Eller, Adolphus Hill

9 Apr. 1861–7 Dec. 1941

Adolphus Hill Eller, lawyer, banker, and political leader, was born in New Hope community, Wilkes County, the son of James E. and Mary Ann Carlton Eller. He was prepared for college at the Moravian Falls Academy and was graduated from The University of North Carolina with honors in 1885. At Chapel Hill he was president of the Dialectic Society, editor of the University Magazine, and winner of the debaters' medal. After teaching briefly at the State Normal School in Boone, he read law at Folk's Law School at Cilley near Lenoir and was admitted to the bar in 1886. He practiced law until 1914, when he became trust officer and vice-president of Wachovia Bank and Trust Co. He managed the gubernatorial campaign of Robert B. Glenn in 1904, served in the North Carolina Senate from 1905 to 1907, was secretary and treasurer of the North Carolina Railroad from 1908 to 1912, and served as a trustee of The University of North Carolina for twenty-seven years following his first appointment to that post in 1906. In 1908 Eller helped organize and was president of the Standard Building and Loan Association; he also was one of the founders of the North Carolina State Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem and furthered the development of the Winston-Salem Teachers College, of which he was a trustee and secretary for a number of years. He retired from his position with Wachovia Bank and Trust Co. shortly before his death.

Eller married Laura Winifred Newland in 1896 and they were the parents of two sons, John DeWalde and A. H., Jr., and of a daughter, Mary, who died young. He was a Baptist and was buried in the Salem cemetery.