USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 65
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Mr. Ray was born at Charlotte, North Carolina, March 23, 1852, his parents being Col. C. M. and Martha (McEachern) Ray, natives of Cab- arrus County, North Carolina. The late Col. C. M. Ray was a well known business man of Charlotte, prior to the war between the states, a man of success and prominence as a merchant. Before the war he had been a colonel of the State Militia, and during that struggle, not being in service at the front on account of his advanced age, he was an officer of an organization of Home Guards, or Reserves, at Charlotte. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry and possessed all the sterling attributes of character of that race, a fine man in every way and of splendid intellectual attainments. Mrs. Ray, also of Scotch-Irish ancestry had two brothers, James and Robert McEachern, who were citizens of note during their day, both being physicians and one a member of the North Carolina senate.
Robert R. Ray was reared at Charlotte in a refined, Christian household, and received his edu- cation in private schools and at Charlotte Male Academy. When about twenty years of age he entered upon his career as a bookkeeper, and in this capacity came, in 1882, to Gaston County, where he spent three or four years as bookkeener of the McAden Mills at McAdenville. Displaying
marked ability, fidelity and integrity, he received steady promotion, until he was finally made treas- urer of the company, and at the time of the death of Col. R. Y. McAden, who had founded the mills, Mr. Ray became in addition to treasurer the gen- eral manager of the company, since which time he has been in charge of the plant and of all its business. The MeAden mills is one of the largest and most substantial cotton mill industries in the State of North Carolina. Its long years of honor- able dealing give it a place of the highest stand- ing in the commercial world. The capital stock of the company is $400,000, while the mills operate 350 looms and 28,000 spindles, the product being colored goods and yarns. The management of such a large enterprise entails responsibilities of a difficult character and makes necessary the pos- session of more than ordinary abilities and exe- cutive force. Mr. Ray not only handles the opera- tions of this industry in an entirely capable man- ner, but finds time for participation in other busi- ness affairs, and has numerous other interests, being vice president and a director of the First National Bank of Gastonia, a director of the Gastonia Insurance and Realty Company, a di- rector of the McAden mills, a director in the Wood- lawn Manufacturing Company, a cotton mill of Mount Holly, North Carolina, and a director of the Bank of Belmont, North Carolina. Mr. Ray is an ex-president of the Cotton Manufacturers Association of North Carolina.
As a citizen of his county and state Mr. Ray enjoys a place of highest standing and esteem on account of his high character and his usefulness to his community. He is a democrat in politics, and while manifesting a keen interest in political and public affairs, has never aspired to be a candidate for office. Consequently it was in the nature of a surprise that he was nominated in 1916 as candidate for the State Senate, and at the general election of that year he was chosen to represent the Thirty-first District in the State Senate, where his long experience and thorough qualifications as a business man will give him a place of much influence. For several years he has been a member of the State Democratic Executive Committee. In August, 1916, Mr. Ray was honored by Governor Locke Craig, by being appointed a member of the board of trustees of the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts of North Carolina, an appointment that met with universal commenda- tion by the press and people of the state His entire career has been one in which he has lived up to a high standard of ideals, whether in busi- ness, public or private life. He has placed the duties of citizenship on a par with his private interests, and to his labors in every field has brought an earnestness and sincerity that have made themselves felt for good.
Mr. Ray was married to Miss Mary Downs, who was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and is a direct descendant of one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. Her family is of Revolutionary ancestry in North Carolina. To Mr. and Mrs. Ray there have been born three sons and three daughters: Ed C., M. J. and Dr. Ralph; Mrs. Mena Glenn, Mrs. Lottie Dixon and Miss Mary Grace.
ARCHIBALD MCLEAN GRAHAM. A prominent lawyer of Clinton who has been in active practice for the past eighteen years, Archibald McLean Graham is a native of North Carolina, and has
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lived in the state continuously except for the time he was preparing for his profession in the Uni- versity of Virginia.
