USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 39
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The school buildings at present comprise three large dormitories, a large recitation hall, the presi- dent's residence and other minor buildings. Plans are contemplated for increased construction. The buildings, together with the beautiful and attrac- tive grounds, comprise a spacious and beautiful estate, representing a financial investment of over $90,000. The springs, formerly known as All ยท Healing Springs, and famous for their curative properties, in themselves constitute a splendid re- source to this valuable property. There are four principal springs, one of sulphur, one of manga- nese, one of iron, and the all-healing spring, while another spring is of finest pure freestone drinking water.
Mr. Lindsay for three years maintained a co- educational school, but at the close of the school year ending in the spring of 1917 the boys' de- partment was dropped, and it is now exclusively a school for young women.
Archie Thompson Lindsay was born at Fayette- ville, Tennessee, in 1877, a son of John and Mary Frances (Sloan) Lindsay, the father now deceased. His parents were of Scotch ancestry and the Sloan and Lindsay families were early settlers in South Carolina. Mr. Lindsay's paternal grand- father went from Abbeville, South Carolina, to Tennessee, in 1826. Though a native of Tennessee Mr. Lindsay was educated largely in South Caro- lina. He attended the public schools of Fayette- ville, and also Erskine College at Due West, South Carolina. He was graduated from Erskine with the degree A. B. in the class of 1898, and the fall and winter of 1898-99 he spent in Erskine Theo- logical Seminary. This is the ministerial school of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. The school year of 1899-1900 he spent as a stu- dent in the theological seminary at Princeton. He also did general work in the university proper. While there he registered for the course in juris- prudence and political economy under Woodrow Wilson, then professor of that department, and also had work in literature under the eminent Doc- tor Van Dyke.
As already noted, Mr. Lindsay came to Gas- ton County in 1901. Besides his work as an edu- cator he has been an active and beneficial factor in the public life of the county. He is now serv- ing as a member of the board of county commis- sioners. representing Crowder's Mountain Town- ship. He is a member and director of the Gaston County Chamber of Commerce. .
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He is a regular minister of the Associate Re- formed Presbyterian Church, and for thirteen years was pastor of Pisgah Church near the col- lege. While not now a regular pastor, he conducts preaching services at the college every Sabbath. Mr. Lindsay married Miss Octavia Louise White- law, of Raleigh, North Carolina. Her three chil- dreu are Archie Eugene, William Ashley and Janet Louise.
GRAHAM KENAN has wou an euviable place at the bar of Wilmington. For a number of years he has been associated in practice with Judge W. P. Stacy, who recently was elevated to the Superior Court Bench of the Eighth District.
Mr. Kenan was boru November 20, 1883, at the old family seat and plantation, Kenansville in Duplin County, North Carolina. His parents were James Graham and Annie (Hill) Kenan. His early home training was such as to eucourage him in every resolution to make the best of his op- portunities, and besides the advantages of the public schools and the Horner Military School he pursued the regular course in the University of North Carolina, where he graduated from the literary department in 1904 and from the law department iu 1905. Coming at once to Wil- mington, he engaged in the general practice of law with Mr., now Judge, W. P. Stacy. The firm were largely interested in corporation work and Mr. Kenan is attoruey for a number of business enterprises and for the past two years has served as county attorney for New Hanover County.
December 18, 1913, he married Miss Sarah Gra- ham Kenan, daughter of William Rand and Mary (Hargrave) Kenan, of Wilmington. Mr. Kenan is a member of the Cape Fear Country Club, the Cape Fear Club and the Carolina Yacht Club. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina.
WILLIAM PINCKNEY KNIGHT, M. D. Twenty years a practicing physician and surgeon, Doctor Knight has been identified with several North Carolina communities, and his present home and the center of his widely radiated practice is White Oak Mills in Greensboro.
Doctor Knight was born on a plantation in New Bethel Township of Rockingham County, North Carolina, and represents a family that has been in North Carolina for four generations. His great- grandfather was probably a native of Ireland, while his wife was of Scotch birth. The great- grandfather was a pioneer in Rockingham County. Most of the family records agree that grandfather Samuel Knight was born on the old plantation in Rockingham County, and he owned and occupied a good farm in New Bethel Township of that county and spent all his days as an agriculturist.
