Dascar Octavius Newberry (1869-1928)

From the Elizabeth City Independent, July 29, 1921.

   North Carolina resident Dascar Octavius Newberry was, like many previously profiled politicians, without a face to place with his name for several years. A chance browsing through past digitized editions of the Elizabeth City Independent recently yielded the above portrait of Newberry, the first of which this author has seen. A figure of distinction in Tyrell County, "Dack" Newberry entered politics at an early age, first winning election to local office at the age of just 20. He would later mount a campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican and was selected by President Roosevelt as U.S. Collector of Customs for Elizabeth City in 1906. An alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1912, Newberry later underwent a change of political faith and was appointed as Judge of the Tyrrell County Court in 1921, as a Democrat.

  The son of Marquis De La Fayette (1836-1897) and Victoria (Patrick) Newberry (1844-1909), Dascar Octavius "Dack" Newberry was born in Tyrrell County on October 26, 1869. Newberry suffered a hardscrabble existence during his youth, and resided on "one of the poorest farms in the county." Although his education was limited, Newberry took work as a surveyor early in his life, and "grew to know his county like a book." At the age of twenty, he was elected as Tyrrell County Register of Deeds, where he served consecutive terms from 1890-1898. In the late 1890s, Newberry married Harriet Patrick (1873-1965), to who he was wed until his death. The couple would have three children, Lillian (died in infancy in 1898), Mildred (1901-1934), and Harriett (1906-2000).

  As County Register of Deeds Newberry resided in the town of Columbia, where he would have a considerable impact in civic affairs. He proved instrumental in establishing the town's first daily mail service, a telephone system, an express service, a branch of the U.S. Weather Bureau, and was an educational benefactor to the county school system. 

   Newberry's time as register of deeds also saw him serving in the additional role of justice of the peace in Tyrrell County, and in 1904 set his sights on a seat in Congress. Hoping to represent North Carolina's 1st Congressional district, Newberry won the Republican nomination and that November was opposed by three-term Democratic incumbent John Humphrey Small (1858-1946). On election day it was Small who triumphed at the ballot box, polling 13,065 votes to Newberry's 3,167. Small would subsequently win reelection to seven further terms in Congress and in June 1920 lost his seat in that year's Democratic primary.
  Despite his congressional defeat Newberry continued to advance politically and in 1906 was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt as U.S. Collector of Customs at Elizabeth City. He served through the remainder of Roosevelt's administration and through the Taft presidency before stepping down in 1913. One year previous to leaving office Newberry was named an alternate delegate from North Carolina to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, where William Taft was renominated for the Presidency.
  Upon leaving the customs house in 1913 Newberry joked that the position should be abolished, and later saw a Democrat appointed to replace him. Newberry could take solace in the fact that the salary of the post was cut from $1,800 to a mere $150, and with that decrease in salary, a limited number of men applied for the post!
  In 1913 Newberry removed from Elizabeth City to Norfolk, Virginia, where he took on the post of legal advisor for the Richmond Cedar Works, then a major manufacturer of cedarwood washbasins, pails, and washing machines. Following his removal back to his old home in Columbia in 1919 Newberry served as president of the Albemarle Telephone and Electric Co. and was the president of the Merchant and Farmer's Bank, which during his stewardship had "resources of more than $200,000.00".  All told, Newberry proved modest about his numerous civic accomplishments, with the Elizabeth Independent remarking that:

"And many of the things he did he never got credit for. He was that rare sort of man who cared little for the praise he got out of doing a thing."

From the Elizabeth City Independent, December 21, 1928.

  With his return to Columbia Newberry felt called to politics once again, and underwent a change of political faith. This change from Republican to Democrat was reported on extensively in the Elizabeth City Independent, which noted Newberry's change in politics was due to the Republican party's stance on racial issues in the South. This paper also remarked on Newberry's other possible motives, including "business reasons" extenuating from a fracas between the Tyrrell County Board of Commissioners and the Merchant and Farmer's Bank.

  Whatever the reasoning behind Newberry's transfer of allegiance to the Democratic party, by the early 1920s he had helped build up its ranks in Tyrrell County, eventually seeing nearly all but one Republican officeholder voted out on election day. Rejuvenated politically, Newberry began speaking out on the pronounced liquor traffic in Columbia, calling a mass meeting of female citizens in the summer of 1921. Speaking on bootlegging and how to curb drunkenness in the town, Newberry was soon after named Tyrrell County judge, this office being created by a vote of the Board of Commissioners.

