USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 91
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He is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World, the Charitable Brotherhood, the Independent Or- der of Odd Fellows and the Free Will Baptist Church. Mr. Willis was married June 18, 1903, to Miss Ida Murphy, of Davis, North Carolina. Their four children are named Alma, Bessie, Fan- nie and Eltone.
EDWIN LOUIS BROWN, JR. Few cities of North Carolina have so beautiful an environment as Asheville with its picturesque scenery of sur- rounding mountains and its charming vistas along the French Broad River. These natural beauties have long been an inspiration to artists, and an allurement to gifted writers of romance and poetry. Aside from its charming location, the city 's great manufacturing plants, its many and notable educational institutions, its stately church edifices and spacious hotels and private residences, many with surrounding grounds that show the finest art of the landscape gardener, all offer subjects well worth preserving in pictured form. To the thousands who come to this beautiful city annually from all over the country, perhaps foi educational training, for the healing that wafts on the breeze from the river and mountain, or for recreation and social enjoyment alone, pic- tured mementoes will, long years afterward in far distant homes, bring back memories that they wish to preserve. Thus, it is not surprising that the Southern Post Card Company, dealers in souvenir post cards, view folders and books, is one of the city's most prosperous business con- cerns, which is ably managed by Edwin L. Brown, .Tr., who is president and manager of the Brown Book Company of this city.
Edwin Louis Brown, Jr., was born at Asheville, North Carolina, August 26, 1879. His parents were Edwin Louis and Eva (Furman) Brown. For many years the father of Mr. Brown was prominent in this city as a merchant.
Edwin Louis Brown, Jr., attended the public schools of Asheville and completed his education in the University of North Carolina. He began his business career as a clerk in a book and stationary store and has continued to be interested along this line ever since. On June 8, 1908, he established the Brown Book Company, incorpo- rating it and becoming its president and manager, as well as manager of the Southern Post Card Company, an allied concern, wholesale dealers in souvenir post cards, view folders and books and
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finding a steady market throughout the South Atlantic states. Mr. Brown has additional in- terests of commercial importance, being president of the Pack Square Book Company, and a director of the Brown Hardware Company. He is a wide- awake, progressive business man and has all his enterprises well in hand."
Mr. Brown was married June 22, 1910, to Miss Jane H. Nichols, who was also born in North Caro- lina. They are members of the Central Methodist Episcopal Church (South) at Asheville and both are active in church work, Mr. Brown being a member of the board of stewards. Fraternally he is identified with the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Brown has never taken a very notable part in politics because business has been more at- tractive to him, but he is known as an earnest, fair-minded citizen ever ready to respond to the call of charity or to assist in the furtherance of worthy local enterprises, or of public movements that the general welfare demands.
HON. THOMAS JAMES MURPHY. One of the most progressive cities in North Carolina in the matter of municipal administration is High Point. It is a center of many industries, of rapidly grow- ing wealth and power, and the faith of its citizens in businesslike efficiency accounts for the fact that it is one of the few cities in this part of the coun- try which have gone a step beyond the older com- mission form of government and have entrusted the administration of municipal affairs to a "city manager."
Recently High Point called to the office of "city manager " a very capable lawyer and former mayor of Greensboro, Thomas James Murphy.
Mr. Murphy is a scion of one of North Caro- lina's oldest families. He was born in Wilming- ton in 1870 and lived. most of his boyhood on the same plantation at Tomahawk, in Sampson County, where his father and grandfather were born and reared. The Murphys have been in North Carolina for nearly a century and a half, and every genera- tion has produced men of ability and women of culture and splendid character.
Mr. Murphy's great-great-grandfather, Patrick Murphy, was born in Arran, Scotland. He grew up there and married Elizabeth Kelsoe. In 1774, accompanied by his family, he came to America, and at a critical time, when the colonies were on the point of breaking peaceful relations with the mother country, established his home in the wilds of what is now Franklin Township, Sampson County. He secured there a large area of heavily timbered land and spent most of his active life in improving it. He built there a substantial home of heavy hewn timbers, which is still standing. The venerable structure is now owned by descend- ants of its original proprietor and holder. Some of the land acquired by this ancestor is also owned by Thomas James Murphy. Patrick Murphy and wife had three sons, named Hugh, Archibald and Robert, all natives of Arran, Scotland. Hugh and Archibald moved into Central and Western Car -. olina, while Robert Murphy remained with his parents and succeeded to the ownership of the old homestead, where he spent his entire life in an industrious and successful career as a planter. He married Mary Bailey, a native of London, Eng- land. Their four sons were named Patrick, David, Archibald and James.
