists in their struggle for independence, and he fought in one of the most famous battles of that war, at King's Mountain, where he was wounded. King's Moun- tain is only about twenty miles from the Daven- port home. He subsequently developed a large plantation and became an extensive slave owner.
Wesley Davenport was likewise a planter and an influential citizen of the state. During the war between the states he was a member of the North Carolina Legislature when the state was in the Confederacy. He lived usefully and well and reared a fine family of children. His wife was the daughter of Peter Cansler, whose name and career belong among those of the prosperous and prominent citizens of River Bend Township in Gaston County. Peter Cansler was descended from Philip W. Cansler, the founder of the fam- ily, a large and influential one in Gaston, Lincoln and other counties of North Carolina. Philip W. Cansler was of German origin, and came from Pennsylvania to North Carolina about 1765. He located near where the Town of Lincolnton was subsequently established.
Richard K. Davenport benefited by the advan- tages of the local schools. At an early age he entered business and with the exception of Mr. A. P. Rhyne was the first merchant at Mount Holly. His mercantile enterprise started in a very small way and in a small building which is still standing just across the street from the pres- ent Davenport store. This store is now con- ducted in a large double brick building and its stock comprises an assortment of general mer- chandise sufficient for all the needs of the ex- tensive trade territory served. In this business Mr. Davenport is associated in partnership with his brother-in-law, Mr. C. E. Hutchison.
From first to last, however, he has been more of a farmer than a merchant. The Davenport farm consists of 600 acres just north of the Town of Mount Holly. It includes the original grant made to his grandfather and tnat land has never been out of the Davenport possession since the patent was signed under the auspices of the gov- ernment of King George III.
Successful in business affairs, Mr. Davenport has recognized his duty to the public welfare. Many positions of responsibility have been con- ferred upon him. For a number of years he has been a member of the board of school commission- ers of Mount Holly and takes great pride in the work that has been accomplished in the building up of a splendid school system. In matters of education he is truly a progressive. Mr. Daven- port has been a member of the board of county
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