USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 80
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The French philosopher Voltaire upon visiting a Quaker in London was much surprised and pleased to learn that he had the wisdom to limit the extent of his own fortune. Mr. Frazier has followed this example and having acquired a mod- erate fortune was content to retire in 1908.
On the 20th day of May, 1882, Cyrus P. Frazier and Lu-Cetta Churchill were married. She was born in Greene County. North Carolina, in 1860, being the daughter of Samuel Churchill, who died as a result of wounds received while serving in the Confederate Army in 1862. Mrs. Frazier is a direct descendant of Joseph Churchill of London,
England, and therefore belongs to the famous Churchill family of England which was first estab- lished in England by Wanderil de Leon, who came with William the Conqueror to England in 1066. Mrs. Frazier wa's a woman of rare beauty and was endowed with a good intellect. She died May 2, 1918. To this union were born two sons and one daughter: Cyrus Clifford Frazier, of the Greensboro Bar; Robert Haines Frazier, a stu- dent at the University of North Carolina, and Gertrude Frazier (Mrs. Baxter Scales Sellars).
By way of genealogy and without attempting to amplify the whole history of the family, suffice it to say, that the first member of the family to come to North Carolina was James Frazier, who came from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1762. He was married to Martha Milickin, of Guil- ford County. Their son Solomon Frazier was born in 1766 and married Mary Coltrane, daughter of William and Mary (Hollingsworth) Coltrane. To this union was born Isaac Frazier in 1795, who married Mary Thornberg, daughter of Edward Thornberg. Isaac Frazier was a successful planter and devised to his children an estate of more than 2,000 acres. Harrison Frazier, son of Isaac and Mary (Thornberg) Frazier and the father of Cyrus Pickett Frazier, was born in 1818. He was married to Gracett Pickett, daughter of Jere- miah Pickett, a man of great business ability and one of the founders of what is now the City of High Point. He also helped to organize Guilford College-was one of its incorporators and a mem- ber of its first board of trustees. The mother of Gracett (Pickett) Frazier was Hannah (Hedge- cock) Pickett, daughter of Mathew and Grace (Coffin) Hedgecock and their grandparents were Mathew and Hannah (Mendenhall) Coffin, Hannah Mendenhall being the daughter of George Menden- hall and Mathew Coffin being the son of William Coffin who came to North Carolina from Nan- tucket in 1773.
To any one familiar with the names of North Carolina it will be immediately seen that Cyrus Frazier is a birthright member of the Society of Friends. His ancestors being of that sturdy Quaker stock which came to Guilford County and so largely contributed to its development. His life has been an example of the precepts of his faith. He has been the embodiment of honest, earnest industry, capable of planning, then execut- ing. In permitting the publication of this sketch he is actuated not by pride or vanity but in the hope that the record of his success may be a source of encouragement to his posterity.
CLIFFORD FRAZIER, though engaged in the prac- tice of law less than ten years has established himself among the leading lawyers of Greensboro, North Carolina. The Greensboro Bar is perhaps the strongest in North Carolina and this fact evidences the merit of his success. He inherited from his mother the daring spirit and keen intellect of his Churchill ancestry and from his father the quiet poise, retiring manner and honest industry so characteristic of his Quaker progenitors.
He was born at Archdale, Randolph County, North Carolina, on the 16th day of December, 1884, being the eldest son of Cyrus P. Frazier and Lu-Cetta (Churchill) Frazier. A sketch of his father, together with a genealogy of his paternal ancestry, appears in this volume. The Coffins, Picketts, Mendenhalls and other names familiar to the student of the history of Quakerism in North Carolina, are there numbered among his
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ancestry. His mother was descended from Joseph Churchill of London, England, who belonged to the same family as John Churchill (Duke of Marl- borough), Lord Randolph Churchill and Winston Spencer Churchill, and her lineage may be traced from Wanderil de Leon who came with William the Conqueror to England in 1066. By reference to the "History of the Churchill Family" by Gard- ner A. Churchill in the Congressional Library at Washington, D. C., it will be seen that her great- great-grandfather, Charles Churchill, Jr., came to Newbern, North Carolina, from Connecticut in 1775, that all of his family later moved .to New Orleans, except Chappel McClure Churchill, the great-grandfather Mrs. Frazier. Samuel Churchill, her father, was the son of William Churchill and grandson of Chappel Churchill. The Churchills owned many slaves and large. tracts of real estate at the outbreak of the war between the states and Samuel Churchill, though very young, enlisted as a Confederate soldier and died in service on August 10, 1862. (Vol 1, p. 82 N. C. Roster).
