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John Merrick. A Biographical Sketch:
Electronic Edition.

Andrews, R. McCants (Robert McCants)

Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services
supported the electronic publication of this title.

Text transcribed by Apex Data Services, Inc.
Images scanned by Matthew Kern
Text encoded by Apex Data Services, Inc., Tampathia Evans and Natalia Smith
First edition, 2002
ca. 280 K
Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
2002

        © This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.

Source Description:
(title page) John Merrick. A Biographical Sketch
(spine) John Merrick
R. McCants Andrews
229 p., 12 ill.
Durham, N.C.
Press of the Seeman Printery
1920

Call number CB M568a c. 3 (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

        The electronic edition is a part of the UNC-CH digitization project, Documenting the American South.
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[Frontispiece Image]

        JOHN MERRICK AT THE AGE OF 58

        

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[Title Page Image]

        

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JOHN MERRICK
A BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCH

By

R. McCANTS ANDREWS

Page verso

COPYRIGHT, 1920
BY
R. McCANTS ANDREWS
PRESS OF
THE SEEMAN PRINTERY
DURHAM, N. C.
1920

Page [3]

CHAPTER OUTLINE

Page [5]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Page [7]

        "As long as it is God's will, I want this institution to move, for men to support their families; and God will let it live. That is what I am interested about and God knows it. I want this institution to live and she will!"

--JOHN MERRICK.

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APOLOGIA

        THIS volume does not purport to be a biography. It is only an effort to interpret the life of a great American and to give a readable account of his achievements. John Merrick was so well known and the great institution of his building is so well establisht that his memory will forever remain a living inspiration to his race. His real worth will not be obscured by the feebleness of this effort to represent him as one of the greatest Americans of African descent and one of the finest citizens of the Republic.

        The fragments that are here pieced together and welded into the story of a life have been gathered from the lips and out of the memories of his family, associates and friends. Mr. Merrick was not a writer and gave no thot to leaving a formal record of his own life. He was an organizer, financier, humanitarian and prince of men and wrote his life on the human heart where it is imperishable and better preserved than in these pages.

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        In summing up the qualities and endowments of a great man, one craves most of all a mastery of language and a power to picture the real character as he was known to the men among whom he lived. The task is difficult at best; and the more renowned the subject, the greater the needs of the interpreter.

        It should be borne in mind that a study of John Merrick's life must necessarily include the organization and development of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, for that is his great and eternal monument. In the building of this concern Mr. Merrick had associated with him for twenty years Dr. A. M. Moore and Mr. C. C. Spaulding, his faithful friends. The association of these three men is unique in the new history of the Negro in America; and one of the efforts of this book is to set forth their example of loyalty and devoted fellowship for the upbuilding of the race. These three men have been likened, in this story, to The Triangle of the heavens and John Merrick, the leader, to its North Star.

        A word might be said as to the plan of this work. The first four chapters serve as a setting in which the members of The Triangle are assembled.

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The next three chapters trace Mr. Merrick's development as a public-spirited citizen and leader in his community. The North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association is given separate treatment in the next five chapters, following which we return to personal glimpses of John Merrick, the Man, in the fullness of his strength. Chapter XV is a discussion of the only written speech Mr. Merrick has left. The two chapters closing contain the account of the saddest of all days, and the heart-throbs of loving friends. An Appendix has been added containing papers of interest relating to the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company--the old company with a new name--and its founder. The Appendix also contains the classic exposition on the character of John Merrick by Dr. R. B. McRary, of Lexington.

        No man can be properly interpreted or well understood unless the forces that have contributed to his making are taken into account. Therefore much attention has been given to the environment in which Mr. Merrick lived; and he is presented as the product of a period which in itself has experienced rapidly changing conditions. There should be in the story of this life a

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practical lesson for the South; for John Merrick, a home-made, southern product, represents an ideal in spirit and in manner for the young men of both races. And John Merrick was possible only because of the in-bred culture and old-time chivalry of the Best South!

        Men who profess to love the South and to wish to see the end of racial hostility and misunderstanding must realize that the present situation is not an occasion for despair; that what is needed is a genuine effort at racial co-operation, a belief in the Negro, a desire to know what he feels and thinks and believes, a willingness to reward integrity of character and honesty of purpose as a means of uplifting the masses of the race and a spiritual communion that will breed substantial good will and mutual respect. This was the Durham Spirit--the only spirit that could produce John Merrick!

        To the young men of the Nation, colored and white, upon whom will fall the succession of leadership in the affairs of our country and who must assume the responsibility for its future, I beg to commend the spirit of John Merrick as the spirit which made Heroic America! Now, our civilization has been threatened, our democracy challenged.

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If we love America and our Southland, let us unite in fuller understanding and stronger fellowship to make our common nationality a "bond of ennoblement and not a by-word of reproach."

R. McCANTS ANDREWS.

Durham, N. C.
May 1, 1920.

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CHAPTER I
THE TRIANGLE

        THERE is known in Astronomy "a small constellation on the edge of the Milky Way, near the South Pole, containing three bright stars," which is called The Triangle. This beautiful figure is groupt among the "Southern Constellations" and its bodies are among the fixt stars. It lies in the South, near that whitish, vapory belt "composed of multitudes of millions of suns," which is called the Milky Way. This imaginary figure, as represented on a field chart of the heavens, is nearly equilateral in shape, with the first of its stars farther above and to the North, its second slightly lower and over toward the east and its third below and to the southwest.

        "The stars are the landmarks of the universe." In all the ages of mankind they have furnisht the one undying source of inspiration and hope when men have lifted up their gaze, away from the turmoil and stress of earth to the tranquil beauty of the heavens. "They seem to be placed

Illustration

        A. M. MOORE, M. D.,
PRESIDENT, NORTH CAROLINA MUTUAL

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in the heavens by the Creator, not alone to elevate our thots and expand our conceptions of the infinite and eternal, but to afford us, amid the constant fluctuations of our own earth, something unchangeable and abiding. . . ."

        When we gaze upon the wondrous beauty of the heavens and marvel at the brilliance of its constellations our souls are illuminated with a reflected light. "A feeling of awe and reverence, of softened melancholy mingled with a thot of God, comes over us, and awakens the better nature within us. Those far-off lights seem full of meaning to us, could we but read their message; they become real and sentient, and like the soft eyes in pictures, looking lovingly upon us. We come into communion with another life, and the soul asserts its immortality more strongly than ever before. . . . ." Our spirits are cheered and we move off with fresh courage and feel a new thrill to be and to do.

        The world has its constellations as well as the heavens. There are Stars of Earth! To them we turn, from the staleness and drabness of our dreary lives, to drink deep draughts of new determination. We fix our eyes upon them and their radiance compels and inspires and lifts us

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out of our dead selves, transforms our energy and crystallizes our faith. These Stars of Earth are variable and fixt; they are of all degrees of magnitude and of many colors. They flare forth, in a blaze of light, outshining the lesser bodies all about them; they reveal themselves in clusters and in all the figures of the heavens.

        The Triangle of the Milky Way has a counterpart on earth in the story of this book. This one below is also of fixt stars and belongs to "the Southern Constellations." It has been "unchangeable and abiding" amid the fluctuations of earth. For all time to come its "three bright stars" will furnish inspiration and hope to the great struggling crowd that presses ever upward and upward, following the light of their guidance. The first of its stars has been transfigured and gone into the new setting which the Creator has fashioned, in order that its brilliancy may never decline.

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CHAPTER II
THE LAMENT

        THE Triangle is broken! For twenty years three men labored together with a single mind and purpose. Now The Triangle is torn asunder and one is no more.

        The three were born in out-of-the-way places less than fifty miles apart,--one in slavery, one at the dawn of freedom, one almost a decade later during the Reconstruction. Out of poverty came one, in low estate; the other two were farmer boys, born on the lands of their fathers.

        The first had no schooling and was poor, but rose by hard work and simple faith. The second had the choice of a career, went to college and became a missionary of health. The third was little schooled but applied himself vigorously to books and things and gamely sought opportunity.

        A kindly fate brot these three together and cast them into one frame, mingling their meditations, blending their impulses, harmonizing their choices, combining their powers. Thereafter,

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they moved with one accord,--daring, pursuing, achieving.

        The first possest a charm that won men's hearts, a vision that pierced men's souls and a transforming intelligence that absorbed an idea, impregnated it and gave its fruitful offspring for the service of his generation. He was laughter and infinite joy and life itself. No man looked upon him whose heart did not soften with favor; for there was no bitterness in him and all his ways were ways of pleasantness. This one is gone!

        The second is slower of speech and manner, more calculating in thot and judgment. He has been systematically trained and intellect completely dominates impulse. A deep, religious current and conviction draw him away from the shouts and laughter of men into the solace and security of spiritual communion. But this outward undisturbed and unemotional form conceals the deepest of emotional natures--a great heart that aches with every hurt of humanity, that senses and shares every pain and every sorrow and wishes itself able to alleviate the evils and sufferings of human kind.

        The third--Ah! His youthful heart exults and

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seeks its own. Fond and friendly, constant and confiding, loving and lovable. He gave himself to the two, and is of them; he is neither, yet is both. A steady youth, a loyal devotee, a rounded man. Firm but gentle, resolute and resourceful, diligent, industrious, earnest and sweet-tempered. His endowment is capacity and his genius is work!

        Such was The Triangle and great was its strength! For twenty years it held--firm! For two decades it stood--solid, a Unity! Ignorance and intrigue did not intimidate it. Malignity and mischief could not move it. Rancor and reaction failed to wreck it. Prejudgment and prejudice were powerless to prevent it. Hypocrisy and hysteria could not hinder it. It stood!

