j _- story of Wayne County, j

 
ADDRESS BY

Judge Frank A. Daniels,

AT OPENING OF

Wayne County’s New Court House,

NOVEMBER 30, 1914

Exercises Incident to the Occasion.

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BOARD OF COUN TY COMMISSIONERS:

No. 1, I. F. Ormond, Chairman of the Board; No. 2, R. A. Whitfield, of Gantham
township; No. 3, W. A. Martin, of Nahunta; No. 4, D. N. Newsome, of New Hope; No.

6, C. F. Herring, of Indian Springs No. 5, Earle A. Humphrey, Attorney to the Board.

 

 
 

 

Dedication of New Court House
AND

History of Wayne County.

It would seem that all Wayne county
had gathered in Goldsboro today to
participate in the most prideful event
in the city and county’s history—the
formal opening of Wayne county’s
magnificent new Court House, than
which there is none finer, and few
comparable to it in the South. And
we deem it of primal interest and
worthy of emphasis as cause for ad-
ditional pride to every citizen of
Wayne county that it was not only
builded in all its superlative beauty
at the common assent of our people,
as a public necessity, but its construc-
tion was supervised in every detail of
specification and executed to comple-
tion by native Wayne county boys,
only the plans of the building being
the work of other than home talent
The architects were Messrs. Milburn-
Heister & Company, of Washington,
D. C., and the builder was Mr. W. P.
Rose, of this city, a native Wayne
county boy, and hig associate, repre-
senting the architects, was another
Wayne County boy, Mr. J. M. Kennedy,
now a leading architect of Raleigh;
and the County Attorney, who attend-
ed to all the legal technicalities of the
building bonds, their drafting and
sale, and the construction contract,
throughout its intricate specifications,
with such consummate skill that there
was not a hitch from start to finish, is
Mr. Earle A. Humphrey, son of the
late Col. L. W. Humphrey, and a na-
tive Goldsboro boy; while supervising
the entire and exacting work, the
Chairman of the Board of County
Commissioners, Mr. I. F. Ormond, was
constantly “on the job,’ and nothing
required in the specifications or es-
sential to the completeness of the
magnificent building was overlooked
or neglected, sustained and encour-
aged, as he always was, by the special

 

 

Building Committee, composed of him-
self and Mr. C. F. Herring, on the part
of the Board, and Mr. Frank K. Bor-
den, representing the citizens of the
county as a whole.

And today this court house is being
viewed and visited by thousands of our
county people, here for the celebration
of its formal opening, and a common
thrill of patriotic pride permeates all
bosoms over its substantial build, its
symmetrical proportions and superla-
tive beauty, and we are proud to be
able to present to our thousands of
readerg pictures in this issue of the
building and of the builder and of the
Board of County Commissioners and
County Attorney whose public spirit
and patriotism gave to our county
people the opportunity of building for
themselves the most creditable court
house in the South.

Owing to the absence of Mr. I. F.
Ormond, who was called last night to
Atlanta, to the bedside of a critically
ill brother, Hon. W. S. O’B. Robinson
presided at the opening exercises and
introduced Judge Frank A. Daniels
who then took charge of the pro-
gram.

In presenting Judge Daniels, Judge
Robinson paid a really brilliant trib-
ute to the occasion, the American peo-
ple—his home county people and to
the man he was presenting, Judge
Daniels, that was thoroughly appreci-
ated and applauded.

Judge Daniels then announced that
the exercises would formally open
with prayer by Rev. Jacob F. Hill, of
Saulston township, and that venerable
and beloved divine responded, and with
benignant countenance lifted heaven-
ward, uttered a beautiful and appro-
priate prayer that settled like a bene-
diction over his vast audience and will
linger in their hearts for aye.

 
Hisrory or Wayne County.

 

PRAYER BY REV. J. F. HILL AT THE
OPENING OF WAYNE COUNTY’S
NEW COURT HOUSE.

O, Lord, Thou who has created us,
who has preserved us and kept our
lives, and who hag given unto us that
knowledge, that instinct to recognize
Thee as the God of heaven, and the
God of all the earth, we come to Thee
with humbleness of heart and beseech
Thee at Thy throne of grace and ask
Thee, Lord, look from heaven, Thy
lofty habitation, to earth Thy foot-
stool upon us; forgive ug of any
wrong that we may have committed
against Thy holy and precious will;
grant unto us repentance for Christ’s
sake.

Now, oh Lord, we have come this
day to dedicate this temple of justice,
ard we ask Thee that Thou will bless
everyone in Thy Divine presence. Oh
God, bless these attorneys that are
here to defend those that may commit
wrongs. Help them to realize their
responsibility, and, oh God, grant that
they may be endowed with Thy spirit
and do justice both to the State and
their clients. Heavenly Father, bless
the officerg of this court; guide and
lead them to a faithful discharge of
their several duties. And we pray
Thee, Lord, that Thou will have mercy
and bless the law makers of our land,
guide and lead them that they may
enact such laws as will be according
to Thy will and beneficial to the peo-
ple.

We pray Thee, oh God, to bless our
nation; bless the President of our na-
tion and his cabinet, and guide and
lead them by Thy Holy Spirit in the
right. Bless our State Government;
bless our Governor, and we pray Thee.
Lord, that he may administer in his
Office justice to the State.

We pray Thee, Lord, to bless the
Legislators, as they convene from
time to time, and may they be inspired
with a purpose to enact such laws as
will be beneficial.

Have mercy, our }ather, upon the
juries that may be summoned from
time to time in this Court; may they
be guided in such a way that they may

 

render their verdicts according to Thy
holy and precious will.

Now, Lord, we ask Thee to remem-
ber our own Judge Daniels. Father,
bless him, guide and lead him; grant
that he may live many days upon the
earth to serve his pe ple.

Father, have mercy upon the pris-
oners incarcerated in the jail. Help
them to realize the enormity of their
sins and turn unto Thee that they
may receive forgiveness.

Have mercy, our Father, upon all
suffering humanity.

And now, Lord, we pray that as we
realize ‘from Thy word that the time
is coming when there shall not stand
one stone upon another, and all the
temples, and all that man has erected
must crumble to the dust, grant, our
Father, that we may so live and walk
before Thee that when the time shall
come that this earthly tabernacle of
ours shall be dissolved, and that we
must go into eternity, prepared or un-
prepared, before the judgment seat of
the Lord Jesug Christ, may our lives
be so hid with Him in Thee that we
may be able to hear His welcome
voice saying, “Come, you blessed of
My Father,” and that we may find
abundant entrance into that temple
not made with hands, eternal in the
Heavens. AN of which we ask for
Jesus’ sake. Amen.

He wag followed by Hon. Earle A.
Humphrey, attorney to the Board and
Solicitor of the County Court, who on
behalf of the Building Committee for-
mally presented the Court House to the
Board, speaking as follows:

PRESENTATION OF WAYNE COUN-
TY’S NEW COURT HOUSE.

(By County Attorney E. A. Humphrey)

Mr. Chairman and Members of the
Board of County Commissioners, Fel-
low-Countymen, Ladies and Gentle-
men :—

To me has been assigned the duty
and privilege of presenting you this
day with Wayne County’s new court
house, said to be one of the handsom-
est structures of itg kind in the en-
tire Southern states.

On May 20th, of last year, you will

 

 

Hisrory or Wayne County. q

 

recall that you .wisely selected and
employed the most skillful and able
architects you could secure, to super-
intend the construction of the build-
ins according to plans finally sub-
mitted by them and approved by you.

On August 25th, about three months
thereafter, you awarded the contract
for its construction to a popular local
contractor and builder, who had en-
tered into competitive bidding w'th
a number of other builders, and the
wisdom of your choice in the employ-
ment of both contractor and builder
is, I believe, fully proven here today.

Then on December 1st, of last year,
just a year ago tomorrow, you ap-
pointed as a building committee
Messrs. Chas. F. Herring, F. K. Bor-
den, and I. F. Ormond, with the last
named gentleman designated as Chair-
ran of that Committee, to superintend
and personally manage and control
the work as it progressed.

The skill and ability with which
the Committee has done its work and
performed its duty are clearly in
evidence here today, and I believe
you will agree with me that it has
done its work well and deserves your
praise.

Hspecially do I commend, without
reservation, the untiring work and
labors of the Chairman of that Com-
mittee, who is none other than the
Chairman of your your own Board,
Hon. I. F. Ormond.

Day in and day out, he has been at
his post of duty, inspecting and exam-
ining the construction ¢s it progress-
ed, and exercising personal control
and supervision of the work, and I
should feel derelict in my duty if I
failed to tell the good folks of Wayne
County that they owe him a lasting
debt of gratitude.

Before turning this building over to
you I wish to say, I trust we all un-
derstand that it represents much more
than a material structure where men
gather for the transaction of every-
day routine business, for trading and
trafficing one with another; it stands
for much more than that:

It represents a clearing house for
the adjustment of men’s rights; where
Justice is dispensed witkout distinc-

A—3

 

 

tion as to riches or poverty, politics
or religion, creed or color.

Within its walls at all times the
wronged and oppressed should find
that principle rules, and that equity
prevails, while the State and the coun-
ty are protected from the violation
of law. .

And, Mr. Chairman, in presenting
this building I cannot but express the
pleasure’ of the Committee in pro-
viding officials of Wayne County and
tinembers of the Bar with such accom-
modations, unsurpassed by any county
in the State of North Carolina.

I know they appreciate it, and I
Know they deserve it:. They are a
worthy and industrious lot, especially
the lawyers.

Folks seem to think the lawyer
has an easy time, but it’s no such
thing; he’s the first man to help you
after the last man has turned you
down. He is expected to know the
law, to look after your business mat-
ters, and get you out of trouble: and
he is frequently imposed upon. Some-
times by a guilty client, when that
client goes to him with his tale of
persecution and oppression; a victim
of some of his enemies, etc.

Former Senator Morgan, of Alabama
was a great lawyer; and had been em-
ployed to defend an old darkey, a
former slave, upon the charge of steal-
ing a mule. The Senator worked
hard in behalf of old Mose, and made
a great speech to the jury, who re-
turned a verdict of not guilty.

After his client was acquitted, Sen-
ator Morgan turned to him and said,
“Mose, did you get that mule?” And
Mose replied: “Boss, it was dis way;
before I was tried I sorter thought I
did git dat mule, but since you made
dat speech I knows I didn’t.”

The time of each speaker has been
limited, I have been informed, and
T do not wish to transg~ess the rules
nor encroach upon the rights of others
who are to follow me.

I therefore, for and in behalf of the
Building Committee, present to you,
Mr. Chairman, and members of the
Board of County Commissioners, and
to your successors in office, in trust
for and as custodians of the citizens

 

 
8 History or Wayne County.

 

of Wayne County, this\ magnificent
property, to have and to hold to the
ood people of thig County as tenaats
in common, in fee-simple, to use and
enjoy forever.

On leaving the city last night Mr.
Ormond expressed a, desire that Col.
W. T. Dortch of the city bar, should
represent him in formally acgepting
the Court House for the county, and
this Col. Dortch did admirably,
even on but a few moments’ notice,
speaking eloquently for the people of
the county their appreciation of this
commodious, modern and most cred-
itable court house and their thanks
to the Board of County Commissioners
for co-operating with them in building
it.

Col. Dortch was followed by Col.
Jos. E. Robinson, who had been dele-
gated to present the N. C. Flag, on
behalf of Gimble Brothers Company,
of Philadelphia, and he spoke as fol-
lows:

PRESENTATION OF N. C. FLAG.

(By Col. Jos. H. Robinson.)

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the
Board of County Commissioners—My
Fellow Citizens: Today—this occas-
ion—marks a new and proud epoch
in the history of our County—a
county whose citizens have always
portrayed the most splendid quality
of patriotism: for patriotism is love
of country—love of state—love of
county, and loyalty to their lives and
welfare—love tender as affection of
son for mother; strong as the pillars
of death: loyalty, generous and dis-
interested—shrinking from no sacri-
fice : seeking no reward except coun-
try’s triumph. Through the ages hu-
manity has burnt the incense of ad-
miration and reverence at the shrines
of patriotism. The most beautiful
pages of history are those which re-
count its deeds. Fireside tales—out-
pourings of the memories of peoples
borrow from it their warmest glow.
Poets’ songs are sweetest when they
echo its whisperings: orators most
potent when they attune their speech
to its inspiration. The patriotism of

,

 

the exiled Hebrews exhaled itself in
a canticle of religion which Jehovah
inspired, and. which has been trans-
mited as the inheritance from God’s
people to the nations of all times:—
“Upon the rivers of Bakylon, there
we sat and wept when we remembered
Zion. If I forget thee, O, Jerusalem,
let my right-hand be forgotten. Let
my tongue cleave to my jaws if I do
not remember thee—if I do not make
Jerusalem the beginning of my joy.”

The value of patriotism to a people
cannot be estimated. It is above gold
and precious stones—above commerce
and industry—above citadels and war-
ships. Patriotism is the vital spark
of the State’s honor: the living fount
of the State’s prosperity, the strong
shield of the State’s safety: its effu-
sion is the fragrant flowering of the
purest and noblest sentiments of the
heart; but it attaing its full force and
beauty only where minds are elevated
and hearts are generous.

That the minds and hearts of Wayne
County’s citizens are elevated and
fenerous finds most creditable proof
and expression in this magnificent
Court House, which they have builded
to the godde.s of Justice—and ag a
shrine of our progress and public
spirit, at which generations coming
after us may gather to con the lesson
of patriotism here perpetuated and
eatch the ennobling inspiration of
high resolve. And over this structure
—the common pride of our county
people—shall float the flag of our glor-
ious commonwealth; and it is now
my prideful privilege to present that
flag—the most inspiring object tnt
th: eyes of patriotic North Carolinians
ever beheld: there is no such red in
summer rose—in sparkling wine or
sunset glow: no such white in winter
snow, in dogwood bloom or floating
cloud: no such blue in woman’s eye, in
ocean’s depths or heaven’s dome—no
such brilliant star in all “those ar-
gent fields above” as that which
shines from the unfurled flag of North
Carolina—‘Heaven’s blessings attend
her: While we live we will cherish,
protect and defend her!”

Mr. S. F. Teague, of the city bar
had been delegated to receive this

 

 

 

History or Wayne County. 9

 

flag, and thig he gracefully did in the
following stirring words:

SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE OF THE
NORTH CAROLINA FLAG.

(By S. F. Teague)

Mr. Chairman—Ladies and Gentle-
men:—

Within the last four months more
hearts have been thrilled and more
Souls stirred with patriotic fervor
than ever before in the history of the
world; and millions of men have been
called to their colors and have left
their homes and loved ones to fight
for their flag. Within the past four
months thousands of men have march-
ed into the face of cannon and have
charged into the thickest of battle
under the inspiration of their flag.
Yes, today, even at this very hour,
thousands of men lie bleeding and
dying upon the battle fields of Du-
rope wrapped in its folés, and hearts
and homes are left desolate that their
flag may be saved.

A flag! Only a piece of variegated
silk or satin. A flag! What is it in
a flag, which, when trampled under
foot, causes an entire nation to rise
as one man to avenge the insult? A
flag! _ What is it in a flag, which, when
waved before a company or a regi-
ment rallies disorganized soldiers and
turns defeat into victory? A flag!

What is it in a flag, which, when
wrapped in its folds or sailing under
its banner an American citizen can
walk among the warring Nations
safe and secure ? A flag! It is to a
country what the cross is to a Christ-
ian or the crescent is to a Moham-
medan. It is a country’s most sacred
possession. A flag! It symbolizes
ideals, the freedom, the independence
and the integrity of a people.

And so, fellow North Carolinians,
this flag represents the most sacred
of our possessions+—~our ambitions,
our ideals, our freedom, our independ-
ence and our integrity. This emblem
of our state was first accepted for
North Carolina by the first Colonial
Congress at Halifax, April 12, 1776.
This flag was born in an effort to
establish a state where freedom of
conscience, independence of thought,

 

and justice and right skould prevail,
st Wag. bought with the blood of our
fathers and floated over the state
during the perilous days of its early
siruggie. lt was the standard of
those men who worked out the first
laws for North Carolina and for
Wayne county. Its motto was the

ot.o of the men who established
Wayne county and built the court
house Which has ben replaced by this
magnificent structure. This flag has
come down to us as a priceless her-=
itage, and we who have the right to
eall it our flag, may well be proud of
our right.

It seems fitting therefcre, Mr. Chair-
man, that the flag of our fathers
should float from the most modern
and commodious court house in North
Carolina. This new court house is
a magnificent expression of Wayne
county progress and a shining ex-
ample of its people wishing “to be
ratber than seem.”

