USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 13
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In late years Mr. M. D. Bethune has divided most of this land among his children, including his two sons Robert Lee and Luke. Luke Bethune is now active manager of the farm. Approximately 500 acres are in cultivation, requiring about twenty-five plows and other equipment to cor- respond. Edinburg Farm has contributed no modest share to the crop of North Carolina cotton in recent years.
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
M. D. Bethune is a fine type of the old-time Southerner. He has a great fund of historical reminiscences, and is a most interesting gentle- man whom everyone likes to have around. His wife, now deceased, was Margaret Jane Blue.
Robert Lee Bethune, who represents the fourth generation of this family in North Carolina, has had a career of more than ordinary experience and service, and is now the popular register of deeds of Hoke County.
He was born on the old Bethune place above described in 1872, and while growing up there attended the local schools. In 1894 he went to Louisiana and for the next fourteen years was engaged in the turpentine industry in that state. On his return to luis native state in 1908 he be- came associated with his father and brother in the operation of the Edinburgh Farm, in which he still retained a large interest.
Mr. Bethune was one of the local citizens who did most to bring about the creation of the separate County of Hoke in 1911, and three years later, in 1914, his abilities were called to use in the office of register of deeds, and by re-election in 1916 he is still the incumbent. He has made a most capable administrative official. He has the faculty of combining utmost courtesy along with prompt and careful transaction of all his duties. Those who have business with his office discover that his official manner is the same with all, rich or poor, and uninfluenced by politics or any other conventional considerations. Mr. Bethune is himself a democrat. He worships as a Pres- byterian. He is married, his wife having been Miss Mattie McDougald.
DANIEL HUGH SHAW, of Scotland County, is doing much to sustain the proud position and record of North Carolina in the agricultural pro- duction of the nation. He is living in the same locality that has been dignified by his family for more than a century, and while the Shaws have been prominent in medicine, other professions, in politics and in business, some of them have always kept true to the original allegiance and have main- tained ties with the soil.
Mr. Shaw represents one of the truly notable families of North Carolina. His grandparents were Alexander and Sarah (McIntosh) Shaw. Alexander Shaw came from Scotland to Richmond County, North Carolina, in the early part of the nineteenth century, locating in what is now Spring Hill Township of Scotland County, where his grandson, Daniel Hugh Shaw, still lives. He mar- ried Sarah McIntosh, member of an older Scotch family that had come to this locality in North Carolina about the time of the Revolutionary war. Alexander Shaw had a brother, Dr. Angus Shaw, who accompanied him to North Carolina, and for many years was a practicing physician in Richmond County. Among the children of Alex- ander and Sarah Shaw was Dr. Daniel Shaw, who practiced medicine in Scotland and Richmond counties for more than half a century, was a splendid type of the old time country doctor, and his work is today continued by his son Dr. William Graham Shaw of Wagram, thus making three suc- cessive generations in the medical profession in that one region.
Daniel Hugh Shaw was born on the old Shaw plantation where he is still living in 1878, a son of Hon. Angus and Mary (McLean) Shaw, the former deceased and his mother still living. Hon. Angus Shaw was born at the Shaw homestead in
1837. Besides his brother Dr. Daniel Shaw above mentioned he had another brother, Major John D. Shaw, who was a resident of Rockingham and one of the notable lawyers of the day. Angus Shaw moved from the Shaw plantation in 1879 to Maxton in Robeson County, where he engaged in the mercantile business. For two terms he rep- resented Robeson County in the State Legislature. He also made a creditable record as a Confed- erate soldier during the war and one feature of his record that will always stand to his credit was his participation in the defense of Fort Fisher, where the Confederate garrison withstood one of the most terrific bombardments of the entire war. He was captured with the fall of that fortress. When the war broke out Angus Shaw was a student at the University of North Carolina, and enlisted from the university and in later years a diploma of graduation was conferred upon him. He lived a long and useful life and died at Maxton, North Carolina, in 1910, at the age of seventy-three. His widow still lives at Maxton.
