Jerman, Cornelia Petty

By Donald R. Lennon, 1988

1 Dec. 1874–4 Feb. 1946

Cornelia Petty Jerman, leader of the North Carolina woman suffrage movement and Democratic party official, was born near Carthage, the daughter of William Cary and Emma Virginia Thagard Petty. She was graduated from Oxford College in Oxford, N.C., in 1892 and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Mass. In 1898 she married Thomas Palmer Jerman of Raleigh. Moving to Raleigh, she immediately became active in the city's social life. She was a charter member of the Woman's Club of Raleigh, serving as president from 1909 to 1911 and as chairman of the building committee during the construction of the first and second club houses. She subsequently became president of the North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs and a trustee of the General Federation of Women's Clubs.

Mrs. Jerman was in the forefront of the woman suffrage movement in North Carolina. She helped organize the Raleigh Equal Suffrage League and in 1919 was elected president of the North Carolina Equal Suffrage League. At a special 1920 session of the General Assembly, which considered and rejected ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, Mrs. Jerman fought futilely for women's right to vote. In 1921, she led a movement to organize the State Legislative Council to sponsor constructive legislation in the fields of health, education, labor, and corrective institutions; from 1922 to 1933, she served as president of the council. She also led an effort to organize the Raleigh League of Women Voters and served as its president. When the Democratic state convention met in 1922, she served as vice-president of the convention and became the first woman in North Carolina to address a Democratic state convention as a delegate.

In 1920, 1924, and 1928 Mrs. Jerman was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. As the gubernatorial campaign began in 1928, there was speculation that Mrs. Jerman planned to run for governor; however, she declined to enter the campaign. She was appointed to the Democratic National Committee in the same year, and she actively campaigned for Al Smith in 1928 and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.

In 1934, the Roosevelt administration selected Mrs. Jerman for the post of assistant collector of Internal Revenue for North Carolina. This appointment required her resignation from the Democratic National Committee and her relocation in Greensboro. She remained in the federal post until 1939, when she resigned and returned to Raleigh.

In June 1943 Mrs. Jerman was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by the Woman's College in Greensboro. She also served as a director of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad and the Wake County Savings Bank, and was a member of the Fortnightly Review Club, the St. Cecilia Music Club, and the Women's National Democratic Club of Washington, D.C.

On her death in Raleigh, the News and Observer called her the "State's First Woman." She was survived by a son, Thomas Palmer, Jr., and a foster daughter, Cary (Mrs. John P. Cooper).

Cape Fear River Settlements

Attempts to explore and colonize North Carolina's Cape Fear region (now Brunswick, New Hanover, and other southeastern counties) spanned 200 years prior to the permanent occupation of the area by English settlers. Although first discovered by Giovanni da Verrazano on behalf of France in 1524, a Spanish expedition under Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon entered the river in 1526 and explored its banks before moving farther south to establish an ill-fated settlement. In 1662 William Hilton explored the river on behalf of Massachusetts Bay colonists. As a result of Hilton's report, New England Puritans went to the area in 1663, only to leave almost immediately after posting a notice at the point of Cape Fear disparaging the land along the river.

By the early summer of 1664, a group of "adventurers" from Barbados, led by John Vassall, settled in Lower Cape Fear, encouraged by a second voyage to the river by Hilton. Vassall and his party proceeded to the newly created Clarendon County without awaiting the outcome of negotiations with the Lord Proprietors for the terms of settlement. Vassall's colony founded Charles Towne about 20 miles upstream near the mouth of what later became Town Creek. The settlement rapidly grew to almost 800 persons, but untenable terms for settlement by the Lords Proprietors led to its decline. After negotiations with the Proprietors failed, the Proprietors appointed Vassall's rival, Sir John Yeamans, as governor of Clarendon County. Yeamans, who preferred a settlement farther south, discouraged colonization on Cape Fear. Because of the unfavorable decisions from the Lords Proprietors, along with growing hostility among the local Indian population, settlers fled the region. By early 1667 Clarendon County was inhabited only by its Native American population.

The earliest permanent settlement of the Cape Fear Valley took place in the spring of 1726, when Maurice Moore occupied lands on the south side of the river and laid off the town of Brunswick about 12 miles above its mouth. After the failure of the Vassall colony, the region had remained uninhabited except by native tribes until 1724-25, when Governor George Burrington spent the winter exploring the Cape Fear River and contemplating its potential development. In 1725 he issued grants for almost 9,000 acres in the area, primarily to a powerful group of settlers who were joined by blood and marriage. "The Family," as they came to be known, included Maurice, Roger, James, and Nathaniel Moore of South Carolina, along with the prominent North Carolina Allen, Porter, Moseley, and Swann families, all of whom were joined by marriage.