James Murphy, grandfather of Thomas James, was born at the old plantation in 1805. Being the youngest son, he remained at home and succeeded
to the ownership of the plantation and increased its productiveness and its facilities as a home. He married Charlotte Treadwell, who was born in the same locality as her husband. Her grandfather, Col. David Dodd, was a gallant officer in the Revo- lutionary Army. James Murphy and wife had four sons and two daughters. The sons were named Robert James, John Archibald, Patrick Henry and William Bailey. The daughters were named Mary Bailey and Ann E: Mary Bailey be- came the wife of Dr. Robert Tate, while Ann mar- ried Dr. Tate Murphy.
William Bailey Murphy, who heads the next gen- eration, was born on the old plantation in 1845. As soon as he reached an age where his services were available he entered the Confederate Navy and was assigned to duty as signal officer on the blockade runner Beauregard, the sister ship of the Advance, which is pictured elsewhere in this pub- lication. He was in the blockade running service until the close of the war. Afterwards he studied dentistry in the Baltimore Dental College, and fol- lowing his graduation began practice at Wilming- ton. The death of his father called him home, and as successor to the ownership of the old planta- tion he assumed the responsibilities of its man- agement. He also extended the scope of its oper- ations to the turpentine and lumber industry, and, naturally he assumed a position of leadership in the community. He represented Sampson County in the North Carolina Legislature and the Presby- terian Church in the Southern General Assembly. He died in July, 1905. He married in 1869 Miss Marianna Alderman, of Wilmington, North Caro- lina, daughter of Isaac Thomas and Mary (Love) Alderman, and member of a prominent old fam- ily of the state. She is still living at the home place at Tomahawk. They reared six children: Thomas James, Mary Bailey, Charlotte Pearl, Dr. William Bailey, Jr., Florence Alderman and Rob- ert James.
. Thomas James Murphy acquired his early edu- cation in the schools of Wilmington and Clinton. He was a student of Davidson College, but in 1893 he entered the United States railway mail service, with headquarters in the City of Washington. Such leisure time as he had from his duties he de- voted to the study of law at the Columbian, now the George Washington, University. He grad- uated from the law department in 1899, and in 1900 was licensed to practice in North Carolina. He continued his work in the railway mail service until 1901, when he resigned and came to Greens- boro, where he at once entered into practice and soon had an important clientage. Recognized as a man of ability, a student of politics and political science, as well as a practical administrator of af- fairs, he enjoyed such confidence that he was elected mayor of Greensboro in 1905 and served two years. In 1908 he was elected to the State Legislature from Guilford County, and during the following session took a leading part in its delib- erations, and was a member of several important committees, including the committee on counties, cities and towns, committee on finance, and the committee on judiciary. In 1911, when Greens- boro adopted the commission form of government, Mr. Murphy was elected president or mayor of the commission, and was kept in that office steadily by re-election until 1917. In that year he accepted the position of city manager of High Point, one of the state's leading manufacturing centers, just fifteen miles from Greensboro.
Mr. Murphy has long been active in Democratic
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politics, having served as delegate to various county, district and state conventions. He also attended the historic convention in Baltimore when Woodrow Wilson was first nominated for presi- dent of the United States. He is affiliated with several fraternal orders, and is president of the North Carolina Municipal Association of the Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He has also served several terms as president of the North Carolina Municipal Association. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church. He married in 1902 Miss Annie Shorter Leftwich, of Baltimore. Mrs. Murphy was born in Eufaula, Alabama, daughter of Col. A. Hamilton Leftwich, formerly of Lynchburg, Virginia, and Mrs. Anna Belle (Shorter) Leftwich, of Eufaula, Alabama. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy have three living children, named Marianna Alderman, Elizabeth Leftwich and William Bailey. The Murphys retain their residence in Greensboro.
