USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 29
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An incident that furnishes a graphic illustration of the commercial growth which has been briefly outlined relates to the location of the original tobacco warehouse at the corner of Elm and Front streets. Up to that time this site had been occu- pied by Mr. Berry Godwin with a turpentine distillery. Mr. Godwin sold the land for $900 for the use of the tobacco warehouse. R. D. and L. H. Caldwell took a third interest in this pur- chase. A year or so ago the same site sold for $9,000.
No one has more enthusiastically and more sys- tematically given a support to all these varied enterprises as well as the general welfare of Lum- berton than Mr. Caldwell. With all the numerous cares of business, he has usually found time to re- spond to every appeal made upon his generosity and spirit of helpfulness in behalf of other in- stitutions. He is chairman of the Board of Edu- cation of Lumberton and is chairman of the School Board of East Lumberton, where a school is conducted for the benefit of the cotton mill district, employing four teachers. He lends his support generously to municipal improvements, good roads, is president of the Chamber of Com- merce and is owner of much valuable business and city real estate, besides extensive farm lands which it has been a matter of pride with him to develop to the highest state of productiveness.
One of the finest honors that has been bestowed upon him and one which he has most appreciated was when, after faithful work as superintendent of the Sunday School of the First Baptist Church for twenty years, the church elected him superin- tendent for life. He has been superintendent of the First Baptist Church Sunday School since 1893.
Mr. Caldwell married Sarah Dovie Carlyle, daughter of S. C. Carlyle, of Lumberton. Mrs. Caldwell, who was educated at Oxford College, has been equally interested with her husband in many civic and social movements, and has served as president of the Civic Association of Lumberton. They are the parents of four children: Simeon F., business associate of his father; Robert D., Jr., now in his second year at Wake Forest College; William E., a high school student at Lumberton, and Miss Anna Ruth Caldwell. The daughter is one of the talented young women of North Carolina, is a graduate of Meredith College at Raleigh, spent three years in the New England Conservatory of Music at Boston, and was a spe- cial student under Leland Powers, the great voice teacher. Miss Caldwell has a rich contralto voice, and her reputation as a vocalist has already spread beyond local limits. Music is her destined career.
GEORGE A. GRIMSLEY. Thousands of the most substantial business men in the South in securing for themselves protection through the service af- forded by the Jefferson Life Insurance Company of Greensboro have at the same time indicated their confidence in the integrity and ability of the personnel and executive direction of that company, the president of which is George A. Grimsley. Mr. Grimsley was formerly a successful educator in North Carolina, and left that profession to take up insurance work, and has achieved his present dignity through a thorough mastery of the funda- mentals of insurance organizations and administra- tion.
Mr. Grimsley is a native of Olds Township of Greene County, North Carolina, and was born on a farm. He is of an old and prominent family of that section. His great-grandfather, Jethro Grimsley, was one of the pioneers of Greene County. The grandfather, John Grimsley, prob- ably spent all his life as a planter in that county. William Pope Grimsley, father of George A., was born in the same township of Greene County, was reared to agricultural pursuits and during the war between the states was in the Confederate army. He too evinced remarkable business ability, though he kept his sphere of activity in the rural districts. He inherited only a small tract of land from his father but made that the nucleus of a rapidly growing and expanding business as a farmer and land owner and in the course of time had 1,000 acres under his ownership and most of it thoroughly cultivated. He died in Greene County at the age of sixty-five years. William P. Grimsley married Mary Elizabeth Dixon. She was born in the same county of a prominent fam- ily of that name. She died at the early age of thirty-five, leaving children named John D., Cora Elizabeth, William C., Joseph E., George A. and Sally Augusta.
George A. Grimsley had a district school educa- tion and prepared for college in the famous Bing- ham Military School at Mebane. His higher edu- cation was acquired in the University of Wash- ville at Nashville, Tennessee, where he graduated in 1888. Since leaving college he has had an active career, partly in educational work and partly in business covering thirty years. Imme- diately on his graduation from the University of Nashville he was elected superintendent of the Tarboro public schools, and successfully conducted the schools of that city until 1900. He resigned to become superintendent of the public schools of Greensboro, but in 1901 gave up his work in schools altogether to enter the life insurance busi- ness. That year he was elected secretary of the Security Life and Annuity Company. He applied himself to the insurance business with the en- thusiasm and diligence which in a few years suf- ficed to give him a place of recognized prominence in insurance circles throughout the South. In 1912 the Security Life and Annuity Company and the Greensboro Life Insurance Company were consoli- dated with the Jefferson Life Insurance Company. In this larger organization a deserved tribute was paid to Mr. Grimsley by his election as president, and since then he has wisely directed the affairs of the company to still larger growth and pros- perity.