In behalf of the people of Wayne
county, therefore, Mr. Chairman, we
accent with thanks, from Gimbel
Brothers, of Philadelphia, this North
Carolina flag; and in behalf of the
citizenship of Wayne county, sir, we
pledge a new loyalty to the flag of the
Old North State, and our hearty sup-
port of the principles of right and
justice which it symbolizes.

Next on the program was the pre-
sentation of the U. S. Flag, from the
Jr. O. U. A. M., who had selected Col,
A. C Davis, of the city bar, ag their
spokesman, and in eloquent words and
forceful gesture and thrilling climax-
es, as is his wont, he performed the
duty assigned him amid great en-
thusiasm and applause, the Junior
Order being in attendance in full num-
bers and regalia.

Judge D. H. Bland, of the County
Court, had been selected by the com-
mittee to receive this flag, and he, in
his own always graceful manner of
speech, accepted it in the following
words:

JUDGE BLAND’S ACCEPTANCE.

In accepting the U.S. flag, Judge D,
H. Bland, of our County Court, said:

 

 
10 History or Wayne County.

 

On behalf of the Board of County
Commissioners, who are the custodians
of this beautiful building,as well as the
guardians of our county affairs gen-
erally, it gives me much pleasure to
accept from this great fraternity the
flag of our country. The Junior Order
of American Mechanics, as the name
suggests, is distinctively an American
Society. In the history of fraternity
it will be noted above all others, I
think, for its teachings of a genuine
patriotism, too often neglected among
a free people, and for its constant
display and reverence for the emblems
of our Nationality. The fear of God
and love of country are the foundation

stones upon which the society has.

erected a splendid structure and it is
determined that no effort shall be
spared to impress these great princi-
ples, so essential to the welfare of
our Republic, upon the citizens of our
State and Country.

This beautiful Court House is in a
very real sense, the property of the
citizens of Wayne county, and yet it
also belongs to our State, of which our
county is an important part, and also
to our Nation, of which our State is a
distinct and important unit. With no
blush or apelogy to make for our past
history, we feel a just pride in the
great influence our State is wielding
in the National government today, and
we are looking forward with confident
anticipation to a yet more brilliant fu-
ture. It seems to me, therefore, to be
eminently fitting that this stately build-
ing, the capitol of the great county of
Wayne, should. be adorned with the
flag of our Nation, along with the flag
of our State, which has just been pre-
sented. This flag represents those
principles of government which our
forefathers won and obtained through
blood and tears, and of which we are
the inheritors without effort and with-
out price—those principles which are
proclaimed in our National and State
Constitutions and which guarantee to
every man the right to personal liber-
ty, private property and equality. be-
fore the law. Our system of govern-
ment is founded upon a recognition
of the rights of the individual. It seeks
its authority in those incalculable
rights which God has given to every
man. Its stability rests upon that sound

 

discretion, innate honesty and natural
sense of justice which exist, in vary-
ing degree, in every man. This is the
temple of justice, in which those rights
are asserted and maintained, or for-
feited, according as the law framed by
our countrymen, applicable to the facts
as found by our countrymen may di-
rect.

Is it not, therefore, fitting and prop-
er that this new and stately Court
House should be adorned with the flag
of our great Nation? Its inspiring col-
ors should be a constant call to every
county officer to render in every in-
stance the best service of which he is
capable that our system of government
may attain its most successful end.
It should be a constant reminder to
every Judge, juror, counsellor and wit-
ness that his country demands of him,
within these portals at least, that de-
gree of honesty and integrity upon
which only a government such as ours
can be successfully maintained, and
which will secure to our fellowmen as
nearly perfect justice as can be ad-
ministered by human hands.

Gentlemen of the Fraternity, in the
name of our Commissioners and the
citizens of our county, I thank you.

Following Mr. Bland, Mrs. C. F.
Taylor, regent of David Williams
Chapter Daughters of American Revo-
lution of this city, was introduced, and
in the following eloquent words pre-
sented the Bible provided by her
Chapter:

PRESENTATION OF BIBLE BY MRS.
CHAS. F. TAYLOR, FOR DAVID
WILLIAMS CHAPTER D. A. R.

Mr. Chairman and Board of Commis-
missioners of Wayne County, N. C.
Gentlemen: On behalf of the David
Williams Chapter of the Daughters of
the American Revolution, of Goldsboro,
North Carolina, we present this token
of our interest in and love for the
institution of justice and equity, an in-
stitution, which, next to national or
colonial independence and the creation
of a representative form of govern-
ment, was desired and made possible
by the heroic and victorious struggle
of our forefathers in the American
Revolution. This book, the Bible, was

 

 

 

 

History or Wayne County. 11

 

their inspiration, teaching, as it does,
the love of God, home and country.
It is, therefore, most fitting that in a
court of justice its presence is consid-
ered necessary and proper. And, so
long as the teachings of its Author,
the great Law Giver, are accepted and
followed, the service of this great in-
stitution, into the hands of whose rep-
resentatives we commit this copy, will
be conducted in accordance with the
desires of those who established our
Government and whose memories and
deeds the Daughters of the American
Revolution honor and perpetuate.

The Chapter which we represent, es-
teems it a great privilege, in present-
ing this gift to you, to indicate the
purpose of its organization. We desire
in this manner to express our devotion
to the administration of justice to
which this beautiful building is dedi-
cated. We wish to convey to you an
expression of the high regard in which
all the institutions of our community
and State were held by the soldier and
patriot whose name our Chapter bears,
and to pledge to you, the representa-
tives of the County of Wayne, our as-
sistance in the teaching of righteous-
ness, justice and liberty, and the doing
of loving and kindly deeds, thus pro-

 

moting the moral and civic welfare of
the home of our fathers, and which
will be to our children a precious heri-
tage.

Mrs. T. A. Henley then rose and
handed the Bible to Rev. J. W. Gard-

ner, saying: “As Loving Deeds, Officer,
the presenting of this Bible is the first
work of the Chapter.”

Rev. Jno. W. Gardner had been se-
lected to accept this Bible, which he
did in an earnest and eloquent talk
that thrilled every hearer and he was
often interrupted by spontaneous ap-
plause—especially in his fervid words
expressive of appreciation of the late
Hon. W. T. Dortch, whose picture was
displayed, life size, from the Judge’s
rostrum, and eloquently referred to a
few moments later by Judge Robhin-
son, that brought tears to many eyes,
who remembered and loved the great
jurist. Judge Robinson stated that
the picture was only exhibited today,
but would at a subsequent meeting of
the bar be presented to the county to
be hung on the walls of the court
room. Judge Robinson then present-
ed Judge UVaniels, who at once entered
upon the delivery of his comprehensive
and masterly address.

 

 

 
 

 

FRANK A. DANIELS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Address by Judge Frank A. Daniels,

DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE NEW COURT HOUSE IN
WAYNE COUNTY, GOLDSBORO, N. C., NOVEMBER 80th, 1914.

Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen of the
Board of County Commissioners, La-
dies and Gentlemen:—I appreciate the
very kind introduction of my friend
Judge Robinson. I cannot, of course,
endorse all he says about me. I at-
tribute a large part of it to his good-
aess of heart and the life-long friend-
ship that has existed between us. I
have to return my thanks to the Board
of Commissioners for their invitation
that I should preside at this term and
my acknowledgments to my friend
Judge Connor, one of the finest and
most promising of our young judges,
and to our Governor that they have
consented to give me the pleasure of
being with you today, on an occasion
consecrated by*the highest patriotism
and purest religion upon which rest
all our laws and all our civilization.
It ig well that the Bible should be
presented. It is well that ministers
should invoke upon this court and
upon this people the blessing of Al-
mighty God. I do not know any men
anywhere who need more the influ-
ences of the gospel in their daily lives
than those men who are called upon
to take into their hands the lives, lib-
erties and property of a great peo-
ple, the judges and jurors of our
courts.

When I think of these preachers, of
this man who sits here before me,
Jacob F. Hill, who has been so close
to me all these years, and of that other
minister of the gospel, Jno. W. Gard-
ner, when I think how they have gone
through the length and breadth of this
county and this section of the State
preaching a pure and simple gos-
pel; when I think of the men
and of the neighborhoods in my
home county, which through their
ministry have been led into better and
purer lives, I feel like thanking God
and taking courage. Thig is their
place today. I have often thought that
of all the meetings that ought to be
opened with prayer, the courts of the
land are those, in order that the laws

 

may be administered with high pur-
pose, that justice may be tempered
with mercy, and that the intellect may
be cleared and the judgment strength-
ened by an appeal to the highest thing
that touches the lives of men, the gos-
pel of Jesug Christ.

It is well that the flag of this State
should have been presented—the first
State in the Union to raise its hand in
rebellion against tyranny, the first to
declare its independence, and to win
the first victory in our Revolutionary
struggle, and it is well that there
should be placed upon the walls of
this court house the flag of this great
nation, and that under its ample folds
there should rest the flag of North
Carolina.

I am glad to be present on this oc-
casion for another reason. I am al-
ways glad to be at home—and I have
not been at home much lately.

When I was up in the mountaing in
the fine county of Watauga, up close
to the sky, sitting as I sit now, looking
out upon one of the finest bodies of
men and women I ever saw in my
life, I was a little bit troubled ag I
looked into their bright, handsome
faces. I said, “I am afraid they are
better looking folks than my people
down in Wayne,’ and I have been
afraid ever since until today when I
look into the faces of this splendid
gathering of our citizens; these men
of character, these men of courage,
and these home builders, these queens
who wield the sceptre and train the
youth of this land, and upon this band
of students from our schools—the hope
of future generations.

I am not afraid any more.

And now, Mr. Chairman, I de-
sire to congratulate you, I desire
to congratulate the good people
of this county upon the work
of your hands. I never came into
it until this morning. I did not want .
to see it as it grew step by step, but
I wanted all of its loveliness to dawn
on me at one glance. I had that pleas-

 

 
14 History or Wayne County.

 

ure this morning. You have erected
here one of the finest Court Houses in
the State. I have held Court in sixty
counties. I have not seen in any of
them a finer one; and if there is a
better arranged, more commodious and
handsomer building than this in our
borders, I have yet to see it. But you
were in no hurry about it, gentlemen.
I remember that the citizens ,of this
county had to get after you and other
Boards of Commissioners that pre-
ceeded you, and I expect if Mr. Hatch
would turn to his docket there he
would find on reading the reportg of
the grand juries, that they had said
in a dozen reports for a period of 10
years that the Board of County Com-
missioners ought to build a new court
house here.

But you ‘vere not to be stampeded. I
don’t know of any men in Wayne
eounty who can be stampeded and
particularly the men we put on
our County Board, our County Com-
missioners. They of all men that I
have known cannot and ought not to
be hurried. You waited and in the
fullness of time you took occasion by
the hand, and last year in an era of
our greatest prosperity you made your
plans, deliberately and sensibly, and
ealled to your assistance the best help
you could get. You employed, in or-
der to put your plans in proper con-
dition, one of the best architects in
the country, Mr. Milburn, of Washing-
ton, D. C. After having done that, you
let the contract to one of your own
capable builders, Mr. W. P. Rose, and
you called to assist the architect Mr.
J. M. Kennedy, son of my friend Dr.
Kennedy, and one of the most promis-
ing young architects of the State. He
and Mr. Milburn came often during
the progress of the work to look after
Mr. Rose and see that he was getting
everything in the right place and car-
rying out his contract.

The old building, the predecessor of
this, that had resounded with the elo-
quence of many of the best and ablest
men had served its time. Sixty-three
years had elapsed from the time of
the building of the old Court House
until you began the construction of
thig magnificent edifice. You did it
at a time when Wayne County stood

 

twelfth among the counties of the
State in wealth and population, and
when you had approximately a
population of forty thousand. I
ought to say that these gentlemen,
Mr. Rose and Mr. Kennedy came from
the township of the contractors who
built the original structure that stood
upon this site; and it is a good town-
ship to come from—named Grantham,
iter one of your oldest families,
among the first settlers of this coun-
try.

Now, on this occasion so fraught
with pleasant memories, so consecrat-
ed as I have said by the purest patriot-
ism and the benediction of the minis-
ters of God, and in an age when we
have made more progress than in any
period of our history, on this the
134th anniversary of the holding
of a Court of Justice in Wayne
county, I regard it appropriate to refer
briefly to the history of the county
from its establishment in 1779 by vir-
tue of an act of the General Assembly
held at Halifax during the administra-
tion of Richard Cas vell, the first Gov-
ernor of the State of North Carolina.

This act provided that Dobbs Coun-
ty (named after one of the Royal
Governors) “should be divided by a
line run through the middle part,
from north to south, and that the
western half should ke called Wayne
county” in honor of General Anthony
Wayne, a distinguished officer in the
Continental army, and that the first
session of the Court of Pleas and
Quarter Sessions should be held on the
second Monday of January, 1780, at
the home of Josiah Sasser on Little
River. Commissioners were appoint-
ea by said act to select a site and
have built a court house, prison and
stocks.

It may not be amiss to trace the
descent of Wayne. As I have stated,

it is the western half of Dobbs county.

Dobbs county was formed from John-
ston by the act of the General Assem-

bly of 1758, and included the territory
now embraced in Wayne, Greene and
Lenoir, all of which is described in
the act of the General Assembly as
St. Patrick’s Parish. The court house,
jail and stocks of Dobbs county were,
in 1779, located about 12 miles from

 

SSE ee eT he eee

History or Wayne County. 15

 

Goldsboro, near Bizzell’s mill, in
what is now known as New Hope
township, in Wayne county.

After the creation of Wayne, the
courts of Dobbs were directed to be
held at the house lately occupied
by Col. Glasgow, in the town of
Fnston. I have talked with some of
our eldest citizens, who remember to
have seen the ruins of the Dovhs
county jail near the mill.

Johnson county, named after Gab-
riel Johnson, perhaps the best of
our Royal Governors, was founded
in 1746 of the upper half of Craven,
which was in 1722 one of the nine
precincts which were changed in 1738
to counties. Craven was one of the
three precincts of Bath. All of these
precincts were embraced in the
cvants of Charles II to his favorites,
who were known as the Lords Pro-
prietors, and embraced a _ territory
much wider than the North Caroliaa
of today, and extended from the At-
lantic to the Pacific Ocean. So that
Wayne may claim Royal descent, if
she wishes it.

A short account of the conditions
in 1779 , and prior thereto, may enalle
us to better appreciate the difficulties
and advantages existing at the time
of the estabilshment of the county.

Prior to 1730, the only occupants of
the territory now known as Wayne
county were Indians and wildanimals.
At that time the population of the
entire state was only 36,000. About
that year settlers gradually began
to come in, but there wag no general
movement of immigration before 1750.
Among the earliest settlers were the
Quaker families, the Edgertons, Hol-
lowelis, Pikes, Pearsons, Deans, Cox-
es and others. At the time of the
establishment of the new county, the
population was about 5,000, one-fifth
of whom were slaves.

In 1790, according to the first cen-
sus of the United States, there were
4576 whites, and 1557 slaves, some
of whom were probably Indians, or
of Indian descent, it having been
customary to hold Indians captured
in war as slaves, which may account
for the characteristic Indian features
and color frequently observed in the
descendants of former slaves. The

A-4

 

names of the heads of families are for
the most part those best known to this
generation.

The largest slave owuer was Joseph
Green, who had 70. The Whitfields,
Needham, William, William, Jr., and
Lewis owned about 30 each; Alex
Bass, Jr., 24; Edward Bass, 10; Rich-
ard Bass, 28; Charles Holmes, 16;
Tav.* Jernigan, 26; Stephen Jernigan
24; Richard McKinnie, 16; Mary Mc-
Kinnie, 16; John Adkinson, 10; Wil-
liam Rhodes, 15; Elisha Pipkin, 14;
David Cordell, 21; Thomas Carraway,
12; James Tinsley, 10; Burwell Moor-
ing, 9; Ishum L. Lane, 6; William
Howell, Sr., 13; James Hanley, 8;
Eitheldred Howell, 10; William Sher-
rard, 24; James Edmundson, 19; Wil-
liam Fort, 10; John Sherrad, 16; John
Minshew, 10; Isaac Woodard, 19; Eph-
ram Daniel, 11; Jessie Aicock, 3;
Shadrick Dickinson; 14, Bridgett Cobb,
15, James Cobb, 14; Nathan Cobb, 21;
John Barefoot, 25; William Hooks, 14;
Charles Hopkins, 10; John Herron,
Sr., 20; Sarah Ward, 17; Sarah Pope,
16; John Hanley, 11; William Alford,
11; Robert Hooks, 14; John Coorpen-
der, 11; Moses Stanley, 12; and Hze-
chial Slocumb—(an officer in ‘the Con-
tinental army), 1.

