USA > North Carolina > Wake County > History of Wake County, North Carolina, with sketches of those who have most influenced its development > Part 10
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The leading Whigs, feeling thus relieved of all responsibility, said that they could do no-
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thing for a new and expensive scheme like the building of an insane asylum with such penu- rious opponents in the saddle, and so the mat- ter was at a deadlock.
Dorothea Dix always kept a diary of her efforts, and in it she writes of her campaign in North Carolina. "This morning after break- fast several gentlemen called, all Whigs. They talked of the hospital and said the most discouraging things possible. I sent then for several of the leading Democrats. I brought out my memorial, and said, 'Gentlemen, here is the document I have prepared for your Assembly. I desire you, Sir, to present it' (handing it to a Democrat said to be most popular with his party), and 'you gentlemen,' said I to the whole astonished delegation, 'you, I expect to sustain the motion of this gentleman when he makes one to print the same.' " The legislator who took the memorial from the hands of Miss Dix was Mr. Ellis of Rowan, who afterward became the Governor of North Carolina.
The first result was that the bill establish- ing an asylum for the insane was not passed; but Miss Dix had led many a forlorn hope, and
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she did not know what the word failure meant. Staying at the same hotel with her were Hon- orable James Dobbin, afterwards Secretary of the Navy, and his wife. Mrs Dobbin was taken very ill, and Miss Dix, having made friends with her earlier, came and nursed her so tenderly in her illness that when she felt death near, from her dying bed she remember- ed to ask her husband, as her last request, to champion the cause Miss Dix had at heart. This was the only way she could show her gratitude for the devotion Miss Dix had lav- ished upon her.
Mr. Dobbin went from his wife's funeral to the Assembly, and plead so eloquently and feelingly, his eyes wet with tears, with such great effect, that the bill passed its final read- ing with one hundred one "ayes," and only ten "nays." Miss Dix left Raleigh the next Decem- ber, as she said, "perfectly happy," and the State Hospital for the Insane, which she would not allow to be named for her, is one of twenty established in the United States by her efforts. She was reverenced as a saint, and loved as a benefactress by the whole country, and especi- ally was this true in the South, as it is said.
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Dorothea Dix is the only one of our benefact- ors who did not spend her days among us, but on a subsequent visit she selected the site for the Hospital. She lived to extreme old age, dying in the year 1880.
Stanhope Pullen has not been so long dead but that many of us have known him well by sight, and have greeted him daily in the street. Except as he expressed his opinion in action, his thought was always a sealed book. An excellent but a taciturn man, as to his own affairs.
He was born on a farm near Neuse Station in Wake County in 1832. His mother was Elizabeth Smith, sister of the two Smith brothers, substantial merchants of Raleigh. When his aunt, Mrs Richard Smith, was left a widow she employed Mr. Pullen to manage her estate, and when she died without child- ren she made him her heir. He also managed the estate of his cousin, Mary Smith Morehead, which was left as a bequest to the University of North Carolina. He was a most able busi- ness man and everything which passed through his hands seemed to prosper.
After the war, when everything was utterly depleted, and the start toward prosperity
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OUR MONUMENT TO THE SOLDIERS OF THE CONFEDERACY, WITH THE OLIVIA RANEY LIBRARY IN THE BACKGROUND
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seemed so difficult, Mr. Pullen used his ready cash in purchasing property in Raleigh, and in this way acquired the Rayner, formerly the Polk property, and he extended Blount Street, by moving the old Polk mansion round to face Blount Street instead of closing it.
Thus was opened the best residence section of Raleigh during the eighties. He dealt most liberally with the city, in giving all the streets, grading and graveling them free. Later he opened a large tract to the North of the town at first popularly called "Pullen- town," and sold this off in lots for cheaper homes.
In keeping his own counsel so thoroughly, Mr. Pullen never had it said of him, "Mr. Pullen will do this" or "that." He seldom spoke out his intentions. His mind took knowledge of opportunities, and he made money out of his ventures, but he never gave himself the least uneasiness over the result of his dealings, never bargained or dickered as to the values he set on his property. He offered his land at what he believed to be a fair price, and never apparently cared whether the buyer took the bargain offered or not. That his
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prices were fair is shown by the immense amount of property which passed through his hands at one time or another. One year he bought quantities of cotton on speculation, and a friend asked him whether the fluctua- tions of the market did not cause him un- easiness. He replied that he had never lost an hour's sleep over business in his life. He gave to the city the land that is now Pullen Park, and moreover, laid it out, and planted it with the innumerable trees which are there today, growing while he sleeps.