Daniel Hugh Shaw was reared and educated at Maxton, but in 1903 returned to the Shaw planta- tion and has lived there happily ever since, and at the same time has carried on most profitable op- erations in. general farming. He is one of the leading cotton producers of the county and has 500 acres in his farm. This is land upon which his grandfather settled and where the Shaws have lived for over a century. The name of this beauti- ful homestead is "Brookbound Farm," located in Spring Hill Township in the northern part of Scot- land County, two miles south of Wagram and eight miles north of Laurinburg, the county seat. The Shaw place is a station on the Laurinburg & Southern Railway.
Mr. Shaw built a fine home here in 1911, and now enjoys the comforts of one of the most at- tractive country estates in this part of North Car- olina, and in the midst of one of the richest agri- cultural sections. Mr. Shaw married Miss Eliza Patterson, daughter of a well known resident of Laurel Hill, A. F. Patterson, mentioned on other pages of this publication.
JAMES B. GRANT. Few families in Onslaw County can claim longer residence than the Grants. Of English ancestry, the family was established in this section of North Carolina by John Grant about the close of the Revolutionary war. Since his time the Grants have been pros- perous planters and farmers and solid substantial citizens in that section of the eastern shore coun- try embraced in Onslaw County. John Grant mar- ried a Miss Lindsay. Among their children was Benjamin Lindsay Grant, who in turn was the father of Daniel Lindsay Grant. Daniel Lindsay Grant married Hettie Caroline Piner. One of their children is James B. Grant of Snead's Ferry, named at the beginning of this article.
While some members of the different genera- tions have moved elsewhere and even to other states, most of them have prefered to make their homes in Onslaw County. Daniel L. Grant went out with an Onslow County regiment to do duty as a Confederate soldier and was in the war until the close. He died in 1894. He and his wife had six sons: Daniel, John Lindsay, Augustus M., Horace V., Wade H. and James B. Horace V. Grant served his county creditably as a member of the Lower House in the General Assembly. Several of them are farmers in the Snead's Ferry community of Onslow County.
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James B. Grant, who has followed the family vocation of farming and planting, has been one of the prominent men of the county, is a former county commissioner, and was born within a mile of where he now lives in Stump Sound Township in 1858. His home is two miles southwest of Snead's Ferry, and less than a mile distant from the house where he was born and where his father lived for many years. It was in the same com- munity that his grandfather and great-grandfa- ther lived.
Mr. Grant grew upon a farm and has lived at his present place since reaching his majority. He has between 400 and 500 acres of good land, a small part of which is in cultivation, and has pros- pered by giving his attention to general farming.
His progressive citizenship has been shown by his active advocacy of good schools, churches and good roads, and all the modern needs of a grow- ing community. The good roads movement makes a special appeal to his public spirit, and his in- dividual services in that direction have been of great value. Mr. Grant was at two different pe- riods a member of the board of county commis- sioners, first in 1893-94 and again in 1914-15. During the first term the board built the Onslow County Courthouse at Jacksonville, and during his second term the County Jail was constructed.
Mr. Grant married Miss Bettie Dixon, member of another well known family of Onslow County. They have six living children : Hubert Leon, Percy Granville, Daniel Lindsay, James Stacey, Velma and Sterling Dixon. The son Daniel L. is now in the University of North Carolina, and Percy G. is a volunteer soldier now in France.
The following is what was written of Percy Granville Grant by one of his fellow students in the "Pine Burr" the Buie's Creek Academy An- nual: "Although he does not claim any kinship to the great President and General Grant, he has many of the qualities that made that patriot famous. He is the best typist in school. As a Spanish student he has made a fine record. Pop- ular with both students and faculty, Grant made a place for himself in the class and school life to which others may well aspire."
From the academy he went soon afterward to Canada and was employed in the office of a large lumber company when he volunteered in the Fif- teenth Regiment and was sent to France in May, 1917.