Although these important families acquired more than 100,000 acres along the river and dominated the initial landholdings in the region, rival settlers poured into Cape Fear during the 1730s, establishing the town of Wilmington and pressing upriver on both the northwest and northeast branches of the river. Wilmington, located on the east bank of the river near the fork in its branches, quickly replaced Brunswick Town as the center of commerce for Lower Cape Fear and as the seat for New Hanover County. By the outbreak of the American Revolution, the younger town was vying to become the leading municipality in the province, whereas Brunswick would soon be taken over by the forest that bordered the river.

The arrival of Gabriel Johnston in 1734 as governor of the colony of North Carolina ushered in a period of rapid growth in the Cape Fear region. Thousands of Scottish Highlanders settled as far as 100 miles above Wilmington. By 1760 a community known as Cross Creek was established at the head of navigation for the river, and two years later the town of Campbellton was founded nearby. The communities were combined as Fayetteville in 1783.

In addition to the English and Scottish Highlander colonists, a variety of other nationalities attempted to settle in the region. A group of Welsh homesteaders sought to occupy the area between Cape Fear (Northwest Branch) and the Northeast River. Although little is known about the venture or its degree of success, their location continued to be known as the Welsh Tract as late as the Revolutionary War period. Developers also looked for substantial tracts of land on which to establish settlements of Irish Protestants and Swiss. Although the Scotch-Irish occupied a tract on the Northeast River, the Swiss colonization effort failed.

A plantation economy developed from the beginning of settlement, and considerable numbers of African slaves were transported to the area from the West Indies, South Carolina, and other colonies. In 1790, when the first federal census was taken, more than 38 percent of the population of the Lower Cape Fear counties of New Hanover, Bladen, Brunswick, Duplin, and Onslow consisted of black slaves. Naval stores and lumber-the products of vast acreages of pine barrens-became the primary exports, although animal skins, rice, and grain contributed to the region's export economy.

The forest and farm environment of Cape Fear was not conducive to the development of an urban environment, and Wilmington and Campbellton remained the only substantial towns in the region. Attempts to establish the towns of New Exeter and South Washington on the Northeast River were largely unsuccessful, and efforts to develop a town as the seat of Bladen County finally resulted in the establishment of the village of Elizabeth Town in 1773 between Campbellton and Wilmington. Otherwise, the Cape Fear region had no significant community or commercial center until after the American Revolution.

Attachment Clause

The Attachment Clause in North Carolina colonial law allowed for the garnishment of the property of nonresidents in certain cases of debt. The controversy surrounding British attempts to delete this clause from the court laws-often referred to as the "Court Quarrel"-provoked severe anti-British sentiment in the colony immediately preceding the outbreak of the American Revolution.

As early as 1746, the colonial Assembly had included in the court laws a clause that allowed creditors to attach property owned in North Carolina by nonresidents of the province in order to satisfy their debts. The British Board of Trade ignored the clause until 1770, when a newly appointed legal adviser raised objections to certain aspects of the attachment provision. The board thereupon took the position that attachment as specified in the North Carolina legislation violated acceptable legal practice. The British ministry in 1770 urged the governor to "induce" the Assembly to amend the foreign Attachment Clause or to omit it entirely from the court law. Governor Josiah Martin, newly arrived in North Carolina, was convinced that the provincial government favored colonists at the expense of the British and that the Attachment Clause was proof of the impropriety of their views.

North Carolina lawmakers were determined that the Attachment Clause would be retained regardless of the governor's opposition, and the issue became a crucial factor around which anti-British sentiment developed in the colony. Without the clause, North Carolina creditors would be forced to sue in English courts to gain satisfaction for debts owed by non-North Carolinians; the impracticality of such a procedure was more than they were willing to accept. The Attachment controversy, in the minds of North Carolinians, had become a symbol of the British government's conscious effort to destroy the colony's constitution.

The North Carolina House both appealed to King George III and asked former governor William Tryon (now governor of New York) to intercede with the king on the colony's behalf. Governor Martin, the Board of Trade, and the North Carolina Assembly tried repeatedly to craft compromise legislation, without success. By the spring of 1775, the British Board of Trade was responsive to memorials presented by North Carolina agents in London. The fact that all other colonies utilized foreign attachments without being challenged was a major consideration, as were promises that North Carolina lawmakers would modify the language in their Attachment legislation. By this juncture, however, royal government in North Carolina had collapsed, the governor was no longer in control of the province, and the issue was lost in the rush toward revolution.

Additional Resources:

"Josiah Martin." NC Highway Historical Marker D-89, NC Office of Archives & History: http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?sp=Markers&k=Markers&sv=D-89

Governor Alexander Martin: Biography of a North Carolina Revolutionary War. By Charles D. Rodenbough, Lindley S. Butler. Available online via GoogleBooks.

North Carolina booklet : great events in North Carolina history, 1919, North Carolina Society of the Daughters of the Revolution, North Carolina Digital Collections: http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/p249901coll37&CISOPTR=14180&REC=1

Armstrong, Frank Alton, Jr.