        It threw the force of its strength against vanity and vacillation and in favor of power and progress. It threw the strength of its force against snobbery and selfishness and in favor of humility and harmony. It held the vigor of its strength against dishonesty and deceit. It strengthened the vigor of its hold thru loyalty and love.

        One is dead, and The Triangle is broken! One is dead, and two mourn. One is dead, and hundreds

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mourn. One is dead, and thousands will mourn. As long as the heart of man shall sing the praises of love and laughter shall range the air, as long as the soul of man shall reach across the cold space that intervenes, seeking the departed soul, so long shall his Lament be sung, so long shall his story be told.

        

Illustration

        C. C. SPAULDING,
SECRETARY-TREASURER, NORTH CAROLINA MUTUAL

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CHAPTER III
THE ENSEMBLE

The Toiler

        ON September 7, 1859, in Sampson County, of North Carolina, at the town of Clinton, there was born a little slave boy. He was an Indian brown baby with eyes that shone with a wonderful brightness, in a chubby little face that wreathed in continual smiles. His features were evenly molded, his hair soft and black and glistening. His quiet little mother was a darker tint and a mild-mannered, God-fearing creature with luminous eyes full of compassion.

        His father he knew not; for those were strange days when men of dark complexion were burdened with the toil of their masters. But his little mother he had with him, and she cared for him and his brother until their little legs were strong and their little arms could toil.

        At twelve years old, the boy was at work at a brickyard in Chapel Hill helping to support his mother. He was growing now and waxing

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strong. Pleasant and well-mannered, he grew tall and shapely and commanded the admiration and respect of his elders. He workt steadily, faithfully, as the years past, finding great joy in the mother's love and in honest toil.

        He had learned to read and to write and to figure,--somehow. For the great war had ended the darkness under which he was born, and he sought learning like other men. At night he took the Great Book, the only one he possest, and pondered its words and letters, in the shadow-light of the fireside. He had no time for school, for he must care for the little mother and his brother, and times were very, very hard and hours of work long and wearisome.

        As the sixth year of his service in the brickyard drew to a close, the boy lifted up his eyes, lookt across the hills and answered the promptings of his young heart for new adventure. The family belongings were loaded into a steer-cart and they moved to Raleigh, the State capital. He was now a strong young man of earnest purpose and of unbounded faith in himself and his God.

        On Shaw's shapeless campus and in the making of its first building this lad became, first, hod-carrier and then brickmason, helping to erect a

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great institution that would mold the lives and characters of girls and boys like himself. No doubt he felt that altho he would never sit within these walls he would build them substantial and strong that they might shelter others in quest of learning.

        The unrevealed past which shadows the early life of this boy gives but faint traces of his heartbeats. But something urged him on. As he had come from brickyard laborer to hod-carrier and brickmason, he went on to other things. He next became bootblack in a barber shop and in the same shop he learned the barber's trade.

        Vigilance is always rewarded and soon an opportunity for advancement came. A fellow barber had determined to establish a business in a nearby town and offered him employment in the new shop.

        The family moved again to a new home. It was not only mother and son this time, however; there were two new members. The young barber had given a good woman his name as he turned into manhood and the union had been blest with a bright and happy baby girl whom they named Geneva.

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        Thus began the real career of an industrious young man; and John Merrick set out for Durham.

The Doctor

        While the contending armies of the Civil War were deciding whether his people should be slave or free, a boy was born on September 6, 1863, in Columbus County, at a place then called Rosindale. He was one of a happy family of ten children born on the family farm. The size of the family afforded mutual advantage to the father and children, since they furnisht sufficient labor to keep the farm going and also had opportunity to attend the rural schools establisht after the war. During the early years of his life this boy stayed at home and farmed with his father.

        Having exhausted the facilities of the nearby schools and become advanced beyond his fellows, the young man became a teacher and was so employed for the next three years. The demand for teachers was great because of the hungry multitude who groped in ignorance but who wanted to know; and this young teacher worked faithfully with them but never lost the desire to learn more himself so he might be of greater usefulness.

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        He decided to re-enter school and went to Lumberton, and matriculated at the Whitin Normal School. The following year he decided upon a change and went to the Normal School at Fayetteville. The work of this year was broken into by the call of his father for his services on the farm and he returned home after the first term.

        At the age of twenty-two, in 1885, he went to Shaw University to pursue the college course, so as to become a professor. It happened that the Medical School at this time was in need of students; so thru the persuasion and advice of his teachers the young student turned to the Medical profession. He mastered the four-year course in three years and was graduated in 1888.

        The young doctor presented himself before the State Board of Examiners with forty-six others, thirty of whom were white, and ranked second in the examinations. The next thing, of course, was to get establisht.

        After considering several towns a choice was made, and Aaron McDuffie Moore set out for Durham.

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The Adventurer

        In Holy Writ is chronicled the story of Jacob and Esau, in which one brother, by skillful deceit, secured from his father the blessing intended for his older brother. This story has an interesting counterpart in an incident that occurred in Columbus County, North Carolina, in 1895.

        A family of eight children resided at Clarkton, near Whiteville, on their father's farm. One of the boys, with an intelligent eye and prepossessing appearance, found the farm life rather irksome and longed to go to the city and there seek the fortunes of life. But he was yet young, having been born August 1, 1874, and his father prevailed upon him to remain at home and give his attention to the ancient science of tilling the earth.

        He remained, but was ill at ease and continued to dream dreams and see visions. He was not destined, like the prodigal, to be undeceived by the folly of false friends and the emptiness of phantom prominence; for he went not in search of pomp and splendor, but of opportunity. He did not spend his time in riotous living but in faithfulness to small things; and he returned home honored and exalted--but this is ahead of the story.

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        The farmer boy went about his daily duties as regularly as had been his custom but ever with an eye to the windward. Now it happened that in a city not very far off he had an uncle, a young Doctor of Medicine, who wrote back of the success he was achieving and of the promises of the new community in which he dwelt. These letters were greatly inspiring and were read and re-read by the boy and they increast his desire to be there with his uncle.

        Finally, one day, a letter came announcing to the boy's father that a position was open in the city and asking that the father send an older son to fill it. The boy was the first to see the missive and immediately opened it when he noticed the post-mark and recognized the handwriting. In frantic haste he devoured the contents and then, with guile and deceit, he told his father that his uncle had sent for him.

        And thus, with a harmless trick and a boy's ingenuity, Charles Clinton Spaulding set out for Durham.

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CHAPTER IV
DURHAM STATION

        THE Durham to which these three men came was not the Durham of today, altho it gave promise to be a great city of industry and thrift.

        Beside the railroad track were stores and shops, with scattered houses strung along the traveled road. The Durham of today was only in the making and these three men had come to put into the process their own life's-blood and sweat. They had come to grow up with the town and to help make it what it now is. The little village was just stretching on its flanks, the tobacco trade was being establisht and the community was in need of young men of vision and action.

        In a booklet which is described as "A Laboratory Study in the University of North Carolina" and which is entitled "Durham County: Economic and Social," Mr. M. B. Fowler gives a description of Durham in its early days.

        He writes: "Fifty-two years ago, on a beautiful

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April day, there gathered around a cheerful camp fire at a little spot between Greensboro and Raleigh the soldiers of the blue and the gray. A stranger would have thot by their gaiety, games, foot races, horse trading, and general behavior that a spring festival was being celebrated. But why this place?

        "This was the spot set aside as neutral ground between the armies of General Sherman and General Johnston, just before the close of the war between the States. This place was called Durham's Station in honor of a venerable townsman, Dr. B. L. Durham. Ordinarily, about two hundred people resided at this little station. But on this memorable spring day thousands of men swarmed the woods in this vicinity. General Sherman's army campt just to the south of the station and General Johnston's about three and one-half miles west, at the Bennett Place. Soldiers from both sides met at Durham Station and had a genuinely good time. They found a frame house just a little way from the station, full of tobacco that had beenmaufactured by Mr. John R. Green for the soldiers in gray. The house was sacked, and men from both sides filled their pockets with smoking tobacco.

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        "After Johnston had surrendered to Sherman at the Bennett House, the soldiers scattered in every direction. Some lived in Texas, some in Maine. So it happened that later Mr. Green's tobacco went 'express prepaid' from Maine to Texas. When the tobacco carried away began to give out, these men began to feel a desire for more of the 'celestial weed.' Thus it happened that the railroad agent, postmaster, and other officials around this little 'burg,' began to receive letters from various places, asking for more of that Durham tobacco. Mr. Green was quick to see his opportunity and accordingly began to manufacture more tobacco and call it 'Durham Bull Smoking Tobacco.' He adopted the Durham Bull as his trade mark. . . . The sign of the 'Bull' is seen around the world today."

        The event above chronicled is of more than passing significance; for in it may be found the secret of the success of this thriving and prosperous city. It is worth noting that Durham was neutral ground and that instead of being the scene of battle it was the scene of friendly rivalry and fraternizing between the opposing armies. The very spirit of the locality made it one where, later, two great races would grow and develop side by side, on terms of good feeling.

        

Illustration

        AT THE AGE OF 20
(REPRODUCED FROM A TIN-TYPE)

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CHAPTER V
JOHN MERRICK--THE BARBER

        IT WAS in the barber shop of W. G. Otey in Raleigh, North Carolina, that John Merrick became first boot-black and then barber. One of Mr. Otey's barbers, John Wright, decided to come to Durham and open a business of his own. He had grown to like Merrick for his affability and trustworthiness and offered to take him in the new shop as workman if he would come. It was so agreed and they moved to Durham and began the new business in 1880. Things went well and after six months Merrick purchased a half interest in the business and it was conducted in the name of Wright and Merrick. Mr. Wright says concerning his association with Merrick:

        "Years ago in Raleigh, North Carolina, I was foreman in the barber shop of Mr. W. G. Otey. At that time John Merrick was porter in the shop and he was always straight and upright in his dealings. I remember one time that Otey and Merrick had a misunderstanding and Merrick was

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discharged. I took Merrick's part with the proprietor and he was restored to his former position. This led to a friendship between Merrick and myself which lasted thru his life-time.

