USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 83
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It was through Doctor Garrison's original sug- gestion and continuous agitation of the matter that the drainage of Long's and Crowder's creeks was brought about in Gaston County, thus vastly benefitting the health of the communities adja- cent to their courses and also greatly enhancing the value of the neighboring lands. In January, 1917, he also drew a legislative bill providing for the inspection of meat and milk, and is strenu- ously urging its adoption and enforcement. With- out disparagement to the efforts of others along similar lines, it may be truthfully said that Doc- tor Garrison is the originator of this far-reaching food-inspection bill, and of many other measures designed to safeguard the public health, such as
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the proper drainage and improved sanitary con- ditions in the mill villages of the county. He was the first to suggest a nurse and welfare worker for every industrial center in the county, and at the present time one of his paramount ambitions is to have established a county sanitarium for tu- bercular patients in Gaston County. In 1917 he organized Gaston County Sanatorium for the treat- ment of medical and surgical cases, of which Doc- tor Garrison is president and treasurer. The build- ing in which this institution is occupied is owned by Doctor Garrison. Its location is at 217 West Long Avenue, Gastonia.
As indicative of his standing in his profes- sion and in his social and religious relations, it is added that he has served as vice president of the North Carolina State Medical Association; is a Knight Templar Mason and a Shriner; was one of the founders, with his brother, Rev. J. M. Garrison, of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church at Bessemer City, and is now an elder in the local body at Gastonia. Doctor Garrison's wife, before her marriage, was Miss Juniata Coltrane, of Concord, daughter of D. B. Coltrane of that city, the founder and president of the First Na- tional Bank and one of the wealthiest and most prominent citizens of Cabarrus County.
JAMES ACRA HACKNEY. In a comparatively brief career of not more than ten years James Acra Hackney has done much for himself and also for the general business development of the City of Washington, where he is today one of the most prominent business leaders.
He is a son of George and Bessie (Acra) Hack- ney, his father well known as a wagon and carriage manufacturer. The son was born at Wilson, North Carolina, September 22, 1890, and was liberally educated, attending local school and high school, Oak Ridge Institute, and was both a literary and law student in the University of North Caro- lina, but did not graduate and has found a busi- ness career more satisfactory to him than a profession. As a young man he worked with his father in the manufacturing business, learned all the mechanical as well as the business details of carriage making, and had considerable experience as clerk in the office of the Hackney Buggy Com- pany at Wilson. In 1913 the company sent him on the road as a salesman, and in September, 1914, he joined forces with the Washington Buggy Company as its assistant manager. Since then other responsibilities have been promoted upon 'him and he is now secretary, treasurer and general manager of an industrial corporation that employs seventy skilled workmen. Mr. Hackney is also secretary and treasurer of the Beaufort County Storage Warehouse Company and a direc- tor of the Hassell Supply Company. He is affili- ated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Hackney married March 7, 1916, Mae Ayers, of Washington, daughter of E. W. Ayers, a well known merchant. They have one son, James Acra, Jr., born January 3, 1917.
THOMAS CHRISTIAN WOOTEN, a highly success- ful lawyer and member of a family of professional men in North Carolina and Virginia, has been in active practice at Kinston for over twenty years. He is widely known in the state as a leader in the democratic party.
Mr. Wooten was born in Lenoir County, North Carolina, March 9, 1862, a son of John Franklin and Mary Adams (Christian) Wooten. His father
was also for many years a member of the bar in Lenoir County. Thomas C. Wooten was edu- cated in Kinston Academy and was a student in the law department of the University of North Carolina in 1882-83. While in the University he served as editor of the University Magazine.
Admitted to the bar in 1883 Mr. Wooten began practice at Snow Hill in Green County and from there moved to a larger and more important field at Kinston in 1896. He has made his mark in the general practice rather than as a special or cor- poration lawyer.
Mr. Wooten served as mayor pro tem of Kinston in 1896 and was elected an alderman for two years. He was born with a taste for politics and has been active in the democratic organization since he was twenty-one years of age. In 1900 he was Bryan elector and led the ticket, and in 1915 he was elected recorder of the Criminal Court in Kinston. Among his various official and profes- sional interests Mr. Wooten is also something of a farmer, and owns a rather noted place, consisting of 365 acres and comprising part of the old bat- tleground on which General Hoke fought his last engagement, known as Wise's Forks.
