 1856 - UNKNOWN
-
| Name |
William Allen Erwin |
| Birth |
15 Jul 1856 |
Morganton, Burke, North Carolina  |
| Gender |
Male |
| College |
Kentucky |
| Name |
Will Erwin |
| Residence |
4 Dec 1874 |
Burlington, Alamance, North Carolina |
| Residence |
1877 |
Burlington, Alamance, North Carolina |
| Residence |
1893 |
Durham, Durham, North Carolina |
| Death |
UNKNOWN |
| Notes |
- From this home, after the usual training in the village school, then kept by Mr. William Moore of South Carolina, and later at the Finley High School in Lenoir, North Carolina, he entered the University of Kentucky, where he passed two years, returning before graduation to enter upon the work of his life.
On December 4, 1874, he became a salesman in the general store of Messrs. Holt, Gant & Holt at Company Shops, now Burlington, North Carolina. With these gentlemen he remained till 1877, when he accepted the position of bookkeeper in the office of the North Carolina Railroad in the same town.
On December 4, 1874, he became a salesman in the general store of Messrs. Holt, Gant & Holt at Company Shops, now Burlington, North Carolina. With these gentlemen he remained till 1877, when he accepted the position of bookkeeper in the office of the North Carolina Railroad in the same town.
Since 1893 he has lived at West Durham, North Carolina, having planned, built and successfully managed the large Erwin Cotton Mill in that flourishing city
bErvin, William Allen/b
Burke COUNTY has been productive of men from the earliest times who have been of service to the State and have reflected credit upon themselves and the county. Among such men the Erwin family have ever had a place. Alexander Erwin, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a noted partizan soldier in the first Revolution. He was one of the commissioners who laid off the town of Morganton, and was honored by the men of his day with many important trusts. There is a tradition, still surviving in undiminished vigor, that after peace with Great Britain it was his wont on public days in Morganton to make loud proclamation that "all Tories must leave town before sundown." It is further said that there is no instance recorded where he was not taken at his word. Certain it is that if the opinion of his contemporaries is to be taken as a proper judgment, he was a stout-hearted old hero of the most pronounced Whig type. His son James married a daughter of Colonel Martin Phifer, also of Revolutionary renown, and from this union sprang Colonel Joseph J. Erwin of Bellevue, the father of our subject. He well maintained and in some respects surpassed the family name for integrity, patriotism and Christian citizenship, being one of the finest types of all-round manhood it has been the good fortune of this writer to know. Governor Vance, who knew him long and intimately, and was of kindred blood, once spoke of him as like the old Paladins of romance in his chivalrous consideration for the weak and erring, in his manful resistance to every wrong, in his loyal obedience to justly imposed authority, in his veneration for the church and its Founder. Truly, he was a fine model of the old-time Southern gentleman, appearing best in his own home, which he made the seat of refinement and a Christian courtesy, surpassing all the adornments of courts and official life. He was particularly fond of young men, to whom he often extended a helping hand and most wholesome and excellent advice. He was a man of singularly gentle and courteous address, with firm will power, clear judgment and cultivated mind. For more than thirty years he was a leading vestryman of Grace Church, Morganton, the trusted adviser of successive bishops, a veritable pillar of the county's social structure. He recognized at all times the claims of the public upon him, and served them as clerk of the Superior Court for many years, and subsequently at different times in the legislature.
Governor Graham designated him during his term as one of his aides, and his rank as colonel came from this appointment. Colonel Erwin's wife was Miss Elvira J. Holt, daughter of Dr. William R. Holt of Lexington, North Carolina, a gentleman of very high culture and standing in the State, for years an able practicing physician and in later life owned and conducted Lin-wood farm, near Lexington, noted for its fine crops, its improved breeds of cattle, sheep and horses, which he imported to the State. He graduated at the University of North Carolina in the class with Governor Morehead and other distinguished men, and was one of the founders of the State agricultural Society. Mrs. Erwin survived her husband by many years, and has only recently been laid to rest beside him in the quiet churchyard of the parish with which the best part of their lives is inseparably blended. No sketch of Mr. Erwin would be complete without mention of the influence his mother had over him for good. She was no less striking in character than her noble husband. To her wise rearing and advice even more, perhaps, than his father's he owes his lofty ideals, his aspirations and ambitions. She was indeed a true woman of the highest type of culture and refinement, generally acknowledged as one of the brightest, strongest and most admirable characters in Western North Carolina, where in her day she was the charming hostess of the old Bellevue homestead, and entertained there many distinguished visitors. At this old home place she was called to her reward at the age of seventy-nine, with four sons and six daughters, all honorable and strong men and women, at her bedside, who are living witnesses of what she proved as a wife and mother.
