PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES. 



333 



all his life. He moved to the Indian Territory in 1874, 

 and has belonged to the Alliance since its first organiza- 

 tion in the Territory. He is an active and efficient worker 

 in the Order, a consistent and upright Christian gentle- 

 man, and a man whose sympathies are strongly enlisted in 

 the cause of industrial reform. 



E. C. BKDDINGFIELD. 



E. C. Beddingfield, Secretary of the North Carolina 

 State Alliance, was born on the loth of October, 1862, in 

 Wake county, North Carolina. His father was a Confed- 

 erate soldier and died in the .hospital at Gordon ville, 

 Virginia, in 1863, leaving his wife and son dependent 

 upon the care of her father, who was a plain, substantial 

 farmer, at that time over 70 years of age. Sherman's 

 Army having left the country in a destitute condition, it 

 was with considerable 

 sacrifice that they man- 

 aged to send . young 

 Beddingfield to a sub- 

 scription school for a 

 few months in each year 

 until he was old enough 

 to plow. A corrupt 

 Legislature having rob- 

 bed the public school 

 fund of several million 

 dollars there were no 

 public schools in North 

 Carolina at that time. 

 As soon as he learned to 

 read, however, he mani- E. C. Beddingfield. 



fested a great fondness for books, and through the 

 kindness of friends was enabled to borrow and read many 



