USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 21
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Dr. J. M. Belk maintains his home at Monroe. W. H. Belk, the senior member of the firm, resides and makes his headquarters at Charlotte, where for several years he has been one of the city offi- cials, and also serves on a number of boards and committees connected with educational and reli- gious institutions ..
ALLEN M. SHAW. To tell the story of Har- nett County, North Carolina, would not be possi- ble without bringing forward the names and activities of its old families, and none of these have been of more historic interest than that of Shaw, which came here in 1775. While agricul- tural pursuits have always been important voca- tional activities in the family, its members have also been concerned in military and professional life, and in every generation the persistence of sturdy virtues, together with marked family fea- tures, have been notable. A very prominent mem- ber of this old family today is found in Hon. Allen M. Shaw, auditor of Harnett County and one of Lillington's leading citizens.
Allen M. Shaw was born at Lillington, North Carolina, September 20, 1876. His parents were Maj. Benjamin F. and Adelaide (Marsh) Shaw. His great-grandparents, Daniel and Sarah Shaw, came from the Isle of Skye, Scotland, across the stormy sea and down the Atlantic Coast in one of the little sailing ships that ventured as far as North Carolina, in 1775, and landed at Wilming- ton. Pleased with the genial climate and evi- dences of the prodigality of nature, so different from their native isle, they decided to establish a permanent home in this beautiful section. In the same year they came up the Cape Fear River and located one mile northwest of McNeill's Ferry, in what is now Harnett County, and about five miles east of the present Town of Lillington. Perhaps the change was too great for the consti- tution of the first Daniel Shaw, accustomed all his life to a rugged land, for he lived but a short time after his arrival, but left a namesake son, born in the new home in the same year. Grand- father Daniel Shaw in later years moved to a nearby plantation, which is now the site of the Town of Coats, and it was on that place that the late Maj. Benjamin Franklin Shaw was born, April 30, 1827. He died at his home in Lilling- ton August 13, 1908, being in his eighty-first year. Two of his brothers, Washington and John Allen Shaw, went to Texas in early days and assisted in securing the independence of that state and
later they served in the Mexican war. Their home was in the eastern part of the state, at Jef- ferson, where. John Benjamin Shaw, a son of John Allen Shaw, is a leading merchant.
The late Major Shaw was a man of note in Harnett County, where he spent his entire life. He was made the first clerk of the court for Harnett County at the time of its organization and served in that capacity for twenty-three years, including the period of the war between the states, holding this position as a civil office un- der the Confederacy. Previous to the war he had been in the state militia with the rank of major. The first county seat was at old Summerville, but it retained this distinction only a short time, however, and then was permanently established at Lillington, when Major Shaw removed to this place, which remained his home throughout the rest of his life. His was the first residence built at Lillington, and the old structure remains a part of the present Shaw home, enlarged and modernized in later years.
An interesting fact connected with Major Shaw's life was that he was one of the first telegraphers in America, acquiring the art while still a very young man, when telegraphy may be said to have been in its infancy, and before he settled at Lillington was a telegraph operator on the first telegraph line that was constructed in North Carolina. After Major Shaw retired from the position of clerk of the Superior Court he became a member of the county board of com- missioners, on which he served for a number of years and was actively concerned in the duties of his position and with other responsibilities at the courthouse until 1904. He was widely known and greatly estecmed, knowing everybody and be- ing thoroughly familiar with every phase of the county's history and progress. He was often called upon for information that legal papers failed to reveal or prove, his integrity being such that his recollections would often be accepted when paper records were matters of doubt. Al- though never qualifying as a lawyer, he had a legal mind and his long period of official life had developed it so well that his friends often de- clared his opinions were as valuable as many evolved by their attorneys.