Pinckney Knight, father of Doctor Knight, was born on the same farm as his son March 22, 1818. Reared to farming pursuits, he proceeded to the ownership of the plantation, and erected a com- plete set of buildings near the house in which he was reared. At the outbreak of the war he gave up his business and family interests to enter the Confederate Army, and fought four years. At the close of the war he returned home and lived on the farm, engaged in its quiet routine of duties until his death at the age of seventy-four. He married Tabitha Williams, who was born in the same township as her husband. and died at the age of fortv-eight. She left eight children: Lucy. Lindsey, Sallie, John Wesley, Olivia, Ora, William
Pinckney and Minnie. All these are still living except Minnie. The father had three children by auother marriage, named France, Cicero and Rufus, all still living.
Doctor Knight received his first advantages in the rural schools of Rockingham County. He at- tended the Oak Ridge Seminary and finally entered the Baltimore Medical College, from which he was graduated M. D. in 1898. After a year of val- uable experience as an iuterue iu the Marylaud General Hospital he began practice at Saxapah in Alamance County, but seven months later re- moved to Haw River and was there 312 years. Since then he has been located at Greensboro at White Oak Mills. Doctor Knight enjoys fellow- ship with members of the profession in the Guil- ford County and North Carolina Medical Societies. He is a stockholder in the North State Milling Company. Fraternally he is affiliated with Lodge No. 552, Ancient Free aud Accepted Masons; Lodge No. 158, Knights of Pythias; Buffalo Chap- ter No. 202, Junior Order of United American Mechanics; and White Oak Camp No. 304, Wood- men of the World. He aud his wife are members of the Buffalo Presbyterian Church.
Doctor Knight married in 1906 Miss Nellie Maude Hendrix. Mrs. Knight was born in Guil- ford County, daughter of William Julius and Mollie (Cannon) Hendrix. Doctor and Mrs. Knight have five children : William, Mildred, Helen, Holt and Margaret.
HON. NATHANIEL LINDSAY EURE. A lawyer of long and successful practice at Greensboro, Mr. Eure has shown much ability and leadership in public affairs, and is a former member of the Legislature from Guilford County.
Mr. Eure was born on a plantation in Jackson Township, Nash County, North Carolina. His great-grandfather was one of the earliest lawyers of the North Carolina bar. His grandfather, Dempsey Eure, located in Wilson County and owned a plantation which was operated with the aid of slave labor. He spent his last years there. Alfred B. Eure, father of Nathaniel L., was born in 1808. Wilson County was probably his birth- place. He acquired a very good education, and in early life taught school. After his marriage he moved to Nash County, bought a plantation in Jackson Township, and prior to the war cultivated it with his slaves. He lived there until his death at the age of sixty-six. He was three times mar- ried. By these wives he had fourteen children. The third wife, Delilah Finch, whose father was Gaston Finch, was born in Nash County and died at the age of sixty-six. Her mother was Polly (Lindsay) Finch. Her grandfather, Clayborn Finch, began life poor but in time became an ex- tensive land owner and slave owner. Delilah Finch Eure was the mother of six children: Stephen E., Hilliard M., Frank F., James B., Delilah and Na- thaniel L. Three of the older sons of Alfred B. Eure, Gillian P., Elijah and Alfred, were soldiers in the Confederate army and the last two died while in service.
Nathaniel L. Eure attended Stanhope and Mount Pleasant academies, Oak Ridge Institute, and for three years was in the literary department of Uni- versity College. North Carolina. He also studied law at the college, and in 1899 was licensed to practice. After two years at Nashville he came to Greensboro, and has been steadily gaining favor and many of the important rewards of the . successful lawyer in this city. He served two
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terms as judge of the Municipal Court, and repre- sented Guilford County in the Legislature in 1915.
In 1914 Judge Eure married Annie Elizabeth Preyer. Mrs. Eure was born in Cleveland, Ohio, daughter of Robert O. and Ellen (Yost) Preyer. Her paternal grandfather was a native of Ger- many, was well educated and was a man of con- siderable wealth. Her maternal grandfather, Rev. William Yost, also of Germany ancestry, is a min- ister of the Evangelical Church and is still active at the age of eighty-seven. Mr. and Mrs. Eure are members of the West Market Street Methodist Episcopal Church. Judge Eure is a member of its official board. He is prominent in the Junior Or- der of United American Mechanics, being a mem- ber of Greensboro Council No. 13, has served as chancellor, as chancellor of the State Council and as representative to the National Council.