Mr. Wooten is a Mason and is identified with the Queen Street Methodist Episcopal Church. For twelve years he has been teacher of the Woman's Bible Class in that church.
He has been thrice married. His first wife was Emma Carr, a near relative of Governor Carr of North Carolina. For his second wife he mar- ried Mary Moore, niece of Judge William Faircloth of the Supreme Court, North Carolina, and the one child of that union, Bessie, is Mrs. J. H. Sanders. For his third wife Mr. Wooten married Julia Holderness Dixon, of Caswell County, North Carolina.
ROBERT NIRWANA SIMMS. Few men can hope to successfully embrace so many interests and ren- der effective service in them all as Robert Nir- wana Simms has done in the twenty years since he left college and took up the practice of law. He is one of the ablest lawyers of North Carolina, has a large and important practice, is a leader in politics, in church affairs, and an able leader in various other movements.
He was born near Huntington, West Virginia, May 14, 1876, a son of Rev. Albert Meredith Simms, D. D., and Mary F. (Stewart) Simms. His father was a prominent Baptist minister and at one time was pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church of Raleigh, and previously of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.
Mr. Simms after leaving the public schools entered Wake Forest College, where he took his degree of A. B. in 1897 and finished his course in the law department in the same year. In col- lege he distinguished himself as an orator and debator, was senior class orator and gold medalist and is now president of the Wake Forest Alumni Association of Wake County.
Since his admission to the bar at Raleigh in 1897 Mr. Simms has been in active general prac- tice in all the State and Federal courts. His services have been called into requisition in the organization of a number of corporations and among others he was one of the organizers and general counsel for the Raleigh & Southport Rail- way Company and is attorney for the Norfolk Southern Railroad Company. He is a director and general counsel of the Raleigh Savings Bank & Trust Company. Mr. Simms has been a member
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of the North Carolina State Bar Association since it was organized. In the summer of 1917 he was tendered by Governor Bickett the appoint- ment as judge of the Superior Courts of the Seventh Judicial District of North Carolina, but he declined the same. For sixteen years he has served as deacon of the Tabernacle Baptist Church at Raleigh and assisted to organize and has con- tinuously taught for seventeen years the Baraca Class of the church, the first Baraca organization in the South. He is a former vice president of the World Wide Baraca Philathea Union, for years has been a member of the State Board of Missions and is former president of the State Sunday School Association, an interdenomina- tional organization. He is a trustee of Meredith College and chairman of the Executive Committee of the Baptist Young People's Union.
Mr. Simms is chairman of the Raleigh Bar As- sociation. He served in the North Carolina Gen- eral Assembly in 1901-02 and in 1904 was a presidential elector. On November 25, 1908, he married Miss Virginia Egerton of Asheville, North Carolina. They have three children: Robert Nir- wana, Jr., and Ann Egerton and Albert.
JAMES ANDREW WELLONS has been an honored member of the bar of Smithfield, Johnston County, for fully a quarter of a century. Many worthy achievements have marked his professional career, and he has also done much to justify the esteem of his fellow citizens in public office and as a leader in public affairs.
He was born in Johnston County, North Caro- lina, May 17, 1862, a son of Dr. James David Thomas and Alice Louisa (Blackman) Wellons. His father was a surgeon in the Confederate Army through the war, and after the war practiced med- icine steadily until his death on December 10, 1915, having been a greatly venerated figure in his profession and a much beloved citizen for over a half century.
James A. Wellons spent part of his youth dur- ing the reconstruction era and had to depend upon private schools for his educational advantages. In 1884-85 he attended the Bingham Military School, then located at Mebane. For twelve years he was a teacher in the schools of Johnston County, and at one time was a teacher in Turlington Institute. In 1892 he graduated from the law department of the University of North Carolina, was admit- ted to the bar in October of that year, and at once began a general practice at Smithfield. In 1893 he was elected county attorney, and filled that office eight years. He has been three times honored by the votes of his fellow citizens in the office of mayor of Smithfield, first being elected in 1910, again in 1912 and in May, 1914. He is a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is affiliated with the Patriotic Sons of America.
