Rufus Lafayette Haymore

The Hon. Rufus Lafayette Haymore, a true and able lawyer wields an influence in his community such as is rarely possessed by any other professional man. Besides his work as counsel and court advocate, duties which as a rule are quietly performed and attract only occasional notice, the successful lawyer is also a man of affairs and almost inevitably becomes a public leader. Such has been true of the career of Rufus Lafayette Haymore during the forty years he has practiced at Mount Airy in Surry County. He has done much to build up the prosperity of Mount Airy as a commercial and industrial center. He has given liberally to its institutions and has exercised an influence second to none in the educational advancement.

Mr. Haymore is a native of Surry County and has spent practically all his life within its boundarics. He was born in 1850, on Stony Creek in Westfield Township. His great-grandparents were natives of England and coming to America in Colonial times located in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. The grandfather, Daniel Haymore, acquired a plantation on Big Sandy in Plttsylvania County and was successfully engaged in farming there until late in life, when he sold and moved to Surry County, North Carolina. Here he bought land in Westfield Township, and that was his home until his death.

Germaine Haymore, father of the Mount Airy lawyer, was born on a plantation on Big Sandy in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, in 1806. As a young man he learned the trade of carpenter and followed that in connection with general farming. Subsequently his father gave him fifty acres on Stony Creek in Surry County. The chief improvement of the land was a log cabin. Into that humble abode he introduced his bride when he married, and prosperity and comfort came to them gradually as the result of their hard and earnest endeavors. The old log house was supplanted by a hewed log house, and that was the scene of Rufus L. Haymore’s birth and all the children as well. This log house had at one end a hewed stone chimney and a capacious fire place. Germaine Haymore’s wife for many years did all her cooking by the open fire. In 1857 this farm was rented out and Germaine Haymore then bought another on the banks of Ararat River across from Mount Airy. There he continued his labor as a planter until declining years, when he moved into Mount Airy and made his home with his son Rufus until his death at the age of ninety.

After execution the bond appears in Surry County Records as follows: “State of North Carolina, Surry County. We acknowledge ourselves indebted to John Owen, Governor and etc., in the sum of 500 pounds; but to be void on condition there is no lawful cause to obstruct a marriage between Germaine Haymore and Jane Pittman, for whom a license now issues. Witness our hands and seals. this the 2nd day of January 1830. Germaine Haymore (Seal) Blumon Haymore (Seal).”

Germaine Haymore married Jane Pittman, of a prominent Virginia family. She was born in Pittsylvania County. Her father, Professor John B. Pittman, was a graduate of Prince Edward College and made teaching his life work. He wrote several of the text books from which he taught. After his marriage Professor Pittman resided in Pittsylvania County for a time, then removed to Henry County, and from there to Surry County, North Carolina, where he spent the rest of his days. He married a Miss Farmer, a native of Lunenburg County, Virginia, where her father was one of the extensive planters and slave owners. Mrs. Pittman was a well educated woman, a capable companion of her scholarly husband, and was cultured and refined. Both she and her husband are buried in the cemetery on the farm where Rufus L. Haymore was born. Mr. Haymore’s mother lived to the age of eighty-nine. Her children were James P., John B., Robert Daniel, Zaitha, who married Washington Cox, who served in the Confederate Army and died in 1863 near Guinea Station, Virginia, and his remains were brought home and laid to rest in the family graveyard in Surry County; Martha, now deceased, Ellen, who married W. S. Inman, Elizabeth, who married John H. Jessup, of Westfield, Columbus C. and Rufus L. The oldest, James, went out to Buchanan County, Missouri and became a wealthy farmer there. John B. entered the Confederate Army in the North Carolina troops, died in service at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1863, and his remains were laid to rest in the cemetery at Spottsylvania Courthouse. Before entering the army he was a farmer, a public spirited and leading citizen and highly respected for his courage and nobility. The son Robert became a minister of the Baptist church. He was ordained in 1859, when only nineteen years of age. For further reference see sketch of Robert Daniel Haymore.

Rufus Lafayette Haymore grew up on his father’s farm in Surry County. He acquired an academic education and his law studies were directed by Chief Justice Pierson. He was admitted to practice in 1877, and from that date to the present has been continuously identified with the Mount Airy bar. Mr. Haymore has not only been a hard working and careful lawyer in handling all the varied litigation entrusted to him, but has been a constant student and reader. The law signifies to him a great and noble profession and his work has served to dignify it.

At the same time every enterprise designed for the betterment of his community has received his capable cooperation. He was one of the original stockholders and organizers of the Exchange Bank, and also of the Bank of Mount Airy, now in successful operation, the first banking institution of Mount Airy. He was an organizer and one of the first stockholders and directors of the company that built the Blue Ridge Inn, which is still in existence, and was similarly connected with the Renfrew Inn, which has since been discontinued. He was one of the organizers and a stockholder in the Mount Airy Land and Improvement Company and had to do with the establishment of the now discontinued cotton mills. Another institution which he helped organize and to which he gave financial assistance was the Chair Factory, now a flourishing industry known as the Banner Manufacturing Company. He was also a member of the first board of directors of the National Furniture Company, which is still in successful operation. Mr. Haymore is one of the charter members and a trustee of the Slate Mountain Orchard Company; is president of the Mount Airy Cemetery Company; a member of the Board of Trustees of the Mountain Park School, to which he was a liberal donor.

A great deal of his liberality has been manifested in the direction of improved school facilities. In 1897 he went to Raleigh, appeared before the Legislature and secured the passage of the bill by which the state contributes 500 a year for the support of a high school at Mount Airy, providing that Mount Airy appropriates a similar amount. He also secured the law by which the Board of Town Commissioners of Mount Airy was permitted to supplement the school fund. The high school was founded at Mount Airy in 1897. Mr. Haymore also contributed to Meredith College at Raleigh when it was established.

Politically he has long been a recognized leader in the republican party of North Carolina and has done much to give the minority party prestige and power. In 1908 he was elected and served as Representative from Surry County in the Legislature at its session of 1909, and also again in its session of 1913; was elected as minority speaker of the minority party and served as such in the House of Representatives in 1913; during this session was appointed by the speaker a member of a special committee of twenty from the Senate and House on Constitutional Amendments, the report of which was considered and adopted in part at special session of the Legislature convened in September, 1913; was elected and served as state senator from Surry and Stokes in 1911 and again as state senator in 1915, and was chosen leader of the minority party and served as such with fairness and ability during the duration of the Senate in 1915. He was again elected and served as a member of the Legislature in 1917 and by joint session of the House and Senate was elected one of the trustees of the State University at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for eight years; and again elected state senator for Surry and Stokes in 1919. In both house and senate he has served as floor leader of the minority party. A man of convictions, of earnest and sincere citizenship, he has proved a power in the effective proceedings of the Legislature. Among the more important committees on which he has served both in the Senate and House are the judiciary, rules, finance, contitutional amendments, corporations, penal institutions, railroad and agriculture.

In his home community Mr. Haymore has served as city attorney of Mount Airy, as trustee of the graded schools, as a member of the water and light committee and has also been mayor. He has been actively identified with the First Baptist Church since 1884 and for a number of years served as a trustee and also as superintendent of the Sunday school. Mr. Haymoré is affiliated with the Junior Order of United American Mechanics and Camp No. 109, Woodmen of the World.

Source: History of North Carolina: North Carolina Biography, by special staff of writers, 1919.

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