Jones County, NC - Dr. Needham Bryan Cobb, 1836-1905 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Source: Cobb Collection - Wayne County Library Needham Bryan Cobb was born in Jones County, NC, February 1, 1836, the son of William Donnell Cobb and Anne Spicer Collier. After graduating at Hughes Academy, he entered the University of North Carolina, graduating in three years in 1854. His M.A. degree from that institution in 1856 was the first earned Master's Degree granted by the University, and his picture and diploma hang in the University's Graduate Office in Chapel Hill. He taught school in Wayne and Cabarrus counties and was the first teacher of shorthand in the state. While he maintained an interest in education throughout life, making an outstanding contribution in that field, he turned early to the study of law, being admitted to the bar at Greenville, NC where he practiced for a while. He made a further change in profession and religious belief, leaving the Episcopal Church to become a Baptist minister. In 1889 Judson College conferred upon him a Doctorate of Divinity degree. He did a great deal of missionary work throughout the state and served as pastor for many Baptist churches, including that in Goldsboro. He held positions of State Superintendant of the Baptist Sunday School Board and as Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary and President of the Baptist State Convention at times. During the Civil War, Doctor Cobb served as Chaplain in Lee's Army and was in charge of colportage work among Carolina Troops until the end of the war. He and Doctor J.D. Hufham published "The Daily Record," the first daily paper printed in Raleigh after the war, with the permission of the Northern officer in charge of the city. Doctor Cobb was known as a historian of his state and his denomination. He was author of a small book of verse, "A Poetical Geography of North Carolina" containing a tribute to President Jefferson Davis at the time of his death and "A Reply To Gray's Elegy." In 1859 Doctor Cobb married Martha Louisa Cobb, a distant relative, from Falkland, NC, the mother of twelve of his children and an inspiration to him throughout his life. She died in 1888 and he married in 1891 Ellen DeLisle Fennell of Sampson County, a devoted wife and the mother of three of his other children. Doctor Cobb died in 1905 in Sampson County, his grave being in the cemetery next to the old Baptist Church where he served as pastor at one time. [Both of Dr. Cobb's parents, William Donnell Cobb and Anne Spicer Collier, are buried in Willowdale Cemetery, Goldsboro, NC, very near the Confederate Monument. Dr. Cobb's grandparents were John Cobb and Ann Nancy Whitfield. She was the daughter of Brig. Gen. Bryan Whitfield of Whitehall, (Seven Springs) - Charles Norwood] ---------- [Copy of a newspaper article] Sixty creeks west of the Blue Ridge were named and then Dr. Cobb skipped to the north-central part of the state and his musical lines started the creeks singing their way toward Roanoke River: Wolf Island and Marrows Towns, Hogan and Show, And Big, Mill and Moon these names are no jokes, From Rockingham, Caswell and Person and Stokes, And Bearskin and Nutbush from Granville and Vance, Big Grassy, Big Island and Jonathan's prance, With Sassafras, Gardener's and long County Line, Kehuke, Skewarkee and Old Sandy Run. The mountains, bay and sounds were treated in a similar way but Dr. Cobb knew how to teach so he gave them sufficient variations of meter and rhyme scheme to avoid monotony. The North Carolina sounds were treated thusly: Just eleven shallow sounds Slumber on our shore; Albemarle and Pamlico, Topsaid, Stump, and Core, Currituck and Croatan Where the wild geese soar, Wrightsville, Masonboro, Bogue, Roanoke-and no more. In the preface of his text, Dr. Cobb informs us that the pupils were required to repeat the rhymes in concert. After the rhymes were memorized they were used as recitations when the parents came to visit the school on Friday. Dr. Needham Bryan Cobb, great preacher and teacher, was born in the Old North State in 1836. He lived a long life and died in his native state in 1905. During his long ministry in the Baptist church he served as pastor in Hickory, Fayetteville, Lilesville, Ansonville, Shelby, Waynesville and several other North Carolina Communities. ---------- [Excerpts from a page of "Tar River History" included in file] In October 1869, he left the Episcopal Church, in which he had been a vestryman, and was baptized in Greenville by Rev. Henry Petty. In 1860 he was ordained in Wilson, the ordaining presbytery was composed of Revs. Levi Thorne, J.B. Solomon, Henry Petty, G.W. Keene, W.C. Lacy and J.G. Barclay. During his long and successful career as a minister of the gospel he served various churches as pastor, notably Goldsboro, Elizabeth City, Second Church, Portsmouth, Virginia; returning to North Carolina he served as pastor in Shelby, Lincolnton, Lilesville, Rockingham, Fayetteville, Chapel Hill, Waynesville, Morganton, Hickory, Hillsboro and later Gardners and Sharon, in the Tar River Association. During this protracted period of pastoral work he frequently engaged in teaching and was president of Wayne Institute and Normal College; professor of Latin and Greek at Goldsboro Female College, and was also principal of Lilesville High School. ___________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Guy Potts ___________________________________________________________________