At Kinston, North Carolina, he married Miss Cynthia Tull. who was born in Lenoir County, daughter of John and Cynthia (Dunn) Tull. Mr. and Mrs. Grimsley have two sons, Harry B. and
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William T. Both volunteered and are now in the service of the National Government. Harry is a second lieutenant in the Three Hundred Eighth Cavalry of the National Army, while William is a sergeant in Ambulance Company No. 321. Mr. and Mrs. Grimsley are members of the First Pres- byterian Church of Greensboro, and he is one of the board of deacons. Fraternally he is affiliated with Greensboro Lodge No. 80, Knights of Pythias.
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J. CLAUDE HEDGPETH. The business associations by which Mr. Hedgpeth is best known at Greens- boro and over the state are as a cotton broker. He has been at different times affiliated with some of the larger cotton brokerage houses in the state, and is now at the head of an independent firm in Greensboro. Mr. Hedgpeth is well and favorably known both to the producers and the cotton buyers of the state.
Though most of his active career has been spent in Greensboro, Mr. Hedgpeth was born at Hillsboro in Orange County, North Carolina. His great- grandfather, Jesse Hedgpeth, was, according to all accounts, a native of Virginia, and in pioneer times moved from that colony to North Carolina, buying a farm in Nash County. He died in Nash County at the venerable age of ninety-eight years. His wife, a Miss Lawrence, was a native of Eng- land and was brought to America by her parents in childhood. She was also long lived and passed away at the age of eighty-eight. They reared a family of seven sons and six daughters.
Jesse A. Hedgpeth, grandfather of the Greens- boro business man, was born on a farm in Nash County. As a youth he did not possess a vigorous constitution and was advised by physicians to seek the higher climate of the mountains. He therefore located at Hillsboro, where he lived with an uncle. As there were no railroads through that section of North Carolina he walked all the dis- tance from the old home to his uncle's. At Hills- boro he learned the trade of carriage builder, and after his marriage moved to Leesburg in Caswell County and established a wagon and carriage fac- tory. This was continued until after the war, when he returned to Hillsboro and for about twenty years was a local merchant and subse- quently followed the trade of cabinet making. Late in life he removed to Fayetteville, and died there at the age of seventy-four. He married Emeline Warren, daughter of Charles and Nancy (Berry) Warren, both of whom were life long residents of North Carolina. Mrs. Jesse A. Hedg- peth is still living at Fayetteville, eighty-eight years of age. She rearcd seven children, named James H., Joseph T., Charles J .. Crawford L., Deerwood B., Eulah L. and Hardy L. The daugh- ter Emma died at the age of fourteen.
Joseph T. Hedgpeth, father of J. Claude Hedg- peth, was born at Leesburg in Caswell County August 25, 1859. When a youth he went to work in a tobacco factory, learning all the details of that business. This experience opened the way for an independent business career and he was suc- cessively manufacturer of tobacco at Hillsboro and Durham. For two years he was connected with a warehouse at Danville, Virginia, but in 1893 lo- cated at Greensboro. where he operated a ware- house until 1916. Since then he has been in the grocery business. Joseph T. Hedgpeth married in 1882 Bettie B. Pleasants, who was born in Wake County, North Carolina, daughter of Alexander and Amelia (Rosemond) Pleasants. . Her father
moved from Wake County to Hillsboro and for a number of years was a merchant there and during the war served as assistant postmaster. Joseph T. Hedgpeth and wife have five children: J. Claude, Lorena P., Lillian N., Herman H. and Paul R. The parents are members of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church at Greensboro.
J. Claude Hedgpeth finished his early education in Alice Heartt's private school. He left school to learn the art of telegraphy in the offices of the Western Union Telegraph Company. For seven years he was a competent operator and train dis- patcher with the Southern Railway, assigned at different points, and resigned his position with that company to enter the cotton brokerage busi- ness. At first he was with the American Cotton Company, later with the firm of Lee & Cone. With the withdrawal of Mr. Lee he became a partner under the name Cone & Hedgpeth, and in 1910 Mr. Cone withdrew and the firm was reorganized as Hedgpeth & Rucker, his partner being P. C. Rucker. In 1918 Mr. Rucker withdrew, and the business, now grown to large and profitable pro- portions, is conducted as Hedgpeth & Company.
