USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 74
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After the war, with his slaves freed and his lands reduced in value, he entered the mercantile business in Alamance County at Burlington, which was at that time a new railroad town known as Company Shops, so named because the railroad shops and general offices of the North Carolina Railroad were located there. He conducted a large mercantile business at this place for several years, but about 1873 moved to Ashboro, Randolph County, where he spent the last years of his life and reared and educated a fine family, the mem- bers of which have upheld the best traditions of their ancestors and their race.
Colonel McAlister was always earnestly inter- ยท ested in the public and political affairs of North Carolina; a friend and associate of Vance, Jarvis and other leaders of the state. In Reconstruction days he represented Alamance County in the Legislature, and after moving to Randolph County was for about twenty-five years chairman of the County Executive Committee of the democratic party. He was one of the original trustees of the State Normal College and for many years pre- ceding his death was chairman of the County Board of Education of Randolph County. For several years he was a member of the State Board of Charities. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church at Asheboro and superintendent of the Sunday school.
From these general outlines of facts concerning his career it is a pleasure to turn to a warmer and more intimate view of his life and character presented by one who knew him well and in an appreciation published in the Presbyterian Stand- ard of Charlotte on January 3, 1917. His place as a prominent citizen in North Carolina merits a quotation of the following paragraphs from that appreciation :
"He was first of all a citizen of the highest type. He took an active part in politics because he considered it the part of good citizenship. He devoted himself for years to the strenuous service of his party as county chairman, but he was never a candidate for any public office. Re- spect for law was one of the cardinal principles of his life. It was this ingrained quality that prevented him from joining some of his closest friends in the Ku Klux Klan in the later sixties; but he was the man who was selected to go un- attended at the risk of his own arrest into the camp of the cruel dictator, Colonel Kirk, when Alamance County was under martial law, and to serve upon him the writ of habeas corpus which was to give his Ku Klux friends, who were then Kirk's prisoners, and among the most prominent and representative men of the state, a civil trial instead of a military court martial.
"In his later years he turned from the turmoil of politics, though he continued to be a deeply interested spectator, and devoted his best years to active service as chairman of the school board of his town. He gave himself to the schools lavishly and unselfishly. They held one of the first places in his interest and affections. His was not only a citizenship, but a Christian citizen- ship, of the highest type. When he located at
Company Shops just after the war there was no church nor school building there. He was not known in it, for he did not become a member of the church until several years afterward, but he set in motion certain agencies and influences, which resulted in the erection of a community building to be used for a day school, a community Sunday School, and for church services of all denominations. That building is still standing in Burlington and out of it were the beginnings of the splendid denominational churches and Sunday Schools which enrich that growing little city today. He was made superintendent of that Union Sun- day School, and it was a wonderful Sunday School, and he continued at the head of it until he moved his residence to Asheboro. It was after he moved to Asheboro that he joined the Presby- terian Church and gave himself unreservedly to the work of the church and Sunday School. He loved his church with singular devotion.
"There was in his manhood an unusual com- bination of strength and gentleness. His superior officer once said of him that he had never seen a man of such cool courage under fire. In politics as well as in business he would countenance nothing that even bordered upon the unfair. He possessed a Scotch conscience and temperament which demanded absolute accuracy of statement and which would brook no exaggeration. He was so careful not to take advantage in business that he would usually be found looking after the other man's interest rather than to be careful for his own. This was his attitude toward life and the world around him. He was also careful for others, thoughtful for their interest and comfort and happiness, looking for opportunities for neighborliness and service, and never finding time to remember himself. He held himself in such control that he is not remembered to have ever shown anger; but for injustice, unfairness or littleness he could show a silent withering scorn. He possessed a talent for friendliness to the un- friended. In his merchant days the more humble a man was the more attention he paid him; the more awkward and ill-at-ease a woman customer was the more courteous and kind he was. His chivalrous regard for woman was one of his out- standing characteristics.
