USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 52
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man he was again chosen to the Senate, serving in the session of 1868-69. Thus for fifty years he was in the public life of his district aud state. The Melchors lived near Mount Pleasant. Chris- topher was a son of John Melchor, one of the earliest merchants in Cabarrus County. One of his old ledgers, showing transactions in 1792 and 1793, now owned by John A. Barnhardt, is a highly interesting and historical document.
John A. Barnhardt was born at Gold Hill in Rowan County, North Carolina, in 1855, and was a small child when his parents moved to Cabarrus County. He attended local schools and Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute, and learned merchan- dising under his father. Like his father, he be- came a successful business man, and has gained his wealth through his own activities and through his wise and judicious management of business and carefully chosen and profitable investments. He entered his father's store when the firm name was Barnhardt, Melchor & Company, and the business title was subsequently J. C. Barnhardt and later J. C. Barnhardt & Son. Mr. Barnhardt continued the business after his father's death under the lat- ter name. For thirty years he was an active mer- chant at Pioneer Mills, and only retired and sold out in 1902.
Since then Mr. Barnhardt has devoted his at- tention to his investment interests, mainly in cotton mills. He is a large stockholder and a director in six cotton mills whose operations are directed by Mr. J. W. Cannon of Concord, the great cotton mill builder of North Carolina. Two of these mills, those of the Cabarrus Manufacturing Com- pany and the Cannon Manufacturing Company at Kannapolis, are among the largest, most modern and best equipped mills in the South. These two mills alone represent a capitalization of more than two million dollars. The town of Kannapolis, founded by Mr. Cannon only a few years ago, is now a modern industrial city of six or seven thou- sand people. In the founding of this town and the building of these great mills Mr. Cannon was advised and assisted by his long time friend and associate Mr. Barnhardt.
Like his father and grandfather before him, Mr. Barnhardt has been called upon to serve in the State House at Raleigh. In the campaign of 1916 he was chosen by the democratic party of Cabarrus County as its candidate for the State Senate and was elected in the general election and was present at the deliberations of the session of 1917. He and Chase Brenizer of Charlotte represented the twenty-fourth senatorial district embracing Cabar- rus and Mecklenburg counties, two of the richest counties in the state. Mr. Barnhardt was a local magistrate for twelve years and has also served as County Commissioner.
His ancestors were members of the German Re- formed Church. He and his family are Presbyter- ians, and are active in the historic Rocky River Church of Cabarrus County, the oldest church in the Concord Presbytery and one of the oldest in the western part of North Carolina. Mr. Barn- hardt has a beautiful country home at Pioneer Mills, but his postoffice address is Harrisburg, about seven miles away. Two of his younger brothers, Thomas M. Barnhardt of Charlotte and Eugene C. Barnhardt of Concord are prominent cotton mill men.
Mr. Barnhardt married Miss Sallie McClelland, member of a Mecklenburg County family of Scotch-Irish ancestry. They have a large family of eleven children: Ellen E., wife of W. H. Davidson; Harold M .; Charles E .; Miss Maggie H .; Grace D., wife of Rev. W. A. Plyler; Elise M., wife of
Charles E. Boger; John J .; Miss Helen M .; James M .; Sarah; and William H.
EUGENE C. BARNHARDT. There was never a time when the industrial executive, the man who does and gets big things done in an efficient way, oc- cupied a greater place in public attention than in the stressful wartime conditions when practical efficiency in every individual, however humble, is regarded as the cardinal virtue of our national life.
On this score one of the great men in North Carolina today is Eugene C. Barnhardt, cotton manufacturer, expert in textile machinery and the manufacture of the highest grade of cotton goods. Mr. Barnhardt's home is at Concord, where he directs the operations of one of the largest textile mills in the state.
Mr. Barnhardt was born at Pioneer Mills in Cab- arrus County in 1864, a son of Colonel Jacob C. + and Jane Adeline (Melchor) Barnhardt. On other pages of this publication will be found an account of this old and prominent family. It was his greatest good fortune that he was a member of a family in which each member was trained to work and to occupy some useful sphere in life, and thus the wealth and position gained by one generation have been augmented by the activities of the next. Mr. Barnhardt's youth was spent in a home of comparative affluence, but his environment did not dull his natural capacities and served only to stim- ulate his native talents of a high order.
