Dr. James Sprunt
Оно
of flic greatest men that
ever lived in the Cape Fear sec¬
tion. lie was great not only in
the field of business lint also in
religion and literature.
By R. C. LAWRENCE
THE
пято
Sprunt savors of Wil¬
mington as murli as Duke doe* of
Durham, Cannon of Concord,
Reynolds of Winston, Cone of Greens¬
boro, Kitehin of Scotland Xcck, Con¬
nor of Wilson. Weil of Goldsboro,
Holt of Rurlington, Webb of Shelby,
or Avery of Morganton. The Sprunts
have been in Wilmington a long time,
and they have rendered signal services
not only to Cape Fear but to the state
at large.
Dr. dames Sprunt was born at Glas¬
gow, Scotland, but bis parents moved
to Carolina when he was barely live
years old. Stieh schooling ns lie re¬
ceived was at Grove Academy at Ke-
nnnsville and at Mr. Jewett's school
at Wilmington. He had no college
training, as the Civil War broke out
when he was fourteen, and the service
of the state during that struggle, the
“havoc of war and the battle’s confu¬
sion." prevented bis attendance at the
University. Hut he regarded an edu¬
cation as being so essential that after
working all day, lie studied under a
lutor at night, and thus acquired the
foundation for the broad learning that
he made his.
Running the Blockade
In 1811 the Sprunts began llieir
service to the South, his uncle. Rev.
Л.
M. Sprunt of Duplin becoming a
chaplain in I.ee's army. Dr. Sprunt
became an officer on the blockade run¬
ner Lilian, commanded by the famous
Confederate naval officer. Captain
Л.
X. Mnffitt, and this Moekader made
several successful voyages, bringing
to the port of Wilmington medicines
and other supplies which could not be
produced at home and which were es¬
sential for the Southern armies in the
field. Then one day the Lilian was
hemmed in by four Federal cruisers,
shelled and sunk, and the members of
the crew were captured and carried to
either Fort Macon or Fortress Mon¬
roe. Dr. Sprunt was exchanged after
an imprisonment of several months,
whereupon he wen! right lo blockad¬
ing, and served upon the Susan Heirnr
until the port of Wilmington was
closed, following the fall of Fort
Fisher.
For more than half a century after
the war. first in association with his
father. Alexander Sprunt, and later
with his brother William H. Sprunt,
he built up the firm known through¬
out the South ns Alexander Sprunt
and Son, one of the largest cotton ex¬
porting firms in the United States,
which did business not only through¬
out the South, but which had over
fifty agencies in foreign lands. The
name of Sprunt became, and still is.
as well known to Southern business
as are the names “Dun" nr “Brad-
street. "
Just where he found the time for
his varied activities is more than
Г
can say. Ho became such an outstand¬
ing figure in the literary world that
the University conferred upon him the
degree of LL.D. : lie served as Presi¬
dent of the State Literary and Histori¬
cal Society; lie was made a member
causa honoris of Alpha Chapter of
Phi Beta Kappa at the College of
William and Mary, the oldest college
in the United States. TTe served ns
trustee of the University, as a member
Ilf the Wilmington School Committee;
as chairman of tlm Board of Naviga¬
tion and Pilotage: as President of the
Seaman's .Society, and other organi¬
zations. In Colonial Philadelphia.
Benjamin Franklin loomed so large
in the life of Pennsylvania, that when
any new enterprise was to he launched,
they first saw Mr. Franklin. If he
disapproved, the project was dropped :
if lie approved, his endorsement was
sufficient to put it across with the
public. In the same manner did Dr.
Sprunt write his name upon the life
of Cape Fear.
British Vice Consul
He was the British vice consul
fur over thirty years, and when the
Cuban warship Cuba was seized and
dismantled by the Federal authorities,
Dr. Sprunfs report was such that it
received the warm commendation of
the British Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs.
Large as was his service in the field
of business, he rendered his state an
even wider service as a churchman
and as an author. As early as lSflti
he published “Tales and Traditions
of Capo Fear." a hook well illustra¬
tive of its title, which has lieen widely
circulated, and is regarded by schol¬
ars as authoritative in its field.
Ill 1001 he published "Tales <if the
Blockade of Capo Fear" and when our
legislature authorized the publication
of the history of the Carolina Civil
War regiments, Chief Justice Clark
called upon Dr. Sprunt to write the
history of blockade running. Indeed.
Dr. Sprunt was the only person in
the state who could have written it.
and who possessed personal knowledge
of his subject. His monograph in¬
cluded not only the names of the
blockade runners, but also a list of
their masters, and here is the only
place where the names of those «In*
served in this branch of the Southern
(Continued on jHige tu’cnty-Ihrcc)
9
