USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 46
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104
In 1896 Mr. Matthews married Miss Bettie S. Powell, a daughter of ex-Sheriff C. S. Powell of Johnston County. Five children blessed this union, namely : William Elmer Matthews, Katy Lou Matthews. Edith Matthews, Charles Matthews and Emmons Matthews.
In his family Mr. Matthews was a kind and benevolent husband and father, always interested in the development of his children, physically, morally and intellectually. Among his friends and companions he was always a courteous gentle- man, slow to anger and always a believer in the good intentions of others. He was easily imposed upon, for he seldom suspected treachery or du- plicity in others. He knew no evil except as he saw it in others, and then always with sorrow and a kindly sympathy. He was as gentle as a woman and as innocent as a child. His daily life was
an inspiration to his family and friends, and his memory will hover as a benediction over the community in which he lived. In a world of greed, he sought no gain; in the world of morals and intellectual development, he coveted the high- est honor-that of service to his fellow men.
.Mr. Matthews was a member of the Universalist Church; he was a member of Hiram Lodge No. 98, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Clinton, North Carolina, and was also an Odd Fellow and a Pythian. He was fond of the fraternal life which he found in the lodge room, and was always a faithful member of the several orders to which he belonged.
No man is perfect, but in so far as it was pos- sible for him to be so Mr. Matthews led an ex- emplary life. His character was clean. He was a tall man, sun-crowned, who lived above the fog, in public duty and in private thinking.
ROBERT CLARENCE MATHESON, M. D. For over a quarter of a century Doctor Matheson has prac- ticed medicine in the community of Madison, Rock- ingham County. His name is associated with all that is best and most skillful in medicine and surgery, and to that profession he has given the very best of his talents and his capabilities.
Doctor Matheson was born at Taylorsville, in Alexander County, North Carolina. He represents one of the old families of that section. His great- grandfather, Alexander Matheson, was born in Scotland and with several brothers came to Amer- ica in colonial times. Alexander Matheson made his pioneer home in what is now Alexander County, North Carolina, and was one of the founders of Taylorsville. His son, William Matheson, grand- father of Doctor Matheson, was born in that county and became an extensive farmer and planter. Part of his land was in the Town of Tay- lorsville and he owned some extensive tracts nearby. He married Jennie Bogie, of a well-known pioneer family of Iredell County.
Robert P. Matheson, father of Doctor Matheson, was born at Taylorsville in 1834 and the activities that engaged him upon reaching manhood were merchandising. He built up a large business at Taylorsville and from his profits invested heavily in real estate. He owned much town property and also several farms in Alexander and adjoining counties. He was also a man of public leadership and during the war between the states served as clerk of the Superior Court of Alexander County and also represented Alexander County in the State Legislature during the stormy period of recon- struction. He was a democrat and a stanch friend and admirer of Governor Vance. He married Mar- tha C. C. Carson, a native of Taylorsville, where she is still living. Her parents were Alfred and Mrs. (Correll) Carson, and her grandfather, Rob- ert Carson, was a planter and slave owner and lived to be ninety-four years of age, his life being terminated by an accident. Robert P. Matheson and wife had seven children: Walter C., Mary Ida, William Herbert, Emma, Robert Clarence, Charles B. and Edith, who passed away at the age of seven. The son Charles has represented Alexander County in both branches of the Legisla- ture.
Robert C. Matheson was reared and educated at Taylorsville, also attended the Bingham School at Mebane. and later took up the study of medicine under Dr. A. G. Jones of Walnut Cove. Ile com- pleted his education in the College of Physicians
170
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
and Surgeons at Baltimore, where he was gradu- ated in 1891. He at once returned to Rockingham County and began practice at Madison, and the years have brought his services a great increase of appreciation and constant demand upon his time. He is a member in good standing of the Rockingham County and State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association. He is also affiliated with Dan River Lodge, No. 249, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons; with Mayodan Coun. cil of the Junior Order of United American Me- chanics. Doctor and Mrs. Matheson are members of the Presbyterian Church. In February, 1883, he married Miss Essabella Busick, who was born at Wentworth, daughter of D. Wesley and Fanny (Lindsay) Busick.
