USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 4
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Active in the movement which resulted in the building of the Northwestern North Carolina Rail- way, he was elected a director of that company in 1870. At the time of his death he was vice president and director in the Winston-Salem Build- ing & Loan Association, having been connected with it since its organization. In various ways he was identified with business interests and his judgment was highly prized by his associates. He was the first president of the Salem Water Supply Company, and was officially connected therewith when its plant was transferred to the Town of Salem. He served the Town of Salem as commis- sioner and later as mayor from 1878 to 1884. He served several terms as a member of the school board of the Salem Boys' School, and was a trus- tee of Salem congregation from 1878 to 1890, and for several years a member of the financial board of the province. He was, as this record shows, a gifted man, endowed with rare traits of mind and heart, lived an exemplary life in which he wronged no one and helped hundreds, and he numbered his personal friends by the score.
On February 16, 1865, Dr. Shaffner married Caroline Louisa Fries. She was born in Salem, daughter of Francis and Lisetta (Vogler) Fries. Her mother was a daughter of John and Christina (Spach) Vogler. For many years John Vogler operated the only jewelry store in Salem. Dr. Shaffner was survived by his widow and four of their five children, and at the time of his death he also had seven living grandchildren, one grandson having died before him. The four children who grew up were Henry Fries, William Francis, C. Lisetta and J. Francis, Jr.
Mr. Henry Fries Shaffner was born in Salem, September 19, 1867, and as a boy attended Mrs. Welfare's select school and the Salem Boys' School. In 1884 he entered the sophomore class of the University of North Carolina, and was grad- uated in 1887. From university, Mr. Shaffner returned home, had a brief experience as clerk in his father's drug store, and then took up the operation of the pottery originally established by his grandfather.
In 1893 Mr. Shaffner became secretary and treas-
urer of the Wachovia Loan & Trust Company. When this company was consolidated with the Wachovia National Bank in 1911, becoming the Wachovia Bank & Trust Company, he was chosen vice president of the new institution and has filled that office to the present time. While he gives all his time to the affairs of the bank, he has inter- ests in various manufacturing enterprises. For several years he was secretary and treasurer of the Salem Water Supply Company, and served several terms as a member of the Board of Commissioners of the Town of Salem, and was a member of the first board of aldermen of the consolidated City of Winston-Salem. He and his wife are active members of the Home Moravian Church, and he is a member and president of the central board of trustees of the Salem congregation.
Mr. Shaffner was married in 1901 to Agnes Ger- trude Siewers. She was born in Salem, daugh- ter of Dr. Nathaniel and Eleanor Elizabeth (De Schweinitz) Siewers. Mr. and Mrs. Shaffner have four living children : Eleanor Caroline, Anna Paul- ina, Emil Nathaniel and Louis De Schweinitz. A fifth child, Henry Siewers, died in infancy.
JAMES CLINTON SMOOT, one of the leading busi- ness men of North Wilkesboro, has rendered his service aud made his success in life largely by fol- lowing out the well established lines and channels through which his family for several generations back have expressed their genius for business and industry. The Smoots have been tanners for prob- ably a century or more, but the early generations had their business in Virginia. It was due to the enterprise of James Clinton Smoot and his two cousins, Henry and William B. Smoot, that Wilkes County, North Carolina, has been supplied with an important industry and one which has enabled that section to utilize many formerly waste products and convert them into profitable commodities. Thus these men have not only developed a large and profitable business but have brought forward the industrial development of Western North Caro- lina in one important and essential line.
Mr. Smoot is a Virginian by birth, having been born at Alexandria on the Potomac River. His first American ancestor was a Hollander named William Smoote. This Hollander was owner of vessels en- gaged in the merchant marine service. From Hol- land he went to England and married Elizabeth Wood. In early colonial times they came to Amer- ica and were among the pioneers in Maryland. Their descendants are still found in various states.
The grandfather of James Clinton Smoot was Charles C. Smoot, Sr., who was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland. He moved to Alexandria, Vir- ginia, and there in the early part of the last cen- tury established the tannery in 1820 which he operated the rest of his active career. He died in 1867. The name of his wife was Sarah Bryan, a lifelong resident of Virginia.
