USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume V > Part 88
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style, combining beauty, convenience and sanitary values. A feature of the new plant is the extensive grounds, comprising fifty acres of the most beauti- ful country beyond Myers Park. On this area have been planted many varieties of trees and shrubs, and tennis courts and golf links have been completed for the amusement of convalescent pa- tients as well as those going to the institution for rest and the building up of health. There are numerous walks and sequestered nooks which have been provided by the plans of the architects, and the whole tract has been carefully and scientifically treated for the purpose of accomplishing the best possible results. The plant is provided with city water, light, including gas and electricity, and all other convenience, and is reached by a private road, an extension of Queens Road, running past Queens College. Doctor Myers has also erected a hand- some ten-room residence, located within 100 feet of the main hospital building, where he resides with his family.
Doctor Myers' talents and his attractive person- ality have won him a place of high standing at Charlotte, and particularly with the medical pro- fession of the city and the state. He has served as vice president of the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina, as well as chairman of several sections of that body. He was elected to and holds at this time the position of member of the State Examining Board of North Carolina, being the youngest man ever elected to the board, and is also ex-president of the Mecklenburg County Medical Library Society, a high honor to be held by one who was comparatively a newcomer in the county. At the recently organized North Carolina Hospital Association he was elected its first secretary and treasurer. He was commissioned by the governor as a delegate to the Twentieth Annual Convention of The American Hospital Association held in At- lantic City, New Jersey, September 24, 1918, at the Royal Palace Hotel. He is an honorary member of The Accademia Fisico-Chimica Italiana, Pal- ermo, Italy.
Doctor Myers was married in 1906, at Rocking- ham, Richmond County, North Carolina, to Miss Elizabeth Crosland, who was born in that county. They have three children, namely : John Quincy, Jr., William Turrelius and Elizabeth.
ADOLPHUS BUCHANAN HUNTER has had a long and active career in business affairs in Apex, and is widely known both there and in the City of Raleigh as a banker and as a prominent leader in church affairs.
He was born in Wake County, North Carolina, December 3, 1855, a son of Joseph C. and Pianetta (Beckwith) Hunter. His father was a farmer, a surveyor, and at one time operated a sawmill. The son received unusually thorough advantages as a boy, not only in private schools but also in Wake Forest College. He began his business career as a general merchant at Apex. He served as mayor of that town one term, and in 1903 represented his home district in the State Legisla- ture.
Mr. Hunter is now president of the Merchants and Farmers Bank at Apex and is a director of the Commercial National Bank of Raleigh. He is a prominent member of the Missionary Baptist Church, is moderator of the Raleigh Association, and was chairman of the building committee which erected the magnificent church in Apex at a cost of $20,000.
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On December 10, 1883, Mr. Hunter married Miss Alice Carter, of Harnett County. Mr. Hunter is an active democrat in politics.
DRED PEACOCK, of High Point, is a North Car- olina citizen distinguished by an unusual range of ability as well as by the purity of character and intellectual interests which his friends and associates so much admire. Mr. Peacock was at one time one of the foremost educators of the South. From educational work he turned to busi- ness, achieved success there, and now combines large business interests with the profession of the law. One of the greatest jurists the world has ever known did not take up the law until past middle age, and Dred Peacock was forty-eight years old when he was admitted to the North Carolina bar in August, 1912.
Mr. Peacock was born at Stantonburg, Wilson County, North Carolina, April 12, 1864, sixth in a family of seven children born to Dr. C. C. and Ava (Heath) Peacock. His father had a farm and his childhood was spent partly there and partly in the Town of Wilson. Undoubtedly the life of the open fields and the forests exerted a tangible influence upon his impressionable youth. While in later years a splendid specimen of vig- orous manhood, Mr. Peacock had precarious health as a child, but under the wise care of his father he developed both the stronger qualities of the mind and of character. In his early childhood also the blight of war and reconstruction was upon southern society. The point has been well made that in the then prevailing gloom it was almost inevitable that younger people growing up in such an atmosphere should have imbibed something of a spirit of pessimism. It was the rare good for- tune of Dred Peacock that he escaped the per- manent influence of this despondency.
