USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 81
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commissioners of Gaston County since 1902. These fifteen years have covered a progressive era in the county. His long and continued term of office has been made notable by the building of a good roads system in the county and numerous other public improvements, including the erection of several other fine bridges over the Catawba and other streams. Mr. Davenport's service in the State Legislature was during the session of 1909. He is now president of the Mount Holly branch of the Gaston County Chamber of Commerce.
The enviable degree of prosperity he has at- tained in business affairs is shared by a fine fam- ily, consisting of his wife and seven children. The maiden name of his wife was Miss Mary Fay. She was born at Brookfield, Massachusetts. Their children are Mary Fay, Ralph, Richard, Harvey, Esther, George and Marshall. Ralph is a civil engineer in the employe of the United States Government. Richard is sergeant in the One Hundred and Fifth Engineer Corps and now in France.
C. EVERETT THOMPSON. The law, public af- fairs and finance have alike claimed the attention of C. Everett Thompson, who is one of Elizabeth City's foremost citizens. While not native born, Mr. Thompson has lived here since childhood, and the city has no more prideful, enterprising or public spirited citizen. His honorable reputation has been built up in this community, his interests are centered here, and to promote general pros- perity and encourage local enterprises is work in which he takes a hearty and unselfish interest.
C. Everett Thompson was born at Bellwood, in Blair County, Pennsylvania, October 27, 1879. His parents were Dr. John Cooper and Emma (Greene) Thompson, the former of whom was a well known physician.
It was in 1884, when C. Everett Thompson was five years old, and after the death of his father, that his mother came to Elizabeth City. His early educational advantages were secured in the Elizabeth City Academy, and its successor, the Atlantic Collegiate Institute, and after his aca- demic course was concluded there he entered the University of North Carolina, from which insti- tution he was graduated in 1900, and in September, 1901, he received his license to practice law after concluding the law course at the university. Con- tinuously since then he has been engaged in a general practice in this city and is considered one of the able lawyers and trustworthy consel- lors of this bar. Like other young men of pro- fessional training, he soon found himself more or less interested and concerned with local public affairs, and when the office of city attorney was tendered him, accepted the office and served in that capacity for one term, at the expiration of which Mr. Thompson was elected mayor of Eliza- beth City.
Mr. Thompson was married November 6, 1906, to Miss Sarah Morrisette Bartlett, who was born in Camden County, North Carolina. They have three children, two daughters and one son, namely : Elizabeth Meanor, George Ward and Clara Mor- risette. The family belong to the Cann Memorial Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth City, of which Mr. Thompson is one of the officers.
Always interested in educational progress, Mr. Thompson accepted an appointment to serve on the board of trustees of the North Carolina State College. He is well known in the financial field and is on the directing board of the leading bank
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in this section. Other enterprises have profited through his generous encouragement. He is prominent in Masonry, having advanced far and received the York rite. He is a member of Sudan Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Newbern, North Carolina. He belongs also to the Odd Fellows and the Royal Arcanum.
HON. JOHN WORTHY JOHNSON. So few men really do gain truly notable success solely through the medium of their own efforts that the term "self-made man" has come to be a trite expression, and when an individual does break through the stereotyped bonds of mediocrity, the novelty and surprise in the situation occasions comment. While opportunity does not smile upon all men with equal favor, he who steps forward and firmly clasps her hand, who has grit enough to hold on while she swirls him, sometimes clear of firm foot- holds, through the scurrying crowds of frenzied money-seekers, will in all probability be guided to the goal of his ambition. This capacity of recog- nizing opportunity in whatever disguise she may assume, and the effective willingness to fight his way over any kind of obstacles, are the two most salient characteristics of the man worthy of bear- ing the title "self-made." And thus it is that eminently deserving of such distinction is Hon. John Worthy Johnson, farmer, banker, lum- berman and ex-state senator, who located at Rae- ford, Hoke County, when there were not more than fifty people in the hamlet, and he himself practically penniless, and who is now one of the leading and wealthy citizens of one of the most progressive and thriving little cities in the state and a model in the high character of its citizen- ship.