William Allen Erwin was born at the family homestead, "Bellevue," on Upper Creek, three miles from Morganton, July 15, 1856, and was the first son and fifth child of the aforementioned parents. His early life was spent out of doors upon the farm, and there was laid the foundation of that fine constitution which has since stood him in good need in the many and various employments of his subsequent most active life. Nor can there be well imagined a more choice surrounding for the development of lusty young manhood than that with which he was favored.
The Blue Ridge, with its ever-changing lines of beauty, snow crowned or sun kissed, bounds the northern and western horizon. The rapid flowing Catawba is a mile distant, the family seat is the spacious brick pile of the old South, with wide firesides and lofty ceilings, the surrounding valley is fertile and receptive to every touch of the husbandman, the air is tonic with the breath of native, untouched forests, while church and school and social enjoyment with cultured people are within half an hour's ride. From this home, after the usual training in the village school, then kept by Mr. William Moore of South Carolina, and later at the Finley High School in Lenoir, North Carolina, he entered the University of Kentucky, where he passed two years, returning before graduation to enter upon the work of his life.
The war, which left in its wake so many wrecks in the Southland, causing grey hairs before their time and bowing heads with heavier weights than years, had not spared Colonel Erwin, though his lot was more fortunate than most of his fellows. It became necessary for young Erwin to take upon himself a man's work before he had reached man's estate, and he went about it without a murmur and with that cheerful confidence in himself, far removed from self-conceit, which has been a distinguishing trait in his character. On December 4, 1874, he became a salesman in the general store of Messrs. Holt, Gant & Holt at Company Shops, now Burlington, North Carolina. With these gentlemen he remained till 1877, when he accepted the position of bookkeeper in the office of the North Carolina Railroad in the same town.
A year subsequent he became a merchant on his own account, and continued in that line until 1882, still at Company Shops. All this while he was growing in usefulness, in repute, in knowledge of men and affairs, which in time was to place him among those captains of industry who are the pride of the new South. He was and is essentially one of those men who do things. That is his true claim to a place among the prominent men of our State. It is a just and worthy claim fairly won, and the State cannot shower esteem upon any class of her citizens more worthily than upon these approved workers. From 1882 to 1893 young Erwin rapidly rose in the profession which he now adopted for his life work, to wit, the manufacture of the South's great staple, well called King Cotton, as its power over the lives of men is a truly regal one. These years he passed in Alamance County as treasurer and general manager of the E. M. Holt Plaid Mills. Since 1893 he has lived at West Durham, North Carolina, having planned, built and successfully managed the large Erwin Cotton Mill in that flourishing city, and ranking among its leading citizens. This fact of itself is a distinguished compliment to any man, as few towns within the South contain within their borders a coterie of more alert business chiefs than reside in Durham.
In his chosen line of work, cotton milling, he has the responsible management of probably more spindles and looms than any one man in North Carolina, a list of which is given below:
Alpine Cotton Mills, Morganton, 10,500 spindles; Cooleemee Cotton Mills, Cooleemee, North Carolina, 40,000 spindles and 1296 looms; Durham Cotton Manufacturing Company, East Durham, North Carolina, 26.000 spindles and 824 looms; Pearl Cotton Mills, Durham, North Carolina, 11,000 spindles and 240 broad looms; Oxford Cotton Mills, Oxford, North Carolina,6500 spindles; Erwin Cotton Mills at Durham and Duke,60,000 spindles and 2000 looms.
These mills employ a capital of nearly $5,000,000. No two of these mills are producing the same kind of goods, and all the weaving mills are on varied lines of colored fabrics, more difficult to manufacture and employing more skill and capital than the plain white goods, and all are on a successful operating basis, and most of the mills reaping the benefit of well-established brands and makes of goods in their various lines.
Mr. Erwin has for twenty years been superintendent of his church's Sunday-school, at Burlington first and later in his present home. At the same time he has rendered continuous service as a vestryman, following in this, as in other ways, the footsteps of his lather. Nor has he forgotten his early farm training, it being one of his few boasts that he surpasses his neighbors in gardening.
Blessed is the man who has found his life work and loves it is the language of the old proverb, and this blessing has surely been Mr. Erwin's lot. And then the finest point in the man's make-up remains to be noticed. It is his unselfishness. Prosperous himself as the reward of honorable toil, he has reached out to help others, and we know of perhaps a dozen young men whose lives have been directly or indirectly, through his influence, thrown into channels of permanent usefulness to themselves and their families. Here is the truest of all honor and renown, the fruits of which are to be gathered in the great hereafter.
Not the commanding position this man occupies among the South's textile workers, not his personal success in the world's marts of trade, but his loving kindness to his fellow-men. his sympathy with the sorrow and ill-luck of others, constitutes the bond which make those who know Will Erwin love him. In person Mr. Erwin is a striking, commanding figure, with the dark eye and hair of his family, a family distinguished for the beauty of its women and the strength of its men.