        "Soon after this Merrick began to learn the barber's trade. We continued to work for Mr. Otey for some time. Our friendship grew for each other and we agreed to get married at the same time.

        "After some time I was persuaded by Colonel W. T. Blackwell, Mr. J. S. Carr, Mr. W. Duke and other white friends to come to Durham and go into business. Hating to be without the friendship of Mr. Merrick, I persuaded him to accompany me. We struck Durham about the time she was on her boom. We went into business and met with success from the opening of our doors. Our place of business contained three chairs at the beginning and later we added five more.

        "We got into the hearts of the people of Durham and they had great confidence in us. After so long a time we decided to buy a lot and we built our homes side by side.

        "Merrick and I were in business many years and during that time we never disagreed. I always found him congenial and ready to serve the

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customers and likewise courteous. Time past and I finally sold my interest in the Merrick and Wright Barber Shop to him and came to Washington to reside. This is an event in my life which I have always regretted. Merrick continued to succeed in all lines of business and everything he turned his hands to turned to money."


        After the two families had been settled for about a year, Merrick and Wright purchased a lot and built two houses for their families; little three-room cottages facing the railroad on Pettigrew Street, in the Negro section which has been given the name of Hayti. This modest little home was the first piece of real estate Mr. Merrick owned. Within two years after his coming to Durham he had become proprietor of his business and the proud owner of a home. In this little home Mabel, the second daughter, and Ed, the first son, were born.

        In 1892, Mr. Merrick's partner, Wright, decided to leave North Carolina and sold the business out to Merrick. Wright moved to Washington, D. C., where he still remains, and Merrick became the sole owner of the business. The business expanded from this time and soon Merrick

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was owner of three shops for white patronage and two for colored patronage.

        Things now commenced to become a little easier and the successful barber began to buy real estate and to build houses for rent. The barber built his own houses, first figuring out the bills for lumber, and then hauling it from the mills in his own horse and wagon. He was his own contractor and carpenter. Here we see again his belief in working with the hands.

        In 1887, Mr. Merrick purchased a more pretentious and comfortable six-room cottage on Fayetteville Street and moved his family there. The Negro population of Durham was now steadily increasing and altho the site selected was several blocks from his original home and further from the business section, it served to encourage a general extension of the Negro section, Hayti, to its present proportion. Other Negroes of prominence located along Fayetteville Street and today there can be found no finer homes among any group of Negroes anywhere in the South than those in this section.

        In this new home, John Merrick, Jr., the second boy, and Martha, the third girl, were born.

        About 1890 the barber began experimenting

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with a preparation for dandruff and soon put upon the market Merrick's Dandruff Cure. An old Webster Student's Note Book, found after his death, contains some advertisements he wrote for the newspapers setting forth the virtues of this tonic. These advertisements and a speech written in the other side of the same notebook, are among the few compositions written in his own hand that he has left.

        As an ad-writer, the barber shows his customary originality. A notation above one of the announcements calls for "A cut standing at chair arplyingtonick to head of customers," after which follows the article:

        hair when in a unhealthy condition needs treatment like the sistum. dandruff is a clear demenstration that its unhealthy. Something aught to be done and must be if you would save you selfe from baldness

        (Merrick's cure for Dandruff)


        Here are other samples:

        Now for a few facks there have been so many failues in cureing the scalp of Dandruff lots of them are due to the fack that one or two applycations will not do the work nether will one applycation cure a stomach trouble ore a case of fevor or consumtion. . . .


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        Remember the Old addick a stich in time saves nine

        treat your head at once with Merrick's Dandruff Cure

        We dont clame to bring hair back on a ball head that nature has made and has been of long standing as its beyon mans Power no more than the Dentis can bring a tooth back when axtracted but he can save the original in many casees.

        No Dandruff cure has ever been put upon the market that has found such favor with the Tonsorial Profession as Merricks Dandruff Cure No greec no fussy oder its quick erfeck its cooling and clensing Power make it wonderful . . .

        Now dont let it be a consiteration of what have failed Prior to this but try Merricks Dandruff Cure or money refunded one dollar Per bottle
hantled by all drugest
and your Leading barbers
or by addressing
JOHN MERRICK & CO
104 W Main St
Durham, N. C.


        About this time, probably in 1895, William Jennings Bryan, orator and aspirant for presidential honors, visited Durham and was shaved by Mr. Merrick in the barber shop. He fell into pleasant chat with the barber, after being introduced,

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and before leaving the shop handed him a silver dollar bearing the date, 1882. He told Mr. Merrick not to spend the dollar until he (Bryan) had become President of the United States, as he confidently expected to become after the election of 1896. The dollar remains unspent in the hands of Merrick's family.

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CHAPTER VI
"IRON SHARPNETH IRON"

        THE glimpse we have had of John Merrick, the Barber, has dealt only with his personal success in this business, showing how he rose by his own efforts from an un-schooled, self-trained boy to a successful business man and substantial citizen. It has not toucht another equally important development of his which led to his final flowering as a leader among his people.

        Life is as great an enigma as death, except that on earth people see and feel and, therefore, believe. But the hidden forces that shape the destiny of an individual, that direct his choices and divert his energies, making him in the end either a success or a failure, are just as puzzling and defiant as the unreported life after death. Men use the unanswerable "IF" to signify their queries on matters of speculation, as they postulate a given situation that did not exist and wonder what condition would have resulted from it if it had existed. They wonder what would have been the

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career of such and such a person if he had made a different choice at a given time from that that he did make. And it may be wondered what John Merrick's life would have been if he had not been a barber or, if he had not come to Durham. Would he have been a great pioneer in the business world and an inspiration for his race? or would he simply have been a successful barber?

        At least it appears that in his case his trade was all-important because of the things he learned and the friendships he formed behind the barber's chair. Merrick's college course was taken in his barber shop, largely by the Socratic method, with traveling professors. It might be said, and not extravagantly, that Mr. Merrick's contact with the leading white business men of Durham had as much to do with his success as his own personal gifts.

        When he came to Durham, fifteen years after the close of the Civil War, the leading white families were only moderately well-to-do. Few people in this section were rich enough then to invoke the penalty of exclusion from heaven. In those days, the business of the street, the politics and things in general were discust in the town barber shop, which was the original chamber of

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commerce, men's clubs and civic forum. Men were by turn convivial and acrimonious; and the barber was confidant, buffer or tutor as the occasion demanded. It requires no stretch of the imagination to see how a wide-awake, energetic and industrious barber could appropriate and absorb information and business methods thru such contact.

        The young business men of the town, the Dukes, the Watts, the Carrs, the Fullers, and all their associates,--the groups that have made Durham the splendid city it is,--were not only customers of John Merrick, but his friends. Mr. Merrick was the personal barber of Washington Duke, organizer of the American Tobacco Company; and the first trip the barber made to New York City was in company with his patron and friend.

        Now that the two races have become so estranged, it is hard to realize how close John Merrick stood to these men. There was no time he needed help or advice that he did not get it: there was no time when he made a request in behalf of his race that it was not granted. And his aspirations and his accomplishments will show that these occasions were numerous.

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CHAPTER VII
JOHN MERRICK--THE ORGANIZER

        JOHN MERRICK had a special talent for organizing and promoting business enterprises. We have already seen how, in the barber business, he became part owner, and then full owner of the business which John Wright had establisht, after which he became owner of five barber shops.

        It is only natural that a man who has been personally very successful in the conduct of his own business should become a leader in community enterprises, or should take the initiative in setting up movements and organizations in his community. Mr. Merrick was already a successful man and had developt into a thrifty and substantial citizen. He had the confidence of the people of Durham, had made strong friendships and had a coterie of admirers and associates. He now began to give his energy and talent to new enterprises, in co-operation with others.

        A long list of names will be forever associated

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with that of John Merrick. They shall appear on these pages according to their natural grouping and according to the enterprises mentioned. There is no intention, least of all any effort, to obscure the doings of others who moved in this circle. The life of John Merrick is rich enough in itself to place him among those who shall be called great by the on-coming generations. And so as events are named and groups enumerated, facts are set down as correctly as faulty memories can report them from out of the past. Upon some events there are differences of opinion and conflicting evidence. These differences are not vital, however, and do not remove John Merrick from the background.

        There are disputes as to whether Mr. Merrick himself organized or founded or establisht this particular thing or the other. It is not worth while, except for the captious, to pause over these questions, since they will not add or detract from the object of our study. Where one person originates a thing and another prosecutes its course, bringing it to success and to finality, neither need be robbed of his honor, for both have contributed to the sum of the world's comfort.

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        It would be amazing indeed if one man had a monopoly of the brains in any community; yet one man may easily be the greatest inspirational character in that community. It is often also true that men ponder and revolve plans in their minds, in shadowy outline, who never would see clearly what to do if another did not give articulate form to their hazy and scattered reflections. Other men have clear visions and active imaginations; they can spin out fine theories and perfect schemes. But the actual doing, the execution, the accomplishment -- if others did not undertake the tasks they never would be done. The life of any healthy community is developt vicariously,--the dreamers, the thinkers, the workers all joining in the common uplift.

        The picture of the past years in Durham is one of activity on the part of many good men, men of ability and purpose; but the overshadowing, predominating personality in the background is John Merrick.

The Royal Knights of King David

        In 1883, three years after Mr. Merrick had moved his little family to Durham, an organization was formed which was called The Royal

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Knights of King David. A minister from Georgia, Rev. Morris, had come to Durham, in the interest of a fraternal order already establisht in that State, and was desirous of selling the right of organization to some of the business men of Durham,--Mr. Merrick among them.

