USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 54
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Mr. Tolar married Miss Ella Bell. She was born in Pitt County, North Carolina. They have two children, John R. Tolar, Jr., and Virginia, wife of Mr. R. E. Henry. The son John R. is now in France and has charge of the Y. M. C. A. work in one of the trench camps, and Mr. Tolar's grand- son, John R. III, left University of Virginia at nineteen years of age to enter the aviation service of the United States.
ROBERT BAILEY CHANCE has been one of the busy factors in the commercial enterprise of Reidsville for a long period of years. He has made a typical American success, starting as a clerk and develop- ing his powers and initiative to the point of inde-
pendent business management. He is now member of a firm that does the largest furniture business in Rockingham County.
Mr. Chance was born on a farm in Williamsburg Township of Rockingham County and his people have lived in that locality for several generations. His grandparents were Tilman and Annie (Wil- liams) Chance. His grandfather spent many years on a farm in Rockingham County, but was living at Mount Airy in Stokes County when he died. He had a brother, Rev. Thomas Chance, who did a great work as a pioneer Methodist preacher. He built the Penial Church at Lawsonville. Late in life he removed to Missouri and some of his de- scendants are still living in that state. Annie Williams, wife of Tilman Chance, was of a Wilkes County family.
Andrew Jackson Chance, father of Robert B., grew up on a farm and was already in a fair way to prosperity as an independent farmer when the war between the states began. He enlisted in Bai- ley's Company of the Thirteenth Regiment, North Carolina Troops, and was a steadfast and willing soldier, faithful to every duty. In the battle of Chancellorsville he was among the slain. He had married Martha Jane Guthrie, who was born in South Carolina, daughter of John Guthrie, a na- tive of that state. John Guthrie when a young man moved to Rockingham County and married Lacey Manley, member of the well known and prominent family of that name in Caswell County. Following his marriage John Guthrie and wife returned to South Carolina, where their daughter Martha Jane was born, but later they came to Rockingham County and spent their last days here. Martha Jane Chance was left a young widow by the death of her soldier husband. She survived him many years and died at the home of her daughter at the age of seventy-two. She had only two children, Mollie Virginia and Rob- ert Bailey. The daughter is the widow of James J. Johnson and lives at Reidsville.
Robert Bailey Chance was born after his father entered the army and he grew up deprived of all that a father means to a youth. As soon as old enough he began assisting his mother on the farm, and attended school only as opportunity offered in the intervals of other employment. At the age of twenty-four he removed to Reidsville and went to work as clerk in a general store. Making the best of his opportunities, Mr. Chance in 1899 formned a partnership with M. B. Smith to engage in the furniture business. Three years later Mr. Smith sold his interest to E. F. Hall, and the firm for a time was known as Hall & Chance. In 1912 Mr. Chance bought out his partner and then or- ganized the Burton, Chance, Walker Company, of which he is secretary and treasurer. This large and well known house carries a very complete line of furniture and household goods, and has a large and well equipped store and also warehouses.
In 1890 Mr. Chance married Miss Annie Stan- ley Burnett. She was born in Henry County, Virginia, daughter of H. B. and Annie Burnett. To their marriage were born eight children: Wil- liam H., Ruth Burnett, Robert B., Jr., Clyde, Grace, John Tilman, Marian and Frank. William H. is now serving as a sergeant major with the One Hundred and Thirteenth Regiment, Field Ar- tillery.
Mr. Chance is a very active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He has served twenty years on the board of stewards and
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for five years was superintendent of the Sunday school. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and among other business interests is a director of the Citizens Bank of Reidsville.
MAJOR THOMAS BROOME LEE rendered dis- tinguished service to the Confederacy during the war between the States and won his title as Major in that long struggle. He is one of the last sur- viving and best known officers of the Confederate government. Professionally Major Lee is a civil engineer, and in spite of advanced years is still practicing his profession with headquarters and home at Charlotte. As a construction engineer he has been connected with some of the most im- portant undertakings in the South, beginning be- fore the war.
