George Alexander Martin
George Alexander Martin. One of Anson County's most flourishing towns is Morven. That it is a good town in a moral sense, a well ordered and regulated community, that it is a thriving place of trade and business and is developing on a solid foundation, is due to the genius and wisdom of George Alexander Martin as a town builder more than to any other individual factor. Mr. Martin is properly credited with having been the founder of the present town.
Persons who have known him long say that Mr. Martin makes a success of anything he undertakes. While prosperity has come to him in generous measure, most of his undertakings have had something of a public character and public benefit, and have been intimately associated with the welfare of several communities. Mr. Martin is an extensive farmer, is a large land holder and dealer, is a banker and merchant, and has become widely known and influential as a campaign speaker and leading democrat in his section of the state.
His birthplace was just two miles east of the present Town of Morven, at Old Morven in Anson County, where he was born in 1857, a son of G. W. and Susan (Adams) Martin. His paternal ancestry is Scotch. Many years before the Revolutionary war the Martins came to America and located at Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and later members of the family came to what is now Anson County. The Martins are related to the Wall and Leake families of what is now Richmond County but originally a part of Anson County. G. W. Martin was born at Blewett Falls, Anson County, on the Great Pedee River. In the early '40s he moved down the river about twelve miles to Old Morvan, a settlement that had been established by Scotch families. Two of the sons of G. W. Martin, both older than George A., were soldiers in the Confederate army. One, J. A. Martin, was killed at the battle of Petersburg. The other, W. T. Martin, was captured and confined in Elmira prison and as a result of the privations and hardships he endured there he died soon after the war.
Hundreds of Southern families will always recall with bitterness the Sherman invasion of the South. In a material sense hardly any one family in North Carolina suffered more from this raiding army than the Martins, but they hold no malice toward the northern people or Sherman's army. When Sherman's army came up through North Carolina, General Kirkpatrick's Division encamped at the Martin homestead at Old Morven. General Kirkpatrick took possession of the Martin residence and homestead for his temporary headquarters. Every building on the place except the house was burned during that occupancy. Up to that time G. W. Martin had been a large and affluent planter, and before the Federal troops came through Anson County, he had five hundred bales of cotton, six thousand bushels of corn and about thirty head of horses and mules. This property was confiscated by General Kirkpatrick, and when he and his raiders departed they took with them all the food, provisions and everything of possible value they could carry and had in the meantime destroyed and burned what could not be moved or used. The only thing left for the family was a quantity of shelled corn that had been scattered about the premises and had been trampled upon by the cavalry horses. This corn was carefully gathered up and ground into corn meal, and that was the family's sole subsistence for nearly two months.
While the family was passing through this ordeal of war times George Alexander was about seven or eight years of age. On account of the ravages of the war and the reconstruction period that followed he was practically deprived of any school education. He was himself sensible of the advantages and need of intelligent training, and largely as a result of his ambition he carried on his studies by the light of a pine knot fire and laid a good ground work for a culture which he has continued by observation and study and extensive reading all his life. His abundant success in life indicates that he has kept himself abreast of the times and has exercised the qualities of a mind of great natural vigor and of good common sense.
For upwards of twenty-five years he continued to live on the old Martin place, and put in most of his time as a practical farmer. About 1886, when the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was being built through the county, Mr. Martin recognized the special advantages and the possibilities of the future connected with a site two miles west of Old Morven through which the new railroad passed. At that time only three houses stood on the ground.
Mr. Martin as a result of his years of hard work and thrifty accumulations had a cash capital of about seven hundred dollars. He used six hundred dollars of this to purchase a hundred twenty-five acres of land at the new Town of Morven. That was only the beginning of his extensive dealings and transactions in local real estate. His farm lands alone today, linked together, extend from the east side around south to the west part of the town, covering a distance of two miles. It is all exceptionally fertile land. There is a single field of cotton comprising three hundred acres, and besides a large acreage is devoted to corn and other crops. In 1916 Mr. Martin turned his enterprise to fruit growing, and experimentally has set out about fifteen hundred apple trees. One of tiie most important purchases in this large estate was the Stubbs place, known as one of the finest farms on the edge of Morven. Mr. Martin paid five thousand dollars for it and it is now worth not less than eight thousand dollars. Later he paid twelve hundred dollars for the Dunn farm, and fifteen hundred dollars for the W. T. Martin estate, both of which have since greatly increased in value. For a portion of the Davis estate near Morven he paid a thousand dollars, and that property is now worth fully twice the amount. For the Cy Bennett farm he paid four thousand dollars, and its value is now over five thousand. The Kilgo farm, for which he paid a thousand dollars, has had offers of three thousand dollars recently. A part of Mr. Martin's lands lie on the waters of Mill Creek near the Great Pedee. Those who are in a position to judge say that Mr. Martin's property holdings at Morven and vicinity are now worth at least one hundred thousand dollars.
