Four Oaks and Its Great School
In the sketch of Johnston County in the last issue,
it was impossible to do justice to the several good
towns and communities. Since that issue, we have
visited Four Oaks and got better acquainted with the
community. At the former date we did not know the
name of the principal of its great school, probably
the world’s largest consolidated school so far as the
number of country children assembled from a large
area is considered. Lo, we discovered ah old ac
quaintance and friend in charge of this great institu*
tion—J. T. Hatcher.
Mr. Hatcher was reared in the Rose Hill section of
Irtplin County. He is a brother of the popular Ham
let physician and of Mrs. Bernard Alderman, the
young lady who has made quite a reputation among
the Alderman connection for her most readable and
comprehensive records of the clan meetings.
An £nro9ment of Nearly 2,000.
The Four Oaks school is equipped with three excel
lent buildings. Its area extends as far as seventeen
miles, including the Bentonville area which is so
sparsely settled as to make it impracticable to estab
lish and maintain a school of high rank out there.
The consequence is, the Four Oaks school has an en
rollment of nearly two thousand students, and ac
tually has an average attendance of more than 1500,
despite the fact that the great majority of "its pupils
cue from the farms.
The factulty consists of forty-four college-bred men
and women. Nearly all of them have degrees from
four-year colleges—the rest have tworyear' normal'di
plomas. Attorney.and Representative Gilbert Grady
volunteered the statement that the community is al
most absolutely void of criticism of any of the teach
ers and that it is a most harmonious and efficient'
group. Mr. Hatcher.is clearly a man capable of the
great responsibility placed upon him. He has held
the reins of the institution for several years and
seems likely to remain indefinitely as its executive.
Four |Oaks a Beai/tiful Village
Four Oaks is a lovely village* It is surrounded by
one of the fine agricultural areas of Johnston County
and was built up largely by the people of the com
munity. When the Wilson Short-Cut was constructed
forty-eight years ago, several fine young men came
in and began a development that has resulted in
their own enrichment aiitT a solidity of community
interests that withstood the very Worst of the depres
sion. Its bank, for instance, headed by Mr. W*. J.
Lewis as president, R. C. CannadaS1,-vice-president,
and Bert Lassiter as cashier, stood the'test without a
quiver.
Mr. Lewis is a .native of Grantham township,
Wayne County, He came to Four Oaks twenty^five
years ago and has been constantly engaged in the
general merchandise and furniture business. He
buys much couutry produce and states that he pays
out *10.000 to $15,000 annurtiljvfor poultry, eggs, and
other farm products. He is: p genial gentleman.
Mr. Cannadny is a twin broker of Claude C. Can-.
naday, a vigorus contestant foiT the Solicitorship in
the Fourth district. After taking a course in phar
macy at the University, Mr. Cannaday worked two
years for the Hood and Smith drug store at Smith
field. In 1015, he borrowed $2,000 and set up a drug
store at Four Oaks. He had* paid'back that money
in a very short time and was oif the way to pros
perity. He owns the building in which the bank is
located, his own drug store, and other valuable Four
fiaks property. Mr. Cannaday is a man who makes
friends readily and his success is not at all surpris
ing.
Mr. Lassiter, too, is a liome-grown product, and has
shown splendid banking ability. The capital of .the
institution is $37,500. -It seems to be really perform-,
ing the functions of a community bank.
R. B. Adams is a Harnett product, born near what
is now Erwin. He has been merchandising at Four
Oaks since the inception -of the town, and according
to his own words, was at one time able to lose a
half-million dollars and still not be- broke. He is pot
only a general merchant but a cotton buyer and gin
ner. Mr. Adams attended old Trinity College in
1884-85 and there met his wife, who is a daughter of
the then professor of mathematics, Professor Bandy.
Four Oaks’ other druggjst is Bert Barefoot, who,
like Mr. Adams, is Harnett reared, being a native of
the Dunn community. A fine fellow he.
Dr. J. B. Surles came from the Linden community
of Cumberland County. After attending ttife State;.
University, he secured his medical diploma at Jeffer
son Medical College. That was in 1909. He prac
ticed five years at Lumber Bridge, Robeson county,
and came to Four Oaks in 1914. He got his,wife in
Robeson—Miss Marietta Parham, jy . :
H. M. Johnson is a newcomer to Four Oak*. He
was a country* merchant, but moved to Four Oaks
last February and has already launched-a successful
business career, it appears. .He la a graduate ©
Kingfs Business College: -He has recently taken-*
brief course in cott&n ’grading and plans to^cbmpete.
ABOUT SfoORE COUNTY AND ITS PBOPfJE
/(continued from page two)
:ST? nleCti0D‘ The Dem^atic candidates nun.^
iimA* ^ Camer°“’ wh0 made a good record in the,
• • session and is tiring to succeed himself, W. rt.
