"Our Heritage"
Mt. Olive Tribune
Friday, September 11, 1992
By Claude Moore

During the years I have written in this column several times about members of the pioneer Kornegay family. All the Kornegays are kin and are descended from John George Kornegay, a native of the Rhineland of Germany, who came with Baron Christopher Von Graffenreid to New Bern in 1709. He and his family were massacred by the Tuscarora Indians in 1711 except his son, George, who married and had around 11 children.

The subject of this sketch, William F. Kornegay, belonged to this large clan. He was born in 1832 and was the son of James F. and Harriet Whitfield Kornegay. They owned a large plantation between Mount Olive and the Neuse River (Indian Springs community.) Young William attended local schools and later attended Randolph Macon College in Virginia. The family were members of Indian Springs United Methodist Church (organized 1853). William F. Kornegay taught school for a time in Wayne County and in 1861 be enlisted in the First North Carolina Cavalry of Confederate Troops and was elected second lieutenant.

After the War Between the States William F. Kornegay exchanged his farm for a mercantile business in Goldsboro which he operated for seven years. He then formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Charles Dewey. It was called Goldsboro Machine Works. Kornegay and Dewey introduced steam power for cotton gins in eastern North Carolina. They manufactured a great number of steam engines. In 1884 the plant was burned and he sold his interest to Charles Dewey. This was the forerunner of the present Dewey Brothers in Goldsboro.

Kornegay returned to farming and became the largest cotton farmer in Wayne County. In 1857 he was married to Miss Louisa Borden, the daughter of Arnold and Maria Borden who owned the Borden Hotel. They had no children and she died in 1883. He later married Miss Annie L. Snow, the daughter of Theophilus Snow of Raleigh. The Kornegays were active members of the Goldsboro Methodist Church where he served as steward, trustee and superintendent of the Sunday school.

William F. Kornegay was a Democrat and was active in politics. He helped organize the Farmer's Alliance in Wayne County. He served for several years as a director of the North Carolina Railroad and also served as president of the railroad.

Men like William F. Kornegay with vision for the future have done much to promote progressive farming in Wayne County, as well as planning and working to attract industry.