University of North Carolina Chapel Hill - Yackety Yack Yearbook (Chapel Hill, NC)

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HON. FRANCIS DONNEI.I, WrNSToN.

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f . ]VI. Osborne, A K E Editor-in-Chief. m. f . Bryan, z T Chief Business Manager. B. I., ttlatson, K A f . 3. Coje, A e m. H. J Iurpby, 2X0 6. «l. «loodard, K 2; T. Sl. ' Jones, s x ]V. C. Curtis, A T C. B. Denson, 3r., Ben C. J . Niller, n K A JVI. BeUamy,l[r., 2 A E

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on. vanciB ©onneff iVimion urru ' he subject of this sketch comes of distinguished ancestry, a family that has impressed itself upon not only this but other States. The blood is English, mixed with Scotch-Irish. Francis Donnell Winston was born in Bertie county, North Carolina, October 2, 1857. His parents were Hon. Patrick Henry Winston, one of North Carolina ' s ablest jurists, and Martha Elizabeth Byrd, a ladv of rare womanly virtues. ' The Winstons came originally from Lincolnshire, England, and settled in Hanover county, Virginia. One of the family, Sarah Wincton, was the mother of Patrick Henry, the great orator of the American Revolution. The Byrds came from Scotland and settled in Virginia. Colonel William Byrd, of West- over, Va., the most cultivated Virginian of the last century, was a member of this family. Thus Mr ' . Winston is a descendant of two of the oldest, most talented and most eminent families of the South. His brothers are Hon. P. H. Winston, lawyer, author and wit, Spokane, Washington, and at present attorney-general of that State; George T.Winston, LL. D.. Presi- dent of the University of Texas, Austin, Texas, and Hon. Robert W. Winston, ex-judge of the Superior Court, Durham, N. C. Their sister, Mrs. F. S. Spruill, of Louisburg, is one of the most talented women in our State. Mr. Winston ' s education was received at the Fetter School, Henderson; the Horner School, Oxford; Cornell University, New York, and the University of North Carolina. From the latter institution he graduated with distinction in 1879. At the University Mr. Winston ' s talents and universal popularity won for him honors prophetic of those which he has since reaped in life as a lawyer and a citizen. He was assistant ball manager in 1876, representative of the Philanthropic Society in 1877, revived the University Magazine in 1878, - and twice elected editor thereof, Washington orator in 1878, president s- of the Philanthropic Society, historian and president of the Class of 1879. In January, 1881, he was licensed to practice law, having been a student at the Dick and Dillard Law School at Greensboro. Just after le was WX licensed. Judge Aug. S. Seymour appointed him clerk of the Superior Court of V H Bertie count} . Mr. Winston was nominated for State Superintendent of Public Instruction bv the Liberal patty in 1884. In 1886 he was elected and served as a State Senator from Bertie and Northhampton counties. In 1890 he was nominated for Judge of the Second Judicial District by the Republican party but declined the nomination and declared his allegiance to the Democratic party. Since 1892 he has been a member of the Democratic State Executive Committee and a member of the Second Congressional District Democratic Committee. He presided over the State convention of Democratic clubs in 1894 and over the Congressional convention of that year in his district. At the request of Hon. F. M. Simmons, State chairman of the late campaign. Mr- Winston had charge of the formation and organization of the White Government Unions, which were most potent factors in the campaign. 7