Mr. Graham graduated from the law department of the University of Virginia in 1899, and at once began practice at Clinton, where he soon sur- rounded himself with a prosperous clientage. Mr. Graham has been busy with his private practice nearly all the years, though he took time to serve the city in the office of mayor and is also a director of the Bank of Sanford. He is an active member of the North Carolina Bar Association.
Mr. Graham was born at Wallace in Duplin County, North Carolina, October 18, 1873, a son of Donald McLean and Elizabeth A. (Murphy) Gra- ham. His father was a successful physician in Duplin County. Mr. Graham prior to entering the University of Virginia was educated in the public schools. He is a Lodge and Chapter Mason and he and his family are well known socially at Clinton.
He was married December 12, 1906, to Miss Allie Lee, of Clinton, daughter of Dr. A. M. Lee. They have four children: Allie Lee, Annie Eliza- beth, Eleanor Elliott and Mary McLean.
JOSEPH FLANNER PATERSON, M. D. One of the successful young surgeons in North Carolina is Dr. Joseph F. Paterson, of Newbern, founder and one of the proprietors of St. Luke's Hospital of that city. He is a surgeon of broad and thor- ough training and his individual abilities have been trained and matured by association with the greatest surgeons of America. He has done a notable work in Newbern and is not yet at the zenith of his powers.
He was born in Newbern October 20, 1884, a son of James Albert and Eliza Jenkins (Flan- ner) Paterson. His father was for many years a traveling salesman and also was a collector of United States customs. Doctor Paterson was well educated in local schools, spent one year in the literary department of the University of North Carolina, and read medicine two years in the State University. He took his higher courses in the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, where he was graduated M. D. in June, 1906. During 1906-07 he was an interne in the Phila- delphia Polyclinic Hospital and then returned to his native city to take up general practice. His abilities have more and more brought him into the work of surgery and in 1915 he and Dr. R. DuVal Jones built St. Luke's Hospital, a splen- did modern institution with facilities for thirty beds and with a staff of trained nurses and as- sistants so that the hospital furnishes a service not excelled by any institution of its size in the state.
Doctor Paterson is a member of the Craven County and North Carolina Medical societies and the American Medical Association. He belongs to the college fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon and to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He has served as health officer of Craven County and is surgeon for the Roper Lumber Company.
Doctor Paterson was married April 16, 1913, to Miss Isabelle Simmons, daughter of Furni- fold M. Simmons, elsewhere mentioned in this publication. Doctor and Mrs. Paterson have two children : M. Simmons Paterson and Joseph Flan- ner Paterson, Jr.
ROBERT B. TERRY is postmaster of the City of Hamlet in Richmond County and is grandson of the founder of the town. Thus an unusual relation- ship exists between him and what is now one of the most prosperous and thriving railroad points and industrial centers of a great and populous county.
The founder of Hamlet was his mother's father, the late John Shortridge. His career deserves some special mention in this history not only because he started the town of Hamlet but because of his many varied activities as an industrial leader in the middle half of the last century. John Short- ridge was born at Carlisle, Cumberlandshire, Eng- land, in 1820. As a boy he was apprenticed in his native city to learn the cotton and woolen mill business, and he was identified with those industries practically all his life. At the age of nineteen, in the latter part of 1838, he came with his parents to America, first locating in the State of Maine. On account of his expert knowledge of cotton milling, as learned in England, he was soon afterwards given a position as superintendent of a cotton mill at Newport, Rhode Island. While he lived there his daughter Mary Shortridge, mother of Robert B. Terry, was born.
In the latter '40s John Shortridge and his immediate family moved to Augusta, Georgia, where he established a cotton mill. During the '50s he removed from Augusta to Richmond County, North Carolina, and at Rockingham he became manager and later one-fourth owner in one of the first cotton mills in the county. He also built and operated a woolen mill there. These mills meant a great deal to the Confederacy dur- ing the war, and he was retained as their operator and manager and made hundreds of bolts of cloth used by the Confederate Government. Before the close of the war, when General Sherman's Army marched through on its destructive course, both inills were destroyed.