Mr. Frazier was seven years old when the family came to Greensboro in 1891. He attended the graded schools of that city until he entered Guilford College in 1903. He graduated from Guilford College in the class of 1907, at which time the degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred upon him. He was class orator and received high praise from the Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, at that time speaker of the House, who attended Guilford Col- lege Commencement in 1907. In the fall of that year Mr. Frazier entered the University of North Carolina, and so diligent was he in his studies that he received both the degrees of A. B. and LL. B. in the spring of 1909. He received his license to practice law from the Supreme Court in Febru- ary, 1909, and being anxious to get some of the practical experience of the profession he formed a partnership with Mr. J. Lathrop Morehead, now of Durham, North Carolina, for the practice of law at Chapel Hill. They far exceeded their ex- pectations, for the first term of the Orange County Superior Court found them with many cases for trial, although they had not yet finished their college course.
In 1909 Mr. Frazier began the practice of law in Greensboro and has been steadily engaged in his profession since that date. He was nominated for the solicitorship of the Ninth Judicial Dis- triet in 1910 and canvassed the district. He has appeared in many cases of importance since he began the practice of his profession and because of his fitness for the position he was appointed referee in bankruptcy, by Hon. James E. Boyd, United States district judge for the Western Dis- triet of North Carolina for Guilford, Alamance, Randolph, Rockingham and Rowan counties. Re- cently he formed a partnership with Mr. John N. Wilson of Greensboro, and they represent as special counsel, the Southern Railway Company and many other railway companies in North Carolina. Mr. Frazier is a member of the North Carolina and American Bar associations, and belongs to many social clubs and secret organizations in Greensboro. He belongs to the Quaker church. On June 21, 1912, he was married to Margaret R. Armstrong, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. A. Armstrong, of Greensboro, and granddaughter of the late J. R. A. Power of Paterson, New Jersey. They have one child-Mary Lu-Cette Frazier.
WILLIAM AUGUSTUS FRENCH. For a great many years the French family has been prominent- ly known as wholesale merchants at Wilmington, and William Augustus French is now at the head of the principal wholesale shoe house of the city and has been actively identified with that business since early boyhood.
He was born in Wilmington August 2, 1875, and is a son of William A. and Harriet B. (Timmons) French. His father was also a wholesale mer- chant. His early education was acquired in the Tillotson School and he prepared for Lehigh Uni- versity at Lehigh, Pennsylvania. In 1891 he en- tered his father's place of business and has been continuously identified with one line, wholesale shoes, for a quarter of a century. In December, 1913, the business was incorporated, and Mr. French is president, treasurer and general man- ager.
He is a business man who feels a concern in all movements for making a greater and better city, and has done what he could toward the success of those movements. For two years he served as a member of the city council, for two years was on the fire and police commission, and is a trustee of the Firemen's Association of North Carolina. He is a member of the Cape Fear Club, on the board of governors of the Cape Fear Country Club, a member of the Carolina Yacht Club, the Cham- ber of Commerce, and fraternally is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner and also an Elk and Odd Fellow.
On October 9, 1896, he married Miss Lily Bell Harper, of Wilmington, North Carolina. They are the parents of two sons: William Augustus, Jr., born October 17, 1898; and Llewellyn Christian, born January 23, 1900.
WALTER BROWN ROUSE is a graduate of the University of North Carolina in both the literary and law courses, and was admitted to the bar in February, 1916, having graduated from the uni- versity with his LL. B. degree in May of the same year. He has since been in active practice at Newbern and has already gained position and in- fluence.
He was born in Lenoir County July 15, 1887, a son of Calvin and Elizabeth (Waller) Rouse. His parents were natives of Lenoir County and the father a successful farmer and merchant. Mr. Rouse attended public schools both at Dover and Raleigh, and prior to taking up the law he had some business experience and training as agent for the Norfolk and Southern Railway Company. He is a member of the Craven County and North Carolina Bar associations.
