USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume VI > Part 98
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Doctor Bobbitt was only a child when his parents removed to Raleigh and he was reared and educated in the capital city. His father was a member of the Board of Trustees of Trinity College and in that institution he received his collegiate training. The famous Dr. Braxton Craven was president of Trinity in those days. He studied medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, from which he gradu- ated in 1882. Then after clinical training and experience in the Baltimore Hospital he located at Rockingham, Richmond County, where he remained two years. He then located in Raleigh where he acquired a large practice and gained many as- sociations and friendships in a community which is distinguished for the high character of its citizenship.
In 1896 Doctor Bobbitt removed to Indiana, first locating at Marion. He was identified with
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that city during a notable period of its industrial development and helped further that development in many ways. In 1907 he located in Indianapolis where, as a general practitioner of medicine and surgery, he enjoys the confidence of a large and cultured clientele, numbering among his patrons many of the city's oldest and most respected citizens. He is also one of the leaders in the social, professional and business life of one of the best cities of the Middle West. Doctor Bob- bitt is a member of the Central Avenue Methodist Church and of various civic and social organiza- tions, among them the Southern Club, composed of Indianapolis people who have come from the South. He is a democrat in politics.
Mrs. Bobbitt represents another prominent North Carolina family. Before her marriage she was Miss Laura Blake. Her paternal and maternal ancestors helped to make history in North Carolina and through several generations she is of revolu- tionary lineage and is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her first American ancestor on the Blake side was William Blake of Dorchester, Massachusetts. He came from Somer- set, England, in 1636 and was one of the founders of Dorchester. The house which he occupied and which he built in 1650 still stands and is now the property of the local historical society
Mrs. Bobbitt's great-grandparents in the pa- ternal line were Ellis Gray and Mary (Taylor) Blake. They lived in Southampton, Virginia, at Bethlehem, "nine miles from Jerusalem." Mrs. Bobbitt's grandfather was Rev. Bennett Taylor Blake, who was familiarly and affectionately known in his generation as "Father" Blake. He was born in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1800, and came to Wake County, North Carolina, in 1826. He has been described as "a most devout, consecrated and lovable man," was a pioneer Methodist minister, and did most of his work in North Carolina. He had that similar steadfastness and exalted character that distin- guished some of the great evangelists and ministers of the Nineteenth Century, and North Carolina Methodism makes much of his name and career in its annals. He was a minister for sixty years, and twenty-five years of that time in the itinerant service. He occupied several of the most im- portant pulpits in the North Carolina Conference, notably Raleigh and New Bern, and was presiding elder for some time. One of his numerous achieve- ments which endure to the present time was the founding of Greensboro Female College. As the Conference was unable to finance this school he established it at his own expense and for several years was its president and leading spirit. The college has since remained one of the leading educational institutions of the Methodist Church in the South. On leaving the college Father Blake established a female seminary of his own at Raleigh. It is also recalled that in 1827, soon after coming to Wake County as a young minister, he founded the Edenton Street Sunday School in Raleigh, which is now over ninety years old. He was twice married, his wives being sisters, Fetna Price and Scheherazade Price, daughters of Thomas and Rebecca (Robertson) Price of Wake County, North Carolina.
Mrs. Bobbitt's father, the late Capt. Joseph Blake, was a son of the second marriage. He was born at Raleigh, North Carolina, and though re- taining his extensive plantation interests in the county lived most of his life in Raleigh. He was well educated, studied surveying and engineering
in the Polytechnic College of Philadelphia, and practiced that profession during a portion of his life. Capt. Joseph Blake married Lucy Caroline Person.
The maternal ancestry of Mrs. Bobbitt presents many interesting names and characters. Her mother was a daughter of Anthony and Lucy Caroline (Davis) Person. Her great-grandfather Jesse Person married Amy Perry, who was the grandmother of Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The Persons have lived for several generations in North Carolina, having settled there long before the Revolutionary war. It is in honor of this family that Person County is named. Lucy Caroline Person's maternal great-grandfather was Joseph Arrington, whose daughter Mary Arrington mar- ried Presley C. Person, father of Anthony Ar- rington Person.