Charles C. Smoot, Jr., who was born at Alex- andria, Virginia, in 1826, became associated with his brother, John B., in the ownership of the tan- nery established by their fathers at Alexandria and continued the industry there for many years. The production of leather was an invaluable re- source in time of war as in peace, and the opera- tion of the tannery was a bigger service to the Confederate government than anything Charles C. Smoot could have done as a soldier in the field. For that reason he was exempt from military duty. His death occurred in 1884. He married
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Susan A. Smoot, who was born May 26, 1827, danghter of Hezekiah and granddaughter of Rev. Charles Smoot. She is still living, active and vig- orons, though on May 26, 1917, she celebrated her ninetieth birthday. Her family consists of one son and four danghters: James Clinton, Cora, Florence, Lonla and Sne Ella.
James Clinton Smoot attended school in Alex- andria, Virginia, and the Bethlehem Military Acad- emy near Warrington, Virginia. He also had a business eourse in a college at Washington, Dis- triet of Columbia. At an early age he became associated with his father in the tanning business, and was aetive head of the tannery at Alexandria until 1897.
In the previous year, 1896, with his cousins, William B. and Henry Smoot, he established a tan- nery at North Wilkesboro. At first the capacity of the plant was 100 hides per day. It now handles 250 per day. The importance of this industry lies in the fact that it furnishes a ready market for bark, which is essential in the tanning in- dustry. Up to that time tanbark had been a wasted prodnet in Wilkes Connty. The gathering of this bark now affords an oeeupation at good wages to many men, and the bark itself brings in large revennes.
Mr. Smoot married in 1861 Frank Elizabeth Wood. Their five children have been: Ida M., who died at an early age; Charles C., Sibyl H., Franees E., and James C., Jr. Charles C. married Rebecca Lloyd Uhler, and their fonr children are named Rebeeea Lloyd, Frank C., Charles C. and Catherine. The daughter, Sibyl H., is the wife of Edward F. Finley, and they have two children named Julia Gwynn and Edward Smoot.
KENNETH OGDEN BURGWIN, one of the able young lawyers of the Wilmington bar, was gradu- ated in the law department of the University of North Carolina in 1912, and in the same year located at Wilmington, where he has since ap- plicd himself to the task of building up a general practice, and has already seenrely established him- self in the confidenee of an important elientage. On the 1st of October, 1916, the partnership of McClaunny & Bnrgwin, attorneys at law, was formed.
He was born in Edgecombe, North Carolina, March 23, 1890, a son of Hill and Susan (Nash) Burgwin. His father was also an attorney. Most of his early education he acquired in an Episcopal church school at Wayne, Pennsylvania, but returned to North Carolina and entered the State University for his academie training. He was graduated in the literary conrse in 1911, and the following year completed his law studies. He is a member of the North Carolina Bar Associa- tion, the Cape Fear Club, the North Carolina Yacht Club, the Cape Fear Country Club, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics and the Knights of Pythias.
BARTHOLOMEW FIGURES MOORE, one of the most gifted of North Carolina's lawyers during the middle period of the last century, was born in Halifax County January 20, 1801, and died at Raleigh November 27, 1878. His father, James Moore, was a noted soldier of the Revolution. He finished his edueation in 1820 in the State Univer- sity and studied law under Thomas N. Mann of Nash County. He began practice in that eounty in 1823 and about ten years later moved to a small farm in Halifax County. He continued the dili-
gent pursuit of his profession and served in the State Legislature in 1836, 1840, 1842 and 1844. In 1848 Governor Graham appointed him attorney general of the state, an office he held by reelection until May, 1851. He resigned to become a mem- ber of the commission to revise the statute laws of the state. In 1848 he removed to Raleigh.
He early seenred his high reputation as an able and profonnd lawyer by the elaborate brief he prepared in the celebrated case of State vs. Will, a ease which awakened profound interest through- out the country and settled the true relations be- tween master and slave in North Carolina. He was a whig in polities, and a bold and avowed Union man. After the war he was sought out and consulted by the President of the United States regarding reconstruction, and was a leading mem- ber of the State Convention to form a new eon- stitution. But he vigorously opposed the policy of the Government to force negro suffrage upon the South, and was equally hostile to the military rule which was one of the most odions features of the reconstruction.
