USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 83
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Spencer B. Adams was liberally educated, attend- ing school at Rieeville, Virginia, at Booneville Academy in Yadkin County, North Carolina, and a private school conducted by Professor Near in Rockingham County. He studied law in the Dick and Dillard Law School at Greensboro, and after regular examination was licensed to practice in February, 1881. Most of the large class who were admitted at the same time were his fellow students and many of them have since become prominent in the North Carolina bar. The names of his law con- temporaries by reason of admission at the same date may properly be inscribed here: Elisha M. Allison, John M. Avery, Charles C. Cobb, J. A. Creech, John C. Davis, Cornelius M. Ferrebee, Amos M. Fry, Donald Gillem, I. G. Hayes, W. L. Hall, Jesse N. Holding, R. B. Kerner, Ed H. King, D. J. Lewis, John H. Long, Charles A. McNeill, Wheeler Martin, E. P. Maynard, John T. Perkins, R. D. Reid, Thomas R. Robertson, Ralph W. Siler, Frank Thompson. Jr., and C. W. Tillett.
After his admission to the bar Mr. Adams be- gan practice at Yanceyville in Caswell County. He soon gained a general recognition in public life and in 1882 was elected clerk of the Superior Court of Caswell County, and was reelected for several successive terms. In 1896 he was given still higher recognition of his ability by election as judge of the Superior Court, and remained on the bench two years, resigning to accept the republican nomination for Congress. He made a valiant fight for that honor, but was defeated.
His judicial career won for him high praise. A notable instance of his adherence to duty and
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respect for the constitutional rights of the citizens of the state is found in his decision in Wood vs. Bellamy, which was heard by him at Raleigh in 1896. See 120 North Carolina Reports, page 212. In 1897 the fusion legislature passed an act en- titled "An Act to Charter the Eastern Hospital for the Colored Insane and the Western Hospital for Insane and the North Carolina Insane Asylum at Raleigh and the Hospital for Insane located near Morganton and Eastern Asylum near Golds- boro, and to abolish the offices of superintendent and directors of such institutions and to recharter them under other names, and to create offices to be filled by officers under such designations." Those responsible for the act had as their manifest object to provide places for persons of the same political faith. After the act was passed public interest in the case arose to an intense pitch. If the act was declared constitutional it would leave these institutions at the mercy of politicians. Judge Adams declared the act unconstitutional and his decision was later sustained by the Supreme Court.
In 1899 Mr. Adams came to Greensboro, and in 1900 was republican candidate for governor of the state. In 1902 he was appointed by President Roosevelt and confirmed by the Senate on July 1st of that year as chief judge of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Citizenship Court, a special appellate court created by act of Congress to decide questions of Indian citizenship in old Indian Territory. By his service of four years his name is permanently identified with the early history of the State of Oklahoma, and at the close of his work there he was highly complimented by the Department of Justice at Washington.
In 1899 Judge Adams had been appointed sec- retary and treasurer of the North Carolina Rail- road, and filled that office of trust for two years. Mr. Adams has served as delegate to numerous state and national republican conventions, and there are few men of prominence in that party whom he has not met or does not know personally. He was a delegate to the convention at Philadel- phia which nominated McKinley and Roosevelt in 1900, and was vice president of that nominating convention. He was a delegate at large to the convention of 1908 which nominated Mr. Taft and was a member of the platform committee.
Judge Adams has always had an inherent love for farming and stock raising. In 1917 he sold his stock farm in the northern part of Guilford County, with a herd of seventy registered and high grade Guernsey cattle. He immediately bought a farm near Whitsett in the east part of the county and here he is engaged in the, breeding of Short- horns and Berkshire hogs. This farm is known as Wildwood Stock Farm.
In 1894 Mr. Adams married Lizzie M. Swift, daughter of Joseph M. and Isabella (Lowndes) Swift. Mr. and Mrs. Adams are members of the First Baptist Church of Greensboro. Six children have been born to their marriage: Lillian, Ula, Sarah A., Joseph A., Gena and Spencer B., Jr. The daughter Lillian is the wife of E. A. Fermester and has two sons, named Spencer Adam and Early A. Ula married Lieut. Lee A. Folger, who is now serving as an officer in the national army, and their two children are Lee H. and Spencer Adams. Sarah A. is the wife of L. B. Powers, and they have two daughters, Lizzie Adams and Harriet Bruce. The son Joseph A. is a lieutenant in the National Army. Gena married Vincent Bergemen.
