USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 61
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standing of Doctor Brenizer. He was born in Charlotte in 1883, son of Maj. A. G. Brenizer, Sr., president of the Commercial National Bank of Charlotte. After his work in the public and high schools at Charlotte he entered the famous Bing- ham Military School at Mebane, from which he was graduated at the age of sixteen. Thence he passed into the University of North Carolina and was a member of the graduating class of 1903. In the meantime he had decided to study medicine and surgery and in pursuance of that object spent four years in Johns Hopkins University, Balti- more, from which he received his M. D. degree in 1907.
After graduating from Johns Hopkins Doctor Brenizer spent four years in post-graduate courses and professional work in Europe. He has a certifi- cate of Doktor von Medicin from the University of Heidelberg. He was assistant and interne in surgery at Heidelberg in 1909-09; assistant in surgery, University of Vienna, 1909; surgeon in charge of the American Hospital at Paris, 1909-11. Obviously such advantages and privileges are open to few American medical men. With this thor- ough preparation Doctor Brenizer established him- self in his native place to practically apply the professional results of his European exerience in the world famed centers of learning and operative skill. In 1911 he became a resident of Charlotte and established the Brenizer Sanatorium, a hos- pital for the diagnosis and treatment of his own surgical cases. The cases accepted were all sur- gical, and Doctor Brenizer from 1911 to 1917 gave his personal supervision to all the patients and to all the details of the management, and was also surgeon in the Presbyterian Hospital. Doctor Brenizer is author of various articles published in the Johns Hopkins Bulletin, Journal of the American Medical Association, Annals of Surgery, New York Medical Journal.
While his associations and work at Charlotte were most congenial to his skill and abilities and constituted a valuable service to the state, Doctor Brenizer did not hesitate when the country made known its needs for qualified physicians and sur- geons in the medical corps. Giving up his hospital, Doctor Brenizer organized Hospital Unit O April 27 to June 12, 1917. He was commissioned Major M. R. C. July 10, 1917; called into active service to Rockefeller Institute and Postgraduate Hos- pital, New York City, September 15, 1917; Cadet Officer, M. O. T. C., Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, be- ginning October 22, 1917; was engaged in Train- ing Hospital Unit O for overseas duty at Fort McPherson, Georgia, and beginning March 16, 1918, has been chief surgeon at Base Hospital No. 6, American Expeditionary Forces.
LYNN W. BUCK, president of the Southern Dye Stuff and Chemical Company, has been well known to the textile industries of North Carolina and the South for a number of years. but has had his home at Charlotte only since 1912.
Mr. Buck organized and has since been the executive head of the Southern Dye Stuff and Chemical Company, whose headquarters are in Charlotte. This company represents all the states south of Mason and Dixon's line for the Obex Company of Marietta, Ohio, extensive manufac- turers of dye wood extracts, dye stuffs and dye stuff specialties. The capital stock of this com- nany, which was organized in 1915, is three quar- ters of a million dollars, and it now has a $1,000,-
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000 plant at Marietta. It is one of the new Amer- ican industries, and has been developed since the war began in Europe, and has contributed a great deal to that desirable economic freedom which makes this country practically independ- ent of Germany for such products. The trade of the Southern Dye Stuff and Chemical Company is largely with the textile mills, paper mills, leath- er manufacturers, wood working plants, and be- sides the large domestic trade it exports much of its products to Japan, India and other countries. The company also acts as southern agents for the National Gum and Mica Company of New York. It is this company which has largely con- tributed to Charlotte's prestige as headquarters of the dye stuff and chemical trade of the South.
Mr. Buck was born at Woodstock, Windsor County, Vermont, and is of old New England an- cestry. His parents, Simon M. and Sarah D. (Fuller) Buck, were both natives of Vermont, and his mother was a sister of Judge W. E. Ful- ler, a distinguished lawyer and jurist who was on the bench for thirty years.