He was educated at Rocky River Academy in Cabarrus County and in the Bingham Military School at Mebane. Leaving school at eighteen, he entered the mill of the Odell Manufacturing Com- pany at Concord in 1882. He possessed that val- uable faculty of a mechanical intelligence, from the first showed special aptitude and skill in ma- chinery, and made every hour of his employment count toward a broader usefulness. A valuable year of his early life was spent in the Whitin Machine Works at Whitinville, Massachusetts. This firm are widely known as manufacturers of textile machinery, and while there he gained a practical experience in designing and building cot- ton mill machines.
Returning to North Carolina, he was for nearly five years employed in the operation of the inill of the Durham Manufacturing Company at East Dur- ham. After that for several years he was superin- tendent of the Asheville Cotton Mills at Asheville.
In 1898 Mr. Barnhardt returned to Concord to take the position of assistant manager for Mr. J. W. Cannon, who was then just beginning his re- markable career as a builder and operator of cotton mills. In the Cannon Mills Mr. Barnhardt had charge of the manufacturing and the mechanical equipment as well as the operation. His associa- tion with the Cannon Cotton Mill interests has been continuous ever since. In 1903 he was elected treasurer of the Gibson Manufacturing Company, of which Mr. Cannon is president. Later he was promoted to his present office as vice president and · manager, and is also one of the large stockholders.
It is in connection with the Gibson Manufactur- ing Company that his achievements have been most pronounced. The mill when he took charge was a discouraging property, and was not making money for the stockholders, was conducted in an ineffi- cient manner and much of the plant was obsolete. Mr. Barnhardt began a systematic improvement · of conditions, overhauling machinery, replacing worn out machines with modern ones, improving the morale and efficiency of the employes, and working both inside and outside the plant to make
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matters more attractive and healthful for the em- płoyes. In the course of his administration ex- tended improvements and additious have been made at a cost of many thousands of dollars. It is Mr. Barnhardt's theory, based on long experience, that in order to produce good revenue a mill must be one of the best of its kind. The results and fruits justify his theory. Experts have visited the Gibson plaut and have expressed their technical admiration in a coloquial phrase by calling it "a real mill." At the present time the value of the plant is about eight hundred fifty thousand dollars, and it pays handsome dividends to the stock- holders.
The mill is especially a matter of general iu- terest because of the variety and excellence of its output. During 1917 the energies of the plant were largely redirected to the manufacture of olive drab cloth to fill extensive contracts for the Gov- ernment. But for several years past the mill has specialized in and has become widely known in trade circles for its fancy ginghams, madras, voiles, and fine fabrics for dresses, shirtings, etc. Mauy of these goods are exceedingly beautiful in tex- ture, coloring and finish, many are very sheer and have a silk texture aud finish, while some of the heavier designs are of such weave aud finish as almost to imitate exactly woolen goods. At one time pure silk goods were manufactured in this mill. Other products are white and colored yarns, corduroys, colored plushes, etc. There is perhaps not a single mill anywhere either north or south that turns out products in the variety and in quantity and quality comparable to this one.
Such a mill is the work home of many hundreds of employes and it is therefore not out of place to inquire what the industrial and economic conditions surrounding these employes are. The Gibson Mills maintain a most enviable standard in this respect. They are provided with every convenience, comfort and safety. A thorough system of ventilation has been installed, working people are provided with seats, in cold weather the mill is adequately heated, and the purest of drinking water comes through sauitary fountains from the company's artesian well nine hundred feet deep. The surroundings are kept neat and clean. The employes' houses in the mill village are roomy and substantial struc- tures, with electric lights, city water, and a modern system of sanitary sewerage with septic tanks. In 1916 the company expended about sixteen thousand dollars improving the mill village. A welfare com- munity house and nursery are maintained, and a young woman especially trained for this depart- ment of social service is employed at a regular salary. This house is open to the workers at all times, and among other conveniences mothers can leave their babies there. There is much to stimu- late community improvement, and prizes are offered for the best gardens and for other attractive fea- tures in the village that serve to elevate the stand- ards of community life.
