NARRATIVE ON DR. JOSEPH JAMES LANE MCCULLERS MD (ROUGH DRAFT)

Written by Joel McCullers Hobby Jr June 2026

This narrative includes historical information gleaned from various sources along with memories from his descendants, some still living at the time of this writing.

The living descendants who have contributed to the memories of Dr McCullers for this document are Shelton Shearon, Edith Mason, and Rose Dunn.

Some of the full names for Dr McCullers are confusing such as the given names Joseph/James/John/Joel being interchanged. This seems to be typical during those times but we will stick to Joseph James Lane McCullers. My father Joseph McCullers Hobby was sometimes referred to as Joel.

Dr McCullers was born 18 March 1851 in Wake County.

He married Alice Benjamin Perkinson 16 February 1881

He died 16 December 1926 age 76 at Rex Hospital, Raleigh and was interred in the McCullers Cemetery on Donny Brook Rd, McCullers Crossroads, Wake County.

This document focuses only on Dr McCullers. For further genealogy go to the website: ??????

Sources used in this document are the following:

  1. NC Archives

  2. Findagrave.com

  3. US census

  4. Newspaper obituary

  5. wakedocs.org

The Doctor’s farm was at McCullers Crossroads and only for growing crops, mainly tobacco. There were sharecroppers both black and white (assuming some were enslaved persons). He did not personally work on the farm although his office was located on the property.

The family fortune was lost during the Civil War.

He studied medicine in 1886 at the University of Maryland School of Medicine founded in Baltimore in December 1807 the fifth oldest medical school in the country, the first public medical school and the only one in the country at that time.

He returned to Wake County to become truly the country doctor in the horse and buggy days, long before large regional hospitals were established, delivering babies, making house calls and tending to the sick in his office on the homestead, often staying with them overnight.

The couch with pullout bed in his office was made for him by Pullman and is now located with my daughter Allison Dickens.

My father Joe McCullers Hobby and sister Marshall Hobby traveled with the doctor on many house calls.

Due to an illness my father lived with the doctor most of his life until adulthood.

His solid cherry custom made desk is in my possession and will later be donated to the Joel Lane House Museum.

Here are some of the accomplishments during his medical career:

  1. He was a County Health Pioneer serving as the “County Physician” and the Health Officer of Wake County. He was responsible for managing public health crises such as smallpox and tuberculosis outbreaks.

  2. He was the founding president of the Wake County Medical Society in 1903.

  3. As the designated Wake County Physician and Health Officer, he directed quarantine efforts and localized treatments during major infectious threats, notably he managed a 16 case smallpox containment grid in 1903 and organized county resources to handle a severs widespread tuberculosis outbreak.

  4. 1911 He was at the center of the landmark NC Supreme Court case McCullers v. Board of Commissioners. The legal battle established and protected the statutory authority and financial compensation of county health officers when politicians tried to challenge public health spending.

  5. 1915 Dr McCullers partnered with Dr WS Rankin of the State Board of Health to launch a massive, unprecedented countywide offensive against typhoid fever. He established free dispensary points across 16 different locations in Wake County to administer early anti-typhoid vaccinations directly to the public.

I have been told that he served as the Wake County Medical Examiner and have death certificates that he signed. However, I have not been able to obtain further documentation. I have been informed that the documents regarding the medical examiners prior to 1975 were destroyed in a fire.

An article in the Raleigh Times Newspaper 16 May, 1913 talks about an attempt to sanitize the Wake County Jail. The following is an excerpt from that article:

“Dr. J.J.L. McCullers, county superintendent of heath, personally supervised the work in the interior of the jail. The prisoners have even stopped expectorating on the floor, tobacco having been taken away from them until they learned that the rules of the jail would be enforced. It required three efforts, however, to convince the prisoners that spitting on the floor would not be tolerated, the last time prisoners informing Dr McCullers that they would see that no juice was wasted on the sides and floor if he would permit them to have their weed. And they have seen to it. The walls have been freshly white-washed, the cells scrubbed, clean smelling disinfectant used and the quarters made as clean as possible. Each prisoner is clipped and bathed and given a change of clothing before entering”


The family welcomes information and pictures regarding his history.

Narrative on Dr. Joseph James Lane McCullers, M.D.

