Lotan Alpha Corriher (1872-1955)

From the 1956 Catawba College "Sayakini" yearbook.

   Standing large in the history of Landis, North Carolina is the figure of Lotan Alpha Corriher, for many years a leading textile industrialist in the Piedmont region of that state. Possessing a rather space-age sounding name (the planet Lotan in the galaxy of Alpha Corriher!), Corriher's influence was felt in a number of endeavors in the Catawba Valley area, as he was the founder and president of the Corriher Mill Company, a philanthropic benefactor of the Catawba College, a leading churchman, and was a baseball team founder. A man whose influence in Landis was still felt in the decades after his death, Lotan Alpha Corriher earns an article here on the site due to his service as the Mayor of Landis, an office he would hold for twenty years.

  One of nine children born to James Franklin (1841-1928) and Sarah (Beaver) Corriher, Lotan Alpha Corriher was born on December 9, 1872, in Rowan County, North Carolina. While his name is certainly curious, the origins behind the name"Lotan" remain uncertain. Several instances of "Lotan" are recorded throughout history, including a figure in the Book of Genesis, a Horite chieftain. Even stranger is the mention of "Lotan" being a giant mythic sea dragon (a servant of the sea god Yam), who was defeated by Canaanite god Baal. Whatever the origins of the name, Frank and Sarah Corriher bestowed upon their son a name worth mention!

   A student at the "old Corriher school" in Rowan County, Corriher also studied at the original Catawba College at its first location in Newton, North Carolina from 1891-92. At the conclusion of his schooling, Corriher followed the trade of bible salesman for a brief period, traversing Cabbarus and Rowan County on foot. He would later purchase a large farm with his father and for a three year period followed the career of a farmer in the China Grove area. This period saw Corriher begin planning his business fortune, and after a period of work at a mercantile firm in China Grove, he set about establishing a sawmill operation and began to purchase farmland in the southern Rowan County area, which was then emptied of its timber. Corriher later sold both the timber and the land and by the early 20th century joined with a partner, Ogatha Lockhart "O.L." Linn, with whom he purchased a brickyard. After purchasing machinery to make the brick, Corriher moved his sawmill nearby and used both of these endeavors to begin construction on the area's first textile business, the Linn Mill. Construction began on the enterprise in 1899, and after its completion two years later Corriher and others hired George Lipe to run its day to day operations. Lipe, in turn, would purchase new machinery for the mill and made a point to hire only local people as employees.

   Named in honor of area businessman and mill founder Columbus Linn, the new mill and its surrounding areas would soon blossom and become the town of Landis, which was incorporated in 1901. On May 29, 1907, Lotan A. Corriher married in Rowan County to Ida Linn (1871-1946), the daughter of Columbus Linn. The couple's near four-decade-long marriage saw the births of four sons, Hoyle Burris (1906-1936), Otho Alexander (1909-1991), Ralph Eugene (died aged two in 1912) and Joseph Frederick Corriher (1914-1997). Following Ida Corriher's death in 1946, he remarried the next year to Florence Fransioli Busby (1895-1979), who would survive him.

   Through the 1900s Lotan Corriher saw the Linn Mill burgeon into a local business powerhouse, and by 1909 had accumulated enough capital to begin construction on the textile mill that would bear his name. Completed in 1913, the Corriher Mills would initially boast of "5,000 spindles operating on double carded knitting yarns." By 1927 the mill had transformed into a "combed yarn mill" with further spindles, and a decade later had increased its spindleage to a "40,000 capacity." Corriher was later joined in this enterprise by his sons Otho Alexander (who served as company treasurer) and Joseph Frederick, who served as the company's president following the death of his father in 1955.

   Lotan A. Corriher would later serve as president of the Corriher Mill Company until his death and also held the post of secretary-treasurer of the Linn Mill, and was a member of the board of directors of both companies. Further business success would come to Corriher through his founding of the Roselle Lighting Company and Corriher Enterprises, and during the early days of the Great Depression provided financial backing for the Merchant's and Farmer's Bank of Landis by personally guaranteeing deposits, thereby preventing the bank from closure.

From the Kannapolis Daily Independent, January 1, 1956.

  In addition to his business successes, Lotan Corriher was invested in the affairs of the Independent Carolina Baseball League, being the primary figure behind the success of the Landis Cardinals, who compiled 49 league wins during their existence and in 1935 completed their season with a "five-game lead over second place Kannapolis." The Cardinals would also see two of its players, Herman Fink and Fred Archer, go on to play in the major leagues with the Philadelphia Athletics.

  Throughout the latter portion of his life, Lotan Corriher was a leading philanthropic benefactor to his alma mater, Catawba College. He would prove influential in the college being removed from Newton to Salisbury, North Carolina in 1925 and from 1925 until his death three decades later sat as a member of the college board of trustees. The college would later honor Corriher by naming the Linn-Corriher Gymnasium, the Corriher-Linn-Black Library, and the Lotan A. Corriher Professorship Endowment after him, and Corriher's philanthropic gifts to the college are remarked as having amounted to over $1,000,000. 

   Lotan Corriher didn't enter the political field until he was over sixty years of age, being elected as the Mayor of Landis around 1935. His two-decade-long tenure in this post saw multiple improvements to the city's infrastructure, including the development of its own electric power system and a water and sewage system that was later to be acknowledged as being "one of the best water systems in North Carolina." Mayor Corriher also led the way for Landis' first fire department, as the town had previously relied on the neighboring town of China Grove in case of fire emergencies. Recognizing that Landis was in need of a fire department and fire fighting equipment, Corriher oversaw the purchase of a new American LaFrance fire engine as well as the construction of a metal building to house the fire department, its volunteers, and its equipment. 

  Active in church work in addition to business and politics, Corriher and his family were members of the Mt. Zion Reformed Church and, later, the Landis Reformed Church, where he was a trustee, deacon and church elder. In late 1955 Corriher's health began to fail and on December 30, 1955, he died aged 83 at the Rowan Memorial Hospital in Salisbury, North Carolina. Memorialized as a "great Christian gentleman", Corriher was survived by his children and second wife Florence and was interred at the Greenlawn Cemetery in China Grove, North Carolina.

From January 1, 1956, Kannapolis Daily Record.