"Once upon a time as he sat with his family in the evening a frightened bird flew in and after making fruitless circles of the room finally came to rest on his head. He smiled, but did not move. After a moment, the bird reassured, went on its way through the window. It was his unchange- able gentleness that made him the selected haven of that little bird. Such was the writer's im- pression as he witnessed the incident, and yet this was the man who was selected by his superior to quell a mutiny, and he quelled it without a blow; and this was the man who at the battle of Ream's Station in 1864, when his regiment hesi- tated, ordered his men to follow him and led them un and over the breastworks of the enemy to victory. Children loved him, all men honored him, and women reverenced him. He was the best loved man of his gencration. He was a Christian gentleman of the old school."
On May 22, 1861, Colonel McAlister married Miss Adelaide Worth, who survives him and lives at the old home at Ashboro. It was more than fifty-five years after their marriage and after he left his bride to take up the duties of soldier be- fore he was called again to parting, this time for an absence until his wife should join him in the
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Great Beyond. Mrs. McAlister is the daughter of the late Dr. John M. Worth of Ashboro, who was the state treasurer of North Carolina and a brother of Jonathan Worth, governor of North Carolina. The Worths constitute one of the most distinguished families connected with the history of the colony and the state.
Colonel and Mrs. McAlister were the parents of the following children, all of whom are living: A. W. McAlister, of Greensboro, J. S. McAlister, also of Greensboro; Mrs. J. E. Carson, of Ash- boro; Charles Colvin McAlister, of Fayetteville; Miss May McAlister, of Ashboro; and Thomas Gilmer McAlister, also of Fayetteville.
JUNIUS MOORE HORNER, first missionary bishop of Asheville, was born at Oxford, North Carolina, July 7, 1859, son of James Hunter and Sophronia (Moore) Horner. He graduated A. B. from Johns Hopkins University in 1885, received his divinity degree from the General Theological Seminary in 1890, and in the same year was ordained a dea- con and in 1891 a priest of the Episcopal Church. His first work was as missionary at Leaksville and Reidsville, but from 1890 to 1898 he served as principal of the Oxford School for Boys. He was consecrated first missionary bishop of Ashe- ville December 28, 1898. His home is at Ashe- ville. Bishop Horner received the degree Doc- tor of Divinity from the University of the South in 1899. December 14, 1892, he married Eva Harker, of Augusta, Georgia.
JAMES MARSHALL ALLEN. The development of large business enterprises rests in the hands of a comparatively small body of men, for it requires the possession of real genius to recognize oppor- tunity and to be able to mould it advantageously. Business genius is not a drug on the market, but it is inevitably found behind successful commercial operations and enterprises which rest on sound foundations. Among the men of business fore- sight who have contributed largly to the upbuilding of Goldsboro, James Marshall Allen, merchant and banker, must be given a prominent place.
James Marshall Allen was born at Florence in Florence County, South Carolina, August 26, 1867. His parents are James and Julia (Marshall) Allen. For many years his father was an able business man of Florence, founding there a mer- cantile establishment and carrying it on alone until his son completed his education and entered into partnership with him.
In boyhood James M. Allen was provided with private tutors and attended select schools, after which he entered the South Carolina Military Academy at Charleston, where he continued study and training until his graduation in June, 1886. After returning home he was admitted as junior partner in his father's business, under the firm style of James Allen & Son. His school training had given him lessons in method and accuracy, excellent qualities in business, and these, com- bined with courage, enterprise, prudence and nat- ural courtesy, started him well on the path which has led to ample fortune and to unusual promi- nence in commercial affairs in a comparative short time.
During his early business life Mr. Allen spent some years as a traveling salesman. In 1904 he came to Goldsboro and here embarked in the mer- cantile business which he expanded into a large enterprise. In the meanwhile he entered the bank- ing field and in 1913 became president of the
Goldsboro Banking and Trust Company and sub- sequently, as his business widened, treasurer of the Goldsboro Electric Railway Com- pany and still later president and a director of this concern. Warmly attracted to and intelligently interested in capital investments, he has been the financial backer of many substantial movements, nevertheless he has been careful and far sighted and has proved as wise as he has been successful as a business man. He is a member of the proxie committee of the state for the Atlantic & North Carolina Railway.
Mr. Allen was married November 22, 1895, to Miss Corinne Washington, of Goldsboro, North Carolina, and they have two daughters: Julia Washington and Virginia Pope. These ladies are widely known in social cireles in several states. Miss Julia was graduated from St. Mary's School, Raleigh, North Carolina, in the class of 1914, and then accepted a position on the faculty as in- structor in English. From Randolph-Macon Col- lege she received the degree of A. B. in 1916. Miss Virginia is a member of the class of 1917, St. Mary's School at Raleigh. The family belongs to St. Stephen's Episcopal Church at Goldsboro, in which Mr. Allen is a vestryman.