Thus Mr. Barnhardt has given his best energies to a business which in itself is an enterprise largely and directly connected with the public welfare. He married Miss Mary Lunsford, of Durham, North Carolina. Their only son, Eugene C. Barnhardt, Jr., is a college man of the University of North Carolina, and is now associated with his father in the mill, being treasurer of the company.
MARVIN CLAYTON TERRELL is superintendent of public instruction for Alamance County. He is a young man in the educational field, thoroughly trained and qualified by character and knowledge Vol. VI-13
for the important responsibilities he enjoys, and is one of the earnest and hard working men upon whom devolve the tremendous responsibilities for the safe guidance aud efficient conduct of the public schools of the state.
Mr. Terrell was born in Leicester, North Caro- lina, November 14, 1889, a son of Pinkney Law- son and Ellen Lavina (Porter) Terrell. His father is a Methodist minister. The son was edu- cated in the public schools, in Rutherford College, in Trinity College of Durham, and in 1915 spent some time in the University of Chicago.
Since taking up educational work he has served as principal of the Friendship High School, super- intendent of the schools at Haw River, was teacher of English in the Burlington High School a year and a half, and then after six months spent in Lyceum Bureau work was elected superintendent of public instruction for Alamance County in July, 1917. His home is at Burlington.
On March 27, 1918, Mr. Terrell was married to Miss Imogen McCullers Scott, daughter of Joseph Lawson Scott and Mrs. Jessie Buchman Scott, of Burlington, North Carolina, Miss Imogen Scott was educated at the State Normal College, Greens- boro, and at Randolph-Macon, Lynchburg, Vir- ginia.
Early in May Mr. Terrell was given a leave of absence by the Alamance County Board of Eduea- tion, and entered the army as a psychological examiner.
He is a member of the North Carolina Teachers Assembly, aud of the N. E. A., and belongs to the Sigma Chi college fraternity. He was teacher of the Woman's Bible Class in the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School at Burlington before entering the army.
MAJ. BENJAMIN R. HUSKE is founder of the Huske Hardware House at Fayetteville. This is a name with a splendid record of business prosperity and growth covering more than thirty years. The name Huske Hardware House now covers the front of a building three stories high and forty by one hundred sixty feet in dimensions at 405 Hay Street in Fayetteville. It is both a wholesale and retail business, and its trade relations are estab- lished throughout the Cape Fear section. As a result of many years of growth and experience the company has a complete organization, many thousands of square feet of floor space in its main building and warehouses, and keeps one of the best assorted stocks of general hardware suited to the needs of the trade in the State of North Carolina. The company is incorporated with a capital of $50,000. Maj. B. R. Huske is founder and president of the company and also fills the place of treasurer, while the office of secretary is filled by his son B. R. Huske, Jr.
Major Huske, who was born at Fayetteville in 1862, has contributed a striking commercial success to a family history that has been honorable and worthy at all points during its . long association with the state. Major Huske's great-grandfather, John Huske, was an Englishman, and soon after the close of the Revolutionary war immigrated to America and settled at Wilmington, North Caro- lina. He acquired extensive landed interests up the Cape Fear River and at Hillsboro. His son John Huske, grandfather of Major Huske, was in his time a wealthy planter and land owner in the Cape Fear section, and established his home at Fayetteville. He was twice married and was the father of a large family. His first wife was Miss
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Johanna Jeneks Tillinghast, and his second wife was her sister, Ann Powell Tillinghast. Both were natives of Cumberland County, their father having come from Rhode Island. Among the sons of John Huske, second, two of them, uncles of Maj. B. R. Huske, were Maj. Wright Huske and Capt. Ben R. Huske, both of historic prominence because of their service as officers in the Confed- erate army. Maj. Wright Huske before the war had been an officer of the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry. He commanded that organization and joining with other troops took the Fayette- ville arsenal soon after President Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers. Subsequently Maj. Wright Huske's organization went into the ranks of the Confederate army as Company H of the First North Carolina Volunteer Iufantry. It took part in the battle of Bethel, the first important battle of the war between the states. Maj. Wright Huske continued in the service throughout the war. His brother, Capt. Ben R. Huske, was also in the First Regiment of Volunteers, accompany- ing his brother from Fayetteville, and was mortally wounded at the battle of Seven Pines, dying soon after that engagement. In ante-bellum times the Huske family had two homes, a country place at "Oak Hill,"' about five miles northwest of Fayetteville, and also a residence in that town.
