The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-07-01
so SAYS DR.. KINGSBURY,
I Am an Old Man Loving Him for His
Virtues.
HIS RECORD IN THE CIVIL CONFLICT
His Great Work in Editing the RegimenfaI
Histories. He is Too Broad and
Fair 10 be an Enemy of
Railroads.

ndIIIOdOo-
To the Editor: In the early part or
1850 had the satisfaction and pleasure
of visiting one of the luxurious and nos
pitable homes on one of the great plan
tations of Roanoke river in the OLD
county of Halifax, North Carolina. 1t
Was the home of Gen. David Clark, an
educated farmer OF high standing and
the father of that eminent iurist and
most popular of living North CAROLYN
ians. Judge Walter Clark. The low
grounds on the river of this extensive
plantation were ten miles in length by
actual survey. were as level as a plank
floor. and never subject to overflow be-
cause of dykes constructed by the care
full owner. The plantation was a model,
and was divided into many sections by
deep bitches. Every such division had
been surveyed, and the soil of cach
division had been analyzcd by a COM
petent chemist. A book contained the
size of every division, and the analysis,
! bchcld a very impressive sight that
dav as | drove along an cXccllently con-
structed road running through those
most fertile l%ow-grounds or bottom
lands. There were sixty ploughs run
ming side by side with the regularity of
a body of drilled men. Never before or
since has such an interesting view
broken upon my vision. General Clark
lived in his large ancestral residence
that stood but a few feet from the
dykes. The house occupied this point
because the malaria of the river rose
anI ,orroI o,nr ~ md cNtf1n1 n half
mile or more in the higher grounds. He
had q most comfortable summer home
in the northern portion of the county,
some fifty miles distant, and not far
from the country road leading from
the old colonial town of Halifax to War
%renton, in the adjacent county of War
rem, and in what is known as the Bethel
Section" taking it's name from the
Methodist church thus named. When
knew it forty odd years ago it was with
one exception the wealthiest section bu'
one | had known or heard of in North
Carolina. The late highly revered Rev,
DR.. Drury Lacy, SO long pastor of the
First Presbyterian church, Raleigh, and
for some years President of Davidson
College. and a Virginian by nativity.
told me once that it was beyond queS-
ton the most superior community he
had known, the Wealthiest perhaps, and
the most generally religious. l think
it was SO. The rich men for the most
part were religious men. For some ten
miles in 1S6O-'61 there was but one man
who was not a member of some church
In this fine section lived Mrs. Patterson,
a Nirginian lady, eldest sister of the
late distinguished and venerated Bishop
Atkinson, of Wilmington, and much re-
,1->I1f-- 49, -
She and her two daughters, and her
highly esteemed and we'll educated son,
DR.. Robert Patterson. who still sur
vices, constituted the Prcsbyterians in
the community, and to them the excel
lent DR.. Lacy preached now and then,
he occupying the pulpit of the Bethel
church by invitation of the stewards
SO he learned to know the people OF
that section, and how to apDraise them.
Some time in 1S61-probably May
was the guest of General and Mrs,
Clark at their home in this section.
While there a very bright, but quiet and
modest youth of pcrhap fifteen or six
teen years, appeared. 1t was their cid
est son, Walter, who had but just re-
turned from the Military School at
Charlotte, under Maj. D.. IL. Hill, after
wards the much distinguished and now
fighting Lieutenant General D.. H.. Hill
who commanded North Carolina troops
that did much splendid service, fought
in so many bloody battles, and shed
such lustre upon the South and the great
State Of North Carolina. General Hill
was a South Carolinian, but he loved
to the men of our State, for he
know them thoroughly, their metal, anC
reliableness, and that they would "stick.'
Con y Hin n Virr;;o-
General, was asked by Mr.. Wallace, the
Oldest lawyer Of Petersburg, which troops
would he rather command, and he re-
piled at once: why North Carolinians.'
Mr.. Wallace said to the late Rev. DR.
Thomas II. Pritchard and me that i
surprised him, as both Hill and himself
were Nirginians. He could not under.
stand how this could be, and asked
General Hill said that North Carolinians
We're as brave as any troops, were more
obedlent to authority and we're, there
fore, better soldiers. They would dc
what they were commanded to do, anc
remain steadfast when so ordered.
This quiet, we'll hammered, open-facet
intelligent boy had been reared in tn.
country in a religious family. His
father was a Methodist steward in the
Oldest of all North Carolina circuits. thu
ROANOKE. his mother. of the old, higf
standing family of Thornes in Halifax
was an admirable type OF noble, Chris.
tan ~Womanhood, one of the best O
mothers, and of marked piety and de.
%votion, of capital intelligence and en-
gaging manners. Thus born and schooIe,
at home under such parental example
and hallowed Influences, he made a mos
fortunate beginning. He was studiou:
and ppnt1pmanlV in hic uo,4b
easily stood at the head of his class
and thus laid the foundation, solid ant
broad, Of a life of singular uprightnes
of intense industry. Of noble endeavor
of high success. Of him, to quote Wi
liam Wordsworth, it may be said: 9TH