USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 68
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However, teaching did not extend the opportuni- ties that were sufficient to keep him long in the vocation. He entered merchandising at Aberdeen and subsequently added real estate and lumbering. He organized the Bank of Aberdeen, and for three years was its cashier and manager. While con- nected with this bank Mr. Graham distinguished himself by his hard work and the energetic quali- ties he put into the management, and it was largely due to him personally that it became a successful financial institution. The best evidence of this is found in the fact that when the bank was sold to the Page Bank & Trust Company each original stockholder of the Bank of Aberdeen was paid two dollars and eight cents for every dollar of his investment.
At present Mr. Graham's chief interests are in lumber mills. He is one of the leading lumber manufacturers in this section of North Carolina. His sawmills at Selma, Hamlet and one or two other places are contributing more than a modest share to the aggregate output of the lumber manu- factories of the state.
The educational traditions of the family have been well sustained by Mr. Graham. He was one of the leading spirits in establishing the splendid graded school system. He is president of the board, and as such he bore the main responsibility in the erection of the splendid high school building, an achievement of which he may well feel proud and which may well stand as his best mouument as a citizen.
Mr. Graham marricd Miss Kate Blue. Her father, John Blue, of Aberdeen, was builder and is owner and president of the Aberdeen & Rockfish Railway, extending from Aberdeen to Fayetteville. Mr. Blue is one of the really big men of his section and generation.
JUDGE WALTER P. STACY. On November 30, 1915, Governor Locke Craig issued a commission to Walter P. Stacy, of the Wilmington bar, as superior court judge for the Eighth Judicial Dis- trict to succeed Hon. George Rountree, who had resigned. That appointment was not only one based upon thorough fitness and character, but was especially noteworthy because it created the youngest judge of a court of higher jurisdiction in the State of North Carolina.
Judge Stacy was not yet thirty-one years of age when he was appointed, and was only a few days past his birthday when he assumed the role and functions of the judicial office on January 1, 1916. In the June primaries of 1916 he was nominated as the regular democratic party candidate for the unexpired term, subject to the formal ratification of the people in the general election of November, 1916.
Walter P. Stacy was born at Ansonville in Anson County, North Carolina, December 26, 1884. His father, Rev. L. E. Stacy, now living in Cleve- land County (1918), for many years has been
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actively identified with the Western North Caro- lina Conference of the Methodist Church. Owing to the itinerant character of his services in the ministry, his home was moved from place to place in the Piedmont district of North Carolina, and Judge Stacy therefore seldom attended school in one place longer than four years. When he was twelve he entered Weaverville College, at which locality his father was then pastor. He finished his preparatory training in the high school at Morven, and afterwards entered the University of North Carolina, where he pursued the four year course and was graduated in 1908 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. While at Chapel Hill he was a leader in college life and enjoyed the confidence and respect of both faculty and students. In his senior year he was assistant in physics, winner of the Wiley P. Mangum medal for oratory, and ap- peared in his second intercollegiate debate.
After his graduation he continued with the university one year as assistant in history, and applied himself diligently to the study of law. Admitted to the bar in 1909, he spent a few months as principal of one of the Raleigh graded schools and then resigned to enter private practice at Wilmington, as partner with Graham Kenan. The firm of Kenan & Stacy soon became recog- mized as containing some of the best legal talent in that judicial district. In 1914 the firm was chosen by the board of county commissioners as county attorneys. For the legislative session of 1915 Judge Stacy was elected to represent New Hanover County, and he distinguished himself by a close attention to his duties and by an active service in behalf of some of the important legis- lation enacted during the assembly session. He was a leader in the fight for the state wide primary law and for the creation of the state fisheries commission, and was a member of the committees on finance, education, corporations, internal im- provements, and on the joint committee on libraries and chairman of the joint committee on trustees of universities. He was appointed a member of the commission which investigated the Carter- Abernethy dispute after the regular session.