24 May 1902–20 Aug. 1969

Frank Alton Armstrong, Jr., air force officer, was born in Hamilton, the son of Frank Alton and Annie Elizabeth Hobbs Armstrong. Upon the completion of high school and preparatory school, Armstrong entered Wake Forest College, where he played varsity football and baseball for five years. He received the LL.B. degree in 1922 and the B.S. degree in 1925. Following graduation, he played professional baseball for a Sarasota, Fla., minor league team before enlisting as a flying cadet with the U.S. Army in 1928.

Following cadet training at Brooks Field, Tex., Armstrong was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Between 1930 and 1934 he served as a flying instructor at various air bases in the United States and in 1934 was assigned to air mail duty, flying domestic mail between Burbank, Calif., and Las Vegas, Nev. From 1935 to 1938 he was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone, with pursuit and observation squadrons operating out of Albrook Field.

After returning to the United States, Armstrong assumed command of the Thirteenth Bombardment Squadron. In October 1940 he was selected to visit England as an American military observer. During his three months in war-torn London, Armstrong witnessed the German blitz bombing of England and marveled at the determination of the British people. His observations and reports became vital for planning American air operations in Europe once the United States entered World War II late in 1941. By February of 1942, he was back in England as Operations Officer for the U.S. Army Air Corps Bomber Command. As lieutenant colonel and then as colonel, Armstrong served as bombardment group commander, wing commander, and ultimately division commander of the Eighth Bomber Command. On 17 Aug. 1942, Armstrong led the first U.S. daylight bombing raid over enemy territory, striking targets at Rouen-Cotteville, France. In December 1942 he was promoted to brigadier general and given command of the 306th Heavy Bombardment Group. On 27 Jan. 1943 he commanded the first U.S. heavy bombing raid over Germany, which bombed Wilhelmshaven. Armstrong's experiences in Europe during this period became the basis for the successful book and motion picture Twelve O'Clock High.

After returning to the United States in August 1943, he commanded Air Corps training at Colorado Springs, Colo., and became commanding general of the 315th Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy). The 315th, which was to see action in the Pacific Theater of Operations, was provided with the new B-29 bomber, rather than the B-17 Flying Fortress bombers used against Germany. The planes were equipped with a new "Eagle" airborne radar for precision night bombing, and all guns except the tail guns had been removed to permit heavier bomb loads. The 315th was transferred to Guam during May 1945, and for three months it devastated Japanese petroleum refineries and storage centers. On 15 Aug. 1945 Armstrong commanded the longest and last nonstop combat flight of World War II, flying round trip from Guam to Honshu, Japan. When the war ended, Armstrong flew the first nonstop flight from Japan (Hokkaido) to Washington, D.C.

After spending 1946 as chief of staff for Operations of the Pacific Air Command, Armstrong returned to the United States as senior air advisor at the Armed Forces Staff College, Norfolk, Va. In May 1948 he was ordered to Alaska as chief of staff of the Alaskan Air Command. While in Alaska, in September 1949, Armstrong and other members of the Air Command pioneered an air route from Alaska across the North Pole to Norway and from Norway to New York.

fter returning to the mainland in 1950, Armstrong was promoted to major general. He became a part of the Strategic Air Command at McDill Air Force Base, and in October 1952 he took command of the Second Air Force at Barksdale Air Force Base, La. In July 1956 he returned to Alaska to head the Alaskan Air Command, becoming two months later commander in chief, Alaska, with the rank of lieutenant general. Armstrong was deeply disturbed over the inadequate defense of Alaska. On numerous occasions he urged the deployment of intermediate range ballistic missles (IRBMs) in Alaska as a vital link in the American defense system. His contention that Alaska was a logical debarkation point for a Russian attack upon the United States failed to rally support from a Cold War administration married to the "Fortress America" concept of defense. On several occasions his views brought him in sharp conflict with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense. Armstrong retired from the air force in July 1961 after thirty-three years of service.

Among the many decorations Armstrong received for his services were the Distinguished Flying Cross with four Oak Leaf Clusters; the Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster; the Silver Star; the British Distinguished Flying Cross (first British air medal awarded to a U.S. airman during World War II); the Gold Medal of the Aero Club of Norway (the highest civil award of Norway); Belgium's Croix de Guerre with palm; and the U.S. Conservation Service Award for leadership in wildlife conservation in Alaska.

In 1929, Armstrong married Vernelle Lloyd (Fluffy) Hudson of Richmond, Va., who died in February 1962. He married again; his second wife, Mrs. Peggy Jenison Lippe, died in April 1973. Armstrong's only son, Major Frank A. Armstrong, III, was killed in action over Vietnam in 1967.

General Armstrong died at his home in Tampa, Fla., and was buried in Arlington Cemetery.

