Schenck, David, 1835-1902

Lawyer of Lincoln and Greensboro, N.C., Superior Court Judge of the Ninth Judicial District of North Carolina, 1874-1882, general counsel of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, and president of the Guilford Battleground Co.

David Schenck (1835-1902), son of a doctor and apothecary of Lincolnton, N.C., attended Judge Fearson's Law School in Rockford, N.C., and received his law license in 1856. He was elected solicitor for Gaston County and set up a practice in Dallas, N.C., before marrying Sallie Wilfong Ramseur in 1859 and moving back to Lincolnton in 1860.

Schenck was a member of the North Carolina Secession and an active participant in determining the conduct of the war. Exempted from army duty because of ill health, he held briefly a position in the Army Commissary Department at Raleigh. He then returned to Lincoln County, where he held the post of receiver under the Sequestration Act for the remainder of the war. In 1866, Schenck applied for a pardon and resumed his law practice.

From 1866 to 1882, while he remained in Lincolnton practicing law, Schenck became involved for political reasons with the Ku-Klux Klan and continued, as he had done since 1858, his public support of national and state candidates of the Democratic Party. In 1874, he was elected Superior Court judge of the Ninth Judicial District of North Carolina and traveled on the court circuits in both Eastern and Western North Carolina, holding this position until 1882 when he went to Greensboro as general counsel for the Richmond and Danville Railroad. He was defeated in his campaign to be chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.

The last twenty years of Schenck's life were spent in Greensboro, N.C., where he continued his law practice and became a prominent leader in civic activities. He was alderman, city commissioner, and founder and president of the Guilford Battleground Co. In 1895, his job with the railroad was terminated and, after this time, ill-health forced him to retire from law practice.