LAFAYETTE MONROE PHARR, a retired resident of Wilkesboro, is a veteran Confederate soldier and has had a long and active career in this part of North Carolina.
He was born on a farm a mile south of Rocky River Church in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, May 10, 1845. His grandfather, Robert Pharr, was a descendant of one of seven brothers, natives of Wales, who came to America in colonial times and whose descendants are now found in many states of the Union. Robert Pharr owned a plantation in Cabarrus County adjoining Rocky River and had slaves to cultivate his land. He married a Miss Kimons, and both lived to a good old age.
Harvey Hugh Pharr, father of Lafayette M., was born also in Cabarrus County, in 1818, and became a farmer on land given him by his father. He added to its domain and remained a planter in his native county until his death at the age of fifty-five. He married Johanna Davis, who was born in the same county and died there at the age of fifty-three. Their three children were Lafayette M., Mary and Zimri.
Lafayette M. Pharr grew up on the old farm and at the age of sixteen enlisted in Company H of the Seventh Regiment, North Carolina Troops. He saw some active service in the eastern part of the state, including the battle of Newbern. . He then accompanied the regiment to Virginia, where on account of his youth and size he was discharged from the army. In the spring of 1862 he enlisted again, in Captain Dixon's company of the Thirty- third North Carolina Troops, and saw another three months of active service in Virginia before he was given an honorable discharge. In 1863 he enlisted for the third time, now in Company C of the Tenth Battalion of Artillery, and was with that regiment in all of its movements until the close of the war. When hostilities ended he was stationed at High Point, North Carolina.
After this meritorious service as a soldier Mr. Pharr engaged in farming on his father's land and in 1867 bought a place nearby. After a year his father gave him a plantation on Caldwell's Creek, but in 1870 he and his father exchanged farms and he returned to the old homestead, operat- ing it until 1889. He then sold out and removed to Wilkesboro, where he engaged in the livery busi- ness for a number of years. He also bought a farm near the town, but kept his home in the city. Mr. Pharr has done much to develop his land and on his mountain farm has an orchard of upwards of 600 trees.
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In 1868 he married Miss Lucretia Kirkpatrick. She was born on a farm adjoining the Pharr homestead, daughter of L. Curtis Kirkpatrick. Her death occurred in 1872. For his second wife Mr. Pharr married Flora Belle Welborn, who was born in Wilkesboro February 22, 1856, member of an old and prominent family. Her father was Elisha M. Welborn and her grandfather, Joseph Welborn, both natives of Randolph County. Mr. and Mrs. Pharr reared five children, named Lois Mabel, Welborn E., Renn Bynum, Lillian F. and Maude. The sons Welborn E. and Renn Bynum are now publishers of the Hustler, a semi-weekly paper at North Wilkesboro. Mr. Pharr is an active member and vice commander of his camp of United Confederate Veterans.
FRANCIS CLYDE DUNN. Some men have it in them to develop their abilities in proportion to their opportunities and to grow in power with their years and increasing responsibilities. Such a man is Francis Clyde Dunn of Kinston. While a member of one of the good and substantial families of Lenoir County, his early beginnings in commercial life were humble enough, and it was rather by the diligent application he made to his routine duties than to any influential con- nections that he rose to success and prominence.
He was born at Kinston May 29, 1872. His parents were William Walter and Susan (Round- tree) Dunn and were farming people of Lenoir County. Mr. Dunn attended the public schools of Kinston and also the University of North Caro- lina, and after leaving college spent a year on a farm. Going to New York City, he svught oppor- tunity in the commercial life of the metropolis and was employed a year as a bookkeeper. On re- turning to Kinston he took a position with the Orion Knitting Mills, and was soon promoted to shipping clerk and then to bookkeeper.