His own life has been in keeping with and has conferred additional honor upon his notable an- cestry. Major Lee was born at Camden, South Carolina, February 28, 1835, a son of Dr. Joseph and Catherine (Clarke) Lee. Catherine Clarke's mother was a daughter of Thomas Broome, and Major Lee was named for this ancestor, his great- grandfather. Thomas Broome served as orderly sergeant in Light Horse Harry Lee's Legion at the battle of Cowpens, South Carolina, during the Revolution. Thomas Broome lived in Camden, South Carolina, and after the Revolutionary war built the flouring mill there, the first one in that section of the South.
In the paternal line Major Lee is a member of the noted Lee family which has played such a conspicuous part in American history. It will be recalled that the historic Lee family was founded by two brothers who came out of England, first locating on the Island of Barbadoes, one of them subsequently coming to Virginia and the other to Charleston, South Carolina. The brother who set- tled in Virginia was the ancestor of Light IIorse Harry Lee and Robert E. Lee. From the South Carolina branch is descended Major Lee, and also the late General Stephen D. Lee, who for several years was commander in chief of the United Con- federate Veterans. Major Lee is a first cousin of Stephen D. Lee and was one of his most intimate friends.
The early boyhood of Major Lee was spent at Camden, his native city. He finished his education in the Citadel at Charleston, the South's famous military school of ante-bellum days. While a student there he acquired his technical training as a civil engineer. After graduating he had his first practical experience in railroad building with the old Blue Ridge Railroad from Anderson, South Carolina, to Knoxville, Tennessee. He was con- nected with the construction of that line about 1855.
A young man who had already earned distinc- tion in his profession and was looking forward to still larger achievements, Major Lee in 1859 mar- ried at Anderson, South Carolina, Miss Miriam Earle, of that city, daughter of Elias Earle. He had enjoyed the happiness of domestic life and the quiet pursuits of his profession less than two years when the war broke out.
In August, 1861, he volunteered at Sandy Springs, South Carolina, as a member of Orrs Regiment of Rifles. As a boy Major Lee had dis- tinguished himself for expert skill with the rifle and for years he bore the reputation of being able to kill anything .at a distance of fifty yards. As a member of Orrs Regiment he took an active part in Lee's army of Northern Virginia. In a short
time he was transferred from the ranks to a posi- tion in which his ability as a civil engineer could count for greater service than as a private soldier. He was assigned to the Engineering Corps, being made captain of engineers, and late in the war was promoted to major, a title by which he has always been known. As engineer Major Lee was ordered to Vicksburg, but subsequently was assigned to special duties at Richmond. Mr. Memminger, sec- retary of the treasury of the Confederate Govern- ment, commissioned him to personally carry half a million dollars in currency and bonds to Texas. It was a commission which in spite of the hazards and dangers attaching to it he executed with the singular fidelity and skill which he always showed during the war and even to a greater degree in his subsequent career. He made the long journey, carrying the treasure in a small satchel, partly by rail, sometimes afoot, as opportunity offered travel- ing by steamboat, and also on horse drawn vehicles. Having executed his commission so successfully he was not long afterward entrusted with a second journey of the same nature to Texas. He per- formed a great many duties of a technical and con- fidential nature during the war. He also had many opportunities to be of service in the line of battle. He was Engineer in Charge of the Battery in the great fighting at Battery Wagner at Charleston, South Carolina. There for hours and days his com- mand faced the most galling fire from the 10-inch guns of the Federals. This defense of Battery Wagner from the Federal gunboats was one of the notable exploits in Confederate annals. After the evacuation of Battery Wagner Major Lee was ordered to Sullivan's Island in Charleston Harbor, and he remodeled all the defensive works there. From Sullivan's Island he was sent to Florida by General Beauregard, and while there he engaged in the fighting on St. John's River, In that warfare Major Lee constructed and fired the deadly tor- pedoes which with many modern developments and improvements have become perhaps the chief destructive agency in modern warfare. Major Lee was in Florida when the war closed. He was four times wounded during his service and came out of the conflict with a reputation for unrivaled bravery and fearlessness.
For many years after the war Major Lee and his family lived at their country place four miles above Anderson, South Carolina. He was by no means permitted to settle down to quiet scenes of domes- tic enjoyment and the pursuit of his profession after the close of actual hostilities, Then followed the horrors of reconstruction, and he did all he could to combat the evil tendencies and characters of that particularly hateful and offensive regime in South Carolina. During that period he lived over again in added degrees the dangers and hard- ships he had undergone through the war.