Murray, James

9 Aug. 1713–1781

James Murray, colonial official, merchant, and planter, was a native of Unthank, Roxburghshire, in the valley of the Ewes, Scotland, the oldest son of John and Anne Bennet Murray, the daughter of the laird of Chesters. After his father's death, James was apprenticed to a London merchant who was engaged in the West Indian trade. Apparently due to his acquaintance with Governor Gabriel Johnston, Murray embarked for North Carolina on 20 Sept. 1735. After a brief stay in Charles Town, S.C., he arrived on the Cape Fear early in 1736 and resided for several months at Brunswick town.

Murray quickly became involved in the economic and political life of North Carolina. He feuded with the Moore family at Brunswick, possibly due to his friendship with Governor Johnston, and then moved to the rival Newton settlement (Wilmington), championed by the governor. In Wilmington, he opened a mercantile business on Front Street and purchased a five-hundred-acre plantation on the Cape Fear River. With Johnston's support, Murray became a justice of the peace for New Hanover County (1737), a deputy naval officer for the port of Brunswick (1739), and a member of the governor's Council (1739). On the Council he joined forces with William Smith, Robert Halton, and Matthew Rowan in their factional disputes with fellow Council members Roger Moore, Edward Moseley, Nathaniel Rice, and Eleazer Allen.

After a five-year absence in Great Britain (1744–49), Murray resumed an active role in provincial affairs. In 1750 the people of Wilmington elected him a town commissioner, and the following year he was appointed associate justice of North Carolina and commissioner of Fort Johnston. In 1753 Murray became secretary and clerk of the Crown, and in 1754 he was elevated by seniority to president of the governor's Council. During 1755 he held the post of deputy paymaster of the forces sent to the Ohio under Colonel James Innes during the French and Indian War.

With the appointment of Arthur Dobbs as governor in 1754, Murray's role in the provincial government came into question. Governor Dobbs became involved in a bitter dispute with Murray and his cousin, John Rutherfurd, and in 1757 the governor suspended the two men from their seats on the Council. Dobbs accused Murray and Rutherfurd of various crimes, including the charge that Murray had illegally issued unlimited private paper currency that was to be accepted by the colony in payment of quitrents. In communications with the Board of Trade, Dobbs attacked Murray "and his junto," which he contended was attempting to organize a party in the Assembly to undermine the governor and advance Murray's popularity.

It was true that Murray had ambitions of becoming acting governor on the death of the aged governor. In 1761 he privately admitted that if he were reinstated to the Council and no lieutenant governor were appointed, then he hoped to succeed Dobbs as governor. If this possibility did not materialize, Murray planned to leave North Carolina and reside in a healthier climate. In 1762 he was restored by the Privy Council as senior member of the governor's Council; but two years later, shortly before Dobbs's death, William Tryon arrived in North Carolina as lieutenant governor of the colony. Frustrated in his design to become governor, Murray left the province in 1765 and joined relatives in Boston, where he became involved in various business ventures including the operation of a sugarhouse.

As a North Carolina planter, Murray had enlarged and developed his Point Repose plantation, located on the Cape Fear River between Hood Creek and the plantation of Matthew Rowan. Here he grew rice, silk, and indigo; owned a sawmill capable of cutting 100,000 feet of lumber annually; manufactured tar; and became involved in tanning and currying operations. Between 1755 and 1759 he had constructed a "grand and splendid" brick mansion built from bricks produced on the plantation. Due to the death of his wife and children, he became disillusioned with plantation life and turned the operation of Point Repose over to his nephew, Thomas Clark, who became a Revolutionary War brigadier general.

During the American Revolution, Murray remained loyal to Great Britain. When the British evacuated Boston in 1776, Murray fled to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he died four years later. His North Carolina property, including Point Repose plantation, was confiscated by the state as Tory property. Brigadier General Thomas Clark, the son of Murray's sister, claimed the plantation in compensation for debts owed him by Murray. In 1783 the state awarded the property to Clark, who lived there until his death in 1792.

Murray was married twice. His first wife was Barbara Bennet, a cousin, whom he married in Scotland in 1744. Of their six children, four died in childhood, probably at Point Repose. His two surviving daughters were Elizabeth (m. Edward Hutchinson Robbins of Milton, Mass.) and Dorothy (m. the Reverend John Forbes). After Barbara Bennet Murray died at Point Repose in 1758, Murray married Mrs. MacKay Thompson, a widow, in 1761.

Heron, Benjamin

21 Dec. 1722–22 June 1770

Benjamin Heron, mariner and colonial official, was born in Lymington, Hampshire, England. He served in the British Navy and took part in the Cartagena Expedition before settling in North Carolina. His brother Charles was an apothecary and a surgeon at Corhampton, Hampshire, England.