In the foregoing list may be found
the names of many of our citizens of
today. There were many other slave
owners whose descendants still live
among us who owned from one to
twelve slaves, but the majority of
our citizens were never slave-hold-
ers. The principal business of the
country was hog and cattle rais-
ing, and the principal crop was
corn, though a small quantity of cot-
ton and tobacco was grown and the
turpentine industry Aas beginning.
A great epidemic in 1760 destroyed
seven-eighths of the cattle of the
State. The cleared areas were small,
except in a few instances. The oldest
clearing in the county, and probably
at the time the largest, was the farm
of Josiah Sasser, upon which the first
court was held, which is now owned
by Messrs. I. F. Ormond and EH. B.
Borden, and which has been, according
to well established tradition, in
continuoug cultivation since 1775, and
probably prior to that date.

 

 
16 History or Wayne Counry.

 

There were few roads and travel
was usually by neighborhood paths on
horse-back. Practically all the houses
were built of logs. An order in Coun-
cil, March 31, 1726, provides that “For
the saving of lands for the future,
every house shall be fifteen foot long,
ten Broad, made tight and habitable
of clapboard and loggs squared, with
roof and chimney place and a Door
place. The whole acre cleared well
and the major part of it broke up and
planted with either fruite trees or
grain.” In the towns, purchasers of
lots were required to build houses 16
by 24 feet. Lumber was generally
sawed by hand and was scarce and ex-
pensive. There were few saw mills
and North Carolina produced only
about 150,000 feet of lumber a year
prior to 1750, and probably twice as
much in 1779. In the older settled
regions along the’ Cape Fear, Neuse
and Chowan a number of large and
elegant mansions had been built and
there was a degree of wealth an! lux-
ury enjoyed there which pres -rted to
the traveler a striking contrast to
the humble homes and frugal liveg cf
the people of this section. In 173u
there were only two water mills in the
colony, «and grain was generally
ground in hand mills even to a much
ister date.

Clothing, shoes and hats were made
at home, home grown.cotton, wool,
leather and the skins and fur of wild
animals being utilized for the pur-
pose.

J nele that an isem of North Caro-
lina Export Trade in 1753 was 30,000
deer skins. In 1784, 71 bags of cotton
weighing 225 pounds each were ex-
ported to England from Charleston,
there being no export of cotton from
any other port, and seized by the
English Government on the ground
that the United States could not pro-
duce so much.

A traveler, writing just before the
Revolution, says: “There is but little
specie in circulation, there being no
occasion for it; for a planter raises
his own meats, beef and bacon, his
own corn and bread, his drinks, cyder
and brandy, his fruit, apples, peaches,
etc., and a great part of his clothing,
which is cotton.”

 

 

The cotton gin had a late introduc-
tion in this county; and before its ad-
vent, cotton was picked by hand from
the seed around the fireside at night,
and a shoe full was the task for each
member of the family from supper
until bed time. My friend, Capt. J.
B. Edgerton, informg me that he en-
gaged in this pleasant past-time as
late as 1845, and that growers of cot-
ton in the middle of the 40’s hauled
their cotton to Fayetteville to be gin-
ned. He remembers quite vividly,
that, as a boy, he accompanied his
father’s wagons on this long journey.
Some plantation gins operated by hand
were in use. The card, the spinning
wheel and the loom were necessities
in every well regulated house, and of
the matron of that day it might have
been written as Solomon wrote in
praise of the good wife:

“She seeketh wool and flax, and
worketh willingly with her hands.”

“She layeth her hands to the spindle
and the distaff.”

“She looketh well unto the ways of

her household and eateth not the bread

of idleness.”

From early times until the railroads
began operation, the transportation of
our products was so primitive ag to
excite the amused interest of the peo-
ple of this age, so familiar with rail-
toads, steam boats and automobiles,
anu soon to be equally familiar with
air craft of various sorts.

Our ancestors rolled their barrels
of turpentine on the rough ground by
hand until they reached a water course
of sufficient volume to raft it to New
Bern. They carried their tobacco all
the way to Petersburg, Va. revolving
over bad roads, drawn by horses har-
nessed to axles skilfully placed in the
ends of the stout hogsheads contain-
ing the precious weed.

The surplus hogs were made to
transport themselves to the markets of
Fayetteville and Petersburg. Council
Best, father of Geo. W. Best, and other
large farmers of hig time and before
him, frequently drove 1,000 to 1,500
head of hogs along the county roads
from their homes to these marts of
trate. ;

The late Probert B. Scott among

 

 

History or Wayne Counry. 17

 

others was so successful in raising
corn and hogs that he accumulated a
good estate and left each of his chil-
dren a valuable plantation.

In 1790 there were only four post
offices in the State—Edenton, New
Bern, Wilmington and Washington,—
and up to 1759 no post routes. Letters
were carried by travelers from planta-
tion to plantation and forwarded as
promptly as practicable, but the
means of communication were inade-
quate and unsatisfactory. Official mail
was carried by messengers or special
carriers on horse back and at great
expense. In 1755, upon the recom-
mendation of Gov. Dobbs, James Da-
vis, Printer, wag employed for the sum
of one hundred pounds, six shillings
and eight pence, proclamation money,
for one year, “To carry all public
letters, expresses and dispatches relat-
ing to this province to any part there-
of, and every fifteen days send a mes-
senger to Suffolk, in Virginia, and to
Wilmington.”

There were four or five newspapers
published in North Carolina at the be-
ginning of the Revolution, at New
Bern, Wilmington, Halifax, Edenton
and Hillsboro. The publication of the
Ncrth Carolina Gazette was begun in
New. Bern by James Davig about 1751
or 1752. It contained according to its
announcement ‘The freshest advices,
foreign and domestic,” and was pub-
lished weekly. To James Davis belongs
the honor of having set up the first
printing press in North Carolina in
the year 1749, and of having printed
the first book in 1751, a “Revisal of
the Acts of the General Assembly,”
known as the “Yellow Jacket.’ He
was appointed postmaster at New Bern
by another famous printer whose
name was Benjamin Franklin. James
Davis wag a Virginian by birth and
the ancestor of Mrs. Thomas W. Slo-
cumb, Col. Adam C. Davis and Jeffer-
son Davis, Esq., of Goldsboro, and
James Davis, deceased, of Wayne.
Among his descendants living in other
communities, I have known James W.
and Thomas C. Davis and their sister,
Mrs. James Murray of Wilson. All of
these have exhibited the high charac-
ter, fine intelligence and public and
private worth, which characterized

 

the first Editor and Newspaper and
Law Publisher of the State.

The publication of these newspapers
was frequently interrupted and re-
sumed from time to time ag great
events stirred the minds of the people,
Their intermittent appearances seem

the result of scarcity of subscribers,
who could read them, and the small

and scattered character of the settle-
ments.

The settlers of North Carolina were
in large part as illiterate as the barons,
who wrested “Magna-Charta” from
King John and could not read it, nor
sign their names to that immortal
instrument which they adorned with
their seals. It is probable that at the
time of the Revolution not one in
thirty of the white citizens of the
colony above the age of twenty-one
could read or write; as late ag 1850
only one in seven could boast of those
accomplishments.

There were no_ public schools,
though as early as 1746 John Starkey,
a minister of the established Church of
England, introduced and procured the
enactment by the General Assembly
of a bill making an appropriation of
6,000 pounds for the establishment of
free schools, but the money was spent
for other purposes.

Another appropriation of the same
amount was made in 1754, but met the
veto of England.

At the time of the establishment of
Wayne County, there were, so far as
our records show, only two schools in
this State where there was any sem-
blance of public education. The char-
ters of the Academies of New Bern
and Edenton each provided that free
tuition should be given to ten poor
children. Not until 1839 was there
any Act of the General Assembly
creating a public school system, and
no poll or property tax was levied for
the support of the schools until after
1850. It was provided that they should
be sustained out of what was called
the Literary Fund, consisting of the
proceeds of the Swamp Lands, divi-
dends upon the stocks of certain cor-
porations held by the State, and the
license tax on retailers, tavern keep-
ers and auctioneers, all of which for
the year 1850 amounted to less than

 
18 History or Wayne Counry.

 

$125,000. After careful examination
of our histories and records, I am
able to find no evidence that any
school existed in Johnston, Dobbs, or
Wayne prior to 1790, or that any was
taught in Wayne until after the pass-
age of the Act of 1839, under which
the public school system began.

Governor Martin wrote in 1775
“Literature was hardly known; there
were in the province but two schools,
those at New Bern and Edenton,” but
as to the latter part of this statement
he was evidently in error.

It is probable that some of the more
prosperous citizens employed teachers
in their families, who taught their
children, and sometimes the children
of equally fortunate neighbors, and it
is probable that now and then a boy
was sent to school at New Bern, Eden-
ton, Wilmington or in Virginia, where
there were academies and even schools
of high degree, ag there were also in
Guilford, Granville, Bertie, Rowan and
Mecklenburg, but such education was
for a limited number, and was com-
pletely out of the reach of the great
masses of people.

The establishment of schools had
been rendered difficult by the policy
of the English Government.

Governor Burrington was instructed
in 1731 that no school master should
be permitted to come from England to
North Carolina to teach school with-
out the license of the bishop of Lon-
don, and this instruction wag given to
all subsequent Governors.

In 1771 an Act was passed by the
General Assembly to charter Queens
College in Charlotte, but was vetoed
on the ground “That this college, if
allowed to be incorporated, will in ef-
fect operate as a Seminary for the ed-
ucation and instruction of youth in the
principles of the Presbyterian church,
and the Board of Trade doubted
whether the King should give that
encouragement to the Presbyterians
of North Carolina.” The same policy
embraced Quakers, Baptists and Meth-
odists and had a depressing effect upon
all efforts for the establishment of
schools and colleges. The remoteness
of the people from cities, their ignor-
ance, their poverty and indifference,
co-operated with this selfish and un-

 

wise purpose. The Presbyterians of
the West, more than any other denom-
ination, resented this treatment, and,
in spite of the displeasure of Gover-
nors and Kings, built and maintained
schools and colleges, and prepared
their people for the great struggle
soon to come for equality and inde-
pendence.

At the time of which I speak, the
influence of that other great factor
in the upbuilding of mind and charac-
ter was feebly exerted. There were
but few preachers of the Gospel, few
churches, and the Sunday schools, like
the free schools, had not arrived. The
attempt to force on the people of the
State the established church of Eng-
land was resented and its ministers
were to be found only in the towns
along the rivers.

In 1764 there were six ministers of
this church, and in 1776, 18 in the
eastern and northern counties.

William Edmundson, a Quaker,
rreached the first sermon ever heard
in North Carolina. Quarterly and
Monthly meetings were held in Johns-
ton and Dobbs by the Quakers prior
to the Revolution, at which time they
numbered 1,000 in this state.

The Baptists came early to the
state; the first churches organized
were Shiloh and Meherrin, and the
next Kehuka Creek in 1742. Soon
their ministers began to preach in this
county, and by 1776 had established
churches in every county in the State.

The Methodist church began in
North Carolina with the ministry of
Joseph Pilmon in 1772. In 1777 John
King, John Dickens and Edward Pride
were assigned to the Circuit of North
Carolina, and at the end of the year
reported to the Conference in the
bounds of their circuit 930 members.
It is probable that some of these
preached in thig county, but I am un-
able to find any record of it.

In 1790 the Contentenea Circuit was
formed of Greene, Pitt, Craven, Lenoir
and Wayne, the ministers preaching
mostly in private houses. The earl-
iest Methodist preacher in the county,
of whom I have been able to learn,
was Phillip Hooks, who was a local
preacher at Waynesboro in the early
part of the 19th century.

CELDT SEMR LAER eT

History or Wayne County. 19

 

About 1830 there was built in
Waynesboro a church which was used
by all denominations.

A striking illustration of the condi-
tions existing at the time is found in
the fact that when Dr. Elisha Mitchell,
a Presbyterian minister and professor
in the State University, on his travels
through the State in 1827, spent Sun-
day in Waynesboro, he writes that on
that day he “collected a little congre-
gation, and held forth to them at the
Tavern.”

Most sections of the country were
destitute of religious instruction, and
at this time none of the fine and up-
lifting influences emanating from the
churches had been present long
enough to have much effect upon the
inhabitants of the county. The peo-
ple, however, were of English stock
with all the virtues and vices of that
great race, with its glorious history
behind them and the promise of a
splendid future in this new land before
them; with stout hearts and sound
heads, with resources unknown else-
where, many of which they them-
selves did not dream of; and here they
set out to conquer the forests, till the
soil and build homes for generations
yet to come.

An unfriendly writer (Chalmers)
says of them that they were “desti-
tute of the kindly influences of re-
ligion and of law—and during the year
1749 North Carolina was found to be
little better than an asylum for fug-
itives—such are the unpleasant inci-
dents which occupy the story of an
inconsiderable settlement that grad-
ually filled with people as the law
afforded protection to the vagabond,
as everyone lived without control and
all enjoyed in security what a trivial
labor had gained.” On the other hand
the impartial historian, Bancroft,
writes of them: “They were men who
had been led to the choice of their
residence from a hatred of restraint
and had lost themselves among the
woods in search of independence. Are
there any who doubt man’s capacity
for self-government, let them study
the history of North Carolina, its in-
habitants were restless and turbulent
in their imperfect submission to a gov-
ernment imposed on them from

 

abroad. The administration of the
Colony was firm, humane and tran-
quil, when they were left to take care
of themselves. Any government, but
of their own institution, was oppres-
sive. North Carolina wag settled by
the freest of the free, by men to whom
the restraints of other colonies were
too severe; but the settlers were gen-
tle in their tempers, of serene minds,
enemies to violence and bloodshed.

Freedom, entire freedom, was enjoy-
ed without anxiety as without guaran-
tees; the charities of life were scat-
tered at their feet like the flowers in
their meadows, and the spirit of hu-
manity maintained its influence in the
Arcadia, as Royalist writers will have
it, of ‘Rogues and Rebels’ in the Para-
dise of the Quakers.” —

It must be remembered that the
county was born in the throes of the
Revolutionary War. Before its for-
mation and while it was a part of the
County of Dobbs, a company of eighty
of its citizen soldiers under the lead-
ership of Ezekiel Slocumb marched
from his home, at the call of Col.
Caswell, to join the Continental forces
in their attack upon the Tories and
British at Moore’s Creek, and, accord-
ing to our historians, were a part of
the division that made the final charge
across the Creek, and through the
swamps, that completed the rout of
the enemy and gained the first victory
for American Arms in that great con-
test.

It was at this time that one of the
most interesting incidents connected
with our Revolutionary struggle took
place, when Mary Slocumb, the wife
of Capt. Ezekiel Slocumb, being left
at home with an infant child, fearful
of the fate of her husband and his
comrades, was unable to sleep and
rising in the night, saddled a fine mare
and rode from near the present site
of Goldsboro, through the forest in the
direction of Moore’s Creek, about 75

miles, until she came within hearing
of the cannon announcing the begin-

ning of the battle, when quickening her
pace she soon arrived at a clump of
woods near the Creek and found there
the wounded of her husband’s com-
mand. She was greatly distressed at
the sight of an apparently lifeless

 
20 History or Wayne Counry.

 

body covered with her husband’s
cloak, but, upon removing the cloak,
discovered that, instead of her hus-
band, the wounded man was Frank
Cogdell. Her husband soon appeared
and remonstrated with her for her
daring conduct. She remained a short
time nursing the wounded, and then re-
turned to her home. At one time the
British Colonel, Tarleton, had quarter-
ed his troops on her plantation and re-
marked in her presence that it would
make a fine estate after the war for
some British officer; to which she re-
plied that all he would ever get of her
plantation would measure only two
by six feet. Captain Slocumb was
present as a Continental officer at
the surrender of Yorktown by the
British. He and his wife, who was a
sister of Charles Hooks, the Repre-
sentative in Congress from the Wil-
mington District, lived far into the
19th century, honored and respected;
the husband serving in the House of
Commons’ from Wayne in the years
1812, 1814, 1815, 1816 and 1818. They
owned a large tract of land south of
the Neuse River and West of the A.
C. L. Railroad, and lie buried in the
family burying ground between Mount
Olive and the town of Dudley.

The sword worn. by Capt. Hzekiel
Slocumb in the Revolutionary War is
now in the possession-of nis great
grandson Capt. Thomas W. Slocumb,
of Goidskero, while Mrs. Hattie Slo-
eumb Gay is the »nroud owner of a
Silver tea pot once the property of her
great, great grandmother Mary Slo-
cumb. Junius Slocumb, Esq., of
Goldsboro, is the only other surviv-
ing great grandson of Hzekiel and
Mary Slocumb. I have known two
others, Wm. W. and Charles Slocumb,
now deceased.

