USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 37
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Mr. Morrow was born in Lancaster District, South Carolina, not far from his present home in the adjoining county in North Carolina, and is a son of James M. and Margaret Elizabeth (Cure- ton) Morrow. The Morrow family is of Scotch ancestry and its progenitors in America settled first in Pennsylvania, from whence they removed some years prior to the Revolutionary war to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. The imme- diate ancestors of Robert Morrow. his father, James M. Morrow, and his grandfather, Allen Morrow, were born in Lancaster County, the ad- joining county to Mecklenburg in South Carolina. The granduncle of Robert A. Morrow. Major Benjamin Morrow, was a native of Mecklenburg County. North Carolina, and lived there all his life. His home was for a long number of years at the Morrow plantation, a beautiful estate in the suburbs of Charlotte, which was later acquired by the father of John S. Myers and is now known as Mvers Park. Major Benjamin Morrow married the daughter of the late Governor Hawkins of North Carolina.
When Robert A. Morrow was six years of age, in 1866. his father and family removed to Char- lotte. where for the following twelve years James M. Morrow was clerk of the superior court. Rob- ert A. Morrow grew up in the city, where he en- joved ordinary scholastic advantages in the public schools, but he was of an ambitious and indus- trious nature and longed to get his start that he might take his place among the business men of the city. Accordingly, when he was only twelve
years old he secured his initiation to business life and business methods when he was given the posi- tion of messenger boy in the large commercial establishment of the late S. Wittowsky at Char- lotte. The lad was always anxious to please, showed fidelity to his employer's interests, was agile and alert, and displayed a desire to learn every phase of the business. His conduct soon attracted the attention of his superiors, and from that time his faithfulness and industry won and held for him the lasting confidence of Mr. Wit- towsky, so that he was promoted from position to position until when he left the concern he was in the position of manager of the credit department.
In 1888 Mr. Morrow was ready to embark in business on his own account, and selected as his field of endeavor Union County, which has since continued to be his home. He first located at the Town of Waxhaw, where he engaged in the mercan- tile business in partnership with his brother, J. M. Morrow, and B. D. and A. W. Heath. In 1890 Robert A. Morrow came to Monroe, the county seat of Union County, and here took charge of the business of the firm which had been established at this place during the same year, although the original business was retained at Waxhaw. The name at that time was Heath, Morrow & Com- pany, but in 1893 Mr. B. D. Heath retired from the firm and the style was changed to the Heath- Morrow Company. Allen W. Heath has since died, but his name is retained in the firm at Monroe. In addition to the main establishment at Monroe they have a large house in the thriving City of Albe- marle, conducted under the name of Morrow Brothers & Heath Company. This is a large whole- sale grocery business, including the two houses, and is one of the largest and most important in the Carolinas. their trade extending over a large territory in the two states. It is a bulwark of financial strength and responsibility and its large business has been built strictly upon honor and merit.
Mr. Morrow is a director of the Icemorlee Cotton Mills, of the Everett Cotton Mills, the Jackson Cotton Mill, and the Bearskin Cotton Mills, all of Monroe. He is connected with the W. J. Rudge Company, the extensive book and stationery house of Monroe, and a director of the Monroe Hard- ware Company, one of the largest concerns of its kind in the state. He is extensively interested in the banking business, being a director in the First National Bank of Monroe, the only national bank in Union County. It was established in 1907 and has a capital stock of 100,000, with surplus of $35.000, and resources of at least $750.000. He is president of the State Bank of Wingate, in Union County, which is doing an excellent business and has a high standing in banking circles of the state, and a director of the Savings Loan & Trust Com- pany of Monroe and of the Waxhaw Banking & Trust Company, Waxhaw, North Carolina.
In political life Mr. Morrow has never been a candidate for elective office. but is a stanch demo- crat and takes an active interest in the affairs of his party. He is a member of the State Democratic Executive Committee: is a director of the Cham- ber 01 Commerce of Monroe; a trustee of Queen's College of Charlotte; and an elder in the Pres- byterian Church. It will be seen that his interests are large and varied and that he is in many ways one of the prominent citizens of the state. He was appointed by Secretary McAdoo chairman of the Union County War Savings Committee, allotted to
Jamas
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raise $732,000 and at this date $700,000 has been raised and the balance will be forthcoming in thirty days.