Lym W. Buck grew up at Woodstock, at- tended the old Green Mountain Institute at that place, and on attaining manhood went into the woolen manufacturing business. He soon devel- oped expert skill as a designer of fancy wool- ens. For many years he was connected with the weaving and textile industries in the New Eng- land States, principally Maine, but more and more in later years his interests became identified with the South. He acquired the authority of an expert on machinery for dyeing and bleaching, and equipped several mills in the South with such machinery.
Since establishing his home at Charlotte Mr. Buck has been one of its most active and progres- sive business men and citizens. He is a promi- nent Mason, affiliated with Charlotte Command- ery and Oasis Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He married Miss Annie Tulley, who was born in Ver- mont on historie and beautiful Lake Champlain. They have one daughter, Helen, now the wife of Mr. Charles Torrence of Charlotte.
HON. MARTIN C. FREEMAN. A member of a pioneer family of Richmond County, an ex-member of the North Carolina Legislature, and an agri- culturist whose example of progressive spirit and modern enterprise has been of inestimable value in the influence it has exerted toward the upbuild- ing and development of the community, Hon. Mar- tin C. Freeman, of Hamlet, holds a leading place on the list of men who have contributed to the raising of agricultural standards in Southern North Carolina. He was born on his father's farm in the lower part of Richmond County, about 11/2 miles south of the present town of Hamlet, in 1866, his parents being George J. and Mary A. (Wil- loughby ) Freeman, the former deceased and the latter still living.
George J. Freeman was born in the upper por- tion of Richmond County, and this county con- tinued to be his home throughout life, his death occurring in 1906. He served throughout the war between the states in the Confederate States Navy, in which service he had varied and thrilling experiences, particularly in aiding in the operations of the blockade-runners of the Confederacy along the lower Atlantic coast. Much of his service was in Charleston Harbor and vicinity, and up the Pee Dee River in South Carolina. Following the war his principal occupation was farming, but
during the prosperous times of the turpentine in- dustry he was engaged in that business and was also a merchant at his home place above referred to, about a mile and one half south of the present City of Hamlet. This sturdy descendant of Scotch-Irish ancestry was one of the county 's sub- stantial and greatly respected citizens. Mrs. Free- man, who still survives at the age of eighty-three years and makes her home with her son Martin C. at Hamlet, is of English ancestry.
Martin C. Freeman was educated in the local schools and at the famous private military school of Prof. W. T. R. Bell at King's Mountain, North Carolina. From the time he started upon his inde- pendent career he has been engaged in agricultural pursuits, and is now one of the prominent and successful farmers of Richmond County, which is one of the North Carolina counties noted for its large and successful farming properties. His farm lands, consisting of about 1,000 acres, em- brace his old home place, lying a mile and a half south of Hamlet, while his home residence is located at Hamlet, his lands being worked by ten- ants, with whom he co-operates in every useful way. This farming land lies in the famous Sand Hill Country of North Carolina, notable for its pro- ductiveness, and his farming is devoted principally to cotton, it being not unusual in normal years for his land to produce two bales of cotton to the acre. Mr. Freeman is a farmer of the modern, pushing, progressive kind, a thorough student of conditions and methods, and an earnest, tireless investigator into the value of new discoveries in connection with his vocation. He belongs to the class of men whose labors, inquiries and researches do so much toward the building up of a community and the securing of better results and therefore added prestige.
Mr. Freeman has been twice honored by his fellow-citizens by election to the North Carolina Legislature, serving in the session of 1909, first, and again in the session of 1915. In both of these bodies he was a member of the committee on agri- culture, and very appropriately so, on account of his knowledge of and experience in farming. He was also chairman of the committee on game, and a member of the committee on manufacture and labor, liquor traffic and numerous minor committees. He took an active part in the deliberations of the Lower House and was a useful member for his state and county. Mr. Freeman is one of the active, progressive and public-spirited citizens in the building up of the new and modern City of Hamlet, which he has seen grow up from a small settlement such as it was only a few years ago.
Mr. Freeman has been twice married. His first wife, now deceased, was Miss Alma Barrentine, and of his marriage with her there are three children living: Miss Blanche Freeman, Mrs. Ida Dumeer and George J. Freeman. His present wife was before her marriage Miss Emma Matthews, and to this union there have been born eight children, viz .: Mary, John W., Lucille, Ernest, Julia, Vivian, Martin C., Jr., and Sarah Frances.