LAWRENCE BRETT is a prominent civil engineer, has been a resident of Wilson, North Carolina, since May, 1909, and his work and experience have brought him more and more into touch with many of the larger engineering problems connected es- pecially with great drainage propositions.
Mr. Brett is president of the Brett Engineering and Contracting Company of Wilson, and the scope of this company's enterprise extends all over the southeastern states, though to a large degree in Eastern North Carolina. The company has the organization, the experience and the resources that enable it to handle nearly every class of engineer- ing work, including municipal, drainage, highway, and it also has handled a number of contracts for road building, dredging and development work in general.
Mr. Brett is a native of Kansas and was born at Larned November 12. 1884, when that town was out on the western frontier amidst treeless and almost rainless prairies. His parents were Charles H. and Mary (Taylor) Brett, his father a real estate man. Mr. Brett was educated in the public schools and in the University of Kansas, and grad- uated as a civil and mining engineer in 1906. For several years he was in the employ of the United States Department of Agriculture as a drainage engineer. During that time he had charge of the surveys and assisted in designing improvements and promoting the success of the project for flood pre- vention along the Neosho River in Southeastern Kansas, involving seven counties. Mr. Brett next went into the Florida Everglades, and was the first man to carry a surveying expedition across that unique arca. His preliminary surveys inaugu- rated a drainage work which is still in progress and which eventually will reclaim many millions of acres of fertile land. He also had charge of field work and assisted in designing a project for re- claiming the salt marshes adjacent to Newark, New Jersey. Mr. Brett was in charge of surveys and designing the improvement for the reclamation of bottom lands along the Logan River in North- east Nebraska, and later had charge of field parties in a drainage proiect involving many millions of acres in the Mississippi Delta, known as the St. Francis Basin.
Since coming to Wilson Mr. Brett has given his personal attention to all the larger problems in- volved in the extensive drainage projects handled by his company. These projects have involved many thousands of acres in differnt sections of North Carolina, including the Moyock Drainage . District in Curritnek County, the Mosely Creek Drainage District in Craven and Lenoir counties, the Mettamuskeet Drainage District of a 100 000 acres in Hyde County, North Carolina, a project
which has attracted the attention of engineering circles because of its special problem, while other large projects have been carried on in drainage districts in Edgecombe County, Washington County, Beaufort County, Wayne County, Camden County, Wilson County, Perquimans County, Pitt County and Columbus County.
For one year Mr. Brett served as president of the North Carolina Drainage Association, was president of the Wilson Chamber of Commerce in 1913-14, is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, belongs to the Masonic Order and to the Country Club and Commonwealth Club of Wilson. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
On November 12, 1912, he married Miss Mildred Roney, of Wilson, daughter of Capt. Julius G. and Sarah (Lea) Roney.
ROBERT D. PHILLIPS is a planter and former merchant of Laurinburg. He enjoys that degree of success which is associated with a long and hard pull during early years followed by prosperous achievement. He is reckoned one of the best citizens of Scotland County, and that means pa- triotism, with two stalwart sons as officers in the National Army.
Mr. Phillips was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, in 1853, a son of William and Esther (Berryman) Phillips, both of whom were natives of Moore County, this state. The Phillips farm on which he spent his boyhood was in the lower end of Randolph County, near Waddell's Ferry. To appreciate all the elements in the successful career of Mr. Phillips it is necessary to recall that his youth was spent in the poorest period of the South's history-the five years of war and the five or ten years of reconstruction, when there was no money, no system of public education worthy of the name, and when business and industrial opportunities represented as a rule only a chance to gain a bare living.
Mr. Phillips was only a boy when he began working out for wages, a monthly stipend which now would hardly attract a man into his service for a week. His industry and self-reliance thus aroused were really worth more than the wages, and to his ability and energy he can impute all the more prosperous achievements of later years. One of his early experiences was working in a store at Rockingham. In 1879, when he came to Laurinburg, then in Richmond County, but later the county seat of the new County of Scotland, he worked five years as clerk in the store of Everett Brothers & Gill. In 1884 he embarked in the mercantile business as senior partner of the firm Phillips & McDougal. This partnership was dissolved in 1891, and business was continued in- dividually by Mr. Phillips until 1898. After dis- rosing of his store he remained at Laurinburg three years as a lumber dealer.