        The organization had insurance features and was run on the assessment plan. It had a religious setting, being founded upon the episode of David and Goliath. Instead of purchasing rights in the order for its operation in North Carolina, the committee of Durham citizens bought the order out entirely and incorporated it in their own name.

        Mr. W. G. Pearson, Supreme Grand Secretary, gives the following account of the organization:

        "The Royal Knights of King David was purchased from Rev. Morris, a Georgia preacher, September 24, 1883, by John Merrick, John Wright, W. A. Day, J. D. Morgan, T. J. Jones. Rev. Morris came to Durham to sell them the right to operate in the State of North Carolina; they purchased the order and all rights in it from him.

        "In 1886, I took charge as Supreme Grand Secretary and changed some of the features and

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methods of the order. Collections were only $14 per month from all sources when I came into office and we were operating only in North Carolina. In 1887 we took out a charter in Virginia and establisht lodges in Norfolk and Portsmouth. In 1910 we went into South Carolina and Florida; 1916 saw the order in Georgia again and 1918 in the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania.

        "Within twelve months our collections had increast from $14 per month (for North Carolina) to $430 per month (for North Carolina and Virginia). Present collections from the seven states in which we are operating are $8,000 per month. Our membership is 21,000. We have recently formed a Uniform Rank which is growing rapidly.

        "The order has bonds and securities to the amount of $22,000 and property valued at $40,000. A three-story press brick home office is now in course of erection, which will contain offices for the Supreme Grand Lodge, store rooms and a banking house. The Fraternal Bank and Trust Company with an authorized stock of $125,000 and a paid-in capital of $25,000 will

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open its doors for business in August, 1920. It will have banking, trust, rental and bond departments.

        "At the time of his death, Mr. Merrick was the only one of the incorporators then active in the affairs of the organization. He and I had some time since bought the interests of the other living members. He was the Supreme Grand Treasurer from the time of its organization until his death."


The North Carolina Mutual and Provident
Association

        No doubt the experience which Mr. Merrick had acquired in the fifteen years of operation between the establishment of the Royal Knights and the founding of the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association led directly to his undertaking the latter venture. In 1898 this Association was formed. It is noted here merely for its chronological order; for that is such a large story that it must have its own chapters.

The Lincoln Hospital

        The Lincoln Hospital was founded by Dr. A. M. Moore, in 1901, thru the generosity of the Duke family. Mr. Merrick was influential

Illustration

        AT THE AGE OF 35

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in persuading the Dukes to make this benefaction for the Negroes of Durham. Dr. Moore gives the following account of his and Mr. Merrick's effort: "The movement for a colored hospital was started by me in 1898. I worked hard to arouse the colored and white people in the interest of such an institution for our city, and gradually they began to respond. We were especially endeavoring to win the encouragement of the Duke family.

        "Dr. A. G. Carr, my good friend, was the family doctor for the Dukes, John Merrick was the family barber, W. H. Armstrong was the butler and Mrs. Addie Evans was the cook. I kept in touch with all these persons and we had a fairly good opportunity to see that the matter did not grow cold. All these persons helpt to win the favor of our friends and benefactors, the Dukes, but I suppose Dr. Carr and Mr. Merrick were more largely responsible for the generous gifts we received.

        "It seemed for a while that we would not have an institution of our own. Mr. George W. Watts had given a hospital for the white people of Durham and he later announced his intention of adding a colored ward. I took up the matter with

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Mr. Watts, urging that such provision would lead to practical difficulties, that this plan would not give our Negro physicians sufficient opportunity to develop and that such provision would prove inadequate with the growing Negro population. Mr. Watts decided that he would not open the ward for colored and the Dukes gave us promise of help.

        "The first gift from the Dukes was $13,000. Since then they have given $20,000 more. Recently a new site has been purchased for an enlarged institution by Messrs. Buchanan and Ben Duke, George W. Watts and J. S. Hill. They will erect in the near future a hospital worth probably $100,000."

        In 1910 it was decided to add a Nurse Training School. One hundred eight girls have attended this school, eighty-six of them graduating. Fourteen are in the school at present. They have been most helpful to the City of Durham, especially in the influenza epidemics.

        There are a cornerstone and two marble tablets at the hospital showing the donors, the colored trustees and the inducement that led to the gift. The cornerstone, with an inset of the 'Square and Compass,' reads:

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        LINCOLN HOSPITAL

        Established 1901
W., B. N. and J. B. Duke, Donors


        A larger tablet, on the opposite side of the building, showing the 'Three Links' of Odd Fellowship, bears the names of the original trustees and officers for the institution:

        TRUSTEES

        A. M. MOORE, M. D.
S. L. WARREN, M. D.
J. A. DODSON
A. A. ARMSTRONG
A. R. MOORE
GEO. W. STEVENS
J. W. O'DANIEL
D. T. WATSON
C. C. SPAULDING
M. H. CHRISTMAS
J. E. SHEPARD
JOHN MERRICK, President
W. G. PEARSON, Secretary
R. B. FITZGERALD, Treasurer


        On the front of the building, at the main entrance is a large marble tablet which speaks for itself:

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        MEMORIAM

        LINCOLN 1901 HOSPITAL

        With grateful appreciation and loving remembrance of the fidelity and faithfulness of the Negro slaves to the Mothers and Daughters of the Confederacy, during the Civil War, this institution was founded by one of the Fathers and Sons

        B. N. Duke
J. B. Duke
W. Duke

        Not one act of disloyalty was recorded against them.

        JOHN MERRICK, President
A. M. MOORE, Founder and Supt.


The Mechanics and Farmers Bank

        The idea of establishing a Negro bank in Durham seems to have had several sources, or rather to have been in the minds of several people. It was quite a natural desire and logically followed the success experienced in the commercial ventures of the progressive and alert colored men of the town. There is scarcely a city in the South where Negroes are successful in business that has not a colored bank or that has not heard much talk of one.

        It is amusing that, in the just pride which all persons connected with the establishment of the

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institution feel, each one believes the idea was original with him. It seems clear that several persons were thinking along the same line and that the Mechanics and Farmers Bank resulted from the collective rather than from the individual initiative toward a banking institution among the Negroes of Durham. Durham was a progressive town in 1907. Her factories were humming and supporting a large class of laborers, male and female. The business and professional men of the race were becoming strong financially with a fine outlook for the future. Besides local business organizations two companies were growing rapidly and spreading to other states. The Royal Knights of King David had been establisht for a quarter of a century and was then operating in two states; the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association had been formed for nearly a decade and had pusht its way thru the Carolinas. The idea of opening a banking institution, therefore, must have appealed simultaneously to or have been a growing conviction with a number of persons.

        At any rate several persons got busy. According to Dr. A. M. Moore this is what happened: "Professor E. A. Johnson and Dr. M. T.

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Pope, of Raleigh, came to Durham one night in 1907 to work up a building and loan association. We called a meeting of the leading men of the town in order to discuss the matter. It was soon evident from the turn of the meeting that the persons present wanted a bank rather than a building and loan association. The discussion became general and the meeting finally adjourned without any action in favor of the effort of the visitors.

        "Soon after this R. B. Fitzgerald, John Merrick and others began to show activity toward establishing a bank. The officers of the North Carolina Mutual were especially interested in such an institution. The Company has always done the bulk of its business thru the Mechanics and Farmers Bank since its establishment in 1908."

        Mr. W. G. Pearson, first cashier of the institution, gives this recital: "The idea of a Negro bank originated in the minds of R. B. Fitzgerald and myself. I talked to John Merrick about it but at first he did not think the time was quite ripe to launch it.

        "Mr. Fitzgerald and I went ahead in our efforts to secure subscribers and subscribed $1,000

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each ourselves. I then approacht Mr. Merrick again and he subscribed. Other subscriptions were given until $10,000 worth of stock had been sold, thereupon the stockholders were called together and the bank organized."

        A third story, told by Mr. J. A. Dodson, has it this way: "About a year or two before the Mechanics and Farmers Bank was organized, Mr. R. B. Fitzgerald had been agitating the matter and trying to get sentiment aroused in favor of getting a bank in Durham.

        "The matter then died down. Mr. Fitzgerald soon began to talk again. He and Dr. J. E. Shepard got together and the latter wrote out a form of charter for the institution. A meeting was called, at which Messrs. Fitzgerald, Shepard Pearson, Warren and myself were present, together with others. All of us subscribed for stock. Dr. Shepard then took steps toward having the charter issued.

        "Meetings were called from time to time and different ones began subscribing for stock. Dr. Moore, Mr. Merrick and others had now become stockholders and the bank was finally establisht. As I recall the facts, Mr. Fitzgerald and Dr. Shepard were the most active in the effort."

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        House Bill 1342 and Senate Bill 673, entitled "An Act to Incorporate Mechanics and Farmers Bank at Durham, North Carolina" and "Ratified this 25th day of February, A.D. 1907," states that "The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact: Section 1, That John Merrick, R. B. Fitzgerald, J. A. Dodson, James E. Shepard, A. M. Moore, S. L. Warren, W. G. Pearson, Jno. R. Hawkins, W. G. Stevens and their present and future associates, successors and assigns, be, and they are hereby constituted a body politic and corporate under the name and style of Mechanics and Farmers Bank of Durham, North Carolina. . . ."

        The first notice of meeting of the incorporators was sent out under date of July 1, 1907, and was signed by R. B. Fitzgerald, W. G. Pearson, J. E. Shepard, John Merrick, J. A. Dodson, W. G. Stevens, A. M. Moore and S. L. Warren. It reads as follows: "We, the undersigned, being a majority of the incorporators and subscribers for the capital stock of said company, do hereby fix the office of the Royal Knights of King David, No. 212½ Parrish Street, City of Durham, as the place, and the 29th day of July, 1907, at 12 o'clock, as the time to meet and organize the said

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Mechanics and Farmers Bank of Durham and to elect the Board of Directors and to transact such other business as may properly come before said meeting. . . ."

