USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 12
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William Graham Shaw is a member of a very old and prominent family of Scotland and Rich- mond counties, and was born in 1868, in Spring Hill Township, Scotland (then Richmond) County, North Carolina, his parents being Doctor Daniel and Mary E. (Purcell) Shaw. His grandparents were Alcxander and Sarah (McIntosh) Shaw, the former of whom came from Scotland to North Carolina in the early part of the nineteenth cen- tury. He settled in that portion of the County of Richmond that now forms Scotland County, on a farm in Spring Hill Township, and there his descendants have lived continuously to the pres- ent time. Sarah McIntosh was a member of an older Scotch family that had come here about the time of the Revolutionary war. There were three sons in the grandparents' family : Doctor Daniel; Maj. John D., of Rockingham, who was one of the notable lawyers of his day and generation; and Hon. Angus, an agriculturist and merchant of Maxton, who represented his district in the North Carolina Legislature. A brother of Alex- ander Shaw was Dr. Angus Shaw, who came to North Carolina at the same time as Alexander, and who became one of the prominent practic- ing physicians of Richmond County, thus making three generations of physicians in this family who have followed their profession in the same com- munity.
Dr. Daniel Shaw was born in Spring Hill Town- ship in 1830, and early displayed a predilection for the medical profession. After some prepara- tion he entered Jefferson Medical College, from which he was graduated with his degree in 1855, and when he left the noted Philadelphia institu- tion returned to his home community and at once began practice. When the war between the states came on he did not go to the front, as the women and children needed his services at home, but in various ways the doctor contributed to the cause of the Gray. His practice extended over a period of more than a half century, dating from the time that he traveled all over the countryside mounted on his favorite horse, with his drugs, his herbs and his instruments in his saddle-bags. He belonged to the old-time type of physician who believed that it was their stern and un-
swerving duty to minister to the ills of humanity regardless of station, careless of recompense. He became greatly beloved all over this part of the country, and when his death occurred, in 1906, there were left many to mourn him. With the passage of the years Doctor Shaw kept pace with the advancements made in his profession, but he never lost the kindly spirit, the love for humanity, that had characterized his earliest practice. His devotion to his calling was absolute and its ethics to him, inviolate.
Doctor Shaw married Mary E. Purcell, who was born in Robeson County, North Carolina, and died at the family home in Spring Hill Township in 1900. She was a daughter of Alexander Torrey and Harriet (MacIntyre) Purcell. Her great- grandfather, Malcolm Purcell emigrated from Ul- ster, North Ireland, about 1750 and settled in Cumberland County, North Carolina, where the City of Fayetteville now stands. The Purcells were of old Scotch stock and had left Scotland and had settled in the north of Ireland during the oppressive reign of King James. Alexander Torrey Purcell was the son of John Purcell. The wife of Alexander Torrey, Harriet MacIntyre, was the daughter of Rev. John MacIntyre. Concerning this pioneer Scotch Presbyterian preacher of North Carolina something more than passing mention should be made. He was remarkable both for his mental and physical strength. He came from Appin, Ayrshire, Scotland, to North Carolina, in 1792, first settling in the western part of Cumber- land County and later in the northern part of what is now Hoke County. He acquired a large tract of land, 3,500 acres, and gave it the name "New Garden. " He lived to be one hundred and three years old. After he had celebrated his hundredth birthday he dedicated old Montpelier Church in what is now Hoke County. He re- tained his mental and physical powers almost perfectly until after he had passed the century mark and could easily read without glasses up to the time of his death. His work as a minister was largely as a missionary to the Indians and the pioneer settlers over a large expanse of terri- tory in both North and South Carolina. He would preach at regular intervals at places far remote from each other. In those settlements that were entirely Scotch he would preach sermons in pure Gaelic as well as in English. It is said that he acquired a proficient knowledge of both Latin and Hebrew after he was thirty-five years of age. It was of such men that the Old Testament writer spoke when he said: "There were giants in those days.''