Uegg, prominent Carthage attorney, N. L. Gibbon of
La weview, and Jesse Frink. 5
There are two of tfae Clegg lawyers in Carthage.
They are of the old Chatham Clegg family Mr.
rink the writer doesjiot know. But I wish to tell
you of N. L. Gibbon. . :
A Cosmopolitan for The. I^shtva.
Mr. Glbsbon is an industrial.engineer somewhat*
after the order of Herbert .Hooker, though his em
ployment has been confined to this country, if his
travels have not been. For Mr-and Mrs. Gibbon are
great travelers and have visited^the old world more
than once, one of those trips carrying them nr ,und
the world. And let me say before I give you Mr.
Gibbon's business career that Mrs. Gibbon /formerly
Miss Ethel Parcher of Blddeford, Me., is a charac
ter herself. IShe has recently wrltctd’i a song which
is being published and is told oy ?he publishing com
pany that it will'take fifty more of her productions.
Born in Mechlenburg county, young Gibbon atr
tended State College where he was one of the early
graduates in Textile engineering. He graduated in
1897. He wag. employed first by the noted D. A.
Tompkins Company. He was up to his neck in the
cotton mill industry in Greenville, S. C., for a time.
Next he associated .himself with Textile Machinery
Company of Biddeford, Mo., and as that company’s
reyresentative _went hither and thither, introducing
new machinery and more economical methods in the .
cotton mills of the country. During the war he was
government purchasing agent for the, Muscle Shoals
development, no little job. He served as a member
of the Customs Investigating Committee of 19 for
f|pts for digestion by"Congress in its discussien- of
the i\>rdn^y-McCumber Tariff Bill in 1923.
He is now taking life easy in a small cottage at
that most lovely Moore county village of Lakeview..
Mr. and Mrs. Gibbon are not trying to play big Ike
at Lake View. The latter .says they prefer to spend
any excess of funds in travel rather than in a showy
home. This couple is among the folk whdm Bion
Butler tells of coming to the Sandhills just because
with the other Four Oaks buyers next fall. He ip
likeable young, man. • « •. ^
The name Stanly always interests me. There was
one Stanly family down in Sampson during my child
hood—poor but intelligent. Miss Lou Stanly was one
of my teachers and capable for the schools of that
time, though she had probably not been to school her
self more than twenty months. The old-time teach
ers were the very brightest intellects a-going—(jfher
wLse they could not have been prepared to teach.
Well, lower Johnston seems to be "the Stanly nesting
place. I presume the Sampson family drifted down
from this section. It is gone now, though ope of the
► daughters of the one son was back in Clinton as a
teacher some years ago. The Chatham County Stan-,
iys trace back to Johnston. Well, here is Dr. J. H.
Stanly, one of the Johnston stock and located at Four
Oaks. He is one of the home-grown physicians, hav
ing secured his education in the University depart
ment of medicine when located in Raleigh and di
rected by Dean Hubert Royster.
The Stanly name is one of the really, aristocratic
names of old England, and was for a period repre
sented in North Carolina’s, aristocracy—at New
Bern—when North Carolina boasted such an animal
as aristocracy. ~ ~
Mr. J. B. Creech is another home-grown boy who
made good as a-'Four Oaks merchant. He is a brother
of Chas. A. Creech of Smithfield, whom many of our
readers knW. Mr. D.H. Sanders is another'strong
merchant. He has the one strictly hardware store
of the village.
Lewis Keeh-^-Here is'Four "Oaks’ one candidate"for
county office this year. Mr. Keen is a native of In
grams township, is "well-known as a young man of
ability and integrity and, is so endorsed by' the lead
ing citizens of his town as a candidate for treasurer
of Johnston cotfntyr He- 'has formerly served' as
mayor of Four Oaks. He was a World War soldier -
and participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive with
the Fighty-sebond’ ditfSien-' He wiff be hard to beat -
for that treasurer’s jo& His brother, Seth Heen is
one 'of' Johnstoifs staunch farmers and"Uyes nearby
four Oaks.
UliX C'aiiO. ’ .
Other prominent citizens of the village are J. W.
Sanders, J. H. Austin, W. A. Massengill, R. A. Keen,
3. Ft •fetrickland, James A. Creech, and S. H. Sherrill.
. The writer-ie under miuch Abligatian to-Represcnta
ire Gilbert Gsady for kindness shown Mm. Mr.
Jrady is not^'m candidate to succeed himself as a
oembea of, thfe-House; He sayShe cannot afford the1
oxtuyi; And* one Cannot blame hiaar Prosperous,^
rtthia mosGchanhing companion, with a lovely homey
^dlenty-todwep irfmdntsyrHflbert' Grady should he
i happy yodhgster, and seems t« be." ‘ /
it is a new E«|en. By the way, that Batter article has
: come in since I wrote the general sketch of Moors
comity and it is quite Interesting to note the simi
larity of views of his and mine about the early life "
in Moore. ' ’0 ,
Mr. Gibbon has teal ideas which he wishes to pre
sent to the Legislature. If elected, he will be heard >
from. "He would be the most cosmopolitan' charac
ter that has attended -the General Assembly in some
time.
