USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 59
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On July 10, 1918, Mr. Dixon married Mrs. Clare B. Mooring of Aurora.
Mr. Dixon is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World and the Fraternal Mys- tic Circle. He is a trustee of the Queen Street Methodist Episcopal Church at Kinston.
MALCOMB K. LEE. History shows very few in- stances of men who have become famous whose early lives were not rooted in the soil. That saying is especially a truism when applied to Amer- ica, and the idea that the land is strengthening and vitalizing has so worked into the very fabric of the language that an orator can pursue no short- er route to the hearts of his hearers than by ad- dressing them as my fellow country-men-not city- men but country-men. In the pioneer history of southern development, all of its great public and military leaders were farmers; some of them, it is true, gentlemen farmers who left the actual cul- tivation of the soil to servants and slaves, but who, nevertheless, were in close touch with it and with the healthful life of the agriculturalist,
The great Lee family, whose most distinguished sons were Virginians, were planters and loved their estates and households with an intensity which few farmers of the West, with their shorter tenure of ownership, cannot appreciate. When Henry Lee (Light Horse Harry), and Robert E. Lee, the great military leader of the Confederacy, spoke of defending the soil of the Old Dominion against the invasion of either Federals or the British, the words had a deep significance to them. Fitzhugh Lee, a leader of two wars whose activities extended to the present generation, was a brave professional soldier who had lost his close touch with mother earth.
The farmers of the New South have become more truly sons of the soil than their early ancestors, and there, as in every section of the United States, those who have succeeded most are those who kept the closest informed as to the progressive improve- ments in everything relating to their calling. A typical American farmer must be broad, thoroughly posted and resourceful. It is with pride that Mon- roe, Union County, can point to such a character in the person of Malcomb K. Lee, farmer, stockman and banker. He was born on his father's farm in the southern part of Union County, North Caro- lina, in the year 1865. His parents, Harrison and Elizabeth (McCaskill) Lee, are deceased.
The father was born in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, and moved to Union County, North Carolina, in 1855, settling on a farm not far from his old homestead in South Carolina. It is said he bore a striking resemblance to Robert E. Lee; and, to the extent of his abilities, he was equally pa- triotic. Although a prosperous farmer at the out- break of the Civil war. he left all to become a captain of militia in the Confederate service. Mrs. Harrison Lee, the mother, was also born in Chester-
field County, South Carolina, of Scotch parents who came direct to South Carolina. Her father's productive plantation eventually comprised between four and five thousand acres of land.
Malcomb K. Lee was born on his father's farm in Lane Creek township, southeastern part of Union County, and he was reared on this homestead. He received his education in the local schools and at Union Institute. The latter was presided over by Prof. O. C. Hamilton, a distinguished educator, now retired, who is noted for having in a small private school in a country community turned out many young men who have become prominent in the affairs of state and nation. Professor Hamil- ton was not only an educator, but a character- builder; while being a skillful imparter of knowl- edge, he also inspired in his pupils a determmation to succeed through honorable methods. He has done as much for this high type of education as any one man in North Carolina.
From 1893 to 1908 Mr. Lee was a merchant at Marshville, Union County, and moved to Monroe, the county seat, in 1910. In the following year he assisted in the organization of the Farmers and Merchants Bank, of which he was elected presi- dent and has thus continued. From the first it has been recognized as one of the successful bank- ing institutions of Union County. It has a capi- tal and surplus of $80,000, and deposits averaging $300,000.
In 1918 Mr. Lee was one of the organizers of the Bearskin Cotton Mills, Incorporated, of which he is president. This is capitalized at $450,000.
