USA > South Carolina > Biographical sketches of the bench and bar of South Carolina, vol. II > Part 37
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He removed from his pleasant home, in the village of Edge- field, to his Roseland Plantation, in the spring of 1849, leav- ing his eldest son, Preston S. Brooks, and his family, in pos- session of his village residence.
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His son, Whitfield Butler Brooks, was one of the volunteers in the Palmetto Regiment, in the company commanded by his brother, Preston S. Brooks. He received a mortal wound in the battle of Cherubusco, on the 20th August, 1847, and died in the City of Mexico, on the 2d October following, in the twenty-second year of his age. "This," Mrs. Brooks says, " was the first great sorrow of our lives, and from it his poor father never recovered. His health, which was not good at the time, continued to decline, until he sunk to his peaceful grave, on the 28th December, 1851, in the sixty- second year of his life." He left surving him his accom- plished lady, Mrs. Mary P. Brooks, and four children, Col. Preston S. Brooks, James C. Brooks, Ellen, the wife Gen. R. G. M. Dunovant, and John Hampden Brooks, Esq.
Since his death, his eldest son, Col. Preston S. Brooks, a Member of Congress, died suddenly in the City of Washing- ton. His death was as much mourned in the State of his birth, as any other which perhaps ever occurred.
Mr. Brooks, in college and in after-life, exhibited a high order of talent. As a lawyer, he was well informed, and his practice was accurate. He possessed a ready, pliant, and easy elocution.
As a Commissioner in Equity, he was remarkable for his industry, order, and accuracy. The business done in his Court, during his Commissionership, was immense. He never was complained of, as being in default, in a single particular. His reports presented the points involved in the accounts with great clearness and precision ; in every respect, a model Com- missioner.
Mr. Brooks was a high-minded, chivalric, and generous gentleman. If he had a fault, it was that he was too impul- sive ; but his impulses were generally right. If sometimes he may have acted rashly, he never, to my knowledge, injured a human being. As his classmate and friend for forty years, I had the opportunity of knowing him intimately ; and my belief is, that he was as pure and sincere a man as I ever knew.
In all the relations of husband and father, he was kindness
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itself. As a son, his aged parent always leant upon his arm with perfect confidence ; as a brother, he was to his sisters in all their trials, a brother indeed; as a friend, he was never false to his pretensions ; as a citizen, he was always ready to discharge his duty.
In fine, Whitfield Brooks lived a useful life, and died with the love and respect of all who knew him. " He now rests from his labors, and his works do follow him."
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MEMBERS OF THE BAR.
GEORGE BUTLER.
Major George Butler, the second son of Major-General Wil- liam Butler and his wife, Behethelon Foote, was born at their residence, Big Creek, Edgefield District, on the 24th day of September, 1786.
His academic education was, mainly, received at the Mount Bethel Academy, in Newberry. He graduated at the South Carolina College-with a respectable distinction-third in the Class of 1809, in which James Louis Petigru had the first distinction, and Alexander Bowie the second. He commenced the study of the law in Columbia, but before he had com- pleted his term of three years, then required, the war of 1812 was declared. He solicited and obtained a Captain's Com- mission, recruited, and marched his company to Fort Moul- trie, where he remained on garrison duty, till the war closed. In the mean time, he had been promoted to the rank of Major.
At the cessation of hostilities, he again directed his atten- tion to the Bar. He studied for a short time, in 1815, under Anderson Crenshaw, Esq., at Newberry, and was admitted to the Bar in November, of that year, and immediately com- menced the practice of the law at Edgefield, where he resided, and at Newberry and Lexington, in which he was very suc- cessful. But life was to be to him, a short period of probation. He died the 19th day of September, 1821.
Major George Butler was a young man of fine principles and talents. If he had been spared to live long, he would have been a distinguished lawyer and an eminent man. His death carried unutterable sorrow into the bosom of his family. His father was crushed by this sad event, and soon followed his favorite son to the grave.
The wife and mother, however, bore with uncomplaining fortitude, this, heaviest blow to her woman's heart. She lived on to a great age, and saw her numerous family go down to the grave with one exception, Judge Butler, having survived her a short time.
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BENJAMIN F. PEPOON.