In 1901 Mr. Phillins left his native state and removed to Florida to look after his interests as a lumber manufacturer with the firm of Phillips & McEachern at Meredith, Florida, a village which the firm built around their mills and lumber plant. Mr. Phillips remained on the ground as one of the active directors of the milling operations until 1913. at which date he returned to his old home in Laurinburg.
In the succeeding five years his time and energies have been chiefly occupied by farming. He owns two farms in Richmond County. But his largest is in Bladen County, within two miles of Elizabeth-
171
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
town, the county seat. That section gives the most promise of agricultural development of any region in North Carolina today. The Phillips farm con- sists of about 700 acres. Three hundred acres are cleared and cultivated, and the land has shown some bumper crops of cotton.
While he was a merchant at Laurinburg many years ago, Mr. Phillips had some interesting ex- perience in the newspaper game. He bought the Laurinburg Exchange, and owned it for several years. The newspaper offices were upstairs above his store. It was during his proprietorship of the Exchange that one of the big men in the South, Archibald Johnson, secured his start as an editor. The Exchange has continued to prosper and is today one of the high-class country journals of the state. Mr. Phillips has always been a loyal demo- crat, and in church matters is a Methodist.
He married Miss Anna McLean, a sister of Hon. Hector McLean, mentioned elsewhere in this pub- lication. The five children of Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, in whom they take the greatest pride, are J. Dickson, F. Donald, Mary, Angus and William, all of whom have completed substantial education. Mary was educated in the famous Salem Academy at Winston-Salem. J. Dickson is a graduate of the University of North Carolina with the class of 1912, and until he went into the army was secretary of the Morgan Cotton Mills at Laurel Hill. F. Donald was educated in Georgia Military Academy, University of Georgia, University of Florida and University of North Carolina, graduat- ing in law from the latter in 1915. He practiced at Rockingham and left a promising business to become a soldier.
Both thesc sons were among the first from this part of the state to apply for admission to the Officers' Reserve Corps Training School at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. They entered into that work with enthusiasm and will to win, and both received commissions as second lieutenants. At the first of the year 1918 Donald had already been assigned to work with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, while Dickson was retained as an of- ficer of instruction at Camp Jackson, Columbia, South Carolina.
JOSEPH PINCKNEY TURNER, M. D. Beginning his work as a physician and surgeon at Greensboro over twenty years ago, Dr. Turner devoted his best abilities, his time, patience and enthusiasm to a growing private practice for about fifteen years, until he assumed his present responsibilities as medical director of the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company.
-
.
Doctor Turner was born in an interesting old locality of Iredell County, North Carolina, known as Turner's Mills near Cool Spring. The founder of that milling center was his father Heury Tur- ner. Henry Turner was born at Port Tobacco in Charles County, Maryland, in 1815. When he was three years of age. just a century ago, he was brought into the wilds of North Carolina by his parents, who traveled over the intervening country with wagons and teams. The grandfather secured land in a locality known as River Hill in Iredell County, and there with the aid of his slaves cleared away and laid the basis of a good farm. In such environment, nearly a century ago, schools were few and Henry Turner had limited opportunities outside of his own home, which was one of ideals and substantial culture. Though his schooling was limited to about three months every winter, he ac- quired the fundamentals and used them constantly
to broaden his knowledge of both men and affairs. He finally bought a farm and also the saw and grist mill known for so many years as Turner's Mills. He superintended the operation of these mills and the farm at the same time, and for many years he did custom grinding of both flour and corn meal for the benefit of the people who carried their wheat and corn to the mill from the surround- ing country. With these duties and enjoying a high position in community esteem he lived in Ire- dell County until his death iu 1881, at the age of sixty-six. By his first wife he had seven children, named William M., Samuel, Mary, John Chapman, Florence, James M. aud Laura. The maiden name of his second wife was Mary Ann Mastin. She was born on a farm four miles south of Wilkes- boro, daughter of Judge Mastiu, who for several years was clerk of the courts at Wilkesboro. Mrs. Mary Ann Turner died in December, 1916. She was the mother of six children: Charles E., Annie, Joseph P., Eva M., Henry and Lucy.