But Mr. Lee is best known for his extensive farming and live stock interests, especially for his successful efforts in the improvement of fine cattle and the promotion of the dairy industries. The Monroe Creamery, which disburses over two thou- sand dollars monthly to neighborhood farmers, is his creation. He is the owner of four or five splen- did farms in Union County and just over the line in South Carolina. His largest farm, about fifteen hundred acres, is in Chesterfield County, that state, and is noted as the home of his herd of registered Hereford cattle, pronounced by experts as among the finest in the South. The herd is headed by Dauntless Britisher, a bull from the famous Giltner Brothers stock farm of Eminence, Kentucky. He was calved June 10, 1910, and his number in the Record of the American Hereford Association is 351,789. The sire was Britisher, No. 145,096, who was the champion of two continents and was pur- chased in England by Giltner Brothers at a cost of $4,000. Mr. Lee started this herd in 1914, with fourteen registered heifers, and by natural in- crease and later purchases, he has now a herd of thirty. He also keeps a number of high grade Jersey cattle at his homestead, a beautiful farm of thirty-six acres adjoining Monroe on the east. Other fine cattle are distributed among his dif- ferent pastures, and he also cultivates a number of fields of cotton, corn and other grains. Mr. Lee is building a modern home, at a cost of about $20,000.
He married Miss Glennie Williams, who was born and reared in Union County, and there have been four children of their union-Kemper, Elizabeth, Mary and Jean, the two last named being twin daughters.
DANIEL THOMAS EDWARDS. A native of North Carolina, an educated and scholarly teacher and lawyer, Mr. Edwards did most of his professional
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work in New York City, where he lived a number of years, and was afterward editor of the Free Press at Kinston, North Carolina, where he still resides.
He was born in Greene County, North Carolina, October 16, 1870, a son of Daniel Webster and Mary Jane (White) Edwards. His father was both a teacher and attorney. Mr. Edwards had all the advantages that good schools and univer- sities and a home of culture can provide. He at- tended private school at High Point in Guilford County and then entered Trinity College, where he completed the classical course and was graduated A. B. in 1892. He subsequently was a student in the law department of the University of North Carolina under Hon. John M. Manning, and from there entered the University of the City of New York, where he spent two years in the graduate department, receiving the degree of Pd. D. from that institution in June, 1899. For six years Mr. Edwards was a teacher in the New York City schools.
On April 3, 1901, at Kinston, he married Miss Capitola Grainger, daughter of J. W. Grainger, well known as a banker and business man. After his marriage Mr. Edwards returned to New York City and continued his educational activities in that metropolis for two years. On returning to Kinston he became editor of the Kinston Free Press, and had the active management of its editorial policy until 1914, when he sold the property. Since then he has given his attention chiefly to his private affairs. He lives in one of the picturesque homes of Kinston, and he and his wife are the parents of three children: Sarah Grainger, Mary Eleanor and Capitola Virginia. Mr. Edwards is a steward in the Queen Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Kins- ton, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and is connected with various business interests of the city and section.
W. E. ALLEN is secretary and treasurer of the Greensboro Loan & Trust Company. He was one of the men who founded this substantial institu- tion, which was established in 1899, and is now rounding out the twentieth year of its prosperous existence. The company has a capital stock of $200.000 and deposits of more than $2,000,000.
Mr. Allen was born in Troublesome Township, on a plantation in Rockingham County, North Car- olina. His grandfather, Vaul Allen, was a planter and probably spent all his life in Guilford County. He reared five children, named William S., James Alfred, Sallie, Lucy and Maggie. James Alfred Allen, father of the Greensboro banker, was born at Summerfield in Guilford County, and early in life became a tobacco dealer. With Major Oaks he built the first warehouse at Reidsville, founding the tobacco industry in that section. He was ac- tive in business until his death at the age of forty- two. He married Lizzie W. Ellington, who died in 1869. Their two children were W. E. and Minerva.
W. E. Allen was only an infant when his mother died and he grew up in the home of his aunt, Mary Ann Curry, in Rockingham County. The advan- tages of the district school were supplemented by a course in Oak Ridge Institute, where he grad- uated in the commercial department. At the age of sixteen he went to work for the Greenshoro National Bank as collector, and his active expe- rience in banking circles at Greensboro covers more than thirty years. He was with the National Bank until 1899, when he joined Mr. J. W. Fry
in organizing the Greensboro Loan and Trust Company. Mr. Fry is president.