The land adjoining, occupied by the build- ings of the North Carolina State College, is also a gift from Mr. Pullen to the State, and when the first building was completed, and the workmen were clearing away the lime bar- rels and brick-bats preparatory to the open- ing of the new college, Mr. Pullen appeared with his negro helper, Washington Ligon, and mule and plow, and laid off the drives and paths about the campus with his own hand, and further superintended the plant- ing of the cedars, the magnolias, and the willow oaks which he loved best, and which loved to grow for him.
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He personally looked after the repairs on the many homes he rented and all great or small repairs were done as needed, but he re- fused to be hounded about improvements. It was no use for a good tenant to take the high tone about repair, for he would be quiet- ly and simply told that he might move out at once if conditions were disagreeable to him.
At the same time Mr. Pullen was well- known as the kindest and most liberal of land- lords. In his continual rounds, he came to know certainly who was in want, and who was worthy of help. He disliked to be asked for charity, but the loads of wood, the supplies of groceries that came to many a struggling widow, or poor man with sickness in his fam- ily, unsolicited and unacknowledged, are known only to the recording angel. Thanks he never permitted.
When Edenton Street Methodist Church was being built, he came and supervised the construction day by day, and saw all go right, but no one dared to ask, "How much are we to depend on you for, in paying for the new church?" After everybody had given all they could, and then stretched it a little further,
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Mr. Pullen placed a check in the collection plate which made him the largest contributor to the building fund.
The State College was so beholden to him for its site, that they once sent an ambassador to him to ask for his portrait for their halls. One of the trustees was commissioned, and made an eloquent plea for this reasonable re- quest. Mr. Pullen listened with his quizzical little glance and a lift of his eyebrow, and after the speech was quite finished, he answered very pleasantly, "Well, they'll never get it; Good-morning." Hence there is no portrait of Mr. Pullen extant.
Mr. Pullen never married, and lived during the latter years of his life with his niece, Mrs. Lizzie Pullen Belvin, wife of Charles Belvin. He went and came on the street cars, and was always most pleasant to the neighbors riding down town with him; but the next time they passed him on the street he would forget to answer their greeting. Everyone knowing him would say, "That is only Mr. Pullen's way," and greet him gladly the next time he felt free to notice his friends. These manifest oddities only made him more interesting, while
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no one has ever done more for Raleigh, or allow- ed less credit to be given to him for his gener- osity. Pullen Park bears his name, one won- ders by what oversight of the giver. He was a great believer in technical training and in the higher education for women. He also gave the site of the State College for Women at Greensboro. He died quite old, on June 25th, 1895.
John T. Pullen was the nephew of Stanhope Pullen, and as a young man was often the al- moner of his uncle. Both these men were truly charitable, but while Stanhope Pullen was lonely with the reserve of a man who is independent of others, his nephew was the heart friend of everyone who needed a friend. It was said of him that he served God for a living and ran a bank to pay expenses. The Savings Bank that every child in Raleigh called Uncle John Pullen's Bank, was well and conservatively run, but his real business con- sisted in his charities, in his furnishing forth of a Christian ideal without a flaw, a life that no one could call insincere or cavil at-that no one could ridicule as narrow, or condemn as fanatic.
DR. RICHARD B. HAYWOOD'S HOUSE ON EDENTON STREET, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH
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Everybody knew and loved him. Children followed him. Men who were not working much at Christianity might criticise others, but they could not say, and never did say, that John Pullen was not a good man.
The poor were his adorers. He was most at home with them because he could do them the most good. If there was a religious meet- ing in any church he was there; he built and largely maintained a church of his own, which was really of the Baptist denomination, but which was called John Pullen's church as if it was of some especial faith that carried it fur- ther than mere denomination could do.