“But even before the Battle of
Moore’s Creek, the inhabitants of
Dobbs were called upon to furnish
soldiers to the Royal Governor Tryon
for the subjugation of the Regulators.
There is no evidence, however, ‘that
they responded to the call, or that any
citizen of thig section took part in the
battle of Alamance. It seems that they
resolutely refused. I am unable to
ascertain whether they refrained, be-

 

cause they did not understand the
quarrel, or because they were unwill-
ing to take part against the oppressed
and rebellious Regulators.

I find in the Colonial Records a
copy of a letter written at the time the
inhabitants of Dobbs were ordered to
muster for service in that campaign,
in which it is stated that only seven
men jn all the county responded. I
find also that after the battle two of
the Regulatorg escaped to Dobbs and
upon resisting arrest, one was killed
by the Sheriff and the other captured.
I am sure the failure of our people to
aid the Royal governor against their
fellow citizens was not due to their
reluctance to fight. They furnished
their full quota to the Continetal
Army, a number of them were wound-
ed, and after the close of the war some
of these were pensioned by Con-
gress.

Organization of the County.

In the midst of the stirring scenes
of the Revolutionary War the County
of Wayne was organized, and court
Wag held, as the records show, on the
second Monday of January, 1780, at
Josiah Sasser’s, pursuant to the Act
of the General Assembly. The follow-
ing Justices were present: Robert
Simms, Hthelred Ruffin, Jesse Jerni-
gan, John Handley, Thomas Williams,
Stephen Cobb, Joseph Sanderson and
Johu Sheppard. Little business was
transacted.

On January, 1781, the Court appoint-
wd Thomas Grey, Stephen Cobb, Jo-
seph Sanderson, and Needham Whit-
field, inspectors of paper money. Dur-
ing the same session, having elected
Robert Simms as first Sheriff of the
County, and James Cobb, Clerk of the
Court, it was ordered that Thomas
Grey, Stephen Cobb and John Hand-
Jey, Esqs., be appointed commissioners
pf confiscated property for this coun-
ty, and their bonds were fixed at

200,000 pounds each (which is equal
to $1,000,000 of our money) from
which it may be seen that paper
money was abundant but cheap, and
that the few Tories in the county
were in great danger of losing their
property.

Jurorg were drawn to attend the

History or Wayne Coun.

 

Superior Court to be held at New
Bern, and this entry appears of rec-
ord: “Court adjourns in-course to Mr.
Josiah Sasser’s on Little River.”

The Court again held its session at
Josiah Sasser’s January 1782, and one
of the most interesting orders is as
follows: “Ordered that Needham Whit-
field and Samuel Blythe be appointed
to Inspect the pool for the Insuing
Ellection.” A session of the Court wag
held on the second Monday of April,
1782, at the home of Mr. John Herring
on Little River, an adjournment hav-
ing been taken at the previous meet-
ing “Incourse”’ to Mr. Daniel Her-
ring’s; there is no explanation why
having adjourned ‘“Incourse” to Mr.
Daniel Herring’s, the court should
have been held at Mr. John Herring’s.
At this term the will of Josiah Sasser
was proven and Elizabeth Sasser, his
widow, qualified ag his executrix.

The Court again met the second
Monday in July 1782 at John Herring’s
on Little river, and among other
things William McKinnie was appoint-
ed Commissioner to collect the Specific
Provision Tax as provided by Act of
Assembly.

October 14, 1782, the Court was held
at Mrs. Elizabeth Sasser’s, and among
other things the following entries ap-
pear of record: “A deed of sail from
John Grantham to David Jernigan for
60 acres of land ig proved in court by
the oath of David Jernigan and order-
ed to be registered.” “An account of
sails of the estate of Josiah Sasser,
deceased, was turned into the Court
by the Sheriff and ordered that same
be recorded.”

Our ancestors seem to have extend-
ed their views of independence and to
have spelled according to the dictates
of their consciences.

This interesting record also ap-
pears at this meeting: “John Rowell,
whose wife and daughter, complain-
ing that he had abused and threatened
them prayed the peace of the State
against him, he appeared and cross-
examined his daughter Sabra, and,
not liking some answer, assaulted and
beat her in the presence of the Court.
He was adjudged in contempt and
sentenced to three months in jail, and

 

 

to give a bond for $1,000 in specie for
his good behavior.” i

Session of January 13, 1783, was
held at the residence of Samuel
Blythe.

Session of November 1783 was held
at Stephen Cobb’s. Among other mat-
ters to which attention was given, it
was “Ordered that Joel Grantham
name the inhabitence of Capt. Pipkings
district.”

Court wag held at John Fleetwood’s
on Little river, July 12, 1784. At that
meeting Joseph Pipkin, Needham
Whitfield and Stephen Cobb reported
that they had let out the building of
the Court House, Prison and Stocks
to Col. Wm. McKinne for 335 pounds,
he being the lowest bidder.

A session of the Court wag held at
West Point Monday, January 2, 1785,
and again at the same place April 11,
1785, at which meeting Dr. Andrew
Bass was authorized to keep a public
ferry at West Point over Neuse river
and to keep a house of public enter-
tainment on his land on the north
side of said river.

I gather from the records that the
Commissioners appointed by the Act
of 1779 to select a site on which to
have the Court House and Gaol and
Stocks built, recommended, and had
approved by the Court at a very mea-
gerly attended session a location which
appeared satisfactory to them, and
that at the next court, more largely
attended than any court during the
period under consideration, the said
order was annulled, and in 1782 an
Act of the Assembly was passed re-
citing the failure of the former com-
missioners to act, and appointing Ste-
phen Cobb, Needham Whitfield and
Joseph Pipkin to contract for three
acres as near the centre of the coun-
ty as may be for the Court House,
prison and stocks, also to contract for
building the same. From all of which
it appears that a controversy existed
respecting the location of the Court
House. It seems that the former
Commissioners and three Justices of
the Peace undertook the location of
the County Seat to suit themselves—
but when the great body of Justices
gathered they incontinently rescinded

 
22 History or Wayne County.

 

the order of the Court and procured
the passage of the Act of 1782, re-
moving the old Commissioners and
appointing new ones.

On the 14th of February, 1782, An-
drew Bass, Doctor, conveyed to Ste-
phen Cobb, Needham Whitfield and
Joseph Pipkin, Commissioners, three
acres of land on the North, Side of
the Neuse river, as a site for the
Court House, and the County build-
ings were built upon that site, about
one mile from the corporate limits of
the present city of Goldsboro, by Col.
William McKinnie.

Some of our older citizens inform
me that they remember very distinct-
ly this Court House. It may have
been larger than the dimensions re-
quired by the statute in the building
of court houses, which’ was 24x16
feet. It was a frame building, weath-
er-boarded and raised high above the
ground on brick pillars, leaving a
large, open space underneath, in which
space Capt. Thomas W. Slocumb, his
boy friends and the goats used to
play.

At that time the County Seat had
no name, except that of “The Court
House,” but in January, 1787, the
town of Waynesboro was incorporated,
as it is stated in the Act of the Gen-
eral Assembly, on the lands of An-
drew Bass, and it was provided in the
act that Andrew Bass should convey to
certain trustees, to-wit: William Mc-
Kinne, Burwell Mooring, William
Whitfield, Joseph Green, David Jerni-
gan, Richard Bass and William Fel-
lows, sixty acres of land, including
the three acres theretofore conveyed
on the North side of the Neuse River,
where the Court House and public
buildings then stood, and specific di-
rections were given for dividing the
said tract into lots, laying out streets
and selling lots; the proceeds of sale
to be divided between the Commis-
sioners and said Andrew Bass. The
proceeds retained by the Commission-
ers were directed to be used for the
improvement of the town. The Com-
missioners were given large powers;
among others, were authorized to re-
move all porches and buildings that
projected into the proposed streets,

 

 

to make rules for the prevention of
the running at large of cattle and
hogs, and to prohibit the erection of
stick chimneys. These progressive
ideas were doubtless carried out,
though it is difficult to imagine that
the rules prohibiting the running at
large of live stock could have been
very acceptable to the citizens of the
new town, if its inhabitants were the
genuine ancestors of the residents of
some of the towns and cities I have
known, in which I have seen muni-
cipal campaigns decided upon the
question whether live stock should
run at large upon the streets.

Our records show a number of con.
veyances made by the Commissioners
to settlers. Among others, to Rich-
ard Washington, John Wright, Fran-
cis Castex, D. G. W. Ward, Charles J.
Nelson and Arnold Borden.

Richard Washington, the leading
merchant of Waynesboro and Golds-
boro, was the father of the late Col.
James A. Washington, so well known
and highly esteemed throughout the
county, and the grandfather of Com-
mander Thomas M. Washington, and
Lieut. Pope Washington, of the United
States Navy; Mrs. Jas. M. Allen and
Miss Daisy Washington. John
Wright was the father of Mrs. Lou M.
Jones, Mrs. J. D. Brooks, and _ the
grandfather of Mrs. J. W. Nash, and
Mrs. Nellie Brenizer uf Washington, D.
C. Francis Castex was the father of ‘L.
H. Castex, F. L. Castex and Mrs.

Winslow. D. G. W. Ward, a physi-
cian, was the father of Judge D. L.
Ward and Wyatt M. Ward, of New
Bern. Charles J. Nelson, a Baptist
minister and prominent citizen, left
no descendants living in this county.
Arnold Borden died in 1846, leaving
his widow, Maria Borden, and his
children, Mrs. Harriet Dewey, wife of
Dr. Charles Dewey; James C. Bor-
den, E. B. Borden, Mrs. Lou Korne-
gay, wife of W. F. Kornegay; Mrs.
John F. Miller and William H. Borden.
He was one of the leading business
men of Waynesboro and Goldsboro,
and built the Borden Hotel, upon the
square on West Centre Street, upon
which the business houses of the
Goldsboro Drug Company, Royall &

History or Wayne County. 23

 

Borden and Dewey Brothers and oth-
ers now stand. This hotel was the
stopping place for travel by the old
stage road from the West and Hast
before the North Carolina Railroad
was built, and from the North and
South on the old W. & W. Railroad.
After the death of her husband, it
was conducted by Mrs. Maria Borden
for many years.

Among other residents of the town
were John H. Powell, Mrs. Keziah
Wellons, Dr. Daniel Cogdell, Mrs. B. A.
Churchill, Dr. Andrews and Wm. Craw-
ford. The only living persons known to
have lived in Waynesboro are L. H.
Cagtex, E. B. Borden, Misg Sallie
Churchill, W. W. Crawford, Mrs.
Rowena Powell, of Goldsboro, and
Mrs. Sophia Hutton, of Washington,
D.C.

Holding the First Court.

The first Court was held at Waynes-
boro on July 9, 1787, The following
Justices attended: Robert Simms,
William Alford, Willis Bryan, John
Beck, Absolem Williams, Richard
McKinne and Josiah Jernigan. Of
the earliest settlers we have little in-
formation, but as far back as the
memory of living man reaches the
town contained a population probably
less than 100. Its principal merchants
were John Wright, Richard Washing-
ton and Arnold Borden, whose stores
stood upon the river. C. J. Nelson
conducted a buggy and repair shop.

The home of Fraacis Castex stood on
the opposite side of the srreet, itame-
diately upon the river bank, and the
homes of Washington, Wright, Dr.
Andrews and Borden, were among
the principal residences of the
town. The Borden residence was
afterwards moved to Goldsboro and
is now the property of James W.
Bizzell on Ash street. The Washing-
ton residence wag also moved to
Goldsboro and is now owned by Mrs.
Clara Jones and is situate on West
Center street. Richard Washington
was the last resident to leave the
abandoned town.

The Castex residence was also
moved to Goldsboro, and is now a
part of the residence of Carl Gris:
wold, a descendant of James Gris-

 

wold. The only relic remaining of the
old town is an ancient cedar tree
standing on the bank of the Neuse
River on the lot formerly owned by
Francis Castex.

The site of the town is now the
property of Major H. L. Grant and
upon it is located the brick manufac-
turing plant of H. L. Grant & Son.
The old cemetery is on the plantation
of Capt. J. E. Peterson.

A slight glimpse of the town of
Waynesboro is found in a letter writ-
ten December 28, 1827, by Dr. Elisha
Mitchell to his wife, from which I
quote the following:

“T rode down to Bass’ Ferry and
paddled about the river a while in
an old crazy canoe, to see the lime-
stone about the mouth of falling creek,
and then passed on to Waynesboro and
put up at Isaac Hill’s. Found there
a young lawyer from Orange, who
knew me and went with me to see
Mrs. Andrews, formerly Miss Gunn,
who was married in the meeting
house in Washington the summer you
were there. She lives just on the
banks of the Neuse. On Sunday col-
lected a little congregation and held
forth to them at the Tavern. Dr.
Williams and Tippoo Henderson and
Morris called upon me, and found
them all very pleasant. Took my
tea and spent the evening at Dr.
Andrews’. Monday morning crossed
the Neuse and got my breakfast at
Mr. Griswold’s. Griswold is a Yankee
boy who came from Rocky Hill to
Carolina, ag he married a girl of some
property, failed, and now lives in
rather humble style in Wayne. He
does not appear to be efficient, and I
doubt his wife regrets her having
married a Yankee.”

The Dr. Andrews referred to kept
a tavern at Waynesboro for many
years and was a practicing physician
and one of the most influential found
ers of the present city of Goldsboro.
One of his sons, Rev. S. G. Andrews,
was a colonel in the Confederate
States army. Another, George P. An-
drews, was a Colonel in the U. S.
army. Another, John N. An-
drews, was a gifted Methodist preach-
er, and the fourth, B. Frank Andrews,
a local Methodist preacher.

 
24 History or Wayne County.

 

Descendants of Dr. Andrews in the
persons of Mrs. M. T. Breazele, Mrs.
B. W. Southerland and Mrs. Fred
Mintz, live in Mount Olive, Wayne
county, and there are other descend-
ants in thig and adjoining counties.

James Griswold, who was denomi-
nated a Yankee by Dr. Mitchell,
who was himself a Connecticut Yan-
kee, appears not to have deserved the
censure of Dr, Mitchell. On the con-
trary, he was one of the most promi-
nent and influential citizens of the
county. He was. chairman of the
Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions
and for many years served as Clerk
and Master in Equity. He was the
founder of a numerous and highly re-
Spected family, several of whom still
reside in Goldsboro.

Dr. Andrew Bass, the founder of
Waynesboro, was a delegate to the
Provincial Congress of 1775, ana to
the convention held at Hillsboro in
1788. Hig fellow delegates to this
last were William Taylor, Burwell
Mooring, Richard McKinne and James
Handley, and, following the lead of
Thomas Jefferson and Willie Jones,
they voted against the ratification of
the Federal Constitution,

I think it probable that some of his
descendants still live in this county,
and in that part of Wilson which was
formerly a part of Wayne, though of
this I have no definite information,

In the Convention of 1789 the dele-
gates from Wayne were Richard
McKinne, Burrell Mooring, David
Cogdell, Joseph Jernigan and James
Handley, and of these, Mooring and
Cogdell voteg against the ratification
of the Constitution, and McKinnne,
Jernigan and Handley voted for the
ratification. It was at this Conven-
tion that the Constitution was rati-
fied.

North Carolina refused at first to
ratify until a Bill of Rights had been
guaranteed, or the first ten amend-
ments to the Constitution assured.

There was no Superior Court held
in Wayne County until 1806. -Prior
to that year Wayne was a part of a
district in which court was held at
New Bern, and all cases of importance
were tried in the Superior Court of
Craven. In 1806 Superior Courts

 

 

were established in each county,
and in 1818, the Supreme Court was
established. Before the organization
of the Supreme Court the judges of
the Superior Court met twice a year
to settle questions of law in what was
known as the “Court of Conference,”

All matters relating to the probate
of deeds anq wills, the qualification
of administrators and guardians and
the settlement of estates, together
with the levying of taxes and the lay-
ing out and working of roads, and the
trial of cases of minor importance,
were cognizable in the Court of Pleas
and Quarter Sessions,

I find throughout the records the
appointment of overseers and hands
whose duty it was to remove logs,
trash, sandbanks, ete., which obstruct-
ed the waters of the Neuse, over which
all the freight moved from New Bern
by flats, and afterwards by steam-
boats. The Superior Court had sub-
stantially the jurisdiction of the Su-
berior Court of to-day. There were
two terms held annually, and many
of the famous lawyers of the State,
including Gaston, Badger, Haywood
and others, attended this court from
time to time, and were entertained at
the village taverns. It is reported
that they complained of the fare, as
has occurred in the lives of numerous
eminent lawyers since that time, and
J have heard of one of the most dis-
tinguished lawyers of the State who
Was peculiarly bitter in his animad-
versions upon the taverns cf Wayens-
boro.

Although there was for the times a
large business done in Waynesboro in
the early part of the nineteenth cen-
tury, the town never grew much in
extent or population. It was the only
town in the county and its leading
citizens were people of refinement and
culture, a number of them being from
the Northern States, where they had
enjoyed the advantages of education.

