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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02317 2841
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/menofmarkinsouth02hemp_0
Men of Mark in South Carolina
Ideals of American Life
A Collection of Biographies of Leading Men of the State
J. C. HEMPHILL Editor of "The News and Courier" Editor-in-Chief
VOLUME II
Illustrated with Many Full Page Photo-Steel Engraved Portraits
MEN OF MARK PUBLISHING COMPANY Washington, D. C.
1908
Copyright, 1908 by Men of Mark Publishing Company
1390207
Meno! Mark Publishing Co Washington,DC.
James Allau
JAMES ALLAN
A LLAN, JAMES, of Charleston, South Carolina, business man, bank director, and for five years school commis- sioner of Charleston, is a native of Scotland who by his long identification with the interests of Charleston, South Caro- lina, has come to be a type of that large body of Scotch-American citizens whose sound Biblical principles, honesty and industry, have had a marked influence upon the history and the develop- ment of the state of South Carolina in all its political, business and social interests.
He was born at Caithness, Scotland, October 6, 1832. His father, Alexander Allan, was a cabinet maker who prided himself upon the thoroughness of his work and the honesty of all his transactions. He came to the United States in 1837, when his son, James, was but five years old.
Passing his boyhood after that time in the city schools of Charleston, James Allan had as his teachers Mr. Blum and Dr. Faber, who are gratefully remembered by many men who were Charleston school boys sixty years ago. His fondness for fine mechanical work of all kinds inclined him to watchmaking, especially for the delight he took in exact machinery and the use of instruments of precision. He studied watchmaking under a German, Francis Stein, for four years from the time he was seventeen; and gradually he made his way to the management of an important business in jewelry and watchmaking.
During the War between the States he served as a lieutenant of volunteers at Charleston.
He feels that he owes the steadying influences of his life in no small degree to the example and the teaching of faithful parents who had strong religious convictions. Contact with other business men also contributed much, he feels, to confirming his integrity of life and his desire to be of use to others in the community in which he lives. While he is a most loyal American, and a South Carolinian in all things, he is proud of his Scotch ancestry. He served for five years as president of the St. Andrew society of Charleston. He is also a master Mason, and a Knight Templar, and was master of Orange lodge for six years.
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JAMES ALLAN
Early a member of the Presbyterian church, he has been for many years an elder in that denomination. He is a Democrat, and has never varied in his allegiance to the platform and candidates of the party. He has found his chief amusement and recreation in travel.
He was school commissioner in Charleston for five years, and was chairman of the commission for repairs and improvements of the school buildings after the great earthquake in 1886. He is also director of the Exchange Bank and Trust company.
On August 13, 1856, he married Miss Amy Sarah Hobcraft. Of their eleven children, eight are living in 1907.
In the advice which he gives to young Americans, Mr. Allan shows himself to be one of that great body of American citizens who hold to the old standards which have given worth and dignity to generations of family life in Scotland and in the United States: "First, take the Bible as your guide; and practice sobriety, industry and honesty, so that men may trust your word as they would your bond."
Mr. Allan's address is Charleston, South Carolina.
HARTWELL MOORE AYER
A YER, HARTWELL MOORE, was born at Beauford's Bridge, Barnwell county, South Carolina, January 7, 1868. His father, Lewis Malone Ayer, was a man of versatile talent. At one time actively engaged in farming, he attained prominence in professional and public life. He taught, preached, and practiced law, and just at the breaking out of the War between the States he was elected to the Confederate con- gress, and served as a representative throughout the four years of storm and stress that followed. After the war he conducted a seminary in Anderson, and also served as a member of the South Carolina legislature. His marked characteristics were, in the words of his son, "intellectuality and unswerving devotion to duty, together with public spirit, and old-fashioned high tone."
The Ayer family settled in South Carolina in colonial times. Thomas Ayer, of Scotch-Irish descent, had come to Marlboro before 1776, and when the war for independence broke out he became a leader of the patriots in the struggle. Another member of the family was Lewis Malone Ayer, Senior, who acted as courier for General Francis Marion. His son, Lewis Malone Ayer, Junior, many years afterward was one of the leaders in the Kansas-Nebraska troubles in 1854.