In addition to membership in numerous business organizations and almost continuous connection with benevolent bodies, Mr. Allen is identified fra- ternally with the Knights of Pythias, the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks, the Odd Fellows and the Junior Order of United American Mechan- ics. He is a member and vice president of the Algonquin Club. In politics he has never been aggressive and in voting according to his personal convictions has followed the path he has believed to be right.
PATRICK MURPHY PEARSALL. The highly cred- itable position won by Mr. Pearsall as a member of the bar at Newbern needs no emphasis, since his qualifications and abilities are widely rec- organized in that section of the state. Mr. Pearsall is also known as one of the influential democrats of North Carolina, and has participated in many local, state and national campaigns.
A native of North Carolina, he was born at Taylors Bridge in Sampson County August 28, 1858, a son of Joseph Dickson and Mary Bailey (Murphy) Pearsall. His father was a successful physician and surgeon in the middle years of the last century, and being a man of substance gave his son good advantages both at home and in school. Mr. Pearsall was educated largely under private tutors, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1881. For a number of years he lived in Jones County, but since 1893 has con- ducted his general practice at Newbern. He is general counsel for the North Carolina Railway Company, and has been retained in much of the important legal business transacted in the New- bern district.
For a number of years Mr. Pearsall served as county superintendent of schools of Jones Coun- ty. In 1885 he represented that county in the State Legislature. He served as private secre- tary to Governor Aycock, and proved a valuable help to that governor in his campaigns. He was one of the men who gave his active support to Senator Simmons when the latter opened his cam- paign in North Carolina, the result of which was the overthrow of the black votes which had long been a sinister influence in politics. Mr. Pearsall served as a delegate to the national convention
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at Chicago in 1896, when William J. Bryan was first nomination for the presidency. Mr. Pearsall is a member of the Presbyterian Church. He married Mrs. Margaret L. Burrus, of Craven County.
JAMES BISHOP BLADES. During the last thirty years Newbern had no more conspicuous leader in its industrial and business life than James Bishop Blades, the prominent lumberman of North Carolina.
Mr. Blades was born in Worcester County, Maryland, March 14, 1856, and died August 23, 1918, in an automobile accident near Marion, North Carolina. He was of English stock, and his ancestors came to America in colonial times, locating in Maryland. His parents were Peter Ezekiel and Nancy Emeline (West) Blades. His father followed the sea until he was thirty-three years of age, retiring with the rank of captain of a vessel, and after that became a farmer and merchant.
James Bishop Blades grew up in Maryland, attended the public schools at Bishopville and Snow Hill, Maryland, and Quincy, Illinois, and also took a business course at Poughkeepsie, New York. Like many successful men, he began his commercial career at the bottom of the ladder and steadily climbed to success and responsibility. His first job was a clerkship in a country store. Subse- quently, with his brother William B., he engaged in the management of a general store and saw- mills, and thus gradually acquired his extensive interests in the lumber industry.
In 1881 James B. Blades came to North Caro- lina, and from 1903 made Newbern his home. He and his brother acquired extensive interests in lumber manufacturing at Elizabeth City and also at Newbern, their business being conducted under the name Blades Lumber Company. This business is still continued and is represented by lumber mills both at Newbern and Elizabeth City. The lum- ber mills are now operated by J. V. Blades and Levin Carl Blades, both sons of James B. Blades.
Mr. Blades was president of the J. B. Blades Lumber Company; director of the Foreman & Blades Lumber Company; president of the New- bern Banking & Trust Company; vice president and chairman of the executive committee and formerly president of the Dixie Fire Insurance Company and also president of the board of trustees of the Greensboro College for Women, Greensboro, North Carolina. Mr. Blades is affiliated with the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks,
He was married on February 14, 1880, to Miss Margaret Ann Warren, of Whaleysville, Worces- ter County, Maryland. Mr. Blades' two children are both by his first wife: They are Levin Carl, treasurer of the Foreman-Blades Lumber Com- pany, and James Vernon, secretary and treasurer of the J. B. Blades Lumber Company. On Janu- ary 4, 1904, Mr. Blades married Pearl Tessie Rob- ertson, daughter of Doctor Robertson of Clayton, North Carolina.