It was in 1874 that John Shortridge bought a considerable body of land now included in the site of the city of Hamlet. On that land he estab- lished a saw mill and continued its operation for several years, until the local supply of timber was exhausted. In connection with the sawmill he also established a foundry. Up to 1877 this little milling center was called Shortridge's Mills. In the latter year Mr. Shortridge himself changed the name to Hamlet, a quaint English name that appealed to him. From that time forward until his death in 1884 he was first and foremost in every movement for the upbuilding and better- ment of the community. He donated all the land for the right of way and other necessary grounds for the Raleigh & Augusta Railroad. which he induced to build through Hamlet. This subse- quently became part of the main line of the great Seaboard system, and that railroad is now the one greatest sustaining factor in the prosperity of the City of Hamlet. Hamlet is at the junction of the main line with the Wilmington and Rutherfordton Division, and benefits by the location of the large shops and division headquarters. Though John Shortridge died before Hamlet had more than be- gun its present growth, he predicted a splendid future for the town, and his predictions have been more than realized. It is a busy thriving city with more than four thousand population.
Robert B. Terry was born in 1866 at Laurel Hill in Richmond County, not far from the present
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town of Hamlet. His parents Martin V. and Mary (Shortridge) Terry, are both deceased. He was quite young when his father died. Both his father and his paternal grandfather were natives of Richmond County. The Terry family is an old and distinguished one in the South. Some of the name went to Mississippi many years before the war, and others became identified with the early history of Texas and gave a number of prominent characters to the annals of the Lone Star. State. Terry' County, Texas, was named for the famous leader of Terry's Rangers during the Civil war.
Reared and educated in Richmond County, Robert B. Terry has lived at Hamlet more or less continuously since 1886. For several years he was telegrapher and train dispatcher at vari- ous points on the Seaboard & Southern Railway, and is a veteran railroad man. On June 15, 1913, he was appointed to his present position as post- master of Hamlet, and now gives most of his time to the administration of that office.
He married Miss Margaret Stalnaker, who was born in West Virginia. They have four children : Margaret, Robert, William and Mary.
JAMES W. MCNEILL, M. D. While no present member of the McNeill family of Cumberland County, North Carolina, needs any glory of the past to give him distinction, it undoubtedly is a satisfaction to be able to claim as a just tribute to his Scottish ancestors the old coat of arms won by them in days gone by, with its inscription "Vin- cere vel Mori" (to do or to die). No less apt is this inscription today than two hundred years ago. The MeNeills have belonged to North Carolina since 1792, when Neill McNeill, the paternal grandfather of Dr. James W. McNeill, a prominent citizen of the Fayetteville community, came from Scotland and settled in Cumberland County.
James W. McNeill was born in Cumberland County, North Carolina, in 1849. His parents were Hector and Mary (McNeill) McNeill. Hector Mc- Neill was born in Cumberland County, North Caro- lina, and was a son of Neill and Sarah (Graham) McNeill, the former of whom located first on the Cape Fear River, North Carolina, and for some years was a captain of a vessel plying on that river between Fayetteville and Wilmington and later settled permanently near Fayetteville. There Hector McNeill was educated, having notable scholarly kindred on the maternal side, a cousin, Prof. Alexander Graham, being superintendent of schools at Charlotte, North Carolina, for many years, and the latter's nephew, Dr. E. K. Graham, president of the University of North Carolina. Hector McNeill became a prosperous planter and also was prominent in public affairs and served Cumberland County as sheriff for eight years.
It so happened that James W. McNeill had an interrupted school career in boyhood. He was twelve years old when the war between the states became a fact, and for some years following con- ditions in his neighborhood gave educational effort little encouragement. While, perhaps, his books received less attention, for he had been a diligent and eager student, the prevailing circumstances and his environment were illuminating and develop- ing. A youth who daily faced dangers that often would have discouraged a man, in driving mules to the troops across an enemy infested territory, in carrying dispatches, and even in suffering arrest in his Confederate uniform, could scarcely be desig- nated as permitting his mind to lie fallow.