John Pullen's most precious benefits to the place of his birth were spiritual. He was the standard of goodness for Raleigh. True, he gave largely to charities during his life; he gave always and widely to the poor, generous- ly to his church, in many little ways to child- ren whom he always loved; to a tired old colored woman a coin in passing with the re- quest that she ride home on the street car; to a wild and rowdy drummer an inappropriate Bible, which was accepted shamefacedly, and which brought the young man to his knees
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after many days. He gave himself, every day and all the year. As a young man his san- guine and sympathetic temperament, not yet sanctified, brought him into trouble. He was a bit dissipated, but he left all that early behind, except as the memory of it helped him to speak to the wrong-doer understand- ingly. Mr. Pullen lived his later life with his niece, Mrs. Kate Belvin Harden, wife of John Harden.
When he died in 1913, the city arose as one man to show how much he was beloved. The factories closed, the school children came, the Governor and state officials as well, together with the rich and poor, while all churches united to honor his memory. The city whistles were silenced for the day he lay in state, and several convicts came out unguarded in their stripes from the Penitentiary, sent by their fellows to lay a cross made of prison blooms on his coffin, and returned to prison sobbing for the loss of their friend. His works do follow him.
Of the five men one remains to be mentioned. The other four were all bachelors. The woman, Miss Dix, although not one of our own people,
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was assisted in gaining her benevolent desire by a woman friend, so that the State Hospital represents at one and the same time, awaken- ed love for the unfortunate among our people, zeal for humanity in Miss Dix, and the result of a love which blossomed in loss, the fulfil- ment of the dying request of Mrs. Dobbin to her husband.
Another and the last of our benefactors to this time, was Richard Beverly Raney. He has given the city more wholesome recreation and delight than anyone can know, and doing this has also commemorated an ideal union, a love story more beautiful than fiction. And so the Olivia Raney Library also came out of love and loss.
R. B. Raney was born in Granville County in 1860. He had no chance for a college edu- cation, although he was a man who would have profited by one if it had been possible. He had his living to earn. He became clerk at the Yarborough Hotel under Doctor Blacknall's management, being known to the latter as a worthy boy, to whom he gave the position out of friendship.
Mr. Raney made good, was promoted, and finally became owner as well as manager of the
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Hotel. He was successful always, and be- came agent also for the state for one of the best insurance companies.
He married Olivia Cowper, daughter of Pulaski Cowper, and she died after only a year and a half of married life.
Soon after, there was a movement begun to start a city library by general subscription. Mr. Raney heard of it, and modestly claimed the privilege of giving the whole amount and making the gift a memorial to his lost wife. Accordingly the building was placed on one of the very choice sites of Raleigh, facing the Capitol, and was built, equipped, decorated and furnished in every particular by him. Af- ter the books, four thousand in number, were catalogued, and everything was in readiness, Mr. Raney had the library incorporated, and conveyed it to a self-perpetuating board of trustees, to be used as a free library for the white people of Raleigh. This gift he made in his prime, and before he became the com- paratively wealthy man he was at his death.
During the rest of his years Mr. Raney bought new books constantly for the library, but he refused to dictate, or to take any
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managing part in its affairs. He would be only one among a number of its trustees.
He married a second time, and the home he built for his second wife stands on the opposite corner of Salisbury and Hillsboro Streets across from the library building. He died in 1909, after his library had been a joy to the town for nine years.
Mr Raney was always very averse to any commendation, and would turn the subject quickly if anyone alluded in his presence to his generosity. He remains a very great bene- factor to the city if reform is, as it is said to be, a matter of substitution. What is the great value of an institution which fills the mind with innocent pleasure and leaves no room for evil thoughts? What is it worth to a young mind to reach out and find food and interest which without the gift of books would be lacking? If books are worth what we know them to be worth, how shall we thank the man who made the best literature free to any person who will take it home and read it?
We are beneficiaries of an institution now so much a part of the scheme of things in Raleigh
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that if it were to be closed for a month, or even for a week, the whole population would be up in arms to reclaim the privilege which they had not sufficiently appreciated because it was so absolutely free.