Mr. Morrow married Miss Carolina McKenzie, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and they are the parents of five children, namely: James M., Jr., Robert A., Jr., William A., Louise and Caroline.
James M. Morrow, Jr., volunteered in the Avia- tion Department of the National Army and is now at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
JAMES FRED TAYLOR. Only the successful man can touch the life of a community at so many vital points and with so much direct benefit and achieve- ment as James Fred Taylor has done in the City of Kinston. He has been a resident of that city for the past thirty years, and though he started life in nothing higher than a clerkship in a coun- try store, he is now an officer or director in half a dozen or more large corporations and business concerns and also finds time to help forward com- munity projects.
Mr. Taylor is a native of Lenoir County, where he was born September 8. 1864. His parents were Fred Green and Jane ( Hooker) Taylor, substan- tial farming people of the county. Mr. Taylor had his first instruction in private schools, after- wards in the Kinston Collegiate Institute, and the Kings Mountain High School under Capt. W. T. R. Bell. After leaving school he went to South Carolina and was clerk and bookkeeper in a general merchandise store for three years. Re- turning to Kinston in 1886, Mr. Tavlor was for ten years in the brokerage business. He eventually closed out that business because of the demands made upon his time and attention by other larger affairs.
In 1890 Mr. Taylor organized the Orion Knit- ting Mills, and has been secretary, treasurer and manager of this industry ever since. In 1898 he organized the Kinston Cotton Mill, was treasurer and manager until 1916, and since then has been also its president. He organized in 1903 the Ches- terfield Manufacturing Company, which purchased a cotton mill, water power and farm two miles from Petersburg, Virginia, and it is now a flour- ishing industry. Mr. Taylor is its president and treasurer. He is a director of the First National Bank of Kinston and has been on the board since the bank was organized; assisted in organ- izing in 1900 the Lenoir Oil and Ice Company, was elected the first president. but resigned after four years; is a director of the Kinston Insur- ance and Realty Company; director of the Caro- lina Drainage and Construction Company, and the Carolina Land and Development Company; and from 1908 to 1912 was president of the Kinston Good Government League. In 1914-15 Mr. Taylor was president of the Kinston Chamber of Com- merce, and is a director of the Kinston Fair As- sociation. He was formerly a director and vice president of the North State Life Insurance Com- pany.
Mr. Taylor is one of those men who, with no more time than other men have, nevertheless serve well and effectively in many positions of respon- sibilty and trust. Outside of business he is de- voted to his home and is a deacon in the Chris- tian Church. He was married November 12, 1895, to Miss Fannie Murphey, of Kinston. Mrs: Tay- lor is a daughter of James L. and Nannie (Dixon) Murphey. They have two children: Fred Mur- phey and Margaret.
JUDGE JESSE C. SIGMON. For a young man to ascend the bench of the County Court only three years after commencing practice certainly speaks well for his professional ability and his substantial personal character. That statement is literally true in the case of the present incumbent of the county bench, Jesse C. Sigmon, of Newton, Catawba County. His parents, Daniel Elias and Dorcas Emily (Rhodes) Sigmon, both live near the old homestead, about a mile and a half from Newton.
The father, Daniel E. Sigmon, was born at the old homestead, where George A. Sigmon now lives, the antiquated log structure having been torn away. It is in the immediate vicinity of the place where he now resides, and he is the son of Jethro and Mary (Heavner) Sigmon, and the grandson of Barnett Sigmon. The Sigmon family is numerous and highly honored in . Catawba County; in fact, the claim is made that there are more Sigmons in Catawba County than residents of any other family in the state. Jethro Sigmon was born in York County, Pennsylvania, and when a boy came with his father, Barnett Sigmon, in the late '30s, to the locality of the old homestead. The head of the family was of German parentage, and found many of his countrymen to co-operate with him in mak- ing Catawba County famous for its fine farms, live stock and dairies. His sons, Daniel E. and George Sigmon, ably upheld the traditional thrift and industry of the family, and are still widely known as proprietors of productive and beautiful farms and raisers of fine dairy stock.
