USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 94
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
EDWARD BELO. Western South Carolina owes a great deal to the sterling character of the Moravian people who came in pioneer times from the German provinces. A representative of that worthy people was the late Edward Belo, whose life was so closely identified with Winston-Salem in its formative days and whose memory is still perpetuated there by the various interests and associations.
He was a native of western North Carolina, having been born at Salem June 27, 1811. At the time of his birth Salem was in Stokes County, but is now in Forsyth. His grandfather was John Henry Boehlo, as the original German spell- ing of the name was. The grandfather was born in Germany, October 25, 1724, and died there August 9, 1789. John Frederick Boehlo, father of Edward, was born in Herrnhut, Germany, De- cember 10, 1780. He was reared and educated in his native land, and when a young man came to America and located at Salem, where he found friends and perhaps kinsmen among the Moravians who were then numerously settled here, some of whom had come from the same section of Germany as he did. By trade he was a cabinet-maker, and he conducted a shop at Salem until his death in 1827. He married Mary Strupe, who survives him several years. Their seven children were Henrietta, Edward, Lewis, Levin, Caroline, Tracy and Louisa.
The early life of Edward Belo was passed in Salem, where he attended the Boys School. From here he removed to Easton, Pennsylvania, where he worked at the trade of cabinet-making. From Pennsylvania he went south to Louisiana, travel- ing by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and for a time worked at his trade in New Orleans. Re- turning North, he stopped for a time in Tennessee, and then rode an Indian pony back home to Salem. On his return to Salem he began busi- ness in the shop which his father had formerly occupied. The goods he made were distinguished by careful and conscientious workmanship, and practically every article of furniture had a buyer as soon as it was finished. He developed a sub- stantial local industry and prospered. He soon had more capital than the furniture business re- quired, and he expanded his enterprise to mier- chandising. On one of the eligible locations in Salem he established a store, carrying a general stock, including drugs, boots, shoes, clothing, dry goods, hardware and farm implements and gro- ceries. The business prospered from the start. In 1849-50 he erected the building now known as the Belo home on South Main street. This build- ing had a hundred and fifty foot frontage, ex- tended back fifty feet, and was two stories high. It was first used as a store, and it had two hundred and eleven feet of counter space, besides ample warehouse and other quarters for the storage of lumber and iron implements. It was by all odds one of the largest mercantile houses in western North Carolina in its day. Edward Belo also operated a foundry. In 1860 he added a third story to the store building, but soon after the outbreak of the war he gave up merchandising. He also owned a farm, the greater part of which is now included in the city limits of Winston- Salem. For a time he gave his active supervision to this land. Edward Belo was president of the company that built the railroad from Greensboro to Winston-Salem and inaugurated a develop- ment of this center as a commercial and manu- facturing city. Edward Belo spent his last years
retired. He died October 24, 1884, at the age of seventy-three.
He is remembered as a man of sincere and kindly 'nature, upright citizenship, and in a quiet way was a philanthropist. Outside of business affairs one of his chief delights was the growing of flowers. In the rear of his lot in Salem he kept a green house, and spent many hours caring for his plants, though he never did this for profit.
Edward Belo married Amanda Fries. . She was born in Salem, daughter of Johann Christian Wil- liam and Johanna Elizabeth (Nissen) Fries. She died February 14, 1881. They reared seven chil- dren, named Alfred H., Ellen, Robert W., Henry, Arthur, Bertha and Agnes.
A son of this pioneer business man and merchant of Winston-Salem was the late Alfred H. Belo, who in the realm of newspaper work was one of the most eminent publishers in American journal- ism. North Carolina is fortunate to be able to claim his career as part of the records of its il- lustrious men. Alfred H. Belo was born and grew up in Salem, and at the beginning of the Civil war in 1861, enlisted in Company D of the Eleventh Regiment, North Carolina Troops. This regiment subsequently became the Twenty- first regiment. He was elected captain and later served as major and lieutenant colonel of the Fifty-fifth Regiment. He was severely wounded at Cold Harbor, and again at Gettysburg.