CHAPTER XI Distinguished Visitors
M ANY people whose names are writ- ten large in the books of fame have visited Raleigh in course of its existence. Washington did not come this way in 1791 on his trip through the United States of his day because the city was only as it were, a place on paper. He went to older commun- ities in North Carolina, both in the east and in the west. His itinerary brought hini as near as Salem, which was his last stop as he returned into Virginia after his Southern journey.
Lafayette, however, when he returned to America in his old age and went on a tour of the land he had helped to free from oppression, made a memorable visit to Raleigh. He trav- eled in a carriage with a constantly changing military escort, which accompanied him from One of his stages or stopping places to the next.
He entered Raleigh from Halifax, over the Louisburg road, spent two days, and on the
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third left the city for Fayetteville. This was early in March of the year 1825. He brought with him as personal companions his son, George Washington Lafayette, and a secretary.
Previous to his entry into Raleigh he spent the night with Allen Rogers, grandfather of Rowan Rogers, beyond Neuse River, on the old Louisburg road, and was met several miles from town by the Wake County Military Company and by the Mecklenberg County Cavalry, come from Charlotte for the pur- pose, as well as by a good many citizens on horseback, which made a most imposing cavalcade.
Arriving in Raleigh, he was feasted and praised and speechified over, just as Wake County and Raleigh would delight to do in honoring such a national friend. He was en- tertained at the old Governor's Mansion at the foot of Fayetteville Street. The first State House was then in existence, and beneath its dome stood the famous marble Satue of Washington, which Lafayette con- templated and praised for its likeness to his beloved Commander of the old days. The engraved picture of him so standing with a lady beside him, said to represent Miss Betsy
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John Haywood, daughter of the State Treas- urer, was made at the time, and a copy of this is still an interesting relic of the Hall of History. It was made from a painting executed by Jacob Marling, a Raleigh artist, who also painted the old State House.
Lafayette, grown old after his stormy life, was a small, spare, quick-moving man, emotional and impulsive in his ways, while our Revo- lutionary hero, Colonel Polk, was a giant six feet four inches in his stockings. Of course the welcoming of the distinguished guest was due to the surviving Revolutionary officer, who had been his friend and former comrade in arms, and who was at that time perhaps the most distinguished citizen of Raleigh.
So it was Colonel Polk who, walking beside Lafayette, entered the east portico of the State House with him and, pausing, turned with him, so that the people assembled might see the adopted son of the Father of our Country. Lafayette, whose heart was as warm and whose emotions were as ready as they were when he was a gallant boy, suddenly was overcome with feeling, and turned and threw himself upon the breast of his old friend, kissing him on both cheeks with enthusiasm.
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A shout of glee rose from the spectators who had never before chanced to see grown men kiss each other, and Colonel Polk, scarlet and embarrassed, his Scotch-Irish reserve all up- set, tried to pat back his emotional friend and pull away from his embrace, while at the same time he was unwilling either to hurt his feelings or to jeopardise his own dignity.
Lafayette had forgotten his English very largely, from disuse, and unfortunately had become somewhat deaf. He had a few phrases which did duty for many occasions. He would say, "This is a great country" and "I remember," without saying just what. He would say to an admiring citizen by way of conversation, "Are you married?" If the answer was in the affirmative he would say, "Happy man," if "No" he would rejoin, "Lucky dog."
Now Colonel Polk informed General Lafay- ette in his first conversation with him of the death of his first wife, whom Lafayette re- membered, the wife whom he lost before he came to Raleigh to live. Lafayette did not quite catch his remarks, and as was customary answered, "Lucky Dog!"
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To an American of today or yesterday, Lafayette was the sign and symbol of some- thing very precious, of a national romance of history that stirs us to the marrow then and now. His coming was a great honor; his per- sonality was so kindly and so sincere as to fill the heart with warm regard; and when, in a few years after his memorable visit his death oc- curred and the slow-moving news came into North Carolina, all the State newspapers were put into mourning for him by broad black lines between their columns, customary at that time as showing respect to some great public man or president at his passing.
Lafayette rode out of Raleigh to Fayette- ville, whither he was accompanied by the Mecklenburg Cavalry, and was given an especial festival in the town named for him.
