Charles Earl Johnson III (1851 - 1923)

Born 13 Aug 1851 in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, US

Ancestors

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Biography

Dr. Charles Earl Johnson^[1]
CHARLES EARL JOHNSON, one of the most prominent business men in the city of Raleigh, was born in Raleigh on the 13th of August, 1851.

...Frances Lenox Iredell, married Dr. Charles Earl Johnson and became the mother of the subject of this sketch.

...the subject of this sketch, was in youth strong and robust and fond of outdoor life and manly sports. He was taught at Lovejoy's celebrated academy at Raleigh, and also by Rev. Dr. R. S. Mason, and he studied both secular and church history under the direction of his father. Circumstances prevented him from receiving a collegiate education, and on reaching his seventeenth year he entered as a clerk in the dry goods store of W. H. & R. S. Tucker, with whom he remained until he was well instructed in business and entirely qualified to enter upon a career of his own.

In 1874 and 1875 he was assistant secretary of the Senate, and at that time he was studying law with the purpose of engaging in the practice of that profession; but his father dying in March, 1876, he was constrained to abandon hopes of a professional career and enter upon some gainful occupation. He turned his attention to cotton, which at that time was the most important staple article in the trade of Raleigh, and he soon became an expert in that business. For one year he was a member of the firm of Lee, Whitaker Johnson, but in September, 1877, he began business on his own account under the firm name of C . E . Johnson Company, but having no partner. At that time the cotton marketed at Raleigh was sold at Norfolk, Baltimore and New York for export. There were but few cotton factories in North Carolina, and the export trade was through houses doing business at the ports. Mr. Johnson was one of the first to see the advantage of direct foreign trade on through bills of lading from initial points of shipment in the interior. He was instrumental in inducing the railroad companies to issue their bills of lading direct from interior points to points of delivery in Great Britain and on the Continent, and he was the first man in this section to inaugurate that business. Having arranged the details with the railroad companies, he went to Europe and spent four months in making desirable connections with the best importing houses and in perfecting the arrangements he had in view. He soon saw the necessity for establishing compresses in the interior, and he caused a compress to be erected in Raleigh, which was one of the very first erected at any interior point in the South, and as his business grew, in addition to the compress operated by him at Raleigh he operated a much larger one in Hamlet. Subsequently mills began to be erected in North Carolina, and the marvelous era of cotton manufacturing set in in this State, and Mr. Johnson was largely engaged in supplying the local demand of the home mills, but in addition he has handled for export as much as bales per annum . Owing to the rapid growth of the milling interests during the past few years, nearly all of the staple raised in Middle North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia is required for the home supply, and relatively the export business has decreased, but he, through his agents, is still doing a large business in procuring cotton through out the adjoining States, not merely supplying in parts the mills, but also continuing his export business.

The advantage of the new methods he was instrumental in introducing has been largely shared by the planters. It has brought about a reduction in the cost of handling cotton between the producer and the consumer to such an extent that whereas formerly the planter received only about 1/2 cents per pound less than the price of delivery at the foreign mills, he now receives the foreign price less only about 15 cent per pound, an increase benefit to the planter of about 1 1/2 cents per pound on his entire crop.

While a man of large business interests , and much interested in the prosperity of the people and of the city, Mr. Johnson has never sought political preferment. Always a zealous supporter of the Democratic Party, he has nevertheless had an independent judgment as to men and measures and has applied the touchstone of utility and fitness when considering either candidates or policies. He takes a comprehensive view of public matters, and no one more quickly sees through the arts of a demagogue or the inaptness of any demagogical scheme advanced to catch the ear of the unwary.

Mr. Johnson has always been active in church work, and for twenty years has been the treasurer of the diocese of North Carolina, and during that time has generally attended every diocesan convention, and has otherwise given a practical manifestation of his zeal and devotion. Before the establishment of Rex Hospital at the old mansion of Governor Manly, St. John’s Hospital was opened in that building, and Mr. Johnson was one of the committee having charge of the work, and contributed largely to the success of that deserving charity. Later it was discontinued when the Rex Hospital was opened. Mr. Johnson has always been prominent in promoting every enterprise that would be of advantage to the city, and at the centennial celebration in 1892 he was active, and participated earnestly in making that celebration one of the most glorious events in the life of the city. For many years, until the change in the management of the Seaboard Air Line Railway, he was a leading director in that company, and was influential in the management. With others, in 1898 he established the Mechanics’ and Dimes Savings Bank, of which he has been the only president, and for many years he has been the vice-president of the National Bank of Raleigh, and he is president of the Raleigh Ice Company, and also president of the Hamlet Ice Company, which was established for the purpose of furnishing ice for the refrigerator cars coming from the extreme South. In some seasons as many as one hundred cars with peaches alone are furnished with ice per day; and he is president of the Chesterfield Land and Lumber Company, which owns more than 25,000 acres of timber lands in South Carolina, and he is director in various other companies in which he is interested. His business as a cotton exporter and manufacturer and as a banker occupies him closely, and his success in every field in which he has operated is itself an assurance of his high capacity and fine business qualifications. But it is not only as a business man that he excels. His walk in life has won for him the entire esteem of all who know him. No one thrown in contact with him can fail to appreciate the thorough excellence of his character, and he enjoys the confidence and respect of the community in an enviable degree.

When Governor Glenn was making up his staff, he invited Mr. Johnson to become his aide de camp, and he now serves in that capacity with the rank of colonel. This, however, is not the full extent of Colonel Johnson’s military career. About the close of the war, when he was only fourteen years of age, when General Joe Johnston was marshalling his forces to contend with the great army of General Sherman, the subj ect of this sketch, animated by the spirit of his Revolutionary sires, enrolled himself as a private in the ranks of the Confederate army and went out to do battle for his country. The war, however, soon ended, and his military career was closed without any protracted experience.

Mr. Johnson has travelled much, and has been abroad, and has availed himself of his opportunities to become acquainted with matters of interest in Great Britain and on the Continent, and he has been broadened by his large experience. Always interested in history, he has naturally found pleasure in the history of his own State, in which his forefathers were such conspicuous actors. He has inherited a large collection of manuscript letters, many written in colonial days when this country was a part of the British Kingdom and before the rise of Republican institutions; and for years he has been enriching his collection by constant additions, with the purpose of eventually depositing it with the State as a memorial of the past.

On the 7th of December, 1876, Mr. Johnson was happily married to Miss Mary Ellis Wilson of Charlotte, a daughter of Joseph Harvey Wilson, for many years one of the foremost members of the Charlotte bar, and a gentleman honored and esteemed not merely for his high intellectual endowments, but for the fine qualities that adorned his character.

S. A. Ashe.

Notes

From www.findagrave.com:

In 1877, Charles Earl Johnson (1851-1923) began a cotton export business under the name of Charles E. Johnson & Company. He was on the board of directors of the Seaboard Air Line Railway and was vice president of the National Bank of Raleigh. He was president of Carolina Power and Light Company.

Inscription:

"Til the morning breaks and the shadows flee away".

""Ye shall live also, because I live".

Sources

1. ↑ Biography of "CHARLES EARL JOHNSON", "Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present", Vol. II, by Ashe, Samuel A., Editor. Charles L. Van Noppen, Publ., Greensboro, NC. 1905, pg 203-211.