His interests are not altogether local. He has long been interested in the mountain country of Western North Carolina, and owns a valuable farm in Allegheny County. This adjoins the land near Sparta and lies within a quarter of a mile of the famous mountain resort Roaring Gap. The farm is well watered. One spring runs twenty gallons per minute. The farm is located in the midst of one of the finest sections of the country for apple orchards, and the value of the land ranges from forty to fifty dollars per acre.
Mr. Martin was by no means a speculator pure and simple when he invested in lands at Morven. His personal enterprise has been a large factor in the increased value of his holdings. Besides farming, he engaged in merchandising at the new town, also handles real estate, and before the establishment of a regular bank he was entrusted with the care of the money by his neighbors and ran a private banking house. In later years his efforts as a merchant have been confined chiefly to handling buggies and other vehicles. He is one of the chief cotton buyers on the local market. Mr. Martin was one of the founders of the Bank of Morven, a flourishing financial institution with a capital stock of twenty thousand dollars, a surplus of twelve thousand dollars, and deposits running from one hundred to one hundred thirty thousand dollars. He is vice president and one of the large stockholders of the bank. The bank's record is very gratifying, since it has never lost a dollar and has never been compelled to sue a customer.
Of that tract of land which comprised his first purchase at Morven and for which he paid six hundred dollars, Mr. Martin recently sold an eighth of an acre, a single town lot, for eight hundred dollars. Altogether he has sold about one hundred fifty lots in the town. South of the line established for that purpose he laid off and sold to colored people some seventy-five or eighty lots, and the colored population has remained in the south part of town, leaving the north part for the white people. He gave the colored people lots for their Baptist and Presbyterian churches and their schoolhouse. Similar donations were made by him for religious and educational purposes in the white section of the town, it is said that Mr. Martin has made more deeds to land than any other citizen of Anson County.
When he became a land holder at Morven there was one saloon doing business. In a very short time he got rid of that local institution and in every deed which he has since executed a stipulation is written therein that if the land is ever used as a piace for selling liquor it shall automatically revert to the Martin estate. Consequently Morven has always been a dry town, and was so long before state prohibition went into effect. Morven has grown and prospered greatly. There are now several brick business buildings, a brick schoolhouse that cost over ten thousand dollars, three substantial brick churches, and the other advantages and facilities of a modern town. Mr. Martin has proved very liberal and public spirited, and as the largest property owner nas been generous in the matter of voting taxes for school facilities and good roads.
For twenty-five years Mr. Martin was a deacon in the Morven Presbyterian Church and in 1916 was honored by being elected elder of the congregation. For two years he served as postmaster. That is almost the only public office he has ever held. Official honors have been urged upon him, but it has been a matter of policy to which he has strictly adhered to decline official places of distinction. He has often been asked to become democratic candidate for the Legislature and other offices.
While not an office seeker, his influence in public affairs has been by no means constricted. He has done much in both local and state politics, and is undoubtedly one of the most convincing campaign speakers in North Carolina. He does this work for the good of the cause, never asks or expects reward from the party, and invariably pays his personal expenses for campaigning, refusing any financial aid from the party managers. Mr. Martin did some specially successful work in the campaign of 1916. When it became known in the summer of 1916 that Congressman Page would retire, Mr. Martin at once got into the arena with his specially selected candidate, Hon. Lee D. Eobinson. Mr. Martin has been called the "political father" of the able and talented Mr. Robinson, and had long favored him in the belief that he was a coming man in public life in North Carolina and the nation. He was influential in securing the nomination of Mr. Robinson, and then went on a speaking tour in the interests of his young protege. His campaigning was especially effective in the western counties of the district, the mountain district which is normally largely republican. The people from the mountains have always looked upon Mr. Martin as one of their own people, and they flocked to hear him in great numbers. His plain and simple, though forceful and tactful arguments, presented in a homely but attractive style, entirely devoid of bitterness or abuse, made hundreds of friends for himself and his candidate and Mr. Robinson was elected by a handsome majority and is now a member of Congress from the Seventh North Carolina District.
Mr. Martin married for his first wife Miss Fannie Nivens, of Anson County. At her death she was survived by four children. Mr. Martin married for his present wife Mrs. Carrie Fearby of Winston-Salem. Her son, Sam Fearby, is a well known newspaper man, now editor and publisher of the Hickory Times. Mr. Martin's children, all by his first marriage, are Earl Martin, Mrs. Grace Ham, George Martin and Mrs. Nina Copeland. Mr. Martin has always shown both in belief and practice a special friendliness for education, and in line with that practice he has given his own children the best of advantages. His son Earl is a graduate of the University of North Carolina. Grace graduated at the High School of Morven. George graduated at the Oak Ridge School, while Nina completed the course of the Morven High School, and attended the Winston-Salem Female College.
Source: History of North Carolina, Vol. VI, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York ©1919
