FROM ancient times the name of
Cameron has been feared on the battlefield and renowned in the affairs of
state. The "gentle Lochiel" of 1745, one of the noblest of the Highland
chiefs, who put down the raids among his clansmen, was called after his
death by a political opponent, "a Whig in Heaven." Sir Allan Cameron
raised three battalions for King George, whose name and fame have been
nobly upheld by the Cameron regiment. The most celebrated Cameron was the
Lochiel of Cromwell ‘s time, "Sir Ewan the Black," noted for killing the
last wolf of Britain, champion of the Stewart cause and the last royalist
to submit. The Lochiel of to-day, the 25th Chief, Donald W. Cameron, added
several new battalions to the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders and
commanded them at the front in France, as he did in the Boer War. All of
his brothers enlisted and attained distinction, and the eldest, Captain
Allan Cameron, was killed in the service of his country.
At all times the Camerons have
excelled both at home and abroad, and to-day all over the world they hold
enviable positions among their fellows in their varied callings. Colonel
Bennehan Cameron, one of the most distinguished among the representative
men of North Carolina, is a chieftain of his clan and a loyal friend of
the present Lochiel. He was born September 9, 1854, at "Fairntosh,"
Stagville, N. C., the son of Paul Carrington and Anne (Ruffin) Cameron. He
prepared for college at Homer Military Academy. 1868-1871, and Eastman
National Business College, 1871; and was graduated at Virginia Military
Institute, 1875, and admitted to the bar in 1877. He was a director of the
Morehead Banking Co., Durham, N. C., and was active in organizing the
First National Bank of Durham, and in building the Lynch-burg & Durham R.
R., the Oxford & Clarksville R. R., the Durham & Northern R. R., and the
Oxford & Dickerson Branch; and is a director in the Raleigh & Augusta Air
Line; one of the organizers of the Seaboard Air Line; director of the
North Carolina R. H. Co., and President 1911-1913; and director and
Vice-President of the Rocky Mount Mills.
He was President of North Carolina
State Agricultural Society, 1896-1897; Vice-President of the Southern
Cotton Growers’ Protective Association, 1904-1906; Vice-President of the
Farmers’ National Congress, 1901-1907, and President, 1907-1909; and is a
member of the Royal Agricultural Society of England.
He served as Captain of the Orange
Co. Guards, 1875-1876; as Captain on the staffs of Governors Vance, Jarvis
and Scales; and as Colonel on the staffs of Governors Fowle, Holt and
Carr. He represented North Carolina on the staff of Gen. Phil Sheridan at
the centennial of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, 1887, and on
the staff of Gen. Schofield at the centennial of the inauguration of
President Washington, 1889. He is an organizer and director of the
Quebec-Miami International Highway; organizer and Vice-President of the
Southern National Highway; director of the American Automobile
Association; President of the Scottish Society of America, 1914-1915,
Assistant Treasurer North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati;
VicePresident North Carolina Sons of the Revolution; and Chairman of the
Committee on the Co-operation of Patriotic Organizations under the
American Committee for the celebration of the Century of Peace among
English-speaking Peoples under the Treaty of Ghent.
Col. Cameron is a Democrat and ably
represents Durham County in the State Legislature. He was author of the
Highway Commission Bill, is Chairman of the State Highway Commission, and
was appointed by the Legislature to represent the State at the centennial
of the Battle of New Orleans, 1915.
Col. Cameron married, October 28,
1891, Sallie T. Mayo, daughter of P. H. Mayo and Isabelle Burwell Mayo, of
Richmond, Va.; a union that has been blessed with two children: Belle May
Cameron and Sallie Taliaferro Cameron. His beautiful home, "Fairntosh,"
Stagville, N. C., is named for the ancestral home in Scotland.
Col. Cameron has travelled
extensively through the United States and Europe. As a friend of the
present Lochiel, he has been a guest at his castle, Ochnacarry. When the
latter visited the United States, he entertained Col. Cameron, as a
chieftain of the clan, in New York City. In 1908, he attended the Pan
Anglican Congress in London, and with P. H. Mayo and the Bishop of
Virginia was present at a garden-party at Marlborough House given by the
Prince of Wales, now King George. At present, Col. Cameron is actively
engaged in raising an endowment of a college for young women in North
Carolina, as a memorial to the heroine, Flora Macdonald, whose residence
in the United States during the Revolutionary period was in North
Carolina.
