USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 85
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Eugene L. Kiser was born in Rural Hall Town- ship in 1854 and acquired a very good education as a youth. He taught school for a time and then became a merchant at Rural Hall, where he has continued the same line of business with growing prospects and success to the present time. He also succeeded to the ownership of a portion of the old homestead and still owns it. In 1879 he married Sarah Elizabeth Miller. She was born two miles from Rural Hall, daughter of Solomon A. and Almira (Null) Miller. Both the Millers and the Nulls are old families of that section of the state. There is a residence on the old Miller homestead which is now nearly a hundred years old and is still in a good state of renair. Eugene Kiser and wife reared three children: Claude, Mamie and Oscar M.
After getting a literary training in the Rural Hall High School Claude Kiser entered Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, graduating in 1899, and then took up an active business career which has brought him in less than twenty years to an enviable place in North Caro- lina's affairs. At first he was bookkeeper with the firm of Lupfert & Scales, tobacco manufactur-
ers at Winston-Salem. A year later he went with Smith Brothers, a prominent lumber firm having mills in Yadkin and Surry counties. Still later he was with the W. L. Clement Lumber Company as inspector and buyer of lumber at Martinsville, Virginia, and at Cheraw, South Carolina. At the end of two years he was made manager of the com- pany 's mill near Cheraw, and remained in that locality until 1906.
The South Atlantic Lumber Company was organized in 1906, and Mr. Kiser was its first vice president, but has since become secretary and treasurer. The purpose of the company was to manufacture box and crate lumber from the "old. field" pines of Western North Carolina. Up to that time practically the only material used for boxes and crates had been spruce or white pine. The company succeeded in demonstrating the avail- ability of field pine for the purpose, and soon opened up a large market and today the company handles more than fifty million feet of this lum- ber every year. The main offices of the company are Grensboro and they also have mills at Kings- burg, South Carolina, and at Greensboro, Elkton, Elkin and Roaring River in North Carolina. Mr. Kiser is also a director of the Arctic Ice and Coal Company of Greensboro and is a stockholder in a number of corporations. He is a well known member of the Merchants and Manufacturers Club and the Chamber of Commerce of Greensboro, also the Country Club, and is affiliated with Corin- thian Lodge No. 342, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Charlotte Consistory of the Scottish Rite and Oasis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Char- lotte. He and his wife are members of the Church of the Disciples, and he is one of its official board and is treasurer of the Young Men's Christian Association.
In 1903 Mr. Kiser married Mamie Moore. Mrs. Kiser was born three miles south of Rural Hall, daughter of Edward and Eliza (Shouse) Moore.
CLYDE ELLSWORTH COTTON, M. D. In the great struggle to overcome and eradicate tubercular dis- eases that are largely responsible for the annual heavy death rate in America, the best energies of some of the most earnest and enlightened physi- cians of the day are enlisted. Through their scien- tific investigations, often prosecuted at great risk to themselves, many of the grim secrets of the devastating white plague have been disclosed, and to these medical men the world owes an unpayable personal debt of gratitude and cannot withhold a meed of affection and respect combined with pro- found admiration. A specialist in this line, well known in scientific bodies in the state, is Dr. Clyde Ellsworth Cotton, of Asheville, North Caro- lina, and a member of the staff of the city's lead- ing hospital.
Clyde Ellsworth Cotton was born at Warren, Pennsylvania, July 20, 1862. His parents were Washington and Isabella (Porter) Cotton. The ancestry is Scotch-Irish and both names are fa- miliar in many parts of the United States, the branch of the Cotton family to which Doctor Cot- ton belongs having settled in Virginia about the middle of the eighteenth century, moving later to Pennsylvania. While mainly an agricultural family, it was, perhaps, the environment in which Washington Cotton grew up that made him choose the laborious life of a lumberman, and he was well known as a business man and highly respected personally through the Alleghanies and up and down the great rivers. He reared his family in
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comfort and was able to afford his son many edu- cational advantages.
Doctor Cotton attended the public schools and completed the high school course before entering Oberlin College at Elyria, Ohio, and after a thor- ough period of training there entered the medical department of what then was Wooster University but now the Western Reserve College, and from this institution he was graduated in 1885. Doctor Cotton then entered into a general practice at Cleveland, Ohio, but two years later was recalled to the Western Reserve College to accept the chair of anatomy, and he lectured there from 1889 until 1900.