  His time on the bench saw Newberry imposing "heavy penalties" on those that broke the liquor laws. Proving to be a stern judge, Newberry also took steps to curtail vagrancy, and, with it, gambling and theft. His length of service on the bench remains undetermined at this time, and by August 1922 had been elected as Mayor of Columbia. His time in that office also remains indeterminate and on December 9, 1928, Newberry died in Norfolk, Virginia at age 59. He was survived by his wife Harriet and children and was interred at the Oakwood Cemetery in Columbia, North Carolina.

From the Elizabeth City Independent, December 14, 1928.

Ananias Nicholas Fluker (1870-1949)

Portrait from the Waycross Journal Herald, August 12, 1949.

  A pioneer black business leader in Clinch and Ware County, Georgia, Ananias Nicholas Fluker was the organizer of the first black settlement in Homerville and, following his removal to the city of Waycross, owned and operated a service station. A past president of the Negro Business League in Waycross, Fluker had a brief flirtation with politics with his service as a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1912 from Georgia. 

  Born in Georgia in September of 1870 or 1871 (dates vary), Ananias Nicholas "A.N." Fluker was the son of Francis and Ellen Fluker. Young Ananias "spent his boyhood days" in Brooks County and later removed to Argyle, Clinch County, Georgia, where he entered into the copper and barrel making trade. He married sometime in the 1900s to Sarah Jewel Taylor  (1873-1946), and the couple became the parents of three sons, Lee France (1909-1967), Taylor R. (1913-1934), and Nicholas (birthdate unknown).

  After settling in Argyle Fluker was active in the local Baptist church and following his father's death established himself in real estate. Fluker also developed an interest in lumber sales in his region, and his work in these fields later led him to organize an early black settlement in the neighboring town of Homerville. In 1912 he was elected as an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, where President William Howard Taft was renominated as the party standard-bearer.

 One of thirteen black delegates from Georgia to represent their districts at that convention, Fluker and the Georgia delegation were involved in a train collision on June 17, 1912, involving their passenger train and several empty train coaches located in the yards of Chicago's Union Station. News reports detailing the collision give varying accounts as to Fluker's injuries, with the Chicago Day Book reporting "serious bruises and cuts", while the Brunswick News (shown below) notes spinal and internal injuries. Following the accident, Fluker was removed to St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, where he recuperated.

From the Brunswick News, June 18, 1912.

    After the convention proceedings concluded, Fluker continued residence in Argyle and in 1916 served as vice-chairman of the 11th district's Republican convention held in Brunswick. In the early 1920s, Fluker and his family removed to Waycross in Ware County, Georgia, and following a trip through Florida, decided to further his business interests by establishing a service station in Waycross. Fluker's Service Station opened in 1927, not only for the "necessity of negro travelers" but also for the "benefit of his boys attending a high school."

   A.N. Fluker achieved further distinction in Waycross with his time as president of the city's Negro Business League, and in that capacity was instrumental "in the construction of additional buildings at both the Northside and Center High School." Long active in the Friendship Baptist Church in Waycross, Fluker would chair that church's board of deacons until his death in 1949. After many years of prominence in both Clinch and Ware County, Ananias Nicholas Fluker died at a Ware County hospital on August 9, 1949, aged 78. He had been preceded in death by his wife Sarah and son Taylor and was interred at the Hazzard Hill Cemetery in Waycross.

From the Waycross Journal Herald, August 12, 1949.

Cairo Alwin Trimble (1869-1952)

From the Republicans of Illinois, 1905.

   Prominent for many years in Illinois legal circles, Cairo Alwin Trimble served as a Presidential elector for Illinois and was later a delegate to the 1912 and 1936 Republican National Conventions. Besides having a first name that is also a city in Egypt, Trimble went on to further prominence later in life, serving as the President of the Illinois State Bar Association. He was born in Princeton, Illinois on March 15, 1869, a son of Harvey Marion and Margaret Sabin Dakin Trimble. His early education took place in schools local to Princeton and he later went on to graduate from Princeton High School. Trimble decided upon a career in law early in his life and in 1892 was admitted to the Illinois bar.

  Cairo Trimble married twice during his life, the first being to Ms. Alice McKey in 1894. Two children were born to the couple, Margaret Victoria Trimble Towne (1897-1974) and Cairo Dakin Trimble (1905-1931). Following Alice McKey Trimble's death in 1916, Trimble remarried in January 1919 to Nancy Creswell Kyle, who died in 1947.

   Trimble opened a law practice in Princeton and operated here for many years, and while a lawyer by trade, he gained additional repute through involvement in several other civic endeavors in Princeton. He was for many years a member (as well as President) of the Princeton High School Board of Education and was also a bank director. In addition to his work in Princeton, Trimble was later elected as a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. He served on the board for eight years (1917-1925) and would continue to have involvement with the university for many years afterward.