This gentleman was born 2d January, 1794, and graduated in the Class of 1812, at the South Carolina College, with Henry L. Pinckney, Judge O'Neall, W. C. Preston and Ebenezer Thayer. He was regarded as a good scholar, but received no distinction. His mind was rather speculative and meta- physical than solid or showy. He was admitted to the Bar 3d January, 1815, and was the partner of Judge Huger, and when he was placed upon the Bench, he gave him much lucrative business, and authorized him to sell for him the property on Charleston Neck, in Morris street, which reverted to him by the extinction of a society of Baptists, to whom his ancestors had conveyed it.
He was, subsequently, the partner of the late Recorder, G. B. Eckhard, and of Edward S. Courtenay. He was a well- read and acute lawyer; his arguments in Hilson vs. Blair- 2 Bail, 168, and in Sebring vs. Keith, Id., 192-although not preserved, I well remember ; and in the last case, in delivering the opinion, I took occasion to compliment him and Mr. Rice on their knowledge of pleading, which their arguments had shown, by saying, "the learned counsel concerned in this case, have, however, shown themselves to be too well versed in its rules and principles, not to appreciate its value, and wield it with advantage."
Mr. Pepoon certainly was not one having the highest order of intellect, yet he was above mediocrity. This is true, as evidenced when in college, and in all his after-life.
He took an active part in city affairs when he was a young man, and was chiefly instrumental in extending Broad and Rutledge streets, so as to make them meet. And so deep were the feelings of interest in the improvement of his native city, and so proud of his exertions in having mainly effected it, that he would have been gratified had his name been attached to the new street. He has often said, but for rivalry this ex- tension would have been called Pepoon street.
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In the latter years of his life, at one time, he was the Clerk of Sheriff Yates, and at another, the Surrogate, or Clerk of Ordinary Lehre. These offices he filled with great fidelity and exactness. The office hours, from 9 A. M. to 2 P. M., and from 3 P. M. to sundown, he kept with great precision. He closed at the hour, and if one came to transact business after the expiration of the hours of business, he had to come again. While acting as the deputy of the Sheriff, he threw out from under the stair-case, in the lobby of the Court House, to make room for coal, an immense mass of old papers, appertaining to the administration of criminal justice in Charleston, orders of discharge under writs of habeas corpus, &c., &c. They were so scattered by the autumnal gale over the streets, that the City Guard collected and burned them. A leading member of the Bar condemned the act, and remarked, that "Pepoon, though a conservative, is too destructive a creature to have charge of ancient records." Pepoon, however, maintained he had done good service in destroying disagreeable remin- iscences of the past.
This, unintentional destruction, I very much regret, al- though the place where the papers were deposited, was not a very proper one. For, if they had remained, I am persuaded they would have furnished much judicial information as to the early members of the Charleston Bar, in their administra- tion of criminal justice, presentments of Grand Juries, and or- ders of Court, in times of the Revolution. But regrets are use- less ; they have perished, and sooner or later must perish the best works of life.
Mr. Pepoon, in the unfortunate political divisions begin- ning in 1830, was an uncompromising Union man; and to the closing hours of his life, he remained unchanged. In 1850, when secession began to be the prevailing element of a new agitation of the political atmosphere, and when, as a friend said to me, it was as universal as " break-bone fever," a friend once said to him, " the true course was a Southern confederacy, a cheerful and spontaneous action of the South- ern States, and not the hazardous attempt of single State ac- tion, to force the other Southern States into line, which might
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prove abortive and destructive of the interests of the South ; and this course only to be resorted to, after solemn appeal to the sister States of the North, to desist from hostile action." He replied, " that is nonsense, and worse than nonsense ; we have important chartered rights secured under the Constitu- tion, a glorious inheritance from our illustrious ancestors. I am not for basely surrendering this noble bequest of a brave ancestry. I am for remaining in the Union, and compelling the Abolitionists, forgetful of the precepts of their ancestors into an observance of our noble Constitution."
Some of his pleasantries ought to be preserved in connec- tion with his fidelity to the Union. He and the late Major Charles Parker were intimate friends, but of different politics. " Ah," said Parker to him, "if they had let me alone, I would have thrown shells, and cracked the skulls of the army; for I knew the exact distance between Charleston and Castle Pinck- ney." "Well," replied Pepoon, " Major, they would not then be worse off than you, Nullifiers." "How ?" said the Major. "Why," said Pepoon, "all your skulls have been cracked since before '32."