JOSEPH W. SECHREST. When the Sechrest family acquired their extensive interests in the lands of Guilford County, where the site of High Point now is, there was nothing to indicate that the settle- ment would some day become North Carolina's greatest furniture manufacturing district and that the town would rival the greatest furniture cities of America. The Sechrest family is notable not only because it was the first to locate in this sec- tion, but also for the steady force it has exerted for betterment and improvement in every direction from pioneer times down to the present. Mr. Joseph W. Sechrest is of a younger generation of the family and has long been prominent in local business affairs.
He was born at High Point in 1860, a son of
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Reuben F. and Nancy (Bolling) Sechrest, both of whom are now deceased. His mother was a member of the Bolling family of North Carolina. Reuben F. Sechrest was born in Davidson Coun- ty, North Carolina, a son of Thomas Sechrest, also a native of the same county. Thomas Se- chrest brought his family to Guilford County in 1833, and in 1836 located where High Point now is. In that year he bought 356 acres of land for a farm, paying less than $1 an acre, the total sum expended being $350. Thomas Sechrest was a native of Ireland, but had come to North Carolina in his early youth. Descendants and members of the Sechrest family have lived in High Point consecutively for over eighty years. Their homes are on what was originally the Sechrest farm, now in the heart of the fine residential district. Steele Street was opened by the Sechrest family for the building of city homes in recent years.
The late Reuben F. Sechrest and at least three of his brothers took part in the organization of High Point, which was organized as a town in 1859. Reuben at one time owned the farm on which much of the city has been built. In 1859 the population of the community numbered ap- proximately two or three hundred. Mathias Se- chrest, a brother of Reuben, was in his day a large contractor and railroad builder. He was one of the contractors on the building of the old plank road from Winston-Salem to Fayetteville, and also a contractor in the building of the North Carolina Railroad. Reuben Sechrest for many years had a prominent part in public affairs in High Point and in Guilford County. He was the only justice of the peace in this section for about thirty years. For several terms he filled the office of mayor of High Point and for twenty-four years was a county commissioner.
Mr. Joseph W. Sechrest was born and reared at the place where he is still living and within three blocks of his place of business. He was well educated, and in 1888 he had his first ex- perience in the undertaking business with Mr. Parker. In 1897 he became an independent under- taker and has developed a business which is second to none in this section of the state. His son Robert H. Sechrest, associated with him, is a thoroughly competent and well. trained embalmer, being a graduate of two professional schools.
Apart from the excellent service rendered to the community by Mr. Sechrest in his undertaking business he has shown a constantly public-spirited interest to everything that concerns the general welfare. For several terms he was a member of the city council, and did much to procure for High Point modern municipal improvements in keeping with the character and increasing importance of the town. He has worked with other progressive men and deserves much credit for the placing of this industrial city of North Carolina only second in rank to Grand Rapids as a furniture manu- facturing center.
Mr. Sechrest has long been prominent in the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. He was a charter member of the Local Council when it was established at High Point about twenty years ago. He served continuously for many years as financial secretary of the council and gradually his name became known in the order over the state. In 1914 he served as state council- lor and the state council has kept him in active service in his district. He has represented the state council in two national councils.
Mr. Sechrest married Miss Elizabeth Welch, daughter of the late William A. Welch and grand- daughter of Jonathan Welch. Jonathan Welch was a contemporary of the Sechrest family in settlement in the High Point district. He was an active factor in the community in early years and one of the founders of the First Baptist Church. The Sechrest family are members of the Methodist Church. Besides the son associated with him in business Mr. Sechrest has three daughters: Mrs Hattie Hoskins, Mrs. Mamie Gurley and Mrs. Ruth Bagley.
