By Will Truslow, MD
Alfred Moore Scales (1870-1940) was instrumental in creating two well known neighborhoods in what is now Greensboro, being (Old) Irving Park and Hamilton Lakes. He built the large Neoclassical Revival house that overlooks Hamilton Lake and was discussed in an early Bulletin. The name, Alfred Moore Scales, has been found in the Scales family since the early 1800’s. The Scales were large land owners along the Dan River and extensive other areas in Rockingham County. They were of English origin.
Alfred Moore Scales (1800 – ?) and Dr. Robert H. Scales (1805-1882) were brothers and the sons of Nathaniel (1756-1824) and Nancy Allen Scales. Dr. Robert and Jane Watt Bethel (1809-1876) Scales had a son, Alfred Moore Scales (1827-1892) who became the NC Governor, 1885-1889. Junius Irving Scales (1832-1880) was the brother of the Gov. Scales and named his son AM Scales (1870-1940) for his brother. So, it was that the nephew was named for the uncle for 3 generations perpetuating the name, Alfred Moore Scales.
AM Scales’s (1870-1940) parents were Junius I. Scales and Euphemia Hamilton Henderson Scales (1840-1901). She was the daughter of Archibald Erskine Henderson a judge originally from Granville Co. NC who lived in a Rockingham Co. home call Mt. Pleasant which is between Madison and Wentworth. The Governor AM Scales married Katherine Henderson, the sister of Euphemia H. Scales and they had no children. You can see from the names mentioned several of the names of streets and lakes in Hamilton Lakes with the Scales name conspicuously absent. Also, in Old Irving Park there is a Wentworth Street.
Junius I. and Euphemia Scales moved to Greensboro in 1871 returning from Mississippi. Another of their sons, Admiral Archibald Henderson Scales (1868-1952) built a home at 3907 Henderson Rd in 1926. It is calledTar Haven and prominently overlooks Hamilton Lake across from his brother’s home.
Sources: Rockingham County Heritage – NC 1983; The Journal of Rockingham County History and Genealogy Vol. VI, Number 2 December, 1981; WikiTree.