LAWSON J. INGRAM. Now living retired at High Point, Lawson J. Ingram represents an old family of Randolph County and for many years was identified with the mercantile and manufac- turing interests of his present home city. He is one of that group of men who stimulated and en- couraged industry at High Point, and contributed much to the present flourishing state of that city.
He was born on a plantation in Randolph Coun- ty in 1855, a son of William Braxton and Frances (Birkhead) Ingram. About 1856 his parents moved to Montgomery County, buying a planta- tion two miles from the present site of Mount Gilead. In 1863 William B. Ingram enlisted in the Confederate army and was in service until the close of the war. He then resumed farming and planting, and late in life moved to Mount Gilead, where he died at the age of ninety years. His wife, who passed away aged eighty-seven, was a daughter of William Birkhead, a native of Eng- land who on coming to America settled near Jack- son Hill, not far from the line of Montgomery County, and died there when upwards of ninety years of age. William B. Ingram and wife had five children: Thomas Cicero, William Harris, Lawson Jerome, Charles Braxton and Della Flor- ence.
Lawson J. Ingram grew up on a farm, had a rural school education, and began his career at the same time he reached manhood. He was in the mercantile business at Lisleville for six years and then transferred his interests to the Village of High Point. For some years he was a merchant, and then engaged in the manufacture of chairs, which is now perhaps the most considerable in- dustry of the city.
In 1880 Mr. Ingram married Mina Perry, who was born at High Point, a daughter of Seborn and Mary (Jarrell) Perry, a more complete sketch of whom is found on other pages. Mr. and Mrs. Ingram have seven children, named Fred Perry, Charles Thomas, Kate Wilhelmina, Frances Brax- ton, Harold Birkhead, Mary Louise and Laurence M. The son Fred P. married Clara Case, and their children are Clara C., Fred Perry, Jr., and Eloise W. Charles T. married Catherine Webster and has two children, Dorothy and Charles T., Jr. Kate is the wife of De Coursey Pollock and is the mother of three children, Marcella, Mary Perry and De Coursey, Jr. Frances Braxton married John H. Hart and has a son Albert.
Harold Birkhead Ingram was a student in the University of North Carolina when the United States declared war against Germany. He im- mediately volunteered, went into the officers train- ing camp at Fort Oglethorp, Georgia, and a few weeks later * was given his degree at University. He is now a second lieutenant in the Three Hun- dred and Twenty-first Infantry of the American army.
Mr. and Mrs. Ingram are members of the Wes- leyan Memorial Church at High Point.
SEBORN PERRY might well be called the founder of High Point. He was probably the first mer- chant in the village, and was one of the men who established the first factory there. The great in- dustries of the city at present are a development carried on from the stimulus given by Seborn Perry and his contemporaries, and none contributed more to the early growth and upbuilding of the city than he.
He was born on a plantation two miles from Kernersville in what is now Forsyth County, Feb- ruary 15, 1819, a son of Ebenezer and Annie (Wat- son) Perry. His father was a relative of Oliver Hazzard Perry, hero of the battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812. Ebenezer Perry was an ex- tensive planter and had his slaves and spent all his life on his plantation in Forsyth County.
One of fourteen children, Seborn Perry ac- quired a good education, and when about twenty- one years of age became a merchant at Kerners- ville. At that time money was not pleutiful any- where in the South, and business was largely a matter of barter and exchange. Merchandise bought in New York and Philadelphia and shipped to Fayetteville and thence carried by wagons to Kernersville was exchanged with the farmers and planters for their produce and livestock. These farmers would often travel several days from the mountainous districts of Western North Car- olina, carrying their grain and tobacco, and in the fall would drive their cattle, hogs and tur- keys to Kernersville for exchange.
After the survey had been completed for the railroad through High Point, Mr. Perry moved to the site of the proposed village and put up a temporary building and installed a stock of mer- chandise with a view to' trading with the rail- road workmen. Soon afterward and before the railroad was actually completed he erected a small building at the corner of South Main and High streets. Subsequently this building was incor- porated into the hotel that was for many years conducted by Manlef Jarrell. Seborn Perry was an expert business man, and all his undertakings prospered. Subsequently with Captain Snow he started a spoke and handle factory, which was the first industry of the town.