THOMAS A. LOVE. Avery County, North Caro- lina, figures as one of the most attractive, progressive and prosperous divisions of the state, justly claiming a high order of citizenship and a spirit of enterprise which is certain to con- serve consecutive development and marked ad- vancement in the material upbuilding of this sec- tion. The county is signally favored in the class of men who have contributed to its development along commercial and agricultural lines, and in the latter connection the subject of this review demands recognition, as he has been actively en- gaged in farming operations since 1886. In addi- tion to being a prosperous and enterprising agri- culturist he is also a lawyer of note, being a member of the well known law firm of Love & Lowe at Newland.
A native of Watauga County, North Carolina, Thomas A. Love was born in the year 1854, and he is a son of James and Margaret (Penning- ton) Love, both of whom are now deceased. The family is descended from Col. Robert Love, who won renown in the War of the Revolution. James Love, great-grandfather of the subject of this re- view, was born in Orange County, North Caro- lina, and his son, Thomas A. Love, was a native of Rowan County, this state. James Love, son of Thomas A. Love and father of our subject was born and reared in the western section of North Carolina 'and during the Civil war he was a faith- ful Confederate soldier, taking part in many pitched battles. He was severely wounded five times. During the battle of Gettysburg he was in the Confederate trenches and there was shot in the fingers, the thigh and the hip, with the re- sult that he was partially paralyzed during the rest of his life. He was called to eternal rest in 1904,
Thomas A. Love grew to maturity in Watauga County and after a thorough preliminary educa- tional training he studied law under Col. G. M. Folk in the latter's school at Riverside. Mr. Love was admitted to the state bar in January, 1881, and lie initiated the active practice of his profession in that year at Bakersville in Mitchell County. In 1886, his health becoming somewhat impaired by close application to the demands of his profession, he established his residence on the farm which has since been his home, at Linville Cove, about four miles southeast of the present Town of Newland in Avery County. The near- est postoffice is Pineola. The Linville Cove farm is one of the well known estates of the mountain country and is a most valuable property. It com- prises altogether about 1,000 acres, a great deal of which is fertile land under cultivation. Here Mr. Love is most successfully engaged in modern farming and stock-raising. This estate is an ideal country home, possessing all the charm of the beautiful mountain country of which it is a part,
Q.Kilder Tomlinson
Je omlinsonl
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situated as it is in the heart of the scenic region of Northwestern North Carolina. The famous re- sort, Linville, is nearby.
For several years Mr. Love maintained a law office at the Linville Cove farm, but a short time after the organization of the new County of Avery and the location of the county seat at Newland, he is associated in practice with L. D. Lowe, a sketch of whose career appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. Love is a patron and a member of the board of trustees of the famous Appalachian Training School at Boone, North Carolina.
The beginning of his long association with the opened a law office in the latter place, where he . City of Washington resulted from an appointment
In Caldwell County, North Carolina, was sol- emnized the marriage of Mr. Love to Miss Lula Florence Dula, a daughter of the late Julius A. Dula, of that county. Mr. and Mrs. Love have eight children, whose names are here inserted in respective order of birth: George C. Love, Mrs. Mamie Breeding, Miss Annie Love, Miss Florence Love, Roderick Love, McDuff Love and Lula and Margaret Love.
Active and enterprising, it is to be hoped that Mr. Love will long continue to move in the sphere of usefulness in which he has won high repute. So- cially he is genial and courteous, and the popu- larity that accompanies these qualities, with the distinction that comes from his achievements, makes him a man among many. A learned pro- fessional man, a thorough business man, a true friend, and in every sense a gentleman, such are the marked characteristics of Thomas A. Love.
JOHN S. TOMLINSON lived for nearly forty years in North Carolina, is a native of Iredell County, but in 1886 went to Washington, and his interests and enterprise have since been identified with the capital city. For twenty years he was connected with the United States treasury department, and is now owner of Cabin John Park, one of the best known suburban residence additions to the city, and is president of the American Land Com- pany, the corporation owning and administering this suburban property.
Mr. Tomlinson was born in Turnersburg Town- ship, Iredell County, December 24, 1849. a son of Wilson L. and Lamira Clementine (Summers) Tomlinson. Her mother was a sister of the mother of W. D. Turner of Statesville, one of that city's most prominent residents and a former lieutenant governor of North Carolina. Wilson L. Tomlin- son was a native of Iredell County and spent his life there. The Tomlinsons have long been identi- fied with the northern section of Iredell County, which is a famous district of the Piedmont region and has produced many notable characters in state history.