After the war Alfred H. Belo went to Texas. Locating at Galveston, he bought a half interest in the Galveston News. After the death of his partner he bought out the remaining interest and formed a stock company known as A. H. Belo & Company, of which he remained president until his death. Later he acquired the Dallas News, and his last years were spent as a resident of Dallas, where he died in 1901. It was Colonel Belo who not only supplied the business ability, but also the ideals under which the Galveston and Dallas News attained a place among American newspapers hardly second to any in point of effec- tive journalism and influence as moulders of opinion. These two great newspapers still faith- fully represent the ideals of their founder. They are without question the greatest papers in the southwest, and they rank among the best in America.
Colonel Belo married Jeanette Ennis. They reared two children: Alfred J. and Jeanette. Jeanette is the wife of Dr. Charles Peabody, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Colonel Belo succeeded to the ownership of the old homestead in Salem, and a number of years before his death he donated the large structure erected by his father to a board of trustees to be used as a home for self-support- ing women.
OWEN GUION DUNN is one of the leading news- paper men of Eastern North Carolina, has been in the business almost constantly since early boyhood, and is publisher and editor of the Sun- Journal of Newbern.
He was born at Newbern August 21, 1886, a son of John and Lucretia Roberts (Guion) Dunn. He contented himself with an education acquired in the public schools and the local academy and at the age of sixteen began learning the printing trade. From a practical printer he extended his experience into general newspaper work and finally organized the Newbern Sun, which was subse- quently consolidated with the Journal, making the Sun-Journal. Mr. Dunn is now secretary, treas-
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
urer and manager of the Newbern Publishing Company, which publishes this widely read and influential organ of opinion in Newbern. Mr. Dunn also has the active editorial management.
He was married November 11, 1908, to Miss Lou- ise Rice, of Newbern. They have one child, Lucy Guion Dunn. Mr. Dunn is affiliated with the Im- proved Order of Red Men.
DAVID A. STANTON, M. D., who graduated in medicine over thirty years ago, and for more than a quarter of a century has been carrying heavy burdens as a physician and surgeon and also as a man of affairs at High Point, represents one of the old and prominent families of Western North Caro- lina.
Doctor Stanton was born on a plantation in the Level Creek neighborhood of Newmarket Town- ship, Randolph County. His father, George F. Stanton, was born on the same plantation, a son of David Stanton, and grandson of William Stan- ton, a native of England, who with his brothers, John and Henry, came to America in colonial times. They sojourned a while in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and later all of them came South, John · going to South Carolina, Henry to Georgia, and William buying land on Deep River in the Level Creek section of Randolph County, North Carolina.
David Stanton inherited 240 acres of this land bordering on Deep River. He was a devout Quaker and was strongly opposed to the institu- tion of slavery. He died in Newmarket Township at the age of eighty years. He married Martha Reynolds, who was born in the Center neighborhood of Guilford County and died at the age of ninety- three years. He reared five children, named Sally, Mary, Eleanor, Eunice and George F.
George F. Stanton also succeeded to the owner- ship of the old plantation and spent his entire life there. On account of his religion he was exempt from military duty during the war. He died at the age of seventy-six. He married Ruhama Vick- ory. This remarkable lady, who is still living and in good health on the old plantation, and besides her own children had eighteen grandchildren and seventeen great-grandchildren, was born in New- market Township March 7, 1825, more than ninety- three years ago. Her parents were Christopher and Hannah (Fitchet) Vickory. She became the mother of six children: Mattie, Julius P., Samuel M., Mollie, David A. and George E. Mattie ınar- ried J. R. Coltrane, while Mollie became the wife of James Lowe.
JAMES MADISON GROGAN. The Grogan family have been a notable one in several counties of North Carolina. Rockingham County has its Gro- gansville, a community that grew up largely around the activities and the personalities of members of this family. The late James Madison Grogan was very well known at Winston-Salem, where he lived for many years before his death and where members of the family still reside.
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His birthplace was Grogansville in Rockingham County. His grandfather, Frank Grogan, was probably a native of the vicinity of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was the son of two brothers who came over from Ireland and settled in Pennsyl- vania. Frank Grogan and a brother Thomas came to North Carolina in the early days, both settling in Rockingham County. Frank secured land there, became farmer, tobacco manufacturer and mer- chant, and these varied enterprises proved the
nucleus of the town of Grogansville. He married Annie Price. Her brother, Captain Price, was a Revolutionary soldier, and for his service in that war acquired a grant of land near the present site of Ridgeway, Virginia. Frank Grogan and wife lived to a good old age, and reared two children named John Price and Elizabeth.