Judge Sigmon's father has also been actively interested in the schools of the county and has served as superintendent of education. At present he is a member of the Board of County Commis- sioners. The mother is a member of the well known Rhodes family, prominent in both Catawba and Lincoln counties. Mr. and Mrs. Daniel E. Sig- mon are the parents of ten children, seven sons and three daughters.
Jesse C. Sigmon, who was born near Newton, Catawba County, in 1885, received his preparatory education at Catawba College, Newton, and after- ward took a business course at Richmond, Virginia. During a few years following he was engaged in the railroad service in the following capacities : Clerk in the master mechanic's office of the Chesa- peake & Ohio Railroad at Richmond; in the super- intendent's office at Clifton Forge, Virginia; con- nected with the transportation department of the Atlantic Coast Line at Wilmington, North Caro- lina; private secretary to the superintendent of that department, with headquarters at Florence, South Carolina; with the Florida East Coast Rail- road at St. Augustine, Florida. and with the Penn- sylvania Railroad at Washington, District of Columbia. He then assumed a position with the navy department of the Government. and while thus engaged pursued a law course at Georgetown University.
While pursuing his course at Georgetown Uni- versity Judge Sigmon had unusual opportunities to receive instruction from some of the most distinguished lawyers and jurists in Washington. Large and valuable law libraries were also open to him, and the whole atmosphere at the national capital was calculated to broaden his outlook. He graduated in the class of 1912, solidly grounded in the law. and equipped at all points for substan- tial advancement. In 1913 he began law practice at Charlotte, North Carolina, but on September
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1, 1915, returned to his old home at Newton to locate permanently as a lawyer and citizen. About thirty days afterward he was appointed county solicitor for Catawba County. Among local cam- paigns during the year 1916 one of the hottest fought in North Carolina was in Catawba County. Mr. Sigmon received the republican nomination for judge of the County Court, and he at once started an aggressive propaganda both for his own election and in behalf of the entire republican ticket. That ticket was elected by majorities averaging around 200. In a county which up to a few years ago was strongly democratic and in a general election where the tendency all over the country was strongly in behalf of the democratic national candidate, the results attained in Catawba County, largely due, as well informed men agrce, to the personality and the ability of Judge Sigmon, are outstanding facts in political history. Judge Sig- mon entered upon his duties as county judge in November, 1916. Possessing unusual legal talent, and with his strong hold upon popular esteem, Judge Sigmon's continued success and future are assured.
Like all his people, he is a communicant of the Lutheran Church and is president of the Luther League of the Western District of North Carolina.
REV. MICHAEL A. IRWIN, pastor of the flourishing Catholic Church at Newton Grove, Sampson County, has done much of the pioneer and organiz- ing work of his denomination in North Carolina, where from the time of its settlement members of the Catholic Church have been very few-and these. principally people who moved into the state from elsewhere. The great leaders of the church in North Carolina have been Bishop England, who died bishop of Charleston; Bishop Gibbons, at present the venerable Cardinal Gibbons, archbishop of Baltimore; and Bishop Leo Haid, at present the bishop of the state and abbot of Belmont Abbey. But our notice here concerns a localized work which began at Newton Grove about 1873 by the reception into the Catholic Church of Dr. John C. Monk, a prominent physician of that neighbor- hood who was baptized with the members of his family by Cardinal Gibbons in Wilmington that year. Doctor Monk was such a fine character and so universally respected that his conversion to the Catholic faith aroused great interest in his home county, Sampson, and from this original impetus about 800 people have finally been brought into the Catholic Church, of whom many have moved away, and of course, many are dead. But several hundred have always remained around Newton Grove and form the vigorous community at present under the charge of Father Irwin, who has had many zealous predecessors in the pastoral office at this point.
Father Irwin was born at Portsmouth, Virginia, August 31, 1866. the eldest son of Cornelius and Cecilia Eliza (Hasty) Irwin. His father spent many years in the transportation business. Father Irwin was educated in private schools from the age of five to nine, and from nine to fourteen in parochial schools. Later he spent two years at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina and one year in a business college in Philadelphia. He also received a fine musical education in youth, and even yet. though a priest, is widely known as a skillful violinist.