The annals of the Episcopal Church of North Carolina has no finer character and figure than the late Rev. Joseph C. Huske, father of the Fay- etteville merchant. Rev. Joseph C. Huske died at Fayetteville in 1898, in his seventy-fifth year. His life time had been extended in doing good to his fellow men, and for thirty-five years he was the beloved rector of St. John's Episcopal Church. For five or ten years after his retirement he was rector emeritus of the church. Born at Fayette- ville in 1823, he was an honored graduate of -the University of North Carolina, and after proper qualifications was ordained a minister of the Epis- copal Church. He possessed the breadth of schol- arship, the human sympathy and wisdom, and, with all, the character of a great minister and a spiritual guide for humanity. The bonds by which he bound his people to him in terms of affection and regard were of remarkable strength and enduring quality. He practiced Christianity with singular fidelity and well earned the distinction of being a follower of the Great Master after whose life he patterned his own. He seemed to be without ambition for wealth or worldly honors. His sole object was to be of service to others and to do the most good he could in the world. His associates in the clergy were convinced of his fitness for the honors of the bishop's office, but he always waived such sug- gestions, apparently had little ambition either for the responsibilities or the dignities of an adminis- trative post in the church, and was most content to devote himself to personal service to the people by whom he was surrounded. While possessing the highest scholarly attainments, the qualities of his heart always predominated and the secret of his strength and power was found in his fundamental human sympathy rather than in his keen and forceful intellect. He was beloved not only by the members of his own parish but by people of all denominations and by those who owned no church faith at all.
Rev. Joseph C. Huske married a daughter of Judge Robert Strange. Judge Strange was one of North Carolina 's eminent jurists and statesmen, filled with distinction a place in the State's Su-
preme Court, and was also United States Senator from North Carolina. Que of his sons, Capt. Wil- liam J. Strauge, had au honorable career as a Confederate soldier and officer. The Strange family also had their home in Cumberland County, going back to early times. Mrs. Joseph Huske died in 1882.
With the examples and ideals of his family be- fore him, Benjamin R. Huske found his life work early and by constant devotiou to the time tried and tested principles of business has made a good success. Private schools in Fayetteville gave him his early education, and when oury fourteen years of age he became clerk in a store at Fay- etteville. A competent business man before ne reached his majority, he has been identified with mercantile affairs at Fayetteville for over forty years. About thirty years ago he founded the Huske Hardware House, fostered it through its initial period of growth, aud iu later years has been relieved of some of the heavier responsibili- ties by the active assistance of his sous.
Having the achievements of three soldier uncles as his inspiration, it is not strange that Mr. Huske early became identified with military affairs. When a boy he enlisted as a private iu the Fay- etteville Iudepeudent Light lufantry and rose through the various ranks to commandaut of the company, receiving its brevet rank of major. The Fayetteville Independent Light Intautry is an historie organization. It was established in 1793 and has had a continuous existence for more than a century. His uncle, Maj. Wright Huske, was in command of this company at the outbreak of the Civil war. Major
Huske was commander
of the company when the Spanish-Ameri- can war began, and tendered its services to the governor of North Carolina. If not the first, it was among the first companies to volunteer in the state. The Fayetteville organization was made a part of the Second Regiment of North Carolina Intantry and took the title of Company A in that regiment. They were among the troops rendez- voused at Tybee Island near Savannah, but were never called into service beyond the borders of the country.
Major Huske married Miss Hannah A. Oliver, of Newbern, North Carolina, daughter of William H. Oliver of that city. Five children were born to them: B. R. Huske, Jr., William Oliver Huske, Joseph Strange Huske, John Huske and Miss Margaret Strange Huske. Two of the sons, Wil- liam O. and Joseph S., are serving as lieutenants in the United States army, William O. now being in France, while Joseph S. is stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas.
HON. HEZEKIAH ALEXANDER GUDGER, who died at Asheville in 1917, had a life of many distinc- tions, and all of them acquired through his very great abilities as a lawyer and his service in pub- lic affairs. His name will always have promi- nence in American history as one of the first jus- tices and later as chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Canal Zone at Panama.