One of the reasons why the popula-
tion of Wayne did not increase more
rapidly was the stream of emigra-
tion to the Southern States which set
in about 1830, continued for nearly
twenty years and deprived this coun-
ty and other counties of the State of
many of their best citizens, to the

= R
History or Wayne Counry. 25

 

enrichment of Alabama and Missis-
sippi.

It may be interesting to recall that
at the time of the organization of the
Court in Wayne County and for many
years afterwards the administration
of the criminal law had not been
shorn of many of the barbarities which
distinguished the English common
law, and punishments for crime were
inflicted which shock the sensibilities
of more modern times.

I find among the old records a note
written by one of the judges of the
Superior Court to the Clerk, which is
as follows:

“Please draft the entry to be made
on the minutes as follows: ‘State vs.
H. Grant, upon conviction for forgery.
The defendant being put to the bar,
and having nothing to offer, where-
fore the setence of the law should not
be awarded against him, the court pro-
nounces the following sentence. That
the said H. Grant stand in the pillory
one hour, that he receive 39 lashes
on his bare back and be imprisoned
five months. Sheriff of Wayne is or-

 

dered to carry out this sentence as
regards the corporal punishment this
day. It is ordered that he be com.
mitted to the jail of Lenoir county.’’

I note that it frequently occurs
that prisoners are confined in the
jails of Lenoir and Wake counties,
and sometimes find the recital that
the jail of Wayne is regarded ag in-
secure.

It was customary at the time,
where the prisoner claimed the bene-
fit of clergy, in addition to some other
punishment to burn him in the hand
with a red-hot iron. The benefit of
clergy grew up under the 4Eng-
lish law, when the authorities of the
Roman Catholic Church demanded
that the priests of that church should
not be tried by the secular courts,
but should be turned over to the ec-
clesiastical courts for trial. At first
it seems this demand was acceded
to without condition, but the secular
courts afterwards began to assert
their rights and a compromise seems
to have been effected, and clergymen
were turned over for trial to the
church court, but only after having
been branded with a red-hot iron, in

order that they might not be able to
claim again what was called their
clergy, and later still the benefit of
clergy was extended to laymen, and
members of the nobility charged with
crime were discharged for the first
offense without reading, while
persons of lower degree were dis-
charged upon its appearing that they
were able to read, but not until they
had been branded. This blot upon
the law was afterwards swept away
by legislation in this country and in
England, after having been modified
in our courts and by statute, but
while it existed a gentleman now liv-
ing in this community, E. B. Borden,
Esq., relates that in his boyhood he
was present at a session of the Su-
perior Court held in Waynesboro, and
that he heard a prisoner sentenced to
be burned in the hand and saw the
Sheriff come in with the red-hot iron,
and apply it to the hand of the
prisoner, heard. a frying sound and
saw the smoke arise from the Lu-ning

flesh. : fi
The modifications were in a number

of instances of severe character. A
fair instance may be found in the
judgment rendered in the case of
State vs. Daniel Gooding, who had
been convicted of burglary, which
reads:

“On the arraignment of the prisoner,
he having pleaded guilty in part as
charged in the indictment as appears
under date of the 8rd instant, and
Stephen Miller, Hsq., solicitor for the
State, who in this behalf prosecuted
for the said State, being present here
in the Court, saith that he admits the
plea aforesaid of the prisoner, and
prays judgment, etc. And it being
thereupon demanded of the said Daniel
Gooding, if he hath or knoweth any-
thing wherefore judgment of death
should not be pronounced against him
for the felony aforesaid. He _ saith
thereof, he prayeth the benefit of his
clergy, which is allowed to him. And
it is thereupon considered by the
court here by force of statute in
that ease made anq provided, that
(instead of the burning of the hand)
the said Daniel Gooding be four

 

times publicly whipped, once on Mon-
day, the 6th inst., again on the 8rd

 
 

 

26

Uisrory or Waynn County.

 

Monday in November next, and on
the 3rd Monday of February next,
and the fourth whipping on the first kept until th

Monday after the fourth M

March next, and that he receive 25

lashes on his bare back each time

And it is ordered that the Sheriff of
Wayne county carry the judgment | back,
into execution and have the said
Daniel Gooding in his custody until

the same is executed.” ,

Another judgment rendered during

this period is as follows:
“Whereupon it is considered by the
Court that the prisoner, , be
set in the pillory for one hour and
receive on his bare back 25 lashes,
and be imprisoned for the space of
12 calendar months, and that the
Sheriff of Wayne county carry this
sentence into execution, and cause
the whipping to be inflicted on the
Tuesday of the next court, and the
Pilloring on the Monday of the same
court. And that the prisoner stand
committed until the costs are paid.
This, the 7th day of October, 1823.”

It is gratifying to note upon the
minutes that, after undergoing the
Corporal punishment, he was relieved
by the pardon of the governor of the
payment of the costs.

I am unable to find any instance in
which the Court of Pleas and Quarter
Sessions in Wayne tried any defend-
ant for a capital felony, but as late
as 1787, in our neighboring county of
Duplin, the Court of Pleas and Quar-
ter Sessions constituted of several jus-
tices of the Peace and without jury
tried a murder case, convicted the de-
fendants and ordered the execution.
Two negroes, brothers, were charged
with killing their master on March 15,
1787. They were brought to trial
March 17, 1787, before the Court of
Pleas and Quarter Sessions, and con-
fessed their guilt. The elder, who
Struck the blow, was Sentenced to be
carrie7 to the common gaol and there
to be safely kept until the next day,
when he should be carried by the
Sheriff to the Court House square
and ‘here tied to a stake anq burned
alive, and his ashes scattered upon
the ground. It was adjudged that the
younger brother be committed to. the.

 

custody of the Sheriff, to be carried
to the county gaol and there safely

e next day, and then car-
ried to Court House Square, tied to

a stake and have his ears cut off, the
. | letter “M” branded on his cheek, and
one hundred lashes laid on his bare
(This leniency is shown—as
is recited in the minutes of the court—
on account of his youth, and the prob-
ability that he had been under the
influence of his elder brother.)

From the minutes of the Same Court
at a later session it appears that, after
a laborious Session, the Court adjourn-
ed “to take flip” at the tavern.

This propensity, not confined ex-
Cusively to the Court of Duplin, last-
ed late into the 19th Century.

A gentleman who has not been prac-

ticing law more than forty years gives
the following striking incident illustra-
tive of customs which long prevailed:
Soon after my friend began the prac-
tice he wag attending Court in one of
our eastern towns, and one evening
after Court, was taking a walk with
the Presiding judge and several law-
yers, when, passing a bar-room, the
judge invited the party in to drink
with him. The performance of the
bar-keeper in preparing the drinks
proved unsatisfactory to Hig Honor,
who immediately took the bar-keeper’s
place and apron, and soon concocted
such delightful beverages as they had
never seen, demonstrating a skill in
the mixing of drinks, that brought
much commendation from his profes-
sional brethren as well ag from the
laymen who witnessed this achieve-
ment.

There were many more capital of-
fenses than in this day. The institu.
tion of slavery was responsible for

he enactment of many harsh laws.
It was made a crime to teach a slave
to read, it was a crime for a slave
preacher to preach to slaves, other
than those of his own master, A
slave found off his master’s planta-
tion without a pass, when caught by
the patrol, was subject to be beaten
with many stripes. A Tunaway slave
could be outlawed on the application
of any person by two justices of the
peace, upon its appearing that he

 

2,

History or Wayne Country. QT

 

was supposed to be lurking in the |{ About the year 1816 John Coor-Pen-

oods or swamps and killing cattle,
and it was expressly provided that
such slave might be killed by any
person who might fing him, and in any
manner that he saw fit, and that the
slayer should not be in any manner
called to account therefor. The steal-
ing of slaves was punished by death,
without benefit of clergy.

So fearful were the lawmakers and
the people of negro insurrections that
no books or papers of any sort were
permitted to be distributed among
the slave population, or among the
free negroes—an unintentional rec-
ognition of the power of enlighten-
ment. The legislation in reference to
slaves was a stronger indictment of
the system than the phillipics of all
the abolitionists.

hile the laws were severe in some
Siac they were mild in others.
Offenses involving moral turpitude,
such as forgery, larceny and fraud,
were severely punished, while crimes
of violence were dealt with more
gently. Violations of law resulting
from impulse or the natural frailities
of human nature were treated with

at tenderness.
or The court records of to-day show
that we have inherited many of the
feelings and practices of our ances

S.
See were passed to correct the
morals of the people by mild punish-
ments. It was enacted that every
person swearing in public should be
fined 25 cents for each offense; that
every person convicted of being pub-
licly drunk should be fined 25 cents
if the offense was committed on a
week day, and 50 cents if committed
on the Sabbath, and that every per-
son committing fornication should
be fined $2.50 for each and every of-
fense. In view of a contention ad-
vanced in recent years that the law
should not deal with questions of
morals, the action of the early law-
makers of the State is quite signifi-
Sainte the period of which I speak
a citizen of Wayne county performed
one of the bravest and most daring
acts in the history of the State.

 

 

der, who had been Sheriff of the coun-
ty and also member of the General
Assembly, was assassinated as he drove
along the road from his home to the
County Seat. The assassin, who was
understood to be David Jernigan, fled
and every effort was made to appre-
hend him. At last, Paul Coor-Pender,
a son of the murdered man, learned
that Jernigan had taken refuge among
the Seminole Indians in Florida. This
young man, not quite of age, traveled
through the uncleared country by
horse and wagon from Waynesboro,
through the States of South Carolina
and Georgia and into the Everglades
of Florida. He introduced himself to
the Chief of the Seminoles and de-
manded the surrender of his tather’s
murderer. The Everglades at that
time constituted a secure refuge for
criminals from the older settlements,
and Jernigan claimed the right of hos-
pitality and protection, which the
Chief generously extended; but when
he learned that the son was demand-
ing the murderer of his father in or-
der that his death might be avenged,
his natural sense of justice prevailed
and he surrendered the prisoner to
young Pender, who, without assist-
ance, conveyed Jernigan back to
Waynesboro and delivered him to the
riff.

Sian prisoner was indicted for mur-
der at September term, 1816, and up-
on his application the case was re-
moved to Lenoir for trial and P. C.
Pender was recognized to appear as a
witness against him. It was provided
in the order that the trial should take
place on the succeeding Thursday.
The prisoner was convicted and exe-
cuted. There are few instances in his-
tory of a more heroic exploit.

As there seemed no prospect for
growth for the town of Waynesboro,
probably because the location ‘was not
conducive to health, but principally
because the Wilmington & Weldon
Railroad was in process of construc-
tion through the county, about the
year 1840 agitation began for the re-
moval of the County Seat to the loca-
tion afterwards known as Goldsboro.
As in every proposition for the re-

 
 

Pponents of the movement. ildi
Waynesboro was vigorous in its Op- Quen

position and other sections of the

county were equally so, All the citi

zens were aroused on one side or the

Thursday in August next, to i
ry ascertain
whether the majority of the voters fa-

& @ new Court House i
Goldsboro or Waynesboro, a

At the August term, 1848, Olle:
, , n
Coor, Esq., Sheriff, reported that at an

other of the proposition; public meet- prection held August 3, 1848, a ma-

ingenwer salad jority of the votes ‘oll i -
, Speeches made and vor of the removal of herOneas House
from Waynesboro to Goldsboro, The

much warmth of feeling shown.

A great meeting was held in Golds-
boro in the large oak grove where

are now situate the residences of | commissi
: l Ssioners from
Mrs. Henry Weil, Mrs. Sol Weil and | district in said

captain’s
county, namely:

 

Mrs. Arnolq Borden, at which elo- | James Griswold, John Kennedy, Hardy

quent speeches were ma

barbecue and much Poca Noe
liquor consumed. There is a tradi-
tion that one of the ‘ardent advocates
of removal on the morning of the
meeting deposited in the Well on the
premises several barrels of ice, which
he had surreptitiously procured from
Wilmington, and that the assembled
multitude drank at the well, after par-
taking of dinner and of the other
liquids, and pronounced it the coldest
ae best ee in the county, and be-
ame enthusiastic fo:

the County Seat, errata

Tradition further Says this story
was started after the election by
some disappointed advocate of the
town of Waynesboro, and that the wa-
ter of the new location was naturally
SO pure and cool that it would have
been absurd to have polluted it with
Wilmington ice,

After much agitation and discussion
at a session of the Court of Pleas and
Quarter Sessions held at Waynesboro,

Yelverton, Benjamin Aycock, T.
Simms, Ethelred Sauls, W. Tek Ganinee
John Everett, Bryant H. Pate Will.
iam Carroway, John Becton and Wil-
lis Hall, to prepare a plan for a new
Court House and gaol of such size
and built of such material as they
shall deem requisite and expedient,
which plan, with the estimate of ex.
pense and particular description of
such contemplated building, be shown
to the said board before the said
Court of Wayne on or before the
third Monday of February next, and
the commissioners or any majority of
them shall likewise, without delay,
lay off a site for said Court House
and gaol of not less than two nor
more than four acres in size, within
one half a mile of Mrs. Borden’s hotel
and purchase the same and draw up-
on the County Trustee for the pay-
ment thereof, ang take a deed there-
for to the Chairman, according to the
Act of Assembly, and said commis-
Sloners or a majority shall and may

 

 

November 15, 1847; a majority of the
justices being present, it was moved,
“That they take a vote whether they
should have a new Court House or
not.” Among others, William K.

Thomag T, Hollowell, Uriah
Langston, S. P. Cox, Hardy Yelverton,
William B. Edmundson, Benjamin Ay-
cock and James Griswold, twenty-six
in all, voted in favor of the proposi-
tion, and ten others voted against it;
among whom were John C, Slocomb,
John Everett, Ira Langston, John
Coley, James F, Kornegay anq Will-
iam Hollowell. An order was made
for a vote of the people on the first

contract for the building thereof upon
Said place according to the terms of
said Act, and report their actions
thereon to the Court.”

At the same term H. W. Husted,
Esq., resigned as County Attorney
and William T. Dortch was elected
County Attorney in his stead.

On February 19, 1849, the saiq com-
missioners purchased from James
Rhodes for the consideration of $250
four acres of land, and he executed a
deed therefor to James Griswold,
chairman. James Rhodes conveyed
the whole of ,the Square upon which
the Court House is now situate, ex-

History or Wayne County. 29

 

cept 120 feet along the western side
thereof.

It is an interesting circumstance
that James Rhodes, the grantor of
the Court House square, was the uncle
of James R, Hatch, Esq., the accommo-
dating and obliging Clerk of this
Court at present and for the past
eight years. It is also a pleasant re-
flection that Isaac F. Ormond, Esq.,
the active and efficient chairman of
the present Board of Commissioners,
now owns the land on the south side
of the county road at Hooks’ bridge
over Little River, formerly belong-
ing to Josiah Sasser, upon which the
first Court for the county of Wayne
was held, and that he served eight
years most acceptably as Clerk of the
Superior Court of the county, and that
Charles F, Herring, Esq., a. member of
said board, was for eight years an
admirable Clerk of this Court.

The contract for building the Court
House and jail. was awarded to John
E. Becton and Joseph Kennedy. At
the August term, 1850, the commission-

ers reported that they had purchased
a lot and had received from the con-

tractors the Court House and jail. I
find no record of any report of the
commissioners, required by the order

 

of the August term, 1848, nor of any
payment made to the contractors, but
have understood that the contract price
was about $17,000. .

At the August term, 1850, the last
Court held in the town of Waynes-
boro, it was ordered “That the wilful
defacing, cutting or in any other man-
ner injuring the walls, or any other
parts of the Court House shall. be held
an offense in the contempt of the
Court, and the officers of the court
are ordered to bring all persons so
offending forthwith before the Court
to be dealt with in the premises.”

The first Superior Court held in
the new Court House was on Septem-

Thomas T. Hollowell and John Hayes,
Esqs.”

I note that at the November term,
1851, an order was made allowing
William T. Dortch, County Attorney,
the sum of $32.50 for his services at
this term and at the three preceding
terms.

John A. Green, a descendant of Jo-
seph Green, who in 1790 was the larg-
est slave owner of Wayne county,
was Clerk of the Court of Pleas and
Quarter Sessions. He served in that
capacity from August term, 1833, to
September term, 1853, when he was
succeeded by Benjamin Aycock, who
served until 1862.

John A. Green was the father of
Mrs. George L. Kirby, the late Mrs.
Susan Gulick and the late George D.
Green, of Wilson.

At the same time William G. Bryan
was Clerk of the Superior Court. He
served from 1849 to 1861, and was the
father of John W. Bryan, Esq., for-
merly a member of the firm of Grain-
ger & Bryan, attorneys, of Goldsboro,
and now one of the officers of the
Eastern Hospital for the Insane.

