Prominent people of North Carolina: brief biographies of leading people for ready reference purposes

80 PROMINENT PEOPLE OF NORTH CAROLINA Preparatory School, Mr. Chambers entered the law office of John Sprunt Hill, who was then practicing law in New York. In June, 1903, after completing a two years' course at the New York Law School (evening department). Mr. Chambers came South with Mr. Hill, and after a summer course in law at the University of North Caro¬ lina, located in Durham, N. C., where he is now practicing his profession, associated with Mr. R. O. Everett. An article written by Mr. Chambers for the North Carolina Journal of Law for December, 1904, entitled: “The Young Practitioner in New York,’’ tells the story why Mr. Cham¬ bers left the metropolis for one of North Carolina’s leading cities. In November, 1903, Mr. Chambers organized the Guw.in Medical Com¬ pany, of which he is now its vice-pres¬ ident. This company has had a most phenomenal success in placing on the market an external remedy known as “Gowan’s Pneumonia Cure.” Mr. Chambers is a Mason and an Elk. ANDREW JOYNER BURTON. Andrew Joyner Burton was born in the city of Raleigh. He is the son of Rev. Robert O. Burton, D. D., one of the most distinguished ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His mother was the daughter of Col¬ onel Andrew Joyner, of Halifax county, who for a number of years was State Senator, a large part of the time being Speaker of the Senate. At that time there was no Lieutenant Governor, as now, and tile Senate elected its Speaker, as the presiding officer was then designated, and whose office was equivalent to that of Lieu¬ tenant Governor as at present known to our law. Mr. Burton was named after his grandfather, Colonel Andrew Joyner. During his infancy his father moved to Halifax county. Не was educated at the University of North Carolina and has always been interested in its welfare. He obtained license to practice law and located in Halifax county. He was elected solicitor of the Criminal Court of Halifax, and after the expira¬ tion of his term, was elected to the House of Representatives. Subse¬ quently. he moved to Reidsville, in Rockingham county, where he iontin- ued the practice of his profession. In the year 1902 he wds elected Senator from the 20th district (Ro'.kingham county constituting the di?Tict), and was re-elected in 1904. N both ses¬ sions he bore an active part >n the legislation of that body. He is a prominent pember of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having been at one time the Grand Master of the Order in North Caro¬ lina, and probably the youngest who ever held that position. He has always taken an active in¬ terest in public affairs and in the pro¬ motion of the welfare of the State. GEORGE HUBBARD BROWN, JR. Was barn in Washington, N. C, May 3, 7850 Mi- father was Sylvester T. Brown, a farmer, and his mother before her marriage was Miss Eliza¬ beth Bonner, a daughter of Richard Bonner, a merchant of Washington. He was educated in Horner’s Acad¬ emy at Oxford, N. C, and was pre¬ pared to enter the sophomore class at Chapel Hill, when the college closed in 1870, during the reconstruc¬ tion era. He studied law under his brother-in-law. Judge Shepherd, and was admitted to the bar June, 1872. He first practiced law at Washington with F. B. Satterthwait for two years, then alone. During 1888 he was as¬ sociated with John H. Small, and went on the Superior court bench January 1, 1889, and on the Supreme court bench January 1, 1905. He married Miss Laura E. Ellison, daughter of Henry Ellison, at one time sheriff of Beaufort county, and a large dealer in turpentine. CLAUDIUS DANIEL HOLLAND Was born September, 1865, in Rock¬ ingham county. N. C. His father was Dr. E. B. Holland, a physician and surgeon of Gaston county. His mother was Miss Julia Courts, a daughter of Daniel W. Courts, who was treasurer of the state for thirty-eight years, con¬ sul general to Matanzas and a repre¬ sentative in the Legislature from Sur¬ rey. Stokes and Rockingham counties. He was educated at the Hudson River Institute and in the United Jf OTth (*>r- '7‘ л PROMINENT PEOPLE OF NORTH CAROLINA 81 States Military Academy at West Point. He studied law with Colonel George N. Folk in Caldwell county, and was admitted to the bar in 1888. He practiced in Dallas, Gaston county, for the first two years of his profes¬ sional career then moved to West Vir¬ ginia, where lie practiced for nine years. In 1899 he returned to Dallas and resumed his practice at that place and in Gastonia. He has been mayor of Dallas for one term; a representa¬ tive in the State Legislature from Mercer county, West Virginia, in 1893; United States commissioner of the Western District of North Carolina from 1900 to 1903, when lie was ap¬ pointed postmaster of Gastonia by President Roosevelt. He married Miss Lizzie Brett, of Fluvanna county, Virginia, in tSg7, and has two daughters and a son. HON. B. F. LONG Was born in Alamance county, and is of German and Scotch ancestry, a son of Jacob Long, who died in his 88th year in 1З94. His mother lived until her gist year in the old family homestead near Graham. He entered Trinity College, this state, when 18 years of age, and grad¬ uated in 1874, as the valedictorian of his class, and in 1876 received the de¬ gree of Master of Arts. He taught Latin and history for two years in the Graham High School and then attended Judge Pearson’s law school, completing his course Janu¬ ary, 1877. The following year he en¬ tered the law class of the University of Virginia, and finished the two years’ course in one, taking the degree of Bachelor of Law and received the ora¬ tor’s medal awarded by a committee of the faculty, and delivered the ora¬ tion at the commencement in June, 1878, as representative of the Wash¬ ington Society. He moved to Statesville in 1878 and formed a law partnership with Hon. Wm. M. Robbins, which was dissolved in 1893, when Mr. Robbins was ap pointed the Southern commissioner on the Gettysburg Battlefield Commis¬ sion. He edited and published the “Law Lectures of Judge Pearson” in 1879, from notes which he had taken while a student at the law school, a work useful not only to law students, but to the members of the legal pro¬ fession generally. In 1901 he was one of the attorneys of the chief justice, and his associate in the impeachment trial before the Senate of North Caro¬ lina. Among the honorable offices he has held it may be noted that in 1880 he was appointed by Judge Gilmer re¬ ceiver of the Western Division of the North Carolina Railroad, and served for five years. He was chosen solici¬ tor for Iredell county in 1881, and was twice elected to that office. In May, 1885, he was elected mayor of Statesville, but resigned in 1887 to enter upon his duties as solicitor for the Eighth Judicial District, to which he had been elected that year. He was unanimously elected solicitor in 1890 and re-elected by over 5,000 ma¬ jority. In 1894 he was nominated by the Democrats of the Eighth District for judge of the Superior court but was defeated with the rest of the Democratic ticket. In 1902 he was elected judge of the Superior court for the Tenth District. He married the beautiful daughter of his law partner, Miss Mamie Rob¬ bins, on December 23, 1879, and has three children living. MILES OSBORNE SHERRILL Was born near Sherrill’s Ford, Ca¬ tawba county, N. C-, July 26, 1841. He left school at Taylorsville, in April, i86t, went to Newton and joined the first company organized in Catawba county. He remained with the com- any in camp, on the march, on the attlefields, until May, 1864, at Spott- sylvania court house, Virginia, when he was put out of business by the loss of his right leg. He was captured and spent the remainder of the war in Northern prisons. After the war he looked after his mother’s farms and engaged in a small mercantile busi¬ ness. On the first of May, 1867, he was married to Miss Sarah R. Bost, daughter of Captain Joe M. Bust, who commanded the Spartan Rangers, and was mortally wounded near Peters¬ burg, Va., on June 29. 1864. and died on July 1, 1864. They have seven children, who arc all living. In April, 1868, Mr. Sherrill was elected judge of probate and clerk of the Superior court of Catawba county. He held that office for fourteen years;