James Rogers McConnell

James Rogers McConnell had been born in Chicago and considered himself a New Yorker, but he spent the last years of his childhood in Carthage, NC. His wealthy parents sent him off to college at one of the most respected universities in the South at the beginning of the twentieth century, the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Jim, as he was known, started a whirlwind social life at school in 1907, becoming a member of the German Club and the New York Club, working as an assistant cheer leader and editor-in-chief of the campus yearbook, while joining several fraternities, as well as secret societies such as the Hot Foot Society, O. W. L. and T. I. L. K. A. He appears to have joined the mysterious Seven, as one of the early members, and was the founding member of the Aero Club branch on campus.¹ Before finishing his degree, McConnell returned to Carthage some time during the spring of his third year to work as a land agent for the local railroad.