Major Shaw married Adelaide Marsh, who be- longed to a prominent old family of Chatham County, where she was born. She was a daugh- ter of John Robert Marsh. Her great-grandfather was Capt. William Marsh, who was an officer in the Revolutionary war. He was born in Virginia, in 1751, and came to Chatham County, North Carolina, before that war, and died there in 1854 at the age of one hundred and three years. He was a man of large property, in lands and slaves, owning thousands of acres of land on the Haw and Deep rivers. He is described as a man of edu- cation, aristocratie taste and manner and of per- sonal dignity that the encroachments of extreme age did not diminish. He was the progenitor of a large family and it is estimated that there are at least 5,000 of his descendants in North Caro- lina, Georgia and Tennessee.
Allen M. Shaw was educated in the schools of Lillington and at Summerville Academy, under Prof. G. T. Hodge, a graduate of the Univer- sity of Virginia. In 1908 he was elected regis- ter of deeds for Harnett County, and filled that office continuously until 1914, and in 1916 he was elected county auditor. Mr. Shaw has al- ways been a democrat in his political sentiments.
J. P. Cook
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His valuable farm lies within the corporate lim- its of Lillington and is one of the fine agricul- tural properties of the county.
Mr. Shaw was married to Miss Emma Pegram, who was born in Harnett County and is a daugh- ter of Rev. John Pegram, a minister in the Meth- odist Episcopal Church and a brother of Professor Pegram of Trinity College. Mr. and Mrs. Shaw have had two children: Adelaide and Benjamin F., the daughter alone surviving. Mr. Shaw is a Royal. Arch Mason, and he is a member of the Baptist Church. . His interests have always been centered in this section of the country and at all times his efforts, both personal and in a public capacity, have proved his good citizenship and honorable intentions.
OSCAR WALLACE LANE. It has not been so much through the accumulated experiences of many years as through an unusual concentration of effort that Oscar Wallace Lane has won a successful position in business. He is still a young man in his early thirties, and is looked upon as one of the best informed bankers of the city of Newbern.
Mr. Lane was born in Princess Ann County, Virginia, January 3, 1884, and is a son of Fletcher L. and Elizabeth (Ownley) Lane. His father was a farmer. Mr. Lane had a public school education and early in life began to make his own opportunities. He learned telegraphy and spent seven years as a telegraph operator with the railroad company. He began his bookkeep- ing experience as bookkeeper in the Bank of Edenton, North Carolina, where he remained six years, part of the time as assistant cashier. Coming to Newbern, he was assistant cashier of the Newbern Banking and Trust Company until July, 1915, when he was elected to his present post as cashier of that highly successful and prosperous institution.
Mr. Lane is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of Soudan Temple of the Mystic Shrine, is also affiliated with the Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks and is a working member in the Baptist church. He was married January 10, 1917, to Maude Munger, of Newbern. Her father, Chauncey Wilson Munger, is a well-known lumber manufacturer of New- bern.
HON. JAMES P. COOK. An individual's value to his fellow citizens is not always measured by what he has won in the battle with the world, but rather by that which he contributes toward its advancement and betterment. Almost any man, given health and a fair share of ability, can earn money, many are able to hold what they have earned, and quite a few can invest it to advantage, but it is only given to a certain small percentage of large-hearted, great-minded men who have a love for humanity imbedded in their natures to respond promptly to the call of the higher things of life and to bestow upon the public that which will prove of lasting benefit to the majority. A worthy example of the last named class is found in the person of Hon. James P. Cook, of Concord, a business man, ex-state senator and originator and benefactor of the state institution known as the Stonewall Jackson Manual Training and In- dustrial School.