In 1901 Doctor Cotton came to Black Mountain, this state, and opened the sanatorium there which he conducted under the name of "The Pines" until 1914, when he came to Asheville and became a member of the staff of the Meriwethers Hospital, as specialist in tubercular diseases, the seat of which may be in the lungs or in other sensitive parts of the body. A close and intelligent student in every medical field, he has become more deeply interested in this line than others and mainly de- votes his researches in this direction, and his contributions to the literature of the county and state and the Tri-State Medical Associations are very highly valued. Additionally he belongs to the National Association for the Study of Tuber- cular Troubles. Another professional connection he takes just pride in is his membership iu the Cleveland (Ohio) Academy of Medicine.
Doctor Cotton was married on February 24, 1897, to Miss Helen C. Floyd, who is a daughter of George Floyd, a member of an old Virginia family of distinction, who is in the secret service department of the United States government. Doctor and Mrs. Cotton have three children, one daughter and two sons, namely: Dorothy June, Floyd Ellsworth and John Henry, all of whom are attending school at Asheville.
Doctor Cotton has numerous important business interests at Black Mountain, where he is identified officially with the Black Mountain Lumber Com- pany, and is vice president of the Commonwealth Bank. Fraternally he is a Mason of exalted de- gree. He is past eminent commander of the Char- lotte Commandery, has taken the thirty-second degree and is a Shriner.
CHARLES H. MCKNIGHT has long occupied an enviable position in Greensboro's business circles. A number of years ago he retired from commer- cial traveling to enter the service of the Van Story Clothing Company, and is now its presi- dent and executive head. He has built this busi- ness up until it is one of the largest concerns of its kind in this section of North Carolina.
Mr. McKnight was born on a farm three miles from Greensboro, In that locality the MeKnights have lived for several generations. His grand- father, William McKnight, was born there of early Scotch ancestry in North Carolina. William Mc- Knight was an old time planter and slave owner and spent his life in Guilford County. He married Miss Albright, likewise descended from Scotch pioneers. John McKnight, father of Charles H., was the only son of his parents and 'succeeded to the owner- ship of the old homestead, which he still owns and occupies. He was born in the same house as his son in 1850. He is a man of substance and influence in that part of the county. He married Mary Rankin, who was born in Guilford County. Her parents, Albert and Mary (McMur-
ray) Rankin, were natives of the same county and their old home was in the vicinity of Ala- mance Church. John E. McKnight and wife reared uine children, named Charles H., Annie, Albert, Martha, John, Mary, Ernest, Ray and Nellie.
Charles H. McKnight lived on a farm with his parents to the age of twenty and in the mean- time acquired his education in the local schools. Leaving home, he went to work as a clerk in the Van Story Clothing Company at Greensboro, and thus he laid the foundation of his business career with the same house of which he is now executive head. After four years there he went on the road representing the well known New York house of Sweet, Orr & Company, selling their line of men's high grade working gar- ments. He traveled for them over an exclusive territory for eleven years, finally resigning to become president and manager of the Van . Story Clothing Company at Greensboro, the position he still occupies.
Iu October, 1897, Mr. McKnight married Anna Louisa Allen, who was born in Rockingham County of this state, daughter of Maj. William S. and Laura (Sherwood) Allen. Her maternal grandfather, Benjamin Sherwood, came from Pennsylvania to North Carolina and located in Rowan County. After making his home there a number of years he moved west to the Ter- ritory of Iowa and was a pioneer of Des Moines, where he died. Mr. and Mrs. McKnight have one son, Charles Allen.
Mr. McKnight is a member of the Buffalo Presbyterian Church, while his wife is a member of the West Market Street Methodist Church. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masons, and is very active in local business organizations, including the chamber of commerce, chairman of the Merchants Bureau and president of the Merchants Association and is also a Rotarian. He belongs to the Greensboro Country Club.
HON. ALFRED DECATUR WARD has been a prac- tising lawyer in the North Carolina bar for over thirty years and has many distinguished honors and the substantial success of the capable attorney and the vigorously public spirited citizen.