John Price Grogan was born at Grogansville, North Carolina, and inherited his father's estate, including a number of slaves. He operated the store, farm and factory for a number of years, finally selling these interests to his sons and re- moving to Surrey County. There he bought prop- erty in the locality known as Haystack and oper- ated a flour and corn mill. That locality was his home until his death at the age of seventy-six. John P. Grogan married Elizabeth Joyce. She was born in Rockingham County, daughter of Hon. Alexander and Margaret (Hill) Joyce. Alexander Joyce represented Rockingham County in the State Legislature in the year 1796. Mrs. John P. Grogan died in early life, leaving four children, named Mary, James Madison, Martin, Robert and Martha.
The late James Madison Grogan had a rural en- vironment as a boy and succeeded to the owner- ship of the old farm, store and factory in Rock- ingham County which had been developed orig- inally by his grandfather. He was active in the operation of these concerns until 1874. In the meantime he served as a magistrate and as post- master, and during the war was exempt from mili- tary duty. Having sold his interests in Rocking- ham County he came to Winston in 1874, and here was identified with the manufacture and sale of tobacco. He also dealt extensively in real estate, and carried many interests. He died at Winston July 4, 1899.
The late Mr. Grogan married for his first wife Paulina Smith. She was a native of Rockingham County, and her father, Drury Smith, was an ex- tensive planter and merchant there. She died leav- ing five children : Elizabeth Virginia, Mary, Lewis Cass, Charles N. and Robert.
The widow of the late James Madison Grogan is still living in Winston-Salem. She was before her marriage Mary Dodd. She was born near Stone- ville in Rockingham County in August, 1848. Her great-grandfather, Allen Dodd, was a pioneer set- tler in Rockingham County, built a substantial hewed log house near the present site of Stone- ville. This old log structure has since been covered with weatherboarding but is still occupied as a residence. Allen Dodd married a Miss Rhoads. Nathaniel Dodd, Sr., grandfather of Mrs. Grogan, was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and as a farmer owned the land upon which Stoneville was built. He died when about eighty-seven years of age. The maiden name of his wife was Eliza- beth Perkins, who was born and reared at Cas- cade, Virginia. a daughter of Abraham Perkins. Nathaniel Dodd, Jr., father of Mrs. Grogan, was born in Rockingham County, North Carolina was a manufacturer of tobacco and subsequently sold tobacco as a traveling salesman. His last years were spent in Winston where he died at the age of seventy-nine. He married Maria Woodson. She was a native of Prince Edward County, Virginia, daughter of Benjamin and Martha (Venable) Woodson. She died at the age of seventy-nine, having reared two children, Mary and Martha.
Mr. and Mrs. Grogan reared five children, Martha, John, Kate, Annie and Martin. Martha became the wife of Henry B. Pulliam, and she
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
died at the age of twenty-six, leaving two chil- dren, Mary and John. Mr. Pulliam subsequently married her sister Kate. Annie, who lives with her mother at the old home in Winston-Salem, is sec- retary of the Winston-Salem Associated Chari- ties. The son John died at the age of twenty-one and Martin passed away at twenty-four. Mr. and Mrs. Grogan were members of Centenary Metho- dist Episcopal Church, and their children have the same religious connection.
JOHN DUNN has been a figure in the business life of Newbern for over forty years. He is still active and has many interests that require his time and energy. Mr. Dunn is a man of loyal instinct, is thoroughly devoted to the welfare of Newbern, and his influence has always been ex- erted unselfishly in behalf of those movements which are productive of good to others as well as to the individuals concerned.