In 1892 Mr. Allen married Pearl Harrison, who was born in Virginia, daughter of Rev. Trezevant and Mollie (Land) Harrison. Mr. and Mrs. Allen are active members of the First Presbyterian Church. He has served that church continuously as deacon from 1892 and in 1918 was elected an elder.
HON. ROBERT T. POOLE. A lawyer of high stand- ing and with a profitable practice in Montgomery County, Robert T. Poole's career has brought him numerous honors of a public nature and the repu- tation of the useful and worthy citizen. His life has been spent in Montgomery County, and the Poole family is one of the oldest and most sub- stantial of that section.
Mr. Poole was born on a farm near Pekiu in Montgomery County in 1872, a son of J. C. and Elizabeth (Bruton) Poole. His mother represents an old and well known name of the state and she is a cousin of Colonel Bruton of Wilson. For several generations the Pooles have lived in Mont- gomery and Richmond counties. They have done their work in that locality as farmers, profes- sional and, business men and able citizens. Mr. Poole's grandfather, the late Miles Poole, for many years lived at the old Poole place about six miles south of Troy. J. C. Poole, his father, served four years in the Confederate army, enlist- ing from Montgomery County.
Robert T. Poole was reared on his father's farm, and after getting all that the local schools could give him in the way of educational privileges, he entered Trinity College, where he was graduated with the class of 1898. He studied law in the law department of the University of North Carolina and was admitted to the bar in 1899. Mr. Poole chose to take up his residence in the community where he had spent his youth, and at Troy has enjoyed a large clientage and a successful practice for many years. He is recognized as one of the leaders of the Montgomery County bar, and his name is now unknown professionally over the state at large. He also has considerable farming in- terests.
In earlier years Mr. Poole served a term or two as county superintendent of schools. Matters of education have always enlisted his keen interest and support. He has worked with other public spirited citizens in the upbuilding of Troy and in those movements which mean much to the people of the town and the county. In 1908 he was elected a member of the Lower House of the Legis- lature from Montgomery County, and served with credit during the session of 1909.
Mr. Poole married Miss Bessie Pulliam, of Cas- well County. Their family consists of two chil- dren, Mary Elizabeth and Helen.
OLIVER LAFAYETTE WILLIAMS. Occupying a po- sition of prominence among the substantial busi- ness men of Mocksville, Oliver L. Williams is ac- tively associated with the advancement of the manufacturing interests of Davie County and is widely known in an official capacity as vice presi- dent of the Merchants and Farmers Bank of Mocksville, as president of the Mocksville Furni- ture Company of Mocksville and as president of Klyson Hosiery Mills. Connellys Springs, North Carolina. A son of Daniel L. Williams, he was
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born on a farm in Davie County in November, 1865.
Jacob Williams, his paternal grandfather, was born in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, of pio- neer stock, his father having moved there from his native state, Maryland, during the earlier days of its settlement. He grew to manhood on the farm that his father improved from its original wildness, and chose farming for his life work. Coming to that part of Rowan County now known as Davie County in 1833, he purchased land on Dutchman's Creek, and there carried on farming with slave help until his death, when but fifty- seven years old. His wife, whose maiden name was Leagh Bost, survived him a few years, and her body was then laid to rest beside his in the cemetery on their farm.
Daniel L. Williams was born in March, 1832, at Mount Pleasant, Cabarrus County, and on the home farm acquired a practical knowledge of the various branches of agriculture. March 18, 1862, he enlisted in Company E, Forty-second Regiment, North Carolina Troops. He was detailed for spe- cial service in the North Carolina Troops, and re- mained with his command until the close of the conflict. Returning home, he then purchased land in Davie County, near Redland, and there carried on farming successfully the remainder of his ac- tive life, passing away in March, 1915. His wife, whose maiden name was Emma Rice, was born in Davie County, a daughter of Joseph and Camilla (Doughit) Rice, and maternal granddaughter of John Doughit, a man of prominence in his day. She was brought up on her father's farm, and by her mother was well trained in the domestic arts and sciences. She survives her husband, and is now living on the home farm.