GRIFFIN MILLER GOLD, M. D. Several interest- ing distinctions belong to this citizen of Polkville, Cleveland County. He has enjoyed a large coun- try practice over Cleveland County for many years, but has more than a local reputation as an expert in the treatment of fever cases, and in a large sec- tion of country has come to be regarded as the ablest diagnostician and physician in handling ty- phoid. Having always lived in a country district,
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Doctor Gold has followed some of the propensities of the family toward agriculture and when not looking after his patients is usually supervising his extensive and well regulated farms near Polk- ville.
His is one of the old time families of Upper Cleveland County and the Golds have lived here more than a century. Taken as a whole, the fam- ily has been noted for their general work, high character and their exceptional intelligence. His grandfather, who was of Virginia parentage, was a teacher as well as a farmer, and while Cleve- land was a part of Rutherford County represented his district in the State Legislature. The old Gold home was in No. 7 township, about seven miles from the Village of Polkville. Doctor Gold's father, Daniel Pleasant Gold, was born and spent all his life in that section of the county. The mother of Doctor Gold was Peggie (Jenkins) Gold.
Doctor Gold was born in No. 7 township in 1859, and acquired his early education in the local schools and in the Boiling Springs Academy. He prepared for his profession in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore and in the Atlanta Medical College, where he was gradu- ated in 1892. For several years he was located at Lawndale, North Carolina, practicing medicine over Cleveland and Rutherford counties. He then removed to the Village of Polkville, where he carries on an extensive and busy country prac- tice and also owns a drug store and pharmacy adjoining his residence. He has a comfortable and commodious country home, equipped with water system and acetylene lights, and sur- rounded with a highly developed farm of 100 acres. He owns another farm of similar extent in Knob Creek Township. Doctor Gold is a member of the Methodist Protestant Church and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and Masons.
His oldest son, Dr. T. B. Gold, is a graduate of the North Carolina Medical College, and was the physician for the Cleveland Mill and Power Company at Lawndale until he entered the Med- ical Corps of the United States army in Septem- ber, 1917. The other son, Ben Gold, is now in his second year of medical studies in the Uni- versity of North Carolina. The mother of these two progressive sons before her marriage was Miss Ottie Mauney. Her father, Isaac Mauney, was member of the well known family of that name concerning whom more information will be found on other pages of this publication. Besides the two sons Doctor and Mrs. Gold have five daughters, named Willie May, Bertha, Mary, Blanche and Lois.
JOHN SELBY PRIMROSE, whose name carries weight and prestige in the financial districts of New York City, where he has lived for over twenty years, is a North Carolinian by birth and member of an old and prominent family of this state.
He was born at Raleigh August 19, 1874, son of William Stuart and Ella Parmly (Williams) Primrose. His grandfather, John Primrose, who came to this country from Scotland in the early party of the nineteenth century, finally settled at Raleigh, where he became a successful merchant. In 1843 he married Eliza Tarbox, of Hartford, Connecticut, who was descended from many well known New England families. The maternal grandfather of John S. Primrose was John G.
Williams, who married Miriam Carson White. John G. Williams was a well known banker of Raleigh, and at the time of his death was presi- dent of the State National Bank of that city, and was succeeded in his office as president by his widow.
William Stuart Primrose, who was born in 1848 and died in 1909, was a very public spirited and useful citizen of the state. He attended Davidson College with the class of 1863, and was a trustee of that college from 1884 for many years. Dur- ing the latter days of the war between the states he was in the Third Junior Reserve Regiment, attached to the Quartermaster's Department, un- der Col. John W. Hinsdale at Raleigh.
