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674 Chronicles of the Cape Fear Rwer

William J. Harahan, president of the Seaboard Air Line
Railway, whose office is in Norfolk, was born December 22,
1867, at Nashville, Tennessee. He entered the railway service
in 1881. A messenger and clerk in the office of the superin-
tendent of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, New Orleans,
in 1884, he has risen by gradations first to the vice presidency
of the Erie Railroad, January, 1911, and then, September 26,
1912, to the presidency of the Seaboard Air Line Railway.

The evolution of a great enterprise illustrates the law of
natural selection and the survival of the fittest.

Charles R. Capps, the vice president, was born in Norfolk,
Va., March 4, 1871, and educated at Roanoke College, 1886-
1888. He entered the railway service in 1888 as messenger of
the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad. Until July 12, 1895, he
held various positions in the general freight office of the Sea-
board Air Line, and from December 1, 1909, he has been vice
president of the same system. Through many financial vicissi-
tudes and changes of administration in the Seaboard Air Line,
he has stood fast in his loyalty to his first love, declining attract-
ive offers of more profitable employment elsewhere, and with
his promotion step by step, he has fulfilled and exceeded the
highest expectations of the Seaboard management, until today
he is generally recognized as one of the most eminent traffic
managers of the railroad world.

An important factor in the development of this great rail-
road system was that watchdog of the treasury, Capt. John H.
Sharp, now of Atlanta.

When, in 1862, the Seaboard and the Raleigh and Gaston Rail-
road bought of Capt. D. R. Murchison the controlling interest
in the Carolina Central Railroad stock, Capt. John H. Sharp,
formerly of Norfolk, was employed by Mr. John M. Robinson,
president, to take up his residence in Wilmington and proceed
to open up a new set of books, in order to make the accounts of
the Carolina Central correspond with those of the parent roads.
On the retirement by reason of physical infirmities of Treasurer
James Andrews, Captain Sharp, who had been the secretary of
the company, was chosen treasurer to succeed him. On July 2,
1893, when the headquarters of the Seaboard System were moved
to Portsmouth, Va., the treasury departments of all roads of the
system were consolidated, and upon the recommendation of
Mr. M. V. Chambliss, treasurer of the Seaboard, Captain Sharp
was chosen treasurer of all roads of the system, which necessi-

 

 

Peace Restored 675

tated his leaving Wilmington. While a resident here he fra-
ternized with our prominent citizens, and it was a matter of

sincere regret upon the part of all that a separation took place.
From that time until now he has felt an interest in Wilmington

as great as when a resident here. This is manifested by his
annual visits. When in January, 1904, Mr. T. F. Ryan ob-
tained control of the Seaboard system, Captain Sharp and his
colleagues were not reélected to their respective positions. That
Captain Sharp’s services with the company were appreciated,

however, is manifest by the fact that his name is still retained
on the pay roll of the system.

HUGH MACRAF’S ACTIVITIES.

A remarkable family to whom Wilmington owes much is the
MacRae family. In 1770 Roderick MacRae, called Ruari Doun
(Brown Roderick), landed at Wilmington and went to Chatham
County, where he married Catherine Burke. One of their sons
Colin, married Christian Black, of Cumberland County end
their eldest son, Alexander, in 1824, when about eighteen yours
of age settled in Wilmington, where for three generations the
MacRaes have led in enterprises of importance to the com-
munity. The first of the name in Wilmington, Alexander, long
known as Gen. Alexander MacRae, was a leader in the oonstean-
tion of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. To the intelli-
gence and enterprise of one of his sons, Col. John MacRae
chairman of the building committee, was chiefly due the erection |
of our beautiful City Hall, one of the finest examples of classic
architecture in the South. Another son, Donald MacRae, was
for fifty years one of the foremost citizens of the une. ever

promoting what was for its advantage, and his example has been
followed by his two sons, Donald and Hugh.

Of Hugh MacRae it is to be said that of all the men of public
spirit who have labored to advance the interest of the Cape Fear,
he is entitled to preéminence. A philosopher has said that the
man who plants a tree is a public benefactor. Of how much
greater service to mankind is he who plants a colony of small
farmers in a wilderness of waste land, and by the application of
modern scientific methods makes that wilderness blossom and
bear fruit and food products a hundredfold! This Hugh Mac-
Rae has accomplished, adding immensely to the debt of grati-