For a number of years Major Lee gave most of his professional time and attention to railroad con- struction. As construction engineer he built the Seaboard Air Line Railroad from Monroe, North Carolina, to Atlanta, Georgia, and from the latter city to Birmingham, Alabama. He concluded the last section of his work in 1893. Having finished it, he removed in that year to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he has since kept his home.
On coming to Charlotte Major Lee became as- sociated with his nephew, W. S. Lee, in the organ- ization of the Southern Power Company, a great corporation headed by the Duke Syndicate of New York, and which with operating headquarters in Charlotte owns and controls the great hydro-electric
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power plants throughout the Piedmont section of the Carolinas, furnishing power to hundreds of cotton mills, street railway and interurban systems and other industries.
Major Lee was an active factor in the Southern Power Company until 1897. Then for two years he resumed private practice as an engineer, and in 1899 undertook the building of the Piedmont and Northern Railroad, an electric line, from Char- lotte to Gastonia, He also built the line for this company from Spartanburg to Greenwood. This done, he resumed private practice and at the pres- ent time is consulting engineer for the Green River Power Company, which is developing a great power plant on the Green River in Polk County, North Carolina.
At his office in Charlotte Major Lee serves as consulting engineer on all projects and propositions for power and electrical development. Advancing years have dimmed none of his talents nor his en- thusiasm for the work. He is an inveterate reader of the technical literature of his profession, and strangely enough is just as much at home in the development of plants for electrical power as he was in the old days when steam was the principal source of energy for industries.
Mrs. Lee died a number of years ago, but Major Lee still has six living children and a number of grandchildren. His children are: Joseph Lee, Wilton E. Lee, Mrs. Harriet Preston Lee Earle, Mrs. Catharine Lee Daniels, Thomas Broome Lee, Jr., and Rudolph Lee.
In 1903 Major Lee married Miss Catharine Tar- rant, of Birmingham, Alabama.
WILLIAM CLARK DOUB deserves a record among the important men of North Carolina on account of his long and active career as an educator.
He was born in Chatham County, February 4, 1824. His father, Peter Doub, was born March 12. 1796, and was for a number of years a resident of the locality known as Doub's Chapel in Forsyth County. As a pioneer and itinerant Methodist minister he founded churches of that denomina- tion in different parts of the state. One point that makes his career of interest to the people of Greensboro is the fact that he was founder of the West Market Street Methodist Episcopal Church at that city and was one of the three men to found Greensboro Female College. He died in 1870. August 17, 1821, he married Elizabeth Brantly, who was born in Chatham County July 2, 1797, and died in 1872. They reared four children. William Clark, Martha, Mary M. and Peter Fiske.
William Clark Doub finished his education in Randolph Macon College in Virginia, where he completed the law course. He had borrowed money in order to put him through college and in order to repay it he took up the vocation of teaching. and never entered the law as a regular profession. He taught at Old Trinity, and in Greensboro Female College. where he remained as a member of the faculty for a number of years, and at one time was also superintendent of schools at Greensboro. His death occurred in 1885.
He first married Laura Blake, daughter of Rev. B. T. Blake. She died leaving two children, William Blake and Landon Llewellyn. For his second wife he married Susan Duty. She was born in Granville County in Januarv. 1840, daughter of Doctor Samuel and Frances (Kelly) Duty. Her father was a man of wide range of attainments, being a physician, preacher, farmer and carpenter.
Mrs. Doub was educated in the Greensboro Female College and was a teacher there before her marriage. She is still living in Greensboro. Her four children are Laura Grey, Rebekah Brantley, Fletcher Harris and Agnes Duty.
HON. HENRY MCDIARMID ROBINSON has been one of the distinguished members of the Fayette- ville bar for over thirty-five years, and besides his prominence in the profession has exerted his influ- ence as a vigorous thinker and a courageous pub- lic leader in his home community and in the state at large.