Hartwell Ayer's early life was passed, for the most part, in Anderson, South Carolina. He owes much to the training of an excellent mother, who not only managed her household efficiently, but gave her children the elements of a sound education. From his early youth, Mr. Ayer has been fond of reading. As a boy he devoted much time to history and romance. After some years of study in W. J. Ligon's school in Anderson, he entered South Carolina college, from which he was graduated in 1887. After his graduation, Mr. Ayer taught for a time in his father's semi- nary at Anderson and in the Bamberg county schools. Meanwhile he was studying law, and was beginning to make his way in journalism. Starting as reporter for the "Charleston World," he became successively city editor of that journal, telegraph editor of the "Columbus (Georgia) Enquirer-Sun," and of the "Savannah
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HARTWELL MOORE AYER
Morning News," editor and proprietor of the "Charleston Post," and finally editor and proprietor of the "Florence Daily Times."
Mr. Ayer was admitted by the supreme court to the practice of law in 1897. In 1904 he was appointed a member of the state board of education, and served in the state legislature. He has served in the state militia for four years, and is a member of the Masonic order and of the Knights of Pythias, having held the offices of chancellor commander and district deputy grand chancellor in the latter organization. He is a Democrat. He is connected with the Episcopal church. Mr. Ayer finds rest and relaxation from his journalistic duties in such out-of-door sports as swimming, walking and hunting, together with the healthful open-air life and discipline of the state militia encampments.
On June 25, 1890, he married Cornelia W. Smith. They have had six children, four of whom are now (1907) living.
The following, in Mr. Ayer's judgment, are among the guiding principles for the attainment of true success in life: "High ideals; strict attention to details; honesty and courage, coupled with the desire and the willingness to learn from anybody or from any source anything that will contribute to thorough knowledge of the particular subject in question."
His address is Florence, South Carolina.
Vigh at 1real Publishing Washington, D.C
July your V. S. Dacor
THOMAS WRIGHT BACOT
B ACOT, THOMAS WRIGHT, is a native of Charleston, as his ancestors were for several generations. His father, Robert Dewar Bacot, was a cotton merchant and rice planter, a man of integrity, strength of character and modesty. The earliest member of the family to come to this country was Pierre Bacot, who was born in Tours, France, and emigrated to Carolina in the latter part of the seventeenth century. At about the same time, soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Mr. Bacot's maternal ancestor, Daniel Huger, emigrated from France and settled in Carolina, where his descendants from that day to this have been well-known citizens and men of prominence in public affairs, especially in the city of Charleston.
Thomas W. Bacot was born April 14, 1849. His youth was passed for the most part in Charleston, though with intervals of residence in the country. Endowed with good health, he entered with zest into the various outdoor sports afield and on the water; and through most of his life he has continued to take delight in such manly exercises as riding, hunting and shooting. Among his youthful studies, languages and mathematics appealed to him particularly, but the book that influenced him most of all, he says, was the Bible.
After some years of study in the private and public schools of Charleston, and in the country, Mr. Bacot entered the College of Charleston, from which he was graduated in 1870, with the degree of B. A., taking the second honor in his class. After spending some time in the study of law in the office of McCrady & Son, in Charleston, in 1871 he was admitted to the bar. He began practice January 1, 1872. He soon won for himself a high position in his profession, and in 1899 he was admitted to prac- tice before the United States supreme court. Among the many important duties which Mr. Bacot has discharged in the course of his practice have been those of counsel for the Coosaw com- pany, and in the litigation over the South Carolina railroad and the South Carolina railway. He is solicitor of St. Philip's parish, Charleston.
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THOMAS WRIGHT BACOT
Mr. Bacot, in addition to the regular duties incident to his professional practice, has taken a prominent part in the affairs of his state. From 1892 to 1902 he served as member of the South Carolina house of representatives, during the last four years of that time holding the very responsible position of chairman of the judiciary committee. He has also served as delegate to the political conventions of his county and state. He is now the first assistant United States attorney for the two districts of South Carolina, at Charleston.