'His business and public career briefly told in- cluded service as assistant cashier of the State National Bank, 1874 to 1878, secretary of the North Carolina Home Insurance Company, 1878 to 1885, and president of the company from 1885 for many years. He was president of the North Carolina State Exposition of 1884, and several times was a member of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, and in 1888-89 a member of the committee on organic union. He served as president of the board of trustees of Peace Institute. He was active in instituting the North Carolina College of Agricultural and Mechanic Arts and by appoint- ment of the governor was the first president of its board of trustees, which position he filled for many years. From an early age until his death he was a ruling elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Raleigh, in whose affairs he took a very active interest, and for many years was treas- urer of Orange Presbytery. He was also an ac- tive Mason.
John Selby Primrose received his education in Peace Institute, the public schools of Raleigh and the Raleigh Male Academy. In 1890 he entered the employ of the First National Bank of Charles- ton, South Carolina, as secretary to the president, where he remained five years. In 1895 he entered the service of the Southern Railway in Washing- ton, D. C., in the general passenger department, and later became a stenographer in the Capitol at Washington, a position that brought him in contact with many prominent public men.
Mr. Primrose became a New Yorker in 1896 and soon afterward engaged in the brokerage busi- ness, dealing in securities for investments. In 1903 he organized the firm of J. S. Primrose & Company, Richard Herzfeld being the special part- ner, and later in the same year Arthur Braun was admitted to the firm, which then took the name of Primrose & Braun. This firm actively engaged in dealing in stocks, bonds, bank and trust com- pany and fire insurance stocks for investment, do- ing no speculative or marginal business. It was dissolved in 1910, and since then Mr. Primrose has continued along the same general lines for himself and has been interested in many matters of financial importance.
Mr. Primrose keeps in close touch with North Carolina affairs and people, and is president of the North Carolina Society of New York. He is a member of the Sons of the Revolution, Society of Colonial Wars, Manhattan Club, Calumet Club, Richmond County Country Club (member of Green Committee), Fox Hills Golf Club, of which he is a member of the Board of Governors and Green Committee, Staten Island Club, New York Southern Society. His New York City address is the Cotton Exchange Building, and his residence
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is at 257 St. Marks Place, New Brighton, Staten Islaud. December 3, 1898, he married Betty J. L. Sommer.
THOMAS ALBERT UZZELL early found the beut of his abilities toward finance, aud as a result of that concentration which is the price of suc- cess iu any line he has become one of North Caro- lina's recognized bankers and business men of thorough ability and the highest stauding.
A native of LaGrange, North Carolina, where he was born August 5, 1877, he is a son of Wright S. and Faunie (Waters) Uzzell. His father was a farmer and the farm was Mr. Uzzell's play- ground and center of experience during his youth. He attended public schools in Lenoir County, a preparatory school at LaGrange, and afterwards the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Raleigh.
His first position after leaving college was as clerk in the National Bank at Goldsboro, aud from that he went in 1901 to the Bank of Beaufort as cashier. Two years later, in August, 1903, he re- moved to Newbern to assist in liquidating the Farmers and Merchants Bank. This having been accomplished he was elected in January, 1904, cashier of the Citizens Bank of Newbern, a post he filled until May, 1907. He then organized the Peoples Bank and opened it for business in Octo- ber, 1907. At first he served as cashier and sub- sequently both as vice president and cashier. He is the organizer and is president of the Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company of Newbern and is president of the Bank of Beaufort. - He is vice president of the Home Building and Loan Association, and for the past three years has been a director of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railway, having been appointed by Governor Locke Craig. Mr. Uzzell is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a steward in the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is trustee, secretary and treasurer for the Newbern district of his church, and has always beeu ideuti- fied with church activities.
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December 3, 1903, he married Corinne Chad- wick, of Beaufort, North Carolina, daughter of Winfield S. Chadwick, a well kuown capitalist of that city. They have three children: Winfield Chadwick, Thomas Albert and Mabel Chadwick.