At the same time James Griswold
was Clerk and Master in Equity. He
filled that office from 1829 until 1853.
He was succeeded by Geo. V. Strong,
who performed the duties of office
until 1860.

At the same time Ollin Coor was
Sheriff. He served for 22 years.
Sheriff Coor was the father of Capt.
Hopton H. Coor, of Fork township.
Ollin Coor and hig kinsmen, who pre-
ceded him, filled the office of the
Sheriff of Wayne county for’ many
years.

In the 68 years intervening between
the first court held in Waynesboro
and the first court held in Goldsboro
great changes had taken place. Much
of the land had been cleared, many
large plantations stocked with numer-
ous negroes were to be found in the

 

ber 30, 1850, when Hon. John W. El-
lis, afterwards Governor of the State,
presided. The first Court of Pleas
and Quarter Sessions was held in the
new Court House on the 18th day of
November, 1850. The minutes recite,
“Justices present, the Worshipful Will-
iam K. Lane, John C. Slocumb,

different sections of the county.
Among the large land owners and
slave owners was John W. Sasser,
the father of Mrs. Ellen Dortch, de-
ceased, and Mrs. Millie McKee, of
Raleigh. It is related that he could
ride on horseback from Goldsboro to
his home, some six or seven miles dis-

 
30 History or Wayne County.

 

tant, without getting off his own land.

Other large land and slave owners

were William K. Lane, George W.

Collier, Theophilus Best, Council

Best, Sam Smith, John Coley, W. B.

Port, John Everett, David Everett,

Levi D. Howell, Capt. R. P. Howell,

William D. Cobb, the numerous Whit-

fields, John ©. Slocumb, David F.

McKinne, Thomas Uzzell, Peter Pea-

cock, Thomas Yelverton, Rigdon Dees,

Gabriel and William Sherrard, E. B.

Border, W. F. Atkinson and others.

The cultivation of cotton had be-
come general. The population had

increased to 7,802 whites and 5,020

slaves and 664 free negroes.

The free schools ha4q begun their
work and a number of private schools
had opened in Goldsboro, and in some
other sections of the county. Among
the other teachers were William Rob-
inson and John Robinson, graduates
of Dublin University and natives of

Ireland. About that time they con-
ducted successful private schools.

John Robinson was the father of

Hon. W. S. O’B. Robinson, Gol. Jos.
E. Robinson, Miss Eliza Robinson,
Mrs. D. B. Frazier, deceased, Mrs. M.
R. Cox, of Newton Grove, and Mrs.
Mary Morris, all of whom, except
Mrs. Cox, reside in Goldsboro, and Dr.
George Robinson and James Robinson,
deceased.

_ Ministers of most of the denomina-
tions preached in almost every neigh-
borhood. Illiteracy had been re-
duced at that time to such an extent
that one in every seven white persons
over 21 years of age could read and
write. There was no development of
manufactures except along the rail-
Toad turpentine stills were every-
where to be found. There were gin
houses and a few saw and grist mills.
There were no banks and the money
lenders and their customers attended
the courts, where loans were made
and collected. The town of White
Hall, situated on the Neuse River,
was beginning to grow and become a
center of trade. Nahunta, now Fre-
mont; Eureka, Pikeville, Dudley and
Mount Olive did not exist. Golds-
boro was growing into a thriving and
Prosperous village and the center of

The town was rich in news
The Patriot Republican, Deore
was published by W. B. Gulick; the
Goldsboro Telegraph, by W. T. S. Al-
ston, and the Goldsboro Patriot Dem-
ocratic, by William Robinson, the fath-
er of our townsmen, Dr. M. B. Robin-
son and Thomas R. Robinson,

About the time the county seat was
moved to Goldsboro, Miss Indiana
Wills, afterwards Mrs, J. B. Whitaker,
conducted the first school, and was
Succeeded after her marriage by Miss
Emily Webb. :

The old Academy, which used to
stand at the head of John Street and
which is now the property of W. H
Godwin, was used by John and VWil-
liam Robinson, as a school for boys
on the lower floor, and by Miss Webb
as a school for girls on the upper.

The first church was a small frame
building on the corner of John and
Chestnut streets, where St. Paul M. B.
church now stands, in which ministers
of all denominations preached, and in

Which one of the earliest schools wag
conducted.

; The Methodist Church, now belong-
ing” to the Primitive Baptist denomi-
nation, was built about 1853, and the
Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches,
about 1857, and the Baptist Church
later.

A hotel was built on the corner now
occupied by the Kennon Hotel and
operated by James Griswold.

During the ’70s the towns of Mount
Olive and Nahunta, now Fremont,
were established, and have since
grown into prosperous and thriving
towns, among the most progressive in
the State. The name Nahunta was
changed to Fremont in honor of Col.
Swe Fremont, for many years con-
nected with the old Wilmington &
Weldon Railroad Company,

I believe I neglected to state that
Goldsboro was named after a civil en-
gineer in the employment of the Wil-
mington & Weldon Railroad Company.

Later the towns of Dudley, Pike-
ville, Eureka, came into existence, the
old town of White Hall on the Neuse
having preceded them by many years,
and now known as Seven Springs.

 

 

trade.

It would be interesting to compare

History or Wayne County. 31

 

the conditions under which our peo-
ple live at this day with the condi-
tions that existed at the time the
Court House just removed was com-
pleted. We hear much said about the
palatial homes of the old-time planter
and slave-owner, but the fact is that
the average man to-day lives in a bet-
ter home than they enjoyed. There
are hundreds of homes in Wayne
county that are more comfortable, bet-
ter furnished and have more of the
luxuries of life than were known to
even the most prosperous of our citi-
zens in that day. Their owners are
more intelligent, have higher ideals,
and lead better lives.

The Superior Courts were presided
over by learned and able judges, the
law enforced with some severity, and
the Court of Pleas and Quarter Ses-
sions intelligently dispatched the busi-
ness of the county and tried the cases
both civil and criminal within its juris-
diction. Lawyers from New Bern, Fay-
etteville, Wilmington and Raleigh were
usually in attendance upon the Courts,
and our people were brought in contact
with some of the brightest intellects
of the State. The iocal bar was small
but able, consisting of Wm. T. Dortch,
Geo. V. Strong, W. T. Faircloth, and
W. G. Morrisey. The officials of the
county were men of character, intelli-
gence and property, and leaders in so-
cial and political life. ‘

Ollin Coor, the Sheriff, was a man of
marked peculiarities and of unbound-
ed popularity, and withal a man firm
and determined. Near the middle of
his term of office occurred what was
known as the “Holleman War.” A
feud existed between the Holleman
Clan and Lewis Cogdell, growing out
of trespassing of stock upon the lands
of each other, and partly, I am inform-
ed, from the purchase by Cogdeil of
some lands of the Holleman’s at pub-
lic sale, which the latter claimed were
improperly sold, and at a sacrifice.
Not caring to resort to law for the
vindication of their rights, the Holle-
mans waged war upon Cogdell. On
several occasions they shot at him
and on one occasion shot through his
carriage in which he and his wife
were riding to their home. They sur-
rounded his residence and shot at any

 

one appearing in his yard after night-
fall. They were considerate of the
employees of Cogdell and notified them
that when they were moving about the
premises after night it would be advis-
able for them to whistle, that if they
failed to do so they might be the recip-
ients of bullets not intended for them.
On one occasion one Pennington, an
overseer of Cogdell, who had received
this caution, in haste to get his horse
and ride off, forgot to whistle, but
fortunately for him the horse he was
riding passed too close to the gate post
of the lot and hurt his foot, whereupon,
forgetful of the statute forbidding the
use of profane language, he cursed the
horse. He was afterwards informed
by one of the Hollemans that it was
well for him that he violated the stat-
ute, for that otherwise he would have
received a dose of lead. Warrants
were sworn out for the members of the
Holleman family and placed in the
hands of Sheriff Coor, who made dili-
gent effort to apprehend the offenders,
but was unable to do so. They retired
to their home which they converted
into a castle, and prepared for a siege,
denying admittance to all comers, in-
cluding the High Sheriff.

Sheriff Coor, a most considerate man
and on very friendly terms with the
Hollemans, who had always been his
political supporters, resorted to every
species of diplomacy in order to induce
them to surrender, but in vain. While
expressing profound regard for him
personally they declined to accede to
his official request or to receive him
in his official capacity; finding that
mild measures were without avail, the
Sheriff summoned a posse of determ-
ined men who with arms in their hands
surrounded the Holleman home and the
Sheriff, as was his duty, demanded
admittance. The defenders announced
that they would be very glad to re-
ceive the Sheriff, whereupon he was
admitted, endeavored to induce the
garrison to capitulate which was very
firmly refused; but in order to show
their regard for their personal friend,
they insisted that he should drink with
them. Brandy was produced and the
Sheriff and the members of the Holle-
man family drank together. Thinking
that this social intercourse had prob-

 
 

32 History or Wayne Counry.

 

ably softened their resolution, the
Sheriff again insisted that they accom-
pany him. They positively refused
and he retired. The besieging force
drew closer to the dwelling and soon
the besieged opened fire with the re-
sult that one of the Sheriff's posse
was wounded in the leg; whereupon
they withdrew out of range and the
Sheriff, feeling that patience had ceas
ed to be a virtue and that: his for-
bearance might be misconstrued, dis-
patched Blount King, one of his posse,
to Goldsboro with instructions to bring
the cannon which was used in firing
fourth of July salutes. King pro-
ceeded immediately upon his errand,
shortly returning with this weapon of
destruction, and under the order of the
Sheriff, after another demand made for
surrender, leveled his deadly artillery
upon the house and fired. The charge
went through the house and wounded
one of its defenders. Thereupon, being
unable to resist further, they surren-
dered. The kind hearted Sheriff took
the entire family, including the wound-
ed man, to his home, where he kept
them until the succeeding term of
court, when he had them duly appear.

It is not recorded whether the jail
was still out of repair, or whether the
Sheriff's fine sense of hospitality in-
duced him to pursue this unusual
course,

From 1850 to the breaking out of
the hostilities in 1861, there was con-
tinued progress and growth—more
land being cleared and cultivated and
more negroes being brought and work-
ed upon the farms. The wealth of the
county greatly increased. The State
Bank of North Carolina in 1860 estab-
lished an agency in Goldsboro in
charge of E. B. Borden.

The first and only loss of territory
occurred in 1854, when the northern
part of the county was taken by Act
of the General Assembly to aid in the
creation of the new county of Wilson.
Before that Contentnea Creek had
been a part of the northern line
of Wayne, and Black Creek was in
Wayne. Two Sheriffs, Sims and
Thompson, had come from the terri-
tory now given to Wilson. The line

been caused by the determined resolu-
tion of Jacob Hooks to remain a resi-
dent of Wayne, and it was provided
that it should be sorun as to leave his

land on the South side of the Wilson
line.

When the State threw in her lot
with the Confederacy there were no
more loyal supporters of the movement
for secession.

Wayne, like many other counties,
had contained a number of union men,
but after President Lincoln called upon
the State for volunteers, like most of
the other Union men, they entered
heart and soul into the cause of the
Confederacy. The county sent twenty-
two companies into the Confederate
Army, containing about 2,500 men.

Captain Thomas W. Slocumb, a great
srand-son of fzekiel Slocumb, became
first lieutenant of one of the compan-
ies, the Goldsboro Rifles, and was af-
terward promoted to Assistant Ad-

jutant General with the rank of Cap-
tain.

Among the officers now living, I re-
call Col. Jno. P. Cobb, now of Florida,
Capt. H. H. Coor, Capt. J. B. Edgerton,
Capt. R. P. Howell, Capt. D. J. Broad-

hurst, Capt. D. A. Cogdell, and Capt.
Thomas W. Slocumb.

No troops in the Confederate Army
conducted. themselves with more gal-
lantry than the contingent from
Wayne.

The inhabitants of Wayne escaped
the greatest rigors of the war until
near the close when Sherman’s army
passed through the county and destroy-
ed much property. General Sherman
with his lieutenants, Generals Scofield
Terry and Logan, and a very large
army encamped at Goldsboro for some
time, soon after the battle of Bentons-
ville.

Many of our citizens remember dis-
tinctly hearing the roar of the guns
while this battle was in progress. After
the close of the war the town was gar-
risoned by Federal soldiers, a large
part of whom were negroes, In 1867,
“companies of negro federal troops
were concentrated in Goldsboro, and
a reign of terror followed during which
depredations of all sorts were com-

 

established by the Act contained a
peculiar crook which is recited to have

mitted, and the conduct of the troops
was so violent that it was unsafe for

History or Wayne County. 33

 

women to leave their homes.” These
troops remained until some time
in 1869. Some bummers or camp
followers, who pretended to be

connected with the army, engag-
ed in forays into the surrounding

country, robbing, pillaging and insult-
ing women, until at last a band of Con-
federate soldiers who had returned
from the war, after their surrender,
found it necessary to pursue and de-
stroy these marauders. One of them,
whose name was Wilson, at the head
of his band of ruffians, wag on one of
his usual expeditions in the summer of
1865, between Goldsboro and the Wilson
county line, when a party of ex-Confed-
erates under the command of Dr. B.
Thomas Person, now of Wilson, hastily
gathered, attacked and pursued them
and ran their leader into Goldsboro,
where he sought protection from the
garrison, and shot and killed him on
the steps of the store on the corner of
Boundary (now Holly) and Hast Cen-
ter Streets, then occupied by the late
Sol. Keaton. This act, daring in the
extreme, brought relief to the people
of the county. Among those who par-
ticipated in it I recall Frank M. Ay-
cock, a gallant soldier, patriotic citizen
and excellent farmer, and _ Gilbert
Ward, who won distinction in war, and
never in his life feared man or devil,
whose affectionate loyalty to his
friends was unsurpassed by any man
I ever knew.
Dr. Person, a man of dauntless cour-
age, capacity for leadership, and great-
ness of heart, after practicing his pro-
fession for many years, during which
no sufferer, however poor, ever sought
his service in vain, still lives far be-
yond his four score years, enjoying the
confidence and love of troops of
friends. A kindred spirit representing

One of the most celebrated trials
that took place in the Court House just
removed was the trial of the Worley
murderers, in April 1878. On February
11, 1878, James Worley and his wife,
Appie Jane, humble but industrious
and worthy citizens, living in the low
lands of Fork township, were found
murdered in their humble home, in
the presence of their infant child and
little five year old daughter. On in-
vestigation it was found that a crime,
even more horrible than murder, had
been perpetrated. David A. Grantham
was at that time Sheriff of the county
--a, descendant of one of the oldest and
most respected families, a man of un-
usual intelligence, energy and charac-
ter. He organized an investigation,
aided by the citizens of the neighbor-
hood, which resulted in the arrest of
four negro*s, Noah Cherry, Harris At-
kinson, Robert Thompson and Jerry
Cox. So careful and thorough had
been the investigation that the last
named defendant finding himself in
the toils of the law turned states evi-
dence. There was great excitement
when the facts of the tragedy became
generally known, and there was immi-
nent, probability that an attempt might
be made to lynch the prisoners, which
the coolness and courage of Sheriff
Grantham prevented; and the prisoners
were duly brought to trial on April
30, 1878, in the presence of a numer-
ous and highly excited multitude. Hon.
John Kerr presided at that session of
the court. The State was represented
by Hon. L. J. Moore, Solicitor, assisted
by William T. Dortch and W. E.
Clarke.

The defendant, Harris Atkinson, was
represented by John D. Kerr, now of
Clinton; Noah Cherry, by George T.
‘Wassom, a negro lawyer of Goldsbero,
and Robert Thompson by Swift Gallo-

 

the gallant soldier, loyal citizen and
old time physician, whose life has been
spent in unselfish devotion to his
neighbors, is Dr. J. B. Kennedy, of
Grantham township. It is a delight to
pay tribute to these old time country
doctors, among whom I should like to
include John F. Miller, W. H. H. Cobb
Geo. L. Kirby, J. D, Spicer and Thos.
Hill,-of Goldsboro, who have passed
away and M. MclI. Tatum, of Mount
Olive, who still survives.

way, afterwards Solicitor of the dis-
trict.

The evidence was fully developed by
able and experienced counsel, both for
the State and defendants, argued with
great ability and the charge of the pre-
siding judge was clear and impartial.
The defendants, Cherry, Atkinson and
Thompson were convicted, sentenced
and on the 14th day of June, 1878, exe-
cuted by Sheriff Grantham in the pres-
ence of an immense multitude.