John S. Tomlinson was reared on his father's farm. His youth was spent in the poorest period of the South. the war and reconstruction period, but for all that he managed to procure a good education. Most of his school work was in the Olin High School and in Rutherford College, Burke County. He lived on the farm until twenty-one, and then became a teacher in the schools of Iredell and Davie counties.
For ten years Mr. Tomlinson was an active newspaper man. In 1875 he bought an interest in the Piedmont Press at Hickory, Catawba County. He was its active editor for ten years. Forty years ago Hickory was a pioneer community. It is now one of the thriving industrial centers of the South and is one of the leading woodworking towns of North Carolina. Its early development
and progress had no more efficient instrument than the paper of which Mr. Tomlinson was editor. In 1885 he removed to Asheville and became asso- ciated with Messrs. Stone & Furman, publishers of the Daily Citizen, and was on that paper for one year.
in 1886 as a clerk under the Civil Service in the auditing department of the Treasury. For twenty years to a day he was connected with the treasury department, but finally on account of ill health, voluntarily retired in 1906. His record as auditing clerk in the department was notable for efficiency and thoroughness. Based on that record he was selected by Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Thompson to take charge of the accounts and records covering the purchase of all supplies for the treasury. Four years later his qualifications were further recognized by the auditor of the treasury, who entrusted him to inaugurate and establish what became known as the "Liquidat- ing" section in the auditing department of the treasury. This section checked up and passed upon all reports of import duties received from collectors of ports in the United States. It was an office that required technical knowledge of the tariff laws and all regulations regarding imports. Mr. Tom- linson has the distinction of establishing and carry- ing out the plans and details of this section. At first he had the assistance of only one clerk, but when he retired from the treasury department in 1906 there were twenty-six clerks in his section. Altogether the service as he administered and im- proved it was an efficiency measure that resulted in the saving of thousands of dollars to the Gov- ernment.
For a period of twenty years Mr. Tomlinson was actively identified with the National Guard of the District of Columbia. He has frequently been given credit as one of the personal means of bring- ing the local military organization to a high stand- ard, especially in rifle practice. At the beginning he was captain of what was known as the Treasury Guard, most of the members of which were from the treasury department. Under a reorganization he became captain of an engineer company desig- nated as "The Sharpshooters." Under Captain Tomlinson 's instructions nearly every man in this organization became an expert marksman. With these two organizations he served twelve years, and the last eight years of his service was on the staff of the colonel of the Second Regiment in the capacity of regimental rifle inspector, a duty that required much time and expert knowledge. He finally retired from the National Guard with the rank of major.
While still in the treasury department Mr. Tom- linson had provided for his future occupation by the purchase of over 500 acres of suburban prop- erty in Montgomery County, Maryland, just over the line from the District of Columbia. This is the noted Cabin Jolin Park, located seven miles from the White House. He undertook the development of this property as a high class residence section in 1912 and through the American Land Com- pany, of which he was president, much of it has since been developed and sold for suburban homes. Its location for this purpose is ideal, situated in one of the most picturesque and historic of the environments of Washington.
Prior to his long service with the treasury de- partmeut and in the National Guard, Mr. Tom- liuson's public record includes one term as en-
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grossing clerk of the State Senate at Raleigh in 1881, at which time he edited and published a book, containing biographical sketches of all mem- bers of the Legislature. He lived at Hickory at that time. His brother the late W. F. Tomlinson, was also well known in the City of Washington, being for over twenty years a clerk in the depart- ment of agriculture and a former newspaper man at Hickory and Asheville, North Carolina. William F. Tomlinson was born in Iredell County August 5, 1856, and died at Washington October 3, 1916. He was one of the organizers of the North Caro- lina Association of Washington, and was long prominent in the Mount Pleasant Methodist Episcopal church, South.
John S. Tomlinson married Miss Mary Wilder, of Louisburg, North Carolina. They are members of the Epiphany Episcopal Church at Washing- ton. Mr. Tomlinson was Worshipful Master of the Masonic Lodge, while at Hickory, and affiliated with B. B. French Masonic Lodge of Washington.
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