James P. Cook was born at Mount Peasant, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, in 1863, being a son of Matthew and Mary (Costner) Cook, both
of whom are deceased. His father was born in Baden, Germany, in 1810, and received a good education in the excellent schools of that country. In 1830, at the age of twenty years, he came to America and, looking for a section where he could locate among others of his countrymen, ascer. tained that there were German settlements in Catawba, Lincoln and Cabarrus counties, North Carolina. He accordingly made his way by boat to Charleston, South Carolina, and from that point to that part of Lincoln County, North Carolina, that now lies in Gaston County. There, while still a very young man, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Costner, daughter of Jonas and Susan (Hoffman) Costner, members of prominent early settled German families of that section of the state. In the early '30s, and soon after his mar- riage, Mr. Cook became a trader in clocks and cooking utensils, establishing for this business three trading points, one being located at Lincoln- ton, one at Mount Pleasant in Cabarrus County, and the other in the extreme western part of that county. This was of course at that time a thinly settled country and his goods were distributed to his patrons by wagon. With typical German thrift and determination he made a success of this enterprise and accordingly was enabled to discon- tinue the wagon trade and to establish himself in a permanent mercantile business at Mount Pleasant. This, too, proved highly successful and for a long number of years he was a prosperous and substantial merchant at that place. Many men attain to greatness in their careers; others lead a very quiet existence and when they pass from life leave the world little better for their having lived in it. The man who makes a record worth remembering is not necessarily he who wins the plaudits of the multitude, but the one above whose grave may be truly said: "Well done, good and faithful servant." The clearest conception of the late Matthew Cook is contained in the words, "He was a very worthy man." From childhood he seemed to be animated by the desire to do well whatever he undertook, and his efforts were amply rewarded. Thus he made his name stand for much in his community and left a precious heritage to his children. Beginning with his earliest trading activities, he earned a reputation for the strictest honor and integrity, a reputation that he main- tained all his life; everybody knew that what- ever he told them, whether in regard to merchan- dise or business affairs or anything else, could be absolutely depended upon. Many of the old "grandfather" clocks that he sold in his earliest business experience are in old country homes throughout this section of North Carolina to this day and are greatly cherishered for their faithful time-keeping qualities and for their interest and value as mementos of pioneer days. Matthew Cook passed to his well-earned reward in 1894, when eighty-four years of age. He and his good wife had a family of five sons and five daughters; of these three sons and three daughters are still living. The second oldest son, Michael, joined the Confederate army and was killed at the battle of Cold Harbor in 1864. Mr. and Mrs. Cook reared their children well and gave them all a good education, although the war and its after effects seriously crippled for a time the family fortunes.
Mrs. Mary (Costner) Cook, as noted above, was a daughter of Jonas and Susan ( Hoffman) Cost- ner, members of prominent old-time families of Lincoln County whose home was in that portion
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of Lincoln which has since become Gaston County. Jonas Costner was born in Lincoln County in 1799, the son of Michael and Barbara ( Rudisill) Costner. Michael Costner was the son of Jacob Costner and the grandson of Adam Costner, a native of Germany, who founded the family in North Carolina about 1750. Jacob Costner, about 1753, received the first grant of land that is on record in the section now embraced in Lincoln, Gaston and Catawba counties. The maternal grandmother of James P. Cook, Susan (Hoffman) Costner, was born in 1804 and lived to be over ninety years of age. She was a daughter of John Hoffman, Sr., and the granddaughter of Jacob Hoffman, Sr., a native of Germany, who was the founder of the prominent Hoffman family of Lin- coln County, where he settled about 1750. James P. Cook's maternal great-grandfather, John Hoff- man, Sr., although only a boy of sixteen years when the Revolutionary war began, was an Ameri- can soldier under Colonel Hambright at the battle of King's Mountain. He married Margaret Hovis.
James P. Cook was educated at North Carolina College (which afterward became the Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute) in the preparatory and collegiate departments, and was graduated therefrom in the class of 1885. The next day after his graduation he went to the southern part of Cabarrus County and took charge of a country high school, where he taught for one year, and at the end of that time, at the request of the citizens of Concord, took charge of what was then known as the Boys' High School at Concord, in which capacity he remained for three years. He established his permanent home at Concord in 1887 and three years later went into the news- paper business and established the Daily Standard, the first daily newspaper of that place and the only daily paper in North Carolina that was pub- lished in as small a town as Concord was at that time. This was a highly successful venture and paid him well financially, and in fact proved the foundation upon which have been established his present successful business enterprises and his ample resources. He conducted the Daily Standard until 1896, when, having received a good offer from an educational publishing concern, to which he desired to devote all his time, he sold out his interests and went on the road for the firm re- ferred to, although he continued to maintain his home at Concord. He continued in the educational publishing business, with success and profit, for several years, but his present business interests are mainly in farms in Cabarrus County, etc., thus allowing him to devote all his active time to the philanthropic and uplift work which is such a great part of his life and which is described later on.
