William Garl Browne, Portrait of BB&T Founder, (VA/Eng., 1823-1894), Portrait of Thomas Jefferson Hadley, oil on canvas, signed en verso "William G. Browne", in original, ornate, gilt composition over wood frame, SS 29.25"h x 24.25"w, DOA 41"h x 36"w Thomas Jefferson Hadley

Thomas Jefferson Hadley was born in Wayne County, NC on July 9, 1838. As was expected, Hadley enrolled in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1858. An active member of the University, Thomas, along with John Cameron, James Moore, and James Lucas, re-established a chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity in November, 1859. He served as Chapter secretary and as the commencement orator in 1862.
Like so many young university students during the Civil War, Thomas Hadley joined the Confederate cause. On May 10, 1862, he enlisted in Wilson County at age 23 in Company A of the 55th North Carolina Infantry. Organized at Camp Mangum, near Raleigh, in early May of 1862, this unit served in the Department of North Carolina before moving to Virginia under the direction of General J. R. Davis and Cooke�s Brigade. Although he entered as a Private, Hadley quickly rose in the ranks and was promoted 3rd Lieutenant on June 9, 1862.
Hadley was involved in several skirmishes and battles over the course of the war. Wounded at Falling Waters in Maryland in 1863 he was then promoted yet again, this time to 1st Lieutenant in November that same year. In 1864, Hadley was wounded again at The Wilderness. Considering that fifty-nine percent of the 340 in his regiment at The Wilderness perished, Hadley was a lucky man. Hadley�s fighting involvement ended with his capture at Globe Tavern in Virginia on August 20, 1864. He spent the next ten months as a prisoner prior to release on June 17, 1865, after swearing the Oath of Allegiance.
After the war, Hadley settled down and established himself as a prominent and successful educator, merchant, and banker. He married Sarah Sanders, of Johnson County, on October 29, 1867.
Shortly after his marriage, Hadley entered into a partnership with Alpheus Branch, establishing a mercantile business in Wilson called B&H. In the 1870s, the two partners decided to branch out into banking. Both men had served in the Civil War and knew of the hardships facing their community during Reconstruction. They aimed to provide a reputable and secure merchant bank and so they founded Branch and Hadley in 1872. As a result, the local farmers rebuilt the local economy by planting cotton and the new king � tobacco.
In 1887, Branch bought Hadley�s interest in the bank. By that time Hadley had left an indelible impression on what has become one of the largest, and fastest growing, banks in the southern states.
The Portrait

This portrait was painted by William Garl Browne during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The son of a British landscape painting, Browne found his way to Mexico where he painted the likenesses of Zachary Taylor and other war heroes. He eventually made his way up to North Carolina and Virginia where he painted portraits of Civil War heroes and veterans.
The portrait was found in original condition complete with the original backboards. Upon removal of the boards, a 19th c. cabinet card image of Thomas Jefferson Hadley taken by the Charlotte, NC studio of Van Ness of Charlotte, NC. The canvas is also signed and dated �W. Garl Browne pinxit/March 1889� on the verso. Considering the close resemblance between photograph and painting, Browne likely completed the portrait from the image.
Portraits by Browne hang in numerous public collections including University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University, Maymont House in Richmond, the Stonewall Jackson House in Lexington, and the National Portrait Gallery.

Sources

Positive identification has been provided by Deborah Webb, Local History Librarian at the Wilson County Public Library. She writes
�The consensus among the local experts in that the person in your painting is Thomas Jefferson Hadley, Mr. Hadley was associated with Alpheus Branch in the firm of Branch-Hadley and Company, the forerunner of Branch Banking and Trust Company, which was founded here in Wilson. I have a picture here in the library of Mr. Hadley as a much older man, the similarities are remarkable. Mr. Boykin, a local antiques appraiser and historian believes that Mr. Hadley was one of the few people in Wilson who had the money to have an oil painting done.�
(Webb, Deborah. Email interview. 5 August 2003.)

Black, Louis Fischer. �Guide to the B and H Sales Book, 1887.� North Carolina
State University�s Special Collections Research Center. 2001. NCSU.
17 Jan. 2007 < http://www.lib.ncsu.....
Blackstock, Towner. �Early Years at The University of North Carolina
1851-1852 and 1859-1862.� The Archives. 2005. The Fraternity of
Phi Gamma Delta. 17 Jan. 2007.
< http://www.phigam.or....
Brown, Matthew, ed. North Carolina Troops, 1861 � 1865: A Roster.
�Our History.� BB&T. 2007. 17 Jan. 2007
< http://www.bbt.com/b....
untouched estate condition