Charles Boudinot Root (1818? [1] - May 7, 1903) was a silversmith [2] and a prominent North Carolina citizen of the 19th century. He became president of the Raleigh, North Carolina Gas Company shortly after the American Civil War. He served in this capacity for eighteen years. A native of New England, and descended from a prominent family, he was born in Montague, Massachusetts on October 31, 1818 [1] or September 12, 1819. [2]
He came to Raleigh after studying at the academy in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and spending a short period in New York City. Root became involved in trade when he arrived in Raleigh in 1837. He managed a jewelry business [3] owned by Bernard Dupuy for five years, before buying the company out on November 15, 1843. [2] He sold the firm in 1860 and was never involved in business trade afterward. [1]
For a decade (1852)- (1862) he was director of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Raleigh. [4] Root was elected tax collector of Raleigh in 1884 [1] and also served as a city alderman and chairman of county commissioners. [2]
Root was married to Anne Freeman Gales Root (1821 - 1894). She was the daughter of Weston Raleigh Gales (1803 - 1848), a Raleigh editor and the niece of Joseph Gales, once the editor of the National Intelligencer. [1] Anne's personal correspondence, primarily her letters to her daughter, Love, written between (1841) - (1872), are now a part of the Wilson Library collection of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [5]
Root died in Raleigh in 1903.
Elias Boudinot, a Founding Father of the United States, was a lawyer, statesman, and early abolitionist and women's rights advocate from Elizabeth, New Jersey. During the Revolutionary War, Boudinot was an intelligence officer and prisoner-of-war commissary under general George Washington, working to improve conditions for prisoners on both the American and British sides. In 1779, he was elected to the Continental Congress and then to its successor, the Congress of the Confederation, serving as President of Congress in 1782—1783, the final years of the war.
Raleigh is the capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeast, the 41st-most populous city in the U.S., and the largest city of the Research Triangle metro area. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees, which line the streets in the heart of the city. The city covers a land area of 148.54 square miles (384.7 km2). The U.S. Census Bureau counted the city's population as 467,665 at the 2020 census. It is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States. The city of Raleigh is named after Sir Walter Raleigh, who established the now-lost Roanoke Colony in present-day Dare County.
Cary is a town in Wake, Chatham, and Durham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina and is part of the Raleigh-Cary, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the 2020 census, its population was 174,721, making it the seventh-most populous municipality in North Carolina, and the 148th-most populous in the United States. In 2022, the town's population had increased to 180,388.
William Woods Holden was an American politician who served as the 38th and 40th governor of North Carolina. He was appointed by President Andrew Johnson in 1865 for a brief term and then elected in 1868. He served until 1871 and was the leader of the state's Republican Party during the Reconstruction Era.
Samuel Talmadge Ragan was an American journalist, author, poet, and arts advocate from North Carolina.
The commissioner of insurance is a statewide elected office in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The commissioner is a constitutional officer who leads the state's Department of Insurance. The commissioner also oversees the Office of the State Fire Marshal and sits on the North Carolina Council of State. The current commissioner is Mike Causey, who has held that office since January 1, 2017.
John Spencer Bassett was an American historian. He was a professor at Trinity College, and is best known today for the "Bassett Affair" in 1903 when he publicly criticized racism among Southern elites, and called Booker T. Washington, "all in all the greatest man, save General Lee, born in the South in 100 years." Despite widespread outrage, the college trustees refused to accept Bassett's resignation by a vote of 18 to 7. After Trinity, he became a professor of history at Smith College in Massachusetts. and was the executive director of the American Historical Association for many years.
John Merrick (1859–1919) was an American businessman. Born into slavery in Clinton, North Carolina, Merrick founded various companies in the Raleigh, North Carolina and Durham, North Carolina areas, most notably the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. Portions of his wealth were channeled back into the black community through philanthropy. His business acumen and social consciousness made him one of the most influential members of the African-American community in his lifetime.
Julian Price was an insurance executive who made his fortune in the first part of the twentieth century by developing the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company.
Leonard Hall is a historic educational building located on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Built in 1881 and originally named Leonard Medical Center, it became known as Leonard Medical School, and then Leonard Hall. It was established when medical schools were professionalizing and was the first medical school in the United States to offer a four-year curriculum. It was also the first four-year medical school that African Americans could attend.
Lunsford Lane was an entrepreneur tobacconist from North Carolina who bought freedom for himself and his family. He became a vocal opponent of slavery and wrote a slave narrative autobiography. His life and narrative shows the plight of slavery, even for the relatively privileged slaves.
Seaton Gales was editor of the Raleigh Register and a junior editor of the Raleigh Sentinel. He was a member of a prominent family of journalists in 19th century Raleigh, North Carolina. During the Reconstruction era he often referred to the United States flag as a rag. Gales once came to his home using an alternate route, in order to keep from passing under the flag.
Josiah Ogden Watson was an American Plantation owner, physician, and statesman from North Carolina. He was the son of John Watson, a Revolutionary War veteran, and Elizabeth and born at Pineville plantation in Johnston County, NC.
Aaron McDuffie Moore, M.D. was a medical doctor, medical director, and officer at a bank, hospital, pharmacy, university and insurer serving African Americans in North Carolina. He was born in Whiteville, North Carolina. He lived in Durham, North Carolina.
NC Mutual was an American life insurance company located in downtown Durham, North Carolina and one of the most influential African-American businesses in United States history. Founded in 1898 by local black social leaders, its business increased from less than a thousand dollars in income in 1899 to a quarter of a million dollars in 1910. The company specialized in "industrial insurance," which was basically burial insurance. The company hired salesmen whose main job was to collect small payments to cover the insured person for the next week. If the person died while insured, the company immediately paid benefits of about 100 dollars. This covered the cost of a suitable funeral, which was a high prestige item in the black community. It began operations in the new tobacco manufacturing city of Durham, North Carolina, and moved north into Virginia and Maryland, then to major northern black urban centers, and then to the rest of the urban South.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Greg Evan Lindberg is an American former business executive and founder of Global Growth, a conglomerate private-equity firm. He also donated large sums of money to political causes. In 2020 he was convicted of bribery and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison. The conviction was overturned by a federal appeals court in June 2022 and a new trial was scheduled for March 2023.
Shannon Ravenel, née Harriett Shannon Ravenel, is an American literary editor and co-founder of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. There she edited the annual anthology New Stories from the South from 1986 to 2006. She was series editor of the Houghton Mifflin annual anthology The Best American Short Stories from 1977 to 1990.
Pleasant Daniel Gold was an American publisher, lawyer, and Baptist minister. Ordained as a Primitive Baptist minister in the Kehukee Association, he was a prominent Baptist leader in North Carolina for over half-a-century. He served as a minister in Rocky Mount, Goldsboro, Wilson, Tarboro, and Durham. In 1867 he co-founded the Baptist newspaper Zion's Landmark, serving as editor until 1920. In 1902 he founded the P.D. Gold Publishing Company, which issued two newspapers for Wilson County.