Dr. Joseph P. Turner's early memories and as- sociations are of his father's farm and mills in Iredell County. Most of his early education was supervised by Professor Brown in the district school at Sparta. He was a student of the Moravian Falls Academy during the last five months of its existence. At the end of that time the school was broken up because its principal and head, Professor Greene, departed as a missionary to Korea. After that Dr. Turner finished his pre- paratory work in Oak Institute at Mooresville. In 1891 he entered Trinity College for a two years course, and from there went to the Medical Depart- ment of the University of Maryland, from which institution he graduated with the degree M. D. He also served a year as interne in a hospital at Balti- more, and for a year was senior resident physician in the lying-in department of the hospital.
Doctor Turner came to Greensboro and began his private practice in 1897. He looked after this practice with undivided time and attention until 1908. when he was appointed medical director for the Security Life and Annuity Insurance Company. When that company was combined with the Jeffer- son Standard Life Insurance Company he was made medical director of the latter, and now gives all his time to the duties of this office. Dr. Turner is chairman of the American Life Convention for 1917-18. and is a member in high standing of the Guilford County, the North Carolina State and the Tri-State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association. He is a Mason and he and his wife are regular attendants and members of the West Market Street Methodist Episcopal Church. South. January 16, 1901, Doctor Turner married Miss Eva Lindley. She was born at Pomona in Guilford Conuty, daughter of J. Van Lindley. Dr. and Mrs. Turner have one daughter, named Marv Sandra, now a student in the Greeus- boro High School.
JOSHUA JUDSON FLEETWOOD. It is scarcely pos- sible to mention the large number of industries that had so much to do with substantially devel- oping the Eastern Carolinas without bringing for- ward a name well known and honored at Hertford, where he has been an upbuilding and dependable citizen for many years. Joshua Judson Fleetwood. Mr. Fleetwood was born in Perquimans County, North Carolina. October 7, 1858, but his people came from Bertie County. Originally from Eng- land. thev settled first in Virginia, where the name is yet well represented, and frou there so large
172
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
a body of kindred came in early days to Bertie County that the records make account of the Fleetwood Colony as the owners of great planta- tions. The parents of Mr. Fleetwood were Joseph Skinner and Margaret (White) Fleetwood. The father was a college bred man, and before the war between the states was a large planter.
Joshua Judson Fleetwood's early education was undertaken by his father, and later he attended both Elm Grove and Hertford academies. He early became self supporting, accepting a posi- tion as clerk in a general store. Comparatively little lumbering had been done in the heavily tim- bered regions of Perquimans County when he en- tered the business, at first working in a sawmill.
About this time the Denver & Rio Grande Rail- road was being built and he went to Leadville, Colorado, and for three years was with the con- struction and the commissary departments of that great transportation artery. He returned then to his native state and from 1886 until 1905 was senior member of the firm of Fleetwood & Jack- son, who were in the lumber business, and during this time put in one at the first successful band inills erected in North Carolina. This firm pur- chased large tracts of standing timber in South Carolina, Mr. Fleetwood subsequently selling all his former interests in North Carolina to the Albe- marle Lumber Company. He remained in South Carolina for six years and during that time was engaged as secretary at a salary of $6,000, for the A. C. Tuxburg Lumber Company of Charles- ton, South Carolina, who purchased his South Car- olina timber holdings and stock in the A. C. Tux- burg Company.
Mr. Fleetwood then returned to Hertford and has been mainly interested in farming enterprises, having purchased what is known as the James L. Skinner plantations and others. At that time he had 3,000 acres largely cultivated, 400 of these being the old family plantation and there was one time when his land holdings aggregated 4,000 acres. He was interested in general farming and cotton growing, having his own cotton gins and all equipments pertaining to the successful carry- ing on of large industries. He now has about 1,000 acres in his home plantation, which lies in Perquimans County.
Mr. Fleetwood has been one of Hertford's most enterprising and progressive citizens. It was through his efforts that much capital has been interested here resulting in the starting of im- portant industries. Mr. Fleetwood put in the first ice plant in the county and his ideas have been embodied in many changes and improve- ments. He has shown a large amount of civic pride in promoting public improvements here and owns one of the handsomest residences in Hert- ford. In the sense of being a politician Mr. Fleet- wood has taken little part in political matters, although never failing in good citizenship, but has never accepted any public office except that of alderman, and when elected was the first demo- crat for a number of years.