WILLIAM P. PICKETT. High Point is distin- guished among North Carolina cities as one of the most important centers for the manufacture of furniture and other wood products. The growth and development of those business interests which in the course of twenty-five or thirty years have transformed a country town into a thriving com- mercial metropolis have had as one of the most important factors William P. Pickett, a business man, banker and manufacturer of great ability and success and a man whose heart has been in the welfare of his community as well as in the suc- cess of his private affairs.
Mr. Pickett was born on a plantation in Brown- town Township of Davidson County, North Caro- lina. The family name as spelled by the first American resident was Piggott. This American an- cestor was Jeremiah Piggott, who was born in Eng- land, and on coming to America settled in the wilderness country now known as Browntown Town- ship of Davidson County. He became an extended landed proprietor. His lands were watered by Rich Fork and Abbotts Creek, and his own home was in the midst of the heavy timber which lined those wa- ter courses. During his lifetime he improved a por- tion of his land and was busily engaged in its cultivation until his death. His son and grand- father of William P. Pickett was William Pickett, who owned and operated a farm in Browntown Township and spent his life there. He married Elizabeth Welborn, whose brother, Major Welborn, was a conspicuous figure in Revolutionary history of North Carolina. They had a family of children named Elizabeth, Isabella, Rachel, Jeremiah, John, William, Moses and Samuel. The father of the High Point manufacturer was Samuel Pickett, who was born at the old homestead in Davidson County in 1812. After reaching manhood he inherited a portion of the old estate and being a man of much enterprise he acquired additional tracts of land and also engaged in merchandising at High Point. He was one of the first merchants of that village. Honored and successful, he died at the age of sixty-two years. He married Asenath Montgomery, a native of Davidson County. Her father, George Montgomery, was a carpenter, millwright and farmer, and probably a lifelong resident of David- son County. He was prominent in his time because of his great physical stature, standing six feet seven inches in height. Samuel J. Pickett and wife had seven children: Elizabeth, Jennie, Lou, William P., Jeremiah R., Francis Marion and Rob- ert Lee.
The youthful days of William P. Pickett were spent on the old farm. At the same time he ac- quired a fair education in the public schools. On reaching the age of twenty-one he began an active career as a manufacturer of tobacco. He con- ducted this business on the home farm until 1880, when he removed to the village of High Point. This tobacco plant was one of the first real in- dustries of that town, and around it may be said to have been built up the many large and important factories which the city boasts today. He continued the manufacture of tobacco with other expanding interests until 1905.
Mr. Pickett was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of High Point, and was on its first board of directors. He was one of the founders and is a director of the Commercial Bank, is a charter member and director of the High Point Savings & Trust Company, and in manufacturing circles is represented as a stock-
FERNANDO G. JAMES
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holder and president of the Welch Furniture Com- pany, stockholder and director of the Marsh Furni- ture Company, stockholder of the High Point Buggy Company, stockholder in the Southern Chair Company, president of the Rankin Coffin Company, and as a stockholder in the Mayodan Cotton Mills, in the Madison Bank and Mount Gilead Bank. He is also vice president of the Pickett Cotton Mill Company.
Mr. Pickett and wife are active members of the Methodist Protestant Church, which he has served as steward and trustee.
February 20, 1879, he married Fannie Eller. Mrs. Pickett was born in Davidson County, a daughter of John A. and Mary (Siceloff) Eller. Her paternal grandparents were George and Mollie (Yorkeley) Eller. Her maternal grandparents were Alexander and Eliza (Wear) Siceloff. Both the Ellers and Siceloffs were of early German an- cestry and among the pioneer colonists of North Carolina. Both her grandfathers were farmers, while grandfather Siceloff was a pioneer manu- facturer of cotton seed oil. Mrs. Pickett's father was a farmer and during the war between the states served three years as ambulance sergeant in the Confederate army. Mr. and Mrs. Pickett have a family of six children and a number of grandchildren. Their children are named Minnie, Jessie, Esther, Altah, John S. and Klein. Minnie is the wife of Jolin Harrell and has a son named Mangum. Jessie is the wife of Herman Meredith, and her two sons are Fletcher and William. Esther married Charles F. Finch and has a son, Harry Brown.
