A native of rural Wake County just north of Raleigh, Eugene Crocker Beddingfield was appointed to serve as a member of the ECTC board of trustees in 1925. Before having a chance to render significant service, he fell victim to increasingly poor health, passing away just eleven months after his appointment.
Having lost his father during the Civil War, Beddingfield was raised by his grandfather on a small family farm just six miles north of Raleigh where he, as an adolescent, had to do much of the manual labor associated with farm life. Despite limited educational opportunities, Beddingfield showed a talent for learning and a passion for reading, prompting his family to send him to the Forestville Academy for one year. Soon after, Beddingfield’s scholastic inclinations prompted him to begin teaching, at age 18, for several months each year at the rural school near his grandfather’s farm, where he continued to work to support his family.
Beddingfield embraced the concerns and interests of agrarian society which led him into politics early on. In 1888, he was elected, age 26, to the State House of Representatives, representing Wake County. In 1890, he succeeded Leonidas L. Polk (1837-1892) as secretary of the North Carolina State Farmers’ Alliance. The following year, he was appointed to the newly created Railroad Commission for a term of six years. In 1901, he served as a state senator, and then in 1902 was elected to serve as a member of the Corporation Commission, which had replaced the Railroad Commission. He later served as a member of the Wake County Board of Commissioners before serving, in 1919, a third time as a member of the General Assembly, again as a state senator representing Wake County.
Shortly after his passing, Governor Angus Wilton McLean (1870-1935) praised Beddingfield with the following often-noted remarks,
I have never known a truer man than E. C. Beddingfield. I have known him intimately for twenty-five years and admired him greatly on account of his fine character and ability. In his work in the General Assembly and also on the Corporation Commission he established a record for constructive service that is seldom equaled among men in public life. In recent years his health has been poor and for that reason he has not been active in public life. Notwithstanding this, he took a deep interest in his county, in his State, and in the welfare of the Democratic Party….
Beddingfield, as a one-time teacher in a small rural school north of Raleigh, surely appreciated the educational work pioneered in North Carolina by East Carolina Teachers College in graduating professionally trained teachers who would supplant the earlier generation of teachers, often without significant training other than their own ability to read and write and their passion for learning. Beddingfield’s support for the cause of educational uplift throughout the state, and especially in rural areas, was sadly cut short as was his devotion to public service and the common good. In the latter, however, Beddingfield’s life echoed in many ways the spirt, ethos, and motto of East Carolina, service.
Sources:
- “E. C. Beddingfield Dies at Hospital.” News and Observer. March 20, 1926. P. 2.
- “E. C. Beddingfield Praised By M’Lean.” News and Observer. March 21, 1926. P. 2.
- Morgan, W. Scott. History of the Wheel and Alliance and the Impending Revolution. Hardy, Arkansas: C. B. Woodward Co., 1891. https://books.google.com/books?id=6jhEAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA322&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false
- Steelman, Lala Carr. “Beddingfield, Eugene Crocker.” NCPedia. From the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, edited by William S. Powell. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979.
- Steelman, Lala Carr. “The Role of Elias Carr in the North Carolina Farmer’s Alliance.” North Carolina Historical Review. Vol. 57, no. 2 (April 1980). https://www.jstor.org/stable/23534886
- “Tribute to Beddingfield.” News and Observer. April 1, 1926. P. 4.
Citation Information
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 12/14/2022