In 1886, without Mr. Cook's knowledge and without notification in advance, he was elected county superintendent of schools of Cabarrus County. He held that position until 1896, when he was elected chairman of the county board of education. and in the latter capacity he remained until 1912. In 1912 he was elected a member of the North Carolina State Senate, representing a senatorial district comprising Cabarrus and Meck- lenburg counties, the latter being the largest and wealthiest county in the state. He served in the regular session of 1913 and in the extra session of that body, and was chairman of the finance committee, which originated the new revenue bill. Chairman Cook demanded, and as a result of his efforts there was included in this bill, the pro-
vision whereby corporations pay a graduated tax, that is, a small corporation pays a smaller tax, according to its capital, etc., tuan a larger one, instead of all corporation being assessed the same amount regardless of size, which system had pre- vailed heretotore. The new law was particularly beneficial to the small cotton mills which had suffered from discrimination under the old law. Mr. Cook was also a member of several other committees and was second man on the educational committee and took an active interest in the gen- eral legislation of the state. Mr. Cook is secre- tary and treasurer of the North Carolina Rail- road, the railroad owned by the state. This is an appointive position that he holds under the gov- ernor, and to which he was appointed by former Governor Craig.
A little incident that occurred during the time Mr. Cook was the editor of the Daily Standard had a great bearing on his subsequent life, and, as it has turned out, a great and beneficent in- fluence on the lives of many others and will con- tinue to have for countless years to come. In his rounds one day he noticed that a very poor and ill-reared boy of thirteen years, whom he had for- merly known in the country and in whom he had - taken an interest, had, in the local court, been convicted of a petty theft and sentenced to work out a severe sentence in the chain gang. The thought of this weak, helpless boy, of such a ten- der age, and committing a trifling first offense, being compelled to carry a ball and chain with the lowest and most depraved negroes and crim- inals of every sort so inflamed his mind that he wrote and published in the Daily Standard a bitter, scathing editorial against such inequality of justice, filled with all the indignation that a man could find words to utter against such a re- volting procedure. This and subsequent editorials with which he followed it up, were the means of having the boy released. He did not stop with this, however, but continued a bold and vigorous agitation for reform in dealing with delinquent boys, a matter which up to that time had re- ceived not the least attention or consideration from the lawmakers of the state or, for that mat- ter, from the people generally. For this reason Mr. Cook's early efforts along this line met with but a slow response and scant sympathy and a coldness upon the part of the public that was dis- heartening. He kept on, however, with patience and perseverance, both as an editor as long as he was publisher of the paper, and afterward as a private citizen, in his efforts for modern juvenile reform, using his splendid ability and all the energy of a man mentally and physically alert to further the cause that had become, literally, a part of his life. Much of his work was done among legislators and state officials, and he' gradually could see that his efforts were having the desired effect. It was not until 1907, however, that a legislature gathered at Raleigh that had the courage, wisdom and humanity to make a begin- ning in the desired legislation. In the session of that year an appropriation was made for the expense incidental to advertising for bids for a site and buildings for a state reform institution for boys. On September 3, 1907, Governor Glenn appointed a board of directors for the new insti- tution and at his request they met in the Senate Chamber at Raleigh and organized, the board being composed of both men and women. At this first meeting Mr. Cook was elected chairman of the board and has continued in that capacity ever
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since. Upon advertising for bids, a number of Mr. Cook's friends got together at Concord and raised $10,000 to purchase a site for the new insti. tution at this place, thus having it located in his home city. This offer was immediately accepted, and' by January, 1908, brick was being laid for the first of the buildings. In Januady 12, 1909, with two brick cottages completed, the new institu- tion was opened, there being one pupil received on the first day.