John Worthy Johnson was born near Carthage, Moore County, North Carolina, in 1864, being a son of Samuel E. and Amanda (Worthy) Johnson, both of whom are now deceased. His father, who was of Scotch ancestry and a native of Moore County, spent all his life there, and was buried at the age of eighty-four years, at the place where he was born. Mrs. Johnson was a sister of the late ex-sheriff Kenneth Worthy of Moore Coun- ty, a noted man in his day, and a daughter of James Worthy, a native of England, who came as a young man to Moore County, North Carolina, where he became a large planter and slave owner.
The story of John W. Johnson's career and success in life is quite an interesting and remark- able one. He was reared on the home farm and attended a school near Carthage that had been established by J. E. Kelly, but the principal part of his education was obtained in the Union Home School. His youth and early manhood were spent as a workingman, generally in sawmills, and he worked in a sawmill for 75 cents per day even after he was married. His real start in life came when he located at the new town of Raeford, now the county seat of the County of Hoke, and started in the sawmill business for himself on borrowed capital, this being in 1900. At that time he had not a cent of capital of his own but was rich in character and this latter was accepted as gilt-edged security by J. W. McLaughlin of Rae- ford, who advanced him $2,000 in cash without other security and went in with him as financial partner. This, with $2,000 additional that he had borrowed from his brother, of Moore County, en- abled Mr. Johnson to establish a sawmill and planing mill, which he conducted with such suc- cess that within two years he was enabled to pay
off every cent of his indebtedness, and from that time continuously his prosperity in business has been without interruption. The business for a few years was conducted under the name of J. W. Johnson & Company, Mr. Mclaughlin being his partner, but later he bought out Mr. Mclaughlin's interest and conducted the business independently. It may be said that Mr. Johnson's fortune had its foundation in the lumber business. A few years back, on account of the diminution of the timber supply, he discontinued his milling operations, but more recently, beginning in the fall of 1916, he again resumed operations as an active mill operator.
Mr. Johnson's chief interests are now centered in farming, and he is one of the largest and most successful agriculturists of North Carolina. Four of his best properties are as follows: Oakdale Farm, composed of 600 acres, with 400 acres in cultivation, lying about a mile southeast of Rae- ford; Monticello Farm, 1,300 acres, with about 500 acres in cultivation, eight miles east of Raeford; Highland Farm, with about 100 acres in cultiva- tion, four miles east of Raeford; and Seventy-first Farm, having about 500 acres in cultivation, lying east of Raeford. All of these properties are in Hoke County, and all told Mr. Johnson operates upward of seventy plows, while all the farms are well improved with buildings and equipped with machinery, live stock, etc. Mr. Johnson is an in- tensely practical man, capable himself of doing anything about a farm, and adds to this practical knowledge the most modern and approved ideas in regard to advanced agriculture. He has va- rious other interests, being president of the Hoke Oil and Fertilizer Company, an important local industry; and a member of the board of directors of the Bank of Hoke, of which he was one of the organizers and for some time president.
Aside from his prominent participation in bus- iness and agriculture Mr. Johnson has been a lead- ing figure in the political history of Hoke County. He was one of the leading spirits in the organiza- tion of the County of Hoke, formed from portions of Cumberland and Robeson counties, and which was consummated in 1911. He was elected and served as chairman of the first board of county commissioners, and as such had in charge the con- struction of the new courthouse, which is widely known as a model of architectural beauty and representative of everything that a modern court- house should be. This courthouse and the new county jail were built at an expenditure of $57,000, including their entire equipment, an expenditure that is said by experts to be a marvel of economy and efficiency in building construction.