In 1898 Mr. Dunn was one of the organizers of the Kinston Cotton Mills and its first secretary. In 1901 he organized the Lenoir Oil and Ice Com- pany, and has since been secretary, treasurer and general manager and is now president of the com- pany. His interests have grown rapidly in the past fifteen years. In 1902 he became one of the or- ganizers of the Chesterfield Manufacturing Com- pany at Petersburg, Virginia, served six years as secretary and is still on its board of directors. He is a director of the Orion Knitting Mills, and was one of the two most active in the organization of the Caswell Cotton Mills of Kinston. This company was organized in 1907, and the plant is now one of Kinston's best known industries. Mr. Dunn has been treasurer and a director of the mills since they were established. He is also a director of the Kinston Insurance and Realty Company, director of the Caswell Banking and Trust Company, president of the Kinston Fair Association, and a director of the Chamber of Commerce. Fraternally he has been very active in both Masonry and Odd Fellowship. He has membership in the Lodge, Chapter, Council and Commandery, and also the Mystic Shrine. He is a charter member of both the local lodge and encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a past noble grand, and is past grand representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge. He and his family are members of the Christian Church.
Mr. Dunn was married July 22. 1903, to Miss Ida Ellison of Washington, North Carolina. They
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have four children: Francis Ellison, Susan Eliza- beth, Isabelle Loeb and William Clyde.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AYCOCK, of Fremont, where he has recently taken up the practice of law and has distinguished himself thus early in his professional career, is a son of the late Benjamin Franklin Aycock, Sr., who was a prominent figure in North Carolina, serving ten years as state senator and as a member of the Corporation Com- mission from 1908 until his death on April 26, 1910. Senator Aycock was also a farmer. He married Sallie Farmer, and to their union Benja- min Franklin Aycock, Jr., was born June 17, 1893.
The latter was well educated in the grammar and high schools and entering the University of North Carolina he finished the academic course and graduated in 1914 and continued his studies in the law department. He was admitted to prac- tice in August, 1916, and has since been located at Fremont. At Fremont he was a member of the school board, is a member in good standing of the Wayne County and North Carolina Bar associations, and elected mayor of Fremont in May, 1917. He enlisted in the army in September, 1917, and at present is serving at Camp Greene, North Carolina, in the Quartermaster Corps.
M. LUTHER MATTHEWS, M. D. While he re- sponded to the demands made upon him as a gen- eral practitioner in medicine and surgery for a number of years, Doctor Matthews since locating at Sanford in Lee County has given his exclusive attention to his specialty as a physician and sur- geon of the eye, ear, nose and throat. Doctor Matthews is one of the leading specialists of this kind in the state, and so ranks not only in his home community but among the profession gen- erally.
Doctor Matthews was born at East Bend in Yadkin County, North Carolina, in 1874. son of Dr. Joseph M. and Mildred (Davis) Matthews. The Matthews family has lived in Yadkin County for more than 100 years, and is of English origin. Dr. Joseph Matthews, who is now retired from active practice and lives at Cameron in Moore County, was born in Yadkin County in 1849. He is a graduate of the medical department of the University of Tennessee at Nashville, and after that practiced his profession for about twenty years at East Bend and for a period of ten years at Mount Pleasant in Cabarrus County. From Cabarrus County he came to Cameron. He was one of the early patrons and later the principal in charge of the old Union High School at East Bend. This was an historic educational institution of Western North Carolina. and a school that in its early years attracted students from all over the South. Dr. M. Luther Matthews himself was a student and a teacher in this school, so that the institution is one of peculiar interest and attach- ment to the Matthews family.
Dr. Luther Matthews was reared at East Bend and from Union High School entered Trinity Col- lege, where he remained a student one year. Fol- lowing that he taught three years in Union High School and in the Wilkesboro Seminary, and event- ually entered the Medical College of Virginia at Richmond, where he spent two years, and finished his medical studies in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was graduated with the class of 1903.
The next four years Doctor Matthews had a busy practice at his old home town of East Bend. In
1907 he moved to Cameron in Moore County, and was soon established in a growing and profitable practice, which he continued until January 17, 1918. At that date he came to Sanford in Lee County and has since offered his services only in his special line as an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist. For this branch of his protession he had gradually been preparing himself by indi- vidual experience and also by post-graduate work at Tulane University in New Orleans and other medical centers. He is a member of the Lee and Moore Counties Medical Societies, the Medical So- ciety of North Carolina and the Americal Medical Association.
