IN MEMORY OF W.M. WINTERS ~
William Marcus Winters was born in Burke County on the 19th day of February, 1828, and died on the 22nd day of December, 1899. His father, Zachariah Winters , died when Marcus was a boy, and the responsibility of helping his widowed mother to support and rear a large family devolved upon him.
His early experience was fruitful in forcing the formation of habits of systematic industry and studied economy. He appreciated in boyhood the importance of education and improved diligently the limited opportunities afforded him at a country school nearly sixty years ago.
About the year 1845 he was employed by Thomas Lenoir Avery to manage a gold mine in Randolph County , and in 1851 he went with him and others to California, where he accumulated enough money to give him a start in life. Soon after his return he married Mary Owens , of Macon County, and established himself at the hospitable home where they lived happily for more than forty years.
Take him all in all, no man who has ever going in and out before the people of Burke County has led a more blameless life. His daily walk has furnished a beautiful illustration of the softening and restraining influences of christianity. His example has been a benediction to the community in which he lived. He was generous without being unjust. He prospered without oppression or wrong to others.
Capt. Winters became a Mason about the beginning of the late Civil War. He was captivated by the beauty of Masonic work and was an enthusiastic admirer of its fraternal features. Up to the time that his defective hearing began to mar the pleasure of meeting with his brethren, he was probably the most zealous Mason in the county. No man has been more fully exemplifief the virtues, that are typified by the emblems of our ancient order.
Capt. Winters was endowed with a clear head and an unusually retentive memory. Few men, if any, in Burke County recollected more accurately facts and statistics bearing upon political questions which had been issues between the political parties for thirty years , and not man was more deliberate, conscientious or independant in working out his conclusions or firmer in standing by his convictions.
He was repeatedly urged by the influential men to become a candidate for the Legislature, but persistently declined to accept any office except that of Justice of the Peace , which enabled him to render valuable service to the public and to benefit his neighbors without calling him away from his home or business.
Resolved, That in the death of our worthy brother, William Marcus Winters, Burke County has lost one if its most useful and patriotic citizens, his church an humble and exemplary christian, and the Ancient Order a member who lived up to the highest conception of the precepts of Masonry.
Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing memorial and these resolutions be recorded in our minutes and a properly certified copy be furnished to the family of our deceased brother and that copies be furnished by the Secretary to both of the newspapers of Morganton for publication.
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Signed: A. C. Avery, C. M. McDowell, S. J. Ervin, Committee.
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