The Wilmington morning star., 1943-06-27
Charlie J.Soong Gained
Fine Start In Life Here
Julian S. Carr, OF Durham,
Educated Him Before
His Return To China

DURHAM, June 26.-tR-A Dur
ham millionaire took an intense
interest in lonely, friendless Chi
nese in 1880. He educated the lad,
who had worked his way across
the sea, and sent him back to
China a devout Christian minister.
That was the real beginning of
Charlie J. Soong, father of China's
first lady, Madame Chang Kai-
shek.
When Sooag landed in Whining
ton he was befriended by the Rev.
T. Page Ricaud, Methodist min
lister who converted the boy at
the Fifth Avenue Methodist church
and gave him his Christian name
in honor of Charles Jones, the shin
captain who brought him to North
Carolina.
Ricaud knew General Julian S.
Carr of Durham, tobacco and tex
tile magnate. He wrote Carr about
Soong and Carr responded by send
ing for the boy. First he took
Soong into his home here, then
sent him to Trinity college, then
located in Randolph county ninety
miles from Durham. Soong next
went to Vanderbilt and received
a certificate in theology. He spent
his summers in the generals home
and in 1886 returned to China.
Carr, meanwhile, had taken a
lively interest in Trinity. So in
1890 he gave the land upon which
Trinity built new buildings in Dur
ham, And he spent fortune in
schools and churches in China
all as a result of his interest in
Soong.
Tom Bost, Raleigh correspond
ent of the Greensboro Daily News,
was talking about the general just
today. He and Carr were intimate
friends.
"If I had to write story about
the general, here's what I'd say"
said Tom. And here it is:
Julian Shakespeare Carr could
stake as plausible a claim to be-
ing the father of Durham as any
man living or dead, and there was
no compliment which he so much
liked as being called the male
parent of that municipality.
'He was around at the begin
ming and had big business hand
in it's development. He manufac-
tured tobacco and was with the
old Blackwell company, antece-
dent of the old American Tobacco
company. The aroma of tobacco
was so long around him that when
he ran for the United States Sen
ate in 1900 against Eurniford M.
Simmons the one point of attack
upon this Confederate soldier was
that he was too young to have
seen complete service in the Con-
federacy, but that he should have
been old enough mot to get mixed
up with the tobacco trust" Sim
mons, of course, won.
Ancient citizens who can recall
the Carr-Duke feuds, business, ed
ucational, and political, remember
also their membership in the great
Methodist communion which re-
ceived munificent aid from both
households. The Duke philanthro-
pies went largely to churches and
to Trinity college; the Carr money
gravitated wherever there was a
recipient and always there was.
Old Durhamites credit the general
with the physical transfer of Trim
!. ity college to Durham.
General Carr and his realty
. company are at least the legen-
Diary donors of the lands on which
the Woman's college of Duke uni
versity now stands. The Dukes
gave hundreds of thousands in new
buildings and endowment. General
Carr, less and less identified with
big business, spread his gifts all
over the land His philanthropy