During the closing years of the war Dr. McNeill was a student in Major Banks' Military Academy at Fayetteville. After the war closed he entered upon the study of medicine, attending Bellevue Medical College, New York, and was graduated from that great institution in the class of 1876. Previous to this, however, he had practiced in Duplin County for some two years, but after grad- uation came to Fayetteville and here he has been established for over forty years. His skill and ability have been widely recognized and he has been frequently honored both professionally and otherwise. In 1893 he was elected president of the North Carolina State Medical Society; is health officer at the present time for Fayetteville, and is quarantine officer for Cumberland County, and additionally is examining surgeon for the Cumberland County Exemption Board. Not only has Doctor McNeill become a physician and sur- geon of note, but in public life, as a member of the State Legislature, he displayed such true states- manlike integrity, courage and wisdom that his fellow citizens could not fail of being impressed. As a matter of fact, he was such a strong advocate of admirable legislative measures that he won especial fame in one of the most important and notable sessions of the General Assembly, being denominated as one of the five "God Blessed Macs," all of whom bore a Scotch surname and were united in supporting worthy legislation,
Doctor McNeill was married in December, 1877, to Miss Annie Pemberton, who belongs to one of the historic old families of Fayetteville and is a daughter of John A. Pemberton. To Doctor and Mrs. McNeill the following children have been born: Norman, Kenneth, Lauchlin, Hector and Allen Pemberton, all five of whom are volunteers in the United States service; Adrian and Mrs. Annie Stancill, of Fayetteville; and Mrs. Marga- ret Wilson, of Virginia. Not every family in the land is giving such proof of patriotism as that of Doctor and Mrs. McNeill, and in this connection opportunity is taken to quote from a Fayetteville newspaper under date of September 1, 1917:
"When the West Point graduation ceremonies came to a close yesterday, another Fayetteville woman could say that she had five boys in the active service of the United States army. These five sons are: Norman McNeill, who received his commission as a second lieutenant from the hands of Secrtary of War Baker at West Point Military Academy, and is now a first lieutenant; Kenneth McNeill, a sergeant in Company F, Second North Carolina Infantry and now in France; Lauchlin McNeill, sergeant of Company A, North Carolina Engineers and now in France and Hector and Allen Pemberton. Lieutenant McNeill, who re- ceived his commission yesterday, was a member of the West Point class of 1918, graduated ten months ahead of time and will probably be assigned to the duty of training drafted soldiers. He has al- ways taken a high stand at the military academy and was prominent in athletics, being captain of the 1917 baseball team and a catcher on the first team since his initial year at West Point."
Doctor McNeill is an active participant in all civic affairs and is a supporter of many worthy enterprises. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church. A recent proof of the general confidence in which he is held, was his appointment by Gov- ernor Glenn as a member of the commission to supervise the expenditure of the appropriation of a half million dollars for the improvement of the
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State Hospital for the Insane and to make further provision for their intelligent and humane care.
HON. DAVID MACKINZIE CLARK, a prominent law- yer of Greenville, is especially well known through- out the state because of his practical co-operation with the good roads movement. As a member of the Legislature he has done more to expedite the building of good roads in the various townships and counties than any other man.
The first important legislation which he intro- duced, and had passed, was in the session of 1913, when he brought in the bill entitled "An Act to provide for the working of public roads of various townships and issuing bonds for same." By the provisions of this act counties were permitted to issue bonds after a eall for special election and a vote approving same without the special consent of the Legislature. Thus each township could vote for good roads, issue bonds, and carry out the plan of improvement unhampered by the usual political pull formerly required for such action. As a result and under the provisions of this act all or nearly all the townships of the state have issued bonds providing for the construction of good roads.
Supplemental to this meritorious act Mr. Clark was author of what is known as the "State's Aid Road Bill," passed in the session of 1917. By this act is created a semi-annual road fund, not exceeding $400,000, which is distributed among the several counties of the state in the manner pre- scribed by law for permanent road improvement. The special advantage of this act is that the capi- tal required for the building of good roads is obtained at a lower rate of interest than is usually possible when the individual counties or townships are borrowers. The state fund is based upon bond issues at a rate of 4 per cent and the fund is loaned to the different counties at 5 per cent interest.