William Graham Shaw completed his academic education in the high school in Spring Hill Town- ship, and began his medical studies under the preceptorship of his father. He had inherited the family love for the profession, in which he made rapid progress. and eventually entered the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, Maryland, from which he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1892. At that time he returned immediately to Spring Hill Town- ship. and here has since been engaged in the practice of his profession, his home being in the old Shaw community. about two miles west of the present Town of Wagram. This is a new town which has grown to importance within the very few last years, and Doctor Snaw has taken a leading part in its upbuilding and development. After so long and faithful performance of pro- fessional duties, during which he has ever upheld
e. G. Shaw-
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the standard of professional ethics, Doctor Shaw may feel somewhat gratified to know that he is held in high esteem by other members of the fra- ternity and that they number him with the ablest physicians in a community in which medical abil- ity has reached a high point. That this is true is shown in the fact that since 1908 Doctor Shaw has served in the capacity of president of the Scotland County Medical Society. In addition to caring for a large and representative practice he is much interested in all local affairs and is promi- nent as well in business circles, being vice presi- dent and a director of the Bank of Wagram and senior member of the firm of Shaw & Maclean, druggists.
Doctor Shaw married Miss Mary C. Cooley, who was born in the Spring Hill community, a member of an old and well known family, and a daughter of James L. and Frances (Johnson) Cooley. To this union there have been born two children: Mary Elizabeth and William Graham, Jr.
HON. JOHN WILLIAMSON MCLAUGHLIN. When it is considered that the majority of individuals never rise above the ordinary, but live out their lives in obscurity and, dying, are forgotten, a stronger realization is gained of the credit due those who have enriched their communities, bene- fited their associations, raised a higher standard for the generations to come and demonstrated the worth of individual endeaver. The aggressive, public-spirited men of any locality plan for the future as well as the present, and so shape the fortunes and the prosperity of their community. For many years Hon. John Williamson McLauch- lin has been accepted by all as a leader in all enterprises for the public good in that part of Cumberland County now included in Hoke County. In all business transactions he has been a man of prudence, safe and reliable, and his advice in re- gard to business transactions has been frequently sought and freely given. He has been liberal in his dealings and many men owe their start in life to his encouragement and financial aid. In public affairs he has been true to the confidence of his fellow-citizens. true to the needs of his state and true to himself.
John Williamson McLauchlin was born in 1846, on the old home place of the McLauchlin family, located two miles east of Raeford, in what is now Hoke but then a part of Cumberland County, North Carolina, his parents being William and Mary (McRae) MeLauchlin. He belongs to a very old and distinguished family among the early settlers of the section in which he lived. Philip McRae, his grandfather, and others of the same name and connection, were for the most part farmers and large land owners in that locality. John William- son was the youngest in a family of three brothers and one sister, the oldest brother, M. McR. Mc- Lauchlin, and the one next to him, Archibald Scott, were graduated from Davidson College about the time the war between the states began, when they entered the service, in which Archibald Scott lost his life early in the war, and the older, who was major of the Thirty-eighth North Carolina Regiment, was so severely wounded in the battle of Chancellorsville that he was not able to serve longer, but recovered sufficiently, however, to en- gage in teaching until his eightieth year. The next brother in age, William Christopher, served in the army also and is still living at Florala, Alabama, where he is extensively engaged in real estate, naval stores and lumber business. The one sister,
Isabella, was a graduate of Floral College, North Carolina, at the age of sixteen and was married to Malcom Lamont. Her descendants are all mar- ried and living in North Carolina, New York City, and Texas.