Mr. Fleetwood was married February 14, 1882, to Miss Pattie Barrow Arrington, who was of English descent, a daughter of W. G. Arrington and a granddaughter of Eri Barrow. Mrs. Fleet- wood died one year later, leaving one son, Barrow Arrington Fleetwood, who was born February 14, 1883. He is a resident of Hertford and owns the old Eri Barrow plantation.
Mr. Fleetwood was married second, in 1887, to Miss Julia Rebecca Barrow, who died in 1892.
She was a daughter of Francis and Amelia (Jor- dan) Barrow. She was survived by one son, Julian Judson Fleetwood.
In 1897 Mr. Fleetwood was married to Miss May Morgan, daughter of Thomas C. Morgan. She is a granddaughter of Rev. Seth Morgan, min- ister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. and Mrs. Fleetwood have five children: Ashley Ran- dolph, Seth Morgan, Hannah May, Katherine Skin- ner and Wilson White. Mr. Fleetwood and his family are members of the Baptist Church and reside at Hertford.
JAMES LOFTIN KERNODLE, M. D. For more than twenty-one years Doctor Kernodle was one of the energetic and skillful country practitioners in Ala- .mance County, and while there he laid the basis of a very successful business career. Since retir- ing from practice his home and headquarters have been at Greensboro, though his interests extend out over the state and to other states.
Doctor Kernodle was born a farm in Morton 's Township of Alamance County, September 12, 1869. His great-grandfather, George Kernodle, lived in East Guilford, north of Reedy Fork and south of Haw River. Later he left the state and moved West and all but two of his sons followed him. Those who went West claim to have traced their ancestry back to Holland to Peter Kernodle or Knode. George Kernodle, by his first wife, Rittie, had three sons, Jacob, George and John, and by his second wife his three sons were Ben, Levi and Simpson.
John Kernodle, grandfather of Doctor Kernodle, was born in the eastern part of Guilford County and from that county moved to Alamance County and bought a farm in Morton's Township. He was a large land owner and had slaves that were employed in cultivating the fields, and he continued a resident of that locality until his death. He was three times married. By his first wife, Lu- cretia Lambeth, he had five sons, named George, Josiah, Riley, Sample and Lovic. His second wife was Nancy Lambeth, and they had one daughter, Nancy. By his third wife his children included William, James, Frank and Nannie.
Josiah Kernodle, father of Doctor Kernodle, was born in Alamance County, April 29, 1823. He grew up on a farm and was successfully handling two farms of his own. one in Alamance County, on which he lived, and the other in Guilford County, when the war broke out between the states. He enlisted at once in the Confederate service and endured all the hardships and privations of a sol- dier's life. After the war was over he returned home and found much of his property ruined and his health broken. He died in 1869. His wife was Isabelle Jane Cummings. She was born in Guil- ford County February 12, 1827, and was a daugh- ter of William and Jane (Smith) Cummings. Her father owned a large plantation and in the days before the war many slaves. His home bordered on Reedy Fork.
It was an exceedingly heavy responsibility that fell to the lot of Isabelle J. Kernodle at the death of her husband. The latter had been a successful farmer, but in addition to the destruction caused by the war he had too generously lent his name as signature to the notes of others and when he died his own property was placed in jeopardy by the debts of others, which his estate had to pay. This was the situation which his widow confronted in addition to the task of rearing and providing for her young family of six children. The chil-
J.L. Keswolle
173
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
dren were named Dr. Franklin, Robert Thomas, Andrew B., George Washington, Josiah Douglas and James Loftin. Through a courage and self- denial and effort that few women of the state have exhibited, the widowed mother kept her children about her and continued to reside at the old home until her death in May, 1899. She saw to it that her children had the advantage of the best schools that the community afforded. Her oldest son, Dr. Franklin, who was only sixteen years of age at his father's death, assisted his mother in man- aging the farms and with the help of his younger brothers succeeded in paying off all the security debts. Robert Thomas has served four terms as sheriff of Alamance County and represented the county in the State Legislature in 1917.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.