As a lawyer and eitizen his achievements and infinenee are excellently summarized in an editorial from the Raleigh Observer: "For years Mr. Moore has been revered as the father of the Bar in North Carolina, and dying, leaves behind him a reputation that will for all time to come be a ยท prieeless legaey, not only to the profession of which he was so long the head and front, but to the people of the entire state as well. There was never a man perhaps in North Carolina sinee the days of the great Willie Jones of Revolutionary fame, whose mere opinions carried more weight with them than did those of Mr. Moore, and yet in nearly fonrseore years he was barely six years in political official position. It needed not official position, however, to give him weight or influence or standing with the people of North Carolina. His ability, his learning, his great legal aeumen, his personal purity and his personal integrity, his sturdy candor, his unparalleled conrage of opinion and unffinehing devotion to the prineiples of civil liberty, gave him a stronger hold upon the respect and a warmer place in the affections of our people than any mere official position or political prom- inence eould do. A devoted son of North Carolina, a never failing friend and liberal benefactor to her University, an uneompromising foe of govern- mental oppression in every shape, a profonnd jurist and a fearless patriot, the state may well place him high on the roll of her most illustrious dead. "
DAVID THOMAS TAYLOE, M. D. Thirty-three years of devotion to his profession as a trained and eapable physician and surgeon is the record of Dr. David T. Tayloe of Washington. Thirty- three years of his life given to the calling which he chose as his work when he entered npon his eareer in young manhood; three decades spent in the alleviation of the ills of mankind, is the work in which his talents and fitness apparently pre- destined him for success. His father and some of his uneles have made names in the same profes- sion, and now three sons of Dr. Taylor's are pre- paring to follow in his footsteps.
Dr. Tayloe was born in Granville County, North Carolina, February 22, 1864, a son of Dr. David Thomas and Mary Elizabeth (Grist) Tayloe. He was educated in the public schools in the Washing- ton Academy at Washington, also in private schools, and in 1882 entered the Belleview Hos-
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
pital Medical College of New York City, where he finished his work and obtained his degree in 1885. In all the years since then he has conducted a general practice at Washington, more and more specializing in surgery. Only a few years have been allowed to pass in which he has uot inter- rupted his practice for a few weeks or a few months in order to get in touch with the leaders of the profession, and he has attended clinics and post-graduate schools all over the country. For some time he did special laboratory and research work in the Carnegie Laboratory of New York City. He has done post-graduate work in Boston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Baltimore, has attended a number of clinics of the famous Mayo Brothers at Rochester, Minnesota, and has studied the metli- ods of such eminent surgeons as Dr. Crile of Cleve- land and the late Dr. Murphy of Chicago.
Dr. Tayloe was one of the founders of the S. R. Fowle Memorial Hospital at Washington and served as its superintendent several years. Since then he has built and equipped the Washington Hospital, a private institution thoroughly modern in every respect, which he manages with the assist- ance of his brother, Dr. Joshua Tayloe. Dr. Tayloe is a member of the Beaufort County, North Caro- lina Tri-State, Seaboard and First District Med- ical Societies, and has served as president of all these organizations. For four years he was a member of the North Carolina Surgical Club. Dr. Tayloe is a member of the Episcopal Church, and for four years was town commissioner of Wash- ington.
December 22, 1894, he married Miss Atalia Cot- ton, daughter of General John Cotton, one of the distinguished citizens of Tarboro, North Carolina. Dr. and Mrs. Tayloe have five children: David Thomas, Jr., now a student of medicine in the University of Pennsylvania; Elizabeth, who at- tended Sweet Briar College, in Virginia; John Cotton, 'now serving in France; Joshua, who is studying medicine, and Athalia, who is now attend- ing St. Mary's College at Raleigh.
JEFF DEEMS JOHNSON. With all its wonderful and varied resources the security and prosperity of North Carolina rests permanently upon its agricultural products and their producers. Few men have taken a more enterprising lead in de- veloping farm lands and all the kindred business activities connected therewith than Jeff Deems Johnson of Garland in Sampson County. Mr. Johnson is credited with practically having built up two towns in his part of the state, has built railroads, has manufactured lumber on a large scale, and has always been an extensive merchant, but from first to last has pinned his faith in land and what it will produce.
