Burke County NcArchives Biographies.....Avery, William Waightstill May 25, 1816 - July 3, 1864 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Taneya Koonce ncgenwebproject@gmail.com January 10, 2010, 1:22 am Source: Ashe, Samuel A. Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present. Greensboro, N.C.: C.L. Van Noppen, 1905 Author: A.C. Avery William Waightstill Avery, the oldest child of Col. Isaac T. and Harriet E. Avery, was born at Swan Ponds, Burke County, May 25, 1816. There were during his boyhood no classical schools of high grade in the Piedmont section of North Carolina, and upon attempting to enter college in the year 1833 he found that he was not fairly prepared ancient languages. He therefore remained at Chapel Hill during vacation of the first two years of his college course, and prosecuted his studies under the instruction of the late Dr. Mitchell and Mr. Abram Morehead, and so faithfully that he applied himself that before the end of two years he stood at the head of his class and graduated with a first honor in 1837, in the same class with Perrin Busbee, Peter Hairston, Pride Jones, and others. He studied law with Judge Gaston, and was licensed to practice in 1839. He was from boyhood and ardent admirer of Mr. Calhoun, and allied himself with his States’ Rights being of the Democratic Party. He was beaten as a candidate for the House of Commons in 1840 but in 1842 was elected as Democrats in Burke County, though the Whig candidate for governor carried the county by a large majority. He had a large and lucrative practice as a lawyer and did not appear again actively as a politician until 1850. In May 1846 he was married to Corrina M. Morehead, a beautiful and accomplished lady and the daughter of the late Gov. Morehead. He served in the House of Commons as a member from Burke in 1850 in 1852, and in 1856 he was chairman of the North Carolina delegation and the national Democratic convention which nominated Pres. Buchanan, and during the same year was elected to the state Senate, of which he was chosen speaker. In 1858 he was a candidate for Congress, to fill the vacancy made by the appointment of Hon. T.L. Clingman as United States senator. Col. David Coleman, who is also a Democrat, opposed him. Although the district of given Mr. became in a very small majority in the election in 1856, the dissension was such that Z.B. Vance, a Whig, was elected. In 1860 WW Avery was again chairman of the North Carolina delegation in the national convention in Charleston, and seceded with the Southern wing of the party, which afterward nominated Mr. Breckenridge. He was made chairman also of the committee on platform. During the same year he was again elected to the state Senate, and declined the renomination for speakership in favor of his friend H.T. Clark, of Edgecombe, who became governor after the death of Gov. Alice, in the summer of 1861. When Reagan was elected, in November, 1860, being a lifelong believer in the right of secession, he favored immediate action by the state and urged the call of a convention during the winter of 1860 in 1861. After the state seceded, on May 20, 1861, he was elected by the convention one of the members of the provisional Congress. He served in that body until the provisional government was succeeded by the permanent government, provided for in the constitution of the Confederacy, adopted in 1862 he was a member and chairman of the committee on military affairs. A majority of the Democrats in the legislature of 1861 voted for Mr. every for senator in the Congress of the Confederate states, but a minority supported Hon T.L. Clingman, while the Whigs voted for a candidate from their own party. After balloting for several weeks, a compromise was made by electing Hon. W.T. Dortch. After the expiration of his term in Congress, in 1862, he would touch his home with authority from Pres. Davis to raise a regiment, both prevented from carrying out his purpose by the artist protest of his aged father of four brothers, who already inactive service. They insisted that he was beyond age for service and that it was his duty to his family and country to remain home. He was an artist and active supporter of the Confederate cause, and contributed liberally to the maintenance to soldiers and their families. In 1864 and incursion was made by a party of so-called Unionists from Tennessee. This party after capturing a small body of conscripted boys, and camp of instruction about 4 miles east of Morganton, in Burke County, which we did toward Tennessee. Mr. Avery join his friend Col. TG Walton, and with a small body of Burke County militia and a few soldiers sick are wanted for a low pursued the invading party, who retreated toward the mountains. They were found and charged in a strong position on the wingding stares on Jonas's Ridge. Mr. Avery and his party vigorously attacked them, and any counter he was mortally wounded after being removed his home in Morganton, he died July 3, 1864. And all the relations of life he was distinguished for his kindness and affability in his unselfish love for comfort and happiness of others few men have ever been more missed and limited by the community in which he lived. His aged father (then in his eightieth year) went down to his grave sorrow into the loss of his three sons, who would follow within one year. Mr. Avery left surviving him three daughters – Mrs. Annie H. Scales, of Patrick, Va., wife of Captain Joseph Scales; Mrs. Cora a very earlier, wife of Capt. GP over in, of Morganton, and Adelaide, who married Hon. John J. Hemphill, a representative in Congress from South Carolina, and but died soon after her marriage; and two sons -- John Morehead Avery, now prominent lawyer Dallas Texas and white still W. Avery resides in Mitchell County, N.C File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/burke/bios/avery180bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ncfiles/ File size: 6.2 Kb