Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1904-02-18
IAN ES

-- SAS
OF bis paternal grandfather. the late
DR.. James Webb, which stood verv
near the spot now occupied by his
own residence in which be died. He
was educated 10 the excellent local
schools OF Hillstoro, being at thu
breaking out OF the war in 1861. =
pupil in the Hlisboro Militarv
Academy under Col. Chas. 9. Few.
tie was at that time seventeen wears.
old, but soon volunteered and enter.
ed the Confederate army.
He served throughout the war an
q private. being for the greater par,
OF the time 10 the Twenty-seveu,h
North Carolina Regiment, in Cooks
Brigade HIS charao,en intelligence
and influential connections would
readily have procured him a com.
mission and indeed offers to that Ell
feet were made him but. with Char
acteristic unselishness be preferred
to serve in the ranks. He was
desperately wounded at Bristow
Station, being shot through the left
lung Just above the heart, but be re-
covered and served to the end Of the
war.
Retaining to Hillsboro after the
cessation OF hosiilities be went into
business with his tsther, continuing
in effect a firm which under QUE
name and another has been continu.
ously in existence for four genera.
tions in this family aud for the space
OF a hundred years.
Later be became interested In sew.
eral manufacturing enterprises aud
was q always ready to lend his aid in
anything which promised to advance
the interests OF the community. He
was principally concerned in the es.
adjustment OF the Euo cotton mills
and at the time of his death was e
director 10 several important manu-
featuring aud financial corporations
in the city Of Raleigh. 1t may safe.
ly be said, without injustice to others,
that for some years past he had been
the most useful, the most enterpris-
ing, the most influential man of at:
lars n his community and that in
bis death Hillsboro loses one OF the
bes, of tina. long line of good aud
able men who have made il so nota-
BILE q town in North Carolina
He was married May, 1873, to
Rebecca Edwards Rufiu, daughter
Of the late Peter Browne Rufin, of
Hillsboro. Of tals marriage three
sons came TO maturity, of whom TWO
survive their father.
Alter the death of his first wife he
married ner sister, Mary Browne
Rofin, who survives him.
For two years OF more before bic
death there was a visible decline in
b,s health and the unspairing labors
of forty years began TO tell upon a
constitution naturally strong and
elastic. There is reason to believe
that this was in some measure the
remote result of the terrible wound
received during the war. With un'
sba,ed vigor he continued his exact.
ing and useful labors for some time
after bis family and friends had be-
quo to feel concerned for his health
During the last year or more, how
ever, he gave himself such rest, as
his physicians prescribed, and by
change of climate, sought to arrest
the progress Of the disease which
seemed to be fastening upon him
He had just returned from an abode
of some weeks in Texas when the
end came.
1t 10 easy to go over these out
ward details of the life of sooh {
man it is not easy to put into words
aud to record tor those who did no
know him, that which uuderIa,
these outward things. He was OF
nature singularIy strong, self. reliant
brave and unselish ; of a cheerfu
aud equable temper, seldom de
pressed, never unduly elsted ; no
so much conscious of mis- own capac
ity or of his own achievements, az o
8 what was to be done, and of th
manly Joy of doing it. Daring
life of constant and uuremitting az
'tivity in various lines of exactin
business, tue obligations Of famil
!, affection, Of domestic duty, of soc,s
smehity, wete never forgotten no
neglected ; and among the man
q persons with whom he vas brougt
into contact there were prQbabl
none who did not feel the charm {
. his brave and generous spirit. WIS
he was in his own family and to tt
. inner circle of his nearer friends,
. is neither becoming to inquire NJ
: possible to express. But to tho'
y who know him best he has left tt
y memory Of a character singular
= 9 pure, generous, unselish and bene
u cent, and OF a life darkened by I
shadow of evil word or deed. T