Educational and religious interests claim a large part of his attention. He has served as a trustee of South Carolina college. He was a lay-delegate from the diocese of South Carolina in the general convention of the Protestant Episcopal church, which met in Boston, Massachusetts, in October, 1904. He is a vestry- man of St. Philip's church, Charleston, and has represented his parish in the convention of the diocese of South Carolina.
Mr. Bacot is president of St. George's society of Charleston, and one of the vice-presidents of the Huguenot society. He is a member of the Commercial club of Charleston, and of the South Carolina Historical society, and a member of the committee on charity of the South Carolina society.
A man of strong religious convictions, Mr. Bacot has ever striven to regulate his life by the principles laid down in the Bible. He is profoundly convinced that the welfare of society depends upon the maintenance and defence of the sanctity of the home, and is a pronounced enemy, not only of divorce, but of the remarriage of divorced persons. He does not advocate the abolition of the liquor traffic, but prefers that it be so regulated as to minimize the "profit-feature" in the sale of intoxicating beverages. Any advice which he might give to the youth of the country would be summed up in the Christian rule of love to God and to man, together with temperance, or self-mastery, in all things.
On April 18, 1877, Mr. Bacot married Miss Louisa de Ber- niere McCrady. They have had seven children, of whom all but one are now (1907) living.
His address is Charleston, South Carolina.
WILLIAM WATTS BALL
B ALL, WILLIAM WATTS, since 1904 assistant editor of the Charleston "News and Courier," and for the last seventeen years connected with editorial and newspaper work in the South, was born in Laurens county, South Carolina, on the 9th of December, 1868. His father, Beaufort Watts Ball, was a lawyer, who incidentally edited a country newspaper and conducted a farm. He was a member of the state legislature, and was a state prosecuting attorney. He married his third cousin, Miss Eliza Watts. During the War between the States he was a private in Hampton's legion, and later he was made captain and assistant adjutant-general of General Gary's brigade in the Confederate States army.
The ancestors of the family were chiefly English, who had settled in Virginia before the War of the Revolution. His great great-grandfather, William Ball, removed from Virginia to South Carolina in the eighteenth century, as did also his great great- grandfather Watts, both on his father's and his mother's side. As a rule, the members of his family have been well-to-do farmers.
In his boyhood he had good health, and he was blessed with a father who early put into his hands the best books and taught him to love good literature. He attended the village schools of Laurens, South Carolina, and later a preparatory school at Wal- halla, South Carolina. He was graduated from South Carolina college (now the University of South Carolina) in 1887; and after his graduation, in 1888 and 1889 he pursued post-graduate courses in English and ethics for a year. He was admitted to practice law by the supreme court of South Carolina, in May, 1890, after studying in his father's office. In the summer of 1890 he took a summer course in law at the University of Virginia. While studying at Columbia he taught in the public schools of that city.
Admitted to the bar in May, 1890, he became soon afterward the proprietor of the "Laurens Advertiser," a weekly paper. He bought the paper with the intention of practicing law and at the same time doing editorial work. But after eighteen months of
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WILLIAM WATTS BALL
practice, with fair success, he definitely chose the profession of newspaper work as his life work, following in this choice his own personal preference, and acting against the advice of his family and friends. His "only ambition has been to learn thoroughly newspaper making." The taste for this work showed itself early in his college course, and determined his vocation. In 1894 he was editor of the Columbia "Journal"; from 1895 to 1897 he was editor of the Charleston "Evening Post"; from 1897 to 1898 he edited the "Greenville Daily News," at Greenville, South Caro- lina; for some months in 1898 he was a reporter for the "Phila- delphia Press"; from 1900 to 1902 he was city editor of the Jacksonville, Florida, "Times-Union"; in 1904 he was news editor of the Columbia "State"; and since September, 1904, he has been assistant editor of the Charleston "News and Courier," engaged chiefly in editorial writing. He has also acted as corre- spondent for various newspapers throughout the country.
On the 21st of April, 1897, Mr. Ball married Miss Fay Witte, daughter of Charles Otto Witte, of Charleston, South Carolina. They have had five children, four of whom are living in 1907.