^— A Southern Pines Lawyer. -
While telling of the lawyers, I wHi mention W.
Duncan Mathews, of Southern Pines. ffe is a na>
tire of Yadkin county and a brother of Dr. Matthews*,
well known physician of Sanford. For fifteen years
he was a teacher, Vass being one of the places where
he wds principal. In 1926 he turned to the law and
has a good practice at Sohthern Pines. He married'
' Miss Rachel Cameron, daughter of the former Nabob
of the Vass community, of whom I will . say more ~
when Vass is reached in this prolonged story.,
Cartnage Physicians and Dentists. _.""V
I have Spoken of the patriarch of the medical pro-:
fession. Shields. Next meet Dr. A. McNeill Blue,
thoroughly Scotch in heredity and name The first I
two names come from his grandfather, that same
magnificent gentleman vwho served 32 years aa clerjc
of the Moore 'Court. Dr. Blue is a son of a physi
cian, Dr. 3? C. Blue, who, unfortunately, died when
his son was only six years old. Dr. Blue, one of the
cleverest gentlemen you could meet in a nonth of
blue moons, is an; A. B. Graduate of the State Uni
versity. He took his medical degree at Tulane Uni
versity. His wife was a Miss Beam of Statesville.
Dr. F. H. Underwood is another native of old
Sampson and a brother of Dr. Underwood of Rose
boro. He is a dentist, a graduate of the University
v of Maryland. He has been located in Carthage ten
years. He get a wife at Glendefej noted as the home
of that superb physician Dr. M. E. Street. She was
Miss Ida Davis. Dr. C. 'E. McManus is a_Cathamite.
Hie took his professional course at Richmond. For
years he practiced at High Point and* has been in
Carthage only a short while. Dr. Chas. T. Grier is
a native of Mechlenburg and) has been in Carthage
for 20 years. He was educated at Davidson, includ
ing his medical course. He spent 2 1-2 years in th»
army.
There are doubtless other physicians in Carthage
hat I failed to ,«neet ..and get notes about them.
A 'Fdw Other Citizens of Carthage, i
Moore, of course, did its full part in the isfcar Be* •
tween the States and in the World War, and here is
Capt. W. J. Black back home after 17 years in the
army, beginning with service on the border with
Company K of Asheboro,- He.took training at an of- r
fleers’ training camp in 1j9J.7 .an4-re-entered the ser
vice as a second lieutenant. He went over in Sep
tember 1917 and returned unscathed in 1919, though
he “went over the top” eleven times and was in six
of the biggest engagements.. It became a joke in his
regiment that if all the other officers should be kill- -
ed or wounded reports were to be made to Capt.
Black, who would be Johnnie on the Spot. He was
promoted to his captaincy in October .1918. Evi
dently, Capt. Black liked the army, as he has just
retired from it. But he would better look out 6r an
automobile will do for him what all the German guns
failed to do—put him out of commission.
Mr. Wilbur H. Currie is apparently a youngster,
though he says he has been in the Lumber business
at Carthage 15 years and is chairman of the Moore
county board of commissioners. He is. seeking re
election, and we bet that he wins.
Here is another fine fellow—J. L. McGraw, of old
and distinguished South Carolina stock. '’After serv
ing in the aviation department of the 30th Division
of the army during the world war, he came to Moore
county, where he Is engaged in business, and serves -
as a justice of the peace. .. s " ■
McQueen' Bailey really,belongs to Vass, but is s|
county main’by virtue of his office of county survey
or. He is a fine fellow and is mentioned here when
in mind. ' _ _ ■
And here.I am about to omit the two men who are
doing more rthfn all the others to, keep Carthage on :
the,, map—-John Beasley and. Ted Frye, makers of the
Moore County News, which is right now about the
jbest paper Carthage has^eyer had in her long' his
tory... Mr. Fry is a Moore , county product; John
Beasley is a son of George Beasley, senior member ;
of the l\fonroe? Joumjl publishers, and a nephew of
Editor Rowland ^Beasley. •
"The name* Kowan has always.intrigued ns. I here
met Mr. T. H. Rowan, a fine fellow, which meeting.;
affords me an opportunity to write of the Rowans,
hot all the space that can be spaTfed for this article
is hsecj up, and that matter and the stories of the
several towns and their leading citizens will-have to t
await the next Issue. Really, it is impossible to give
in even the spaed 'allowable in the pent issue all I
should like to sajr of Moore aud its Age dtitens, bat
something must be left to sajr in other years. #
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