Mr. Dunn is a member of an old and prominent family of this section of North Carolina. Born at Newbern March 23, 1855, son of William and Margaret J. (Oliver) Dunn. His father was an extensive merchant and ship owner. John Dunn grew up in a home of substantial comforts and was educated in the local schools. His first busi- ness experience was as cashier in a dry goods store at Newbern, and for four years he was bookkeeper in the National Bank at Newbern. Later he be- came a manufacturing confectioner and was con- nected with various lines of merchandising at New- bern until 1916. Since 1910 he has been secretary and treasurer of the Newbern Building and Loan Association, has handled an extensive insurance business, and for ten years has been vice presi- dent of the National Bank at Newbern and one of its directors for twenty years, and secretary and treasurer of the Newbern Morris Plan Com- pany. Mr. Dunn is affiliated with the Masonic Order and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and for twenty years was junior warden and treasurer of Christ's Episcopal Church.
Mr. Dunn was married in 1878 to Miss Luere- tia R. Guion, member of the well known Craven County family of that name. Mrs. Dunn died leav- ing a family of five children: John Guion, a mer- chant at Newbern; William, a Newbern attorney ; George Roberts, who is a young bookkeeper at Newbern; Owen Guion, editor of the Sun-Journal and president of the Newbern Publishing Com- pany; and Ernest Windley, a doctor of oste- opathy.
On January 2, 1907, Mr. Dunn married for his present wife Emma Henderson, of Newbern. Mrs. Dunn is a talented and cultured woman and has been deeply interested in historical matters. There was recently published under her name an historical booklet of Newbern.
Mr. Dunn has always been a loyal democrat and was formerly a city councilman.
JOHN GUION DUNN is one of the younger busi- ness men of Newbern and for twenty years has given his closest attention, whether as clerk or proprietor, to his commercial work. He is now head of one of the chief men's clothing stores in that section of North Carolina.
A son of John and Lucretia Roberts (Guion) Dunn, a prominent family elsewhere mentioned, he was born at Newbern January 17, 1880, was educated in private schools and the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, but in Sep- tember, 1897, at the age of seventeen, left school
to gain his first experience in a men's furnishing store. After mastering the details of the busi- ness and acquiring some capital of his own he organized the Dunn Clothing Company, of which he is now president and treasurer. Mr. Dunn is a charter member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Newbern, and is a vestryman in Christ's Episcopal Church.
He was married at Newbern April 9, 1902, to Miss Emma Stevenson, daughter of the late De Wolff Stevenson, a well-known attorney. Five children have been born to their marriage: Har- riet Stevenson, John Guion, Jr., Annie Stevenson, Emma Stevenson and Mark Stevenson Dunn.
EDWARD KIDDER GRAHAM, ninth president of the University of North Carolina, and who died suddenly after a brief illness of influenza followed by pneumonia on October 26, 1918, was a promi- nent leader in the state, southern and national educational affairs.
He was not yet thirty-seven years of age when an unusual unanimity of choice made him presi- dent of the University as successor to Francis P. Venable in 1914. Since that time he impressed himself upon the thought of the nation as an unusually strong progressive leader. He espe- cially focused attention on an educational policy whose purpose was service to all the people. The character of this service, said one of the univer- sity officials "has been widely varied. It has
included night schools for the negroes of the lo- cal village, correspondence courses for workers back home, summer school courses for teachers in the public schools, rural life conferences for those interested in the improvement of rural con- ditions, and road institutes for the building of a permanent system of county and state highways. Package libraries, a series of extension bulletins intended to convert the state into one great so- ciety for the study and discussion of civic prob- lems, and state wide debate contests for 1,000 or more debaters and 100,000 hearers annually in the North Carolina high schools have been out- standing in the program. This service has been so significant that it has recently been made the subject of a special bulletin of the United States Bureau of Education entitled, The Bureau of Extension of the University of North Carolina. Before the entry of America into the war Profes- sor Graham immediately recognized the duty of acquainting his state with the aims and ideals of America. This he did through a series of war papers which attracted wide attention, the un- derlying idea of which was in complete harmony with the present war issues course now being used in the Students Army Training Corps units. His policies as a director in all fields of educational endeavor has been constantly sought, and at the time of his death he was serving as regional di- rector of the Students Army Training Corps of the South Atlantic States, as trustee of the Amer- ican University in Europe, as a member of the International Committee of the Y. M. C. A., and as a member of the Educational Committee of the Council of National Defense."