LORENZO D. LOWE. The activity and enter- prise of any growing center of population is per- haps as clearly indicated in the class of profes- sional men who look after its legal interests as in any other respect, and it is with pleasure that we refer to Lorenzo D. Lowe. He conducts a general practice of law and in land litigations has demonstrated ability beyond the ordinary. His accuracy and familiarity with the law is well known and his library consists of the highest legal authorities-territorial, state and Federal court 'reports, and other important works, and his practice is a large and lucrative one. He stands high in the estimation of his fellow men as a citizen, while in the profession he has the admiration of the bar and the judiciary, and his cases are prosecuted with persistency and te- nacity of purpose which defies all just cause for defeat. Mr. Lowe has law offices at Banner Elk and at Newland, in which latter place he has as a partner, Thomas A. Love, a sketch of whose ca- reer appears on other pages of this work.
Lorenzo D. Lowe was born in Surry County, North Carolina, in the year 1856, and his family is of English extraction. His father, Gilbert A. Lowe, was born in Patrick County, Virginia, but was reared and educated in Rockingham County, North Carolina, whence he removed as a young man to Surry County, near Westfield. The moth- er's maiden name was Rebecca N. Wall.
To the public schools of Westfield, North Caro- lina, Mr. Lowe is indebted for his preliminary educational training. In 1876 he accompanied his parents to Banner Elk, in the valley of Elk Creek, in what is now Avery County but was then Watauga County. He has maintained his home and business headquarters at Banner Elk during the long intervening years to the present time. Deciding upon the legal profession as his
life work, he studied law under the able precep- torship of Major Bingham, at Boone, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1884. During the period of his connection with the bar of the state-nearly a third of a century-he has won broad recogni- tion for his talents as a lawyer and he enjoys an extensive and lucrative practice in the various courts. In land cases, especially, in which line there has been considerable litigation in North Carolina, he has shown acumen and ability of an unusual order. As previously noted, he has offices at Banner Elk and at Newland, the latter place being the county seat of Avery County.
Mr. Lowe has always been greatly interested in local lore and local history of his own and the surrounding mountain country, and has unearthed and written for the local press much that is not only highly interesting and entertaining, but val- uable historically as well. Of Delilah Baird and her somewhat ludicrous romances and of Harri- son Aldridge, the famous bear hunter, his anec- dotes and contributions to the press have been greatly enjoyed by numerous persons.
Mr. Lowe was united in marriage to Miss Hat- tie Calloway, a daughter of the late Dr. James Calloway, of Wilkesboro, whose grandmother was a niece of Daniel Boone. Four children have been born of this union: Ruth, Mary, Eva and Caro- lyne. The family are comfortably ensconced in a beautiful home at Banner Elk.
Mr. Lowe was one of the organizers of the Bank of Valle Crucis, of which he is the present capable president. In addition to his law work he has other substantial interests in Avery and Watauga counties, where he commands a high place in the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. He has given considerable time to the improvement and building of good roads in his home community and his efforts in this and in other directions for public improvement are highly appreciated.
FERNANDO GODFREY JAMES has been a prominent member of the Greenville bar upwards of forty years, and has enjoyed many of the better suc- cesses and distinctions of professional life. He has been much in public affairs, has handled the business of numerous business corporations of Greenville, and his reputation is widespread over North Carolina as an able lawyer and thoroughly upright and conscientious gentleman.
Mr. James was born at Hertford in Perquimans County, North Carolina, March 23, 1857. His parents, John Gray and Mary Rebecca (Langley) James, were both natives of Pitt County. His father was a dentist by profession. During the war by appointment from Governor Vance he served as purchasing agent for the state.
Fernando G. James has lived at Greenville since 1868. . He completed his education in the Uni- versity of North Carolina and studied law first with the firm of Smith & Strong and then with Chief Justice Pierce. He was admitted to the bar in 1879, and since that date has been con- nected with the Greenville bar.
Mr. James is attorney for the Norfolk & South- ern Railways, for the National Bank of Greenville, for the Greenville Cooperage Company and many other business concerns.