December 15, 1892, Mr. Wellons married Flor- ence E. Lassiter, of Johnston County. Robert Andrew, the oldest of their seven children, is a well qualified attorney, and was a law partner with his father in the firm of Wellons & Wellons until 1917, when he joined the Aviation Corps of the United States Army. William Bryant, of the University of North Carolina, is the second born of their children. Mabel Florence, the third in order of birth, is a student in the Peace In- stitute at Raleigh, and the other children in or- der of age are: Margaret Alice, in the grade schools at Smithfield, Ava Euzelia, James An- drew, Jr., and Mary Elizabeth.
JOHN HENRY MCMULLAN, JR. An enterprising spirit, diversity of talent, sound business ideas and a happy temperament may all be credited to one of Edenton's well known business men and popular citizens. Primarily educated for the law, he has been equally interested in both business and politics for some years.
John Henry McMullan, Jr., was born at Hert- ford, North Carolina, August 13, 1882. His par- ents were Dr. John Henry and Lina Caroline (Tucker) McMullan, the latter of whom died at Edenton, North Carolina, in August, 1914.
Dr. John Henry McMullan, for many years an eminent physician known all through Eastern North Carolina, was born in Greene County, Vir- ginia, July 7, 1849. His parents were Rev. Jere- miah and Frances (Dabney) McMullan, the former of whom was a noted preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The family came to North Carolina in 1860 but returned to Virginia during the war between the states. The young man had early shown a preference for a medical career, and after attending the McMullan School in Greene County, Virginia, and the academy at Hertford, North Carolina, he became a student in the medical department of the University of Maryland, from which he was graduated in 1876. He returned to Hertford and practiced his profes- sion there for sixteen years. In 1891 he came to Edenton and ever since has been numbered with the city's most skilled and trustworthy physicians and surgeons. He has served as health officer both at Hertford and Edenton and both cities have benefited through his diligent care and scientific knowledge. He is one of the most valued members of the county and state medical organiza- tions. Doctor McMullan was married January 4, 1877, to Miss Lina C. Tucker, of Hertford. Their six children all survive, namely: Pencie, who is the wife of James N. Pruden, a well known attorney at Edenton; John H., Jr .; Harry, who is an attorney, resides at Washington, North Carolina; Mildred June, who resides with her father; Lina Louise, who is the wife of William M. Bond, an attorney of Denver, Colorado; and Jessie Pailin. Doctor McMullan is a member of the board of stewards of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Edenton.
John Henry McMullan, Jr., completed his aca- demic course at Edenton and then entered the University of North Carolina and in 1906 was graduated from the law department of that insti- tution. For some years Mr. McMullan has been active in the business field. Becoming interested in the life insurance line, he was superintendent of agents for one of the old line companies, and in 1908 he went into the automobile and garage business. His garage, with dimensions of 40 by 80 feet, and his show room with dimensions of 36 by 48 feet, give him an abundance of floor space. He carries a full line of automobile goods and is the sole agent for Studebaker cars and Republic trucks for Northeastern North Caro- lina.
It is not remarkable that a young man so thoroughly educated and with such evident practi- cal business ideas, should claim the attention of forward looking citizens when affairs of great civic importance had to be considered, hence in 1907 he was urged for the office of mayor and elected on the democratic ticket. He gave the city a sound business administration. He is an important factor in county politics, and for the past ten years has been chairman of the county
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executive committee of his party and is now democratic nominee for the legislature. He is secretary and treasurer of the Edenton Auditoriuni Company and has a number of minor interests. Fraternal organizations as a rule have not appealed to him, but he has never given up his membership in his old college fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon. Mr. McMullan is a communicant in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, in which he has served as a vestryman.
N. WILSON WALLACE. One of the best com- pliments and highest honors that communities of American people can pay to an individual is to keep a man of affairs and of high business and personal standing in one office through a long period of years. Such an official record not only suggests on the face signal competence and effi- ciency in the performance of his duties, but also a high order of merit and integrity of character that would make such a man trusted in any of the broader relationships of life.
It is an honor of this kind that has been paid N. Wilson Wallace, who is now in his twentieth consecutive year of service as sheriff of Mecklen- burg county. Mr. Wallace besides being a promi- nent official is representative of a pioneer family of the county, one of the largest individual land owners, a practical farmer and a merchant at Charlotte.
