History of Tarboro, (Edgecombe County) North Carolina United States of America

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Biographies:

Joseph Blount Cheshire, 5th bishop of North Carolina and 172nd in succession in the American episcopate, was born at Tarboro, N. C., March 27, 1850; son of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Blount Cheshire, rector of Calvary church, Tarboro, for half a century. He graduated at Trinity college, Hartford, 1869. For two years he followed the occupation of teaching, after which he studied law and was admitted to the bar of North Carolina in 1872. He decided to enter the ministry of the Episcopal church, was ordained a deacon, April 21. 1878, and to the priesthood May 30, 1880. During his diaconate, and for a year after his ordination as a priest he served at Chapel Hill and Durham, N. C., establishing a church at each of these places. From 1881 to 1893 he was rector of St. Peter's church, Charlotte, N. C. He was a deputy to the general conventions of 1886, 1889 and 1892, and a trustee of the University of the South from 1885. He received his degree of D.D. from the University of North Carolina in 1890, and from the University of the South in 1894. He was consecrated bishop Oct. 15, 1893, and made coadjutor bishop of North Carolina, and on the death of Bishop Lyman in the same year succeeded him as diocesan. Bishop Cheshire became the historiographer of his diocese.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Henry Toole Clark, governor of North Carolina, was born in Tarboro, N. C., in 1808; son of James West Clark. He was graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1826 and received the degree of A.M. in 1832. He completed a course in law and was admitted to the bar, but decided to become a planter. In 1849 he was elected a state senator and served as such for twelve years, presiding as speaker, 1858-61. He was governor of the state in 1861-62. He died in Tarboro, N. C., April 14, 1874.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

John Campbell Dancy, educator, was born a slave in Tarboro, N.C., May 8, 1857. He was educated at Howard university, Washington, D.C., and was appointed clerk in the U.S. treasury department. In 1878 he was chosen principal of the Tarboro graded school for colored youth and had four hundred pupils under his charge. He was secretary of the state lodge of Good Templars, a delegate to the Right Worthy grand lodge at Boston, Mass., 1878, and to the one in Liverpool, England, in 1879. He travelled through the British Isles and spoke in all the larger towns and at the Crystal Palace in London. He served two terms as register of deeds for Edgecomb county and as deputy collector of internal revenue in the eastern district of North Carolina. He was a delegate to the Republican national conventions of 1884, 1888, 1892 and 1896, and seconded the nomination of John A. Logan for Vice-President in 1884, and that of John Sherman for President in 1888. He also served the party in his state as a member of the state executive and state central committees. He was editor of The Star of Zion, and afterward of the Quarterly Review, both organs of the A.M.E. Zion church; was president of the National colored press association; a delegate to the Centennial of Methodism at Baltimore in 1884; a delegate to the Ecumenical council at Washington, D.C., 1891, and general manager of the Centennial jubilee of the A.M.E. Zion church, 1896. He lectured at Livingstone college, N.C.; Tuskegee normal and industrial school, Ala.; Allen university, S.C.; Avery institute, Charleston, S.C., the Congregational seminary, Mobile, Ala., and Lincoln university, Chester county, Pa. In 1898 he was reappointed by President McKinley collector of customs for the district of Wilmington, N.C., having previously held the same office under President Harrison for three years.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor