USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 73
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Mr. Britt was the youngest of a family of ten children. He attended school only ten months and fourteen days altogether when a boy, and the rest of his education he got by burning the midnight lamp, getting instructions wherever he could. From the time lie was eleven years of age James J. Britt was earning his own way. He worked in a shoe shop, learning the trade, being paid three dollars a month while there, and at the age of thirteen was making boots and shoes which sold for twelve dollars and a half a pair. During those strenuous years he was saving all he could from his meager earnings in order to get a bet- ter education. At the age of sixteen he quali- fied as a teacher, and for ten years that was his regular vocation and at the same time he carried on his studies and mastered all the books
and subjects required for a Bachelor of Arts de- gree. For nine years he was principal of Burns- ville Academy, at Burnsville North Carolina, and for three years was connected with the Bowman Academy at Bakersville, North Carolina. He was also superintendent of public schools for Mitchell County, North Carolina, four years, and at one time was elected to the chair of Mathematics in the State Agricultural and Mechanical College of North Carolina, but gave up this post on account of ill health.
He studied law in private offices and also at the University of North Carolina, and after his ad- mission to the bar located at Asheville, where he entered upon the active practice of the law. For three years he was cashier in the Internal Revenue office at Asheville, and for a while was a special attorney with the Department of Justice of the United States. During 1909-10 he served as spe- cial legal counsel to the postoffice department, and in 1910 was appointed a special assistant to the attorney general for the prosecution of civil cases for the postoffice department. From December 1, 1910, to March 17, 1913, under the Taft admini- stration, Mr. Britt was third assistant post- master-general. In 1913 he returned to Ashe- ville, and has since been senior member of the law firm Britt & Toms. He enjoys a large general practice and has handled much important litiga- tion both in this state and before the Federal courts here and at Washington. While a special attorney to the Government he prosecuted a num- ber of fraud cases, including the celebrated cases of "Street & Smith," "Frank Tousey," and in North Carolina prosecuted the "George W. Sam- uel"' and other noted cases at Greensboro.
Mr. Britt is leader of the republican party in North Carolina today. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1904, was presi- dential elector at large in that year, giving all his loyalty and support to Roosevelt, and was a valiant worker for the cause of Hughes in 1916. He was republican nominee for Congress from the Tenth North Carolina District in 1906, declined the proffered nomination on the republican ticket for the governor in 1908, and served one term as senator in North Carolina in · 1908-09. While in the Senate he was minority leader. In 1914 he was nominated on the republican ticket for Congress to represent the Tenth District, and dur- ing the Sixty-fourth Congress, 1913-17, did much to express a vigorous type of Southern opinion on the republican or minority side of the house, and was a constructive leader in promoting large and well conceived plans of national legislation during that term.
Mr. Britt has served as trustee of the North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical College and the University of North Carolina, has been a leader in the cause of public education and for many years a member of the school board of Asheville. He has used his eloquence and in- fluence as an orator and public speaker largely in behalf of schools and educational institutions, and has delivered eighty-four formal addresses before colleges. Mr. Britt has prepared fifty-two candidates for the North Carolina bar examina- tion, including one woman, and not one of the aspirants has ever failed to qualify. He has de- livered lectures before the National University Law Schools and is now a lecturer for the Ameri- can Institute of Banking. He has been admitted to practice in the Supreme Courts of North Caro- lina, Kentucky, Virginia, District of Columbia,
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New York and Georgia, and in the United States Supreme Court, and is a member in high standing of the North Carolina and American Bar associa- tions.
Mr. Britt is a teacher of the far-famed Baraca Class of the First Baptist Church of Asheville, and has always been deeply interested in church work.
Mr. Britt was a real pioneer in the woman suffrage cause in North Carolina, and advocated that principle when to do so cost him many votes in political campaigns. He has also fought for prohibition and in 1908 made a canvass of the state in behalf of the state wide prohibition meas- ure of that year. One thing that accounts for his large influence among the people of North Caro- lina is that while a republican, he has always been liberal and has enjoyed the confidence of both the rank and file of the democratic party and has often converted many from that party to his own support. Mr. Britt is a strenuous worker and his recreations are those of the virile man who lives much out of doors, horseback riding, pedes- trianism and pistol shooting.
On April 4, 1880, Mr. Britt married Mary J. Mosley, daughter of Capt. Reuben B. Mosley, of Carter County, Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Britt have a family of eight children: Lucy A., wife of I. H. Greene, of Old Fort, North Carolina; Walter Clarke, manager of the Asheville Supply & Foundry Company; Georgia Lee, wife of James K. Cowan, of the United States Leather Com- pany of Old Fort; Josephine Cordelia, wife of William F. Duncan, cashier of the Citizens Bank of Asheville; William Arthur, who is private secre- tary to Judge Jeter C. Pritchard; Pansy Carter, wife of W. C. Shuey, who is in the automobile business at Miles City, Montana; James Jefferson, third, who married Stella Robert, of Asheville, and is a captain in the United States Army; and Lillian Earle, who is now in the George Wash- ington University Hospital preparing for Red Cross work abroad.
JAMES EDMUND BOYD, United States district judge of the Western District of North Carolina, has been a distinguished figure in the North Caro- lina bar for fully half a century.
He was born in Alamance County, North Caro- lina, February 14, 1845, a son of A. H. and Mar- garet Boyd. He was educated in the Graham Academy and Davidson College, and during the war between the states served as a private in the Thirteenth North Carolina Infantry and in the First North Carolina Cavalry. Admitted to the bar in 1868, he has divided his time pretty equally between private practice and official duties. He was a member of the North Carolina Legislature in 1874-75, and was a delegate to the Constitu- tional Convention of 1875. From 1880 to 1885 he served as United States district attorney for the Western District, and from 1897 to 1900 was assistant attorney general of the United States. Judge Boyd has been on the Federal bench as dis- trict judge since July 11, 1900. He is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association and was a delegate to the Universal Congress of Lawyers and Jurists at St. Louis in 1904. Judge Boyd married September 12, 1868, Miss Sallie Holt, member of the well known and prominent Holt family of this state. Judge Boyd's home is at . Greensboro.
STEPHEN HENRY FOWLER was a successful busi- ness man at Newbern long before he became active
in politics, and the record of efficiency and thor- oughness which characterized him in business af- fairs he has carried into his performance of duty as register of deeds of Craven County.
Mr. Fowler is member of an old and well known family of Craven County. He was born at Fow- ler's Ferry in that county February 25, 1884. His parents were John Lewis and Martha (McColler) Fowler. His father not only had a farm but also operated the ferry at his place, from which the locality derives its name. Stephen H. Fowler made good use of his educational opportunities during his youth. He attended high school at Newbern and also a business college. After leav- ing school he worked as a bookkeeper a short time, but was soon sent on the road as a traveling sales- man for a wholesale grocery house. He made good as a salesman, and sold goods over a large territory for five years.
His next step in a business way was to organize the Weddell Grocery Company of Newbern, and he served that organization as a traveling salesman for three years. Subsequently Mr. Fowler organ- ized the Carolina Brokerage Company, of which he was sole owner for a time, and later a partner.
He was first elected register of deeds of Craven County in 1908, and has been kept in office con- secutively, his present term expiring in 1918. He is an influential democrat in his section of the state. He belongs to the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks and the Improved Order of Red Men and is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South.
VIRGIL O. ROBERSON is senior partner of the firm Roberson & Strader, lumber and box manu- facturers of Greensboro and Belews Creek. Mr. Roberson grew up in the atmosphere of the mill- ing industry, and while his early experiences and operations were on a modest scale he has gradu- ally built up an industry that ranks him as one of the progressive and successful business men of the state.
He was born in Belews Creek Township of Forsyth County, North Carolina, and his people have been identified with that section of the state from earliest pioneer times. All accounts and traditions justify the inference that his great-grandfather. Israel Roberson, was born in that part of the state and it is known that he lived there as a successful planter, in what is now Kernersville Township. Michael Roberson, grand- father of Virgil O., was born in Kernersville Township in what was then Stokes County and in early youth learned the trade of blacksmith. He put up his shop on the road between Fayette- ville and Mount Airy. That was in the days be- fore railroads, and this highway, now only a local road, was then one of the main arteries of transportation and traffic between two important sections of the state. Almost daily it was crowded with wagons and teams going and coming between Mount Airy and Fayetteville. Most of the prod- uce of the farm, the furs . taken in the woods, and other commodities raised at Mount Airy and beyond were carried by wagon over this road to Fayetteville, and thence the wagons returned loaded with merchandise. Thus it is easily seen that the Roberson Blacksmith shop was a point of interest to the traffic and was largely patronized by the teamsters. Grandfather Roberson plied his trade during his active life and died at the age of fifty. He married Rosa Kostner, of Ger- man ancestry. She survived her husband many
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years and died at the age of ninety. Their five children were Israel, Florina, Albert, Jeannetta and Rufus.
Israel Roberson, father of Virgil O., was born in Kernersville Township in 1832, and as he grew to manhood he assisted his father on the farm and in the shop, learning the trade and acquiring much of the skill of his father as a blacksmith. Sub- sequently he bought a farm in Kernersville Township. After the war he sold this land and bought a flour mill in Belews Creek, and continued its operation successfully and also engaged in farm- ing and merchandising in that locality until his death in 1905. He married Mary Vance, who was born in Belews Creek Township, daughter of John and Mary Vance, and she died thic same year as her husband. They had six children: Laura, who married Newton H. Medearis; Jean- nette, who became the wife of J. W. Freeman; Winona, who married T. J. Preston; Sadie, who married A. W. Preston; Luella, who is the wife of Z. V. Strader; and Virgil O.
The only son of the family, Virgil O. Roberson, while a boy had the advantages of the rural schools, also attended high school at Oak Ridge, finishing with one year in the University of North Carolina. After leaving university he assisted his father at the mill, and acquired a thorough knowl- edge of flour milling. In 1899 he formed a part- nership with his brother-in-law, Z. V. Strader, and engaged in the lumber business. They bought a portable sawmill and operated it over an ex- tensive area of country wherever they could se- cure available standing timber. This business has been continued profitably to the present time, though with many enlargements of interests and operations. In 1904 the firm established a plan- ing mill in Belews Creek Township and in 1909 bought the Belews Creek Roller Mills. In the meantime they had installed machinery and be- gun the manufacture of boxes in their plant at Belews Creek, and in 1915 they added to their multiplying interests by establishing a large box factory at Greensboro, where they now have one of the chief industries of the city. Their roller mills are also fitted out with the latest and best machinery and the flour manufactured commands a wide sale. Each member of the firm has a farm of 300 acres in Belews Creek Township, occupied and operated by tenants.
In 1897 Mr. Roberson married Carrie M. Brown, who was born in Stokes County, North Carolina, daughter of Bedford and Laura (Fulp) Brown. Mr. and Mrs. Roberson have ten chil- dren, Foy, Smith, Truman, Kyle, Odell, Winona, Roberta, Page, Lillian and Edwards. Mr. and Mrs. Roberson are members of the Christian Church. They reside at Belews Creek and he is a member of Belews Creek Council, Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
JAMES WILLIAMS HINES. In some way the up- building of a community 's importance is similar to the system upon which beneficent Nature works out her plans. It is step by step, a little aggre- gation added to a former one, a niche filled in here, a broader way carved there, and continually wider avenues of endeavor are opened and further fields of general opportunity. Undoubtedly a master mind must guide and plan and centralize, and to such an influence communities, states and nations, in their final achievements, must ever give due credit.
There have been few movements of a substantial
character looking to the development and upbuild- ing of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, with which James Williams Hines has not in some way been identified during the years of its greatest progress, and it is not too much to say that largely through his business insight and unerring judgment the place has been changed to an important mart of trade and a center of some of the leading indus- tries of the state.
James Williams Hines was born in Pitt County, North Carolina, but accompanied his parents to Wilson County while young and was reared and educated there. His ancestors, the Hines, the Jonas and Johnson families, all belonged to the old regime in Edgecombe County, and their an- cestral records bore many a Revolutionary name. When Mr. Hines decided to establish his home in Rocky Mount the place differed but little from many other pleasant, comfortable and friendly little villages scattered up and down through this beauti- ful section of the Old North state .. But to Mr. Hines there was a difference, for he recognized how capital, energy and enterprise might bring about the development of this place rather than some others, and the results that have been realized show that his early reasoning was sound. Ready to invest capital here, he laid his plans accordingly and that the fruition of his hopes did not imme- diately result was no disappointment because he, with other great captains of industry, has always known the need and the value of patience.
That Mr. Hines has been a benefactor to Rocky Mount must always belong to the city's records, and additionally it must be proclaimed that he has in building up his own fortunes here been lavish in the expenditure of time, money and business ability for the city. One can not go far in the business records of Rocky Mount since he has be- come a factor in her affairs without meeting with interesting incidents. When the Rocky Mount Tobacco Market was in its infancy and its success seemed largely problematical, the support of Mr. Hines was a saving element. At one time, when all the tobacco, tobacco-raising being the main local industry at that time, was being sent away this city for re-drying, the American Tobacco Com- pany offered to re-dry the tobacco in Rocky Mount, and thus give employment to home labor, if the company could secure a large prize-house for the purpose. It was Mr. Hines who stepped forward with the offer to immediately build such house and at the same time he built the largest ware-house on this market for the sale of leaf tobacco.
No less interesting is the history of the location of the A. C. L. Railroad shops at Rocky Mount. When the location of the shops was under discus- sion, few people had any idea that Rocky Mount could secure such a prosperity prize, but Mr. Hines' resources and his wide personal influence had not been taken into consideration. These finally brought about the location of the shops here, but the whole business was so diplomatically handled that Mr. Hines had the satisfaction of announcing the completed fact before his fellow citizens had ceased wondering if such a fortunate thing could occur. The shops came and with them dawned a new era of prosperity for Rocky Mount.
Although associated in various other enterprises, Mr. Hines is especially identified with the sale and manufacture of ice, and is the largest manufacturer of ice in North Carolina. There are large ice storage warehouses both at Rocky Mount and South Rocky Mount, where immense quantities are manufactured during the winter months for sup-
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plying the railway cars. He is president of the Rocky Mount Ice & Fuel Company; the North State Ice Company of South Rocky Mount; the Greenville Ice & Coal Company; the Weldon Ice Company; the Monroe Ice & Fuel Company; the Salisbury Ice & Fuel Company; and the Catawba Ice and Fuel Company, at Spencer, North Caro- lina. Here is stored many tons of ice and re- frigeration is afforded the Southern Railway sys- tem. At South Rocky Mount the plant ices and re-ices for the A. C. L. Railroad. Mr. Hines is vice president of the Rocky Mount Savings & Trust Company, of which he was one of the organizers.
Mr. Hines was married to Miss Matilda McEn- tyre, who was the daughter of Captain Thomas and Clara (Erwin) McEntyre, who was a captain in the Confederate army and a large planter. Mrs. Hines passed away October 24, 1914. She was deeply interested in all charitable movements and a very active member of the Presbyterian church, and was very prominent in the Daughters of the Confederacy, and a number of years president of the Rocky Mount Chapter, and had been elected a member of the Colonal Dames, her death occur- ing shortly before her initiation. Mr. and Mrs. Hines were the parents of three children, two sons and one daughter: Thomas MeEntyre, James William and Marion Erwin. Thomas M. Hines is secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Salisbury Ice & Fuel Company and of the Ca- tawha Ice & Fuel Company. James W. Hines was treasurer and general manager of the Weldon Ice Company, both young men entering business at the close of their college courses. James W. is now an ensign in the United States Navy, having enlisted in June, 1917, and afterwards attended a Naval Officers Training School.
Mr. Hines has been able to secure and maintain public confidence, his fellow citizens generally recognizing his integrity of purpose and his marked business ability. In all the corporations with which he is identified he owns the controlling inter- est, but he has never solicited a buyer of stock, all having been at the outset over subscribed.
