Marmaduke W. Norfleet was born on this day in 1839, in Caswell County, to Marmaduke and Mary Comer Roan Norfleet.
Marmaduke received a good education, and served as a Confederate soldier with the Forty-second Regiment of North Carolina Volunteers. He attained the rank of lieutenant, and was wounded and captured at Gettysburg. He was in prison on Johnson’s Island in Lake Erie, then he was paroled. Due to his wounds, he was not able to rejoin his regiment.
Marmaduke was married to Mary Ellen Kirkpatrick in December 1864.
After the war, he worked in the mercantile business in Yanceyville. In 1873 he moved to Winston-Salem and became a dealer in leaf tobacco.
In 1875 he founded Piedmont Tobacco Warehouse and managed it until he passed away in 1890. The business continued for many years.
The first Piedmont Tobacco Warehouse was located on the corner of West Fourth and Trade Street. When Marmaduke purchased the business, it was named Planters Warehouse, but he changed the name to Piedmont. James S. Scales became a partner in the business in 1881, and he and James K. Norfleet (Marmaduke’s son) conducted the business under the name of M. W. Norfleet and Company.
The business moved to the 500 block of North Trade Street in 1906.
Marmaduke was a Mason and served in several leadership positions.
Two of Marmaduke’s grandsons followed in the footsteps of their patriotic grandfather, and served in World War I.
Photo courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
He was a Lieutenant in Company C, 47th Regiment N.C. Troops. My Great Grandfather William Albert Keith served in the same unit. They had to know each other and proudly marched into battle, Brothers in Arms.