Having completed the course of study in the rural schools of his home district, Oliver L. Williams advanced his education in the Smith Grove and Farmington high schools, after which he taught school one term. Entering the Univer- sity of North Carolina in 1887, he continued his studies in that institution for a year, and then embarked upon a business career, engaging in. the manufacture of tobacco in Farmington. In 1893 he transferred his residence and business to Mocksville, where he continued to manufacture tobacco for nine years. In the meantime Mr. Williams had become actively interested in the manufacture of furniture and veneer, and in that industry has since built up an extensive and ex- ceedingly profitable business, having an interest in different mills, including one at Rural Hall, Forsyth County, one at Camden, South Caro- lina. and the one in Mocksville.
Mr. Williams married, December 28, 1893, Miss Mattie Bahnson. She was born in Farmington, Davie County, a daughter of Charles F. and Jane (Johnson) Bahnson, and a granddaughter of Bishop Bahnson, for many years bishop of the North Carolina Province of the Moravian Church. Three children have brightened the union of Mr. and Mrs. Williams, namely: Louise Bahnson, en- gaged in teaching, was graduated from Salem College with the class of 1914; Charles Francis and Martha A. Mr. and Mrs. Williams are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Politi. cally Mr. Williams is a loyal supporter of the principles of the democratic party. Fraternally he is a member of Mocksville Lodge No. 134, An- cient Free and Accepted Order of Masons.
ALEXANDER MCKNITT HERRON, M. D. When not balanced by reasonableness, rationalism is not a desirable quality in any man, whether his efforts be directed along professional or commercial lines. The extremist is not the one who succeeds, but the individual who is capable of visualizing improved economic conditions in the future and to aid in bringing them about through great movements of readjustment. This is particularly true among the men who are engaged in pro- moting scientific studies and the developing of a better education of the people with reference to the laws of health and sanitation. These physicians and surgeons are constantly seeking to find ade- quate expression of their views, and the gradual awakening of the public to the facts they have long been seeking to disclose has a significant time- liness during periods of warfare when human life appears to be held cheaply and the necessity arises to conserve the vital forces of those who are left to carry on the work and hand down to posterity the torch of life. One of these prom- inent medical men of North Carolina, whose tren- chant personality has impressed the people of Charlotte for nearly a quarter of a century, is Dr. Alexander McKnitt Herron, who is not only widely known in his profession, but is a member of an old and distinguished family of Mecklen- burg County.
Dr. Alexander M. Herron was born in Steele Creek Township, Mecklenburg County, North Caro- lina, in 1860, and is a son of Dr. Isaac Wainwright and Alethia (Cooper) Herron, both of whom are now deceased. His father was a famous old- time physician and practiced his profession with- out interruption in Steele Creek Township for fifty-two years or until his death, which occurred in 1904. Generally speaking, the old-time phy- sician has passed with other good things of his day. No more is he to be found in the ranks of the profession he honored; a new generation has succeeded. When he and his associates flourished, the family doctor was, perhaps, much more than a physician to his patient; rather, he was a warm, personal friend, one who not only ministered to the body, but was the recipient of confidences, gave sound advice on many subjects outside his profession and often made himself be- loved through the whole community through his illy-paid and self-sacrificing services. The career of Dr. Isaac Wainwright Herron illustrated the old regime and also, through his qualifications, much that marked the new. Possessing in marked degree a strong personality, a love of humanity aud re- markable mental and moral strength, he became one of the noted medical men of his day and locality.
Dr. Isaac Wainwright Herron was born on the old Herron farm in the north part of Steele Creek Township, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, the son of John W. Herron, who was born on the same place. John W. Herron was the son of Reuben Herron, a Scotch-Irishman who came from Pennsylvania prior to the Revolutionary war and settled in Steele Creek Township. From that time to the present day the Herron family has been an important factor in the history of Steele Creek Township and the Steele Creek Presbyterian Church, which is the historic church of Mecklen- burg County. Dr. Isaac W. Herron received a good preparation for his profession, being a graduate of the famous Charleston Medical College, class of 1852, but, although a physician of constant
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practice, made his living from his farming opera- tions, being one of that old type of country physi- cians who never presented a bill. His services as a physician were always ready at the summons of the afflicted and for over a half a century he min- istered to the ills of his people without expectation of earthly reward. One of the finest of the old country doctors, the entire community mourned at his death.