He was born in Mecklenburg County, in Crab Orchard Township, in 1856. The Wallace family is of Scotch ancestry, and has lived in North Carolina since about the time of the Revolution, coming here from Virginia. The Wallaces contin- uously have had their home in the eastern part of Mecklenburg County. 'Sheriff Wallace's grand- father, Matthew Wallace, was a well known Meck- lenburg citizen, while the parents, Wilson and Caroline (Harrison) Wallace, were also natives of the county and both are now deceased.
Much interest attaches to the birthplace of Sheriff Wallace. It is the historic "Rock House", located about seven miles east of Charlotte in Crab Orchard Township. It is one of the oldest homes in the county still standing. It was built in 1786 by William Wallace, who, however, was no relative of this branch of the family. Sheriff Wallace owns the farm on which this landmark is located, and has a number of other fine farms in the eastern section of the county. He grew up as a farmer and has had remarkable success in develop- ing and handling the resources of North Carolina soil.
As a merchant and business man he is a mem- ber of the firm of Newell & Wallace at the Town of Newell. He has a number of other valuable business interests in the City of Charlotte, and has long been a prominent figure in the commercial and industrial life of that city.
He was well known and a substantial figure in his home township before he entered county public life and served as constable and tax collector in his home locality. He was first elected sheriff of the county in 1898, and every two years since then the people of the county have unfailingly placed their confidence and re-elected him to the same office. The county has never had a more business like administration, and while he has dis- charged his duties with a precision and a method- ical earnestness that always gets results, he has retained his great popularity with all classes of citizens.
On January 8, 1878, Mr. Wallace married Miss
R. E. Newell. She died March 13, 1905, the mother of eight children, named Daisy V., Mrs. J. W. Grier, N. W., Jr., William Newell, Jack H., Lillian K., John S. and Ruth Howerth.
ROBERT COWAN STRONG. From his admission to the bar in 1893 Robert Cowan Strong has been concerned with a great deal of important civil litigation in the courts of Raleigh and North Carolina, and was formerly attorney for the West- ern Union Company and is now counsel for the Postal Telegraph Company. In the fall of 1907 he was appointed Supreme Court reporter, and has since carried those responsibilities in addition to his private law practice. He is one of the best known members of the North Carolina Bar Asso- ciation. Mr. Strong is also known as a writer, and is author of a book which has had a very large circulation not only among lawyers but among laymen. It is "Law of Usual Contracts," a treatise on everyday law and especially valuable to the business man and to all who require some general knowledge of the legal phases of business.
Mr. Strong's father was a prominent lawyer of Wake County, the late George Vaughn Strong, who at one time served as judge of the Criminal Court of Wake County. Mr. Strong's mother was Anna Eliza Cowan.
Born at Thomaston, North Carolina, June 5, 1865, Robert Cowan Strong gained his early edu- cation at Raleigh, attending Lovejoy Academy and Raleigh Male Academy. His first business expe- rience was as clerk in a hardware store. In the meantime he studied law at home under his father. Mr. Strong is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd.
September 25, 1895, he married Miss Daisy L. Horner, daughter of Dr. James Horner, a promi- nent educator. There are four living children: Francis Lambert, a graduate of St. Mary's Col- lege; Robert Cowan, Jr .; William Hunter and John Moore. One son, James Horner, died at the age of eighteen months.
JOSEPH JUDSON YOUNG, M. D. Hardly a name is spoken with more respect in Johnston County and with better appreciation of its significance as betokening high ability and the best of skill and the most conscientious services in the medi- cal profession than that of Dr. Joseph Judson Young, of Clayton,
Doctor Young, who has been in active practice for twenty years, was born in Wake County, North Carolina, September 14, 1872, son of Joseph Judson and Mary Samuel (Turner) Young. His father was a Wake County planter and saw active service as a Confederate soldier from the be- ginning to the end of the war between the states. Doctor Young had his early lessons directed by a private tutor at home, also attended instruc- tion under C. Alfonse Smith at Selma and in 1893 graduated A. B. from Wake Forest College. He took his medical training in the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons of Maryland, from which he graduated M. D. in 1897 and at once located at Clayton. While he has always handled a gen- eral practice, he has given his attention and has found his services engaged in diseases of women and children. Doctor Young is a member and former president of the Johnston County Medi- cal Society. He is also a member in high stand- ing of the North Carolina and Tri-State Medical societies and the American Medical Association.