His early life was spent as a practical business man and he had the promise of a brilliant career
in transportation circles. Several of his office mates eventually became prominent in the rail- road world, one, in particular, being vice president of a great system. Father Irwin's first venture in business was a junior clerkship with the Sea- board Air Line at Portsmouth, Virginia. Then, a little older, he held an important position jointly with two steamship companies, the Merchants and Miners Steamship Company of Norfolk, and the Potomac Steamboat Company of Washington, Dis- triet of Columbia. Afterward for several years he was the private secretary to the general manager of the Norfolk Southern Railroad. Again he was in the traffic department of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad at Newport News, and at their general offices at Richmond. Thence for five years he was connected with the traffic department of the Sea- board Air Line at its general offices at Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia.
Feeling called to a more consecrated life, Father Irwin in 1896 took leave of the business world to take up his studies for the priesthood at Belmont Abbey, to which he returned after fourteen years' absence, and where he was ordained a priest by Bishop Haid, June 10, 1900. His first ecclesiastical appointment was as a member of the Apostolate Company at Nazareth, near Raleigh, North Caro- lina, a society established there in 1898 by the Rev. Thomas F. Price, for general missionary and charitable enterprises. Father Irwin was one of the legal incorporators of this society and remained there on duty for three years and a half helping to build up the fine foundation of church, schools, orphanages and other works that are now so much in evidence there.
In January, 1904, he was made pastor of St. Mark's Church at Newton Grove in Sampson Coun- ty. However, for two years after coming to New- ton Grove he still retained the office of missionary in charge of the growing Catholic Mission at Dur- ham, North Carolina, which he relinquished when it was able to support a resident priest.
Father Irwin's work at Newton Grove occu- pies an important position as the center of Cath- olic influence in that section of the state. The membership of his church, though not large, about 425 at best, assumes a singular importance when it is kept in mind that it is drawn from a stock of native people who are by tradition and en- vironment unfavorable to the Catholic religion. Father Irwin has built numerous churches in his territory, including the parish church in Dunn, North Carolina, a new parish recently erected out of the Newton Grove territory, and mission churches at Clinton, Benson, Peacocks. Denningtown, Rosin Hill, Bentonville, Dobbersville and Bow- dentown. At Newton Grove he has enlarged the church proper, built a tower, constructed a new parish school, and dormitories for both boys and girls, and a new rectory. He now has a flourish- ing school with about 100 pupils. It was Father Irwin who brought the Dominican Sisters from New York to North Carolina as teachers, and there are now thirteen of these sisters connected with the management of Catholic parish schools in North Carolina. Father Irwin has now an assistant priest at Newton Grove to share in and lighten his heavy responsibilities.
HON. POWELL W. GLIDEWELL. It is not only the skill of the successful lawyer but also the character of a worthy citizen which have brought Mr. Glidewell into prominence in Rockingham
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County, where he has practiced law at Reidsburg for a number of years and has enjoyed many honors at the hands of his fellow citizens.
Mr. Glidewell was born on a farm in Meadows Township of Stokes County, North Carolina. His grandfather, John W. Glidewell, was a native of the same locality and owned and occupied a planta- tion there. Soon after the breaking out of the war between the states he entered the Confederate army and was soon on the front lines of action. In the battle of Spottsylvania Court House he lost his life and his death was a tragedy in more than one sense to the family he left behind him. He had married Martha Hicks, a native of Meadow Township, and at his death she was left a young widow with three children, named Caleb W., Min- erva and Nannie. The daughter Nannie died at the age of eighteen years and Minerva married Reuben Brown. The mother of these children did her part by them while they were young, and she lived to the good old age of eighty-three.
Rev. Caleb W. Glidewell, father of Powell W., was born in Meadows Township of Stokes County April 11, 1860, and was too young to remember anything of his soldier father. His boyhood was one of limited circumstances and opportunities, and he was early involved in the task of farm labor and assisting in the support of the family. Under the circumstances he could acquire little formal education. After reaching manhood he sold his interest in the homestead to his sister and then bought another place in the same neighborhood. In 1892 he was ordained a minister of the Mission- ary Baptist Church and for the past quarter of a century has held pastorates in different churches in Stokes and Rockingham counties. He now lives on the Judge Settle plantation in Mayo Township of Rockingham County. He married Amanda Rierson, who was born near Danbury in Stokes County, daughter of Hardin and Elizabeth (Red- dick) Rierson. Rev. Mr. Glidewell and wife reared six children : Powell W .; Edith, wife of F. P. Newan, of Hillsboro; Lona; John C .; Elizabeth, wife of W. H. Highfill, of Roanoke; and Minnie, wife of J. P. Doyle, of Las Animas, Colorado.