In public affairs he served as mayor of Green- ville from 1882 to 1892. In the latter year he was elected a member of the State Senate and was again chosen to the Senate in 1898. During his last term he was chairman of privileges and
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elections committee and was a member of the com- mittees on judiciary, deaf, dumb and blind insti- tutes, insurance, congressional districts, and shell fish industry. Mr. James is vice president and for five years was president of the National Bank of Greenville. He is a member of the North Carolina and the American Bar associations, and served with the rank of colonel on Governor Glenn's staff. One of his early experiences that made a great impression upon him and will always remain clear in his memory came when he was a boy of seven. It happened in 1864. Governor Jarvis, who had been wounded at Petersburg, Vir- ginia, was on his way to his home in North Carolina and spent one night at the home of Mr. James' mother. The next morning, when the governor proceeded upon his next stage of progress, the boy drove his distinguished guest down the road a distance of ten miles, riding in a mule cart.
On March 8, 1882, Mr. James married Miss Margaret Cherry, of Greenville. They are the parents of six children: Charles, a teller in the Greenville National Bank; James Burton; Larry, who is still with his studies; Nina, wife of Charles C. Skinner, of New York City; Mary, wife of William T. Lipscomb, a tobacco merchant at Greenville; and Ada.
James Burton James, who is now associated as a partner in law practice with his father, F. G. James, was born at Greenville December 31, 1886. He was educated in Horner's Military Institute and in the University of North Carolina, finishing his law course in 1908. He has since been in active practice with his father. He is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association and was mayor of his native city from 1913 to 1915. He is an active member and steward of the Methodist Episcopal church. October 11, 1911, he married Miss Lucy Royce Brown, of Greenville. They have two children, James Burton, Jr., and Lucy Francisco.
CLAUDE KITCHIN. Americans generally and statesmen all over the world associate the name Claude Kitchin with the most powerful position in the legislative department of the American government. The people of North Carolina, with appropriate pride in the dignities and responsi- bilities that have befallen one of their fellow citizens, think of Mr. Kitchin in more personal terms and relationships as a successful lawyer and as member of a family of prominent public men. His father, the late William H. Kitchin, served as a member of the Forty-sixth Congress, and Claude is a brother of William W. Kitchin, former congressman and governor of North Carolina.
Claude Kitchin was born at Scotland Neck, North Carolina, March 24, 1869. He received his bachelor's degree from Wake Forest College at the age of nineteen, and in 1890 was admitted to the bar. He has maintained his law office at Scotland Neck for many years, though there has been little opportunity to practice law in the brief intervals of an almost continuous session of Congress. He entered Congress, representing the Second North Carolina District, after his first election in 1910, and has served continuously from the Fifty-seventh to the Sixty-fifth Congresses inclusive. Mr. Kitchin has been majority leader in the Sixty- fourth and Sixty-fifth Congresses, and as chair- man of the ways and means committee has been the most influential member of the House in the financial and other constructive measures con- nected with the national administration during
the last four years. Mr. Kitchin married Kate B. Mills, of Wake Forest, November 13, 1888.
ZEBULON VANCE STRADER is a resident of Greens- boro, but his business and industrial interests are diversified and located in several counties of West- ern North Carolina. He is a member of one of the fine old families of this state, and for several generations they have been prominent in the country around and tributary to Winston-Salem.
Mr. Strader was born in Salem Chapel Township of Forsyth County, North Carolina. His great- grandfather, Jonathan Strader, was a native of Germany, came to America when a young man, accompanied by his brother Conrad, who subse- quently found a home in one of the more western states. Jonathan Strader settled in Virginia, where he probably spent all the rest of his life. Jonathan Strader, Jr., grandfather of Zebulon V., was born in Virginia, acquired a good education for the time in which he lived, and studied and perfected himself in medicine. In the early years of the last century he came to North Carolina, lo- cating in Alamance County, where he bought a plantation and developed it with the aid of his slaves. A few years later he sold that farm and moved to Guilford County, buying land sixteen miles northwest of Greensboro. He always had his home on a farm and many of his most im- portant interests were rural in character, though he also conducted practice as a physician and rendered skillful service in this capacity until his death in advanced years. He married Amelia Cobb, a native of Alamance County. The family consisted of four sons and two daughters, Adamı, Joshua, Chester, John, Annie and Bettie. John Allen Strader, father of the Greensboro business man, was born in Alamance County in 1831 and in early manhood moved to Forsyth County, where for a number of years he conducted a farm and store in Salem Chapel Township. Disposing of his interests there, he bought a large tract of land in the eastern part of Stokes County. This also after farming for a number of years he sold, and spent his last years in Bellews Creek Township, where his death occurred at the age of seventy-six .. The maiden name of his wife was Eliza Ann Marshall. She was born in Salem Chapel Township, a daugh- ter of Col. Henry and Mary (Vance) Marshall. Colonel Marshall was a prominent man of Salem Chapel Township, where he had a plantation. He was elected a member of the first board of com- missioners of Forsyth County. It was this board which negotiated the purchase of the land for the county seat, on which the City of Winston has been built. Mrs. John A. Strader died at the age of forty-five, having reared seven children: Lee, Sallie, William, Zebulon Vance, J. Wellons, Wade Pelham and Essie. The daughter Sallie married J. B. Jones and Essie became the wife of R. F. Gentry.