Captain Heron became master of a ship sailing between England and the colonies. He was in Wilmington by 1755, when he was authorized by the town commissioners to purchase a fire engine in London and transport it to Wilmington for the protection of that city. By 1761, Heron had been appointed clerk of the pleas of the province, deputy surveyor, and deputy auditor of the king's revenue. Subsequently he became clerk of the Crown (1762), secretary of the province, naval officer for North Carolina (1762), a commissioner of pilotage for the Cape Fear River (1764), and a member of the governor's Council (1764–69). In the Council, he frequently served on the committee to settle public claims. During the Regulator rebellion in the backcountry of North Carolina, he was appointed lieutenant general of the governor's forces (1768) although he left the colony before actual hostilities began.

Heron is best remembered for building one of the first drawbridges in America, across the Northeast River above Wilmington. Authorized by the General Assembly in 1766, the bridge was to have "one wide arch of thirty feet for rafts and pettiauguas to pass through and six feet high above high water mark, and be made to draw up occasionally for the navigation of vessels of larger burthern." The drawbridge was described by a traveler in 1775 as a "noble" structure which "opens at the middle to both sides and rises by pullies, so as to suffer ships to pass under it."

Along with other interests, Heron owned several plantations, including Marle Bluff, Mulberry, Mount Blake, and Four Mile House. In 1769 he embarked for England on a one-year journey to recover his health. Instead, he died at Islington, a borough of London, and was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

Heron's first wife was Mary Howe, daughter of Job Howe and sister of Revolutionary War general Robert Howe. After her death, he married Alice Marsden, daughter of Rufus and Alice Marsden. His children included Mary (m. Thomas Hooper), Elizabeth (m. John McKenzie), and Frances (m. Samuel Swann).

Harnett, Cornelius, Jr.

20 Apr. 1723–28 Apr. 1781

Cornelius Harnett, Jr., Revolutionary War statesman, was born in Chowan County, the son of Cornelius and Elizabeth Harnett. The family moved to Brunswick Town when young Cornelius was only three, and he spent the remainder of his life in the Cape Fear area. Harnett became a leading Wilmington merchant with interests in farming, milling, and mercantile ventures. Along with other business activities, he was a partner in distillery operations which included a still house, wharf, warehouse, and schooner. He became involved in public affairs in 1750, when he was elected to the Wilmington town commission; during the same year, he was appointed by Governor Gabriel Johnston as a justice of the peace for New Hanover County. In 1754, he was elected to represent Wilmington in the General Assembly, a position he held for every legislative session until the end of the colonial period. Harnett's reputation and influence developed rapidly throughout the province. During his career in the legislature, there were few committees of importance on which he did not serve and few debates in which he did not participate.

When the British Parliament in 1765 passed the Stamp Act in an effort to gain revenue from the colonies, Harnett moved to the forefront of the resistance to the act in North Carolina. Along with Hugh Waddell and John Ashe, he was a leader of the citizens' march on Brunswick Town in February 1766, and he served as spokesman for the "inhabitants in arms" in their confrontation with Governor William Tryon. From the Stamp Act resistance was born the Sons of Liberty, and Harnett was chairman for that group in Wilmington. In June 1770, he was elected chairman of a committee to enforce the nonimportation association in an effort to thwart the British Townshend duties.

Throughout the Tryon and Josiah Martin gubernatorial administrations, Harnett was vocal on the major issues facing the province. He advocated government reforms that would curtail abuses complained of by the Regulators in the Piedmont, but at the same time he opposed the riots and excesses of the Regulators. In the Assembly debates over the civil court law, Harnett, along with Robert Howe, William Hooper, Samuel Johnston, and others, led the fight to retain the controversial attachment clause, much to the chagrin of royal Governor Martin.

As resistance to British policy developed during 1773 and 1774, Harnett was in the vanguard of the move in North Carolina. Massachusetts Revolutionary leader Josiah Quincy, after visiting Wilmington in 1773, commented that Harnett was the "Samuel Adams of North Carolina." He was a vocal supporter of the concept of a continental correspondence committee and was a leading force in setting up the North Carolina Committee of Correspondence in December 1773. When the Wilmington-New Hanover Committee of Safety was organized in November 1774, he was the master spirit and chairman of the committee.

On 19 July 1775, Governor Martin watched helplessly from the British warship Cruizer as a group of colonists led by Harnett, John Ashe, and Robert Howe burned Fort Johnston at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Martin subsequently wrote to Lord Dartmouth requesting proscription of the three revolutionaries because of "their unremitted labours to promote sedition and rebellion here from the beginning of the discontent in America to this time, that they stand foremost among the patrons of revolt and anarchy."

In 1775, a provincial Council of Safety was created to exercise executive and administrative powers over the province. With the flight of Governor Martin from North Carolina during the early summer, the council and provincial congress had become the government of the province. Harnett was elected president of the council, an appointment which in effect made him the chief executive of North Carolina though without the title.