After completing his primary education in the public schools, Dr. Alexander McKnitt Herron was for two years a student at Davidson College, and then entered Charleston Medical College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1882 and the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He next further prepared himself by a post-graduate course in the Philadelphia Polyclinic, and then returned to the homestead of his birth and became associ- ated with his father, under whose preceptorship he learned much that has been of the greatest value to him in subsequent years. For six years he remained with the elder man, practicing in Steele Creek and Berryhill townships, and then, for about four years, carried on an individual practice over a larger scope of territory, embracing other town- ships in Mecklenburg County. About the year 1893 he changed his center of practice to the City of Charlotte, where he has continued to be one of the successful and prominent members of his profession, engaged in the general practice of med- icine and surgery. Doctor Herron is a member of the Mecklenburg County Medical Society, the North Carolina Medical Society and the Southern Medical Association.
Doctor Herron married Miss Lucy Abernathy, a daughter of Dr. William Abernathy, of Gaston County, and a member of one of the most prom- inent families of Gaston and Lincoln counties, and they have three children: Ashby Herron, Robert Herron and Ruth Herron.
CHARLES O'HAGAN LAUGHINGHOUSE, M. D., president of the North Carolina State Medical Society for 1916-17, has for many years been prominently identified with the public health movement in the state. He is to be credited with much of the work and influence by which this movement has distributed its benefits to nearly every community in North Carolina. Those fa- miliar in even a general way with public health education and regulations have noticed with in- ereasing frequency in recent years the prominence assigned to North Carolina as one of the most efficient and enlightened communities in the en- tire nation in the matter of safeguarding the health and welfare of its citizens. From first to last Doctor Laughinghouse has been a contributor to and a leader in this movement. He brings to the work not only the matured wisdom of a suc- cessful practitioner, but some peculiarly forceful qualities of intellect. His publie addresses show him as a master of facts and arrangement of ideas. His style is forceful almost to bhiffness, and his logie is not only convincing of itself but indicates a personal fearlessness that makes him, when occasion requires, a relentless foe of out- worn creeds and superstitions and even of men who stand in the way of the welfare and well be- ing of the individual and the community.
He is a born fighter and at the same time what has been well called "a practical idealist,"' seeing imperfections everywhere, yet never slacking in ยท the struggle to make things better and to inspire
individuals and communities with a sense of re- sponsibility and their power to improve the lot of humanity. In his address as president before the annual meeting of the Medical Society in April, 1917, Doctor Laughinghouse expressed his appreciation of the wonderful changes wrought by the profession and the people of North Carolina, and at the same time outlined the still greater work of the future and the ideal consummation toward which work is directed.
Of a man who has done and is doing so much for the real glory of North Carolina, it is fortunate that something like a just estimate of his life and character is at hand for publication at this time. This is an appreciative sketch which appeared in the Quarterly of the East Carolina Teachers Train- ing School in 1916. The article with few changes is given practically entire.
The highest honor the physicians of the state can bestow upon a fellow physician is to make him the official head of the organization that binds them together in one body. The man the Medical Society of North Carolina chose to be their leader in the year 1916 is Charles O'Hagan Laughinghouse, a Greenville man, bred and born in the town and one of its foremost citizens. His ideal of a physician is not the professional man who works apart from others, isolating himself and his work, practicing, only for the sake of making a reputation for himself, but it is the physician who uses his profession as a means by which he can help build up his community, by bet- tering conditions in education and sanitation, by developing a higher type of man, by standing for higher ideals of citizenship. As a man's ideals so is the man, therefore, Doctor Laughinghouse is a citizen before he is a professional man.
He has been interested, and actively interested, in most of the public spirited enterprises under- taken in his community during the past twenty years, whether they have been for the physical, the educational or the industrial betterment of the town and county.
He is one of the busiest men in the state. His regular day begins at 7 o'clock in the morning and runs to 1 o'clock the next morning; how long his irregular working day continues no one dares to guess. .
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