USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 17
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EUGENE CLYDE BROOKS is a scholar, literary worker and educator with an unusually wide range of interests and activities. For the past ten years he has been professor of history and science of education of Trinity College, Durham.
Doctor Brooks was born in Greene County, North Carolina. December 3, 1871, a son of Edward Jones and Martha Eleanor (Brooks) Brooks. His father, a man of high standing in Greene County, served a member of the State Legislature in 1893, and for several years was on the County Board of Educa- tion.
Eugene C. Brooks finished his literary education with the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Trinity College in 1894. During 1913-14 he did research work as Dean Scholar in Teachers College Colum- bia University, and in 1918 Davidson College conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature. After leaving Trinity he was for three years engaged in newspaper work. In 1900 he was principal of the Kinston High School, was superintendent of the Monroe City Schools from 1900 to 1903, assistant to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and secretary to the State Educational Campaign Committee during 1903-04, superintendent of the Goldsboro City Schools, 1904 to 1907, and since 1907 has held the Chair of Edu- cation in Trinity College.
In 1912-13 he was president of the State Teachers Assembly. He was the founder in 1906 of North Carolina Education, the state teachers' magazine, and has since been its editor. In 1917 the governor appointed him a member of the State Education Commission. Much of the propaganda of the last ten or fifteen years for the improving of education in North Carolina, especially as af- fecting the improvement of country schools, has been carried forward by Doctor Brooks. He has conducted many extension courses for teachers dealing especially with rural life problems and at the present time he has the rural teachers of two counties under his supervision. He has been lecturer on various subjects before summer schools and teachers associations in Virginia, North Caro- lina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.
Of his more formal literary work, Doctor Brooks' name appears as author of the following volumes: "Story of Cotton" and "Story of Corn" both published by Rand McNally & Com- pany. "Woodrow Wilson As President, " by Row, Peterson & Company. "North Carolina Poems," an anthology, published by "North Carolina Educa- tion." "Rural Life Day," bulletin issued by the U. S. Commissioner of Education at Washington, He is also co-author of the following text books: North Carolina Geography, Agricultural Arith- metic, History in Elementary Schools.
Other important relations with the community and state have been as a member of the Board of Aldermen of Durham in 1913, one of the Board of Trustees of the Durham City Schools since 1914, a trustee of the Durham Public Library since 1911, member of the Executive Committee of the State Literary and Historical Association, 1917-18, state director of the National Education Association, 1918, and vice president of the Building and Loan Association of Durham since 1916. Doctor Brooks
is a democrat, a member of the Durham Rotary Club and the Methodist Episcopal Church.
At Kernersville, North Carolina, in 1900, he married Ida Myrtle Sapp, daughter of N. W. Sapp. They have three children, Martha Eleanor, Eugene Clyde, Jr., and Sarah Voss Brooks.
JULIUS FAISON THOMSON. Though his admis- sion to the North Carolina bar has been compara- tively recent, Julius F. Thomson has found a creditable place as a lawyer and is looked upon as one of the most promising of the young attor- neys of the Goldsboro bar.
He comes of an old North Carolina family. His birth occurred at Faison, North Carolina, Janu- ary 5, 1888. His mother's family gave the name to the village. His parents were Willis A. and Laura (Faison) Thomson, his father having been a merchant and farmer. He grew up in a home of comforts and advantages, had instruction from a private tutor, afterwards attended the Univer- sity of North Carolina, was graduated in 1909 from George Washington University at Washing- ton, D. C., and completed his professional stu- dies in the University of North Carolina in 1913. Mr. Thomson was admitted to the bar in Febru- ary of the latter year, and at once began general practice at Goldsboro.
He is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association, the Algonquin Club, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Masonic Order, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, the Kappa Sigma college fraternity, and of the Presbyterian Church. He is taking an influential part in politics as a democrat and is a member of the Wayne County Executive Committee.
JOSEPH GREEN DAWSON, of Kinston, is one of the best qualified of the younger members of the North Carolina bar, and since beginning practice has met the most sanguine expectations of his friends and those who have followed his career.