As a member of the provincial congress and as president of the Council of Safety, Harnett was deeply involved in military planning, raising troops, and arming and equipping an army. During 1776 he served on more committees concerned with devising measures for defending the state than any other man. On 4 April, the Fourth Provincial Congress appointed him chairman of a committee to consider the "usurptions and violences attempted and committed by the King and Parliament." The committee report, which was adopted unanimously on 12 April, became known as the Halifax Resolves. The resolution empowered North Carolina delegates to the Continental Congress to "concur with the delegates of the other Colonies in declaring Independency and forming foreign alliances." When, on 5 May, Sir Henry Clinton offered to pardon all North Carolina citizens who would lay down arms and submit to the laws, Cornelius Harnett and Robert Howe were specifically excluded from the pardon.

During the remainder of 1776, Harnett continued to guide the state through his presidency of the Council of Safety. He is generally credited with delivering the first public reading in North Carolina of the Declaration of Independence when he addressed a crowd at Halifax on 1 August. He also had a leading role in writing the North Carolina state constitution, which was drafted in the fall of 1776. When the new government was organized early in 1777, he was elected president of the seven-member council of state established to assist the governor.

Contrary to his own personal wishes, Harnett was elected to the Continental Congress on 1 May 1777; and despite his desire to return home to his plantation, his sense of public duty forced him to remain in the Congress for the full three years permitted by law. Throughout that period his service was capable and statesmanlike. He was committed to the cause of confederation and fully supported the writing and ratification of the Articles of Confederation.

When the British under Major James H. Craig invaded Wilmington early in 1781, Harnett attempted to flee. Crippled by severe gout, he was captured in Onslow County and returned to Wilmington "thrown across a horse like a sack of meal." Imprisoned in an open blockhouse, his health declined rapidly. Although paroled from prison, he died soon afterwards.

A man of liberal mind, Harnett was reputed to be a Deist. His gravestone epitaph would seem to support this conclusion: "Slave to no sect, he took no private road. But looked through nature up to nature's God." Despite these claims, he was a vestryman of St. James Parish in Wilmington and was Deputy Grand Master of North America for the Masonic Order.

Harnett married Mary Holt, the daughter of Martin Holt. They lived at Maynard (later known as Hilton) north of Wilmington and owned a second plantation, Poplar Grove, at present-day Scotts' Hill on Topsail Sound. She died in New York City in April or May 1792. They apparently had no children.

Harnett, Cornelius

d. 1742

Cornelius Harnett, colonial official, planter, and innkeeper, formerly a merchant of Dublin, Ireland, settled in Chowan County by 1720. In 1722, when he sold land on Queen Anne's Creek to Chief Justice Christopher Gale, Harnett referred to himself as a planter. He allied himself with the erratic Proprietary Governor George Burrington; and when Sir Richard Everard replaced Burrington in 1725, Harnett sided with his deposed friend. On the night of 7 Dec. 1725, the two men led a riot in Edenton directed against Everard and his supporters. According to the indictment brought against them, the rioters "assaulted" the governor's residence, broke into two other houses, assaulted three men, and caused one man's wife to miscarry due to fear for her husband's safety. On this occasion, Harnett was referred to as "a Ruffianly Fellow."

With criminal charges lodged against them, Burrington and Harnett left Edenton. Harnett settled on the Cape Fear River where he purchased lots in the town of Brunswick. He subsequently opened an inn in the town and operated a ferry across the river at that point.

Upon Burrington's return to power in 1730 as the first royal governor of North Carolina, Harnett was named to the governor's council. Burrington was thereupon accused by the opposition of packing the council with men who would do his bidding, men "of such vile characters and poor understandings, that it is the greatest abuse of power imaginable upon the ministry to recommend such of them." These "characters" included Matthew Rowan, Edmund Porter, and John Baptista Ashe. Much to the governor's chagrin, Harnett soon took issue with several major questions. Along with Ashe, Porter, and William Smith, he reproached the governor for his method of addressing the council and for the wording of his message concerning justices and assistant judges. When Burrington dismissed Porter from the council, Ashe and Nathaniel Rice joined Harnett in strongly opposing the action.

Early in 1732 Burrington complained to the Board of Trade and Plantations that he had appointed Harnett on the advice of others without knowing him personally, and that his presence on the council was a disgrace. Obviously the governor chose to forget the events of 1725, when the two men had been allied against the Everard faction. Privately, Burrington informed Harnett that he "was no longer his friend" and berated him in his own home as a "fool, blockhead, puppy, and Ashe's tool." After receiving repeated abuses from the governor, Harnett resigned from the council in October 1732.

Harnett subsequently served as vestryman for St. Philips Parish at Brunswick, justice of the peace for Bladen (1732) and New Hanover (1736–41) counties, and sheriff of New Hanover County (1739–40). He apparently had large landholdings in Bladen and New Hanover counties where he operated plantations and sawmills. Upon his death, he was survived by his widow, Elizabeth, and a son, Cornelius, Jr., the Revolutionary War statesman.