His father was not only an excellent physician but a man of literary tastes, and the son early acquired a habit of reading and had the books to satisfy the splendid natural taste. In his home Town of Wilson he also had the opportunities of better schools than were found in many sections of North Carolina. In the fall of 1883 he entered the freshman class of Trinity College, where he was graduated in June, 1887. He went to college with a good preparation, correct habits of study, sound ideals and a stable character. He was so- cially popular in college and also took an unusually large proportion of college honors without set- ting for himself the task of getting them.
On the day of his graduation, June 9, 1887, he married Miss Ella Carr, daughter of Prof. O. W. Carr. once a member of the college faculty. This marriage united two people in bonds of do- mestic affection and of similar intellectual tastes. Of Mr. Peacock's career as an educator it is ap- propriate that some liberal quotations should be made from a sketch written some years ago by Bishon John C. Kilgo, who as biographer had the advantage of a close and sympathetic knowledge of not only his personal subject but of the work performed and the conditions surrounding it."
"For a year after his graduation Dr. Peacock was principal of the Lexington Female Seminary. The success which attended him there was so marked that in the fall of 1888 he was called to the chair of Latin in the Greensboro Female Col- lege. For six years he held this position, and upon the death of the president, Dr. F. L. Reid, he was chosen head of the college. His progress had been exceptionally rapid, having attained at the age of thirty years the presidency of one of
the oldest and most influential colleges for women in the southern states.
."It was natural that he should have become an educator. There were no financial straits that forced him into the schoolroom, nor was he mak- ing it a stepping stone to another profession, nor, least of all, was he influenced by a lack of ability to succeed in business. He loved knowledge, and all of his nobler sympathies were with the school as a center of learning. He had the genius of the educator and was signally fitted for the work. Because of his merits his alma mater conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Lit- erature, also giving him membership upon its board of trustees.
"Honesty was the ruling aim of his policy as the president of the Greensboro Female College. Education, and especially the education of young women, has been too greatly hindered by undue claims and outward pretenses. Very large academic distinctions have been granted upon exceedingly small academic acquirements. As president of this old college Dr. Peacock declined to confer any of the usual academic degrees, simply grant- ing to his graduates diplomas of graduation. Yet it is very doubtful whether any southern college for women as jealously watched after the sound training of its students.
"For eight years Dr. Peacock was the presi- dent of the Greensboro Female College, and throughout the entire time it was embarrassed by a debt which required all the skill and good man- agement possible on the part of its president and directors to keep it open and continue its useful mission to the church and state; and in 1902 he was forced on account of his failing health to resign his position and abandon his cherished hopes as an educator-a work for which he had shown such exceptional qualifications.
"But there is another side to the work which he did for education in North Carolina that de- serves public gratitude. For fourteen years he gave his vacations to building among the people a better educational sentiment. There are very few, if any, counties in the state in which his voice, invested with a charm and potency for educational advancement, did not ring out clear- ly on the subject of the diffusion of education among the masses of the people."
Bishop Kilgo also called attention to the li- brary which was accumulated under Doctor Pea- cock's supervision. In memory of their deceased baby daughter he and his wife gave $1,000 as a nucleus for such a collection of books, and at the end of seven years over 7,000 volumes had been acquired at a cost of $15,000. This library was accessible to the students of the Female College at Greensboro, and when that institution was practically bankrupt Doctor Peacock made the library a gift to Trinity as the Ethel Carr Pea- cock Memorial Collection. It is a splendid library, and one of the best reference collections of books in the South.