Mr. Dawson was born at Newbern, North Caro- lina, January 15, 1888, a son of Adrian Becton and Aun Charlotte (Green) Dawson. His father was both a merchant and farmer in the Newbern district. The son had ample advantages, and improved them to the full. He attended St. Paul's School at Beaufort, North Carolina, the Horner's Military Institute, and from 1907 to 1911 was a regular student in the University of North Carolina. He graduated from the acad- emic department in 1911, and after that was a teacher for three years. In the meantime he carried on his law studies privately and also attended the summer law schools of the Uni- versity of North Carolina. Admitted to the bar in 1913. he began practice at Kinston, where his name is already spoken with respect by his fel- low members of the bar.
Besides his private practice he is serving as ·assistant recorder. Mr. Dawson has membership in the North Carolina Bar Association and in polities is affiliated with the democratic party.
HON. WALTER LEAK PARSONS. a former member of the State Senate, a lawyer by training and profession, but during his residence at Rocking- ham, Richmond County, where he has had his home for over a quarter of a century, most of his time and energies have been devoted to banking.
His own attainments and achievements have been in keeping with the high quality of his
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
ancestry. The authentic history of the Parsons family in South and North Carolina begins with his great-grandfather, Joseph Parsons. Of Eng- lish parentage, Joseph Parsons located on the Great Pee Dee River near Cheraw, South Caro- lina, prior to the Revolution. A well founded tradition runs to the effect that he was one of the Revolutionary patriots who served under Mari- on, the "Swamp Fox." The old parish and court records of Cheraw District indicate that he was a man of substance and took a promi- nent part in the affairs of his time, particularly those relating to the struggle for independence from England. He was a parishioner of St. David's, the historic old Episcopal church at Cheraw. An entry in the old court records shows that he was a member of the petit jury in the November courts of 1774. The presiding judge of that session, stirred by his indignation against England and patriotism for the colonies, in charg- ing the jury departed somewhat from his official functions by including an appeal to the jury and all patriots to do all in their power to overthrow the power of the British dominion in the colonies. To this the members of the jury in a statement signed by all of them, in the form of a rejoinder to the judge's charge, pledged their every effort to bring about this consummation. This docu- ment, although brief, is couched in such excel- lent language and arranged in such masterly style that it easily takes rank with the best of the better known declarations of independence that emanated from the colonies before the break with England.
About the close of the Revolution Joseph Par- sons removing further up the Pee Dee River, located in Montgomery County, North Carolina. There he became first clerk of the court, a posi- tion he held a number of years. His name and rank (Captain) appears among the North Carolina Revolutionary Pensioners reported by secretary of state to Congress in 1835. See State Records, by Clark, Vol. 23, page 80.
A son of this distinguished patriot was Rev. James Parsons, grandfather of the Rockingham banker. He was a minister of the Methodist Church, began his services early in life and con- tinued them actively until its close. He was or- dained a minister by Francis Asbury, the first bishop of the Methodist Church in America. Rev. James Parsons was born in 1795 in Montgomery County, North Carolina. In later life he moved to Sumter, South Carolina, later to Alabama, and died in Mississippi in 1859.
Rev. Hilliard Crawford Parsons, son of the above, followed in his father's footsteps, and though his life was comparatively brief he earned all the praise that could be meted out to the pio- neer gospel ministers of the last century. "He was born at Sumter, South Carolina, in 1824, was reared there, and joined the South Carolina Con- ference of the Methodist Church in 1847. He continued active in the ministry until his death in 1866. His work was under the auspices of the old South Carolina Conference, which at the time embraced not only the churches in South Carolina but those in a number of adjoining counties in North Carolina, from Richmond County extending as far west as Cleveland County. Rev. Hilliard C. Parsons occupied pulpits all over this stretch of territory. He was an itinerant Metho- dist preacher, one of the finest and noblest of his type. His work was but the expression of his sincerity and nobility of character and exercised
the widest influence for good upon the communi- ties where he served. Several years before his death he lived at Wadesboro, Anson County, North Carolina, and in later life he was presiding elder of the Charlotte and Shelby districts in this state.
Rev. Hilliard C. Parsons married Cornelia Frances Leak. Her father, Walter Raleigh Leak, of Anson County, North Carolina, is well remem- bered as the man who established and was presi- dent of the old Bank of Wadesboro. This insti- tution was founded in 1852 and was.the first in Wadesboro. It was one of the strongest and best conducted banks of. North Carolina prior to the war. Walter Raleigh Leak belonged to that well known Leak family of Virginia which produced William Leak, who founded the name and lineage in North Carolina. Walter Leak, son of this William served throughout the Revo- lutionary war, and was the ancestor of the large and influential Leak family in the counties of Richmond and Anson. Walter Raleigh Leak was the son of William P. Leak, of Richmond County, who was a prominent figure in his time, and rep- resented the county in the State Legislature for many years.
