Other Newspapers items 1912-1914
The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, NC)
Tuesday, May 7, 1912, p. 7, by Francis Donnell Winston - notes at the end by Molly Urquhart .
WILLIAM H. RHODES, LAWYER AND WRITER
A Citizen of Bertie County Whose
Interests Extended to Many Fields of Thought
William Henry Rhodes was born in Windsor, Bertie County, North Carolina, July16, 1822. He was the oldest son of Col. Elisha Avirett Rhodes, for many years Clerk and Master in Equity in Bertie County, and President Van Buren' s appointee as Consul to the Republic of Texas. His mother was Ann Maria Jacocks, who died when he was Six Years old. Those who are versed in the Bertie County genealogy know that the subject of this sketch was akin to families of culture, wealth, influence, and character. His gentle life, his high purposes, his pure character, his mental superiority are easily traceable to his forbears. He was born in the old George B. Outlaw residence which was burned a few years back. His mother is buried on that lot.
William Henry Rhodes was prepared for college at the Bertie Union Academy at Woodville, Bertie County, then under the superintendence of Rev. Andrew M. Craig, a Baptist preacher of great learning and force of character. This school was widely and justly celebrated for its excellence. It was operated under a charter from the General Assembly, passed in 1823. For this school and the community, Mr. Rhodes retained an active affection. Under the title The Deserted School House in 1852 he wrote an amusing sketch, giving an account of a recent visit to the scene of his school days. I quote his felicitous opening sentences:
Woodville was the scene of my first studies, my earliest adventures, and my nascent loves. There I was taught to read and write, to swim and skate, to wrestle and box, to play marbles and make love. Thee I fought my first fight, had the mumps and the measles, stole my first watermelon, and received my first flogging. And I can never forget that within the tattered school room my young heart first swelled with those budding passions whose full development in others have so often changed the fortunes of the world. There eloquence produced its first throb, ambition struck its first spark, pride mounted its first stilts, love felt its first glow. There the eternal ideas of God and heaven, of patriotism and country, of love and woman germinated in my bosom: and there, too, Poesy sang her first song in my enchanted ear, lured me far off into the ‘grand old woods alone, sported with the unlanguaged longings of my boyish heart and subdued me for the first time with that mysterious sorrow whose depths the loftiest intellect cannot sound and yet whose wailing mournfully agitates many a school boy s breast.
Young Rhodes passed from this academy to the sophomore class in Princeton College, Princeton, N. J. Here he at once took high rank as a student and a man. His college course was interrupted by the appointment of his father to the very important consular post at Galveston, Texas. Col. Elisha A. Rhodes moved his family there and appointed his son his private secretary. In the new republic Rhodes found many young men like himself, ambitious and adventurous and zealous in acquiring information. These young men he associated with himself in literary and debating societies, where most of the important matters of natural science and political economy were studied and discussed. The effect of this self-bestowed education was very marked. It remained with him all his life and he thus became thoroughly versed in the political history of the country, and possessed an amount of knowledge concerning the career, motives, and object of politics, parties, and public men, which had he ever chosen to embark in public life would have made him successful and distinguished. He had no fondness for politics and office-holding.
In 1844 he entered the Harvard Law School, where he remained two years. Here, as at home among his young friends, he was a master spirit and leader. He was especial favorite of his instructor; was noted for his studious and exemplary habits; while his genial and courtly manner won the lasting friendship of his companions and classmates. Here his fondness for weaving the problems of science with fiction, which became afterwards so marked as a characteristic of his literary efforts, attracted the special attention of the college faculty. Had Rhodes devoted himself to this, then novel department of letters he would have become no doubt, greatly distinguished as a writer, and the great master of scientific fiction, Jules Verne, would have found the field of his efforts already sown and reaped by the young Bertie County student. His necessities and parental choice conspired to keep him at the-lawless science of the law; and literature became an incident of his life, rather than its aim and end.
He returned to Galveston in 1846 and there spent his early professional life. He was measurably successful, yet he never really loved the law. He lived by the law, but in it. He was a good lawyer, but an unwilling practitioner. He understood legal principles thoroughly. He loved the higher lessons of truth and justice of right and wrong which they illustrated, but he bent himself to the details of professional labor with increasing reluctance. An opportunity to speak and write what was most pleasing to his taste, which set him free as a liberated prisoner and thought, his untrammeled and wondering imagination extravagantly into weaving scientific principles, natural forces and elemental facts with some witches dance of fancy, where he dissolved its alchemy earth, air, and water and created a world of his own, or destroyed that beneath his feet, was more value to him, though it brought him no gain, than a stiff cause in courts which bound him to dry details of weary facts and legal presumptions, though every hours of his time bestowed a gilded reward.