Mr. Johnson and Doctor Graham, of Raeford, formed the committee of two which, in a meeting at the state capital, accepted the name of Hoke as the appellation for the new county in 1911. Mr. Johnson was compelled to spend a great deal of time from his own business in the work of starting off the new county in proper directions, in organizing the new townships, the school dis- tricts, and everything required in the starting of a new enterprise, not the least important of these labors being the building of a system of good roads. During his administration in the capacity of chairman of the first board of county commis- sioners he had direct management of the expendi- tures for the courthouse and jail mentioned above, as well as for the building of good roads, amount- ing in total to $107,000, and it is to Mr. John- son's unusual credit, for one in official position in this character, that no one has ever made the
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slightest suggestion that one cent of this money was misspent or used injudiciously or im- properly. In 1914 Mr. Johnson was elected a member of the North Carolina State Senate and served in that capacity with his customary ability and usefulness in the session of 1915, the senator- ial district being represented by the counties of Cumberland and Hoke. He was chairman of the committee on agriculture, and was a member of the committees on finance, appropriations, penal institutions, insane asylum and others. Mr. John- son is a member of and deacon in the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Johnson was united in marriage with Miss Mattie R. Seawell, and they are the parents of five children, as follows: Fred P., a graduate of Davidson College and now associated with his father in business; Julian S., also a graduate of that institution, and identified with his father and brother in business ventures; Miss Alice A., who has been a student in both Peace Institute and Elizabeth College, is now the wife of C. E. Up- church of Raeford; Paul, who graduated at the North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege, and is now a captain in the United States Army; and Miss Thelma, who is attending Peace Institute of Raleigh.
WALTER C. BRADSHER is one of the prominent names in the tobacco industry of Durham, he is an executive officer in several well known corpora- tions, and his career is an illustration of the suc- cess that comes to a man who begins life in the very humblest rounds and parts of business and climbs steadily to the top.
Mr. Bradsher was born at Roxboro, North Caro- lina, June 7, 1865, a son of Dr. Charles Harrison and Martha (Hopkins) Bradsher. His father was a physician with a good practice, and the son was given good advantages in private schools and also in the Durham public schools. Walter C. Brad- sher has lived at Durham since he was fifteen years of age. When a boy he entered a local tobacco warehouse as a tag marker. He .showed industry and capability and was successively pro- moted in that factory until he stood as assistant superintendent of the tobacco buyers and later engaged in tobacco buying himself. In 1913 Mr. Bradsher established the W. C. Bradsher Tobacco Company, one of the important houses engaged in the buying and selling of tobacco. He owns half the stock and is secretary and treasurer of the company. He is also secretary and treasurer of the Mill Devices Company, manufacturing special machinery for use in the tobacco trade. He is also a director of the Durham Southern Rail- road Company and Durham House Agency Com- pany.
Mr. Bradsher in a busy career has taken much part in local affairs, served two years as city al- derman, is a member of the Commonwealth Club and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias. Politically he is a democrat and is a member of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church. October 17, 1889, he married Sallie Royall Reams of Durham.
BENJAMIN WALTER BALLARD since 1875 has been a merchant, business man, public spirited cit- izen and factor in everything connected with the progress and welfare of Franklinton. He was twenty-one years old when he entered the general merchandise and cotton business in that town, and has continued along those lines to the pres- cnt day, handling a general supply business, deal-
ing in cotton, guano and fertilizers, etc. He is also a director of the Citizens Bank, of which lie was one of the organizers.
Mr. Ballard was born at Louisburg, North Car- olina, June 28, 1854, son of Benjamin Thorn and Martha Harriet (Williams) Ballard. His father was a merchant and planter. The son was edu- cated in the Louisburg Male Academy, and soon after leaving school moved to Franklinton.
During 1905-06 he represented Franklin County in the State Legislature, and while there was es- pecially interested and active as a member of the educational committee and supporting everything that meant the raising of the standards and the supplying of better facilities for the cause of public education in the state. For twenty years Mr. Ballard has been connected with the educa- tional work in Franklin County giving much time and labor to that work. He has served thirty years or more as a steward of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Ballard is a member of the Blue Lodge of Masons at Franklinton, North Carolina; of the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, and Commandery at Henderson, North Carolina. He is a Shriner and a member of Sudan Temple at New Bern, North Carolina, and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
On March 29, 1876, Mr. Ballard married William Eleanor Parker, of Warrenton, North Carolina. Seven children have been born to their marriage, two of whom, Jeanette and Jacob Parker, died in in- fancy, and Nena P. (Ballard) Cheatham, died September 5, 1918.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Ballard are Wil- liam Eleanor, the wife of William F. Joyner, a prominent banker at Franklinton; Walter Junius, in the plant department of the Western Union Telegraph Company; Martha Harriet, the wife of Dr. R. F. Yarborough of Louisburg, North Caro- lina; Kate Averitte, and Nena Parker, the de- ceased wife of James Bullock Cheatham, superin- tendent of Western Union Telegraph Company at Nashville, Tennessee.