JAMES VERNON BLADES, one of the younger busi- ness element of Newbern, is a son of the late James B. Blades, one of the prominent lumbermen and business leaders of the state whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume, but on his own account has acquired a number of financial and business interests for a man of his years. He has shown himself capable of every responsibility, and
what he has accomplished so far is only an earnest of a still broader career of achievements.
He was born June 1, 1882, and was liberally educated in preparation for a business career. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1905, and at once became associated with his father in lumber milling. He is now secretary- treasurer of the J. B. Blades Lumber Company, vice president of the Foreman-Blades Lumber Com- pany, president of the Nuesco Lumber Company, secretary of the Bridgeton Lumber Company, vice president of the Newbern Ford Motor Company, secretary of the Bridgeton Light & Power Com- pany, director of the Newbern Brick Company, of the Newbern Banking & Trust Company, is a third owner in the Crystal Ice Company, and is proprietor of the Newbern Marine Railway.
Everything that is likely to benefit the city has his hearty support, and he is a director in the Eastern Carolina Fair Association. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Blades was married October 11, 1911, to Miss Emma Duffy, of Newbern.
WAITMAN THOMPSON HINES. In speaking of the enterprises of Eastern North Carolina, and particularly those which are connected with the establishment and growth of the lumber business and the foundation of those houses which have had important bearing upon the development of this industry, mention should be made of Wait- man Thompson Hines. Since 1896 Mr. Hines has been a resident of Kinston, and during these twenty-one years has been a material factor in building up one of the largest lumber mills of this part of the state, that conducted under the name of Hines Brothers Lumber Company.
Mr. Hines is a native of Lenoir County, North Carolina, born November 8, 1862, and a son of James Madison and Nancy (Thompson) Hines, natives of North Carolina, where they rounded out useful lives as planters. Undoubtedly one of the strongest influential in forming the character of Mr, Hines lay in the precepts and example of his God-fearing parents, who taught their children lessons of sobriety, industry and honesty. He was educated in the public schools, took in- struction under Professor Kinsley, and completed a course at Wake Forest College, following his graduation from which he engaged in farming with his father and remained with the elder man until the latter's death in 1889. In the meantime his brother, Lovit Hines, had embarked in a small way in the lumber business and was the proprietor of a sawmill at Dover, North Carolina. W. T. Hines was induced to join the enterprise, but shortly thereafter the mill at Dover was destroyed by fire. This was a heavy loss to the brothers, whose means were entirely tied up in the venture, but they did not allow themselves to become dis- couraged. In November, 1896, they came to Kin- ston, where they began operations on a much larger scale, and success came to them so rapidly that they were soon able to pay off their debt and were on the highroad to prosperity. As originally incorporated the firm of Hines Brothers Lumber Company had a capital of $10,000, but the big business being done needed more capital, and it was accordingly enlarged to $20,000. This, like- wise, proved inadequate and within a short time the canital was raised to $50,000, only to be doubled, and later to reach its present size, $200,-
& B Blades
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000. The mill, which is now one of the large ones of Eastern North Carolina, gives employ- ment to 300 men in its plant and offices, and has a capacity of 60,000 feet of lumber daily. The plant covers some fourteen acres of land, and the company controls 5,000 acres in Lenoir and ad- joining counties. The present officers of the con- cern are: H. C. Riley, president; W. T. Hines, vice president; and Lovit Hines, secretary and treasurer. While the concern chiefly deals in lum- ber, it has also engaged in other ventures, one of which was the building of a railroad from Caswell Training School to Snow Hill, a fifteen- mile stretch of track, which was sold to the Nor- folk & Southern Railway. Mr. Hines is vice- president of the Kinston Building and Loan Asso- ciation and has other interests. He has supported good movements in the community, and has ren- dered public service as a trustee of the graded schools of Kinston.