David MacKinzie Clark was born in Halifax, North Carolina, September 21, 1885, a son of Edward Thorne and Margaret (Illington) Clark. His father was also a successful lawyer. Mr. Clark was educated in the Halifax High School and at first prepared for a technical profession as a civil engineer, taking his course in the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Raleigh. He was a civil engineer with the C. C. and O. Railway from 1905 to 1907, and in March of the latter year moved to Greenville, where he was appointed city engineer. In that capacity he built the steel bridge at Greenville and was employed in many other engineering projects and enterprises. He was also engineer for the Training School at Green- ville.
In the meantime Mr. Clark took up the study of law at Wake Forest College, and was admitted to the bar in August, 1911. Since 1912 he has handled a general practice at Greenville. Mr. Clark was elected a member of the Legislature for 1913-14 and again for 1915-16. He is secretary and treasurer and a member of the Board of Governors of the Carolina Club, is past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, which he has served as district deputy, and has filled all the chairs in the Improved Order of Red Men. He is president of the Baraca Class of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. Clark has delivered addresses to conventions of the North Carolina Good Roads Association at Asheville, North Carolina and Wightsville Beach, and to the convention of the Southern Appalachian
Good Roads Association at Nashville, Tennessee. He is not within the draft, but has volunteered in the Chemical Warfare Service in the United States Army.
Further ancestral history of Mr. Clark is con- tained in the sketches of the Lillington and Wil- liams families.
THE WILLIAMS FAMILY, which has furnished many notable names, not only in the history of North Carolina, but in several other states, espe- cially Tennessee, goes back to Nathaniel Williams, who lived in Hanover County, Virginia. He reared four sons, Robert, John, Nathaniel and Joseph. Robert became a man of wealth and an eminent lawyer in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. The other three sons all came to North Carolina. Some of their descendants became prominent as con- gressmen, judges and as men of affairs and busi- ness.
Joseph Williams, youngest of the four sons, on coming to North Carolina clerked in the store of his cousin, Joseph Williams. He married the daughter of Thomas Lanier, of Granville County, and shortly afterward moved to Surry County. He was soon elected clerk of Surry County Court, and held that office until his death in 1828.
During the Revolutionary war Joseph Williams was a colonel in the Whig Army, and fought several battles with the Tories ,to whom he was exceedingly obnoxious. One time three of his neighbors, Tories, formulated a plan to kill Joseph Williams, and it was his good fortune to receive information in advance of the execution of the plan and he led the party which broke up the plot and witnessed the summary execution of two of the gang.
Joseph Williams reared eight sons and two daughters. The oldest son, Gen. Robert Williams, lived in Raleigh and for many years was adjutant general of the state and also trustee and treasurer of the University of North Carolina. The second son, Joseph Williams, was a farmer and clerk of the Superior Court of Surry County. The third, Col. John Williams, went to Tennessee, rose to prominence as a lawyer, served five years in the United States Senate, was appointed minister to Central America by John Quincy Adams, and was a gallant officer in the Seminole Indian war and also in the war against the Crete Nation, where his regiment did most of the hard fighting in the battle of the Horseshoe. The fourth son of Joseph Williams, William Williams, also moved to Tennes- see and was a farmer. The other sons, Thomas and Alexander Williams, also went to Tennessee. Thomas was for many years judge of the Chancery Court of that state, while Alexander became a successful physician at Greenville, Tennessee.
Another one of these brothers, Hon. Lewis Wil- liams, a twin brother of Judge Thomas, was elected representative in Congress for fourteen con- secutive terms and died in Washington City in 1842, before the expiration of his last term. He was for many years called the "Father of the House, " and John Q. Adams in his eulogy speaks of the great influence Lewis Williams possessed over members of the House and his power to quell with a word the tumultuous party quarrels. At one period of his political life he was in Congress with seven other Williamses, all related, and no one more distantly than first cousins.
Of the eight sons the youngest was N. L. Wil- liams, who lived for many years at Panther Creek, North Carolina, and was the last survivor of his
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brothers. He reared a family, two of his sons being Joseph and Lewis Williams, while his oldest daughter married John A. Lillington, member of another prominent family mentioned briefly in this publication.
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