Government
Robeson County has been blessed to have been governed by a long line of proud men and women, starting with its first Clerk of Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, Josiah Barnes, and Sheriff, Samuel Porter, until the current Sheriff Glenn Maynor and Clerk of Court Jo Ann Locklear. We have been represented in Raleigh by Robesonians like Hector MacLean, Robert Parnell, John Gilchrist, John Hasty, Ronnie Sutton and David Bonner. Robesonians have also proved helpful to the county in Washington they include people like Frank Ertle Carlyle, Gilbert Brown Patterson, Mike McIntyre and Angus Dhu McLean, who served at Assistant Attorney General.
 |
 |
| Angus Wilton McLean was in Robeson County 20 April 1870 to Archibald and Carolina Amanda Purcell McLean. He received his law degree from the University of North Carolina in 1892 and in 1917 was elected President of the State Bar. He married Margaret Jones French on 14 April 1904; she stood beside her husband while he served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in Washington and when he was elected as Governor of North Carolina in 1925. McLean organized many of the county's business such as the National Bank of Lumberton in 1897, which later became Southern National Bank; the Lumberton and Dresden Cotton Mills; and the Virginia & Carolina Southern Railroad. Governor Angus Wilton McLean was claimed by death on 20 June 1935. (Courtesy North Carolina State Archives) |
This photograph of Hector MacLean, son of Governor Angus Wilton McLean, and the proceeding photograph were taken 18 February 1928. The occasion was the installation of the first telephones in the Governor's Mansion, Hector is shown here making a call to his father's office in the Capital Building. Hector MacLean was the youngest of the three McLean children, his sister referred to him in later years as "a breath of fresh air into the family. His mother was known for the lavish entertaining, both parents loved animals Mrs. McLean always had pet dogs and Governor McLean was an expert horseman. The children even kept their pony in the basement of the Governor's Mansion, the pony and the mansion grounds were cared for by a group of prisoners known as "trustees". Hector MacLean travel almost everywhere with his father and was even by his side at the unveiling of the North Carolina Monument at Gettysburg. MacLean graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Law School and served four years in the Army during World War II. After the war he took the reins of his father's bank and by the time of his retirement the bank had grown to over a hundred branches. He has continued his father's example of service to the community by being active in the preservation of county and state history. (Courtesy North Carolina State Archives)
|
Robeson County saw the need for a new courthouse and constructed this one in
1909. This side view from the 1950s shows not only the wonderful courthouse
that served the county until 1969 but also a downtown garage. This seat of
county government continues to serve the people of the State of Robeson as it
has since General John Willis gave the land in 1787. (Courtesy Carolina
Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill)
|
.gif){kind=spacer}