Zebulon Vance Strader's early life was spent on his father's farm, and his work was divided be- tween school and the fields. Having been reared on a farm, he continued agriculture as an occupa- tion until 1899, in which year he formed a partner- ship with his brother-in-law, Virgil O. Roberson, to engage in the lumber industry. This firm has since developed some large and successful interests. They added to their business by purchasing the Bellews Creek Roller Mills, one of the best equipped flour mills in the state. They also added a planing mill and has in operation two box fac-
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tories, one at Greensboro and the other at Bellews Creek. These two factories consume from 5,000,000 to 7,000,000 feet of lumber each year, and give employment to a large force of skilled operatives. Each of the partners also owns a farm of upwards of 300 acres in Bellews Creek Township, these farms being occupied and worked by tenants.
In 1898 Mr. Strader married Luella Roberson, who was born in Bellews Creek Township; daughter of Israel and Mary (Vance) Roberson. Mr. and Mrs. Strader have six children: Margie May, Katie Vance, Mary Ethel, Laura Evelyn, Chester Virgil and Luella. Mr. and Mrs. Strader are members of the Christian Church.
HON. WILLIAM T. LOVE. The long and success- ful career of Hon. William T. Love, of Gastonia, offers many indications that real merit and con- tinued enterprise receive proper recognition from those who are anxious to benefit from any man's grasp of affairs, for Mr. Love's fellow-citizens have successively honored him upon numerous occasions, and their confidence has never been misplaced. A member of a family accustomed to handling large and important matters, he early developed business sagacity of an uncommon order and di- rected his abilities into channels that only led to his own elevation to a position of eminence in business and public life, but which have developed into labors which have inestimably aided his fel- low-citizens and the community at large. His long and continuous service in behalf of the people has been rewarded by his advance in popular esti- mation.
Mr. Love was born near Gastonia in Gaston County, North Carolina, in 1859, his parents being S. W. and Margaret Ann (Torrence) Love, both of whom are now deceased, and both natives of Gaston County. His father was killed during the war between the states, while wearing the uniform of the Confederacy. The Love family are pioneers in the cotton mill industry in Gaston County, with which they have been prominently connected since its beginning. Mr. Love's uncle, the late R. C. G. Love, also a native of Gaston County, built the first mill at Gastonia, the plant of the Gastonia Cotton Mill Company, within the present city limits of Gastonia, which was erected in 1888, and which has been in continuous operation to the present time.
R. C. G. Love, whose death occurred in 1907, was one of the big men of his day-mentally, physically and morally-a strong, forceful, upright man of the highest type of character. It was he who inaugurated and for several years carried on, practically single-handed, the fight against the whiskey business in Gaston County. He was one of the first of the local optionists of North Caro- lina. When he began his fight in Gaston County, along toward 1880, there were forty-seven legally licensed distilleries in the county, to say nothing of the large number of illicit or "blockade" plants making whiskey. He was in the mercan- tile business at that time, in the town of Mount Holly, which was his home for a number of years, and arrayed against him were the powerful liquor interests which controlled politics and to a large extent the business of the county. His own busi- ness, however, was so thoroughly and honorably established and conducted uron such a high plane that even the opposition of these powerful interests failed to injure him in this respect. He was always a successful business man and none of his ventures ever failed, and he remained until his death a
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