He is identified with the Protestant Episcopal church. In politics an independent Democrat, he voted for Palmer and Buckner in 1896, having attended the Indianapolis convention, which nominated them, and served as one of the members of the committee to draft a platform for that convention.
Mr. Ball was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity at college. He is a Mason. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias.
He is president of the Laurens Publishing company, and still contributes the editorials to the publications of that company.
Mr. Ball writes of himself: "I have been simply a fairly hard-working newspaper man." He was graduated from college when but a few months over eighteen years of age-the youngest member of his class. He began newspaper work in 1890, only two months before Governor Tillman was elected. State politics were at white heat. He was opposed to "Tillmanism"; his father was a political supporter of Wade Hampton, and Mr. Ball feels that an "aggressive and constant opposition to the Tillman school of politics has been the feature of his work."
Mr. Ball has always advocated in all his newspaper work the public-spirited effort to develop the industries of his state. He is now ad a director in two otton mill corporations.
JOHN A. BARKSDALE
B ARKSDALE, JOHN A., physician and banker, of Laurens, South Carolina, was born within two miles of the town where he still (1907) resides, October 1, 1826. His father, Allen Barksdale, at one time sheriff of Laurens county, twice elected to the state legislature, was a man of striking integrity and strong religious character, prominent in every effort to influ- ence his community for good. His mother was Nancy Downs Barksdale. Among his ancestors distinguished for patriotism and public service, he numbers Abram Alexander (his great-grand- father), who was president of the Mecklenburg convention, held at Charlotte, North Carolina, in May, 1775, which adopted the first famous declaration of independence, known as the "Meck- lenburg resolutions."
He refers with especial tenderness to the influence upon his life of his mother, and he feels that the devotion to parents and the love of family, which were uniformly felt and inculcated in his home-life, early formed standards of life for which he has always been grateful. While he was not occupied in any regular tasks of manual labor, he often worked upon the farm and in the garden, Saturdays, when he was not at school. He was fitted for college at the classical school at Laurens, South Carolina, and was a student at Transylvania university, in Kentucky, in 1845. His course in medicine he took at the medical college in Charles- ton, South Carolina, in 1846 and 1847, in which latter year he was graduated from that institution. In March, 1847, following his own early choice of a profession, he took up the practice of medicine in his native town, and he continued that practice until 1886. For the last twenty years he has given his time and attention to his duties as president of the National Bank of Laurens, South Carolina.
On October 7, 1852, he was married at Newberry, to Martha Amelia Nance; and of their seven children, five are living in 1907.
Doctor Barksdale served for two terms in the legislature of South Carolina. He was vice-president of the Greenville and Laurens railroad when it was organized. He is a Mason.
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JOHN A. BARKSDALE
A member of the Baptist church, he has all his life been deeply interested in the development of the Sunday school work of his church and his state. The health, of which he has had so good a measure for four score years, he attributes in part to his fondness for exercise on horseback, his favorite form of relaxation.
In his kindly devotion for forty years to the health and the physical welfare of the community in which he resides; in his later influence in developing the business interests of the com- munity through the administration of the affairs of the bank of which he has been president for the last twenty years; and in his lifelong interest in bringing the best of influence to bear upon the children of the state through Sunday schools and Christian training at home, that they may be fitted for good citizenship,- Doctor Barksdale has shown himself a man of mark, and a true son of South Carolina.
His address is Laurens, South Carolina.
Men of Mark Publishing Company Washington, D. C.
yours Truly GroftBals
GEORGE HOLLAND BATES
B ATES, GEORGE HOLLAND, lawyer, state senator, was born at Upper Three Runs, in Barnwell (now Aiken) county, South Carolina, July 27, 1853. His father, Wil- liam T. Bates, was a farmer and a country magistrate, loyal to his own conceptions of duty and devoted to the interests of the Baptist church, in which he was a deacon. He died at Goldsboro, North Carolina, May 13, 1865, a soldier in the Confederate army. The earliest known ancestor in America was Michael Bates, who came from Germany and before the Revolution settled in what is now the lower part of Newberry county.