Another brief quotation should be made in Bishop Kilgo's words: "There is a traditional notion that one who teaches well is not adapted to practical matters. Much is heard of the aca- demic world as distinguished from the world that is doing things. Dr. Peacock, however, inherited business talent as well as intellect; and when he turned with regret from the school he walked into the world of business and asserted himself with a ealın mastery. In a few weeks he began a very successful business 'and assumed a high place among the active business men of the state, and
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year by year he entered new fields of industry, developing in each the power of a master and adding to his reputation as a man of capacity and enterprise. "
Since 1904 Mr. Peacock's home has been at High Point. For ten years he was in active busi- ness. He became vice president of the Globe Home Furniture Company and treasurer of the High Point Art Glass Company. He was one of the charter stockholders in the High Point Savings and Trust Company, of which he is now a director, and was one of the organizers and was a director of the Commercial National Bank of High Point. He was formerly a director in the Southern Car Company and a director in the Home Savings Bank of Greensboro. He is also secre- tary and a director of the McLelland stores, a large New York mercantile concern operating ten cent stores throughout the East and South. Mr. Pea- cock was instrumental in having this firm incor- porated under the laws of North Carolina with offices in High Point.
Along with these business affairs Mr. Pea- cock handles a very large law practice. Though he did not begin practice until August, 1912, his reputation as a lawyer is now assured all over the state. He has appeared with success before the highest courts and has brought into his prac- tice the same splendid integrity of character and high ideals which characterized his former work as a teacher and also in the business field.
For several years Mr. Peacock served as a mem- ber of the High Point City Council. From June, 1914, to June, 1915, he was judge of the re- corder's court. For many years he has been a member of the Wesley Memorial Methodist Church in High Point. He has one of the largest Sun- day school classes in the South, consisting of over 100 members, to which he has lectured every Sunday morning since 1909. Mr. Peacock and family reside in a beautiful home on North Main Street in High Point. Their two living children are John Peacock and Miss Odell Peacock.
CHARLES L. AMOS. One of the men who have had much to do with the increasing fortunes of High Point as a great center of the furniture industry of the South is Charles L. Amos, whose name is now associated with half a dozen of the larger financial interests of that section of the state.
Mr. Amos was born on a farm near Reidville in Rockingham County, son of Thomas Amos, a native of the same locality, and grandson of Jesse Amos, who was born in Virginia. The grandfather on coming to North Carolina settled in Rockingham County and was a farmer there until his death. Thomas Amos grew up on a farm, and on reaching manhood bought a place of his own in the suburbs of Reidsville and is still living there. He married Mary Elizabeth Ray, who was born in Rockingham County, daughter of Robert and Priscilla (Thomas) Ray. They reared eight children, named Ella, James, Lillie, Mattie, Robert, Will, Jasper (now deceased) and Charles L.
Charles L. Amos had his youth in the rural environment of the old homestead farm. His edu- cation was acquired chiefly in the Reidville pub- lic schools. A short time after completing his work in school he came to High Point and went to work as clerk in the furniture house owned by his brother Robert and Mr. T. A. Kearns. Six months later he acquired Mr. Kearns' interest and he and his brother Robert have since been
active partners and have brought their industry to rank among the important enterprises of the city. It is now incorporated as the Amos Furni- ture Company, with Mr. Amos, president. Rob- ert Amos is secretary and treasurer of the Amos Hosiery Company, and gives all his time to that business, while Charles L. is the responsible ex- ecutive in the furniture house. He is also in- terested in other enterprises, being vice president of the Amos Hosiery Company, a stockholder in the Bank of Commerce and the Wachovia Bank and Trust Company, in the Highland Cotton Mills, and is a stockholder and director in the Piedmont Building & Loan Association, and is interested in another building and loan associa- tion.
January 1, 1913, he married Miss Mabel A. Kenner, who was born in Northumberland Coun- ty, Virginia, daughter of James and Marian Ken- ner. Mr. and Mrs. Amos have one son, Charles L., Jr. Both are members of the Wesley Memorial Church. Mr. Amos is affiliated with High Point Lodge No. 255, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; with Numa F. Reid Lodge No. 344, Free and Accepted Masons, and High Point Chapter No. 70, Royal Arch Masons.
WILLIAM J. SHERROD. The Greensboro bar has one of its hardest working members in the per- son of William J. Sherrod, who has brought to the profession talent of a high order and thor- ough training, and his increasing experience has brought him rapidly a large and profitable clien- tage and a high standing in legal circles.