Walter Leak Parsons was born at Camden, South Carolina, in 1858, and during his youth his parents lived in the various localities where his father had his ministerial engagements. He was only eight years of age when his father died. He grew up principally at Wadesboro and completed his literary education at Wofford Col- lege at Spartansburg, South Carolina. His law studies were directed by Judge R. T. Bennett at Wadesboro, where he was admitted to the bar in 1881. For ten years Mr. Parsons practiced law at Wadesboro and became one of the prominent attorneys of that circuit. Part of the time he was associated as a law partner with R. E. Little.
Mr. Parsons has resided at Rockingham in Rich- mond County since 1891. On removing to Rock- ingham he took part in the organization of the Bank of Pee Dee, and has been identified with that institution ever since. For a number of years he was its cashier, and is now its president. Mr. Parsons has had no active law practice since com- ing to Richmond County.
Outside of banking his name is most widely known because of his influence and activity in state politics. As a democrat he was elected a member of the Legislature from Anson County and served in the session of 1887. Richmond County also elected him a member of the Lower House in the session of 1907. In 1912 he was elected a member of the State Senate and was in that body during the session of 1913. Many of his friends urged him to become a candidate for Congress in 1914 and in 1916, but he declined to aspire to further political honors. During his terms in the Lower House and in the Senate he impressed his ability upon a varied legislative program. In the session of 1887 he introduced and had passed the first bill regulating the sale of seed cotton in North Carolina. In partisan politics his name is specially remembered as the permanent chairman of the noted state conven- tion at Charlotte which nominated Governor Kitchin. This convention was in continuous ses- sion from Wednesday until the following Mon- day, including night sessions, before a nomina- tion could be made.
Mr. Parsons was married in 1882 to Mary Wall Leak, daughter of Thomas Crawford Leak and wife, Martha P. Wall, of Richmond County,
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
North Carolina. Mrs. Parsons died in 1911, leav- ing as children of, this marriage, Thomas Leak Parsons, Hilliard Crawford Parsons, Mrs. Mamie Leak Palmer, Mrs. Corneill Parsons Payne, Walter Leak Parsons, Jr., Jennie Wall Parsons, and Rosa Leak Parsons.
In 1914 Mr. Parsons was married to Mrs. Lucre- tia West Litchford, of Raleigh, North Carolina, widow of the late James O. Litchford and daugh- ter of Nicholas W. West and wife, Elizabeth Blake, of that city.
DAVID H. COLLINS has long been identified with the official and business life of Greensboro, was a merchant a number of years, and since 1903 has been busied with his duties as magistrate.
He was born on a farm two miles east of Reids- ville in Rockingham County, North Carolina, a son of Robert Collins, a native of the same county, and grandson of William and Mary Collins. The Collins family is of Irish ancestry. William Col- lins was a farmer and, as far as known, a lifelong resident of Rockingham County. Robert Collins also spent his active years as a farmer, and late in life retired to Graham, where he died at the age of eighty-three. He married Susan Boyles, a daughter of John and Nancy Boyles, of Grayson County, Virginia. She died at the age of fifty-five years, having reared seven children, named John W., David H., Mary J., Robert J., James T., George W. and Emma.
David H. Collins spent his boyhood on his father's farm. A rural school education was his chief equipment for life. The first school he ever attended was taught in a log cabin. The seats were made of rough slabs set up from the floor by wooden pins, while a broad board pinned at an incline to the wall served the larger scholars for a writing desk. While attending the limited terms of this school Mr. Collins also worked on his father's farm.
At the age of twenty-one he went to Reidsville and gained valuable business experience by two years of clerking in Smith & Manley's general store. Removing to Danville, Virginia, he was district manager of the Singer Sewing Machine Company for about eight years. Resigning that work, he became chief of police of Martinsville, Virginia, for four years, then resumed his former position as district manager for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. He was soon transferred to Greensboro, where he acted as district manager for another three years. He then became a local grocery merchant two years, clerked in a shoe store for a year, and was then made manager of the shoe department of the Brown Belk Company of Greensboro.