He was born near Rose Hill in Duplin County, North Carolina, December 25, 1859, a son of Wil- liam Robinson and Keziah Jane (Johnson) Ward. Partly through the advantages conferred upon him by a good home and partly through his own efforts he acquired a liberal education, attending Wallace High School from 1874 to 1877, Rockfish Academy from 1880 to 1881, and then entered the University of North Carolina, where he was gradu- ated in 1885. Mr. Ward completed the course of the University Law School in 1886, and has since been in active practice. For a number of years he lived at Kenansville, and since then at Newbern.
. Mr. Ward was elected a representative in the General Assembly from Duplin County in 1893, and was elected state senator from the Seventh District in 1913 and 1915. He served as mayor of Kenansville from 1888 to 1892, was chairman of the Craven Board of Education from 1899 to 1903, and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Craven County Farm-life School in 1912 and 1915, till the present time.
Professionally Mr. Ward has been honored with the office of vice president of the North Carolina Bar Association and has been a delegate to the National Bar Association. He was president of
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the local University Alumni Association at New- bern in 1911-12, and was president of the Board of Trustees of Wake Forest College from 1907 to 1909. He is affiliated with the Royal Arcanum and has been an active and official member of the Baptist Church and in 1907 was first vice president of the Baptist State Convention. He was married October 22, 1890, to Miss Carolina Virginia Far- rior, and they have a family of two sons and two daughters.
EUGENE F. HARTLEY is member of an old and honored family of Davidson County, North Caro- lina, but his active career since early manhood has been spent in the City of Washington, where con- tinuously since 1900 he has been identified with the United States Census Bureau. Long study, experience and specialized ability have placed Mr. Hartley in the responsible office of chief sta- tistician for manufacturing in that bureau.
He was born near Lexington in Davidson Coun- ty September 21, 1879, son of Hiram H. and El- len Frances (Davis) Hartley. His mother is now deceased. His father spent all his life in David- son County as a planter and farmer.
Eugene F. Hartley was educated at Yadkin College, Davidson County, and the University of North Carolina, graduating from the latter insti- tution in 1899. He was twenty years of age when he went to Washington in 1900 to become a clerk in the census office. A number of promotions have been given him and there is scarcely a more important division of the Census Bureau than that of which the chief statistician for man- ufactures is at the head.
Mr. Hartley has become widely known and is recognized as one of the country's chief authori- ties on various phases of national statistics, par- ticularly industrial. During the past few years he has been entrusted by the Government with many important commissions involving the expert services of the statistician. In his present de- partment he has a regular office force of over 300 persons, besides a traveling force of forty in the field. During the compilations of the de- cennial census this force is of course greatly aug- mented.
In the fall of 1917 Mr. Hartley was sent to the Virgin Islands, the new possessions of the United States purchased from Denmark, to com- pile the census statistics of population, agricul- ture, manufacturers, fisheries, etc. With the force under his direction this work was efficiently done and has been published by the Government under his name as supervisor.
During the spring of 1918 Mr. Hartley was en- gaged in collecting statistics of the electrical in- dustries of the nation, including street and elec- tric railways. central electric light and power sta- tions, telephones, telegraphs, and municipal fire alarm and police patrol signalling systems. ยท Un- der his supervision his department is also doing its full share of work statistically for all indns- tries that affect the prosecution of the war.
Mr. Hartley married Miss Celeste Graves Boy- kin. Her father, the late Judge Edwin T. Boy- kin of Sampson County, was at one time judge of the Superior Court and a brilliant lawyer and widely known citizen of North Carolina. The name of Mr. and Mrs. Hartley's child is Eugene Boykin Hartley.
THOMAS D. SHERWOOD is president and treasurer of J. W. Scott & Company, the oldest wholesale
dry goods house in North Carolina. Mr. Sherwood practically grew up with this business, and has been an official member of the company for thirty years.