It was at Mr. Cook's suggestion that the new institution was named the Stonewall Jackson Manual Training and Industrial School. This was a happy thought, as it gave to the school the name of one of the South's greatest and most beloved heroes-a name that would always com- mand respect and attention from all and in fact be a valuable asset to the school. The school is built on the cottage plan, all buildings being of brick, of substantial structure and artistic architectural appearance, making it one of the show places of Concord. Up to January, 1917, the capacity of the school had been ninety pupils; in that month another cottage was completed, bringing the capacity up to 120 boys. The site of the school is a beautiful elevation in the south- western part of Concord.
While this institution is for the reformation of delinquent boys, it is a school in every sense of the word, all suggestions of a reformatory be- ing eliminated. The atmosphere of the place is continuously bright, cheerful and wholesome. There are no restraints. If a boy occasionally runs away, he usually comes back voluntarily. Kindness and patience, with just the necessary amount of firmness, are tactfully practiced. The superintendent and the teachers are the best to be secured. The idea is to build character and in- culcate good principles, while at the same time giving the boys useful education in academic branches and particularly in manual training, in- dustrial arts and agriculture: The institution is, of course, primarily for young boys just entering upon waywardness, those whose environments would naturally lead them into a life of crime if they were not taken in hand by such an institu- tion as this. In taking such boys from degrading environments and giving them a fair start toward useful manhood and citizenship, this institution is, it is needless to say, doing a work that will be of untold benefit to future generations.
Mr. Cook, as chairman of the board of trustees of the school, of which all accord him the honor of being the "father," is quite naturally, and by his own choice, largely responsible for its con- duct and its continued success in the work for which it was designed. He devotes a great deal of this active time in furthering the interests of the school, and as a part of his services in this direction he publishes and edits under his own responsibility "The Uplift," a monthly journal devoted to the interests of the school and its attendants. The time spent by Mr. Cook in this noble philanthropic work could be devoted to labors which would bring him large emolument of a material sort, for his abilities are so well known that his services are constantly in demand and he could no doubt put his own price upon them. How- ever, he belongs to that all too small minority who are satisfied with having means commensurate with their needs, and whose unselfish spirit enables them to find the greatest possible satisfaction and reward in being of some service to the "other fellow,"' in bringing some measure of cheer and
happiness to those who otherwise would not ex- perience it, in giving a chance in life to the un- fortunate, in making a blade of fresh, sturdy grass grow where before there had been but the withered, stunted stalk.
Mr. Cook was married to Miss Margaret Jean- ette Norfleet, who was born in Nansemond County, Virginia, a daughter of Nathaniel G. and Mary E. (Darden) Norteet, and a member of a distin- guished Revolutionary and Colonial Virginia fam- ily. On her mother's side she is descended in direct line from Captain John Cowper of Vir- ginia, one of the famous naval heroes of the Revo- lution. He performed many brilliant feats as a naval commander, the last and most notable of which resulted in his tragic end. In command of the brig Dolphi, having crew and officers totaling seventy-five men, he set sail from Nansemond Creek, having first deliberately nailed his flag to the mast-head and declaring that he would never strike it to an enemy. He sailed through Hamp- ton Roads to Chesapeake Bay and the open sea, and after he had passed through Cape Henry into the ocean those who watched saw two other sails appear on the horizon. These, as it turned out, were British armed cruisers, each equal in size and equipment to the Dolphin. Captain Cowper, however, did not attempt to escape, but gave im- mediate mattle. After a long and terrific engage- ment the Dolphin disappeared beneath the waves and every soul on board perished. This eventful tragedy occurred late in the year 1779. In recent years it has been made the subject of an interest- ing article in the Southern Literary Messenger, and of a stirring poem entitled "The Flag That Never Struck. "
Mr. and Mrs. Cook have no children. Mrs. Cook, like her husband, is deeply interested in unlift work at Concord and the vicinity, where there are large numbers of mill hands employed in the great cotton mills of this city and locality. Much of her work is done in conjunction with the Kings Daughters, of which she is the leader. Mr. Cook has for many years been a prominent member and official of Saint James Evangelical Lutheran Church at Concord. He is a member of the board of trustees of Mount Pleasant Collegiate Insti- tute, at Mount Pleasant, which is the synodical school of the North Carolina Synod of the Evan- gelical Lutheran Church.
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