On July 15, 1887, Mr. Hines was married to Miss Leone Hardy, of Lenoir County, North Carolina, daughter of Jesse Hutchins Hardy, and to this union there have been born four children: Alice Leigh, who is the wife of Daniel Worth Parrott, D. D. S., a dental practitioner of Kins- ton; Martha Stanton, who the wife Daniel Lloyd Dixon, also of Kinston; and Wakeman Riley and Leone Hardy, who are attending the graded schools of Kinston. Mr. Hines is a vestryman of Saint Mary's Episcopal Church, of which Mrs. Hines and the children are member's.
AMOS HARVEY was one of the older members of a family that has been conspicuously identified with Lenoir County annals for over a century. His life was one of signal usefulness and honor, characterized by faithful performance of duty, and there are now many descendants to honor his name.
He was born in Lenoir County April 27, 1817, a son of Thomas and Kate (Lyon) Harvey. He had only the opportunities of education presented by the country schools, and he early took up the vocation of farming. Agriculture and merchan- dising were his activities through a long and suc- cessful business career.
Though past middle age at the time, he served as a gallant soldier of the Confederacy through the war and was always a most loyal democrat. He was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Masons and was a member of the Free Will Baptist Church.
Amos Harvey was married November 4, 1835, in Lenoir County, to Susan Byrd. They had a family of eight children, named as follows: Mary Harvey, Eleanor Harvey, Thomas A. Harvey, Lemuel Harvey, Joseph B. Harvey, Edward Har- vey, Charles F. Harvey and Bettie Harvey. .
MCDONALD WATKINS. The late McDonald Wat- kins figured so honorably and conspicuously in connection with the business activity and substan- tial development of Mecklenburg County for many years that no history of this locality would be complete without the record of his career. To make the statement that he arose from comparative obscurity to rank among the successful men of the vicinity of Charlotte is to say what seems trite to those familiar with his life, but it is but just to state that his business record was one that any man might be proud to possess. Starting his career at the bottom round of the ladder, he stcad-
ily advanced step by step until he occupied a position of marked trust and prominence. Through- out his entire business life he was accounted a model of integrity and honor, never making an engagement that he did not fulfill, and standing as an example of what determination, combined with the highest degree of business integrity, can accomplish for a man of natural ability and strength of character.
McDonald Watkins was born in Powhatan County, Virginia, in 1847. He lost his parents at a very early age and was reared in the home of his uncle, Daniel Hatcher, of Powhatan County, and in his youth received a good education, self- acquired for the most part, as he was always a deep student and a close reader. In the last year of the great Civil war, although only seventeen years of age, he served the Confederacy as one of the Home Guards in his county. Mr. Watkins began his life in business as a country salesman for a nursery company, but after several years, coming to the conclusion that if he could make money for others he could do so for himself, he went into the nursery business on his own account, and was successful therein, spending several years in Alabama and other southern states and in 1881 locating permanently at Charlotte, North Carolina.
At Charlotte Mr. McDonald embarked iu the dairy business upon a very small scale, having, in fact, only one cow wheu his business was inaugu- rated. He was very energetic and industrious, however, and it was not long before he had ac- quired more stock aud built up a larger trade, and eventually was able to purchase a farm of forty- six acres on the Providence road, near the grounds of Elizabeth College, which property he developed into an excellent dairy farm. It might be men- tioned, in passing, that Mr. Watkins bought this land for $4,500, and some years later sold it for $80,000, this remarkable increase in value being due largely to the building up of Myers Park, which his place adjoined, as a high-class residence section. The present Watkins farm, which consists of 266 acres and lies near the Providence road, not far from the original forty-six acres, also adjoins .Myers Park and is about two and one-half miles from the business center of Charlotte, in a south- easterly direction. Of this place he originally purchased 100 acres, later buying 166 acres addi- tional. Here Mr. Watkins continued with ever increasing success the old and thoroughly estab- lished dairy business, enlarging it and adding more stock as the demands for his products in- creased. Being conducted in such a scientific and thoroughly sanitary manner, with cleanliness and wholesome surroundings, it attracted a trade that extended among the best families all over the section, and the Spring Dale Dairy had an instant market for all the milk and cream it could supply. Soon after starting in business Mr. Watkins adopted for his enterprise the name of Spring Dale Dairy, because of the presence of a spring on the farm, situated in a dale, and under this name it has always been conducted.
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