Mr. Sherwood is a native of Greensboro, and represents the name of an old and honored fam- ily here. His grandfather, Benjamin Sherwood, was probably born in Pennsylvania, from which state he came to North Carolina and settled in Rowan County for several years and afterwards moved out to the territory of Iowa, locating at or near the present site of Des Moines, where he spent his last days. Michael Swaim Sherwood, father of Thomas D., was born in Rowan County, North Carolina, September 28, 1816. In 1832, when in his sixteenth year, he came to Greensboro. At that time his uncle, William Swain, was pub- lisher of the Grensboro Patriot, one of the leading journals of the state. In his uncle's employ he learned the printing and newspaper business, and in 1839 formed a partnership with Lyndon Swaim and bought the paper. He remained as an honored and influential publisher until his death in 1865, and his name has a high place among North Caro- lina journalists of his generation. Michael S. Sherwood married Maria Thomas, who was born in Lewisburg, Franklin County, North Carolina, daughter of William and Mary (Jordan) Thomas. She survived her husband nearly half a century, passing away in 1913. Her five children were Mary L .. Thomas D., Annie N., Laura and Michael Swaim, Jr.
Thomas D. Sherwood grew up at Greensboro, attended private schools and was only fifteen years old when he went to work for the wholesale mer- chant, J. W. Scott. He proved diligent and faith- ful, mastered the details of business rapidly, was promoted from minor to major responsibilities, and at the incorporation of the business about 1888 became a director and soon afterwards was elected secretary and treasurer, the position he held until the death of J. W. Scott when he was elected president.
In 1902 Mr. Sherwood married Bessie Mc- Masters. Mrs. Sherwood is a native of Missouri but her parents were both North Carolinians. Her father. David Clarkson MeMasters, was born in Randolph County. Her mother was a member of the MeLean family and was born in Guilford Countv. Mrs. Sherwood is a member of the Pres- byterian Church.
SAMUEL MITCHELL BRINSON after leaving col- lege took up teaching as his first choice of a pro- fession, but subsequently studied and was admitted to the bar, and was active in the profession at Newbern for several years. He finally returned to his first love, teaching, and is justly accorded a place among the prominent educators of the state.
He was born at Newbern March 20, 1870, a son of William George and Kittie (Chestnut) Brinson. His father was well known in Craven County, where he served as clerk of courts many years and was also in the insurance business.
Samuel M. Brinson after the public schools entered Wake Forest College, where he was gradu- ated A. B. in 1891. He then taught school a year, was in the fire insurance business for a time, and in the University of North Carolina he took the law course and was admitted to the bar in Febru- ary, 1896. He at once began practice at Newbern, and while his associations with the profession were not unpleasant and he had a fine practice, he gave
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it up after a few years for more congenial employ- ment. In 1902 Mr. Brinson was elected superin- tendent of public instruction for Craven County and for the past fifteen years has directed and supervised the county school system with results that are exceedingly creditable to his ability. He is a member of the executive committee of the North Carolina Teachers Assembly, and is a trus- tee of the Eastern Carolina Training School at Greenville and a trustee of Meredith College at Raleigh.
Mr. Brinson is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of Sudan Temple of the Mystic Shrine and is affiliated with the Royal Arcanum, in which he is supreme guide. He is active in church work and a deacon in the Baptist denomination.
Mr. Brinson was married to Ruth Martin Scales, of Salisbury, North Carolina, daughter of Maj. Nathaniel Eldridge and Minnie (Lord) Scales. Her father was a well known civil engineer. Mr. and Mrs. Brinson were married January 16, 1901, and they have one daughter, Mary Steele Brinson.
THOMAS C. HOYLE as a lawyer stands in the front rank of the Greensboro bar, and his posi- tion is fortified by thorough and broad learn- ing, integrity of character, and great forceful- ness in whatever he does or undertakes. Mr. Hoyle is also a leader of the democratic party in his section of the state.
He was born on a plantation six miles from Boydton in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. His grandfather, Jacob Hoyle, was a farmer and mill- er and probably spent his entire life in the Dis- trict of Columbia. He married a Miss Marlowe, and they had three sons, named Thomas L., Henry J. and Samuel V., and one daughter named Annie.