His personal popularity elevated him to the important office of Probate Judge in Galveston. He filled one term of this office with honor and at its close he returned,, after a brief sojourn in New York City, to his old home in Windsor. There he practiced his profession until 1850. His relatives and friends hoped for his permanent location among them. He had, however, seen the vision of the great West: and he caught the spirit of the Argonauts of fourty-nine, and the inspiration of adventure in the New Eldorado and he sailed around The Horn for California. He continued a citizen of that State, where he was widely known and universally respected. A fellow-attorney said of him: William Henry Rhodes will long be remember by his contemporaries of the Bar of California as a man of rare genius, exemplary habits, high honors, and gentle manners, with wit and humor unexcelled.
Here, too, the responsibilities of life kept him at the law, but he was a constant contributor to the press. He became editor of the True Californian. He wrote for The Bulletin and other San Francisco Dailies. He was a brilliant editorial writer, and his newspaper work had great literary merit.
Under his nom de plum of Caxton he wrote many curious and novel stories. As I have said, he had a fondness for the Jules Verne style of literature. He reveled in scientific fiction and acquired a great deal of literary reputation by several imaginative articles of that kind which came from his pen. After his death there was wide demand for an edition of his writings. The Bar of San Francisco generously aided his widow in the publication of Caxton s Book, which contains his best productions. I note only a few of the leading articles. The Case of Summerfield, the Man with a Secret, that secret being a preparation by which he could ignite water, and so consume the Atlantic and Pacific oceans destroying the world, was one of the figments of his brain. Another notable one was Phases in the Life of John Palloxfen, being the superstitious investigations and experiences of a photographer who devoted his life to the discovery of the carbon process by which colored pictures are painted by the sun; and who in the course of his researches purchases from a girl, Lucile Marchmont, her left eye to be used as a lens. The Aztec Princess is a narrative of explorations in Yucatan and Chiapas, Central America, which he was inspired to write by stories of John Lloyd Stephens and his associates of what they found among the ruins of Uxmal and Palenque, in the same archeologically interesting country. This is a remarkable exercise of the author s imaginative faculty. So is the story of The Earth s Hot Centre, where some miners in Belgium are suppose to have penetrated to the central fires and let loose the molten lava, which threatens eventually to completely fill up the bed of the North Sea and connect again the British Isles with the continent. The Telescopic Eye is the story of Johnny Palmer, whose parents lived in South San Francisco. This was a flight of fancy quite the equal of the celebrated Moon Hoax of Locke which made ta world-wide sensation some three-quarters of a century ago. The basis of the story was that with his naked eye the boy could see in space of distance of near a quarter of a million miles. Legends of Lake Bigler, A Pair of Myths, The Last of His Race, Science, Literature, and Art During the First Half of the Nineteenth Century are the titles of other very readable stories in Caxton s Book.
Mr. Rhodes was in frequent demand to deliver orations and poems on patriotic and historical occasions. Among the most elaborate of these were The Emerald Isle, a poem read on St. Patricks s Day, 1869, and The Sunset Land, a poem read before the Society of the California Pioneers. He addressed the Galvaston Lyceum on the eleventh anniversary of Texan independence. A May day address in 1861 was most felicitous, eloquent, and ornate.
Following an earthquake in October, 1868, he published in The Times, the leading San Francisco paper, an able and exhaustive discussion on the Philosophy of Earthquakes. In view of the earthquake which destroyed San Francisco an few years ago, this article is very interesting as well and instructive. There was general demand that the writer deliver a public lecture on the subject and many leading citizens of California including United States Senators, Congressmen, judges, the Governor, and men prominent in every profession and calling joined in a letter asking that he deliver an address on the subject giving as a reason that we believe that a lecture thereupon at the present time would be general interest and tend perhaps to quiet public apprehension.