        The first meeting of the incorporators and stockholders was duly held at the time stated and directors and officers were elected. Messrs. Fitzgerald, Dodson, Pearson, Merrick, Shepard, Spaulding, Stevens, Moore and Warren constituted the first Board of Directors. The Board of Directors met immediately after the general meeting of stockholders had adjourned and elected the following officers for the new institution: President, R. B. Fitzgerald; vice-president, John Merrick; cashier, W. G. Pearson. The bank opened in the North Carolina Mutual Block in August, 1908.

        Mr. Pearson did not long remain cashier, because of other duties, and was succeeded by Dr. George W. Adams who held that position until death claimed him in 1918. Mr. C. C. Spaulding became cashier following Dr. Adams. Mr. Merrick became president of the institution in 1910, following the death of Mr. Fitzgerald; and he has been succeeded in 1919 by Mr. Pearson. Mr. Pearson resigned in May, 1920, and Dr. S. L. Warren became president.

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        The institution grew rapidly and has been well supported by the Negroes of Durham and of the surrounding towns. Its first dividend, of four per cent, was declared in August, 1909. At that time the capital stock was raised to $15,000. In February, 1920, $27,375 worth of stock was offered to the public, an amount sufficient to raise the capital stock to $50,000. This stock was sold within one week and $20,000 worth of it was paid for in cash--a splendid testimonial of the confidence of the Negroes of Durham in this institution, and also of their financial condition.

The Bull City Drug Company

        In 1908, the same year that saw the opening of the colored bank, there was only one colored drug store in Durham and that was not centrally located for the colored population. That one store had been organized as the Durham Drug Company by Dr. A. M. Moore, W. G. Pearson, J. A. Dodson, R. B. Fitzgerald and J. E. Shepard, in 1895. Messrs. Dodson and Shepard were then pharmacists from Shaw University. In 1901 this business became the Fitzgerald Drug Company and so continued until 1910, when Mr. Dodson became sole owner.

        The motive for the formation of this first company

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seems not to have been so much the making of money by the stockholders as it was to help the young pharmacists in the development of a new business for the colored citizens.

        Similarly, the desire for other drug stores to serve the growing Negro population led to the formation, in 1908, of the Bull City Drug Company, by John Merrick, Dr. A. M. Moore, C. C. Spaulding, W. G. Pearson, Dr. C. H. Shepard and S. T. James. Mr. James, a pharmacist, was made manager and served very efficiently in that capacity. The company opened a store in the North Carolina Mutual Block on Parrish Street and was enabled sometime later to open a branch store in Hayti, the colored section. The business was very successful and was run under the company management for four or five years. The two stores were then sold to their managers and pharmacists, S. T. James and J. W. Pearson, and are still flourishing.

The Merrick-Moore-Spaulding Real Estate
Company

        In the division of the management of the insurance Company it fell to the lot of Mr. Merrick to do the buying, selling and investing. This will

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be commented upon in the development of that concern in a later chapter. On account of this work Mr. Merrick became an expert on real estate. He came in close touch with the local market and often there would be property which the insurance Company could not handle, because of insurance regulations, that Mr. Merrick could handle to his personal advantage. In this way he often found profitable investments which were out of the line he was seeking for the Company.

        Most men would have used this "inside information" for their exclusive benefit, which would have been, of course, perfectly legitimate. But Mr. Merrick felt that his partners in the Company were due the same consideration that he gave himself in pushing his own personal business; and, at his own suggestion, the Merrick-Moore-Spaulding Real Estate Company was incorporated December 8, 1910. This Company is still operating and its holdings reflect the safe business sagacity and judgment of its organizer.

The Durham Textile Mill

        The only unsuccessful business venture recorded against The Triangle, out of the many formed or participated in by its members is a

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textile concern, organized in 1914 and sold the next year. The Durham Textile Mill was owned by Messrs. Merrick, Moore and Spaulding and was managed by Mr. C. C. Amey. It was organized for the manufacture of socks.

        It is quite probable that the venture would have been successful and would today have been one of the largest hosiery mills of the city had not several unfortunate occurrences combined to bring about its strangulation. First of all, the owners had no time to give to it themselves. The manager was active, but was inexperienced in the hosiery business and it was difficult for him to lay hold of young men of business training and experience. Even these difficulties would have been overcome with time had the concern kept going. However, with the European War, Durham was hit by the same general depression that was experienced all over the South. Cotton was dethroned as king, money became scarce, markets were closed. The mill ran for a year but was unable to develop a market and was finally sold. There was, however, no financial loss from its operation.

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The Colored Library

        Some time in the year 1913, as well as can be definitely ascertained, Dr. A. M. Moore founded a Sunday School library in the White Rock Baptist Church. An effort was made to get other churches in the city to take an interest in the library and to use it; but because of the usual denominational rivalries it remained more the White Rock Sunday School Library than a public institution. It was supported thru the efforts of Dr. Moore and thru personal donations. Mr. George W. Watts (white) made a gift of $100 toward its support.

        Dr. Moore was very anxious that the little library should grow and, in its influence and help to the boys and girls, become an addition to the public schools of the city. He recognized that the denominational incubus might retard its growth and so decided that it had better be moved out from the church building.

        Mr. Merrick had just erected a building to rent as a place of business on a triangular point almost opposite his home on Fayetteville Street. Dr. Moore proposed to rent this building from him for the library, to which Mr. Merrick gladly

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agreed. Under the arrangement in July, 1916, the building was rented for about a year. The colored citizens and a few white friends made donations and kept the institution going. It was then decided to buy the building and make the library a permanent institution.

        The property was valued at $4,000 and that was the amount of the sale price agreed upon. Mr. Merrick gave $1,000 of this amount back to the institution and the library got a permanent home. Mrs. Hattie B. Wooten was elected librarian and the following trustees were named: Dr. A. M. Moore, Chairman; J. M. Avery, Treasurer; M. T. Norfleet, Secretary; C. C. Spaulding; Mrs. S. V. Norfleet; E. D. Mickle; Dr. S. L. Warren; Mrs. M. S. Pearson and J. A. Dyer.

        In June, 1917, the city of Durham began to to give a monthly contribution of thirty dollars which it raised in June, 1918, to fifty dollars and which it still continues. The County of Durham began in June, 1918, to supplement this amount by twenty dollars monthly, which it still continues. White Rock Baptist Church has given five dollars monthly since the summer of 1919. Public and private donations from both colored

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and white friends have kept the institution going.

        The annual report of the library, December 31, 1919, contains the following facts:

        

        In March, 1920, the circulation of books had grown to five hundred and the report for the current year will show a greater expansion than ever before. The only other Negro city library in North Carolina is the one at Charlotte, establisht several years before the Durham Library but not equalling its progress.

Recapitulation

        John Merrick, the Barber, we saw in 1883, prosperous and successful in his profession and giving promise to become one of Durham's foremost citizens. For the next thirty-three years, from 1883 to 1916, we saw John Merrick, the Organizer--the promoter, the man of affairs, the public-spirited citizen, the benefactor.

        With others, he bought out a fraternal order

Illustration

        AT THE AGE OF 40

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and became its treasurer. With others, he organized an insurance company and became its president. With others, he used his influence and friendship with one of Durham's great families in order that a hospital might be establisht, and became its president. With others, he helpt organize a bank and became its vice-president, and later its president. With others, he formed a drug company which gave the town two additional colored drug stores. As the leader of The Triangle, he formed a private real estate company so as to promote the private interests of his business associates. With his two associates of The Triangle, he organized a manufacturing concern which, because of a combination of circumstances, did not succeed, but which suffered no financial loss. Thru his interest in the welfare and education of the boys and girls of the city he provided a home for the Library and gave $1,000 toward its maintenance. This recital does not cover the private philanthropy of John Merrick but is only a brief statement of the most important events in the life of the colored people of Durham in which he either led or contributed his great influence.

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CHAPTER VIII
THE NORTH CAROLINA MUTUAL AND PROVIDENT
ASSOCIATION

        THE formation of the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association has been noted in the preceding chapter. This organization was formed to engage in the business of life insurance.

        In October, 1898, seven men assembled in meeting and became the charter members of the organization. Their names are John Merrick, A. M. Moore, P. W. Dawkins, D. T. Watson, W. G. Pearson, E. A. Johnson and J. E. Shepard. These seven men organized the Company and elected the following officers: President, John Merrick; Secretary and Manager, D. T. Watson; Treasurer and Medical Director, A. M. Moore. The organizers invested fifty dollars each as capital stock and business began on April 1, 1899, in Durham and Durham County, exactly twenty-one years before the setting down of this account.

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        For some reason the Company did not succeed. It was difficult to secure business and things went badly. Some of the members became discouraged and were inclined to end the business. After things had lagged for a few months a meeting was called and it was decided that the Company could not proceed further.

The Reorganization

        When the true state of affairs became known among the organizers, two of them got together for a conference and decided that the Company could be made to go and that they were not willing to have the plan abandoned. One said: "Well, let's buy it in, reorganize and start out fresh.--You bid it in; and we'll pay off the original investments and reorganize the Company." And it was so agreed. When the meeting was called and dissolution decided upon, Dr. Moore, following the suggestion of Mr. Merrick, offered to pay off with interest the fifty dollars which had been invested on condition that the other organizers would give a full release of their rights in the old Company. This was very willingly done since most of the organzers had already considered the

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investment a dead loss. Thus a reorganization was effected and The Triangle was formed.