In 1903 Mr. Collins was elected a magistrate and has been continued in office by re-election and as a proof of his capable and efficient duties ever since. In 1910 he was also given the responsi- bilities of United States Commissioner, and also handles the business of that office. Mr. Collins is well known in fraternal affairs, being past exalted ruler of Greensboro Lodge No. 602, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, past chancellor of Greensboro Lodge No. 80, Knights of Pythias, past sachem of Mineola Tribe of the Improved Order of Red Men, is a past officer of Greensboro Aerie No. 1966, Fraternal Order of Eagles, is a member of Greensboro Lodge No. 13 of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, and a past dictator of the Loyal Order of Moose. He and
his wife are members of the Westminster Presby- terian Church.
In 1898 Judge Collins married Mrs. Berta (Worth) Boyd. Her grandfather was Dr. J. M. Worth of Greensboro, and her father, Col. Shubel Worth, commanded a Confederate regiment in the war between the states and was killed in battle during the last year of the war. Mrs. Collins by her first husband, Richard F. Boyd, has three children : Sallie, wife of Burton De Loss; Eveline, who married W. T. Sweet; and Richard F. who is now a sergeant major in the National Army.
JAMES M. PARROTT, M. D. Though his life be- gan on a plantation near Kinston and his profes- sional activities have largely connected him with that city, Doctor Parrott is one of North Caro- lina's physicians and surgeons whose work and attainments have attracted more than local rec- ognition. In fact his services have been of that quality which accords him almost international reputation.
Doctor Parrott was born on the Parrott planta- tion six miles from Kinston January 7, 1874, a son of James M. and Elizabeth (Wates) Parrott. After the death of his father he and the other members of the family moved to Kinston to se- cure better educational advantages, and he at- tended the old graded school and the Kinston College under the direction of Doctor Lewis. Doc- tor Parrott had the best of training and had the native talent which enabled him to make the best of his advantages. While pursuing the classical course in Wake Forest College from 1887 to 1891 he also took the special courses in chemistry and biology that were in the nature of preparatory medical studies. Returning to Kins- ton after graduating from Wake Forest, he spent nearly two years in study under a preceptor, fol- lowing which he was for one year in the Univer- sity of Maryland at Baltimore and then went south to Tulane University at New Orleans, where at the end of two years he graduated with high hon- ors in both medicine and surgery. As a result of competitive examinations he was appointed in- terne and ambulance surgeon and served in the hospitals of New Orleans for one year. When he took the examination before the State Medi- cal Society in 1895 he passed with an average of 96, one of the highest averages ever attained by any candidate for admission.
Doctor Parrott began practice at Kinston, and in 1896 was elected health officer of Lenoir County. During the three years he spent in that office he successfully combated one of the most virulent epidemics of smallpox ever known in this sec- tion of the state. It was the ability he showed then which caused him to be selected by the med- ical department of the United States Army in 1899 as a specialis in smallpox and yellow fever to take charge of the First Division Hospital in Havana, where he spent eight months in direct- ing the sanitary work carried on by the United States Government and as the result of which Havana became a model city in point of sanita- tion.
The eyes of the world were fixed, as it were, upon the work of the medical corps in Cuba, and an effort was made to secure Doctor Parrott's services as surgeon with the Chinese Relief Ex- pedition in 1899. He declined the offer in re- spect to the wishes of his mother, and soon re- sumed practice at Kinston. On account of his
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work at Havana an agent of the Boer government during the South African war offered him a com- mission as a medical officer of the Nathal Division of the Boer army, but he was unable to accept because of his inability to obtain trans- portation through the rigid blockade of the Brit- ish navy. In 1904 Doctor Parrott was offered the position of surgeon to the National Demo- cratie Convention at St. Louis, but was unable to attend. At Kinstou he maintains one of the best equipped offices in the state, and his quali- fications as an eye, ear, nose and throat special- tist and surgeon are regarded as second to none. He is one of the promoters of the Parrott Memo- rial Hospital at Kinston, which was dedicated in 1906.