Fountain, Richard Tillman

15 Feb. 1885–21 Feb. 1945

Richard Tillman Fountain, lawyer, legislator, lieutenant governor, and gubernatorial candidate, was born at Cedar Lane near Tarboro, the son of Almon Leonidas and Sarah Louisa Eagles Fountain. After attending Edgecombe County schools and Tarboro Male Academy, he entered The University of North Carolina where he received a law degree in 1907. During the same year he began to practice law in Rocky Mount. From 1911 to 1918 he served as the first judge of the Rocky Mount municipal court, and from 1919 to 1927 he represented Edgecombe County in the North Carolina House of Representatives. During the 1927 session of the General Assembly he served as speaker of the house. The following year he was elected lieutenant governor of North Carolina and served from 1929 to 1932.

In 1932 Fountain sought the Democratic nomination for governor, running against J. C. B. Ehringhaus of Elizabeth City and Allen Jay Maxwell of Raleigh. Fountain ran as an anti-administration liberal and a champion of the common man. He strongly opposed the centralization policies of the O. Max Gardner administration and the "machine politics" of his major opponent. After a first primary defeat of less than 50,000 votes, Fountain demanded a runoff. Campaigning virtually without funds or political organization, he lost the second primary by only 13,000 votes (182,055 for Ehringhaus to 168,971 for Fountain).

In 1936 and again in 1942 Fountain unsuccessfully challenged the incumbent, Josiah W. Bailey, for the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator. Once more operating on a very limited budget, Fountain polled 184,000 votes in 1936.

In addition to his law practice, Fountain owned and edited the Rocky Mount Herald newspaper (1934–42), served as director of the Home Building and Loan Association of Rocky Mount, director of the First National Bank of Rocky Mount, member of the board of trustees of The University of North Carolina, chairman of the State Board of Equalization, and member of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park Commission. He also served as president of the Rocky Mount Bar Association, vice-president of the North Carolina Bar Association (1922–23), member of the American Bar Association, member of the Rocky Mount School Board (1917–35) and its chairman for seven years, and charter member and president of the Rocky Mount Civitan Club. In the legislature he was the author of the bill that created the East Carolina Industrial Training School for Boys in Rocky Mount. He served as chairman of the board of trustees of that institution, which subsequently became known as the Richard T. Fountain School.

In 1918 Fountain married Susan Rankin of Gastonia. They had four children: Susan Rankin (Mrs. Thomas G. Thurston), Anne Sloan (Mrs. Thomas G. Dill), Margaret Eagles (Mrs. John H. Paylor, Jr.), and Richard T., Jr.

Burgwin, John

25 Feb. 1731–21 May 1803

John Burgwin, colonial official and merchant, was born at Hereford, England. His father, John Burgwin (1682–1751), whose name was originally spelled Ap Gwyn, left his entire estate in South Wales, England, to an elder son, James B., forcing the younger boy to seek his own fortune elsewhere. By early in 1750/51, Burgwin was employed as a merchant in Charleston, S.C., with the firm of Hooper, Alexander and Company. The firm did business at Wilmington, and Burgwin apparently moved to the Cape Fear River area of North Carolina shortly thereafter. On 15 Feb. 1753 he married Margaret Haynes, daughter of Captain Roger and Margaret Haynes, of Castle Haynes Plantation near Wilmington. Mrs. Haynes was the daughter of the Reverend Richard Marsden, rector of St. James Parish in Wilmington.

Burgwin's career soon included activities of a political and public nature. He held the position of quartermaster for the New Hanover County militia during 1754–55. Between 1756 and 1759 he served as clerk of the Bladen County Court, and from 1758 to 1761 he practiced law as an attorney commissioned before the Cumberland County Court. In 1760 he became clerk of the governor's council, a position he held until 1772; and in 1762 he was serving as private secretary to Governor Arthur Dobbs. It appears that Burgwin claimed residency in both Bladen and New Hanover counties, as he was named justice of the peace for Bladen County in 1762 and for New Hanover County in 1764. In 1768 he was appointed clerk of the superior court for the District of Wilmington, and in 1769 Governor William Tryon commissioned him clerk of the high court of chancery for North Carolina. Other public positions Burgwin held included Wilmington town commissioner (1769–75) and member of the General Assembly from Bladen County (1773). During 1772–73, Burgwin and Governor Josiah Martin became involved in a bitter controversy concerning the terms of Burgwin's resignation as clerk of the governor's council. Despite protests from the governor, the upper house went on record as stating that Burgwin as clerk had always acted "with the strictest integrity and Honor, and hath discharged all the duties of that office with skill and ability."

There is little doubt that Burgwin was quite successful in mercantile operations in Wilmington and the Cape Fear region between 1764 and 1775, and New Hanover County records reflect his deep involvement in real estate activities during the same period. By 1771 he was living at Third and Market Street in Wilmington in what was to become one of that city's most famous buildings, today known as the Burgwin-Wright House or Cornwallis House. He also owned Castle Haynes Plantation and the adjoining Hermitage Plantation, both of which he had inherited from his wife, who died on 19 Oct. 1770. In Bladen County he also owned Marsh Castle at Lake Waccamaw.

