Royster family.

The family of James Daniel (1790?-1870?) and Mary Ashley (1795?-1880?) Royster were residents of Raleigh, N.C. The couple had eight children, all named in a rather unusual fashion. According to his great-grandson, Henry P. Royster (the donor of a portion of these papers), James Royster had grown weary of hearing names around the house such as Tom, Dick, and Harry. Thus started the American states series (see genealogical list), with the eight Royster children being named after states. The boys were Vermont Connecticut, Iowa Michigan, Arkansas Delaware, Wisconsin Illinois, and Oregon Minnesota; the girls were Louisiana Maryland, Virginia Carolina, and Georgia Indiana.

Vermont Connecticut Royster married Hallie Lee High and with her had two sons, Wilbur High Royster (b. 1887) and Percy Lake Royster (b. 1888).

Iowa Michigan Royster (1840-1863), was a student at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, graduating with highest honors in 1860. After graduation, he served the university as a tutor, but left this position and enlisted in the 1st North Carolina Cavalry as a private in 1862. On 5 June 1863, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 37th Regiment North Carolina Volunteers. Iowa Royster was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg and died ten days later.

Wisconsin Illinois Royster (1845-1930), served Adjutant General Richard Gatling as a mail clerk during the Civil War before being transferred to Dr. E. Burke Haywood of Raleigh as a surgeon's assistant. From this experience, he developed an interest in medicine and, in 1866, he left Raleigh for Bellevue Medical School in New York City, graduating two years later. After practicing medicine for a brief period in New York, he returned to Raleigh in 1870, married Mary Wills Finch (1845-1920), and set up a practice in Raleigh. Dr. W. I. Royster became a locally prominent physician, having in 1870 been a founding member of the Raleigh Academy of Medicine, the state's first local medical society.

Wisconsin and Mary Royster had four children, one of whom, Hubert Ashley Royster (1871-1959), followed in his father's footsteps as a physician. (Another son, James Finch Royster, was later a professor of English at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.) After completing his secondary education at Raleigh Male Academy, Hubert A. Royster entered Wake Forest College. While there, he had the distinction of participating in the first intercollegiate football game in North Carolina. Following his graduation in the spring of 1891, Royster entered the University of Pennsylvania Medical School.

H. A. Royster graduated from medical school in 1894, and, like his father, established a practice in Raleigh. Ten years later, however, he restricted his practice to surgery and became the first surgical specialist in the state. H. A. Royster became a prolific writer and speaker on surgery, and was president of the Southern Surgical Association in 1926. He served as surgeon-in-chief at Saint Agnes Hospital and as a surgeon at Rex Hospital in Raleigh. Royster's career as a medical instructor began in 1895, when he was appointed to the faculty of the Leonard Medical School of Raleigh's Shaw University (which spawned in him an interest and concern for what was then known as Negro medicine). From 1902 to 1910, he served as dean and professor of gynecology at the University of North Carolina Medical Department in Raleigh, and he was professor of surgery at Wake Forest College of Medicine from 1934 to 1938. During World War I, he was appointed to the Medical Advisory Board of the National Defense Council (probably due to the patronage of then Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, with whom Royster corresponded).

H. A. Royster married Louisa Page of Maryland in 1901. The couple had three children, two of whom, Henry Page and Hubert Ashley Jr., became physicians. Dr. H. A. Royster retired from medicine in 1938, and died on 7 November 1959.

Sources for this biographical note include a typescript copy of a speech by Dr. John A. Fewell given on 23 April 1953 at the University of North Carolina Medical School (see folder 57), a typescript biography of H. A. Royster by Alexander Webb Jr., A Surgeon's Surgeon, (see Volumes 4 and 5), and a letter from Robert H. Baker to the Southern Historical Collection located in the control file.

ROYSTER FAMILY:

James Daniel Royster + Mary Ashley

Indiana Georgia Royster + ? Collins

Vermont Connecticut Royster + Hallie Lee High

Wilber High + Olivette Broadway

Vermont Connecticut Royster (b. 1914)

Virginia Carolina Royster + ? Howell

Edward Vernon

Iowa Michigan Royster (1840-1863)

Oregon Minnesota Royster

Arkansas Delaware Royster (d. 1894)

Wisconsin Illinois Royster (1845-1930) + Mary Wills Finch (1845-1920)

Mollie (1881-1883)

James Finch (1879-1930)

Frank Wills

Hubert Asheley Royster (1871-1959) + Louise Page

Virginia Page (b. 1902)

Hubert Ashley Royster Jr. (b. 1905)

Henry Page Royster (b. 1909)

From the guide to the Royster Family Papers, 1840-1979, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)