ANDREW H. HARRISS, M. D. Those things which stand to the credit of Doctor Harriss of Wilming- ton cannot be interpreted other than as the equiv- alent of a most successful and useful career. He has been a learned and accomplished member of the medical profession at Wilmington for a quarter of a century, professionally and otherwise has kept himself in close touch with the life of the community, and is one of the few men who during the last thirty years has kept unabated an interest in and enthusiasm for military affairs. Doctor Harriss is now a captain in the Army Medical Reserve Corps.
He was born at Wilmington, March 7, 1872. The house where he was born stood in the same block and only a door or so from his present resi- dence. His parents, George and Julia O. (Sall- ders) Harriss, are both now deceased. His paternal grandfather, Dr. William Harriss, spent his life in Wilmington as an honored physician. The Harriss family is one of the oldest at Wilmington and the Lower Cape Fear and many honored men and accomplished women have borne that name in this historic region. Doctor Harriss' maternal grandfather was John O. Sanders, who lived in New Hanover County, four miles from Wilmington. George Harriss, who was born in Wilmington and died in that city in 1900, was a ship broker and commission merchant. During the war between the states he had charge in Wil-
J. A Graham
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mington of the cotton shipping business for the State of Georgia, which state in recognition of his services conferred upon him the title of colonel,
Andrew H. Harriss was educated in the public schools of Wilmington, took his first courses in medicine at Davidson College but two years later entered the Medico-Chirurgical College of Phila- delphia, now a department of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated with the class of 1893. Already in 1892 he had suc- cessfully passed the examination of the State Medical Board of North Carolina. During his last year at Philadelphia he did much hospital work, so that he was well prepared both practically and theoretically for the work of his profession when he established himself in his home city in 1893. He is a member of the County and State Medical societies and the American Medical Asso- ciation, and for many years has been one of the most popular aud capable physicians and surgeons of Wilmington, where he has built up a large practice.
In the window of Doctor Harriss's residence at 609 Dock Street hangs a service flag showing two stars, one for himself and one for his son Andrew Harriss, aged nineteen,who volunteered in the Coast Artillery at Wilmington and has since been trans- ferred as sergeant to the Trench Mortar Battery. This patriotic youth was a student in Woodbury Forest School in Virginia, preparing to enter the University of Virginia in the fall of 1918.
Doctor Harriss' boyhood enthusiasm for mili- tary affairs led him when a youth of only thirteen to secure appointment as flag boy or "marker" with the Wilmington Light Infantry. When the Spanish-American war broke out he enlisted in the navy and was in service on the ship Nantucket. For sixteen years he was a member of the Hospital Corps of the National Guard of North Carolina and when he retired in 1910 it was with the rank of lieutenant colonel. All this training and ex- perience are likely to stand him in good stead in the present war. Doctor Harriss volunteered his services in 1917, passed the necessary examina- tion, and was given a commission as captain in the Medical Reserve Corps February 6, 1918, and was assigned to duty at Fort Caswell. Prior to this assignment he was acting as physician for the patrol in service at Wilmington.
Dr. Harriss is a member of St. James Episcopal Church. He married Miss Mary Bolles, daughter of the late Maj. Charles Pattison Bolles, of Wil- mington, a complete sketch of whose remarkable career appears on other pages. Doctor and Mrs. Harriss have five children: Andrew, Mary, Evelyn, Julia and David.