EARLE SUMNER DRAPER, landscape architect and city planner, located at Charlotte in 1915 as the southern representative of a well known northern landscape architect and city planner. Since estab- lishing his home and headquarters at Charlotte Mr. Draper has been employed in a large practice and is one of the few thoroughly qualified representa- tives of this comparatively new profession in the South and the pioneer professional landscape architect of the State of North Carolina.
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Early in the year 1917, realizing the possibili- ties of the southern professional field and the fact that it could be best handled by a southern or- ganization, Mr. Draper severed his northern con- nections and gathered about him a capable or- ganization for southern work. His success in this field is best shown by the fact that hardly more than a year after the work of his own organiza- tion was started he had developed the largest organization in the South and was handling a greater volume of landscape work than any other professional landscape man in the South. Al-
though his name and work have become familiar throughout North Carolina, his professional prac- tice extends throughout the southern states.
American life until the present century has been necessarily utilitarian in its purpose and in its activities. But with increased wealth and culture people and communities have more and more given attention to the beauty and artistic environment of their homes, and the practical realization of those ideals constitute the field of practice for the landscape architect. North Carolina is rapidly developing a wealthy and cultured class, who are constructing costly homes and developing fine estates, while cities and communities are paying attention to the preservation and planning of streets, parks, and those superficial improvements which are really so vitally connected with the pub- lic welfare. It is extremely fortunate that a man of such capabilities and splendid connections pro- fessionally and otherwise has chosen Charlotte as his home and headquarters.
Soon after the entrance of the United States into the war on the side of the Allies, Mr. Draper determined that the work of his organization should be centered on work in. keeping with the times. To that end his time has been largely de- voted to industrial developments-known in the South as mill villages. His work in planning and developing new mill villages and improving old mill villages throughout the southern states has been a large factor in the improvement of living conditions among the textile mill villages of the South. As most of the southern mills were work- ing on Government contracts, the direct result of this work in stabilizing labor conditions through the village improvements, making the employees more contented, has been to increase the war pro- duction of the textile workers. His work has been foremost in this field and although a comparatively young man Mr. Draper has attained a pre-eminent position in the South for this class of work. Sev- eral of his industrial developments have been featured in the leading textile magazines of the country. In December, 1917, Mr. Draper ad- dressed the Southern . Textile Association at Greenville, South Carolina, on the subject of Mill Village Planning for Southern Mills."
Mr. Draper is a native of Milford, Massachu- setts, and is a member and connection of the noted Draper family of Massachusetts. Mr. Dra- per's great-grandfather brought the first spinning machine to this country, setting it up at Chelsea, Massachusetts, to make cardigan jackets. Another branch of the family under the name of the Draper Company of . Hopedale are the largest manufacturers of textile machinery in the United States. One of its distinguished members is Gen. William F. Draper, who was a brigadier general in the Civil war, a congressman from Massachu- setts, and served as ambassador to Italy from 1897 to 1900. Another is Eben Sumner Draper, former governor of Massachusetts. Gen. W. F. Draper was one of the first of the New England manufacturers to establish cotton mills in the South. For many years he built and equipped cotton mills in North Carolina and other southern states. His son, Arthur J. Draper, is one of the best known citizens of Charlotte where he is presi- dent of the Chadwick-Hoskins mill enterprises.
Earle S. Draper was educated in the Massa- chusetts Agricultural College, of which he is a graduate in the department of landscape archi- torture, with the degree Bachelor of Science. After that he had valuable practical experience
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
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in his profession not only in his home state, but in the West, particularly in Ohio, where he was connected with a prominent landscape archi- tect in Cleveland. His experience also led him into Canadian cities. He eventually became as- sociated with Dr. John Nolen of Cambridge, Massachusetts, finally severing this connection to follow his own work in the South.