Mr. Hedgpeth and wife are active members of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church at Greensboro, and he is serving as one of its vestrymen and as church treasurer. In 1911 he married Miss Annie Lou Cates, who was born at Augusta, Georgia. Her father, James Micajah Cates, was born at Hamburg, South Carolina, and her mother, Marie Crenshaw, is a native of Marietta, Georgia, but was reared in Atlanta. Mr. and Mrs. Hedgpeth have two children, Sherwood and Marie.
HENRY ELIAS SHAW. With thirty years of active experience in the bar of North Carolina, Henry Elias Shaw has spent over twenty of them in Kinston. He has unquestioned rank among the ablest lawyers in this section of the state, and has applied himself successfully and faithfully to the discharge of a great volume of duties con- nected with the interests of his clients and the public at large. Another valuable service he has rendered was the part he took in establishing the graded school system of Kinston.
He was born May 10, 1856, a son of Rev. Colin and Phoebe (Bannerman) Shaw. Both his father and mother were descended from some of the early Highland Scotch colonists of the Carolinas, and in the maternal line he is con- nected with the family of Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman. His father was a noted Presbyterian minister.
Mr. Shaw was educated at home and under private teachers employed by his father. He also came under the instruction of Prof. R. E. Miller in Duplin County, and Solomon J. Faison of Sampson County. He read law privately, and in 1887 entered the law department of the Univer- sity of North Carolina.
Admitted to the bar in September, 1888, Mr. Shaw began practice in Pender County, in 1889 removed to La Grange, and since 1896 has handled his general practice at Kinston. In 1911 he was elected solicitor of the Fifth Judicial District, his present term expiring December 31, 1918.
Mr. Shaw was married December 20, 1881, to Miss Virginia D. Powers, daughter of the late Col. John D. Powers, of Pender County, North Carolina. The children born to their marriage arc: Phoebe, who was well educated and was a teacher in the public schools at the time of her death; Sallie Stewart, who was educated at Red
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Springs, North Carolina, and is now the wife of Capt. W. F. Genheimer; Fannie Faison is Mrs. M. E. Harlan, of Virginia; Virginia Powers is teacher of the graded schools of Kinston; and the youngest is Mary Josephine.
Mr. Shaw served as chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee in 1896, and is a former chairman of the board of electors of Lenoir County. The responsibility for the establishment of the first system of graded schools in Kinston is shared by him and Mr. Plato Collins. Mr. Shaw spent weeks before the Legislature in se- curing the necessary legislation for such schools both at Kinston and in other cities. After the schools were established he was elected one of the first trustees.
His home at Kinston is known as Liberty Hill. He is a member of the Masonic Order, of the Scottish Society of America, and almost contin- uously since he was twenty years of age has served as an elder in the Presbyterian Church.
HENRY TULL, M. D. The career of Doctor Tull in Lenoir County has been distinguished by an unusual length, as well as by exceptional ability of service as a physician and surgeon. He began practice in that, his native county, over forty years ago, after completing his medical education in some of the finest schools of America.
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He has proved himself a valuable man to the community not only professionally but by varied and interesting relationships with the community welfare. He is bound by many ties to that locality and the community itself feels special pride in him , as a citizen.
He was born in Lenoir County January 4, 1855, the oldest son of John and Cynthia Ann (Dunn) Tull. His father was for many years one of the largest farmers in Lenoir County. Doctor Tull during his youth had every encouragement and advantage, attending the schools of Kinston and being a graduate of the famous Bingham Military School, where he was graduated with the rank of first lieutenant. He pursued his med- ical studies first in Harvard Medical College and later in the University of Pennsylvania Medical Department, from which he was graduated M. D. in 1876. Steadily since that date he has practiced at Kinston, and has long stood at the head of his profession as a gynecologist and obstetrician. He is a member of the Lenoir County and North Carolina Medical societies and the American Med- ical Association.
