REMINISCENCES OF PENDER COUNTY, NO, 4 Telling not only of the live* of More Elderly Pender But Giving- Glimpse* of Youth* Since Become^^rommen^^y ^^ See J>. M. Stringfield Expecting to Go To C g , Ac John Larkin* Aping the Superb Orator Dr. Ha tion Against a Crew of Hazers Led By Robt. C. Lawrence. By CHAS. H.UTLEY On becoming superintendent of the schools of Pender county, for perhaps a year I had served the Baptist church at Atkinson as pastor. Hence the center, of the memories that inspire this ar ticle cluster around that church and village. And I well remember that before getting acquainted with the people as a whole those I met told me that the open-heartedness and hospitality of the community we "e known and noted and that it would be a pleasure to me to know, associate with, and work with the folks of that community; and I can truthfully testify that every promise was amply jusnfied by eperience.x No incident of an unpleasant nature, either in the local school there, or the church, ever occurred while I knew and mingled with the Atkinson people. Witt. H. Lewis In every community some person stands out, .because of character and usefulness, more prom inently than th^ general run of people. This is abundantly true of the community under con sideration in the person of Mr. W. H. Lewis. I !am sure his neighbors, then and now, would bear me out in this statement. For he has stood out as a leading citizen for many years. He is a Chris tian gentleman of the finest character, ever on the alert for the betterment, uplift and welfare of his neighbors and the people of his county. He is, and has always been trustworthy, and trusted, never abusing any confidence reposed irtf him as a Christian, a neighbor, and a citizen. He has served his community in perhaps every local of fice assigned the. locality; and come years ago served his district in the State senate, in which he is said to have honorably redeemed every pledge made his constituents. For many years Mr. Lewis has been a leading farmer, illustrating to his Mss progressive neighbors the advantages! of scientific agriculture. In the days when I saw him frequently he had a fine farm, used the most modern methods; and produced abundant crops. In his home Mr. Lewis, together with his splen did wife, formerly a Miss Peterson from Samp son county, lived up to the finest traditions of the Old South, in generous and freehearted hos pitality. He had a good home whose doors have, through the years, opened to unnumbered guests, > 'always welcome, royally entertained, and always cordially invited to come again. An ardent friend of education, Mr. Lewis was one of the prime movers for the establishment of a local high school, one among the first established in the State when provision wras made for them by the legislature. He educated his own children, not only in the local school, but in the colleges, his son becoming a prominent dentist, a specialist - and expert in a certain line of dentistry, the oldest daughter, May, a superior young lady, dying in the very prime of young womanhood, soon after completing her education. A second daughter be \came the wife of a Presbyterian minister. For thirty-five years Pender county has had few citi zens the equals of Mr. Will Lewis, and one su perior. (Make it 45 years—Editor.) A man of more than average commonsense, cool in tem perament, not easily provoked/possessing a mind clear and eager for the true and the best in life’s relationships, unselfish and altruistic, the friend of the poor, and the generous helper of i.the needy, the name of Will Lewis is the synonymn of good citizenship in Pender county and hon ored by his neighbors, friends from childhood. Hast Bachelor-Brother Joe Yes Joe was, and I am told, still is. And here may, be the reason for it. When I knew him for many years he had courted a certain lady whose name I refrain from calling; however, one mid-summer, she visited in the home of relatives, in the home of Mr. Wash Henry, and the time having come to return home, several miles away, one evening she meekly informed her long admirer that the time had come for her return home; and it was not only plowing time but in the middle of the week, the grass growing and! the ground moist and mellow, so, to her great surprise, Joe said, “I can’tt stop my plow now to take you home.” On my next visit to the community the head of the host family, Mr. Henry, told me about it and the lagk of chivalry on the part of an, unmarried irfan toward a fine young lady, and added Such a man doesn’t deserve a wife.” Mr, Dave Lewis had a son who became a Pullman conductor on the Southern railroad, whom I met several years later several times. Mr. Jeff Lewis* Jeff Lewis, in early manhood, married a Miss Stringfield, sister to Attorney D. M. String* field of Fayetteville. After her untimely death he was more than fortunate in marrying the sis* ter of his former wife, Mis9 Gallic Stringfield. This second Mrs. Lewis was a woman of super ior ability, and a superb character. She was known and admired by her many friends for her sterling qualities and uniform usefulness in more than one relationship of life. She, too, has passed to hef reward and she certainly deserved a rich one for the service she had rendered and her fine exam ple to her neighbors and Christian associates. Edwin A. Hawes Here was a typical representative of the Old South, in some, if not in other ways. Mr. Hawes had much of the world’s goods, especially in lands. Later he sold his timber for almost a half million dollars. He believed in education for his own children, sent two of his sons through, the University,one of whom became a physician, but died early. The other, Edwin, more than once represented his county in the legislature, built a fine home in Atkinson, married, served the com munity efficiently on’ the local school board, fot years, was a progressive citizen and, when I knew him, a successful business man, very courteous and accommodating. But the father seemed to lack vision in the potentialities and possibilities of education for the masses. He never really seemed to see the public as did the founder of the great party to which he gave unstinted alle giance, Thomas Jefferson, who said “The common, schools are the colleges of the common people.” The Colvin Family Of the Colvins there were two Jims, both gone, years ago; both splendid citizens. Youftg Jim Colvin was a member of the Board of Education that elected me county superintendent of schools. I knew him best in that relationship. He