Powell W. Glidewell attended rural schools dur- ing his youth, also had the excellent instruction of W. A. Flynt in the Dalton Institute, and was also a pupil of the Sandy Ridge High School in Stokes County. He took both his literary and law courses in Wake Forest College and in 1903 was admitted to practice. He did his first work in the law at Wentworth, but in 1906 removed to Reids- ville, where he has had his full share of the legal business in that district.
Mr. Glidewell has always been a democrat. He served the city as prosecuting attorney and is now city solicitor, and among other elients is attorney for the First National Bank of Reidsville. He has been a member of the democratic county com- mittee, was presidential elector in 1908 and in 1912, and in the latter year had the honor of voting for President Wilson. In 1918 he was named as the party candidate for state senator from his dis- trict. He is a member in good standing of the Rockingham County and North Carolina Bar As- sociations and is an active member of the Baptist Church, which he has served as clerk.
August 1, 1904, Mr. Glidewell married Lillie Terry. She was born at Reidsville, a daughter of Jack and Mollie Terry. Her death occurred April 3, 1918. Mrs. Glidewell left three children: Ethel and Elizabeth, twins; and Powell W., Jr.
H. B. HIATT, M. D. A physician and surgeon of High Point since 1911, Doctor Hiatt is a man of unusual attainments and interests in his profes- sion. He had some of the finest training and ex- perience that could be given in the greatest medical centers of America and has achieved no little prominence in his native state because of his special abilities and skill. He is a member of the American Society of Tropical Medicine, the Ameri- can Medical Association, the American Congress of Internal Medicine, and also belongs to the Guil- ford County and North Carolina State Medical Societies.
Doctor Hiatt was born in Guilford County. He has a very interesting ancestry. The first American of the name was Christopher Hiatt, a native of Ireland. On coming to America in colonial times he lived in Maryland and from there moved to North Carolina and was a colonial settler in Guil- ford County, where he spent his last years. His son John Rufus Hiatt, great-grandfather of Doctor Hiatt was probably born in Maryland and after reaching manhood acquired large tracts of land and owned many slaves in Guilford County.
The grandfather of Doctor Hiatt was Philander Hiatt, a native of Guilford County and also a farmer and planter. During the war he was in the Confederate Army and was severely wounded in one battle and never entirely recovered from the effects of his experience. He married a Miss Knight, who survived him a few years.
John Rufus Hiatt, father of Doctor Hiatt, was born in Guilford County, and as a young man began dealing in horses and livestock. About 1895 he moved to Sampson County, and was engaged in farming there until his death at the age of fifty- four. His widow, a native of Guilford County, is now living in Sampson County.
Only child of his parents, Doctor Hiatt had un- usually liberal opportunities for the training and perfection of his talents. He attended public schools. Colonel Drewry's Military School at Fay- etteville, Horner's Military Institute at Oxford, and from there entered the University of North Carolina. His professional studies were trans- of Maryland at Baltimore, and after receiving his diploma he continued in post-graduate work in Johns Hopkins University and also served as 'in- terne in the University and Bayview Hospital at Baltimore.
Doctor Hiatt began his active practice at Clin- ton. North Carolina, where he remained two years, and was then located at Ashboro until he came to High Point in 1911.
In 1907 he married Miss Kathleen Sadtler, a native of Baltimore. They have two children, Leora and Houston B. Doctor Hiatt is affiliated with Hiram Lodge No. 98. Aneient Free and Ac- eepted Masons; Carolina Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite; Lodge No. 1155 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Loyal Order of Moose.
OLIVER HICKS-HARRISON ALLEN has been judge of the Superior Court in North Carolina for twen- ty years. He is now serving in his third conseeu- tive term. It is probably the longest continuous term ever held by a judge of that rank in the state.
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