It was not only the quality of his service as a lawyer but also as a citizen of such public spirit as could never be questioned that has brought Judge Stacy to his enviable prominence. He has allied himself with every important movement for the betterment of his home city, and has served on the board of directors and was elected president of the Wilmington Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation. He and his three brothers are all gradu- ates of the University of North Carolina. M. H. Stacy, one of the brothers, is now a member of the university faculty and dean of the academic department. Another brother, H. E. Stacy, is a lawyer at Lumberton, while the youngest brother, Lucius Stacy, was graduated from the university in 1915.
Since entering upon his duties on the bench Judge Stacy, by the rapid dispatch of business and the impartial and dignified conduet of many im- portant cases that have come before him, has well justified the opinion entertained of him by his friends and so well expressed in an editorial in a Wilmington paper which appeared at the time of his appointment. From this editorial are quoted the following words:
"Young in years yet learned in the law, Judge Stacy will ably portray the role he has been
selected to play. His character and courage are of such caliber as to render faithful performance of duty. He will also have the distinction of being the youngest member of the Superior Court bench.
"The career of Walter P. Stacy has been one of marked success and exemplifies what can be achieved by a man who when possessed of ability will make use of it in a proper way, and will so deport himself as to win the approval of his fel- lowman, because it takes character as well as ability to succeed in this life. There are times when ability wins by its force, but success is never lasting unless there be character to back it. With- out attributes of the soul the foundation upon which ability would rest soon crumbles away.
"Judge Stacy has been a young man who has performed his duty, without fear or favor, as he saw it. He has always leaned to what he thought was right and has so moved among his fellowmen that even though there may have been disagree- ments they were admittedly of the mind and not of the heart. This is not only a plume in any man's hat, but it stands him well in hand in the hour when merit is to be scrutinized and honor bestowed.
"The appointment also carries additional honor, as the Governor had presented to him the names of able lawyers, backed by big endorsements. It was a rare list the Governor had to select from- each man espoused a splendid lawyer and gentle- man. ''
Within a comparatively short time, Judge Stacy has made an enviable record as a nisi prius, or trial judge. He is even tempered, always courteous, and careful to administer the law impartially. Being well equipped by education and training for the duties of his office, he presides over his courts with ease, dignity and equipoise. He is a jurist of ripe learning and acute mind, a student of public affairs, and withal a man of rare tact and good judgment.
WILLIAM HENRY HENDERSON has had a pro- gressive career, stimulated by ambition and with a utilization of every opportunity that came in his path, and is now one of the leading bankers of Newbern.
He was born at Richland in Onslow County, North Carolina, August 3, 1882, a son of William Henry and Margaret Ann (Murray) Henderson. His father was one of the most substantial farm- ers in that section and was also interested in real estate business. The son was well educated in the public schools, but early left school to iden- tify himself with practical form of business en- terprise. For two years he served as cashier of the People's Bank of Richland, North Carolina, and in January, 1909, he removed to Newbern and for four years was teller of the Newbern Banking and Trust Company. His ability as a financier enabled him to take a prominent part in the organization of the Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company and he has since held the position of cashier. He is also treasurer of the Eastern Carolina Bar Association, director and treasurer of the Chamber of Commerce of New- bern, and is secretary and treasurer of the Home Building and Loan Association. Fraternally Mr. Henderson is affiliated with the Masonic Order and Shrine, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Improved Order of Red Men and the Woodmen of the World.
On November 6, 1906, he married Miss Laura
Jakie Nost
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Sabiston, of Jacksonville, North Carolina. They are the parents of three children: Margaret, Sarah Mae and William Henry, third.
JAMES LEE BOST is a native of North Carolina, well known among the communities of several counties as an educator, but has achieved his big success in life in the field of life insurance. He is recognized as one of the most successful in- dividual producers in the country, and for the past fourteen years has had his home in Washing- ton, where he is general agent for the Home Life Insurance Company of New York, and is president of the Life Underwriters Association of the Dis- triet of Columbia.
