Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Dunn Loses Valuable Citizen to Strange Malady, Sept. 27, 1922

Death Comes to Mack Holliday. . . Dunn’s Most Valuable Citizen Victim of Strange Malady

Dunn, Sept. 26—McDaniel Holliday is dead. Death came today at noon in a hospital in Wilmington to which he was carried last Wednesday night after unsuccessful attempts were made in a hospital at Wilson to relieve is suffering from a baffling ailment to his head which occasioned him great suffering.

His body will arrive here tonight by motor, accompanied by an escort of friends. The funeral will be conducted from the Christian church Thursday afternoon.

Mr. Holliday was stricken last Saturday night a week ago. It was not thought that he was seriously ill. Monday, accompanied by his wife, he went to a hospital in Wilson for treatment. Physicians there could not afford him relief. Wednesday, accompanied by Mrs. Holliday, Dr. Holt and Dr. Sexton, he was removed to Wilmington.

News came Thursday morning that he had been able to talk from his train to a waiting ambulance. This occasioned relief from the anxiety which had gripped his friends since the Wilson physicians pronounced his case serious. Later advices, however, added to the anxiety. Yesterday it was said that he had been unconscious most of the day and that hope for his recovery rested entirely with an operation expected to be performed by a Philadelphia specialist, who had been summoned to his bedside.

The operation was performed and all through last night friends here waited for encouraging reports. At 3 o’clock in the morning his condition was reported as unchanged. No further reports came until the news of his death reached here early this afternoon.

McD. Holliday was Dunn’s most valuable citizen. He came here as a young man 30 years ago, giving up a position as traveling salesman to accept a job with Eldredge Lee, who then was conducting a hardware store here. He had just married Miss Florence Harper, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. M.W. Harper. Later he engaged in the hardware business with M.H. Privett, selling his interest in that business about 1904. Then he aided in the organization of the Dunn Oil Mill Company and with J.D. Barnes conducted that business for a short while. Fifteen years ago, he and Mr. Barnes organized the Barnes and Holliday Company. He has been the head of that concern ever since, directing its activities to the point where it now stands at the head of eastern Carolina retail hardware houses.

Mr. Holliday was about 55 years old. He was a native of Pitt county ad came to Dunn at a time when the little town was most in need of such services as he could give. Throughout the 30 years of his residence here, he was one of the community’s leading spirits for all the things which tended to progress and goodness. A devout Christian gentleman, he was one of God’s noblemen. No man ever called to Mack Holliday for aid in a worthy cause without answer. His heart was a big as his purse. Where ever the pinch of want was felt, McD. Holliday was one of the first to bring succor.

Mr. Holliday was prominent in business circles of the entire South. He was once president of the Southern Retail Implement Dealers Association, president of the Hardware Association of the Carolinas, on the board of directors of most of the trade associations of North Carolina and the Southern States, a vice-president of the Harnett County Fair Association and of the Chamber of Commerce of Dunn.

Mr. Holliday is survived by his wife, one son, Harper McD. Holliday, and three daughters, Mrs. A.H. Swain, Miss Jessie Holliday and Miss Florence Holliday. All of these were at his bedside when the end came.

From the Raleigh News & Observer, Sept. 27, 1922

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