Notwithstanding his heavy business responsi- bilities and their importance to himself and hun- dreds of others Mr. Hines has found time to give attention and lend effort in other directions. The cause of education has always been dear to his heart. and he was one of the original organizers of the Rocky Mount graded school. He was very active in this work for a number of years, until his business interests grew so large he had to resign, as he did not have time to devote to school work, believing in doing, "What is worth doing at all, is worth doing well." Religious progress in human life has felt to be of paramount importance. He is interested in local church work and for seven years has been president of the North Carolina State Convention of the Christian church, of which he is a member, and is a trustee of the Atlantic Christian College at Wilson, North Carolina, and also is a trustee of the East Carolina Training School at Greenville, North Carolina. He is in sympathy with country wide benevolent movements and his private charities might be burdensome to one less generous. He is a director, an ex-presi- dent and a member of the executive committee of the Rocky Mount Chamber of Commerce. The Hines and Johnson families of old Sparta, North Carolina, represented age, wealth and aristocracy and they intermarried so numerously between the Revolutionary and the Civil wars that they have
Vol. VI-18
kindred in all parts of the state, and in no state in all the Union is the tie of kindred stronger than in the Old North state.
ALEXANDER CARY MCALISTER. The McAlisters, like all the typical Highlanders of history, have been faithful to what they consider their highest duties; lovers of their home land, whether native or adopted, they have been patriots hesitating at no sacrifice to protect their altars and their fires; and they have been not only unswerving in their bravery, but energetic and able in whatever work of patriotism they undertook. In the industrial, business and civic fields of the long, yet often trying periods of peace, the McAlisters of the United States have evinced the same Scotch traits of energy, persistency, hardihood and foresight which have brought them leadership in times of war. The living representatives of the family have also been favored maternally by an added strain of distinguished blood from the Worths of North Carolina.
Col. Alexander C. McAlister, a brave and able officer of the Confederacy and a faithful citizen of his commonwealth who assisted stanchly in her reconstruction when her fortunes were at the lowest ebb, was born in Cumberland County, North Carolina, November 7, 1838, and, a pros- perous and honored merchant, died at his home in Ashboro, that state, December 8, 1916. He was the son of Charles McAlister, a prominent planter of Cumberland County, and the grandson of Col. Alexander McAlister, a military and civic leader during the Revolutionary period and the early building of the North American republic. This distinguished forefather, who planted the family in the United States, was born in Scot- land and settled in Cumberland County, in the Cape Fear region, in 1736. He became the colonel of a North Carolina regiment in the Continental line and, besides contributing his valuable military services to the patriot cause, was a leader in the founding of the nation and the commonwealth. He was a member of the Provincial Congress held at Hillsboro August 21, 1775, and served on the committee appointed by that body to in- terview the recently arrived Highlanders from Scotland and explained to them the nature of the conflict which the colonies had with Great Britain. As a representative from Cumberland County he also served in the Provincial Congress held at Halifax, April 4, 1776, and was a member of the Revolutionary Committee for the Wilmington dis- trict. "Colonel McAlister, the Revolutionary sol- dier, served in the North Carolina State Senate in 1787-89, and was a leading figure in the public affairs of North Carolina until his death in Cum- berland County during 1800. He was then about eighty-five years of age, having been born on the Isle of Islay, Argleshire, Scotland, and first coming to North Carolina about the time he had reached his majority. He returned to his native land, but settled permanently in the colony in 1740. At the time of the outbreak of the Revolutionary war he was about sixty years of age, but vigorous, capable and in the prime of his life.
Alexander Cary McAlister, the grandson of one of the founders of the United States, graduated from the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, in 1858, and in 1861, immediately after his marriage, volunteered his services to the Con- federacy. He became colonel of the Forty-sixth Regiment of North Carolina Infantry, and had a distinguished career throughout the Civil war as a
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commanding officer. Like all true soldiers he was a very modest man, but his career shows that he was without fear, and that he further exempli- fied the brave traits of his character in some of the violent affairs of the Reconstruction period, being called upon to discharge duties that only a man with a stout heart and a cool head could have accomplished.
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