He is not the only member of the Bost family that has won more than local distinction during a residence in this country and state through more than a century and a half. The Bosts are of French Huguenot origin, but lived in Switzerland and Germany for some years before the founders eame to America. Their first home here was in Pennsylvania. About 1760 several brothers of this family followed the tide of emigration south and settled in Cabarrus and Rowan counties, North Carolina. The old home of this particular branch is at Bost's Mills on Rocky River in Cabarrus County, where descendants of the family still live. They have been distinguished as a strong and sturdy race of people, usually possessing large families and characterized by longevity of years. W. T. (Tom) Bost, the noted journalist of the Greensboro News, is a consin of James Lee Bost.
The grandfather of James Lee Bost was Simon Bost, who was born at Bost's Mills, North Carolina, September 13, 1813, and was one of a family of eleven children. Caleb E. Bost, father of James Lee, was born at Bost's Mills November 6, 1842, and has been a prominent farmer, but is now re- tired in Florida. His farm at Cornelius, Meck- lenburg County, is still owned by him and is con- sidered one of the most beautiful and productive cotton and grain farms in that seetion of the state. Caleb E. Bost served throughout the war in the Confederate service as a member of Com- pany H, Seventh North Carolina Infantry, in General Hill's Corps of Lee's Army. He was twice wounded in action and was in some of the fiereest battles around Richmond and in other places in Virginia. His brother, William H. Bost, was killed in action in the battle of Gettysburg. Caleb Bost moved from Cabarrus County to Cornelius before the town of that name was started, and his farm adjoins the village and is situated on the main highway.
It is not aloue from his father's people that James Lee Bost is indebted for his inheritance. His mother was Mary Elizabeth Seagle, who died in- 1916, in her seventy-fourth year. She repre- sented a strong and sturdy family of German and Swiss origin. Her father, Daniel Seagle, was a militia general in North Carolina prior to the Civil War. Her grandfather, John Seagle, was a patriot soldier in the Revolution and fought in the battle of King's Mountain, a turning point in the struggle for liberty. The Seagles lived in Lineoln and Catawba counties prior to the Revolutionary War, coming to this state also from Pennsylvania. Mary Elizabeth Seagle was one of a family of fifteen children. Seven of them were still living at the close of 1917, the oldest being then nearly ninety-three years of age. Mary Elizabeth had nine brothers who served in the Confederacy in the war between the states, one of them being killed
at the battle of Chancellorsville. Five of her brothers are still living, and two sisters have their home near Lineolnton. She possessed unusually strong and lovable traits of character, was well educated, taught school several years during her young womanhood, and throughout her long and useful life was devoted to her family and the up- building of the social communities in which she lived.
James Lee Bost was born at his father's farm at Bost's Mills, Cabarrus County, June 26, 1872. He grew up on the farm at Cornelius, North Caro- lina, and acquired part of his literary education in Davidson High School, only two miles from the old home, and later entered Trinity College, where · he was graduated with the class of 1895. While at college the subject of this sketeh was known to be active and studious and took high rank in his class standing. He represented his class as com- meneement speaker during his sophomore, junior and senior years, and was vice-president of the Hesperian Literary Society in his senior year. He took an enthusiastic interest in athletics, repre- sented his class on its football team during each of four years, and represented his elass on the college football team in his senior year. Many people in North Carolina know him chiefly through his work as an educator. After leaving eollege he took charge of the Troutman High School in Iredell County as principal, and distinguished him- self in this first position. The school had only twenty-five pupils when he took charge, and he left it with an enrollment of a hundred and twenty-five. In the meantime he had perfected its eurriculum and service into a first class graded high school. He then established and was prinei- pal of Mount Zion Academy at Coruelius for two years. Then for two years he was principal of Farmer Institute at Farmer, near Ashboro, in Randolph County. Mr. Bost left the schoolroom to enter Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, where he did post graduate work in history, poli- tieal seienee and economies. It was while a stu- dent in Johns Hopkins that he became interested in the work of life insurance.
Life insurance has been his chosen and active vocation since 1903. At first he was with the Equitable Life of New York, but since 1906 has been with the Home Life Insurance Company of New York. For three years he was an agent, was then promoted to district agent, and is now a gen- eral agent for his company for the District of Columbia. He established his permanent home at Washington in 1904. Since that year he has been a leader on his company's record, twice for the most new business written by an individual producer in a given year, and once for the largest agency production in one year. He is known as one of the largest individual producers in the District of Columbia and personally writes from a quarter to a half million dollars life insurance each year.