He is yet in the prime of vigorous manhood, and bids fair to achieve great results in the development of the State's long dormant water-power, now being turned to new uses through his own and others' agencies. The work undertaken in Harnett County by himself and associates in business is one among other instances of what is promised North Carolina in her ever-brightening future. Here it was that about two years ago a spot was selected on a beautiful plateau, high and dry, about one and one-half miles on the west side of the Cape Fear River, and about the same distance from the old town of Averasboro, and in the original pine forest was laid out and built a modern and model mill village, whose broad streets are now lighted by electricity, and in the town, named by Mr. Erwin "Duke," in honor of the president of his mill, Mr. B. N. Duke, the Erwin Cotton Mills Company's No. 2 mill is being operated successfully. This mill now employs some 800 operatives, and the town holds about 2000 souls. Churches, graded schools, department store, market, bank and every reasonable convenience has been provided, and to Mr. Erwin is due the credit of planning and building this village with all it contains, and which promises some day to be many times its present size.
A man's purpose in life is, of course, best known to himself. In a recent letter to his friend, the editor of this sketch, Mr. Erwin says of himself:
"One thing that I desire you to specially know, and that is that I have striven not to become rich, but have centered my whole heart and soul in the desire and ambition to make a man after the type of my father in character, and with it to maintain his name and honor, and to establish for myself all the success in a business way that faithful, earnest and persistent efforts may bring.
"I would be glad for you to know, in dealing with the several thousand operatives and families of same, that I have striven unceasingly to uplift and make their lives better. In this work I have found pleasure, and trust that in it I may be permitted to broaden my field of labor."
This writer makes no apology for inserting the unconscious tribute which is conveyed in the above, taken from a private letter, which it was assumed would never see the light.
But no restriction guards the estimate which a near and dear friend of Mr. Erwin's puts on his work in behalf of religion and good morals. He writes as follows from Durham, North Carolina:
"Mr. Erwin has been active and faithful all his life in church work. He contributes largely of his means to the church here and at his mill towns. He has conducted a mission Sunday-school at Burlington and West Durham for about twenty-five years, and his Sunday-school at West Durham now is a very flourishing one, and would be an object lesson to most superintendents.
"In his work of cotton milling he was one of the first men in the State to reduce the hours of work from twelve to eleven hours per day. He also, some twenty years ago, stopped working children under twelve years of age, which the legislature prohibited only two years ago. He got established in the mill town of West Durham the first graded school in the State outside of town limits wholly supported by the public school fund. He has been most active in building up the moral atmosphere of his mill communities. He persistently refuses to work at any of his mills any hand of questionable character. He has encouraged the education of his operatives, having at each mill town a nice school. He has around his mills a better grade of tenement houses than is generally found at cotton mills. The new town of Duke particularly is an ideal mill town, each house being a comfortable home. At every mill he has anything to do with there are good schools, good homes and churches, and the towns are well ordered and the people law abiding. He has given much of his energy to providing for the operatives those things that care for the bodies as well as the souls, the hearts and minds of the people.
"He has been one of the best friends of St. Mary's School, Raleigh. He was appointed chairman of the committee to buy the present school property from the Cameron estate, and succeeded in doing it on favorable terms after one committee, appointed before Mr. Erwin's committee, had reported that it was impossible to buy it at all. He takes a great interest in this school, and is always willing and ready to give his time and attention to anything pertaining to its welfare.'
No sketch of this genial gentleman would be complete which omitted some reference to his married life, that inner sacred circle where the true man finds his chiefest happiness.
Mr. Erwin found the partner of his life on the 23d of October, 1889, in the person of Miss Sadie L. Smedes, the youngest daughter of the late Aldert Smedes, D.D., the founder of St. Mary's School of Raleigh, North Carolina. Four children have blessed this union and received that Christian culture which is hereditary on both sides of the house. We know that the true basis of all high civilization dates from and is founded on the family. North Carolina is blessed in the main with a high type of citizenship, and his is one of the many Christian homes dotted over her great area from sea to mountain. From the Revolution to this good hour have come forth from these firesides men and women who have given the State its distinctive character for conservatism, integrity, purity of public and private life. Their way in some respects may be old-fashioned, but time has proved it a good fashion, and the young man beginning to build a name can do no better than follow it.
The life of the subject of this sketch is illustrative of a continuous building upon a good foundation laid in the past, and for that reason alone is worth more than a passing study.
iW. S. Pearson./i
i(Source: Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to Present, By Samuel A. Ashe, Vol. III, published 1906)/i
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| Person ID |
I24201 |
McKenzie Genealogy |
| Last Modified |
13 Feb 2012 |
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