At another time, meeting another Nullifier who was con- tinually talking about State Sovereignty, Mr. Pepoon asked him where this boasted Sovereignty resided. He replied, “ in the people of the State to be sure;" but, said Pepoon, " the people are divided into two parties-which side has it ?" "The majority, to be sure," said his friend. "But, suppose the parties to be equally divided, where is it then ?" " Sir," said the Nullifier, " I will not admit so foolish a supposition."
Pepoon was "indomitable and unyielding," when he thought he was right; yet he was very far from being in- discreet. After he had lost his sight, it occurred to him, seeing the public mind was calm, to set the people to thinking as to their peculiar form of State Government. He procured the services of a friend to write out his views. In this way, though laboring under great physical infirmities, his great interest in his native State caused him to dictate several num- bers, which were signed "Warwick," in which he thought he demonstrated that one-fifth of the white population of the
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State, elected one-half of the Senators. These numbers were published in the Greenville Mountaineer. He urged in them equality of taxation and representation. It was his opinion, a check against the over-balanced majority of the Democracy was to be found in the veto power of the Executive.
Mr. Pepoon was, unfortunately, sceptical in his religious views; yet he sought to unsettle no one's faith, or to give a wrong direction to the young or the weak. He said " he never would converse about religion to a child, or to a female, as he was sceptical." He regularly had the Bible near to him. He considered it, as he often said, the most ancient book now extant; that it was the collected wisdom of ages gone by, and more was to be learned from it than all other books.
Though he was a bachelor, yet he had a high appreciation of woman. This was shown when making his will ; he gave legacies to some female friends " out of gratitude. He made these legacies, because, as he said, in his early life, he made money and spent it freely, and would now be poor but for the kindly advice given by the mother and grandmother of these legatees."
He gave $500 to the South Carolina Society, (the largest charitable society in the city.) I have heard it remarked to a friend " he gave this legacy, as the Society had given that amount to him as a fee, and he thought the best thing he could do was to give it back." He gave $1,000 to the Roper Hospital, saying he considered it the noblest institu- tion in the city ; that Colonel Roper was a noble benefactor in establishing an hospital without regard to religion or color.
The rest of his property he gave to his nieces in Boston, with the exception of $500, which he gave to each of his three nephews. This interesting account of his will shows his benevolent mind. Mr. Pepoon's gift to the Roper Hospital is one which must always redound to his honor. The Roper Hospital, in the City of Charleston, was founded, and is gov- erned by the Medical Society, in consequence of the very liberal devise of Colonel Thomas Roper of his whole real estates upon the death of his son without issue, to the Medical
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Society, " to erect, maintain, and regulate an hospital of such dimensions, as they, in their better judgment, may direct, for the permanent reception, or occasional relief, of all such sick, maimed, and diseased paupers as need surgical or medical aid, and whom, without regard to complexion, religion, or nationality, I would they should admit therein. The site of the said hospital, or infirmary, to be in or near Charleston."
This institution, like the Angel of Mercy, has ministered, in the darkest hours of pestilence, to the poor and the stranger, to the white and also to the black, to the Protestant and the Catholic, and, indeed, to all of every religion, and to those of no religion. Such an institution commended itself to Pepoon's large and liberal heart, and his bequest says to all, who are situated like him, " Go thou and do likewise."
Mr. Pepoon, from his youth, had been compelled to wear glasses on account of near-sightedness. As age began to grow upon him, " the windows were darkened," until, in total blind- ness, in his sixty-first year, he approached his end. He died on the 21st of October, 1854.
Thus life, without the endearments of wife or children, closed upon a clear-headed, well-educated man, with some eccentricities of manner, but of a genial, confiding nature, that will be long remembered by his friends.
31
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MEMBERS OF THE BAR.
ZACHARIAH P. HERNDON.