Mr. Sherrod has an ancestry that deserves some special reference at this point. The original Eng- lish branch of the family lived at one time in the locality known as Sherwood Forest, an historic and romantic section of England. The name was originally spelled Sherwood, but this particular branch undoubtedly came to spell the name the way it was pronounced. When the Sherrods came to America in colonial times they first settled in Pennsylvania and from there came into the wilds of North Carolina. William J. Sherrod's grand- father, John Sherrod, was born in 1800 in Martin County, North Carolina. He was a man of large property and high standing in the community, owning a plantation of upwards of 1,200 acres and having a great retinue of slaves to perform the work of the fields and the household. When the war came on it is said that upwards of 300 negroes belonging to the Sherrod family were given their freedom. John Sherrod married Eliza- beth Bowers, who was born in Martin County in . 1804. John Sherrod died while the war was still in progress and his wife about three years later. They had fourteen children, six of whom grew to maturity: Sally, who married a Mr. Purvis; John Watson, who served throughout the war as surgeon in a Confederate hospital at Richmond; Mary Ann, who died unmarried; Nancy J., who married a Mr. Best; William L .; and Bettie, who married Blunt J. Bryan, a farmer of Edgecombe County. Something more than this casual men- tion is due the memory of Bettie Bryan. She was left a widow with six young children, the oldest only twelve years old. She resolutely undertook the task of providing for the family and super- intending the farm, and she earned the gratitude of her children and of all who knew her by her success in this heavy task, having reared and edu- cated the children and keeping them all together until they were grown and had homes of their own.
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
William Llewellyn Sherrod, father of William J., was born on a plantation near Hamilton in Martin County, North Carolina, in November, 1832. He attended the schools at home and also a fine preparatory school at Hamilton conducted by Prof. J. M. Horner, one of North Carolina's famous educators. Later he attended an academy in Alamance County. He did not choose to adopt a profession, and after completing his academic course he returned to the farm. During the war he was detailed to raise supplies for the Confed- erate Government. By purchase of the interests of the other heirs he succeeded to the ownership of the old homestead, and showed such exceptional ability in the management of this property that he accumulated a fortune. He continued to live on the farm until 1912, when he removed to En- field, where he is now living at the advanced age of eighty-six. He married at the age of forty-five Carrie Catherine Newberry. She was born on a plantation near Plymouth in Albemarle County, North Carolina, daughter of Jeremiah Phelps and Sarah Ann (Lanier) Newberry. William L. Sher- rod and wife had six children : Annie, who died at the age of three years; William J .; Rusha Lu- cile, who married Dr. M. A. Fleming; Mary Belle, wife of Herbert I. Salsbury; Watson Newberry; and Mrs. Raymond Woods.
William J. Sherrod was born at the home of his maternal grandparents in Washington County, North Carolina. As a boy he had the advantages of both the public and private schools. He pre- pared for college at Horner's Military Institute at Oxford, and from there entered the University of North Carolina, pursuing special work in the academie department and also studying law. After two years at the university he was licensed to practice and at once came to Greensboro, where he has found his opportunities and his work in the profession. He is active in local civie and social affairs, is a member of the Merchants and Manufacturers Club, the Country Club, is affiliated with Greensboro Lodge No. 76, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Greensboro Council No. 3, Royal and Select Masters; Greensboro Chapter No. 13, Royal Arch Masons; Ivanhoe Commandery No. 8, Knights Templar; and Oasis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charlotte. He is one of the leading members of St. Andrews Episcopal Church, is a vestryman and for two years was superintendent of the Sunday school. Mrs. Sher- rod is a Presbyterian.
In September, 1907, he married Elizabeth Ser- geant, who was born in Greensboro, daughter of "George and Lulu (MeCulloch) Sergeant. They have two sons, William J., Jr., and George Ser- geant Sherrod.
