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- William Allen Erwin July 15, 1856 -1932
William Allen Erwin of West Durham, North Carolina, one of the South's foremost men in the cotton industry, was the founder of the Erwin Cotton Mill #2, located in Duke, North Carolina, in Harnett County in 1904.
Duke remained the name of the town until 1926 when Trinity College in Durham, North Carolina, was renamed Duke University. In 1927 when W. A. Erwin was made president of Erwin Cotton Mills Company, upon the resignation of Mr. Ben N. Duke, the town of Duke was named Erwin in his honor.
Mr. Erwin was a man of broad and liberal mind. He made a great success of practical affairs, the more noteworthy because he started in life compelled to make his own capital and promote himself by efficiency and industry.
On a plantation known as Bellevue on Upper Creek near Morganton in Burke County, North Carolina, William Allen Erwin was born July 15, 1856. His mother was Elvira J. Holt, daughter of Dr. William R. Holt of Lexington, North Carolina, and his father, Col. Joseph J. Erwin of Bellevue.
Devastation and loss due to the War Between the States materially affected the fortune of the family and he was compelled to cut short his educational career and begin work while yet a boy. He had already attended Burke County Schools, Finley High in Lenoir, and two years at A & M College of Kentucky University when this decision was made. On October 4, 1874, he became a salesman in the General Store of Holt, Gant, and Holt in Burlington, North Carolina. He remained there until 1877 when he took a position as bookkeeper in merchandising and so continued until 1882. Erwin became identified with the business which brought him in close touch with the industrial life of the state.
From that year until 1893 he was treasurer and general manager of the E. M. Holt Plaid Mills in Alamance County. Since 1893, Mr. Erwin made his home at West Durham where he built the large Erwin Cotton Mill #1.
Under his control and leadership, he developed other mills besides those at Durham, the #2 at Duke contained 35,000 spindles and 1,024 looms; Coolemee, East Durham, Oxford, and Concord.
For more than 30 years Mr. Erwin gave devoted service without interruption as Superintendent to Erwin Cotton Mills of Burlington, West Durham, and was one of the most influential laymen in the south of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
On October 23, 1889, he married Sadie L. Smedes, daughter of Aldert Smedes, D. D, founder of St. Mary' s Episcopal School at Raleigh, North Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Erwin had four children: 3 daughters and one son. The oldest daughter Bessie Smedes married Hon. Hamilton C. Jones, an attorney of Charlotte, North Carolina. The second daughter, Margaret Locke, married James W. Glenn of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the youngest daughter, Sarah Lyell, married Hargrove T. Bellamy of Wilmington, North Carolina. Their only son W. A. Erwin, Jr., in March 1917, married Haffye Louise Barton of Florida and was associated with Erwin Cotton Mills Company before entering training for WWII.
William Allen Erwin died 1932.
Source of information:
Compiled from: History of North Carolina, Vol. V North Carolina Biography, pages 185-186
http://www.harnett.org/LIBRARY/Biographies/erwinwa.doc.
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1856 - 1932 (75 years)
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