Lucy Caroline Davis, maternal grandmother of Mrs. Bobbitt, was a sister of Joseph J. Davis of Louisburg, Franklin County, another distinguished Southern family, which included Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. Through this line Mrs. Bobbitt is descended from Sir Jonathan Davis, who with his brothers Capt. Dolan Davis and Nathaniel Davis came to America from Kent, England, in 1667. Capt. Dolan Davis settled in St. Mary's, Maryland, and was the grandfather of Samuel Davis who was the father of Jefferson Davis. Sir Jonathan and Nathaniel Davis settled in Hanover County, Virginia. Sir Jonathan had married in England, Martha Drayton Vernon, daughter of Sir Henry Vernon and Helen de Montgomerie of Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire. The Vernons were one of the oldest families of England, being descended from Richard de Vernon, who accompanied William the Conqueror from Normandy to England and was one of the seven barons created by Hugh Lupus the Great, Earl of Chester. The Winston family, of which the present Judge Winston of Raleigh is a descendant, are also of this line of ancestry. William Davis, fourth in line of descent from Sir Jonathan Davis, married Martha Taylor Winston, who was the granddaughter of Isaac and Mary (Dabney) Winston, whose daughter Sarah Winston was the mother of Patrick Henry.
Doctor and Mrs. Bobbitt have two children: Bennett Blake Bobbitt, an Indianapolis business man, and Laura Miller, wife of Mr. E. K. Reese, also a business man of Indianapolis.
WILLIAM CLAY LEAK, the subject of this sketch, was born on June 18, 1863, on his father's planta- tion about four miles from Rockingham, in Rich- mond County, North Carolina. He was the third child and second son of Thomas Crawford Leak and Martha Poythress Wall, and his ancestors on both sides had for many generations been promi- nent in the business, political and social life of the Pee Dee section of the state. After a life of great usefulness and genuine service to the people of his county, when only fifty-four years of age, he died on January 23, 1918, universally loved, respected and mourned.
Doc Leak, as he was familiarly known to his associates, came of good old English stock. The name Leak is found on the rolls of the English Parliament early in the fourteenth century, and many of the family later attained prominence in the British Navy and in other professions in old England. One branch of the family early in the sixteenth century held the earldom of Scarsdale
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and later was connected by marriage with the House of Warwick. Richard Leak in the seven- teenth century was a member of the English Navy, and his son, John, became an admiral and was knighted for gallantry in action in defense of Gibraltar. John Leak, son of Admiral Sir John Leak, was famed as eminent physician and sur- geon and established a hospital at Westminster. Stephen Martin Leak, of the same family, was a leading authority and prominent writer on her- aldry and coins.
The family came to America in the person of William Leak, a first cousin of the distinguished admiral, who settled in what was later known as Goochland County, Virginia, in 1685. William Leak married Mary Bostic, had issue, among others, Walter, who was born about 1704. Walter Leak, who married Judith Mask, like his father was an influential citizen in the colonial life of Virginia. His third son, William, married Judith Mosely and soon moved to what was then Anson, now Richmond County, North Carolina, in 1761. This William Leak was the great-great-grandfather of William Clay Leak, the subject of this sketch. His only child, Walter, was born November 30, 1761, married Hannah Pickett, played a distin- guished part in the battles of the Revolutionary war, and died at Rockingham at the age of eighty- three. Of this union there were eight children, the youngest of whom, James Pickett Leak, mar- ried Jane Wall Crawford, the daughter of a promi- nent manufacturer of Paris, Tennessee. To them was born an only child and son, Thomas Crawford Leak, on May 2, 1831.
Thomas Crawford Leak was given by his loving parents every advantage that careful education and extensive travel could bring to the young southern gentleman of means of that day and time. He graduated from the State University with honor in the class of 1853, from which he returned to his native county, where in 1855 he was married to Martha Poythress Wall, a lady who became widely known for her gracious manner, the great beauty of her character, and the sweetness of her life, manifested in an open-handed charity dispensed to all who were needy and unfortunate around her. To this perfect union of forty-three years' duration were born two daughters and seven sons.