While for professional service alone he would rank as one of Lenoir County's first citizens, Doctor Tull has a strongly fortified position in the community, due to his public enterprise and material interests. He was one of the original promoters and for a number of years has been president of the Orion Knitting Mills and a di- rector of the Kinston Cotton Mills. Like his father, he is closely connected with the agricul- tural welfare of the county and owns 3,000 aeres of farm land, devoted to cotton and tobacco. In 1886 he built the Hotel Tull, the first brick hotel in Kinston, and immediately rebuilt it after it was destroyed by fire in 1895. By subsequent additions to the Hotel Tull, at the corner of Queen and Caswell streets, has become one of the largest and best equipped hotels in the state. He is vice president of the First National Bank and has been president since. its organization of the Kinston Building and Loan Association.
His publie service has been largely in his home
county and has been notable for its effectiveness, whether through the agency of a public office or through the many interests which he controls. For a number of terms he represented his ward in the city council, and has been steadfastly an advocate of municipal ownership and a wise and efficient direction of public utilities. He brought about the establishment of the office of city clerk and a departmental system of city accounting, and supported various other reforms.
In 1902 Doctor Tull was elected county com- missioner and selected as chairman of the board, au office he filled continuously for twelve years. Some of the wisest and best considered public improvements in the county were made during his administration. The county home was built in 1904 under his direction, the court house and its offices were remodeled and newly equipped, and several modern steel and concrete bridges erected throughout the county. Doctor Tull is a member of the Masonic Order.
He was married in 1882 to Miss Myrtie Wooten, of Lenoir County. They reside in one of the handsomest homes of Kinston, on Caswell Street. Doctor and Mrs. Tull have three children: Eliza- beth Gladys, now Mrs. William C. Fields, of Kins- ton; Lottie, wife of Dr. James M. Parrott, of Kinston, and Henry, Jr., of Kinston.
CHARLES C. HUDSON. This is the brief story of a Greensboro business man who not many years age was working in an overall factory at twenty- five ceuts a day. That is the opening chapter of the story, and the final chapter as written to date finds him sole proprietor of a business whose out- put is valued at a million dollars a year.
This business man of Greensboro is a native of Tennessee, born on a plantation twelve miles south of Franklin in Williamson County July 15, 1877. Some of his maternal relatives and family con- nections comprised a well known family of early days in Guilford County, North Carolina. His parents were Professor William A. and Annie (Tyre) Hudson. His paternal grandfather, Wil- liam A. Hudson, Sr., was a planter and probably a lifelong resident of Williamson County, Tennes- see. The maternal grandfather, Jolm Tyre, was born near Pleasant Gardens of Guilford County, North Carolina, and moved from there to Tennes- see in the days before railroads spanned the moun- tains and when wagons and teams were the only means of conveyance from place to place. Mr. Tyre bought a plantation, lived in Tennessee a number of years, and finally returned to his native county, where the rest of his life was spent.
Professor William A. Hudson was substantially educated in his youth, and was widely known over his section of Tennessee as an educator. He con- tinued teaching until his death at the early age of thirty-six. His widow subsequently married W. N. Graham, of Williamson County, and they now live in Nashville, Tennessee. By the first marriage the mother had four children, named Lola Blanche, who died at the age of twenty-one; Charles C .; Clarence E .; and Homer T.
Charles C. Hudson during his youth attended local public schools and assisted in performing the labors on the home plantation in Tennessee. He was twenty years of age when he came to Greensboro, North Carolina. Here soon after- ward he was put on the payroll of the local over- all factory. He began sewing buttons. This work commanded wages of twenty-five cents per day. The wage was not important, save as it furnished
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him bare means of subsistence and existence. The important part was the opportunity it gave him, which he was not slow to utilize, in mastering the technical and general business processes of an in- dustry in which he subsequently saw a future and realized it in a most remarkable way. He picked up knowledge rapidly and made himself pro- ficient in every branch of manufacture, sale aud distribution of overalls. In 1910 the firm for which he worked stopped business, but he was only temporarily out of employment. He had in the meantime conserved his capital and had taken means to establish credit of his own and at once organized the Blue Bell Overall Company, of which he has since been sole proprietor. This business started with five people doing all the work. Eight years is a short time in which a business may develop to large and pretentious scope, but at the present time Mr. Hudson's factory occupies a three-story building, furnishing nearly a half acre of floor space, and fitted with nearly all the modern appliances and machinery capable of pro- ducing the highest grade of overalls of all types and for all purposes. About 200 people find con- stant employment here and the business is one of the chief industries of Greensboro.