As the revolutionary movement developed during the 1770s, Burgwin apparently attempted to tread the narrow path between Whig and Tory. On one occasion he ran afoul of the Wilmington Committee of Safety by failing to supply gunpowder as requested. During a party at the Hermitage on 8 Jan. 1775, Burgwin suffered a severe broken leg while playing "blind man's bluff." On the advice of his doctor, he left the colony to seek treatment abroad for the illset fracture. When, in 1777, North Carolina passed legislation calling for the confiscation and sale of property belonging to persons outside the colony, Burgwin returned by way of New York to Wilmington, where he applied for North Carolina citizenship. In 1781, as British forces under Major James Craig occupied Wilmington, Burgwin once more fled the state. He traveled in Belgium, Denmark, and elsewhere in Europe, in addition to visiting Great Britain. On 27 Apr. 1782 he married Elizabeth Bush of Bristol, England.

After the hostilities had ended, Burgwin and his new family, which by 1784 included a son and daughter, returned to Wilmington. Obviously, many North Carolinians did not consider Burgwin a Tory. Archibald Maclaine, writing in 1782, commented of him: "I am perfectly satisfied that he is not an enemy of the state. . . . The fears arising from the consequences of a War was his only inducement to leave the country." Burgwin was successful in reclaiming his property, which had been subject to confiscation, and he resumed mercantile operations in Wilmington, Charleston, and Fayetteville.

Burgwin died at the Hermitage. His three children, all by his second wife, were John Fanning, born at Gloucestershire, England (14 Mar. 1783–18 June 1864); Caroline Elizabeth Burgwin Clitherall, born at Charleston, S.C. (9 Apr. 1784–9 Oct. 1863); and George William Bush, born at the Hermitage (2 Sept. 1787–9 Feb. 1854).

Jones, Marmaduke

ca. 1724–1787

Marmaduke Jones, colonial official, was the nephew of Sir Marmaduke Wyvell, high sheriff of Yorkshire. Educated in England, he was in Wilmington by 1753, perhaps arriving from Jamaica. He served as assistant judge of the General Court (1760), Wilmington borough recorder (1760–66), attorney general of the colony (1766–67) by appointment of Governor William Tryon, and member of the governor's Council (1771–73) by appointment of King George III. On one occasion Jones described himself as a "merchant and Eminent Lawyer" and apparently he was, indeed, considered to be an exceptional lawyer. Governor Tryon in 1768 described him as "a gentleman not inferior to any of his profession in this country." In 1770 Tryon wrote that Jones was "a gentleman of the first eminence at the bar here. . . . He possesses a genteel and easy fortune, and his abilities I am persuaded will be serviceable in Council." During 1771 Jones was requested to assist in the prosecution of insurgents at Hillsborough after the Battle of Alamance, and in the same year he was appointed to a committee to correspond with and advise North Carolina's agent in England.

In 1772 Jones returned to England where he remained for two years, undoubtedly in connection with the illness and death in 1774 of his childless uncle, Sir Marmaduke, whose rank and property he expected to inherit. Due to this long absence, he resigned from the Council in 1773.

From London Alexander Elmsley wrote to a friend in North Carolina: "'Tis but too true that Mke Jones is obliged to resume the practice of Law, his relations here treated him with a strange indifference and blasted all his hope of succeeding to the Wyvel Estate by suffering a recovery and conveying to a stranger." The baronetcy became dormant because Jones, the oldest surviving male heir, was "domiciled" in America, and the estate was awarded to Sir Marmaduke's half-sister. At her death in 1783 it passed to her husband. Jones returned to North Carolina, but had to reside in the colony a year before he could again be licensed to practice.

Although once more practicing law in Wilmington in 1774, he sold his real estate and personal property the following year. His movements during the American Revolution are vague. Aside from an appearance in 1779 as an attorney in the New Hanover County Court, he disappears from the record until 1783, when he was reported in London, preparing to return to Wilmington. He probably was again in England trying to reclaim his uncle's estate following the death of its most recent owner. In 1784 William Hooper wrote: "I have seen Marmaduke Jones: He is the greatest coxcomb alive."

Between 1784 and 1787, when he died, Jones pursued an active career as a Wilmington attorney. His will, dated 29 Aug. 1787, was proved in October. He was survived by one daughter, Elizabeth, who married Francis Brice. Apparently his wife was Judith Simmonds, sister of Peter Simmonds of Bladen County. She died in 1772, and afterwards he evidently married a widow Ivy, who had two daughters by her previous marriage (Ann Ivy Moore, wife of James Moore, and Mary Ivy De Rosset Boyd, wife of Dr. Moses John De Rosset and then of Adam Boyd).