But all his thought and time are not given to the produetive phase of life insurance. He has done much to put the life insurance business on a high ethical plane. His own work and knowledge of insurance is based on deep study of the seience and thorough preparation for its presentment to all classes of individuals. At the annual meeting of the District of Columbia Life Underwriters Association October 12, 1917, Mr. Bost was elected president of the Association, of which he has been an active member since its organization. He had previously served as its vice-president, also as chairman of the Executive Committee and has
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headed the Educational Committee for two terms. As such he has delivered and conducted lectures on life insurance in the several high schools of Wash- ington, the Young Men's Christian Association and George Washington University. He is also a mem- ber of the executive committee of the National Life Underwriters, and was a delegate to its annual convention at St. Louis in 1916 and at New Orleans in 1917.
Mr. Bost is a prominent citizen of Washington and is identified with many of the most useful activities of that city. He is a participant in civic and reform movements, a member of the Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade. In the campaign for subscriptions for the First Liberty Loan in 1917 he was captain of a life insurance team which led all others, the record of his team in bonds sold being $224,350.00. He has also taken a prominent part in subsequent Liberty Loan drives, and also belongs to the "Four Minute Men" organization of Washington. Mr. Bost is a member of the Masonic orders, belongs to the Scottish Rite bodies, having attained the 32nd degree and is a member of Almas Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of Mystic Shrine, of Waslı- ington. He is secretary and treasurer of the North Carolina Society of the District of Columbia, iu which he has taken a very active interest, a mem- ber of the Southern Society, and is secretary of the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association of Wash- ington. Mr. Bost is one of the active members and has served as president for nine years of the Kappa Alpha Alumni Association of Washington, a college fraternity, in which he takes much pride and interest. Through his leadership a chapter house for the fraternity was established in Wash- ington aud is now occupied by the local Chapter, which has 250 members. He represented as dele- gate his fraternity at the College Inter-Fraternity Conference held in New York in 1917, and was vice president of the Kappa Alpha Convention held in Jacksonville, Florida, in December, 1917.
Religiously Mr. Bost grew up a Methodist, but has given much time and study to the philosophy of New Thought, and is an active worker in its movement. He was a delegate to the International New Thought Congress at Chicago in 1916, and was appointed chairman of. the Publicity Com- mittee. He is very fond of outdoor life, is an enthusiastic motorist. golf and tennis player, and is a member of the Washington Golf and Country Club.
GEORGE H. BROWN, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, has beeu a mem- ber of the state bar since 1872, and in forty-five years has spent nearly thirty on the bench.
He was born at Washington, North Carolina, May 3, 1850, son of Sylvester T. and Elizabeth (Bonner) Brown. His early education was ac- quired in Horner Academy at Oxford. He began practice at Washington, North Carolina, in 1872, and in 1889 was elevated to the bench as judge of the Superior Court. On January 1, 1905, he was elected a justice of the Supreme Court, and his service on that bench has been continuous for thirteen years. Judge Brown is a member of the Episcopal Church. He married Laura Ellison December 17, 1874. His home still remains at Washington, though his duties the greater part of the year require his presence at Raleigh.
GEN. LAURENCE WOODVILLE YOUNG. After the regular army of the United States the first de-
pendable line of military organization is the Na- tional Guard of the various states. Thus in any scheme of adequate preparedness each individual state has a heavy responsibility in maintaining its quota of the National Guard, not ouly in numerical sufficiency, but as to training, organization, equip- ment and readiness for prompt and efficient serv- ice, whether within the borders of its own state or as a contingent of the nation 's defenses.
That the North Carolina National Guard now ranks among the best in the country in these various particulars is credited to the enthusiasm and energy of the present adjutant general, L. W. Young. Governor Locke Craig appointed him ad- jutant general of the state with rank of brigadier general on January 20, 1913. During the last three years the membership of the organization increased from 2,200 to 3,500, and at the same time General Young has been constant in his efforts to improve the personnel and discipline of the guard, and make it an effective military unit.