Mr. Draper since coming to North Carolina has done his most pretentious work in connection with Myers Park. This is one of the most beau- tiful urban residential sections in America. This claim is made advisedly, since experts in compar- ing such sections ranked it high among all similar districts in the United States. Mr. Draper be- came the landscape architect of this property and his work has already won wide appreciation. He also developed the landscape features of Winthrop College at Rock Hill, South Carolina, has done the planning of Waterworks Park in Durham, was connected with the park and city planning of Kingsport, Tennessee, and much other municipal and real estate work. In his private practice he has planned and developed the beautification of grounds and parks for va- rious corporations, mostly textile mills, also for resort hotels, country estates and city and coun- try homes. There is hardly any section of the South where he has not been active in mill village development. Wherever landscape archi- tecture has received its proper appreciation in North Carolina, the name of Mr. Draper is fa- miliar, and his talents are already in demand to the limit of his professional time.
In real estate work Mr. Draper has planned hundreds of acres of southern developments. The Realty Magazine of New York published an article on "Development of Real Estate Sub- divisions," by Mr. Draper, illustrated with pic- tures of North Carolina developments. Mr. Draper is prominently identified with the civic life of Charlotte, having served as secretary of the City Planning Committee, of the Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Rotary Club and Charlotte Country Club and of Masonic bodies.
Mr. Draper was married to Miss Norma Far- well of Turners Falls, Massachusetts, and they have one son, Frederic Farwell Draper. -
EVANDER M. BRITT is member of the law firm Britt & Britt at Lumberton, a firm composed of young men but of fine abilities and with many solid achievements to their credit in the profes- sional and public affairs of their home county.
Through several generations the name Britt has been honored and esteemed for its work and re- spectability in Robeson County. The Britts came originally from England, and some generations back the probability is the name was spelled Bright. There were three brothers who came to America, one of them settling in Virginia, an- other in Eastern Tennessee and the third in Robe- son County, North Carolina. The Robeson County settler arrived prior to the Revolutionary war, and thus for upwards of a century and a half the Britts have had their place and part in this county. The first home of the family was in a locality six or seven miles south of Lumberton, and so prominent was the family there that the township was named in their honor. In nearly all the generations they have been farmers and planters.
Evander M. Britt was born in Britt Township of Robeson County, July 9, 1875, son of Samuel
E. and Martha Victoria (Nance) Britt. His mother was a member of the well known Vance family of Bladen County. The paternal grand- father, Reddin Britt, owned a large tract of land and many slaves before the war. Five of his sons gave valiant service in the Confederate Army, all of them going from Robeson County. Samuel E. Britt, who was born in 1848, lived in Britt Township until the early '80s, when he moved to his present home in Howellsville Township, about ten miles north of Lumberton. There he owns a good farm, and out of its resources he has made most commendable provisions for his family. He and his wife reared twelve children, and realized their cherished ambition to give them all a college education. This achievement should not be lightly passed over. Even in these prosperous times many farmers complain of in- ability to share in those things which are not fundamentally essential to existence. While the children of Samuel E. Britt were growing up the road of the agriculturist in North Carolina was a hard and thorny one, and all the more honor for that reason is due to the industry and self sacrificing labors of this old time Robeson County farmer and his wife. His home is at Ten Mile Church, of which he is a member. This is one of the historic Baptist churches of the state.
Evander M. Britt grew up on his father's farm in Howellsville Township, attended the country schools, and was a pupil in the Robeson Institute at Lumberton while it was under the direction of Prof. John Duckett. This was followed by both the literary and law courses of Wake Forest College, and he graduated A. B. in 1903 and received his degree in 1904. He was licensed to practice and took up his professional career at Lumberton in 1904, and since then has been eminently successful. He has shown excellent business ability as well as power to handle the law business of others, and has invested judi- ciously in some good farm lands in the vicinity of his old home in Howellsville Township, acquir- ing property that is constantly increasing in value. Since returning home from college he has made his influence count for the success of the democratic party, and has enjoyed a number of honors from his fellow democrats. He is now filling the important office of recorder of the district of nine townships, including Lumberton, and the work of that office was never in better hands. He is a member of the Baptist Church.
Mr. Britt married Miss Dorothy Geneva Bow- man of Marion, McDowell County. They have one daughter, Janie Malloy Britt.