By his personal career he has added new dis- tinctions to a family name that has long been prom- inent in the Cape Fear section of North Carolina. Mr. Robinson was born at Fayetteville in 1860, a son of Dr. Henry Clay and Catherine ( McDiarmid) Robinson. His grandfather, Dr. Benjamin W. Robinson, was also a physician. He was a native of Bennington, Vermont, and from there came to Fayetteville, North Carolina, about 1808. He was a young physician at the time, was possessed of fine family connections and had both intellectual as well as professional attainments. He enjoyed the friendship of Thomas Jefferson during the latter years of that great statesman's career. His character and abilities won for him a high place in his profession, and he became widely known all over the Cape Fear section. Dr. Henry Clay Robinson, who followed his father's example in the choice of a profession, was born at Fayette- ville in Cumberland County and practiced medi- cine and surgery in that community until his death in 1861, when Henry McDiarmid, his son, was only one year old.
The record of the McDiarmid family goes back in Cumberland County to about the year 1800. Catherine MeDiarmid was born in Cumberland County, daughter of Daniel MeDiarmid, who was an extensive planter and slave owner in ante- bellum days. The old McDiarmid home was near what is now the Town of Manchester, and the estate embraced what is called "Overhills," in re- cent years developed as a winter resort. Both the Robinson and MeDiarmid families represent the best type of English and Scotch character, and the national characters have developed some of its finest fruits in the Cape Fear section of North Carolina.
His environment at home and the advantages supplied him by his family were such as to stimu- late the best intellectual activities and the devel- opment of the character in Henry McDiarmid Rob- inson. He was educated in the famous Bingham Military School, where he was graduated with the first honors of his class in 1878. The following fall he entered the University of Virginia at Char- lottesville, and was a student in both the literary and law courses for two years. He studied law under the eminent John B. Minor and Professor Southall. He remembers as a fellow student of the University at the time Woodrow Wilson.
Licensed to practice in 1881, Mr. Robinson at once located in Fayetteville and from that city his reputation as an able counselor has extended over the state. He is senior member of the firm of Rob- inson & Lyon at Fayetteville. His partner, Terry A. Lyon, is now a major in the United States army. This firm are division counsel for the Nor- army. This firm is division counsel for the Nor- folk & Southern Railroad, counsel for the National Bank of Fayetteville and for a number of other
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corporations. A large share of their practice for many years has been corporation work.
Mr. Robinson gave about nine years of his per- sonal time to the office of city attorney of Fay- etteville. At a still earlier time he served as county superintendent of schools for Cumberland County, and in his successful professional career his time has been generously bestowed upon move- ments to promote the best interests of the city and country schools. He is a director of the Na- tional Bank of Fayetteville.
Politics has not been a field which he has vol- untarily invaded. He has preferred the practice of the law and its opportunities for effective pub- lic service above all else. However, in response to the earnest wishes of the people he reluctantly consented in 1898 to become democratic candidate for the Lower House of the General Assembly. He was elected and served during the session of 1899. Cumberland County had become somewhat politically disorganized and its best interests had been neglected on account of the populist and fusion camapigns beginning about 1892, and it was to restore the political prestige of the county that Mr. Robinson's services were desired at the state capital. The Legislature of 1899 was one of the most important in the legislative annals of the state. Some far reaching constitutional amend- ments were adopted, and in that legislation and also in work of more particular interest and value Mr. Robinson had an important part. He was assigned to membership on the judiciary commit- tee, the committee on constitutional amendment, the railroad commission committee, committee on education, and was chairman of the committee on libraries. Aside from this service the only other noteworthy instance ef his participation in poli- ties was when he served as a member of the North Carolina delegation to the Democratic National Convention / which nominated Bryan at Kansas City.
Mr. Robinson is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with the Masons, Knights of Pythias and Elks. His first wife was Miss Mary E. Hill. She was a native of Duplin Coun- ty, North Carolina. She is survived by two chil- dren: Misses Elizabeth H. and Catherine McDiar- mid Robinson. For his present wife Mr. Robin- son married Miss Janie Kyle, of a well known Cumberland County family. Her father was the late Capt. Jesse Kyle, an officer in the Confederate army.
JOHN W. PATTERSON, of Greensboro, a whole- sale grocer, is now head of the Patterson Company at Greensboro.
Mr. Patterson was born on a farm in Mount Airy Township of Surry County, North Carolina. His people have been identified with North Caro- lina for more than a century and a half. His first American ancestor was John Patterson, who was born in Ireland of Scotch ancestry in 1720. He was reared and married in his native land, and about 1765 brought his family to America and settled in what was then a wilderness section of the present Guilford County, North Carolina. This ancestor reared five sons, named William, John, George. James and David.