He was born at Marshall, Madison County, North Carolina, May 27, 1849, son of Joseph Jackson and Sarah Emeline (Barnard) Gudger. His parents were both natives of North Carolina and their home was on the banks of the French Broad River, five miles west of Marshall. Judge Gudger received his early education at Jewel Hill, Sand Hill and Weaverville. As a boy he showed
Howsavis
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
evidence of many of the powers of mind and gifts of oratory which afterwards distinguished him as a lawyer and in public affairs. In 1870 he re- ceived the degree Master of Arts from Weaver- ville College in Buncombe County, and having chosen the law as his profession was graduated in 1871 from the Law School of Judge J. L. Bailey at Asheville. In the same year he opened an office and began practice in his native county in Asheville and soon had a living practice and was attracting more and more attention to himself as a popular leader in politics and public affairs. In 1872 and again in 1874 he was elected a member of the North Carolina Legislature and in Febru- ary, 1877, Governor Zebulon B. Vance appointed him to the responsible position of principal of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute at Raleigh. He greatly endeared himself to the teachers and stu- dents of that institution and these as well as all who had the welfare of the institution at heart expressed sincere regret when he tendered his resignation six years later. He resigned in 1883 to resume private practice.
In 1885 he was elected to the North Carolina Senate, representing the senatorial districts com- posed of Buncombe and Madison counties. Dur- ing that time he took an active stand for prohi- bition, being one of the first men of the state to recognize it as a great issue and advocate the necessity of a statewide prohibition for the social and better development of the people of North Carolina.
In 1896 Judge Gudger was a candidate for elector from North Carolina at large on the Mc- Kinley ticket. Soon after President Mckinley was inaugurated in 1897 he called Mr. Gudger from his profitable law practice at Asheville, ap- pointing him American consul general to Panama, and he filled that office from 1897 to 1905. He was therefore on the ground and had the quali- fications of long acquaintance with local condi- tions and the people which completely justified his appointment by President Roosevelt in 1905 as associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Canal Zone at the time America took possession of that country. In 1907 he was promoted to chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Canal Zone, and remained busied with the duties of an office involving many complex and delicate adjustments during the process of construction of the canal until July, 1914, when he resigned to return to his native state and again take up the practice of his profession. He lived after that at Asheville until his death.
Judge Gudger was prominent in fraternal af- fairs, was affiliated with Mount Hermon Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Asheville Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Cyrene Commandery, Knights Templar; Asheville Consistory of the Scottish Rite, and in January, 1891, was hon- orcd by election as grand master of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. In Masonry he ex- pressed the true spirit of brotherhood more in deeds than in words, more in performance than in prom- ise, and the example and influence of his splendid life is a treasured legacy left to his family and friends which will be cherished through all the coming years.
Judge Gudger was a republican and a member of the Methodist Church. For several years he was a member of the School Board of Asheville and before going to Panama was a trustee of the University of North Carolina. August 10, 1875,
he married Miss Jennie Hardy Smith of Ashe- ville, daughter of Bacchus J. and Sarah E. (Baird) Smith. Judge and Mrs. Gudger were the parents of two sons, Francis A. and Herman A., and three daughters, Mrs. Ada Cocke, Mrs. Mary Nichols and Mrs. Emma Eichelberger.
THOMAS WALKER DAVIS was born in the City of Wilmington, North Carolina, May 27, 1876, the descendant of a line of ancestors highly distin- guished in the annals of the legal profession. His grandfather, Hon. George Davis, was probably the most eloquent orator of his generation, and amoug the few distinguished lawyers and statesmen of the state. He was a member of the delegation from North Carolina to the ill-fated Peace Con- gress in Washington prior to the Civil war; was one of the two first senators in the Confederate States Congress, was attorney-general in the Cab- inet of Mr. Jefferson Davis, and was his trusted friend and adviser. The father of Thomas W. Davis, Mr. Junius Davis, entered the Confederate Army when a mere boy and so his educational ad- vantages were impaired, but by hard work he be- came one of the ablest and best known members of the profession in the Cape Fear section and was justly celebrated for the accuracy of his learning and the soundness of his judgment, and became counsel for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Com- pany and many other of the more important indus- trial and commercial enterprises of his community. His mother was Mary Orme Walker, daughter of Thomas D. and Mary V. Walker, and sister of Mr. Justice Platt D. Walker, of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
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