Mr. Johnson was born at the old Johnson home at Ingold in Sampson County in 1861, a son of Amos Neal and Ellen (Herring) Johnson. This is one of the old and prominent families of North Carolina and the possessors of the name have been noted for their strong, sturdy, honest, Godfearing characteristics.
The first North Carolina settlement of the John- son family was in Pitt County, From the old home in that county three of the brothers joined the Revolutionary forces and gave good accounts of themselves in the battle for freedom. One of these Revolutionary soldiers was Solomon John- son, great-grandfather of Jeff D. Johnson. After the war Solomon moved to what is now Sampson County, settling at Clear Run on the Black River,
eight miles below the present Town of Garland. One of his eight sons was Samuel Johnson, who when a young man moved to the present site of the Village of Ingold, four miles east of the Town of Garland. He bought land and estab- lished a home there and in that community the Johnsons have lived continuously for a century or more. Samuel Johnson was a very able man, above the average of his day and time, highly successful in business and acquired large tracts of the rich land in and around Ingold. In ante- bellum days he owned about 100 slaves.
Amos Neal Johnson was born on the old In- gold plantation in 1820. The house in which he was born is still standing and is owned and pre- served by the family for the historic sentiment that surrounds the place. He was the youngest son and inherited the old home. His was a long and useful career in that community, and he died there in 1914 at the advanced age of ninety- four. His wife was a daughter of John Herring, representing another prominent Sampsou County family.
Jeffs Deems Johnson grew up on the old home- stead at Ingold. He was liberally educated, not only in the local schools but continuing in the Bingham Military School at Mebane under Col. Robert Bingham. At Bigham School he special- ized in surveying and civil engineering. That was his first serious occupation after leaving school and at different times he has performed a great deal of work as surveyor and engineer, chiefly in his own interests. Mr. Johnson has been an extensive owner of timber lands, and in developing these he made use of his professional skill in the construction of several lumber rail- roads. For several years his name and capital have been identified with some of the very ex- tensive lumber mill operations of Eastern North Carolina. In order to furnish transportation of logs for his mills he built two tram railroads. Lumber manufacturing is still an important item in his business affairs, though it is not conducted on so extensive a scale as formerly.
For a number of years after attaining his ma- jority Mr. Johnson's interests were centered at Ingold, where he established and carried on a successful mercantile business besides farming and lumbering. He practically built up the Village of Ingold. In former years he was both a manu- facturer of turpentine and other naval stores.
About 1890 the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railway was built through Sampson County, run- ning four miles west of Ingold. About that time Mr. Johnson laid out the Town of Garland on his lands adjoining the railroad, and four miles from his original home at Ingold. He then moved his home to Garland, and has been with that com- munity throughout its period of development. At Garland he established the J. D. Johnson mercan- tile business, which has continued to flourish and fill an important part in the life of the com- munity.
The Johnson farming lands extend practically all the way westward from Garland to Ingold, comprising about 3,000 acres. The ownership of such extensive tracts constitute him one of the large planters of North Carolina. Cotton and corn have been his staple crops. His lands are situated in the midst of a region that has been noted for its productiveness in late years and lands have greatly increased in value. Mr. John- son has more than a local reputation as a stock- man. His herd consist of Red Polled cattle,
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
headed by two registered bulls, and at this writ- ing he has about seventy of these fine cattle. His hogs consists of Essex sows crossed with Poland China boars, producing a breed which are the last word in' pork production. . In 1917 Mr. Johnson slaughtered over 10,000 pounds of meat.
From every point of view such a man is highly valuable and useful to any community and state. To this fact all who know him testify. Mr. John- son is enterprising, progressive and public spir- ited, and his large resources enable him to do much for the community. He was mayor and magistrate of Garland for a long period of years. For many years he has also served as a steward of the Methodist Church at Ingold.