HON. EDWIN FEREBEE AYDLETT is one of the great lawyers of the North Carolina bar. Those associated most closely with him during the last thirty years have been constantly impressed by his profound legal wisdom, purity of public and private life, and that quiet dignity which makes him an ideal follower of his calling. It has been given to few men to endear themselves to so great an extent to their professional asso- .ciates and those with whom they come in contact in the discharge of public duties. He is now president of the North Carolina Bar Association, elected at its last annual meeting at Wrights- ville, North Carolina. This is the highest honor in the gift of the association.
Mr. Aydlett is in fact one of the fortunate men of North Carolina. He was fortunate in having a good parentage, a good endowment of intellect
and feeling, a liberal education, and in attaching himself to one of the greatest of learned profes- sions. While he has borne a large share of the labors of professional life, accomplishing not less for the public welfare than for his own advan- tage, he has been distinguished for his singular purity of character and moral purpose, and from all the exactions of a busy career has preserved his love of letters, his pursuit of invigorating pas- times, and his indulgence in the amenities of a refined and gentle home life.
An interesting review of his career is found in an article written several years ago by the late Col. R. B. Creecy.
Edwin Ferebee Aydlett was born in Camden County, North Carolina, May 14, 1857. His par- ents were Abner and Clotilda Aydlett. His father was long prominent in the official affairs of Cam- den County, having been sheriff and chairman of the board of county commissioners. He was a merchant and a farmer and was successful in both pursuits. His parents were both members of the Baptist Church and they trained him from boyhood in the paths of holiness, and when he attained manhood he departed not therefrom. Since his active and successful live he has never forgotten his sacred duties but has always given to all church organizations, activities and charities a liberal support. To the church in this town he has been the central pillar both in godly counsel and in material advancement. In the general association of the church he has been an active and influential member and for several years was the efficient and judicious moderator of the Chowan Baptist Association.
In childhood and boyhood he was healthy, ro- bust and active. Born and reared in the country and in touch with nature, his environments were such as develop manhood, intellectuality, ob- servation and self reliance, qualities which belong to the simple farm life. While surrounded by the influence of that farm life, which is said to be the peculiar nursery of great men, he did not spend his time in idleness or frivolous pursuits. Born to competence, he was not under the compulsion of necessity to toil for his daily bread, but he was trained by a thoughtful mother and father to regard work as a blessing and a duty, and to their good counsel he attributed his fondness and capacity for labor, both physical and mental. While he was a boy he was employed in the various labors of the farm, sometimes following the plow. sometimes the hoe, and sometimes attend- ing to the cotton gin.
His early education was acquired in the country school, taught irregularly, but his crumbs of learn- ing were carefully gathered and nothing was lost. His preparatory education having been finished, he sought the higher schools of learning. As a boy he was fond of books and study and by his own efforts added to his store of learning. He aspired to the higher learning of the colleges. To say that he attained it without difficulty would not be entirely accurate. He came of that more fortunate middle class who have had neither wealth nor penury and who have had to encounter neither the necessities of the one nor the responsi- bilities, cares and temptations of the other. He had to obtain his college education through care- fulness, economy and personal sacrifice.
. He entered Wake Forest College at an early age and graduated with distinguished honor in his class, delivering the salutatory oration, the next highest distinction in scholarship.
He chose the legal profession. His father was
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an officer of the court, and young Aydlett was much in the courthouse, and the high ideal of that grandest of human pursuits came under his ob- servation, firing his imagination. Law . schools were then expensive and inaccessible, but the mem- bers of the profession were kind and helpful in explaining intricate points. Trusting to his own self reliance and determined resolution and know- ing that an intelligent reader knows when he fully comprehends what he reads, he took up his legal tasks alone and unaided. Through the kindness of a leading member of the bar in Elizabeth City he had the use of the text books that he required. Industry and a resolute purpose conquered all other difficulties.
In January, 1881, he was admitted to the bar by the license of the Supreme Court and returned to Camden County to begin his practice. While reading there as an attorney at law he was made county superintendent of education. Desiring a larger field of practice and a closer association with the leading members of the profession, he moved to Elizabeth City in November, 1881, and there formed a partnership with Mr. C. W. Grandy.
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