The paternal great-grandfather of this family of McLauchlins, whose name was John, was one of three brothers, the others being Daniel and Archibald, all of whom came to America from their native country, Scotland, prior to the Revolution- ary war, or about 1770. He was married to Flora Munn before leaving Scotland and brought with him to America his children, Duncan, John, Archi- bald and Flora, and was himself killed at the battle of Guilford Court House near Greensboro during the Revolutionary war. Some of the Me- Lauchlins moved to South Carolina, others to Florida. A descendant of one of these was the late Peter Stewart McLauchlin, the founder of the Charlotte Observer. Archibald McLauchlin, grand- father of John Williamson, had married Isabella Williamson, their children being John, William and Catherine, and had become the owner of the original MeLauchlin home. William Williamson, the father of Isabella, had an interesting and ad- venturous career. He was a man of fine educa- tion, his home being in Glasgow, Scotland. Before leaving his native country he engaged in teaching English, Latin and Mathematics, first in private families and later in colleges, but when he had won the love of Catherine Campbell, the niece and adopted daughter of the Duke of Argyle, to the extent that she was willing to go with him to the ends of the earth and the proposed match proving unsatisfactory to the Duke on the ground that Williamson was only a teacher and not the owner of an estate, the married couple set sail for America and landed on the Island of Jamaica, where they remained for two years and afterwards, landing at Wilmington, came up the Cape Fear River to Campbellton, afterwards Fayetteville, where they located. Here William Williamson en- gaged in teaching while he was permitted to re- main in America, but when the subject of inde- pendence began to be agitated, the British sol- diers, after investigation, were heard to remark that man's head might overturn a government, and so Williamson and Rev. John McLeod, a Presby- terian minister, were taken under guard, carried to Wilmington and placed on a vessel to be de- ported to Scotland. Nothing more was ever known about the vessel after sailing and it was supposed to be lost at sea.
Catherine (Campbell) Williamson and her two daughters were visiting friends near the MeLauch- lin home twenty miles west from Fayetteville when the husband and father was taken to be seen by them no more. William Williamson left many in- teresting and valuable papers and doenments which would now be of considerable historical value, but all were lost in the confusion of the times, except portions of a diary which he kept before leaving Scotland.
John Williamson McLauchlin attended private schools near his home as opportunity afforded until he entered service in the war between the states in April. 1864, at which time he enlisted in a cavalry company, commanded by W. J. Strange of Fayetteville and in which he served until the war closed, when he resumed his studies and was grad- uated from Davidson College in 1874.
After graduation, having borrowed money from an older brother to complete his education, he engaged in teaching for a number of years until
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his indebtedness was paid, after which he en- gaged in naval store and lumber business at his home and in South Carolina for several years. Mr. McLauchlin has always taken great interest in the cause of education, having served on the board of directors of Davidson College for a long time and on the board of directors of Flora Macdonald Col- lege since its organization and also in similar ca- pacity in his home town of Raeford. Mr. Mc- Lauchlin was married in 1905 to Miss Christiana McFadyen, who had given a considerable portion of her life to teaching, and, together, they have given liberally of their time and means in aiding worthy young people to secure an education.
He has had much to do with the establishment and building of the little City of Raeford, where he is now interested as president of the McLauchlin Company and also of the Bank of Raeford and near which he has considerable farming interests. Mr. McLauchlin was one of the leading spirits in the formation of Hoke County from portions of Cumberland and Robeson counties. He was sen- ator from Cumberland County when the new county was established in 1911, and had served as senator from Cumberland several times before.
In public life and as a private citizen Mr. Mc- Lauchlin's honesty and Christian integrity are above reproach. He has been for many years a member of the Presbyterian Church, the church of his fathers, and has served well as ruling elder and superintendent of Sabbath schools.
WILEY CROOM RODMAN. A highly educated and successful lawyer of Washington, Wiley Croom Rodman has been in active practice since his ad- mission to the bar in 1901. He was formerly member of the firm Bragaw & Rodman, and is now connected with one of the leading firms of corporation and general lawyers at Washington, Small, MacLean, Bragaw & Rodman. Mr. Rod- man has formed many influencial connections in his part of the state, and is one of the recognized leaders in the democratic party.
He was born at Washington, North Carolina, May 28, 1879, a son of William Blount and Lu- cilla Dudley (Croom) Rodman. He acquired a liberal education. After the common schools he was a student from 1893 to 1895 in the Trinity School at Chocowinity, was in the University of North Carolina in 1895-96 and from 1899 to 1901 was in the United States Military Academy. He has since put his military training to good ad- vantage as colonel of the Second Regiment, North Carolina National Guard. He studied law at the University of North Carolina, and began an ac- tive practice which soon led him to distinctions in public affairs.