Thomas Crawford Leak was in many respects a most remarkable man and deserves more than a mere passing notice. At the close of the Civil war, after his farms had been pillaged and plundered by Sherman's raiders and his slaves freed, Mr. Leak with his characteristic sound business judg- ment moved to Rockingham and invested his capi- tal largely in cotton mills and became a pioneer in the manufacture of cotton fabrics in this state. In 1874, he organized the Pee Dee Manufacturing Company and a little later the Roberdel Manufac- turing Company, both of which corporations oper- ate two mills and have from their inception been among the most successful of their kind in the state. These were followed by other similar enter- prises, among them the Leak, Wall & McRae Manufacturing Company, the Bank of Pee Dee and the Richmond County Savings Bank. All of these corporations have enjoyed careers of wonderful and uninterrupted success and remain today en- during monuments to the business sagacity of their organizer.
Mr. Leak was in appearance, in manner, and in reality a typical southern gentleman of the old school; but there were united in his life the best elements of the New and Old South-modern in-
dustrial leadership in happy combination with the gracious manner, the kindly spirit, the generous hospitality, and the innate chivalry of the ante- bellum southern planter.
In such an ideal home, characterized by an en- vironment of comfort, culture and refinement, com- bined with industry and strict discipline, was born William Clay Leak, as has been told, in 1863. Every characteristic of that splendid home training was exemplified in his life, for from boyhood he was known for his courteous manner, methodical habits, serious application to duty, his keen sense of honor and the proprieties of every occasion, unusual self-control, and a generous, kindly spirit expressed in real service to his fellows that brought him an affection from all who knew him such as comes to few men.
Doc Leak, as he shall henceforth be spoken of, was educated at the famous Bingham School at Mebane. Here he was devoted to his studies, but found time to become a leader in athletics and in the work of the literary societies, winning a medal in one of the oratorical contests of the day. Before finishing his college course, he accepted an opportunity to enter the Bank of New Hanover at Wadesboro, then the only bank in this section of the state. Thus he entered upon a business career that was to bring him state-wide promi- nence and success and that lasted to the day of his death. In a short time he returned to Rocking- ham and entered the office of the Pee Dee Manu- facturing Company. So rapid was his development along safe and sane business lines that when its president, Col. Walter L. Steele died in 1893, no one else was considered for the vacancy, and at thirty years of age Doc Leak became president of this corporation. The wisdom of the choice of its directors was soon manifest to all, and the mau- agement of this manufacturing plant remained in his capable hauds to the day of his death. During his twenty-five years of administration this cor- poration completed additions to the old mill, built a new and larger mill from its earnings, more than trebled the number of its spindles and looms, trebled its capital stock, and continued all the while to pay its usual large dividends to stock- holders.
While devoted primarily to this great enter- prise, he found time to be the moving spirit aud oftener than not, the directing head of many other successful business ventures in Rockingham. He was president of the Richmond Insurance and Realty Company, vice president of the Bank of Pee Dce, a director in the Rockingham Railroad Com- pany, the Richmond County Savings Bank, the Roberdel Manufacturing Company, the Entwistle Manufacturing Company, the Leak, Wall and McRae Manufacturing Company, the Richmond County Building and Loan Association and the Rockingham Hotel Corporation.
Doc Leak possessed a wonderful business acu- men that was fully recognized and ackuowledged by all his associates. His advice was widely sought and freely given; and when given after his usual, calm deliberation, its worth was invariably wel- comed and followed. In speaking of his great business success, a leading business man of the state paid this tribute:
"An excellent trait of Mr. Leak was his faith in young men. This is remarkably true of all good business men. Many of our young men received his assistance and unless some one arises to take his place, they are the greatest losers in our count munity. Another good business trait was he would
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not allow himself to have an enemy. He forgot his injuries and was liberal in his interpretation of the motives of others. He did not retaliate in kind."