For ten years Doctor Young was an alderman
N. WILSON WALLACE
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at Clayton, for a similar time was trustee of the graded schools, and is a director of the Liberty Cotton Mills of the town.
January 25, 1899, he married Miss Margaret Maie Robertson, of Clayton, daughter of Dr. James Battle and Julia Ann Ellington Robertson. Mrs. Young is a graduate of the Salem Female College. They have two children, both in school, Mary Louise and Dorothy Maie. Doctor Young was formerly a steward and is an active mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
DAVID JORDAN WHICHARD is one of the veteran newspaper men of North Carolina, learned the printing trade when a mere youth, and was publisher of a paper by the time he was sixteen years of age. Mr. Whichard has for many years been proprietor and editor of the Greenville Re- flector and has made it one of the ablest papers in the state in point of circulation and influence.
Mr. Whichard was born at Greenville August 8, 1862, a son of David Fleming and Violetta Hearne (Jordan) Whichard. His father spent a number of years as a teacher, served as deputy sheriff and deputy register of deeds and lacked only one vote of being elected to the office of register of deeds of Pitt County. In the beginning of the war between the states he entered the Confederate Army and was in service with the rank of com- missary sergeant until the close of hostilities.
David J. Whichard received his early educa- tion in a private school conducted by his mother. He had barely mastered the rudiments of an ele- mentary education when he began learning the printing trade. In 1877, when he was fifteen, he and his brother Julian established a small paper known as the Express. In 1882 they' established the Reflector, a weekly paper, and in 1885 David J. Whichard bought out his brother's interest and in 1894 established the daily edition of that paper. The weekly edition is still con- tinued under the name Eastern Reflector. Mr. Whichard was editor in charge until 1913, and has since been president of the Publishing Com- pany and also editor. In the early part of 1917 the Publishing Company was dissolved and he again became sole owner of the paper.
At different times other activities have engaged his time and attention. For twenty-nine years he was manager of the local office of the Western Union and for four years was express agent at Greenville. He served as city clerk, two years, and since May 26, 1913, has been postmaster of Greenville and since 1914 has been secretary of the North Carolina Postmasters Association. Both personally and as an editor and publisher Mr. Whichard has put forth strenuous efforts in behalf of the cause of prohibition in his community and state. He was the founder and is vice president and director of the Home Building & Loan Asso- ciation of Greenville.
Mr. Whichard has been a deacon of the Memo- rial Baptist Church of Greenville since 1884, and for many years has been chairman of the board of deacons and a trustee of the church. He is a Royal Arch Mason. November 14, 1888, at Green- ville, he married Miss Hennie Sutten. They have four children, Hennie, Essie Sheppard, David Julian and Walter Linden. The sou David has been assistant postmaster of Greenville since he was twenty years of age. Following the entrance of our nation in the world war, military leave of absence was obtained and the young man enlisted in the army service and went overseas.
LEONIDAS DACOSTA STEPHENSON, county treas- urer of Wake County, represents an old and promi- nent name in this section of North Carolina, and both he and his father before him have enjoyed enviable prominence in public affairs.
His father, L. D. Stephenson, Sr., was elected a member of the State Legislature in 1874, served with the rank of colonel on Governor Vance's staff, and for many years was chairman of the Board of Education of Wake County, and was also on the Board of Trustees of the State Insti- tution for the Deaf and Dumb. L. D. Stephenson, Sr., married Arabella Matchiner. Throughout all the period of his public service he was an active farmer, and his son has likewise followed the business of farming, and that is his essential vocation.
Mr. Stephenson was educated in the public schools and in the Raleigh Male Academy, and at the age of twenty-two entered the United States internal revenue service, with which he was connected for six years. He then gave all his time for two years to his farm interests, and for twelve years was connected with the rural delivery service, though farming all the time. In 1914 he was elected county treasurer of Wake County and was re-elected to that important office in 1916.
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