Our next great figure who came to visit us was Henry Clay, the great Conciliator, and it was at the time when he was Whig candi- date for President. Notwithstanding this he came, not as a partizan, as he announced, but as the guest of the whole State, and as such he showed forth his charming personality. His visit took place in the summer of 1844,
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and he stayed a week. He made himself agreeable in his inimitable way, and is said to have attended church on Sunday at Edenton Street M. E. Church with the mother of Judge Badger. The story of his Raleigh letter has been told elsewhere. He was by no means alone in his idea that it was not time to admit Texas into the Union, but the minds of the men of North Carolina, without regard to political affiliation, were set on holding their own as regarded taking their slaves at will to any part of the south-west, and neither Clay nor his friends thought for a moment that he would go unpunished politically for the stand he took.
His visit was a continuous ovation; he stay- ed at the home of Kenneth Rayner, son-in- law of Colonel Polk, who lived in the old Polk mansion. It was under one of the great trees, said to be the white oak which stands in the side yard of what lately was the home of Colo- nel A. B. Andrews, that the famous letter was written.
A young lady of Granville County presented him while he was in Raleigh with a vest of silk, spun, dyed and woven by her own hand, and
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made up ready to be worn. This she begged him to wear at his inauguration, the next spring; and he graciously promised to do this should he be elected. But Clay was never in- augurated. He never attained the presidency. James K. Polk, a Democrat from Tennessee, but descended from the North Carolina family, and a cousin of Colonel William Polk, was elected, and President Tyler, wishing to in- fluence history before he left the White House, signed the bill admitting Texas to the Union, action which precipitated the war with Mexico immediately.
President Polk went to the University of North Carolina in 1845 to make the Com- mencement address and passed through Raleigh at that time, making the first of our President- visitors. Being North Carolina born, he was received as a son of the State, and among his party on the day he went to Chapel Hill was Miss Jane Hawkins of Raleigh, besides many gentlemen. President Buchanan, called the "Sage of Kinderhook," gave an address at Chapel Hill Commencement in 1859. He was entertained by General L. O'B. Branch on his return to Raleigh, and visited Nathaniel Macon before leaving the State.
THAT GREAT WHITE OAK, CALLED THE "HENRY CLAY TREE." IT IS SAID TO BE THE TALLEST OAK IN RALEIGH, AS WELL AS THE MOST HISTORIC. IT STANDS IN THE YARD FORMERLY BE- LONGING TO THE LATE COLONEL A. B. ANDREWS
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We must now tell of one of the grandsons of the County who returned in 1860. It was Joseph Lane, grandson of Jesse Lane, one of the less conspicuous brothers of Joel. He was candidate for Vice-President with Brecken- ridge, on the Whig ticket that year, and was defeated. Joseph Lane's father, John Lane, was born in Raleigh, but moved early to west- ern North Carolina, where Joseph was born in 1801. As early as 1804 the whole family had moved to Kentucky. By 1822 we find young Joseph already a member of the Indiana Legislature, barely past his majority, and a farmer and trader, having founded his fortune at a time when most boys are still dependent, and in 1845 when the Mexican War was declared he volunteered as a private. He was almost immediately raised from the ranks and soon be- came a Colonel, and again a few months after he was commissioned Brigadier-General. He was third in command at Buena Vista, and fought at Vera Cruz against Santa Anna. He was the hero of Cerro Gordo, winning that victory against heavy odds. He left the army with the rank of Major-General.
Upon returning to Indiana after the Mexican War, he was appointed Governor of Oregon
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Territory, and showed his bravery as an Indian fighter. Thence he went to Congress and was named candidate with Breckenridge in that four-sided campaign which resulted in the election of Lincoln.
Franklin K. Lane, who was in President Wil- son's Cabinet, was born in Prince Edward's Island, and was not apparently of any kin- ship to this man. This last was here during the Great War and spoke before the State Literature and Historical Association, as so many celebrated men have done.
Speaking of the next celebrity who came to Raleigh, we should mention the "Little Giant," Stephen A. Douglas, who had beaten Lincoln in Illinois when elected Senator over him, but whose candidacy was signalized by the celebra- ted joint debate whereby Lincoln won the ears of the country. Douglas was a wonderful ora- tor and a most eminent man, and was one of the candidates for the presidency in this troubled transition year. Although a Western man there are descendants of his in this State today.
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