It is significant that all of his valuable manuscripts were destroyed in the late San Francisco fire. It is strange that neither Caxton s Book nor the many flattering newspaper notices of his writings contain any reference to quite a pretentious poem written and published by him in 1846 under the title The Indian Gallows and Other Poems. He was then a student at Harvard. The Indian Gallows was situated in that part of Bertie County on the Roanoke River known now and then as the Indian Woods, the tract of land ceded to the Tuscarora Indians by the State of North Carolina through Governor Charles Eden. It was a very remarkable curiosity, and as such was frequently visited by person from a distance. It consisted of two gigantic oaks, standing at least 15 feet asunder, with a branch growing from one of them into the other, which constituted the cross. This branch was more than 18 feet from the ground and had many large trunks growing perpendicularly upon it, resembling trees without roots. It is evident that the top of one of the oaks must have been bent, clipped and inserted into the body of the other: yet so exactly was this done that with the closed inspection it could not be determined to which tree the cross originally belonged. In a violent storm some thirty years ago one of the trees was uprooted and fell. The other stood but a year of two with the extended cross. It soon decayed and was cut down, Thus perished these Siamese Twins of the forest. The Indian Gallows is a beautiful narrative of the Indian tradition accounting for the freak of the forest in Bertie County. This publication is very rare and I urge that a republication of the same be undertaken. In 1832 Saccarusa and Longobord, chief of the Tuscaroras, came to Bertie County for the purpose of releasing all property right of that tribe to lands in Bertie County. They visited the Indian Gallows and found marks on one of the trees which they said indicated that two men and one woman had been executed on the gallows.
William Henry Rhodes kept in close touch with his relatives in Bertie county. His brother, Lieutenant E. A. Rhodes, was one of the immortal band of Co. C. 11^th North Carolina Troops whose conduct and bravery made the hills of Gettysburg renowned in song and story. Mr. Rhodes married Miss Susan McDermott of Cruckerne, Somersetshire, England. She with six children survived his death, which occurred April 14, 1876. Every mark of respect and honor was shown him and eloquent tributes were paid to his great character and work. His great domestic happiness is beautifully portrayed in a poem to his wife on
Our Wedding DayReturn to the Historic Woodville page
A dozen springs and more, dear Sue,
Have bloomed and passed away Since hand in hand and heart in heart
We spent our wedding day.
Youth blossomed on our cheeks, dear Sue, Joy chased each tear of woe
When first we promised to be true
That morning long ago. Though many cares have come, dear Sue To checker life s career,
As down its pathway we have trod, In trembling and in fear.
Still in the darkest storm, dear Sue That lowered o er our way
We clung to the closer while it blew And laughed the clouds away. Tis true our home is humble, Sue,
And riches we have not But children gambol round our-door And consecrate the spot. Our sons are strong and brave, dear Sue, Our daughters fair and gay, But none so beautiful as you
Upon our wedding day. No grief has crossed our threshold, Sue No crepe festoons the door,
But health has waved it halcyon wings And plenty filled our store. Then let s be joyful, darling Sue, And chase dull care away, And kindle rosy hope anew As on our wedding day.
I am indebted to Mr. Ralph E. Rhodes, an attorney of Madero, California for a copy of Caxtons Book, a number of pamphlets, and newspaper clippings, from which much of this article is taken.
FRANCIS D. WINSTON_________________________________________________________________________ Typed by Faye Wallace
** The author, Francis Donnell Winston was one of the extraordinarily accomplished children of Patrick Henry Wilson and Martha Byrd (she was a student of his at the Woodville Academy) who lived in Windsor, Bertie County. His short bio: Francis Donnell Winston grew up in "Windsor Castle" in Windsor, NC. was educated at the Horner School in Oxford, and at Fetter's school in Henderson. attended Cornell University, 1873-1874, and graduated from University of North Carolina in 1879; practiced law in Windsor N.C with his father, and in 1880 attended Dick and Dillard Law School in Greensboro, and obtained his license to practice in 1881. After this, he enjoyed a successful law practice in Bertie County, revered by all.
He was clerk of the North Carolina superior court, 1881- 1882; served in the North Carolina General Assembly, 1889-1900; was a state senator from 1887 to 1889, and was once again in the legislature in the late 1920s; was a judge of the Superior Court, 1901-1902 and 1916 - He is said by a biographer to "have combined pleasant manners with judicial dignity and firmness" and to have done more work than any other judge ever to serve in North Carolina. Winston was elected lieutenant governor, 1905-1909; was U.S. district attorney, 1913- 1916; and was a trustee of the University of North Carolina and president of the North Carolina Bar Association, as well as an active Mason and member of the Episcopal Church.
Winston married Rosa Kenney, daughter of Dr. S. B. Kenney of Maine, who came south with the U.S. Navy during the Civil War and remained in Hampton Roads, Va., as a government employee after the war, later settling in Windsor, N.C. Judge Winston died in 1941, is buried in Windsor's St. Thomas Episcopal Church yard beside his wife, who died in 1944. His tomb catalogs some of his achievements, among which were vestryman, Grand Master of Masons and member of the church choir.