From the surplus of his business profits he in- vested extensively in real estate, and always showed extreme faith in the future of the town. He acquired two small farms, which later were platted and built upon. These farms are in- cluded in what is now the factory district.
Seborn Perry lived at High Point until his death in 1895. He married Mary Jarrell. who was a native either of Randolph or Guilford County. Her parents were Absalom and Lydia Jarrell. She died in 1911. Seborn Perry and wife had three children, Mina, Minnie and Se- born, the last now deceased. He left two chil-
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dren. The daughter Mina is the wife of Law- son Jerome Ingram, while Minnie married Willis Vail.
VALENTINE B. BOWERS. A lawyer splendidly equipped for his work of administering justice, Valentine B. Bowers has gained prestige through- out the region of Avery County by reason of his natural talent and acquired ability in the field of his chosen work. His professional career excites the admiration and has won the respect of his contemporaries in a calling in which one has to gain reputation by merit and long hours of pa- tient work.
A native of Elizabethton, Carter County, Ten- nessee, Valentine B. Bowers was born in 1862, a son of Joe P. and Emmeline (Grace) Bowers, both of whom are deceased. Although himself a native of Tennessee, Mr. Bowers' father and grandfather were both born in Ashe County, in the extreme northwestern part of North Carolina, where the family is one of prominence. The late William Horton Bower, although spelling his name without the final "'s,"' was a kinsman of the family. He represented the northwestern scc- tion of the state in Congress.
Mr. Bowers was educated in Wake Forest Col- lege, North Carolina, and in Milligan College, Carter County, Tennessee, in which latter insti- tution he was graduated in 1880. For some time after leaving college he was engaged in teach- ing school. He went West and lived for a year or two at Versailles in Morgan County, Missouri. Returning to North Carolina, he located perma- nently at Elk Park, in what is now Avery Coun- ty, in 1885, engaging in the mercantile business, which line he successfully followed for thirty years. During that period he was postmaster under the Mckinley and Roosevelt administra- tions.
While he was a student in Wake Forest College and subsequently he studied law and he was ad- mitted to practice at the state bar in. 1882. How- ever, he did not take up this profession exclu- sively until he retired from the mercantile busi- ness, in 1915, although previously he had done considerable work in this line. He is now consid- ered one of the leading and most successful law- yers of the new County of Avery, organized in 1911, and he receives a large part of the impor- tant litigation in this section of the state.
Mr. Bowers married Miss Lucretia Virginia Wise, who was born in Linville Falls in what is now Avery County. Mrs. Bowers is a talented teacher, a member of the faculty of Berea Col- lege in Madison County, Kentucky. She is a graduate of this famous school that is doing so much for education in the mountain region of the Blue Grass State. In addition to their residence at Elk Park, the family have an attractive home and considerable property at Berea, where they spend a portion of each year. Mr. and Mrs. Bow- ers have a bright and interesting family-two daughters and a son, namely: Jennie Orlia, Jes- sie V. and Valentine B., Jr.
Mr. Bowers is a stalwart republican in his po- litical proclivities and while he is not an aspirant for public office he is an active worker in the ranks of that party. His religious faith coin- cides with the teachings of the Christian Church, and as a citizen he is loyal and public-spirited in all that affects the good of his home commu- nity.
HERMAN HOLLIDAY GRAINGER is president of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railway, an office formerly held by his father the late J. W. Grain- ger. The Grainger name has been prominently associated with agricultural, banking, merchandise and other business and civic affairs in Kinston and in the state for many years.
The late Jesse Willis Grainger was one of Kinston's most widely known citizens. He was born in Green County, North Carolina, October 15, 1845, and died at Kinston, February 22, 1910. He was educated in the Hookerton Academy and at Trinity College while Blaxton Craven was its president. Though extremely young at the time he enlisted in the summer of 1864 and served with the Junior Reserves, Second Regiment, as cap- tain of Company G.