Doc Leak was one of the most public-spirited men of his day. No man felt a greater concern for the welfare of his country, his state and his immediate section than did he. No man was called upon oftener to make sacrifices of his time and means in generous, patriotic public service or re- sponded more willingly than he. He was keenly interested in politics as a necessary instrument of good government, and was a life-long democrat by inheritance, training and conviction. He was not ambitious to hold public office; in fact, avoided it when possible, for it is safe to say that with his large personal following of friends and ad- mirers he could have held any office in the gift of the people that he desired. He was, however, more than once drafted into public service, and filled places that carry trifling remuneration but occasion much personal sacrifice of time to the busy man of large affairs. He served at various times as chairman of the Board of County Com- missioners, chairman of the Board of Education, and chairman of the Democratic Executive Com- mittee of his county, and found in these positions opportunities for genuine helpfulness to his people. He was a public speaker of rare gift and power, clear and convincing in argument, with a wonder- ful flow of language. When public matters were under discussion, he shone particularly as an ex- tempore speaker, possessing the faculty of seizing upon the vital issues at stake and bringing them out with telling effect.
One would fail utterly in giving his modus vi- vendi, and in making clear the real man, were not mention made of his great generosity, his numerous charities, his broad aud liberal giving, his uuselfish spirit that brought him unfailingly to the relief of distress, his deep interest in and helpfulness toward churches, missions, social and charitable institu- tions, and public spirited enterprises of all kinds in his town, county and state. His giving, though unostentatiously made always, was known to be out of all proportion to his means, as the world usually reckons such things. Rich and poor, high and low, old and young, white and black, all felt his active and responsive sympathy of heart whenever and wherever the occasion arose.
"The weak, and the gentle, the ribald and the rude,
He took as he found them, and did them all good."
He was the leading spirit in the establishment of a public graded school system in Rockingham in 1901. He was selected as the chairman of its Board of Trustees and filled this position continu- ously till his death for seventeen years. To this position he brought a rare judgment, unusual exe- cutive ability, and a broad vision as to the development of the town by the pursuit of a policy of liberal dealing with its public schools. His in- terest in it and its welfare was second only to his affection for his home and family. The pupils of the school throughout these years felt, and rightly felt, that the doors of hope and opportunity had been opened for them largely by means of the wisdom, generosity and unflagging devotion of Doc Leak. His death, so sad, so untimely, brought such sincere grief to everyone connected with this in- stitution, the offspring of his love for the young manhood of his community, that it was expressed in a public memorial service held in the school
auditorium on March 13, 1918, and which was participated in by the entire student body and faculty, the mayor and City Board of Aldermen, the Board of School Trustees, and as many of the people of the town as could gather in the building. Many sincere and touching tributes were paid to the memory of this great and good man whose life had proven a blessing to everyone present.
In 1895, William Clay Leak was married to Nancy Pegues, an attractive young woman of many graces and personal attainments, a member of the prominent South Carolina family of that name. Two sons, William, aged 21, and Thomas Randolph, aged sixteen, blessed this union of con- genial spirits. Of them, and of his beautiful, hos- pitable and happy home life, he was justly proud. No husband was ever more devoted or more loving; no father was ever more tender, gentle, kind and affectionate, nor had juster reason to be so than he.
In his death, there passed one who seemed to have unlimited capacity for giving. His great heart appeared to have no metes and bounds, but only unsounded depths. He gave, and gave prodigally, of his time, of his means, of himself to public service, to his community, to his friends, to his home, to humanity, and joyed in the giving. He drew upon his life as if there were no limita- tions, or did he know and
"To all the sensual world proclaim One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name."
However that may be, it was a glorious life, and we shall not soon see his like again.
JOHN T. BENBOW, a successful lawyer, member of the firm Benbow, Hall & Benbow of Winston- Salem, is a native of the Town of East Bend in Yadkin County, North Carolina. His is an old and honored ancestry in this state. The Benbows were originally Welsh, and through all the generations as far back as the record goes they were loyal and devout Quakers.
The first to come to America was Charles Benbow, who was born in Wales December 20, 1704, and came to America in 1718, at the age of fourteen. He lived with a man named Carver in Maryland, who had paid his ship passage. He worked out his time and later married the daughter of his employer, Mary Carver. The family subse- quently came to Bladen County, North Carolina, and from there to Guilford County.