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He served as county attorney of Beaufort County and is the present representative for that county in the State Legislature. He has been county chairman, member of the State Democratic Executive Committee, member of the Congres- sional Executive Committee of the First District, member of the First District Judicial Executive Committee and chairman of the Senatorial Execu- tive Committee of the Second District. He is also a school trustee in Washington. Mr. Rodman is affiliated with the Masons and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the college so- cieties, Gorgon's Head, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Omega Nu Epsilon, and Pi Sigma. He is a mem- ber of the Episcopal Church. In 1902 he mar- ried Miss Theodora Grimes. They have two daughters and one son.
ROBERT NEWTON PAGE. Eminent along many lines, Robert Newton Page is one of the distin- guished men of North Carolina, worthily bearing a name that both in the past and the present rep- resents the highest and best in American man- hood.
Robert Newton Page was born at Cary in Wake County, North Carolina, October 26, 1859. His ancestors generations back were the Pages notable in the history of Virginia. His parents were Allison Francis and Frances ( Raboteau) Page, and he was the second born in a family of five sons, all of whom have become prominent in some walk of life. The eldest, Walter Hines Page, early became interested in literary pursuits, became a member of the publishing firm of Dou- bleday, Page & Company and subsequently edi- tor of World's Work, and now represents the United States as ambassador to Great Britain. The other sons, Robert N., Henry A., Junius R. and Frank, as they grew up became identified with their father in his numerous business en- terprises and at present they have mutual interests of magnitude in both Montgomery and Moore counties.
Allison Francis (Frank) Page was born in Wake County, North Carolina, in 1824. He be- gan life as a pioneer woodsman and when but a youth rafted logs down the Cape Fear River from Fayetteville, in which place he was later engaged in a lumber manufacturing business. In the early '50s he moved to what is now the Town of Cary in Wake County, then but a vil- lage, and largely built up the place through his extensive milling and other enterprises and industries, and resided there for twenty-five years. In 1879 he moved to Aberdeen in Moore County, and there entered upon the great develop- ment work that included agricultural progress, lumber manufacturing and railroad building. At the time mentioned this section of the state was practically one vast pine forest. No agricultural progress worthy of the name had ever been at- tempted. His spirit of energy and enterprise was the means of bringing change and develop- ment throughout this section and among the en- during monuments that perpetuate his name is the railroad, now a part of the Norfolk & Southern system, known as the Aberdeen & Ashboro, with a branch line from Biscoe to Mount Gilead. For many years he devoted almost his entire time to the construction and operation of this road. In 1898, however, he turned the road over to his sons and retired from active life, and they have carried on the enterprise ever since.
At a very early age Robert Newton Page was taught by wise and judicious parents that indus- try bore an important part in acquiring both knowledge and substance. It was no task to ap- ply himself to study, for he loved books and had a catholic taste, and therefore passed very credit- ably through the local schools and subsequently the somewhat celebrated Bingham School at Me- bane, North Carolina. Then, as mentioned above, he became identified with his brothers in their father's many ambitious enterprises, which they assisted to success. At present his agricultural and stock interests in several counties are exten- sive as are also his railroad, lumbering and banking.
It is in public life, however, that Mr. Page has made an indelible impression, because of his worth as a statesman. his honesty as a man and his loyalty as a patriotic American.
R. L. Bethune
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Mr. Page came to the front in political life in 1890, when he was elected mayor of Aberdeen, in which office he served with the utmost use- fulness until 1898, devoting time, money and effort to the city's advantage, despite the claims of his many private interests. In 1901 he was elected representative from Montgomery County to the North Carolina General Assembly, and in 1902 he was elected by the Seventh Congressional District as a member of the Fifty-eighth Con- gress, in which august body, through consecutive elections, he served for fourteen years. In 1916 he notified his friends and constituents that the cares of public life were resting too heavily upon him and that he would not be a candidate for re-election. There were many who regretted to learn this, for Mr. Page has always been the type of public man that this nation needs, one who could bring to the duties of high position and grave responsibility a clear head, a clean heart, a strong arm and unbiased judgment.