JOHN DALLAS LANGSTON. One of the leading members of the Goldsboro bar and prominent not only professionally but socially and fraternally is John Dallas Langston. He is a native of North Carolina, born at Aurora in Beaufort County March 22, 1881, and is a son of Rev. George Dal- las and Sallie Ann (Gibbs) Langston. The fa- ther of Mr. Langston is a well known minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
John Dallas Langston very early in life de- termined to be a lawyer and was fortunate in securing an adequate preliminary education be- fore he embarked seriously in the study of law. From private and grade schools he entered the high school of Trinity Park and then became a student in Trinity College, from which insti- tution he was graduated in 1903. He then en- tered the educational field and while teaching school for two years paid close attention to the study of law and by thus applying himself was able to creditably enter the law department of the University of North Carolina in 1904. He then resumed teaching until February, 1905, when
he was admitted to the bar and entered into prac- tice at Mount Olive in Wayne County.
Mr. Langston built up an excellent practice and remained at Mount Olive until September, 1910, when he came to Goldsboro, believing this city offered a wider field. While he is a general prac- titiouer and competent iu every branch of law, he has devoted much attention to banking and corporation law aud is retained as attorney by many financial and incorporated business houses. He was special attorney for the Dunham & South- ern Railroad. He is a valued member of the North Carolina Bar Association, a body that com- mands the respect of the state, he having served as a member of the ethics committee and the judiciary committee. One may find among the early colonial records in our country that there was a time when the profession of law was not held in the high esteem it now enjoys. Its prac- titioners were not, however, as at the present day, men of social status and of thorough legal train- ing and, while some of the country's laws date far back and have come down to the present without material change, the leading practition- ers of law in the twentieth century are men of the highest integrity and membership in a rep- resentative body has a dignified and honorable meaning.
On December 23, 1903, Mr. Langston was unit- ed in marriage with Miss Mary Williams William- son, of Mount Olive, North Carolina, and four children have been born to them, two sons and two daughters: John Dallas, William Dortch, Mary Williamson and Dorothy. Mr. Langston and family are members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church. Their social acquaintance is wide, and in their home they often illustrate that heart- warming hospitality which is a beautiful custom still prevailing in some parts of the South.
Mr. Langston is an active member of the demo- cratic party in this section, believing it to be the duty of every young man to assume political re- sponsbilities as defining his principles. He has accepted no public office, however, but has loy- ally assisted his friends and on many public occa- sions has expressed his political convictions. Un- der appointment he was a member of the staff of Governor Locke Craig, with the rank of colonel. In July, 1917, he was appointed by the Presi- dent member of the district board for the Eastern District of North Carolina in the selective draft. He served as chairman of that board until De- cember 4, 1917, when he was commissioned as major in the infantry section of the Officers Re- serve Corps of the United States army and given detached service as special aide to the governor . of North Carolina in the administration of the selective service law and as disbursing officer and agent of the United States in North Carolina. . Has applied for transfer to foreign service in France, but weighing only 112 pounds has been unable to effect a transfer. In fraternal life Mr. Langston is known over the state in some organ- izations. He belongs to the Masons, to the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, to the Knights of Pythias, of which he is past chan- cellor, to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of which he is a past ruler, and he still re- tains his membership in his Greek letter college fraternity, the Phi Kappa Alpha.
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HENRY ELBERT GIBBONS. The development of a number of communities from small, straggling villages into full-fledged cities forms an important
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part of the history of North Carolina, and as is but natural that no record of this period can be truthfully and completely written without some account of the men who have been associated with this growth. Through their progressive spirit and absolute faith the natural resources of the country have been developed, outside capital has been brought in, and new enterprises and industries have had their inception. Railroads have been induced to build here, labor has been attracted and in- dustralism has been given impetus and encourage- ment. It has taken men of somewhat unusual caliber to foresee something of the future, but fortunately for the communities and for the state in general, these men not only had the self-confi- dence that inspired their own faith, but were like- wise able to convince others, and through their enthusiasm have builded cities where only settle- ments existed before their coming. In this con- nection attention is called to the prosperous and thriving City of Hamlet in Richmond County and to the labors of Henry Elbert Gibbons, to whom as much as to any other citizen the credit should be given for the development that during the short space of approximately fifteen years has trans- formed a once ungainly and practically lawless village into a center of commercial and industrial activity and the home of education, religion and good citizenship.
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