Mr. Graham was born at Charlotte, North Car- olina, October 11, 1876, son of Archibald and Eliza Owen (Barry) Graham. His maternal an- cestry went directly to the Brewsters of the May- flower and his paternal ancestor, Col. Alexander McAllister of Cumberland County, came to North Carolina from the Highlands of Scotland and em-
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
braced the cause of the colonies in the American Revolution.
The career and distinguished services of Presi- dent Graham were briefly described in an issue of the Alumni Review, from which the following is taken:
"At the age of seven he entered the city pub- lic schools, where he remained for ten years and from which he entered the Carolina Military In- stitute. At the age of eighteen he entered the university, graduating in 1898 as second man in his class.
"His college career was well rounded and dis- tinctive. The Dialetic. Society elected him as an intersociety debater, and in 1898, he and W. J. Brogden, of the Philanthropic Society, against Georgia, won for Carolina the first of the long list of victories which has made the University 's record in intercollegiate debate notable. Simi- larly the Societies and the Athletic Association placed him in the first position on the editorial boards of the Magazine and The Tar Heel. His fraternity, the S. A. E., followed him as a leader, and the Order of the Gorgon's Head .included him in its list of charter members. In class work he received the honor of the secretaryship of Alpha Theta Phi, a local scholarship society which later has been absorbed in the Phi Beta Kappa, and at commencement in 1898 he won the senior honor, the Mangum Medal.
"Teaching was the choice of his life's work. He taught the year following his graduation at a private school in Charlotte. In September, 1899, he returned to the University where he remained in continuous service with the exception of two years which he spent in graduate study at Co- lumbia University from which he received the de- gree of M. A., in 1902. His career in the faculty has been Librarian, 1899-1900; instructor in Eng- lish, 1900-1902; associate professor of English, 1902-1904; professor of English, 1904, 1913; dean of the College of Liberal Arts, 1909-1913; acting president, 1913-1914; president since 1914.
"Coming to the presidency of the University in 1914 upon the unanimous vote of the Board of Trustees and with the full confidence of the student body, faculty, alumni and State, Presi- dent Graham devoted himself completely to the realization of the ideals which he cherished for his Alma Mater: That she should be the inspirer of her sons; that she should be the helpful servant of every citizen of North Carolina; that she should attain to a distinctive position of honor and power in the sisterhood of American univer- sities.
"While the chanter of his achievement as the director of the University was scarcely begun, certain facts recorded in it stand out signifi- cantly. Student morale reached new altitudes un- der his inspirational leadership. Campus honor permeated more deeply every student activity, exhibiting itself at its best in the intercollegiate contests of 1916-17. And when the call to arms was sounded in May. 1917, the student body though desnising war in and of itself, rushed to the front to die if need be for the ideals made clear and strong within the campus walls.
"Similarlv. the University's reach, its minis- try to the State, was rapidly extended. In the four-year period the student body grew in num- bers from 900 to 1.200. the Summer School at- tendance from 500 to 1,050, and through corre- spondence courses. lectures, the High School De- bating Union, study centers, post graduate courses
in medicine, newspaper and road institutes, the News Letter, and other publications, the Univer- sity daily added to the list of those to whom it rendered service.
"Together with this enlargement of service, came increased resources with which to carry it on. The General Assembly of 1915 increased the' appropriation for maintenance from $95,000 to $115,000 and again in 1917 to $165,000. At the same time it provided a building fund of $100,- 000 annually for five years. Outside the General Assembly the desire to assist exhibited itself in additional ways. The Weil Lectureship in Amer- ican Citizenship was established. The Hill Col- lection of North Caroliniana was placed on a per- manent basis, the Alumni Loyalty Fund was be- gun, the Hewett Loan Fund was added to the list of other loan funds, and the Kenan bequest, yielding $75,000 annually, was received, making possible the strengthening of the faculty and the further equipment of the University for finer work.
"A corresponding growth of influence was ex- perienced by the University in its relations with other American colleges and universities. Its scholarly journals, such as the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, Studies in Phi- lology, and The Sprunt Historical Monographs, gained in distinctive content. The High School Journal succeeded the High School Bulletin in wider service to secondary schools, while along with these the News Letter, the Extension Bulle- tins and Leaflets found their way into the libra- ries and colleges of the country and called forth frequent appreciation from the State and Na- tional press.
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