Mr. Hudson married, January 2, 1902, Daisy Dean Huntt. She was born in Louisa County, Virginia, a daughter of John Wesley Huntt, of that county. Mr. and Mrs. Hudson have two chil- dren, Dorothy Dean and Charles C., Jr. The fam- ily are active members of the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Greensboro in which Mr. Hudson has served on the various official boards.
Mr. Hudson is a member of the executive com- mittee of the Young Men's Christian Association of Greensboro and a member of the board of the Young Women's Christian Association. He is a member of the Merchants and Manufacturers Club, Commerce in 1917, is a member of the Rotary Club served as president of the Greensboro Chamber of of Greensboro and the Country Club, and frater- nally is affiliated with Greensboro Lodge No. 602, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
WILLIAM GUY NEWBY. The immensity of the lumber interests of Eastern North Carolina, if presented in aggregate, would be a stupendous financial document. Figuratively speaking, it is only within the last twenty or more years that this vast source of wealth has been more than tapped. The people of this country have, seem- ingly, not always been alive to their own interests, leaving undisturbed the natural resources close at hand, that other lands, perhaps, would have sequestered for national financial independence. It is true, however, that business acumen ap- proaching genius in some cases had to be brought to bear to open up the natural treasures of the United States in different sections. The great impetus given the lumber industry in Eastern North Carolina may be indirectly traced to the well directed, intelligent activities of men of a high order of business ability. In this connec- tion mention may be made to one of Hertford's prominent lumber men, William Guy Newby, who is the senior member of the real estate firm of Newby & White, owners of vast tracts of land and important factors in the commercial life of this section.
William Guy Newby was born at Hertford, North Carolina, October 17, 1877. His parents were Nathan and Frances Katherine ( McMullan)
Newby. Farming was his father's vocation and Perquimans County has been the family home for several generations.
Hertford Academy for many years has afforded high class instruction to the youth of the city and there Mr. Newby received academie train- ing, after which he took a course in stenography in Eastman's Business College. Becoming au expert, he continued in the practice of this art for ten years, in the meanwhile attracting the attention of Hon. John H. Small, member of Congress from the First District, which resulted in his becoming Mr. Small's private secretary, in which intimate relation he remained for six years.
Mr. Newby then turned his attention to farm- ing and became interested in lumber manufac- turing and later became associated with Carteret Lumber Company, of which he is secretary. Sub- sequently Mr. Newby extended the scope of his business activities and the real estate firm of Newby & White was founded. This firm handles vast tracts of farm land and owns a two-third interest in 20,000 acres of Eastern North Car- olina timber land. The operations of the firm are conducted on a large scale and their minor interests include many industries. The partners are men not only of rare business ability but their reputation for business integrity is uublemished.
Mr. Newby was married June 21, 1911, to Elizabeth Brown Stokes, of Windsor, North Car- olina, and they have two children: Jesse Taylor and William Guy, Jr. Mr. Newby is a member of the board of stewards in the Methodist Epis- copal Church. In politics he is a democrat and formerly was one of the town commissioners, and he is treasurer of the Perquimans County Red Cross organization.
CAPT. JOSEPH B. UNDERWOOD. The late Capt. Joseph B. Underwood, father of Mrs. Henry M. "Pemberton, was . born in Sampson County, and spent all his life as a citizen of Fayetteville. He earned his captain 's title as a brilliant and dash- ing officer in the Confederate army. Captain Underwood will be longest remembered because of his fanie and achievements as an inventor. Inven- tion was with him practically a lifelong profession. The number of his inventious ran literally into the hundreds, and a complete record of them died with him, Quite a number of these devices helped to lighten the burdens of the world and improve the facilities of civilization, and there were several that may be briefly mentioned here. One of the most notable was a color printing press. It is recalled that when Captain Underwood went to New York with his color press and exhibited it to printers and publishers they looked upon it as a freak and probably thought of the inventor as a crank. That very press, however, was sub- sequently in use in New York, and now for many years the process of color printing has been rec- ognized as one of the greatest graphic arts. Cap- tain Underwood invented the cigarette-making machine, which had a tremendous effect on the tobacco industry of America. He also made the first slot machine, and that opened a field of nie- chanical devices which is now almost unlimited and is applied in wonderfully varied ways. The slot machine patent was sold to Gen. J. S. Carr. He also invented a cotton planter and a number of labor-saving devices. One machine which was almost completed, but was unfinished at his death, was a cotton-picking machine. Besides the cigar-
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