Of these sons James Patterson, great-grand- father of John W. Patterson. was a colonial sol- dier in the American Revolution. He was with the colonists in the battle of Guilford Court House and other campaigns. His permanent home was
in the eastern part of Guilford County, where he spent his last days.
Julius Patterson, his son, was born in Guilford County in 1796. After reaching manhood he moved to Stokes County. He was a mechanic by trade and also a farmer, and late in life moved to Surry County, where he spent his last days. He married Rachel Ward, of Guilford County, and both are buried in the old Salem churchyard near Mount Airy.
Wiley E. Patterson, father of John W., was born in the eastern part of Stokes County in 1843. He exemplified the spirit of his grandfather in mili- tary matters and was a loyal defender of the Con- federacy in the war between the states. He en- listed in Company E of the Fifty-second North Carolina Troops, and was with that command in its various engagements until captured by the enemy and the last months of the war he spent as a prisoner in the North. On returning home he en- gaged in farming and manufacture of tobacco at his home place, but in 1886 moved to Mount Airy, where he continued tobacco manufacturing for a number of years. He finally came to Greensboro and lived a retired life until his death in 1912. He married Margaret Sparger, daughter of Merlin and Edith (Cook) Sparger, and member of the well known Sparger family to whom several ref- erences are made in the course of this publication. Mrs. Margaret Patterson is still living at Greens- boro. She and her husband were the parents of thirteen children, named John W., Charles D., James M., Julius E., Frank S., George W., Oscar W., Walter H., Margaret, Elizabeth, Mary, Inez, and Imogene. All the children of this large fam- ily are still living except Frank. Margaret is the wife of A. B. High. Elizabeth married Dr. C. T. Lipscomb. Mary is the wife of A. N. Goodwin.
Mr. John W. Patterson during his youth was educated in rural schools and learned the funda- mentals of farming and tobacco manufacture under his father. In 1888 he went West and spent three interesting years of varied experience in the old Indian Territory. On returning to North Carolina he located at Mount Airy and was a tobacco manu- facturer there until 1895, when he removed to Richmond, Virginia, and was connected with the tobacco industry in that city for a year. He then returned to Mount Airy and did business in that city until 1901, when he removed to Fayetteville and was a wholesale grocery merchant three years. In 1904 Mr. Patterson came to Greensboro and organized the Patterson Company, of which he has since been general manager.
In 1892 he married Miss Maggie Durham. Mrs. Patterson was born at Mount Airy, daughter of James M. and Sallie Durham. They have one daughter, Margaret Ray.
WILLIAM WALTON KITCHIN, former governor of North Carolina, was born at Scotland Neck Octo- ber 9. 1866, a son of Capt. (C. S. A.) William H. and Maria F. (Arrington) Kitchin. His father represented the Second North Carolina District in the Forty-sixth Congress and William W. Kitchin was a member from the Fifth North Carolina Dis- trict from the Fifty-fifth to the Sixtieth con- gresses. His brother, Claude Kitchin, has repre- sented the Second District since 1901.
Governor Kitchin received his A. B. degree from Wake Forest College in 1884, and the following year became editor of the Scotland Neck Demo- crat. While in newspaper work he studied law,
Fh Patturan
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was admitted to the bar in 1887, and began prac- tice at Roxboro in 1888. He was a member of the law firm of Manning & Kitchin at Raleigh until he withdrew in June, 1918, on account of ill health. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by the University of North Carolina. Wil- liam W. Kitchin served as chairman of the Demo- cratic County Executive Committee in 1890, was nominee for the State Senate in 1892, and after his last term in Congress he was elected and served as governor of North Carolina from 1909 to 1913. On December 22, 1892, he married Musette Sat- terfield, of Roxboro.
WILLIAM KENNETH BOYD, author of the volume of this history entitled "The Federal Period," has been professor of history at Trinity College since September, 1906. He was born at Curryville, Missouri, January 10, 1879, son of Rev. Harvey Marshall and Mary Elizabeth (Black) Boyd. He grew up in North Carolina, attending Weaver Col- lege at Weaverville, and graduating A. B. in 1897 and A. M. in 1898 from Trinity College. He re- ceived his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Co- lumbia University in 1906, following a period of post-graduate work. as a scholar and fellow.
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