 
 

 

34 History or Warne Counry.

 

The investigation of this case begun
by Sheriff Grantham, and his assis-
tants, participated in by the Coroner’s
Jury, presided over by Dr. George L.
Kirby, the Coroner; the quiet courage
and determination of Sheriff Gran-
tham, which prevented the application
of lynch law, and the impartial trial,
sentence and execution taught a most
salutary lesson, and furnished an ex-
ample, not only to the citizens of
Wayne but to those of the State
worthy to be followed in tragedies,
which are calculated to arouse the
strongest passions of men, and to pre-
cipitate them into lawless conduct,
bringing the law into disrepute and
involving those who participate in the
guilt of murder.

Among the citizens of Wayne who
have been greatly honored in the past
are Jesse Slocomb, the son of Ezekiel
Slocumb, who after serving as clerk
of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Ses-
sions, was elected to Congress from
this District, and served from 1818 to
1823. He died in Washington and was
buried in the Congressional Cemetery;
William H. Washington, who served
in Congress’ from 1841 to 1843—it
is sometimes claimed that when he
was sent to Congress he was a resi-
dent of Craven, but the authorities
differ on this point; Thomas Ruffin
an attorney at this bar prior to 1850,
who served in Congress from 1853 to
1861 inclusive, was a gallant colonel
in the Confederate army, and died of
wounds received in battle; Curtis H.
Brogden, after whose family one of
our fine townships was named, after
having served the county repeatedly as
a member of the House of Representa-
tives served for many years as Comp-
troller of the State, as Lieutenant Goy-
ernor and upon the death of Governor
Caldwell, as Governor—he was elect-
ed to Congress in 1877, and afterwards
served in the State Senate; Swift Gal-
loway who wag first elected in 1878
and served two terms as Solicitor
of the district; and Benjamin F.
Aycock, who served as State Sen-
ator at the sessions of 1889, 1891,
1893, 1901 and 1907, where he was

enactment of many useful and far-
reaching measures. He was elected
a member of the Corporation Commis-
sion in 1908 and served most ably un-
til his death.

The district has again honored us in
the election to Congress of our county-
man, Geo. EH. Hood, a member of this
bar, who has served ag County Treas-
urer, Mayor of the City of Goldsboro
and as a representative in the House
from Wayne. -

Before 1880 there had not been much
improvement in farming, though twen-
ty-five to thirty thousand bales of cot-
ton were marketed in Goldsboro. Since
then improved methodg have been in-
troduced and have resulted in the
production of larger crops of corn,
tobacco and cotton, and there has
grown up the great industry of truck
raising in one of the finest sections,
around the prosperous and progressive
town of Mount Olive, which hag added
to the wealth of the citizens of that
portion of our county.

Prior to 1880 there were but two
manufacturing establishments in
Wayne, W. F. Kornegay & Company’s
Machine Works and the Planing Mill
of W. H. Underhill.

In 1881 J. H. Strausg & Co. built the
Rice Mill and operated it. It has since
become the Carolina Rice Mills. In
1882, the Goldsboro Oil Mills were
erected and operated. In 1884, the
Goldsboro Lumber Company erected
and operated its mill, since removed
to Dover. In 1885 Royall & Borden
organized the Mattress Factory for the
manufacture of the Royal Felt Mat-
tresses. Dewey Bros. built their ma-
chine shops in 1885, In 1885 The
Goldsboro Furniture Company was in-
corporated. In 1886 Wayne Agricul-
tural Works wag organized. In 1887,
The Enterprise Lumber Company be-
gan business; in 1900, The Borden
Manufacturing Company; in 1905, A.
T. Griffin Manufacturing Company; in
1907, the Goldsboro Buggy Company;
in 1907, the Goldsboro Knitting Mills,
now the Durham Hosiery Mills; in
1907, the Utility Manufacturing Com-
pany; in 1910, the Empire Manufac-

 

regarded ag one of the ablest, wisest
and most progressive of Senators,
who formulated and procured the

turing Company, and in 1911, the
Wayne Hardwood Company. H. Weil
& Bros.,, H. L. Grant & Son, Borden

 

History or Wayne County. 35

 

Brick & Tile Company, and the Wayne
Red Brick Company have _ been
engaged in manufacturing brick and
tile. The capital of these various cor-
porations amounts to about one mil-
lion seven hundred and fifty thousand
dollars. The output of these in-
stitutions is three million, three
hundred and sixty thousand dollars a
a year, the monthly pay roll exclusive
of office force, is forty-seven thousand
and five hundred dollars. Then there
are the Mount Olive Lumber Company
with J.R. Bell as its president, and the
Fremont Oil Mills under the manage-
ment of J. T. Hooks, president and J.
B. Lane Secretary and Treasurer.

Goldsboro is developing, too, into a
tobacco market. There are gins and
saw mills throughout the county. One
of the best things about these
enterprises is that they have been
built and operated with Wayne
county money. We made the
money and saved it and put it into
these industries that are giving em-
ployment to thousands of our citizens
and bringing wealth into the commun-
ore men who have done these
things, I regard as constituting a roll
of honor, and as such they should oc-
cupy a place upon the records of the
county. W. F. Kornegay, W. H. Un-
derhill, Street & Hyman, Charles
Dewey, E. B. Borden, Henry ‘Weil,
Solomon Weil, W. H. Smith, W. H.
Borden, F. K. Borden, John L. Borden,
Nathan O’Berry, Geo. C. Royall, M. E.
Robinson, Robert Kornegay, J. S. Carr
& Sons, A. T. Griffin, A. H. Edgerton,
H. L. Grant, I. F. Ormond, Geo, A.

been of vast benefit to this county. I

refer to the banks, and first I mention

the Bank of Wayne. The last state-

ment of the Bank of Wayne, June 30,

1914, showed the bank had resources

of one million five hundred thousand

dollars; the statement of the National

Bank of Goldsboro, made at the same

time, showed that that bank had re-

sources of five hundred and seventy-

five thousand dollars; the Savings

Bank had one hundred and fifty thous-

and; the Peoples Bank three hun-

dred and fifteen thousand; total in

Goldsboro two million five hundred and

forty thousand dollars, resources for

the development of our enterprises, the

cultivation of our fine farms and the
general business of the county. The —
Bank of Mount Olive had resources of
two hundred and twenty-one thousand

eight hundred and three dollars. The
Citizens Bank of Mount Olive one
hundred twenty-eight thousand eight
hundred and sixty-eight dollars; the
Bank of Fremont two hundred eighty-
six thousand one hundred and thirty-
nine dollars, making the total banking
resources three milion one hundred
seventy-six thousand dollars. These
institutions are managed by men of
character, excellent business qualifi-
cations and experience, and have the
confidence of all classes. The capital
and deposits are made up almost en-
tirely of local money.

Some things that have helped con-
ditions are the extension of the tele-
phone, and the rural delivery routes
and the circulation of newspapers,
and these useful agencies have served
to bring our people close together, to

 

Norwood, Thomas H. Holmes, J. R.
Bell and J. T. Hooks. ‘

You remember in the opening part
of my address I stated that only about
three hundred thousand feet of lumber
were manufactured in the early days
in all North Carolina. Statistics show
that now we are manufacturing over
a billion feet per year, and in recent
years the lumber companies are de-
vising ways to preserve the timber,
and every time they saw a thousand
feet they try to arrange that the lands’s
young growth shall be left intact to

harmonize and unite them.

I do not think I should close this
address without some reference, which
I hope will be pardoned, to a gentle-
man born in Waynesboro, who came
early to Goldsboro, where his whole
life has been spent, organized the first
panking institution in 1860 as an agency
of the State Bank of North Carolina,
and who in 18738, calling to his assist-
ance Capt. R. P. Howell as the cashier,
and Geo. W. Dewey as assistant cash-
ier, oragnized the Bank of New Han-
over, which was afterwards merged

 

bear a thousand more.
Another class of instiutions has

into the Bank of Wayne. I refer to
its honored president EH. B. Borden,

 
 

 

36 History or Wayne County.

 

who for fifty years has stood at the
head of this business world, and
who by his good life, high character,
clear intellect and fine business sense
has done much to mold and shape the
business community, which is regard-
ed by the entire State as one of its
most steady and reliable. I think it
but just to say in this connection what
every citizen of Wayne feels and
knows.
In passing I should wish, if time
permitted, to refer to all the officials
of our well managed and prosperous
financial and other institutions. I
cannot go into particulars about these
gentlemen, but recent events in this
community compel me to make refer-
ence to a gentleman, who is president
of one of the banks of this city. I
refer to Geo. A. Norwood, president of
the National Bank of Goldsboro, a man
of high character .and fine intelligence
who has grown upon this community,
interested in its development, and alive
with public spirit. It is a fortunate
thing for a County like ours that its
manufactures, its trade, its banks
and its business are in the hands of
men of character and men of intelli-
gence.
When I came to practice at this Bar
I was greatly impresed with the sturdy
character of the citizeng of this coun-
ty. In every township, there were
strong, vigorous men, men of charac-
ter and of real power who had a lead-
ership which they used wisely, and
well; they could be relied upon in any
contingency to take positions which
would do honor to the State. I have
known many of them. I would like to
name them all if I had time. Some
of them had gone through the War.
Many participated in the bitterness
that existed before the war, passed
through that great ordeal and some of
them came out wounded’ for life. They
bore with courage the evil conditions
that came in the wake of war. They
had to rebuild this country. They got
down to the hardest sort of labor in
order to feed and clothe their families.
They endured great privations. In the
midst of all they never forgot their
duties as citizens. They grew strong
through adversity, and sometimes when

generation now growing up, I take the
privilege of an old man and wonder
whether our young people will attain
the stature of these splendid men. They
should do it. They should do more,
because they have more advantages.
There is another thing I want to
mention in the development of this
county. In 1850 there Was spent in
Wayne county for the education of the
children one thousand four hundred
and seventy-two dollars. Last year,
1913, the amount ran up to $86,094. My
friend Mr. E. T. Atkinson, our County
Superintendet of Education, pro-
nounced by the school authorities of
the State to be one of the best on the
list of North Carolina Superintendents,
and a descendant of one of the earliest
of the settlers, hag given me the fig-
ures. What a contrast! Against one
hundred and twenty-five thousand
dollars in 1850, we spent in 1913, for
the education of the children of the
State four million dollars for better
schools, better teachers and longer
terms. The school property of the
county is worth five times as much
today as it was worth in 1900. Noth-
ing is of more importance than the
education of all the children, for upon
the character and intelligence of the
coming generations depends the future
prosperity of the county. I take pleas-
ure in talking about the material
growth of this county. I rejoice in it;
but there is something I rejoice in.
more than that; it is the moral growth
of this community, its growth in in-
telligence and high ideals. If we could
let some old citizen compare the in-
tellectual and moral conditions exist-
ing here fifty years ago with the in-
tellectual and moral conditions ex-
isting today, and show us the differ-
ence, we should be astounded and de-
lighted. Never has progress been
more wonderful. Wherever progress
has been made, it has been the result
of the work of the church, the school
and the home in the uplifting of a
citizenship that is growing morally and
intellectually higher every year,
The first vote I ever cast was for
the establishment of the Goldsboro
Graded School. I came in 1881 to this

 

I think of them in contrast with the

Bar, and in that year we had a bitter
controversy about the establishment of

‘public schools. We had nothing of much

History or Wayne County. 37

 

ut private schools, and it was
are So) a finish. whether this
community should take charge of the
great function of government, the
training up of its future citizens. I
remember a man who has passed away
who was a great power in that day,
and some of you gentlemen remember
him, Julius A. Bonitz. He wag heart
and soul in favor of that movement.
I remember that he came to Aycock
and your speaker and asked us to
write the editorials in his great and
useful paper, The Goldsboro Messen-
ger, in favor of the establishment of
the Goldsboro Graded School; and
Aycock and I, from week to week,
wrote the editorials for the paper.
Sometimes Aycock started to write,
was interrupted, left the editorial half
finished, and when the editor called
for it, I would finish the other half.
Sometimes conditions were reversed;
I would start and he finish. I should
like to see those old editorials. I
should like to see them because the
Governor’s style and mine were en-
tirely different, but our hearts were
together on that great BuOpOs on:
The fight was won. How about it now?
Why, it is the most popular institution
in Goldsboro. If a man in Goldsboro
who cares for popularity wishes to
destroy himself utterly, let him put
himself in opposition to the progress
of that splendid institution. Some of
the finest educators in the State have
gone out from its halls. I might men-
tion, Moses, Alderman, Claxton, Joy-
ner, Foust and Brooks and others.
While I admire this modern educa-
tion, while I have the highest respect
for those useful institutions, the State
Normal and Industrial College, _at
Greensboro, and the Teachers’ Training
School, at Greenville, while I know that
it is almost a liberal education for our
boys and girls to come in contact with
those refined and cultured young Wo-
men who come from these institutions
to teach our children, I wish to stop
just a moment and talk about some
old teachers I knew. I want to say
that in this community when there was

upon their characters which will last
through eternity by four good women,
two of whom have gone to their re-
ward; the others linger here honored
and revered by this whole community.
I refer to Miss Mary Carrow, Mrs. M.
D. Crayton, Mrs. M. O. Humphrey and
Mrs. Mary B. Griswold. I do not think
my task would have been complete
until I had paid thig just tribute to
hese noble women.

: mite connection it should be ad-
ded that in the 70’s J. B. Williams and
E. M. Nadal conducted an excellent
school at Fremont.

Another great factor in the educa-
tion of the people has been the press
represented in this county by ‘The
Argus, The Record and The Headlight,
of Goldsboro, The Tribune of Mount
Olive and the Messenger of Fremont,
always conducive to the public wel-
fare. (

In 1881 four young men were licen-
sed by the Supreme Court and came to
practice at this Bar—Charles B. Ay-
cock, Wm. R. Allen, Jos. E. Robinson
and Frank A, Daniels, and in the next
few years a fu'th, Wm. T. Dortch, Jr
They were intimate personal friends
and their youthful regard for each
other deepened with the years without
interruption and bound them together
as with “hooks of steel.” of widely
differing temperaments and gifts, an-
tagonists who met each other in this
arena in many a hotly contested de-
bate, their affection and loyalty for
each other, cemented by generous and
manly rivalry, never faltered. I re-
gard my friendship and life long asso-
ciation and communion with these
golden hearted gentlemen as one of
the great joys with which my life has
been blessed.

Jos. E. Robinson in a few years
left the practice, which I am sure he
would have adorned, for newspaper
work, established the Goldsboro Argus,
which he still edits and which has
been for more than thirty years the
eloquent advocate of every measure
that tended to the material advance-
ment and moral uplift of the com-
munity. After many years of service

 

no public school, worthy of the name,

little children were taught
ae ea and influences exerted

to the cause of public education he
still presideg over the Board of Edu-
cation of the county, with Barnes

 
 

 

38 History or Wayne Counry.

 

Aycock and W. F. English as his faith-
ful associates. His valuable and con-
stant services to the cause of charity
and humanity aided greatly in the
establishment of the Goldsboro Hos-
pital, and other benevolent agencies,
and are known and appreciated by
all his fellow citizens. No worthy
cause will ever lack an advocate so
long as he presides over the sanctum
of the Argus. He was on the staff of
Governor Aycock and wears with dis-
tinction his titie of Col. Robinson.
William R. Allen, the student and at
the same time the practical man of
affairs, of well balanced and highly
discriminating mind, from his youth
prepared hig cases with scrupulous
care and argued them with unusual
clearness and directness. He early
became a well grounded, accurate
and painstaking lawyer. His familiar-
ity with the decisions of our Supreme
Court, his facility for putting his hand,
upon them at a moment’s notice as
well as his able use of them, won
early the admiration and the despair
of his lesg fortunate brethren. A man
of tact and delicacy of feeling and
thought, considerate of the opinions of
others, while tenacious of his own,
quiet, persuasive and logical, he has
had a large measure of success in
impressing his views upon his asso-
ciates. He is regarded as a man of
great self control, and he is, but at
the same time of feeling and emotion
seldom exhibited unless when deeply
touched. Steadfast in his friendships,
loyal to his convictions, always ac-
tively interested in the welfare of his
county and his State, his career has
been one of great usefulness. He
served the county as a member of the
House of Representatives during the
sessions of 1893, 1899 and 1901, where
he rendered valuable service as a wise,
constructive legislator, and where he
stood in the front rank of the ablest
statesmen of that body. He was in
June 1894 appointed a Judge of the
Superior Court. He served until Janu-
ary 1895. In 1902 he was elected Judge
of the Superior Court and served un-
til January 1, 1911. In that capacity
his learning, ability and character

where I go, I hear expressions of re-
gret that he no longer rides the dis-
tricts of the State. His conduct of
the business of the Court, his tact
and courtesy, his impartiality and evi-
dent love of justice, the clearness of
his charges which enabled juries easily
to grasp complex and troublesome
questions of fact and law, marked him
as one of the ablest trial judges the
State has produced. In 1910 he was
elected one of the Associate Justices
of the Supreme Court, and worthily
upholds the traditions of that great
tribunal. His opinions, clear, concise
and exhaustive, furnish evidence of
hig learning, good sense and almost
infinite industry.