GEORGE A. GRAHAM, M. D. Formerly one of the well known and skilled medical practitioners of Raeford, and now a successful dealer in real estate and insurance, and at all times one of the most highly esteemed and respected citizens of his com- munity, Dr. George A. Graham has been a prom- inent figure in Hoke County history since the or- ganization of the county in 1911. He is a native of the Cape Fear Section of North Carolina and a member of one of the notable families of the state. He was born in 1852, at old Elizabeth- town, the county seat of Bladen County, North Carolina, and is a son of Doctor Neill and Eliza- beth (Cromartie) Graham, the former a native of Cumberland County and the latter of Bladen County.
The ancestors of Doctor Graham on both sides were of pure Scotch origin, were people of promi- nence and distinction in the Cape Fear Section of North Carolina, and contributed to the up- building and progress of their locality. The pater- nal grandfather, Neal Graham, was born about seven miles from the present town of Raeford, in what is now Hoke County, but which until 1911 was a part of Cumberland County. Amoug his children was Neill Graham, who, although he pro- nounced his given name the same as that of his father, spelled it differently. Neill Graham showed an inclination for a professional career in his youth, secured a good medical education, and for a long period of years was engaged in practice at the old community of Whitehall, Bladen County, North Carolina, where he eventually passed away. He was a man who stood high in the respect of his fellow-citizens and one whose integrity and honesty were unquestioned, while his devotion to his profession and its highest ethics gained him a reputation and standing among his fellow-practi- tioners. Dr. Neill Graham was a cousin of Archie and Alex Graham of Charlotte, the former of whom is the father of Edward Kidder Graham, who is now the president of the University of North Carolina and one of the most distinguished educa- tors in the United States. He is also the father of Mary Graham, also a distinguished instructor, she being the president of Peace Institute at Raleigh. Professor Alex Graham is likewise dis- tinguished in the field of educational work and for a long number of years has been the superintend- ent of the city schools of Charlotte, while several other immediate members of this family have had notable careers as students and educators.
While George A. Graham was still a child his parents moved from Elizabethtown to a planta- tion near Whitehall, about eleven miles below, on the Cape Fear River. There he was reared amid picturesque surroundings and in the midst of a community rich in interesting lore and local his- tory. He attended the local schools and the Clin- ton High School, and took his first year in medi- cine at Louisville, Kentucky, having first had some instruction under his father. He completed his medical work as a student at the Medical College of the University of New York, from which well known institution he was graduated in 1875, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and his initial practice was carried on at Cedar Creek in Cum- berland County, where he remained for about three years. In 1878 Doctor Graham returned to White- hall, Bladen County, and there took charge of the practice of his father, who had carried on profes- sional labors there for many years. This prac- tice extended to various points in Bladen County and was large and important, and for eighteen years Doctor Graham ministered to the needs of his large clientele. In 1896 he located at Warsaw in Duplin County, where he practiced until 1900, and in the latter year took up his residence and established his office at the new town of Raeford. This community was at that time sitnated in Cum- berland County, but since 1911 has been the county seat of the new Hoke County, and one of the most progressive and enterprising little cities in the state. For eight years following his arrival Doctor Graham practiced in association with Doctor Dickson, and the four years which immediately came after were devoted to individual practice in medicine and surgery. In 1912, on account of somewhat impaired health, caused by his long and faithful devotion to the exacting and exhaustive
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duties of his calling, he retired from the practice of medicine and surgery and embarked in the real estate and insurance business, which since that time has had his entire attention. For some years previously he had been interested in realty in this section, and had gained a working knowl- edge of values even before taking up the business. He has handled some transactions, and is now representing a number of the leading insurance companies.
Doctor Graham is greatly esteemed by all as a citizen, by reason of his high character and his splendid qualities. While living in Bladen County he served for several years as a member of the board of county commissioners, and after coming to his present place of residence became an active factor in the movement which led up to the forma- tion of Hoke County, formed from portions of Cumberland and Robeson counties, and which was consummated in 1911. It was Doctor Graham, in association with John W. Johnson, of Raeford, who in 1911, at a conference with the authorities at the state capitol, Raleigh, accepted on the part of the citizens the name of "Hoke" as the ap- pellation for the new county. Doctor Graham is a pleasing conversationalist, with a wealth of interest- ing reminiscences of the Cape Fear Section of the Old North State.
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