A business man by heritage and training, Mr. Page looked upon many of his responsibilities from a business man's standpoint, and when op- portunity was afforded his associates in commit- tees were impressed by the vigor of his work and the rapidity of his actions and the. promptness of his decisions. On account of being a member of the minority party until 1910, Mr. Page"s work in Congress did not bring him any adequate com- mittee appointments, but with the change in the political complexion of the House he became a member of the appropriation committee, and con- tinued a member of this important committee until his retirement, at the end of the session in March, 1917. During the last four years of his service in Congress he was chairman of the sub- committee and had charge of the appropriations for the District of Columbia, these including those of the Capital city, and in this relation had charge of the annual expenditure of from twelve to fifteen million dollars. During the entire period of his work in Congress he made no spectacular display of his abilities or achievements, but with diplomacy, thorough business method and noble public spirit, served his people and government with an undivided heart.
Mr. Page was married June 20, 1888, to Miss Flora Shaw, of Manly, North Carolina, and they have four children: Thaddeus S., Richard E., Robert N., a lieutenant in the United States Army and Kate Raboteau Page. The older sons have built up a prosperous automobile business, while Richard E., a graduate of the A. & M. Col- lege, is engaged in farming and is an extensive breeder of Hereford cattle.
During 1901, while in the State Legislature, Mr. Page was chairman of the committee on Insane Asylums, in which position he labored with great zeal and brought about many reforms. The allow- ances which he secured were only just and his work in this connection reflected credit upon him- self and the state. Officially and unofficially he has been identified with many other benevolent agencies and has contributed wisely and generously in support of numerous worthy enterprises of a charitable nature. For many years he has been chairman of the board of trustees of the Metho- dist Orphanage at Raleigh, North Carolina. From youth he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and no one who knows him well can believe that he has ever guided his life in any way apart from his profession of faith. Since 1902 Mr. Page has been vice presi-
dent of the Aberdeen & Ashboro Railroad Com- pany, of which he had previously been treasurer for twelve years; from 1880 to 1888 he was in- terested in lumber manufacturing at Aberdeen, and from 1888 to 1900 was general manager of the Page Lumber Company of Aberdeen. His present home is at Biscoe and much of his time is devoted to the oversight of his many interests in this locality. Loyal and patriotic, his voice has been raised on many occasious since the United States entered the great World war, urg- ing his fellow citizens to gain a thorough under- standing of all that is at stake and to join him in every possible manner to afford encouragement and support to the United States Government.
ROBERT LEE BETHUNE: In old Robeson and new Hoke County the name Bethune has been one of distinction for practical achievement and value of citizenship for many generations. A finer class of people exists nowhere than the North Carolina Scotch, and the Bethunes have their proper share of honors among this worthy race.
A short time before the Revolutionary war Colin Bethune came from Scotland, and making settlement acquired land which was for many years the Bethune homestead in North Carolina. The old place is easily distinguished now, because it is the site of the state tuberculosis sanitarium, about ten miles west of Raeford in Hoke, but formerly Robeson County. A more beautiful bit of topography can hardly be found in the entire state. Its selection for the tuberculosis sanitarium was based upon considerations of altitude, favor- able climatic conditions, pure water, and the gen- eral charm and beauty of the landscape con- stituting an almost ideal environment.
A son of Colin Bethune was Hou. Lauchlin Bethune, who represented this district of North Carolina in Congress in the days when Andrew Jackson was President. He was a man of learn- ing and versatile ability, and his leadership meant much to the people of old Cumberland County.
M. D. Bethune, a son of Lauchlin, was born at the old Bethune homestead in 1842, but now lives at Raeford and among other worthy features of his record is widely known as the founder of the. famous Edinburg Farm. At the outset of his manhood, in 1861, he left his father's plantation in the month of April and enlisted at Fayette- ville with the Second North Carolina Cavalry. He was with Captain Strange's command. His own service was continuous with the length of the war. He was in nearly all the greater battles of Lee's army of Northern Virginia, including Gettys- burg. The war over, he returned to the old homestead above described and remained there until 1900. He had in the meantime bought a large body of agricultural land at Raeford, and there he established the Edinburg Farm. This is a notable agricultural enterprise and one of the largest and most profitably conducted farms in this part of the state. It consists of about 1,000 acres, lying partly within the city limits of Rae- ford, and extending westward from the city.
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