The father of Thomas C. Hoyle was Rev. Sam- uel V. Hoyle, who was born near Georgetown, D. C., in 1836, and was liberally educated. He finished his college work in Dickinson College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. During his youth he was converted, joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, and at the age of only eighteen was licensed to preach. He became a member of the Virginia Conference and held pastorates in different parts of that state. During the war he was chaplain of a Virginia regiment, in General Mahone's command. In 1872 he joined the North Carolina Conference, and was active in the ministry until his death. He served as pastor of the Yanceyville Circuit. the Warren Circuit, the Jonesboro Cir- cuit, Morganton Circuit, Greeneville Station, Thomasville and High Point, Robeson Circuit and Maxton Station. His death occurred while pas- tor at Maxton. Rev. Mr. Hoyle married Mary S. Simmons, who was born in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, daughter of Robert S. and Mrs. Anne (Hughes) Simmons. She died at the age of thir- ty-one years, leaving children namcd Robert H., Thomas C. and Hughes B. For his second wife Rev. Mr. Hoyle married Nannie Phillips, who be- came the mother of six children, named: Pettus V., Kenneth R., Numa R., Samuel R., Nellie and Nannie.
Thomas C. Hoyle was prepared for college under private tutors. His early youth was spent in the various places where the duties of the ministry called his father. His career of usefulness began as a teacher in a rural school near Thomasville in Davidson County. After teaching for a time he
entered Trinity College at Durham, where he was graduated with the class of 1894 and the degree A. B. As a college man he continued teaching at Hartland in Caldwell County, and subsequently was connected with the high school of Burling- ton. He resigned his position at Burlington to enter the law department of Wake Forest College, and in 1900 was licensed to practice. He had his first law business and tried his first cases at Bur- lington, but after a year removed to Greens- boro and for the past seventeen years has been steadily coming to the front as one of the promi- nent lawyers of that city. He cast his first presi- dential vote for Grover Cleveland and has always been a democrat and is now chairman of the County Board of Elections. He is also prominent in the West Market Street Methodist Episcopal Church, has served as a member of its official board and as teacher of the Baraca class and is now superintendent of the Bethel Chapel Sun- day School.
In 1906 Mr. Hoyle married Lucy Welfley. She was born in Page County, Virginia, daughter of J. P. and M. J. Welfley. Mr. and Mrs. Hoyle have three children, named Thomas C., Jr., Law- rence T. and Mary W.
JULIUS GARIBALDI RONEY. The admiration of the world is invariably challenged by success in any of the pursuits or activities of life. It matters not whether it be in the professions, in business, in public life or in agriculture, it is the one dis- tinguishing and distinctive characteristic of all the transactions of existence. In the tobacco industry alone Julius Garibaldi Roney distinguished him- self as an active, energetic business man, demon- strating the fact that to the individual of merit belongs the full measure of success, and since his retirement from that field of activity he has achieved success in an entirely different line of business, as well as an agriculturist. His suc- cess in a material way has not prevented him from winning a like position in the esteem of his com- munity, for his activities in assisting to advance the welfare of his section and its people have placed him among the representative public-spirited men of Wilson.
Mr. Roney was born in Alamance County, North Carolina, April 7, 1858, and is a son of Benjamin Franklin and Cornelia M. (Hazell) Roney. His father, a substantial farmer of that county, was also prominent in public affairs, and for several years was a member of the North Carolina State Legislature .. Mr. Roney received a public school education, and began his business career at Dur- ham, North Carolina, where he worked as a sales- man for a tobacco concern. He gradually worked his way upward by industry and fidelity to the managership of a leaf tobacco company, a posi- tion which he held for seven years, and then em- barked in the same line of business on his own account, continuing therein successfully for four years. His acumen, knowledge of the business and ability to judge values attracted the attention of the American Tobacco Company, which great cor- poration in 1891 induced him to accept the posi- tion of chief buyer at Wilson, the market just having been established at this point, and in that capacity he continued to operate until 1914, at which time he retired from the tobacco business and resigned his position. During the time that he was identified with the American Tobacco Com- pany, Mr. Roney's operations were extensive, and at times he bought as high as 9,000,000 pounds
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of tobacco annually. He became prominent in the industry and in the operations of the Wilson Tobacco Board of Trade, of which he served as vice president for several years, as well as a mem- ber of several important committees. Much of his capital Mr. Roney, during the years of his busi- ness activity, invested in agricultural property, and at the present time the major portion of his attention is given to looking after his extensive farming interests, although he is also interested in the Britt Engineering and Construction Com- pany, of which concern he is vice-president. He is a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of the Country Club.
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