Coming of a long line of military ancestors, General Young has only followed out the family tradition in his individual military record. The formal record of his service in the National Guard of the state is as follows: He enlisted November 8, 1898, in the Asheville Light Infantry, and was appointed corporal in February, 1899, and sergeant on August 1, 1899. March 15, 1900, he was pro- moted to first lieutenant of Company I of the Third Infantry, to captain on November 29, 1900, and resigned that commission June 6, 1901. March 4, 1902, he became first lieutenant of Company F, resigning November 29, 1902, but on December 1, 1902, re-enlisted in Company F. On May 20, 1905, Governor Glenn appointed him second lieu- tenant, quartermaster and commissary of the First Infantry, and the commissioned officers of the regiment elected him major ou December 7, 1907. With that rank he continued to serve until he was elevated to the position of adjutant general at the beginning of Governor Craig's administration.
Laurence Woodville Young was born in Swan- nanoa, North Carolina, August 18, 1877, a son of Robert Harrison and Pamelia (Gudger) Young. His father was a substantial farmer in that section of the state. The ancestral military record is one of particular interest in connection with the career of General Young. John Young, his great-great- grandfather, bore arms against the British in the Revolutionary war as a member of the Second North Carolina Continental line. Francis Young, a son of this Revolutionary patriot, fought with equal valor in the War of 1812. General Young's maternal grandfather, Joseph Gudger, was with the army commanded by General Taylor in the Mexican war. General Young's father was but a boy when the Civil war was fought, but belonged to the Junior Reserves at the time of Lee's sur- render. However, seven of his brothers served throughout the war as members of the Eleventh North Carolina Regiment, known as the Bethel Regiment.
General Young was educated in the private and public schools of Swannanoa, in the Farm Prepara- tory School at Asheville, and finished his education with a course in the Southern Business College at Asheville. In 1900 he became bookkeeper and manager of a grocery house at Asheville and was in that work until 1909, when he embarked in the grocery business at Asheville on his own account. He is still numbered among the leading business men of that city, where he also filled a number of places of trust. He was a member of the police
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commission, the board of aldermen, and city clerk of Asheville. He is now a member of the executive committee of National Guards of the United States, and has done much influential work in con- nection with the congressional military program and has spent much time at Washington during the last two or three years furthering the cause in which he has embarked himself both heart and soul. General Young is a member of the Asheville Club, the Raleigh Country Club, the Onslow Gun Club, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
On September 20, 1900, General Young married Miss Hessie Johnson, of Hendersonville, North Carolina. They have three children: Julia Po- melia, Helen MacFarland and Louise Pinkney.
ERNEST CLAUDE ARMSTRONG, D. O. In point of experience Doctor Armstrong is one of the oldest practitioners of the School of Osteopathy in North Carolina and by his achievements and attainments has not only honored his school but has become recognized as one of the foremost au- thorities on certain branches of medical treat- ment in the state. He was the discoverer and originator of a method of treating malaria which has been largely followed by the profession and has accomplished remarkable results. He is also one of the recognized authorities in the profes- sion on treatment of pellagra.
Doctor Armstrong, who is now president of the North Carolina State Society of Osteopathy, was born in Kentucky October 24, 1879, a son of Wil- liam Jackson and Rebecca (Keaton) Armstrong. His father was a farmer, stock raiser and mer- chant and was in a position to give his aspiring son many opportunities besides those created by his individual initiative and ambition. Doctor Armstrong was educated in the high school at Al- bany, Kentucky, and in the Williams Academy at Montpelier. He studied osteopathy in the College of Osteopathy at Franklin, Kentucky, where he was graduated in 1903. He had previously had considerable experience in the merchandise and supply business as clerk, and for a time bought and sold stock in Kentucky and Georgia. After graduating he began the practice of osteopathy at Glasgow, Kentucky, but after 11/2 years there came to Newbern, North Carolina, in Decem- ber, 1904. He has been in practice in that city steadily for thirteen years. Besides his active part in the State Osteopathic Society he is a mem- ber of the American Osteopathic Association.
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