Windsor Ledger, Windsor, NC, April 3 1913
Easter German at Woodville
Perhaps not since Ante Bellum days has there been a more beautiful or enjoyable occasion in the village of Woodville, famed for its charming entertainments and gracious hospitality than the German given by the Woodville German Club in the Woodville Academy Easter Monday night.
The flower of Bertie's young manhood and womanhood was there, and Lewiston, Windsor, Roxobel and Kelford tied with each other in sending their choicest representatives. More than forty couples participated and the dancing last until 1:30 o'clock. Among those dancing were:
Miss Anna Norfleet, of Kelford, with J.H. Spivey, who lead the German figures. Miss Margaret Urquhart with Dr. Clifford Whitehead, of Tarboro. Miss Sallie Lyon, of Windsor, with Lewis Thompson. Miss Sallie Eason with John Thompson. Miss Mary Grant Spivey with R.A. Urquhart. Miss Pauline Bridgers, of Windsor, with Burges Urquhart. Miss Minnie T. Bond, of Windsor, with John Bell. Miss Frances Blount Renfrow, of Raleigh, with Whit Spivey. Miss Mary Wood, of Roxobel, with Bryant Phelps. Miss Ellen Renfrow with Ned Phelps. Miss Margarette Manning, of Windsor, with Claudia Pierce. Miss Margaret Spivey with Mr. Peele, of Kelford. Miss Stella Phelps with G.C. Spoolman. Miss Adelaide Watson, of Aurora, with Harry Watson, of Roxobel. Miss Rue Clark, of Norfolk, with Frank Smith, of Scotland Neck. Miss Lalla Mizell with Leonard Rawls. Miss Mary Burrus, of Kelford, with Arthur Ruffin, of Kelford. Miss Janie Cherry, of Windsor, with Stanley Riddick, of Ahoskie. Miss Annie Brown, of Kelford, with Figuers Norfleet, of Roxobel. Miss Margaret Clark with Murray Sessoms of Windsor. Miss Lila Hancock, with Tom Cobb. Miss Louise Norfleet with Dandy Norfleet, of Roxobel. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lyon, of Windsor. Miss Florence Spivey with Norman Morris. Mr. and Mr.Jos. Vann, of Ahoskie.
Windsor Ledger, April 17, 1913
One of the most enjoyable dance of the season was given at the home of Mr. Tho. S. Norfleet, at Roxobel, on the 11th in honor of Miss Julia Tucker, of Henderson, who is visiting Miss Annie Norfleet. Delightful punch was served during the evening by Miss Sallie Eason and Mr. Bryan Phelps. Among those dancing were: Misses Julia Tucker, Annie Norfleet, Sallie Eason, Florence Spivey, Margaret Clark, Stella Phelps, Mary Grant Spivey, Lalla Mizell, Adelaide Watson, Mary Burrus, Louise Norfleet, Mary Wood, Elizabeth Norfleet; and Messrs. John Hill Spivey, Bryan Phelps, Burges Urquhart, Alex Urquhart, John Thompson, Whit Spivey, Tom Cobb, G.C. Spoolman, Wayland Spruill, Norman Morris, Leonard Rawls, J.D. Sitterson, Julius Peele, Julian Wood, G.B. Spivey, R.W. Norfleet, Frank Smith, Capt. H.A. Williams, Figuers and William Norfleet, and Eric NorfleetNews and Observer, Raleigh, NC, June 4, 1913
Woodville. The German given Friday evening was one of the most enjoyable ever given in Woodville. Many beautiful figures were led by John Hill Spivey with Miss Annie Norfleet of Roxoble. Those dancing were: Miss Annie Norfleet, of Roxobel; with J.H. Spivey, Miss Mary Wood, of Roxobel; with Godwin Spivey, of Rich Square; Miss Janie Lyon, of Windsor; with John Thompson, Miss Stella Phelps with Eric Norfleet, of Roxobel; Miss Pauline Bridgers, of Windsor; with Henry Lyon, of Windsor; Miss Mary Lee Capehart, of Roxobel; Bailey Barnes, of Roxobel; Miss Mary Grant Spivey with Burges Urquhart, Miss Florence Spivey with Claude Pierce of Windsor; Miss Salie Eason with Wayland Spruill, of Windsor; Miss Margaret Spivey with Mr. Simpson, of Williamston; Miss Eliza Mason Capeharat, of Roxobel; Miss Emily Mizell with Whit Spivey, Miss Lalla Mizell with Leonard Rawls, Miss Margaret Clark with R.A. Urquhart, Miss Evie Mizell with Dr. L.S. Webb, Miss Louise Norfleet, of Kelford with Mr. Peele, of Kelford; Miss Sallie Norfleet of Kelford, with Arthur Ruffin, of Kelford; Miss Adelaide Watson with Bryan Phelps; Miss Mary Watson, of Aurora, with Norman Morris; Miss Lila Hancock of Scotland Neck, with Tom Cobb; Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. Archer Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. C.B. Griffin.
