"Our Heritage"
Mount Olive Tribune
By Claude Moore
Friday, January 1, 1993

In the 1907 special edition of the Mount Olive Tribune there is a writeup and photograph of ex-state Senator David John Aaron and of the interior of his drug store on Center Street in Mount Olive. He was not only a state senator, but was the proprietor of a pharmacy, a farm, and was the founder and editor of the Mount Olive Telegram, the forerunner of the Mount Olive Tribune.

Mr. Aaron came from an enterprising family. He was born in Warsaw, and was the son of Lipmann Aaron, a pioneer merchant and innkeeper in Warsaw who came originally from Worms (W pronounced like a V), Germany. His grandfather, Benjamin Aaron, was a bodyguard of Napoleon Bonaparte. Lipmann Aaron married Margaret Swinson of Duplin, a daughter of Daniel and Charlotte Swinson.

David John Aaron was born in 1850 and attended the Baptist Seminary, a private high school operated by the Baptists in Warsaw. He later attended Hillsboro Military Academy. For several years he worked as clerk in mercantile stores in Warsaw, Magnolia, and Wilmington. He was later mayor of Warsaw. Around 1881 he moved to Mount Olive and there he married Miss Hammie Abernathy, a daughter of Sheriff John Abernathy.

Mr. Aaron was a strong supporter of the public education system and became one of the leaders behind the establishment of graded schools in Mount Olive. He was a Democrat in politics and in 1900 he was elected to represent Wayne County in the North Carolina Senate. He was re-elected for a second term and while in the Legislature he advocated education and good roads. Mr. Aaron had a talent for writing and while he published the Mount Olive Telegmm (1883-1890) he wrote many fine editorials and occasionally a poem.

Mr. Aaron's pharmacy was a popular gathering place for the Mount Olive people. He had fine pharmacists and a modern fountain. The telegraph office was nearby. The doctors in Mount Olive at that time were: Dr. Malcolm Tatum, Dr. John B. Kennedy (Grantham) and Dr. William C. Steele. By 1907 Dr. Julian Faison had already moved from Mount Olive to Bennettsville, S.C.

Mr. Aaron was an active Mason and a member of the Knights of Pythias of Mount Olive. He had two sons, Leroy and Dr. Leonard Aaron, both of whom were deceased by 1907.

After writing this article, I visited the Maplewood Cemetery in Mount Olive and found the grave of David John Aaron, 1850-1910, the grave of his son, Dr. Leonard P. karon, 1873-1909, and the grave of his sister, Martha Aaron, 1857-1909, and her husband, Nicholas Long, 1851-1920, and also a sister, Coran Ann Aaron, 1855-1935.

Coran Ann Aaron operated a store in Mount Olive. David John Aaron had a brother, William E. Aaron, who married a daughter of D. Hussey of Warsaw, and lived in Mount Olive. He was the father of the late Emma Aaron Summerlin and others.