        A year or two before this story a young farmer boy came to Durham seeking opportunity. He secured a job as dishwasher in the local hotel at a salary of ten dollars per month, after which he was made head bell-boy and later side-waiter. He left the hotel in order to enter school and was butler-cook for Judge R. W. Winston for two years and for Mr. J. D. Pridgen, another year, while in school. He graduated from the Whitted School in 1898 and was made manager of a colored grocery company just organized. The year 1898 seemed to have been a favorable year for the establishment of business among Negroes in Durham, and so twenty-five citizens invested ten dollars each and, with the total of two hundred fifty dollars and extensive credit, opened a grocery store. The twenty-five depositors formed a very happy nucleus of purchasers for the new business and they stocked their homes with groceries in order to help clear the shelves of the store. Pretty soon the new shelves were quite clean and the new manager was taxed to invent some theory by which he could replenish them. He called together the original supporters

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of the business but some of them seemed a bit unsympathetic, since they had never received any dividends from the ten-dollar investment. At any rate, they were all willing to call it square and to give the entire business over to the youthful manager. He continued to run the establishment and to extend credit and, after six months, he found himself three hundred dollars in debt.

        The grocer was none other than Charles Clinton Spaulding, the Adventurer, nephew of Dr. Moore. At the invitation of Mr. Merrick he became a member of The Triangle. He brot with him his debt of three hundred dollars and it took him the next five years to pay it off. The new officers of the reorganized Company were: President, John Merrick; Treasurer and Medical Director, Dr. A. M. Moore; Vice-President and General Manager, C. C. Spaulding.

        It would be only gratuitous, perhaps, to point out here what five men freely gave up because of lack of faith or foresight. It is of course difficult to judge the circumstances surrounding these pioneers in 1899. Doubtless sufficient reasons existed to nullify their interest in the attempt to form a strong Negro insurance company. It probably seemed a bit too ambitious and difficult

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of achievement. Yet one man believed that it could be done, despite all the hardships and difficulties that it would entail, and another man was willing to "see it thru." Fortune is such an eccentric goddess that it is often difficult to appease her; but if anything wins her smile and guarantees her favor it is the kind of pluck that John Merrick and Aaron McDuffie Moore possest.

The Day of Small Things

        On the present site of the county court house at the intersection of Main and Church Streets, there stood in 1899 a little wooden office building; and this corner was known in that day as Kemper's Corner. Dr. Moore, Treasurer and Medical Director of the North Carolina Mutual, had his office there for the practice of medicine. The Association found in this office a genuine welcome, but very limited space, at the cost of two dollars per month. A carpenter made a desk for the sum of four dollars and this, with four or five chairs, was the total of the office equipment of the concern.

        The directors got together and allotted the work of the Association among them. Mr. Merrick was to handle the finances, Dr. Moore was

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to examine and pass upon the policyholders and Mr. Spaulding was to hustle the business and develop the field. No salaries were paid and the manager was put on commission. The manager purchased the first complete set of books the Association possest and started a bank account and checking system.

        Mr. Spaulding gives this interesting account of the Association in its early days: "When I became General Manager of the Association it was doing an industrial business on the assessment plan and paid sick and death benefits. Its debit or weekly collection was $29.40. I was manager, agent, clerk and janitor and had to do local collecting as well as organize new fields in the adjacent counties. Dr. Moore and Mr. Merrick served without salaries, each continuing to follow his chosen business while I took the field on a commission basis.

        "The first trip I made away from home was from Durham to Charlotte and Hamlet and return, via Raleigh. I learned to talk insurance on that trip, for I had to depend upon my success in selling insurance for my traveling expenses. I landed in Sanford without funds and hustled all day. When the time came for me to take the

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train to Raleigh, I went boldly into the station--this was before there were separate waiting rooms--and called for a ticket, and then discovered that the ticket cost twenty-five cents more than I possest. A white drummer, going also to Raleigh, was imprest by my embarrassment and inquired if I did not have sufficient money, what kind of work I was doing, etc. I told him what my business was and he gave me fifty cents, refusing to let me return the extra quarter.

        "In Raleigh, I was much more at home, since I had several friends there. I went to the boarding house of Mrs. Ada Thornton, who was a mother for all young men and explained my poor success. She took care of me for a few days and lent me a dollar. I tried to hustle insurance but everywhere met with discouragement.

        "My friends and others whom I tried to interest were sympathetic and appreciative of the effort to establish an insurance company but they did not believe it could be done. They advised me on every hand not to waste my time; they told me I was a 'bright young fellow' and ought to go back to school or take hold of something that would be profitable. Some flatly ridiculed the idea of a Negro insurance company. I returned to

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Durham thoroly disgusted and quite willing to resign. I would have quit at this time had it not been for the encouragement of Mr. Merrick and Dr. Moore."

        The first crisis of the Association was caused by its first death claim of forty dollars. This was a matter of such importance that it necessitated the calling together of the Board of Directors; and they had to contribute from their pockets to make up this sum. The record of this payment, with the name of the deceast and the date of the claim, would be a most interesting document to set forth here had it not been destroyed by fire some years later. This hasty meeting was called and held in the rear of Mr. Merrick's barber shop, as was often done when he was very busy and could not get out of the shop.

        In 1900 two rooms were rented on Main Street in the block above Kemper's Corner and on the same side with it up-stairs over a store. The offices of the Association were located here until they built a permanent home.

        The new partners worked faithfully and business grew month by month. The energetic manager began advertising and more business was added. He got The Blade, the colored paper

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then printed in Raleigh, and began writing to all the colored advertisers in its columns. This was done with other colored papers and the Association began to get policy-holders in different parts of the State. Citizens became interested and wrote for the manager to come to their towns and introduce his work.

        It soon became necessary to have a local agent and Mr. T. J. Russell, who had written some insurance for the first Company, was appointed on the Durham District. Mr. Russell is the oldest agent in the employ of the Association. He gives this account of his work: "When the North Carolina Mutual was organized, in 1898, I was working at the Duke Tobacco Factory. I suggested to my friend, P. W. Dawkins, one of the organizers, that I might be able to write some insurance in the factory and so he had me appointed as the first local agent but not a full-time employee.

        "The officers of the Association had written thirty-eight applications for insurance and I wrote the thirty-ninth. Strangely enough, the applicant's name was Early Mason. He has been dead for several years. I continued to write applications and remained at the factory until some time after the reorganization of the Association.

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        "The work succeeded after the reorganization and I was offered an appointment as fulltime agent, when it had grown too heavy for Mr. Spaulding, who was manager, agent and general utility man in those days. I decided to accept. My foreman at the factory was a very clever man and I had been under him for ten years. When I told him of my decision to quit, he advised against it, saying that the insurance Company could not succeed and that I would soon have to come back. But he told me that if I did have to come back, as he expected, he would see that a place was made for me at the factory, if he was living. My salary at the factory was six dollars per week.

        "I became local agent for the Company March 3, 1903. Policy No. 27 had been issued to Mr. Frank Lyde of this city, before I had any connection with the Company. When I became agent I began collecting from Mr. Lyde and have been his collector ever since. He is the oldest policy-holder of the Company and is still following his trade as a brick-mason, as he was doing when he joined the Company.

        "Two weeks after I had quit the factory I

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met the superintendent on the street and he asked me how I was getting along. I told him pretty fair. He offered me twelve dollars a week if I wanted to come back. This was twice my old salary and more than I was making with the Association. It was a great temptation. I thot I would see Mr. Merrick and talk it over and that I did.

        "Mr. Merrick always had a smile and always could see the bright side of things; that is the reason he succeeded so well. When I told him of the offer I had had he said that was pretty good and that I was worth it. Then he put his hand on my shoulder and said: 'Why don't you brighten up and take fresh courage and make fifteen dollars a week out of your job with us?' I worked much harder and increast my earnings and never looked for a better job after that; but always tried to make my job a better job. I had faith in the men at the head of the Company and I saw a living in it for me; but I never expected that the Association would grow as rapidly as it has nor as large as it is today.

        "My relations with my employers have always been most cordial and pleasant, and there are no men anywhere that I respect more highly than I

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respect them. Mr. Merrick's death was a great loss to me for he was always my constant friend and I never forgot the lesson he taught me when I was considering going back to the factory. He advised me to buy myself a home, which I did years ago.

        "As the first agent, I had several opportunities for advancement but refused to take my promotions as they came. I had a growing family and did not like to travel. So I have stayed on the home district and have never done any work for the Company anywhere else, except two trips I made for the manager to Wake Forest and to Youngsville, some years ago, when his hands were full."

        The second oldest agent in the service of the company is Mr. L. A. Moore, of Wilson, North Carolina, who is still in the employ of the company.

        The story of the growth of the North Carolina Mutual is a story of sacrifice, unselfish toil, honest administration and cautious but steady advance. The fire of 1914 destroyed many of the early records which would show in detail the steps of progress. However, certain facts are perfectly clear which entirely outweigh the evidence

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which was lost and these facts are vastly more essential to our understanding of how the Association was promoted.

        The first big fact, contrary to the avowed notion, is that for the first six years of its existence, the Association did not earn any money and did not pay any regular salaries. It usually was self-supporting during this period but every once in a while the officers would have to go into their pockets or negotiate a loan to carry it thru a difficult place. One year the officers got fifty dollars, at Christmas time. Another year they got two hundred dollars for the year's work. It was not until 1905 that the business was remunerative enough to pay the president a salary of one hundred dollars per month and enable him to give up his trade. At this time the medical director was giving a part of his time and received a monthly stipend of twenty-five dollars. The manager was on commission from the outset.

        It is perfectly clear on the strength of these facts that the Association could never have grown had not the officers been already well establisht and in position to nurse it along and wait for it to become a paying concern. They succeeded because they were unselfish and were already good

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business men and because they followed the same policies which made them personally successful.