Mr. Johnson married Miss Mary Lillie Wright, of Ingold, daughter of the late Capt. J. W. Wright, who commanded a company of Confederate troops in the war between the states. The ancestral rec- ord of the prominent Wright family is found on other pages. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have five children : James Wright, Mary Lillie, Jeff D., Mildred and Amos Neal Johnson,
HON. SAMUEL PARSONS MCCONNELL. A resident of Carthage, Moore County, since 1911, Hon. Samuel Parsons McConnell is one of the most dis- tinguished citizens of this part of North Caro- lina. For many years a prominent lawyer of Chicago, where he sat also on the circuit bench, and later general counsel and president of the George A. Fuller Construction Company, New York, his career prior to coming to Carthage was a decidedly active and interesting one, and since his locating here has been characterized by activi- ties in various directions which have added to the development of this beautiful section of the Sand- hill country, particularly in the management and operation of the Randolph & Cumberland Rail- road, with its large auxiliary land and industrial interests.
Samuel Parsons McConnell was born near Spring- field, Sangamon County, Illinois, in 1850, a son of Gen. John and Elizabeth Carrington (Parsons) McConnell. His grandfather, James McConnell, was a native of Ballilesson, County Down, Ulster, Ireland, and came to America in the beginning of the nineteenth century, locating in New Jersey. There he established a manufactory for making gunpowder and supplied the American patriots with this article during the war with Great Britain, 1812-14. The war at an end, he found the busi- ness unprofitable and accordingly disposed of his interests and moved to Madison County, New York, where he began agricultural operations. He remained in New York until 1830, in which year he removed to Illinois, and there purchased a farm three miles south of Springfield in Sanga- mon County. He was a pioneer in the cultivation of the prairies of Illinois and a demonstrator of the unexcelled richness and fertility of the upland prairies of the state. A man of more than ordi- nary prominence and influence in his day, he was a great friend of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, perhaps more particularly the latter, who never came to Springfield without visiting Mr. McConnell's home. James McConnell died in 1866, leaving for that time what was considered to be a large fortune. Edward McConnell, a direct an- cestor of Judge McConnell, was in command of the rebelling Trish at the time of "Bloody Mary," when as queen of England, she was carrying on her persecutions, and found his death in a hand-
to-hand encounter with Sir William Sidney. Still another ancestor was an officer in the rebellion in which Lord Edward Fitzgerald and the noble Rob- ert Emmet took part. On his mother's side, also, Judge McConnell is of well-tried stock. H'is mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Carring- ton Parsons, was a member of an old English family which settled in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1680, and her grandfather commanded a battery of artillery in the Revolutionary war.
Gen. John McConnell, father of Judge McConnell, was born in Madison County, New York, and in 1840 removed to Illinois with his parents, being at that time sixteen years of age. He was reared as a farmer and was given the best of instruc- tion in this direction by his father, who had been one of the founders of the Illinois State Agricul- tural Society, being president of the convention of 1852 which resulted in its organization. John McConnell was engaged with his father and brothers in the farming and stock raising business until 1861, when he raised a company for the Third Illinois Cavalry, of which he was elected captain, and went into service in Southwest Mis- souri and Northwest Arkansas. He took part in some of the most important battles fought in that section and rose to the rank of major, and at the battle of Pea Ridge was highly commended for bravery by his commander, Gen. Granville M. Dodge. Some three months after leaving the Third Cavalry he was commissioned by Governor Yates as colonel of the Fifth Illinois Cavalry, and April 9, 1865, was commissioned brigadier-general by Abraham Lincoln. The latter's death, however, caused General McConnell's commission to be signed by President Johnson. During the latter part of his service he was on duty in Texas, being finally mustered out in October, 1865. After the death of his father, and until 1879, he continued in the business of sheep raising and farming, being for a time the owner of extensive farms in Sanga- mon County, but in the year mentioned he turned his attention to the insurance business at Spring- field, where he died March 14, 1898. General Mc- Connell was a great friend and admirer of Presi- dent Lincoln. Judge McConnell recalls that at a great political celebration at Springfield in honor of President Lincoln's first election, his father had a float on which was a log cabin and himself in the act of splitting a rail just as the float passed Mr. Lincoln's reviewing stand. After the war General McConnell became a liberal republican and supported Horace Greeley in 1872. Later he became a democrat.
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