The junior member of the firm of Britt & Britt is Mr. W. S. Britt, and they have been associated in practice since 1909. W. S. Britt is also a Wake Forest man, a graduate of the law class of 1908. He is a member of the Town Board of Audit and Finance and of the Lumber- ton School Board. He has always been interested in the subject of development of inland water- ways, and Governor Kitchin commissioned him a delegate from North Carolina to attend the sessions of the Atlantic Deep Water Conventions held at Richmond and in Washington.
Another of the Britt brothers was the late Rev. D. C. Britt who attained distinction as a Baptist minister.
JOHN ROBERT HIGGINS. There are men of broad vision and diversified gifts whose business sagacity
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EMBritt.
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
seemingly amounts to genius. Under their initia- tive and management enterprises develop and undertakings prosper whether conditions seem favorable or otherwise. These men may and often do become real captains of industry and builders of great personal fortunes. When their talents are directed to public effort they are the strong forces that bring about results that set the car of prog- ress moving, and foresee and provide for the rough places on the political or commercial highway. Such men are reasonably rare, but a community that can lay claim to them may well feel proud and grateful. Among the fine citizenship of Golds- boro, North Carolina, there is no more able busi- ness man, honorable public official or esteemed resident than Hon. John Robert Higgins, mayor of this city.
John R. Higgins was born at Madison, Madison . County, Virginia, October 15, 1863. His parents were Dr. Henry Randolph and Ann Virginia (Sam- uel) Higgins, who came to Wilson County, North Carolina, in 1873. The youth had only public school advantages but probably became interested in drugs in his father's home pharmacy. In 1888 he came to Goldsboro and accepted a clerical posi- tion in a drug store, continuing his studies and serving in several stores until 1903, when he be- came a partner in a drug business and in 1904 established the Higgins Drug Company.
In the meanwhile Mr. Higgins had through pub- lic-spirited efforts in many directions secured the confidence and good will of the people and so uni- versal was the satisfaction over his election as treasurer of Goldsboro in 1895 that his re-election for four subsequent terms naturally followed. In 1896 he took over the amusement business of the city as represented by the desire of the general public for first class theatrical attractions, and for sixteen years maintained a high standard of ex- cellence and made the theater at Goldsboro attrac- tive not only to residents of the city but to the nearby towns and villages. In many other ways he demonstrated thoughtfulness for the public wel- fare and no less desirable and beneficial because usually carried on according to the practical, com- mon sense business principles.
In 1905 Mr. Higgins was elected a member of the City Council, and as alderman proved faithful to the interests of his ward, but consented to serve but the one term, his business at this time demanding much of his attention. In May, 1909, Mr. Higgins was elected mayor of Goldsboro and brought with him to this office a much needed at- mosphere of business. He found the city deeply in debt, public improvements at a standstill, money needed for public utilities and for the carrying on of the usual routine of business. The methods by which Mr. Higgins has changed all this during his continued tenure of office prove his business sagacity as indicated, and the banks looked askance at the city's paper in 1909 are now anxious to pro- cure it. Evidently there was great need for such a resourceful, upright, capable and fearless man as Mayor Higgins at the helm. No one can deny that he has worked as zealously and effectively for ' the city as he could have done for his private interests. He is a member of the Wayne County Board of Health and looks carefully after the duties of this office, being no man to accept re- sponsibilities and then evade them. Principles adopted in his rulings in the city court have added greatly to the city's treasury, and, while, having a sympathetic fellow feeling, he yet performed the duties of the city both fairly and fearlessly.
Vol. VI-4
Mayor Higgins has a wide circle of personal friends and has numerous fraternal connections and stands high in various organizations. He has long been identified with the Odd Fellows and he is past councilor in the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. He belongs also to the Elks and is both past chancellor and a member of the Grand Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, and is past sachem and ex-state deputy of the Inde- pendent Order of Red Men. He belongs to that wholesome class of American men who enjoy out- door life and finds intense enjoyment with his "rod and reel" and in automobiling. He leads a busy, useful life, although without ostentation, and trusted by his fellow men he is conscious that their confidence is not misplaced.
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