Captain Grainger had lived at Kinston for thirty years. He founded and developed an im- mense business in fertilizers, machinery and other staple commodities and that business is still con- tinued by his son. He exemplified the progressive spirit in farming. He early realized a truth which has been at the foundation of so many great business undertakings of modern times, that it is the aggregate and multiplication of small things that makes a great enterprise. Under his management and good judgment truck farming in the vicinity of Kinston was brought to its high- est state of development. He was the owner of several farms and one of them known as Vernon on the north edge of Kinston produced as fine crops of strawberries, beans, cantaloupes and other vegetables as were raised anywhere in the state. He also made that his semi-rural home and made the old brick mansion which had long been a landmark a home of stately dignity and com- fort.
The late Captain Grainger was the first pres- ident of the Kinston Board of Trade and also served as president of the Chamber of Com- merce. Besides having the executive responsi- bilities of the Atlantic and North Carolina Rail- road, he was vice president and a director of the Bank of Kinston, the Citizens Bank of Kinston and the First National Bank of Newbern and was president of the North State Mutual Life In- surance Company of Kinston. He was a strong man in democratic politics, and helped to re- deem Lenoir County from the odious republican regime. He was elected a member of the legis- lature from that county in 1885, and at that date overturned the old republican machine. He also served as town commissioner five years and on the county finance committee twenty-five years, and was chairman of the county executive committee, responsible for the many successive victories of the democratic party in Lenoir. He was also for over a quarter of a century on the state democratic executive committee. He was chairman of the con- gressional committee of the second district, and had represented his party in two national demo- cratic conventions. Captain Grainger was an ac- tive Methodist. His first wife whom he married in 1868, was Miss Sallie L. Coward, daughter of John. H. Coward. At her death in 1883 she was survived by three daughters and two sons, Capi- tola, Madie, Saddie, Herman H. and Frank. Frank is now deceased. Captain Grainger was married in 1884 to Miss Clara Dixon.
Herman Holliday Grainger, the only surviving son of his father, has carried forward and in- creased many of the substantial interests with
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which his father was so closely identified. He was born near Hookerton in Green County, North Carolina, September 2, 1871, but has spent most of his life in Kinston. He was well educated, at first in the private schools of Kinston, then the military school at LaGrange and finally in the University of Tennessee. He began his business career as a clerk in the office of the Atlantic Coast Line Railway, and subsequently was with the United States Government in the revenue de- partment at Raleigh. Returning home he became associated with his father in the latter's varied affairs and on the death of his father in 1910 took over the business of the Machinery and Milling Supplies Company. He has continued this and has also become one of the most extensive , operators in the real estate field in and around Kinston. Under his management was developed the large tract at Kinston known as the Grainger Addition. Like his father he takes a hand in agricultural affairs and has the supervision of three hundred fertile acres. The Grainger estate has been under his management largely.
Mr. Grainger is a director in the First National Bank and the National Bank of Kinston, in the Kinston Cotton Mills, the Caswell Cotton Mills, is president of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railway Company, and has constantly improved those opportunities presented to a man of affairs to benefit the community in which he lives. Mr. Grainger is a Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine.
His first wife was Susie Parrott of Kinston. His three sons are by this marriage, their names being Jesse Willis, James Marion and Thomas Holliday. For his second wife, Mr. Grainger mar- ried Jeannette McFarland of Wilson, North Caro- lina, daughter of R. W. McFarland.
WALTER BROWN WILSON has lived in the vicin- ity of Greenville all his life, and has a record of forty years or more of successful relationship with the business affairs of that city. He is a fine type of the substantial American citizen, and en- joys almost an unique distinction in North Caro- lina today as father of five stalwart sons who are commissioned officers in the United States Army, prepared to do their part in fighting for democracy.
Mr. Wilson was born in Pitt County, November 1, 1857, a son of Simon Burney and Martha Eliz- abeth (Brown) Wilson. His father was educated at Wake Forest College and became a farmer, but Mr. Wilson, after being educated in the Greenville Male Academy, chose a commercial career. For seven years he was clerk in a grocery store, and then entered that line of business for himself. In 1888 he started what has been his chief vocation, merchandise brokerage, and in that field has been one of the mainstays of the town ever since. He has also been active in local Democratic politics for many years, and in 1909 was elected treasurer of Pitt County, and by re-election still continues in that official position. He is a trustee of the graded schools of Greenville, and was one of the organizers and is director of the Bank of Green- ville. He has long filled the office of treasurer of the local Masonic lodge.
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