Did he not enjoy such high rank in his profes- sion Doctor Matthews would be regarded as a highly useful citizen because of his interests as a farmer. He grew up on a farm, and he has trans- lated the experience of his boyhood into a perma- nent and abiding interest in all things .agricul- tural. The success he has enjoyed as a physician has enabled him to take numerous opportunities to acquire good farms and farming lands. For some years past he has raised besides the staple crops of cotton from 300 to 500 bushels of corn yearly. In partnership with Mr. Poindexter he owns a farm of 523 acres in Lee County not far from Cam- eron, and they have in Moore County a farm of 128 acres. Individually Doctor Matthews has a farm of 24534 acres in Moore County and another tract of seventy-one acres and one of twenty-five acres close to Cameron. In encouraging and super- vising the productive enterprise on this land he is doing his part as a patriotic citizen.
His success in his profession and the substantial resources he has accumulated in land and various business interests have been achieved through his own efforts, hard work and intelligence. Doctor Matthews began life with no money whatever, and paid all his expenses while in college. It was for this reason that he was not prepared for practice until nearly thirty years old. Doctor Matthews now owns valuable business and residence prop- erty in Cameron and at Sanford he has a home on what is called the best resident site in the city. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a member of the Methodist Episco- pal. Church. South.
Doctor Matthews married Miss Ruth Huff, daughter of Mr. J. G. Huff of East Bend in Yad- kin County. They are the parents of four chil- dren : Ernestine, Olivia, Ellen and John Martin.
THOMAS FLETCHER BULLA, superintendent of schools for Randolph County, has won a deservedly high place in educational affairs, and his work in directing and supervising the schools of Randolph County has received much commendation both at home and in other quarters of the state.
His own personal career is a reflection of a very sturdy and splendid ancestry, his lineage running back into the colonial days of North Carolina. He is directly descended from Thomas Bulla, who was born in England and came to America, where he spent the rest of his years in Pennsylvania. He married a Quakeress in Pennsylvania, and a num- ber of generations of the family were identified with the Friends Church, and that religious con- nection no doubt influenced some of their migra- tions. Thomas Bulla, Jr., a son of the first Amer- ican of the name, was a native of Pennsylvania, and was a colonial settler in North Carolina. His location was in what afterwards became known as Browns Cross Roads, close to where Randolph
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M. Marcheurs M. A.
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County's first courthouse was located. In that locality he was a man of industry and quiet lead- ership. He married Hester Widows, who survived him and late in life removed with a son to In- diana, where she spent her last years in Wayne County and died when upwards of ninety years of age. Her remains are buried in the family cemetery on the bank of the Elkhorn River.
Her son, Daniel Bulla, great-grandfather of Professor Bulla, was born in Pennsylvania in 1782. He succeeded to the ownership of the old Bulla homestead in Randolph County, but about 1834 sold that and like many other North Carolina set- tlers of the time, especially Quakers, started for Indiana. In the absence of railroads he and his family made the journey with teams and wagons, carrying their household goods and other pos- sessions with them. After about a year in the Hoosier state he returned and bought back the homestead farm, where he was content to live the rest of his days. He was a man of good educa- tion for his time. This education has an interest- ing memorial in a diary which he kept as a record of his daily experiences during his trip to and from Indiana. In that book he chronicled the princi- pal events of the trip, telling of cost of provisions, weather conditions, state of roads, distance trav- eled each day, and many other items, all of which has not a little interest for his descendants. This cherished log of the family trip to Indiana is care- fully preserved by Professor Bulla. Daniel Bulla married Sally Cunningham. Both are at rest in the family cemetery in Back Creek Township of Randolph County. Their children were named Archibald, Alexander, Calvin, Chesterfield, Daniel, Alfred, Xantippe and Sarah. Archibald and Alex- ander both became physicians, the former holding various places of trust and responsibility in pub- lic life, while the latter practiced at Jackson Hill in Davidson County.
Calvin Bulla, who represents the next generation of the family, was born in Back Creek Township of Randolph County in 1816. He acquired a farm in that township, and made it his home the rest of his days. He died at the age of fifty-five. He married Linda Wade, who was born in Back Creek Township, daughter of James and Mary (Milli- kan) Wade. She survived her husband many years, passing away at the age of eighty-four. Both were members of the Methodist Protestant Church. Their seven children were named Daniel Webster, Haywood, Benjamin Franklin, John M., Mary Jane, Parthenia and Louetta.
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