Halifax-Vance County NcArchives Biographies.....Wyche, Clarence Adolphus 1878 - ************************************************ 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: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 28, 2008, 2:50 pm Author: Leonard Wilson (1916) CLARENCE ADOLPHUS WYCHE THE English, like the American, are a composite people. The Britons, who anciently occupied the land, amalgamated with the Saxon invaders and later absorbed Danes and Norsemen, and when finally conquered by the Normans, they assimilated these, also, and within one hundred and fifty years after the Norman Conquest the English people had taken on the characteristics which have made of them the most influential nation of the world for the past seven hundred years. It is these characteristics of the English, modified by new conditions, which in the last three hundred years have built up the marvelous American nation. After frankly admitting the great helpfulness of the Scotch, Irish, the German and the French, strains which have shared in the work, it yet remains true that the English blood has been the dominant factor in the results obtained. And this blood has not lost its virility, as is proven to-day in countless instances. A fine example of accomplishment is shown by Clarence Adolphus Wyche, President of the First National Bank of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. He comes of a very ancient English family, located in Alderly, England, as early as the year 1200. A branch of that family settled at Davenham, Cheshire, and from this branch is descended the American family. About 1475 William Wyche, of Davenham, married Margery, daughter and co-heiress of Richard Brett. Their son, Richard(1), married Mary, daughter of John Beeston, of Beeston Castle. Their son, Richard(2), born 1554, became a resident of London, where, in 1583, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Salstonstall, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1598. Their son, Rev. Henry Wyche (born 1604, died 1678) was a Master of Arts of Cambridge University, became Rector of Sutton, Surrey, and married Ellen, daughter of Ralph Bennett, of Old Palace Yard, Westminster. Henry Wyche, their eldest son, born November 4, 1645, came to Virginia and settled in Surrey County. His will was probated March 18, 1714, and showed that he had children as follows: Eleanor, William, George, Sarah, Henry and James. William and James remained in Surrey. Henry moved to Brunswick County, where his will was probated in 1740. About 1812 James Wyche, of Brunswick County, evidently a grandson of Henry(2), moved to Granville County, North Carolina. He became prominent in his new home and was active in the settlement of Henderson (now in Vance County), North Carolina. He was for several terms a member of the North Carolina Senate, and was serving in that body at the time of his death, in 1845. He married Pamela Evans, of Nottoway County, Virginia, who was the daughter of Lieutenant William Evans, a Revolutionary officer. James Wyche had the distinction of being a pioneer railroad president, serving as the first President of the old Raleigh and Gaston Railroad, one of the first railroads to be built in the Southern States. Parry Wayne Wyche, son of James Wyche, became a merchant, married Rebecca G. Southall, a name borne by one of the most highly respected families in Virginia. Clarence A. Wyche is a son of that marriage. He was born in Henderson, Vance County, March 14, 1878. He attended the common schools up to the age of fourteen, when he became a telegraph operator. Then the metal that was in the lad began to show, for working as an operator by day, he put his evening hours into study so that at the age of nineteen he was able to enter the University of North Carolina, where he remained two years. Leaving the university at twenty-one he became Secretary of the Rosemary Manufacturing Company, at Roanoke Rapids. That he demonstrated remarkable business ability is proven by the fact that at the age of thirty-four he was elected President of the First National Bank of Roanoke Rapids, in which capacity he is now serving. Mr. Wyche has won his spurs as a business man, but he has not neglected the weightier matters of life and has given faithful service as a Deacon of the Presbyterian Church. In other directions he is interested, being a member of the Alpha Tau Omega College Fraternity, a Thirty-Second degree Mason, and at the National Convention of the Sons of the American Revolution, in 1914, he was named as Trustee for North Carolina. His political affiliation is with the Democratic party. Mr. Wyches' business career recalls that of the brilliant Georgia banker, State Senator John D. Walker, whose history has run along much the same lines, and who now, somewhat older, is a power in Georgia. On November 20, 1902, Mr. Wyche married Miss Lemme Jordan, born in Petersburg, October 9, 1878, daughter of Lemuel Jordan, of Prince George County, Virginia, and his wife, Frances Lewis, of Granville County, North Carolina. On the paternal side Mrs. Wyche comes of the old Prince George family of Jordan, which settled at Jordan's Point about 1620. On the maternal side she comes of the Lewis family, of Warner Hall, a record of which has been given in the "William and Mary Quarterly." The various branches of the Lewis family loom large in American history, and when a good American considers the great Commonwealths of Oregon and Washington he feels a reverence for that gallant youth Lewis who, with his associate Clark, marked that rich country as American territory. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Wyche are Mary T. Wyche, now (1915) ten years of age, and Francis Lewis Wyche, age eight. It would be interesting if space permitted to dwell on the Wyche family history as it appears in several publications, both in the old country and the new, notably in Volumes XIII, XIV and XV of the "William and Mary Quarterly," and in Volume I of the Proceedings of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, where Richard Brooke, Esq., F. S. A., presented a monograph, "On the ancient family of Wyche or de la Wyche, with a descriptive account of their seat at Alderly, in Cheshire." This gives in detail many of the facts already stated in this sketch. The essential fact in all this record is that the family has lived up to a high standard for seven hundred years and in this good year of grace an unassuming American citizen is discharging with traditional fidelity every duty which devolves upon him, as manfully as did his forbears who helped to make England the brightest spot in a world of gloom. The Wyche Coat of Arms is thus described: Arms: Azure a pile ermine. Crest: A dexter arm embowed, habited gules, turned up or, holding in the hand ppr. a sprig vert. Motto: Malgre le tort. Additional Comments: Extracted from: MAKERS OF AMERICA BIOGRAPHIES OF LEADING MEN OF THOUGHT AND ACTION THE MEN WHO CONSTITUTE THE BONE AND SINEW OF AMERICAN PROSPERITY AND LIFE VOLUME II By LEONARD WILSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ASSISTED BY PROMINENT HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WRITERS Illustrated with many full page engravings B. F. JOHNSON, INC. CITY OF WASHINGTON, U. S. A. 1916 Copyright, 1916 by B. F. Johnson, Inc. Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/halifax/photos/bios/wyche55gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/halifax/bios/wyche55gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/ File size: 7.7 Kb