  In addition to his law practice in Princeton, Trimble was named as a Republican Presidential Elector for Illinois in 1908, and four years later was a member of the Illinois delegation to the 1912 Republican National Convention being held in Chicago. Trimble would serve again as a delegate in 1936, journeying to Cleveland to take part in the Republican National Convention that nominated Alf Landon for the Presidency.

From the Alumni Quarterly and Fortnightly Notes of the University of Illinois, 1918.

  Trimble's lengthy career as one of Bureau County's most prominent practitioners of law culminated with his election as President of the Illinois State Bar Association in 1936. His tenure in this post (1936-1937) came at a time when President Franklin Roosevelt's "court packing" plan was largely derided by those in legal circles, and Cairo Trimble's viewpoint on the matter was no exception. He was mentioned by the February 1937 edition of the Telegraph Herald as stating that half of the Illinois State Bar Association's members had taken part in a statewide referendum, with 3,062 members voting against Roosevelt's plan while 377 voted for it.

  In his later years, Trimble maintained an active schedule, being a member of the local Masonic chapter, the Bureau Valley Country Club, the Hamilton Club of Chicago, and was a past member of the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association. Trimble is recorded as serving as the President of the Illinois State Board of Law Examiners, although his dates of service in this office are unknown at this time. Cairo Alwin Trimble died in his native city of Princeton on September 23, 1952, at age 83, having outlived two wives and one of his children. He was survived by his daughter Margaret and was later interred in the Trimble family plot at the Oakland Cemetery in Princeton.

  

Trimble as he looked during his later years, from a 1940 edition of the ABA Journal.

From the Dixon Evening Telegraph, September 24, 1952.

Odolphus Ham Waddle (1851-1918)

From the Confederate Veteran, Volume XVIII, published in 1910.

   Born in Pulaski County, Kentucky on March 4, 1851, Odolphus Ham Waddle carved a successful career for himself as an attorney and civic leader, and in 1912 served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago. The son of William and Maria Ham Waddle, this oddly named Kentuckian received his schooling in his native county and went on to attend the Masonic College in Somerset, Kentucky.

  While still a young man Waddle decided upon a career in law, and in 1872 began the study of his profession under Judge Thomas Z. Morrow. Waddle was admitted to the bar the following year and later removed to Louisville to continue his study at that city's law school. After his graduation in 1874, he relocated back to Somerset and established a law practice that would continue for the remainder of his life. In January 1875 Waddle married in Somerset to Mary Austin Hall, and this couple would later become the parents to nine children, who are listed as follows: Edwin Morrow (1876-1949), Robert Bruce, Katherine, Lucille, Grace, William, Andrew B., Benjamin L., and Stanley.

  Throughout the remainder of the 19th century, Odolphus Waddle built up a successful law practice in Somerset, and "rose high to the ranks of his profession", according to Connelly's History of Kentucky, Volume 5. This same work also notes that Waddle was a "participant in many political battles, though only once was he a candidate for important office, making a race on the democratic ticket for commonwealth attorney." For the majority of his public life Waddle was an avowed Democrat, but in 1896 changed his political stance and was afterward "affiliated as a Republican."

   In 1912 Waddle served as a member of the Kentucky delegation to the 1912 Republican National Convention in Chicago and is listed under the name "O.H. Waddle" in the Official Report of that convention. However, his service as a delegate is under scrutiny by me, as there happened to be another Odolphus Ham Waddle residing in Somerset, Kentucky at the time! This Odolphus (born in 1882 and died in 1962) was a lifelong Pulaski County resident and looks to be either a nephew or cousin of the man profiled here and is buried in the same cemetery as our subject. Nicknamed "Dault", this second Odolphus would have been around 29 or 30 during the 1912 Republican Convention, perhaps a bit young to serve as a delegate. On the other side of the equation, Odolphus Ham Waddle (born in 1851) would have been around sixty at the time of the convention, and, seeing that he was a prominent lawyer and civic leader in Somerset for over thirty years, is the most likely candidate for the "O.H. Waddle" listed in the convention report below. If any possible descendants of either of these men stumble across this posting here, I do hope you'll contact me with any information you might have on them--you may be able to help clear up the confusion!!

   Despite having little information on his life, Odolphus Waddle is recorded as being a prominent figure in the local Masonic fraternity, as well as the Odd-Fellows lodge. The earlier mentioned History of Kentucky Vol. 5 notes that he died at a "hospital in Cincinnati" on December 29, 1918, at age 67. Waddle was later buried in the Somerset City Cemetery and is memorialized by a plaque in Somerset denoting that "his lasting monument is the graded schools of Somerset."