was the friend of education, a surveyor by profession, and a genial gentleman. D. M. Stringfield Meeks Stringfield’s two sisters hecame the wives of Mr. Jeff Lewis, as related above. Dur ing my last year at Wake Forest college Meeks Stringfield roomed. with he. He had a rather brilliant mind, had an unusual memory, and is one of the very few men I have known who can or could write a speech, lay the manuscript away, and get up and repeat the speech verbatim, and do it so eloquently. I well remember the last night of commencement when 1 was tired out and had crawled into bed, Meeks came in, apparently. a flame with the ambition of a typical college boy and kept me awake telling me just how many years before he would be in Congress. Later he changed his mind as many of his fellow students did. Yet the boy of that day has landed the important position of assistant U. S. district at torney. Von Bullard is his partner in the legal firm of Stringfield and Bullard. Not a few1 Fayetteville people have told me that Stringfield and Bullard are the leading lawyers of Fayette ville. I may be permitted to add a story of Von /Bullard in the days at the old college when not only mild hazing but blacking was the order, not of the day but of the night. I had spent the sum mer! there in the law classes of Dr. Gulley, a great man and a great teacher. In this summer class Von Bullard had been a student. He was a fine specimen of young manhood, weighing, per haps, more than two hundred pounds. As the blacking nights drew near with the opening of the fall term Bullard said to me: “Utley; I aiii uneasy; I don’t want to be blacked.”—Parenthe tically, he roomed in one of Dr. Poteat’s houses,' near the railroad, famous; rooming places in the history of Wake Forest.—In reply to him I ask ed, "Who pays your room rent?” "I do,” he re plied. “Then,” said 1, "that room is your home. You have a perfect right to bar anyone you choose from entering that door, and if he enters over your protest he does it at his, own risk.” He and Self-Opinionated But Gk yes; if the people of North Carolina particularly the press, like a self-opu,ionat ’ and consider that quality a mark of superi ness for a public trust, they have him in Fr h t \ Seely. But hard-headedness may be mer .N headediiess. It happens that f. once wi — good sense of Mr. Seely and found it wanf'^ But he was hard-headed enough. I tried to t him from inciting to a massacre, but rJuT Many hundreds of innocent negroes died to deg's because of his failure to heed my warni'6 He declined to publish in his paper the pr0r against his apparently deliberate attempt t0 J furiate the whites of Georgia, and particularl Atlanta,- and I received his signed refusal reh 1 publish it because my view was contrary to hi A week or ten days, as I recall, brought‘the god less massacre. s No; Mr. Seely’s opinion is not infallible and there is little reason for North Carolina to fear that his place could not have been as well filled if his resignation5 had! been allowed to stand Let’s have no “slobbering” over Mr. Seely. Carl Goerch got out very neatly by tendering us a fine compliment for scholarship. p)llt / fun of the thing was that I beat Carl on his own ground. Candidly, Friend Carl, I do not feel it much to brag about to beat you in the matter of scholarship, but to beat you at your own »anie is another matter. h b - _ seemed to get an idea. The blacking season arriv ed and was on in full Vigor. Unwisely a bunch of fellows who did not know the prospective vic tim as some of us did, came to his room late at night bent on fun. They were led by Bob Law rence, later sa prominent lawyer in Bumberton. Qh entering the door Bullard told them to “turn back,” when they seemed to hesitate Bullard grabbed something like a Smith and Wesson and bored a hole through the ceiling as a starter, and added to his admonition, “ be quick about it.’’ The rumor was that there had seldom been such a foot race as followed. From that night Von Bul lard was not eWn threatened with a shining up. As Mr. Alf PaddisOn of Burgaw once casually remarked, ‘They woke up the wrong pr. senger. John Larkins John Larkins from Atkinson entered Wake Forest when this writer did. I knew him intimate ,Ly. during his stay of four years at the college John was a good student, punctual, studied hare made the grade always, delighted in debate, coulc make a good speech, was always heard witth in terest by the fellows. However, about John’s sec ond year in college the institution was visited by Dr. Hall, one of the finest speakers that ever graced the platform, a fine, strong personality, commanding in appearance, scholarly and eloqu ent. He was to lecture in the evening and to ad vertise ihvited the boys in the afternoon chapel to hear a free lecture. He had a full house; his theme was “God, yesterday, today and forever. It was certainly a masterly address; choice lan guage, such phraseology and descriptive adject ives as one hears only a few times in a lifetime, came, eloquently delivered. His gestures were nearly perfect as possible. His audience listene with rapt attention. With his prepared lectur^5 Dr. Haircould have graced a platform Daniel Webster* He captured all of us, but hyp notized John Larkins, and the hypnotic sPe was never broken. Unconsciously John assurne the posture of Dr. Hall, and something of pathos and eloquence of the lecturer. Natura, the boys afterwards called John “Dm a ^ However, be it said, in compliment, no f>ner ample could have been found to exemplify. 'At Atkinson I found the father of Join>, Eli Larkins, postmaster. But mv _ article lS^ ready too long. However, the family 0 ^ George Smith certainly deserves mention. * Smith was the sister of Franklin and. Keith. Mr. Smith was-a quiet, unassuming a a typical gentleman, loyal to family and frtf ^ merchant, fair and square in his dealings, ^ stood high with his customers and *ue” A wife and mother, a fine home maker an ^ reared her children in the nurture and a tion of the Lord. The oldest daughter, ^ ^married Ramond Corbett, lives at Atkin < ^ is a teacher under the ERA set up for a u^ose cation. There were others at the vi age ^id; memories are richly* cherished but sPace poClis all the reminiscences that crowd into ^ ^aVe of memory. It has been my good fortune ^ known many, very! many, most exce on r ^ been many times entertained'ts "their 0 < to have enjoyed their royal hospital y> ^ have claimed them then, and to t inr now, as my friends* -■ n

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