William T. Dortch, Jr., soon after
his majority was elected Tax Collec-
tor of the County for two terms and
is now serving as United States Mar-
shall for the Eastern District of North
Carolina under the appointment of
President Wilson. He is a son of
William T. Dortch, for many years the
leading citizen and lawyer of the
county, and has inherited and cultivat-
ed a large measure of the great talents
of his distinguished father. He, has
always had a strong hold upon the af-
fections of the people of the county
and has been one of its most popular
citizens. An experienced and capable
lawyer, and an advocate of great pow-
er, he has for many years enjoyed a
large practice and a great influence.
Hig kindness of heart, genial dispo-
sition and excellent common sense
have won him many friends in all
sections of the State. Generous and
so loyal that he counts not the cost
when he can render gervice to a
friend, long live this gallant gentle-
man and close neighbor of mine.

Charles Brantly Aycock—and what
shall I say of the friend of my boy-
hvod, my school and college mate, and
for nearly a quarter of a century my
partner in the practice of the law,
hound to me by ties as close and ten-
der as those that bind brothers of the
same mother? What a heart he had,
that beat in sympathy with all man-
kind! What a generous hand that im-
peverished itself to relieve human suf-

 

made a great impression upon the
profession and the people. Every-

fering! How the poor and the weak and
the helpless appealed to him who was

History or Wayne County. 39

 

strong, helpful and rich in the love of
his family and hig friends! How from
his early youth the passion for the
enlightenment of those taat sat in
darkness burned in his great soul!
Shall I tell in my feeble words of the
great campaign tha. he made for the
little children of the State who were
crying for the light “and with no
language but a cry”? It is written in
the hearts of the people of Noria
Caroiina who responded to his brave
werdg and are fulfilling nis prophecy
that krowledge should unfold its am-
pic prge to the gaze of every child
born of woman. Shall I say how in 2
distant State while making his great
appeal for the enlightenment of all
mankind his great heart forgot to beat
and he rested from his labors? Is it
worth while to tell of hig political
campaigns, of the splendid eloquence
that convinced, thrilled and moved to
action a whole people, of his service
as District Attorney and Governor?
Great as they were, his greatest ser-
vice was his educational campaign,
and such will, I think, be the verdict
of future generations. No purely tech-
nical lawyer could he be, though he
knew the technical side of the law.
No mere case lawyer—lost unless he
found a decision in point, but a lawyer
who knew and loved great principles,
had assimilated them and made them
a part of his speech as well as a part
of his life. How on this spot was
exhibited his greatness as a lawyer,
and his power over the minds and
hearts of men? Here in some
splendid passage clothed in language
unapproachable, when mind and soul
seemed lifted above ordinary limita-
tions, he satisfied the judgment and
stormed the citadel of the emotions.

 

Court in 1910, since which time he has
served in that position.

The Bar to which these young mea
came had a high reputation through-
out the State for learning, ability and
character. Indeed, probably the prin-
cipal reason why I came to this Bar
was the advice of a wise friend, and
he advised this course not only be-
cause Goldsboro was at the time a
railroad center and the county seat of
a fine farming country populated b
sterling and industrious people, bu
principally because it had one of the
ablest bars of the State. The leader
of that bar was William T. Dortch,
who from the building of the Court
House in 1850, and for many years
afterwards, had as his principal an-
tagonist George V. Strong. W. T.
Faircloth, H. F. Grainger, John W.
Bryan, Stephen W. Isler, A. K. Smedes,
I. F. Dortch, W. S. O'B. Robinson,
Swift Galloway, Col. W. A. Allen, Col.
L. W. Humphrey and Nixon P. Cling-
man were the other lawyers practis-
ing here at that time.

William T. Dortch, a native of Nash,
was county attorney for many years,
was a member of the House in 1860,

er of that body. He was
araetourte the Confederate States Sen-
ate in 1862, in which he served until
near the end of the Confederacy. He
afterwards served in the sessions of
1879, 1881 and 1883 as State Senator,
and won the reputation of a wise legis-
lator and a safe political leader. He
had been in his early years a diligent
student of the law, and as early as
1855 was one of the best lawyers of
the State. Judge Strong once told me
that when he came to the bar of
Goldsboro, a few years after Mr.
Dortch, he regarded him as one of

 

He was the greatest among us, stand-
ing, like Saul, higher than his breth-
ren; and, though we envied hig great
gifts, there was no jealousy, but only
admiration and love. No other man
of his generation, and I doubt, of any
other generation of North Carolinians,
has had in so full a degree the re-
spect and confidence and love of his
people.

Frank A. Daniels served as Senator
in the State Senate in 1899 and 1900,

the best informed lawyers that he had
ever seen. Mr. Dortch was a man
of great vigor of intellect, strong com-
mon sense and practical judgment; a
wise counselor in his office, noted for
the careful and thorough preparation
of his cases, for consummate manage-
ment in the court, master of the art
of examining and cross-examining wit-

nesses, exhibiting great power in pre-
senting the law and the evidence to

 

and was elected Judge of the Superior

the court and jury. I have known

 
 

 

 

 

40 History or Wayne County.

 

some lawyers who surpassed him in
some one or more of these qualities,
but taking him all in all, I have
thought that he was the best lawyer
I ever knew. No man has lived in
Wayne who gained in so great a de-
gree the confidence and respect of all
classes of its citizens, Three of his
sons, I. F. Dortch, W. T. Dortch and

J. T. Dortch, have been members of
this Bar.

William T. Faircloth, who was long
one of the most prominent practition-
ers at this Bar, was a native of Hdge-
combe, a diligent and careful lawyer,
of good judgment, who when aroused
presented his cases to the jury with
much vigor. He was at one time
solicitor of this district, served as a
member of the Constitutional Conven-
tion of 1865, was Associate Justice of
the Supreme Court from 1876 to
1879; elected Chief Justice of the Su-
preme Court in 1894, and served from
January, 1895, to his death in Decem-
ber, 1900. His opinions are usually
brief, clear and strong. His excellent
common sense enabled him to see
and present the determining princi-
ple of the case, and to fortify his de-
cision by the citation of the authori-
ties sustaining it. In this last posi-
tion he won much reputation among
the lawyers of the State.

It is interesting to recall that in
1878 and 1879 Hon. F. M. Simmons,
now senior Senator from North Caro.
lina, lived in Goldsboro and practiced
law as the junior member of the firm
of Faircloth & Simmons, and that while
living here he married his first wife,
Eliza, daughter of Col. L. W. Humph-
rey.

H. F. Granger, a native of Greene
county, associated with John W. Bry-
an, was doing a practice almost equal
to that of William T. Dorich. He
served as a member of the House at
the session of 1881. Mr. Granger was
a sound lawyer, careful and indus-
trious, and an advocate of real
strength. He was one of this strong
array who died in the year 1884.

John W. Bryan, his partner, a native
of Wayne, a quiet, studious lawyer,
who was not attracted to the contests
of the court room, devoted himself to

 

the study of the law and the business
of the office. It was the general im-
pression of the young men who came
to the bar that his opinion on a legal
question was as valuable ag that of
any of his associates. On account of
ill health, he retired from the prac-
tice about the year 1887. He served
as a member of the House at the ses-
sion of 1891.

Stephen W. Isler, one of the most
eccentric but kindest of men, was a
great student and for many yearg read
law for about fourteen hours a day.
It was said that he had read, among
other things, the Revised Statutes of
the United States including every de-
cision cited in them. He was excep-
tional in being a man of large prop-
erty, the management of which en-
grossed much of his attention. He af-
terwards removed to Kinston where
he has recently died.

George V. Strong, a native of Samp-
son, had shortly before I came to the
Bar removed to Wake, retaining, how-
ever, hig practise at this Bar which
he always attended, and at which he
was a great figure. Shortly thereafter
he formed a partnership with Chas.
B. Aycock and F. A. Daniels which
lasted until 1886 or ’87. He wag a
gentleman of fine manners, a most
industrious lawyer who never rested
content until he had seen and thor-
oughly examined every authority on
every side of every proposition. His
acute and somewhat subtle mind en-
abled him to see a subject at so many
angles that there resulted sometimes
an uncertainty of conviction, which,
however, did not militate against his
eloquent and persuasive presentation
of his views to the court. He was
not the equal of Mr. Dortch in the
practical management of his cases,
but I have never known hig superior
in the domain of law. He surpassed
all his associates in literary attain-
ments, and in beauty and felicity of
speech. In his youth he wag a poet
and published a volume of verse about
which later he became sensitive and
endeavored to recall from circulation.
He afterwards represented the county
of Wake in the House, and served as
Judge of the criminal court of that
county. He served as a member from

RRR SETS eT

History or Wayne County. 41

 

Wayne in the State Convention of 1861.

A. K. Smedes wag at that time in the
full meridian of his powers. A man of
great ability, fine judgment and thor-
oughly immersed in the study of the
law. He read law, talked law, thought
law, but still had leisure for the cul-
tivation of literature and intercourse
with his friends. His genial and cor-
dial manner, dignity, kindness of heart
and unselfish service to the young
men of the Bar won their hearts, and
have kept his memory green. He died
in 1884 at thirty-eight in the full ma-
turity of his great faculties. There
was no honor to which a lawyer could
aspire that could not have been his
if his life had been spared. His last
argument to the jury in a capital case
was so able a presentation of the law
of circumstantial evidence that it has
ever since served as a model to his
brethren. I have heard it substan-
tially made by members of this Bar at
least a hundred times.

I. F. Dortch, son of William T.
Dortch, a well informed lawyer, strong
speaker and elegant conversationalist,
did a large office practice, wrote most
of the deeds and wills and settled most
of the estates of the county. He also
appeared in most of the important
litigation. In clearness and direct-
ness of speech, in the grouping of the
facts of his case, and in his ability to
impress the jury, he had few equals.
He represented thig Senatorial District
in the General Assembly of 1876 most
acceptably.

William Smith O’Brien Robinson, a
native of Wayne, the son of John Rob-
inson, for four years District Attorney
for the Eastern District of North Care
olina, and for eight years, from 1895
to 1903, Superior Court Judge of this
District. 1 have found in traveling
over the State that he made many
friends who keep him in remembrance.
He is a brilliant lawyer and advocate.
I recall several of his arguments be-
fore juries which in real eloquence
and power stand out in my memory
ag among the best I ever heard. He is
endowed with the Irish gift of humor
which brightens and illuminates not
only hig public speeches but his pri-
vate conversation. In many counties
of this State, as well as in his home

 

county, his love of justice and his
hatred of oppression, and the original
and brilliant manner in which they
have been demonstrated have left a
lasting impression. Social, genial and
loyal to his associates, he has drawn
and held a multitude of friends. He
is the only practicing member of the
old Bar, Jno. W. Bryan being the only
other survivor. I trust that he may be
long spared for the delight of his
brethren and the good of the commun-
ity. ;

Swift Galloway, a careful and ac-
curate lawyer and model Solicitor, was
possessed of extraordinary powerg of
eloquence which often produced great
effects. His sense of humor and his
goodness of heart are cherished by
those of us who knew him. After leayv-
ing the county he represented the
county of Greene in the House of Rep-
resentatives.

Col. W. A. Allen came from Duplin
to Wayne shortly after the young men
I have mentioned began to practise.
He had been a practicing lawyer for
many years in Duplin where he had
made a great reputation as an able,
safe and learned lawyer. He was the
father of Hons. O. H. and William R.
Allen. He took a large part in public
affairs in his early life; served in the
General Assembly with much reputa-
tion as a wise legislator, and rendered
valuable services to his State. It was
always his ambition to go upon the
bench, and he would probably have
been elevated to that position but for
the fact that while a member of the
Legislature in the early ‘70s he in-
troduced and secured the passage of
a usury act which so grievously of-
fended a number of the bankers of his
District that they secured his defeat
when he was a candidate for that
position, He did not live to appreciate
the honors conferred upon his sons,
but his wife and their mother lived
until both her sons were known, hon-
ored and respected throughout the
State. Col. Allen died in 1884.

Col. L. W. Humphrey, a native of
Onslow, moved to Goldsboro in the
spring of 1865, and engaged in the
practice of his profession here, and
was an able and accomplished law-
yer, but with strong bent towards

 
 

 

42 History orf Wayne County.

 

business. With Hon. W. A. Smith in
the early 70s, Col. Humphrey built the
hotel now known as the Kennon, on
East Centre street, and he was the
first to engage in the erection of
brick business buildings. He served as
president of the A. & N. C. Railroad,
and I have heard it said, made one of
the best presidents that corporation
hag ever had. He was the father of
Earle A. Humphrey, at present a mem-
ber of this Bar, County Attorney and
Solicitor of the County Court, and of
D. C. Humphrey a member of this Bar
and City Attorney of Goldsboro.

Nixon P. Clingman, not actively en-
gaged in practice, a man of fine liter-
ary attainments and poetical taste,
whose numerous poems found many
admirers.

W. C. Munroe, a genuine Scotch
Presbyterian and a native of Bladen,
came from Greene to this Bar in the
early ’80s, after a successful career
there. He was a man of unusual in-
tellectuality, of fine literary taste and
a learned, industrious painstaking law-
yer, a delightful companion and con-
versationalist, devoted to his friends
and unswerving in his loyalty, He
Wag the author of Munroe’s Annota-
tions, greatly prized by the Bar of the
State. At the request of the members
of the Bar, among whom he was re-
garded as better fitted by learning,
training and patient industry than any
lawyer of the State, he had begun
shortly before his death the prepara-
tion of a digest of our Supreme Court
Reports, but failing health prevented
the completion of this great undertak-
ing and deprived the profession of a
much needed work. He represented
the county in the session of 1895 of the
General Assembly.

I have the most pleasant recollec-
tions of the kindness of every one of
these gentlemen from the eldest to the
youngest. Their helpfulness and kindly
consideration for their younger breth-
ren begot in us an affection that the
lapse of years has left undimned.

In 1881, when I came to the bar, the
Officers of this court were W. T. Yel-
verton, clerk, and D. A. Grantham,
sheriff. I have already spoken at some
length of Sheriff Grantham. W. T.
Yelverton belongs to one of the old-

 

 

est families in the county, and is a
taan of intelligence and high character
and one of the best officials I have
ever seen. He taught me about all I
ever knew about the probate prac-
tice. He soon after retired from
office and with W. H. Smith formed
the hardware business of Smith &
Yelverton, to which on the death of
Mr. Smith, he succeeded.

In conclusion let us trust that while
this building shall stand the lawyers
who practice here shall have a high
sense of their responsibility to their
clients and to the court, may giow in
ability, learning and character, and
maintain the high standard established
bv the old time bar; that the officers
of the court may sustain the reputa-
tion bequeathed to them by their pre-
decessors; that the jurors shall meas-
ure up to the requirements of the
Statute, and always be men of good
moral character and of sufficient in-
teligence to discharge properly the
great duties committed to them; that
the Judges who shall preside here
may be men who know the law, lovers
of justice, endowed with great abilities.
of high character, who shall know
neither the person of the poor nor the
person of the rich, administering the
law in the spirit of humanity, doing
judgment in righteousness. May no in-
nocent man ever be convicted within
these walls, and may no guilty man
escape.

Let us remember the language of
the great Webster that. “The Chief
concern of man on earth is justice.”
Let us write over our portals the im-
mortal words of Jefferson ‘“Hqual
and exact justice to all men.”

Note.

I am indebted for much of this ad-
dress to that great mine of informa-
tion the Colonial and State Records,
Wheeler’s History, J. Bryan Grimes’
Notes on Colonial North Carolina,
Diary of a Geological Tour of Dr.
Elisha Mitchell, edited by Dr. Kemp
P. Battle, L.L.D., the records of the
Courts, unpublished notes on Golds-
boro by Mrs. Julia Winslow, address
by Nathan O’Berry, Esq., before the
Chamber of Commerce of the City of

History or Wayne County. 43

Goldsboro, 1912, Hon. M. O. Sherill,
State Librarian, Hamilton’s Recon-
struction in North Carolina, many citi-
zens of Wayne, and especially to Vol. I
History of North Carolina by Capt.
Samuel A. Ashe, the only history of the
State that deserves the name. I regard
it a serious reflection upon the patriot-
ism of our people that so few volumes
were sold that, though the material
for the second volume completing the
work is ready for publication, the
means are not available to secure it.

 

There are in the State enough patri-
otic citizeng who have the ability to
insure the publication of this great
work who will do it when their atten-
tion shall be directed to this public
duty.

The people of the State and their
children should not lose the benefits
of the labor of this able, scholarly and
industrious North Carolinian whose
family and himself have largely con-
tributed to our past achievements.

 

W. P. ROSE,

Builder of Wayne County Court House

 
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