IN MEMORY OF A GOOD MAN

Although it is against our rule to print obituary notices, because they are rarely of interest to any except half a dozen near kinsmen, we make an exception in favor of the following because it relates to one who in private life, though “only a farmer”, exhibited the moral traits, and the level of knowledge, that might have made him figure largely in the newspapers, had he adopted a more ambitious calling.

FOR THE FARMER AND MECHANIC

John Joseph Lane McCullers was born March 2, 1810, and died December 19, 1880. He was a son of Col. Mathew McCullers of the Revolutionary War. He was the last surviving member of a family of 9 children, and the first deceased of his own family of eleven children. His mother was Miss Sara Lane, of a family of considerable note during the past century, she being the daughter of Joseph Lane, and a cousin of General Joe Lane of Oregon, Vice-President of the Breakenridge ticket in 1860.

Mr. McCullers was married December 10, 1835, to Miss Willia Richardson Nance, daughter of Elder George Nance, of the Primitive Baptist Church. At the early age of sixteen he had the misfortune of losing his father, and was left with the sole care of his aged mother, who survived until the year 1844. Although deprived of the advantages of a scholastic education, notwithstanding all the disadvantages of his situation, his duty of his aged parent—and his labors—his thirst for knowledge led him at once to apply himself diligently to study at night, and a course of reading, so that he acquired a thorough acquaintance with almost every branch of knowledge, particularly Literature. His mind possessed such versatility and familiarity with all our best authors that but a few could command a greater fund of useful information or express it better. His conversation was distinguished for sound practical judgement—replete with humor; and he possessed the power of not only pleasing, but imparting information to others on all subjects calculated to interest, instruct, or amuse. He was passionately fond of music, and possessed a fine voice, which caused him to become the leader of all the choirs in the different churches around him during the greater portion of his life. He was a man of sterling character, on whom the breath of slander, never dared breathe a foul reproach. Pure and spotless in life, in death he died as he lived peacefully; and as he often quoted during his last illness, he has “naught to wipe out, naught to extenuate, nothing in malice set down”. So much for a life of strictest integrity, and honesty of purpose!

After the close of the, when everything was swept away, except the dear old homestead, where his parents had lived and died, where he had grown old, and raised a numerous family, he preferred to labor himself, than sacrifice a foot of the soil so dear to him; his heritage. He preferred the esteem and confidence of all who knew him; the respect and admiration of his numerous friends; the love and veneration of his family, and leave to the world a pure record of virtuous habits and a spotless life. He was a firm, zealous patriot, though never actively engaged in political affairs, he took a great interest in the public welfare, and was well informed on the political history of the time, and on all matters pertaining to the public good. Born and raised a farmer, he aspired to no higher rank.

He came, in some respects, of a remarkable family. His great grandfather McCullers, was kidnapped off the coast of Scotland or Wales, when only three years old, and adopted by Col. James of Halifax county. At Manhood he married his daughter and only child, and from this union sprung the McCullers family.---Of the Lane family, or oldest inhabitants can remember, the site on which the capitol now stands was their home, and some of the best families can boast a descent from that family.

The writer has understood that the late Gov. Swain, a descendant, possessed a family tree, giving in detail each member, and well remembers when Gen Joe Lane was candidate for Vice-President, that he visited Raleigh, his old home, and was received by Mr. Henry Mordecai, another descendant, with a complimentary dining, where every Lane descendant was invited to meet him, and most cordially welcomed and magnificently entertained.

We cannot do justice to the character of such a man, his example as his predecessors live in the lives of his posterity, and his virtues will adorn their own in the journey through life. May each one emulate his example and may the light emitted from the readers of his character, illuminate their own, so that their last end be like his, and they may exclaim in his last words “Raise me up, let me be ready, the crowd on before” CLEORA

Should say one possessing information about the family tree, leave their address with the editor, they will receive the thanks of the family as the last link that bound them to the past is irrecoverably broken.

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MARRIAGES

At the residence of the Bride’s Mother, Wake County, N.C., August 1, 1882, by Rev. J. Pressly Barrett, Miss Flora McCullers, daughter of Mrs. Willie H. McCullers, to Capt. Robt. L. Heflin, of Raleigh, N.C.

John Joseph Lane McCullers Obituary