John McNeill

Best remembered for the hundreds of poems he wrote, this Scotland County native was also a lawyer and teacher. John McNeill's (1874-1907) work was first published in the campus journal of Wake Forest College, where McNeill was valedictorian of the class of 1898.

He practiced law in Lumberton and was elected to the N.C. House of Representatives in 1903. But law was secondary to his love of the written word. It was in 1904 that publisher J.P. Caldwell invited the easygoing McNeill to join the staff at the Charlotte Observer. While there, McNeill wrote reviews, news stories and features. Two books of his poetry were published.

In 1905 he received a literary award in Raleigh from President Theodore Roosevelt. John Charles McNeill remained a bachelor and never married.