Thomas Benbow, a son of Charles and the great- great-grandfather of John T. Benbow, lived near the Guilford battle ground in Guilford County, where he operated a tannery and blacksmith shop. He made the nails used in the construction of the Guilford Friends meeting house. The maiden name of his wife was Hannah H. Stanley, and both were active members of the Friends Church. Their marriage certificate is contained in the minutes of the New Garden Monthly Meeting, 24th of third month, 1787. One of the children of these parents was Jesse Benbow, who was among the founders of the Oak Ridge Institute and one of its trustees the remainder of his life. He also served as trustee for many years of Guilford College. His daughter, Mrs. Priscilla B. Hackney, is now a resident of Greensboro.
Thomas Benbow, grandson of Charles Benbow and great-grandfather of the Winston-Salem lawyer, married Mary Saunders, and they were life-long residents of Guilford County.
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Thomas Benbow, grandfather of John T., was also a native of Guilford County and removed from there to Yadkin County, buying land near Hamptonville. Subsequently he acquired land now included in East Bend and there engaged in gen- eral farming. A Quaker, he was strongly opposed to the institution of slavery and to the secession movement, and about 1860, he went to Iowa and bought land and remained a resident of that state until his death. The maiden name of his first wife was Anna Mendenhall. She was a remarkable woman, well educated, was a physician, also a preacher in the Friends Church and was pastor of the churches at Hunting Creek and Deep Creek. She died before her husband moved to Iowa and is buried in the Deep Creek Friends Church Yard in Yadkin County. She reared six children, named Charles, Alexander, Evan, Rachael, Anna and Susanna.
Dr. Evan Benbow, father of John T. Benbow, was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, at- tended New Garden Academy, now Guilford Col- lege, and on completing his course there entered the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, where he was graduated with his degree. He began prac- tice at East Bend, and soon had all he could at- tend to in that village and the surrounding country. He lived in East Bend until his death in 1894, at the age of sixty-seven. Mr. Benbow married Betty White Hall, daughter of Thomas Hall, a native of North Carolina. Her grandfather,
Thomas Hall, was a native of Halifax County, Virginia, while his father was a native of Eng- land and came to America in Colonial days, locat- ing in the western portions of Virginia. Thomas Hall, Sr., came to North Carolina and was a pioneer in what is now Yadkin County, but subsequently removed to Randolph County. Thomas Hall, Jr., married Rebecca Kerr. Her mother was the daughter of Col. Jack Martin of the noted Rock House. Dr. Evan Benbow's wife died in 1900. She reared nine children: Charles Fantford, Wil- liam Evan, Eunice Adaline, Lewis Seebohm, Sally Ann, Betty Victoria, Mattie Caroline, John Thomp- son and Frank Byron.
Mr. John T. Benbow grew up in his father's home, attended the public schools at East Bend, and in 1900 graduated from Guilford College. He then entered the law department of the University of North Carolina, where he finished the course with the degree LL. B. His early practice for three years was done in East Bend, and since then he has been an active and successful lawyer at Winston-Salem and member of the firm above noted.
Mr. Benbow is affiliated with East Bend Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with South Side Council No. 80, Junior Order of United American Mehcanics, with Twin City Camp No. 27, Woodmen of the World, and Winston Lodge No. 449, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
INDEX
Abbott, Joseph C., III, 113
Abbott, Payton B., IV, 121
Abernethy, Charles L., VI, 324
Abernethy, W. E., VI, 157
Academies, II, 2, 356; incorporation by counties, II, 354
Acreage, total, III, 377
Act of March 2, 1867, III, 88
"Act of Pardon and Oblivion," I, 502 Adams, James, I, 117
Adams, John A., IV, 110
Adams, John C., VI, 22
Adams, John Q., II, 170
Adams, John R. B., V, 270
Adams, Joseph S., V, 242
Adams, J. Hampton, V, 373
Adams, Minor R., V, 271
Adams, Spencer B., VI, 307
Adjournment of Second Provincial Congress, I, 367
Administration, defects of, III, 114, 132
Administration of General Sickles, III, 93, 94
Ad valorem principle, II, 318; argument against, II, 320
Ad valorem tax, I, 433
"Ad-Vance," eleven successful trips made, III, 9; lost, III, 9; (illustra- tion), III, 10
Agricultural and Mechanical College, III, 213, 215, 268, 365, 379
Agricultural Fund, II, 100
Agricultural journals, establishment of, II, 332
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