Doctor Parrott has long been prominent in medical circles and organizations. In 1897 he was made chairman of the section on surgery and anatomy of the State Medical Society, in 1898 was leader of debates for the society, in 1900 became fourth vice president of the State Society and third vice president in 1901. In 1902 he be- came a member of the State Board of Examiners, and in 1904 was elected counselor for the Sec- ond Medical District. In 1912 he was elected president of the North Carolina Medical Society. In 1905 he was appointed a director of the asylum for the insane at Raleigh. Doctor Parrott has for many years been surgeon for the Atlantic and North Carolina Railway, and also surgeon for the Atlantic Coast Line and was president of the A. C. L. Surgeon's Association in 1910.
His abilities and qualifications have been con- tinually improving because he has kept himself in close touch with the activities of his profession both in his home state and elsewhere. He has taken a number of post-graduate courses in the hospitals of the principal cities, and in 1898 he spent six months in the hospitals of London and Edinburg. He is the author of numerous articles which have been published in medical journals, and some of these have opened up new lines of thought and practice and some of the principles advocated have been adopted in the general rou- tine of treatment. This was particularly true of his articles published under the titles "Continued Fevers of North Carolina," and "Malarial Haemo-Globin Neuria," the latter having been accepted by the profession as assisting materially in solving the problem of the yellow chill. Doc- tor Parrott in 1917 described "Amebic Conjunc- tivitis"-infections of conjunctiva by ameba from the mouth, and he designated this in the article, as amebie conjunctivitis.
For fifteen years he has been a member of the trustees of Wake Forest College and is now president of this board. He is active in various war activities, a member of the State Executive Committee for War Savings Stamps and county chairman and member of the State and National Committee for the Council of Defense, etc.
CHARLES MANLY FULLER is of an old and prominent family of Randolph county, but for a quarter of a century has been in business at Lumberton in Robeson County. He has the larg- est vehicle and implement business in this section of the state, and has also dealt extensively in livestock.
Mr. Fuller was born at the Fuller homstead on the Uwharrie River in Concord Township, Randolph County, in 1858, son of H. K. and Jane (Keerens) Fuller. His family relationship
includes the Winstons, the Cooks, the Woods and others well known in the state. A member of the family is Judge Thomas Fuller. Other fam- ily connections are Judge Winston and Judge Wood of Raleigh, elsewhere mentioned in this publication.
H. K. Fuller, father of Charles M., was also born at the old homestead in Randolph County, a place originally settled by Grandfather Henry Fuller. Earlier members of the family had lived near Louisburg in Franklin County.
At this old homestead and plantation Charles Manly Fuller grew to manhood and in that com- munity he lived until 1890. That year he moved to Lumberton and engaged in business. He has dealt extensively in livestock, particularly horses and mules, and has built up a vehicle and auto- mobile business far beyond the proportions which one would normally expect in a city and com- munity of this size. The business is conducted under the name of C. M. Fuller & Son. Mr. Fuller is one of the substantial and solid business men of this wealthy and growing city, and has shown himself public-spirited and generous in relationship to all the progressive movements undertaken in the community.
Mr. Fuller married Miss Dora Coltraine, of Randolph County. The Coltraines are also a prominent name of the state, widely known in Greensboro and Guilford County. One member of the family is Mr. D. B. Coltraine, banker and cotton mill owner at Concord in Cabarrus County. Mr. and Mrs. Fuller are the parents of five children: Mrs. Jessie Crichton, John C. Fuller, Capt. David H. Fuller, Anna Neil and Epsie Fuller.
A special paragraph should be devoted to Capt. David H. Fuller, one of the young men of North Carolina who have already achieved some of the distinctions of service in the present great war. He is a fine type of the man of college training now carrying the responsibilities of leadership as officer in the American army. He graduated from Trinity College with the highest honors, and stood equally high as a student in the law school of that college. The dean of the law school testified to his attainments and records in a most enthusiastic manner. From Trinity he entered Harvard Law School, where he spent one year. and had already begun the practice of his profession at Lumberton with prospects for a brilliant future as a lawyer when war was declared against Germany. From the beginning he determined to serve his country to the best of his ability. and accordingly entered the officers' reserve training camp at Fort Ogle- thorpe. Georgia, where he did the work and car- ried the studies with a very high standing and was granted his commission as second lieutenant. In January. 1918. he was stationed at Camp Jackson and had been promoted to first lieuten- ant. When the Federal Insurance Law for sol- d'ers was put in force Lieutenant Fuller was given charge of writing this insurance at Camp Jackson, and up to the first week of January, 1918, had sold eighty million dollars in insurance to the soldiers.
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