His mother died when George Holland Bates was but eight years old. As the oldest of the five children, he remained on the old homestead with his father, the younger children going to the home of their grandmother. As a boy on his father's farm, he had daily tasks to do in hoeing cotton, corn, etc., and he says: "I always went to work as early as possible, to gain time for reading." He attended a number of common schools in the country a few months at a time, and later had two years at Richland academy. But upon the death of his father, in 1865. he also went to reside with his grandmother; and when his only surviving uncle was married, in 1872, he was left, at eighteen years of age, the oldest male member of a family of ten, charged with the responsibility of managing the farm, and, by its man- agement, of supporting the family. The disastrous effects of the War between the States made it difficult to procure the necessaries of life, and the money for a college course he could not command.
He worked on a farm until he was thirty-one years old, with the exception of five months in 1882, when he taught school, and a short time in 1883, when he kept a country store, which allowed him more time for reading and preparing himself for admission to the bar. While he was working on the farm, and before his marriage, he had begun to read law under the direction of Major John W. Holmes, afterward editor of the "Barnwell People." He says that he began reading law against the protest of all his relatives; and after his marriage he determined to abandon his legal studies, but his wife prevailed upon him to continue them,
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and to the wishes and the steady encouragement of his wife he feels that he owes his professional career. He was married at Aiken, South Carolina, on February 28, 1878, to Miss Elizabeth O. Burckhalter. He feels that he owes his initial impulse to begin the study of law to his early school teacher, Major Holmes; while the success he has attained he feels is in large measure due to his coming into relations with the Honorable Isaac M. Hutson and Judge John J. Maher. That other lawyers may be reminded afresh of opportunities to help the young, Mr. Bates recalls gratefully the fact that "when I opened my law office I had but three books in my library; these two gentlemen opened to me their law libraries, and rendered me all the help they could." In 1886, Mr. Isaac M. Hutson, having recognized the ability of Mr. Bates, invited him into a partnership; they practiced law together under the firm name of Hutson & Bates until the death of Mr. Hutson. In 1889, Mr. Bates formed a partnership with Mr. Charles Carroll Simms.
He has allowed himself to be a candidate for office but twice. He was elected a member of the State Constitutional convention in 1895, and took an active and helpful part in the work of that convention. In 1886 he was elected one of the trustees of the Barnwell graded schools; in November, 1890, he was made chair- man of the board, and in that position he was continued, not- withstanding repeated requests to be excused from further duty, until he resigned in January, 1905, to enter upon his duties in the state senate. He was also a member of the county board of education from December, 1893, until he resigned in 1895.
In his boyhood he became a member of the Methodist church. He was a delegate to the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which met at Dallas, Texas, in May, 1902, and also to its next meeting, held at Birmingham, Alabama, in May, 1906. In 1901 he was made a member of the board of trustees of the South Carolina college, at Columbia. He is president of the Barnwell County Building and Loan association. Among social fraternities, he is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias, and a Woodman of the World.
Senator Bates has always had the confidence and the cordial esteem of the communities in which he has lived. His devotion to his profession has left him little time for sport or amusement, but he finds helpful exercise in working in his garden and his
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GEORGE HOLLAND BATES
fruit orchard. He has always been a member of the Democratic party, and he holds that it is the duty of every citizen to be thoughtful for the welfare of his own community and of his state, and to hold himself ready to bear the burdens and discharge the duties of good citizenship, even at material cost to his own business and his own purely selfish interests. The patriotic spirit of devotion to his state which carried his father and four of his uncles into the War between the States has always been strong in his life, and leads him to public service for the commonwealth and the country.
His address is Barnwell, South Carolina.
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WILLIAM TERTIUS CAPERS BATES
B ATES, WILLIAM TERTIUS CAPERS, physician, planter, and state treasurer of South Carolina for three terms, was born at Orangeburg, South Carolina, July 16, 1848. His father, Dr. Rezin W. Bates, a physician and planter, had shown his public spirit by service in the legislature of the state and as chairman of the committee on roads, bridges and ferries. His father's ancestors were originally from England; his mother's (Elizabeth Evans) from Wales.
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