Stags - Ned Phelps, Hugh Michaels and Eugene Gaskins of Windsor; Ed Bryant, Figuers Norfleet, Edgar Norfleet, R.W. Norfleet and Mr. Ainsley, of Roxobel; Julian Wood and Mr. Sitterson, of Kelford.
Chaperones - Mrs. T.S. Phelps, Mrs. Archer Johnson, and Mrs. Charles GriffinWindsor Ledger, July 10, 1913.
Roxobel, July 2. The leading social event of the season, drawing together the beauty and chivalry of the adjoining towns and counties was a brilliant German at Capeharts Hall Friday evening give by the Roxobel Cotillion club.
Fruit punch without a stick in it was served. Mesdames M.C. Wood and L.C. Watson were kept busy dispensing the refreshing beverage.
The German was led by John Hill Spivey with Miss Annie Norfleet, Huloners Orchestra of Norfolk furnished the music. The following couples were present and dancing.
Stanley Leary of Ahoskie, with Miss Lucille Majette of Wilson, Edgar Snipes of Ahoskie with Janie Cherry of Windsor: Alex Urquhart of Woodville, with Miss Margaret Clark of Lewiston; Julian Peele, of Kelford, with Miss Gibson of Rocky Mount. Harry Townsens of Washington, DC with Miss Ellen Renfrow of Lewiston. W. H. Spivey with Miss Stella Phelps of Lewiston; Eric Norfleet of Toxobel with Miss Sallie Eason of Lewiston; Jack Powell, of Roxobelk with Miss Louise Norfleet of Kelford; W.D. Bryant with Miss Katherine Norfleet of Roxobewl, Lenoard Rawls with Miss Lalla Mizell of Woodville: J.D. Sittersen of Kilford with Miss Kathleen McKay of Roxobel; Dr. L.S. Webb of Lewiston with Miss Emily Mizell of Woodville; T.S. Cobb of Lewiston with Miss Lila Hancock of Scotland Neck; Junius Powell of Roxobel with Miss Margie Spivey of Lewiston; Godwin Spivey with Miss Elizabeth Norfleet of Roxobel; M.M. Sessoms with Miss Isabelle Brett, of Windsor; J.B. Barnes, with Miss Mary L. Capehart of Roxobel; Bryan Phelps of Woodville withi Miss Elizabeth Boyce of Littleton; Frank Smith of Scotland Neck with Miss Annie Fenner, of Raleigh; Figuers Norfleet, of Roxobel with Miss Amanda Brown of Kelford; Richard Norfleet of Roxobel with Miss Belle Brett of Windsor; N.S. Morris with Miss Florence Spivey of Woodville; Ned Phelps of Woodville with Miss Annie Nichols of Windsor; Mr. and Mrs. R.B. Cole, of Roxobel, V.F Mason with Miss Eliza Mason Capehart of Roxobel: Edgar Norfleet with Miss Mary Wood of Roxobel; Burges Urquhart with Miss Mary Grant Spivey of Woodville; Mr. Simpson of Williamston with Miss Hancock of Scotland Neck; Julian Norfleet, of Alabama with Miss Rebbie Shields of Scotland Neck: Thomas Gillam, of Windsor with Miss Dorothy Powell of Roxobel; C.T. Smith of Scotland Neck, with Miss Goode Norfleet of Kelford; S.F. Freeman with Miss Pearl Brett of Windsor.
Stags: Archer Johnson, Wm. J. Capehart, Henry Lyon, Pembroke Baker, George W. Baker, B.F. Renfrow, and W.K. Ainsley.
The occasion was delightfully chaperoned by Dr. and Mrs. Alanson Capehart and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas S. Norfleet.
Windsor Public Ledger, July 20, 1914
Woodville has been a scene of gayety for the past two weeks.
Misses Kate and Florence Fenner and Misters Robert and Harry Fenner of Halifax have been the house guests of Miss Margaret Urquhart , and as usual everything the Woodville people could do for their pleasure was done. Picnics, dinners, parties and dances were given in their honor, the final dance being given Thursday night at the Woodville Academy. Miss Florence Fenner and John Thompson assisted by Miss Kate Fenner and R.A. Urquhart led the dance. About forty couples were present, besides the chaperones and those who came to enjoy the lovely music made by a band of six pieces.
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