        The most striking thing of course is the fact that not one of the officers of the Association had had any previous experience in the insurance field. They had to learn the insurance business and they had to carry the new Company while they did it. Only honest guidance and safe polices could have made this hazardous venture the great success it has been.

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CHAPTER IX
SUCCESS BASED ON POLICY

        THERE is no mystery about the success of the North Carolina Mutual; it is simply a story of common sense, complete unity, hard work and absolute honesty. In other words, the success of the Company has been due to the strict adherence to well-establisht and long-recognized principles of business.

        In the first place, the officers of the Company have worked thru all the years in complete harmony and understanding. From the very beginning of the business the officers have met at noon each day for the consideration of plans and for their mutual profit; and this custom is in existence to this very day. The practice has made all the officers thoroly familiar with every feature of the business and has kept them all posted on what was going on. There have been no hidden secrets, no secret ambitions, nothing unrevealed. When error was found it was corrected; but it was the error of all, because it had been the result of mutual mistake. It is to be

Illustration

        FAC-SIMILE OF COMPANY'S FIRST ADVERTISING MATTER

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expected that the families of these men have stood very close together. Not only have they been business associates but they have been brothers and friends in every sense of the word.

        Some years ago, in a publication of the Company, there was this comment on the custom of daily meetings:

        "During the past 18 years of the Company's existence, the officers have met daily in conference, 'touching and agreeing' on the same point, because they have absolute confidence one in the other; and by confiding in each other, they have learned to confide in the public. Therefore, if there is any secret to the success of the North Carolina Mutual it is the fact that its officers have implicit confidence in each other and have allowed themselves to be swallowed up by the Company. They realize that in order for a grain of corn to bring forth fruit in abundance it must die. This they have been willing to do."


        Whenever it has been necessary for some one of the officers to take the road for the inspection of business or for any interest of the Company, they have taken turns as traveling men and gone where the business needed their attention. Now, of course, there are traveling agents and inspectors;

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but no officer hesitates to go to any part of the field whenever it is necessary.

        Secondly, the officers of the North Carolina Mutual have been absolutely honest. They have been honest not only in the sense of not appropriating what did not rightfully belong to them but also in the sense of refusing to mishandle the people's money or of risking it in uncertain or questionable ventures. There is today no taint of misplaced funds, of padded records, of advantages taken of customers, of trusts betrayed. There have been no occasions of compromise or dishonorable adjustments, no tieing of hands or of fearing to come to the parting of the ways with those whose main interest was not the upbuilding of the concern.

        They reflected their own honesty and honorable dealing in their attitude to their agents. The Company has had to train its agents, it goes without saying. Just as the insurance business had to be learned by the officers they in turn have had to train the field staff upon whom they depend. They always taught their agents that there are three parties involved in an insurance contract--the Company, the policy-holder and the agent--and that all must be equally protected. They

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trusted the agents and thru the agents taught the people to be honest. It has been the rule of this Company to allow the agents to settle their own sick claims before reporting their weekly collections. Many companies pay all sick claims from the Home Office. It has also been the constant practice of this Company that sick claims must be paid at the end of every seven days and not allowed to go over.

        If honest policy needs any vindication there is sufficient food for reflection in this fact: In the twenty-one years of the operation of the North Carolina Mutual it has prosecuted only three persons for fraud or collusion. A few years ago an agent wrote up two fraudulent five hundred dollar policies, induced the supposed holders to die, and he and the local physician collected the thousand dollars. The Company investigated the cases and entered prosecution. The doctor received two years and the agent four, for reflection. More recently an agent collected two hundred and sixty dollars and went on a tour thru the New England States. He was located within two weeks and had ample time for the next two years to write the story of his travels.

        The contrast between a few dishonest persons

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and the thousands of agents and physicians who have served the Company honestly and well is a glowing tribute to the integrity and loyalty of the Negro people. The customary public notion is against the honesty of a corporation and the temptation is to take whatever advantage of it can be had. With the North Carolina Mutual, however, the attitude has invariably been different; and it has been due as much to the open policy of the Company and the trust it has placed in the public as to anything else.

        In many communities poor families have been without funds or credit when death has come to their household. The exhibition of a policy of the deceast in the North Carolina Mutual has immediately been considered as a sufficient guarantee for the payment of necessary burial or other expenses. The thirty-day limit never expires when a policy becomes payable.

        The Company has never had a judgment against it and has never been in court, save in the cases mentioned above. There have been times when it could have gone into court and stood on its legal rights and it might have saved the payment of claims which it had good reason to question; but it has always given the insured the benefit

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of the doubt. But there has never been a compromise of principle and never an unwillingness to vindicate the name or honor of the Company.

        In the third place, the officers have been hard workers. They applied themselves to the business of life insurance and to its promotion. The wide-awake manager kept advertising and pushing the work into new fields and results kept coming.

        Mr. Spaulding studied methods of advertising from books, newspapers and magazines and has made his Company known thruout this country. The Company distributed advertising novelties--pencils, matches, fans, thermometers, cuspidors, blotters, clothes brushes, paper weights, trays, pins and art calendars with Negro subjects and other things that were attractive.

        One day the manager walked into the office of a rival company in Washington and a picture on the wall struck his attention. It was a reproduction of a famous painting. He walkt up to it, turned it over and got the address of the printer. A few weeks later he sent the president of the rival concern a North Carolina Mutual calendar with the picture referred to as its subject. This picture was entitled "A Penny Short" and represented

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an old Negro cabin with a candle stuck in the neck of a quart bottle for a light and a typical old Negro couple seated at a table counting the little money they had saved. Their faces are puzzled as the old man counts on his fingers and tries to discover the missing penny. This picture will be remembered by thousands of people as perhaps the first, and as one of the finest, of Negro art subjects ever used by an American concern for advertising.

        The manager sent one of the calendars to Mr. Roosevelt, who was then President. To his surprise he got a characteristic Rooseveltian letter and a request for a few more calendars. In 1909 the manager was in Cuba on a visit and went to the editorial rooms of a newspaper, the La Lucia. On the wall hung one of these North Carolina Mutual calendars with the famous picture, which had been sent to the editor of the paper by an American friend. It served as an interesting means of introduction for the editor and Mr. Spaulding and they have remained warm friends ever since.

        The medical director was ever on the alert for the protection of the Association, seeing that only proper risks were insured and that agents and

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physicians gave proper and thoro examinations for their admission. Attention had also to be directed to sick claims and the general health of the policy-holders. All this required vigilance and activity. Besides, Dr. Moore was in private practice and as the oldest physician in Durham had a very large body of patients. The hospital brot new duties as well as the many other things to which this big-hearted man gave his attention. The Association never suffered, however, and he never failed to look after its interests with an unselfish and untiring energy.

        It is not empty words but a confession of faith that is uttered in one of the Company's advertisements in 1913 which gives "A few reasons why the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association is the best and safest company for Negro people."

        "It is the largest and best managed Industrial Insurance Company in the States where it operates.

        "It has more State bonds and mortgage securities deposited with the Insurance Commissioner than any other company of its kind.

        "It has an enviable record of fifteen years for

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paying claims and looking after its policy-holders' interests.

        "Its policies are in reach of every person who can pay a weekly premium from five cents per week to an annual premium on a five hundred dollar contract.

        "All policy-holders are treated alike and treated right.

        "It makes no extra assessments on its policy-holders.

        "It gives employment to colored men and women.

        "It doesn't employ agents from competitive companies unless they give said companies the required notice and furnish recommendations as to their ability and honesty."

Growth and Expansion

        It has been noted that the Association was giving accident and health insurance on the assessment plan during its early years. In 1904 it began to write industrial straight life; and in 1905 it began writing "ordinary" policies as "straight life," "twenty-pay" and the "twenty-year endowment" plan. The individual risk was limited to five hundred dollars.

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        In 1904 the officers decided to buy some property and build a home of their own. This was indeed a happy conclusion for it meant permanency and greater facilities. A lot was purchased on Parrish Street in the heart of the business section and a beautiful office building was erected at a cost of $8,000.00. The moving of the Company offices, as well as other interesting developments, made the year 1905 an epoch in the history of the Company's growth.

        The year 1905 marks the beginning of the period of expansion for the Association which still continues and will probably continue for several years to come.

        From a local concern confined to Durham and Wake counties in North Carolina with an income of nine hundred dollars in 1899 it grew to a big institution operating in two states with a business of $70,912 in 1905.

        South Carolina was the first foreign State in which the Company did business. When the Association entered that State there were thirty Negro companies doing insurance business there,--some of which were very prosperous. The Southern States were beginning to regulate the operation of insurance companies and to require greater

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protection for the policy-holders because of mushroom concerns which previously had fleeced the public and gone out of existence. One year after the Association had entered South Carolina the Legislature passed a law requiring all foreign insurance companies to deposit ten thousand dollars with the Insurance Commissioner of the State to guarantee their stability.

        The Association welcomed the test of its strength but it had not anticipated that this legislation would be passed so soon. It had five thousand dollars worth of real estate at that time but did not have ten thousand dollars in cash to put up. Once more Mr. Merrick and Dr. Moore came to the rescue and mortgaged some of their personal property, along with some of the Association's, and ten days after the Insurance Commissioner had given notice to the Company, the manager went to Columbia and gave a New York draft on the Fidelity Bank of Durham for the needed amount. When the newspapers came out the next day stating that the colored insurance company of North Carolina had made its deposit with the Insurance Commissioner, every black heart in South Carolina was inspired and every black face wore a smile. This was lookt upon

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as a great achievement and it immediately won the confidence of the people and added a great volume of business to the new Company.

        The domestic companies were required to make a deposit of only five thousand dollars with the State Insurance Commissioner; but despite this fact the Association had only one competitor left in the field out of the thirty or more that existed before its coming.

        The work in South Carolina was headed by the late Joseph Garner, a sterling young man with the finest qualities. His brilliant work was cut short by the failure of his health but he had firmly establisht the work of the Company before his health began to fail. When he took up the work the debit or weekly collection was only thirty dollars per week for the entire State. He formed classes and taught agents and later became the State Agent. The Association erected a ten thousand dollar office building in Columbia, the capital, and its business grew rapidly.

        When Mr. Garner seemed at one time to be improving the Association gave out this release, in tribute to his services: "Mr. J. H. Garner is State Agent for South Carolina and deserves great credit for his untiring efforts in placing the

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North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association in the front ranks. No sacrifice has been too great for him in furthering the cause of the Company, in both its ordinary and industrial features. Even thru his illness, which has been continuous for nearly a year, his zeal has not flagged nor his energy abated in the accomplishment of his tasks. It will be good news to tell all our agents that he will soon be able to be at his post of duty again. His forethot and resourcefulness have been qualities upon which the Company has relied thruout his connection therewith; and it is reasuring to know that he is again able to bear the 'wear and tear' of his ordinary routine."

        Mr. Garner was made a director of the Association in 1911 which position he held until death. His fight for a restoration of health was a brave one indeed; he went to sanitariums and resorts and never gave up hope. But suddenly, and almost without warning, the end came while he was at Saranac Lake, New York, in April, 1915.

        Altho the work of the Association in the Carolinas had grown splendidly, the officers did not push its expansion beyond these two states. They proceeded with their customary caution and foresight and it was six years before they

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entered new territory. Meanwhle, they centered their attention on the development of the field already entered and in making the Association internally strong.

        The forms of insurance were changed and an increase was made in the risks. Previously the Association had been operated on the assessment plan. It was now changed to an old line, "ordinary" life company and put on the legal reserve basis in 1909. Those who are not very familiar with the principles of life insurance may not appreciate what a big step this was in building up a stable and substantial concern.

        The assessment plan is one which aims to furnish insurance at cost, collecting the money for losses mainly as it is needed, and not providing an adequate reserve to take care of growing liabilities. This system has been found to be weaker than the legal reserve system for several reasons. The latter system requires that a portion of each premium paid by the policy-holder be set aside, to become a guarantee for the payment of the policy when the insured dies or when the payment becomes due. This reserve is a liability and cannot properly be used for any purpose except the payment of policy claims.

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        It is readily seen, therefore, that the transfer of the Association to a legal reserve basis put it upon the high ground of security.

        This intensity on the work in the Carolinas and the strengthening of the forms of business had excellent results. Two years after the company had moved into its new quarters, it began to be overcrowded and to need more office space. It bought adjoining lots on Parrish Street and erected other buildings totalling almost twice the size of the first, at a cost of $27,500.00. The first one of the new buildings was occupied in 1908, and in the same year the Association erected a ten thousand dollar brick building in Columbia, South Carolina, for state headquarters.

The Mutual Album

        Soon after the Association had settled in its new offices, 1908, it compiled and publisht its first and only pictorial album. The introduction, signed by Mr. J. M. Avery, speaks very modestly of its make-up: "That our agents, members and friends may be able to view with just as much reality as possible the Home Office, the clerical force and all the other various phases of life and work in the Home Office; that they may also have

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a glimpse at other lines of business that are being conducted by our people in the North Carolina Mutual Building; that the agents may come to know each other better--this little album has been arranged and publisht. . . .

        "This album goes to the public with the wish that it may win admiration and remembrance for the earnest and faithful men and women who grace its pages."

        A full page cut of the North Carolina Mutual Block has under it this inscription: "Lower floors occupied by the following lines: Shoe and Hat Store, Gent's Furnishing, Bank, Drug Store, Barber Shop, all of which are owned and operated by colored people of Durham. The entire upper floors consist of the Home Offices of the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association, together with the administrative offices of the Royal Knights of King David, Grand United Order of Odd-Fellows, Lawyers and Doctors."

        The next double page gives a brief outline of the history of the Company and an abstract from the Tenth Annual Statement. Then follows one page sketches of the President, Secretary-Treasurer and Manager. Half-page cuts came in the following order: Four Interior Views of the

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Home Office, Durham's Colored Physicians and Pharmacists, Home Office Lady Clerks, J. H. Allen, Tailoring and Gents' Furnishings, William Allen's Barber Shop, Mechanics and Farmers Bank (Interior), W. S. Ingraham's Office, Secretary G. U. O. O. F. and Southern Regalia Co. One page carried three cuts of the Royal Knights of King David offices; and a double page showed the offices in South Carolina and the State Agent, Mr. J. H. Garner. The rest of the booklet was given to pictures of sixty agents and superintendents at work in the Carolinas.

New Directors

        The growth of business also necessitated the increase of the official family. Mr. J. M. Avery, of Morganton, became traveling agent in 1907. He was made a director of the Association in 1910. Mr. E. R. Merrick had become traveling agent in 1909. He was made a director in 1912.

        Up to this year the limit of individual risk, or the amount of money due at the maturity of a policy, had been five hundred dollars. It was extended now to one thousand dollars. The premium income had grown from $70,912 in 1905, to $245,238 in 1910. The Association was now prepared to invade new territory.

        

Illustration

        FIRST HOME OFFICE BUILDING, DURHAM, N. C.

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CHAPTER X
FACTS AND FIGURES

        WHEN a man has learned to throw a lariat, it is simply a question of what he will lasso next. So with the North Carolina Mutual after 1910, it was simply a question of, "Which is the most convenient state to capture next?" From an old bit of advertising publisht by the Association the following paragraph represents the new confidence and assurance that the Company felt in itself at that time: "The North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association did not begin to write ordinary insurance until its strength was tested for several years with the industrial business but now the Association knows from actual experience just what it can and cannot afford to do."

        For proximity to South Carolina, as well as for prosperous and enterprising Negroes, Georgia was the next state selected in 1911. The work was under the direction of Mr. E. R. Merrick and the field was left in charge of Mr. W. B. Mathews.

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        An advertising card printed in 1913 recites the following facts:

        Applications Written 261,000

        Assets Over $125,000

        WE HAVE--

        A clear record

        A bright future

        No unpaid claims

        A satisfied constituency

        A reputation to maintain

        Fourteen years' experience

        A high regard for obligations

        A Key To The Solution Of The Negro Problem.


        The fourteenth Annual Report printed in 1913 contains the following statements: "At the close of business for 1912 the entire business was valued and as a result it was found that the reserve required by law amounted to $79,132.60. The actual assets of the Company in cash, bonds and real estate nearly double this amount. . .

        "Such statements cannot be made with truth about any other Negro company. This fact becomes more sharply defined when it is remembered that many of these companies began business before the North Carolina Mutual but still

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have but little, if any, tangible assets. . . . The Company is in a class by itself among Negro concerns and is competing with the strongest and best in the Nation in so far as stability and legal reserve enter into its present status or future prospects.

        "This is no idle boast. It is a veritable fact which the North Carolina Mutual has demonstrated by the purchase of sixteen thousand dollars worth of South Carolina State Bonds since January 1, 1913. It owns forty-one thousand dollars worth of State Bonds alone and has an untarnished record of nearly fifteen years."

        Mr. J. A. Robinson, a former editor of the Durham Daily Sun (white), wrote of the Company in this same year: "There is no gainsaying the fact that it is to solid enterprises like the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association, and the type of men behind it, that the Negro race must look for the permanent solution of the vexatious problems of life and living that confront us day by day."

        In March of 1913 the building caught on fire during a conflagration which swept an adjacent business block and a property loss occurred amounting to nine thousand dollars, all of which

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was covered by insurance. The great and unredeemable loss, however, was the destruction of early records of the Association, a loss which can never be replaced.

        The five years between 1910 and 1915 almost doubled the premium income, from $245,238 to $416,641. The direction of the progress was shifted in 1915 from south to north. The Association stepped across its northern border and went into Virginia and changed its course for the four years following.

        A glance at the "Black Belt," as outlined from the Census of 1910, shows the main field of operation for the Association as the southern section of the United States, beginning at Maryland. Tennessee and Texas showed a Negro population of approximately twenty-five per cent. Virginia, North Carolina and Arkansas had approximately thirty-seven per cent. Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Louisiana had approximately fifty per cent and South Carolina and Mississippi had Negro majorities. The Association had begun at home and gone thru South Carolina into Georgia. It now retraced its steps and arrived in Virginia.

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        In Volume 16, No. 7, dated September, 1916, a four-page periodical (now suspended), which was called The North Carolina Mutual, says:

        "From a collection of $840 during the first year, the Company has grown to an annual collection of over half a million dollars, having convertible assets of nearly $200,000 with no stock liabilities, giving employment to about 700 men and women of our own race and paying out over twenty thousand dollars per month in sick and death claims alone. . . .

        "We have the experience, the financial backing and a clean reputation that is open for your investigation. We issue the most convenient and reasonable policies to be had, including Straight Life, 20-Payment Life, Endowment, Weekly Premium Life, Infantile, Sick and Accident forms, with all modern provisions and benefits, any of which will be gladly and thoroly explained to you on application to our nearest agent, or to the Home Office of the Association, in Durham, N. C."


        The same issue gives a summary of "Ten Reasons Why" the Association is the "Largest and Strongest Negro Insurance Company in the World."

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New States and Interesting Facts

        In the year 1916 the push northward was continued to the District of Columbia and Mr. Zeph P. Moore took charge of the work. Dr. Clyde Donnell was added to the Company as Assistant Medical Director about the same time.

        In Maryland a colored organization, the Family Relief Associatio