This gentleman was the son of Colonel Benjamin Herndon, of Duncan's Creek, Newberry District. In the Revolution, Colonel Benjamin Herndon resided in Wilkes County, North Carolina. He was Captain of a company of sixty men in the regiment commanded by Colonel Cleveland, in the battle of King's Mountain, and soon after emigrated to Newberry. Colonel Zachariah P. Herndon, his youngest son by his first wife, was born 19th April, 1795. His academic education was received at Mt. Bethel, Newberry. He entered the South Carolina College, in the Junior Class, at Commencement, 1811. He remained only until vacation, July, 1812; after spending some time at home, he went to Pinckney, Union District, and studied law with Colonel Joseph Gist. He was admitted to the Bar of the Court of Law, 25th April, 1816, and settled at Union, as the partner of Colonel Gist. He was elected Com- missioner in Equity, 15th December, 1818, and continued in that office until 1822. He was admitted to practice in Equity 6th April of this year, and to the practice of the United States Court in 1824. He was appointed by Governor Manning one of his aids, and accompanied him in the review of the regi- ments in Spartanburg and Union, in September, 1825. He entered political life about 1830, and connected himself withı the Nullification party, which had largely the ascendency in Union District. He was chosen a delegate, in 1831, to the Anti-Tariff Convention, at Philadelphia; whether he served or not I don't know. In 1832, he was elected a Mem- ber of the House of Representatives in the General Assembly of this State. On the 8th January, 1834, he was elected Col- onel of the Thirty-fourth Regiment, Ninth Brigade, Fifth Division of South Carolina Militia. He had the singular good fortune, on the 8th March, 1842, in the forty-fifth year of his age, to marry an accomplished young lady of the village where he lived, Miss Eliza L. Pratt. He was perhaps
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more than once or twice elected to the House of Representa- tives, and was a diligent and faithful Member in the discharge of his duties.
For many years, Colonel Herndon had a large, lucrative, and laborious practice at Union and the adjoining districts, by which, and prudent management, he amassed a large fortune. For several years, his health had been failing. In March, 1859, he removed to Columbia. It then continued to decline, until there was little prospect of his recovery. He, however, in the hope of amendment, visited Glenn's Springs, Spartanburg District, where he died, 12th July, 1859, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, leaving his widow and several children surviving him.
Colonel Herndon was a good lawyer, understanding and managing his cases well. Perseverance in the conduct of his cases was a remarkable trait in his character. He exhausted every remedy before he surrendered. His mind was not quick; but he had great good sense, and, when undisturbed by passion, uniformly applied it. His legal arguments were well prepared. He sifted every case to the bottom; and never failed to be understood. The best argument which I ever heard him make was at York, in April, 1858, in the case of The State vs. Bell. He was for the State; and, unquestion- ably, his argument put every possible view of the case in array against the prisoner. It was a powerful argument, worthy of his best days.
Colonel Herndon was rather a rough and impulsive man in a Court House; but in private and domestic life, he was a kind, hospitable, polite gentleman. As a husband and father, he was devoted; as a master, he was kind and indulgent to his slaves. He was a follower of temperance, both in theory and practice. On the whole, there were few men in his sec- tion who had more virtues and fewer faults. The proceed- ings of the Union Bar, on the occasion of his death, are appended :
"According to adjournment, the members of the Bar at this place met on Tuesday, 26th July, at ten o'clock, A. M.
Dr. Goudelock, Esq., chairman, resumed his seat, and J. B. Steedman acted as secretary.
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The chairman, after a few remarks, stated that the object of the meeting was to receive the report of the committee ap- pointed at the last meeting, to prepare a preamble and resolu- tions, relative to the death of Colonel Z. P. Herndon.
B. F. Arthur, Esq., rose, and said :
Mr. Chairman,-Having been appointed chairman of this committee, in the absence of those better qualified than my- self, I feel some embarrassment. There are those here, who have been associated with him daily, for many years-those who have been his colleagues and adversaries in many a forensic encounter. I have known him for nearly ten years, during most of which period we were as intimate as the great difference in our ages would warrant, and I may, therefore, be excused for a few remarks.
Colonel Z. P. Herndon was the son of Colonel Benjamin Herndon, who resided in Wilkes County, North Carolina, at the time of the Revolutionary war; and who commanded a company of sixty men, in Cleveland's Regiment, at the battle of King's Mountain, and soon after emigrated to Newberry District, South Carolina, where Colonel Z. P. Herndon was born, on the nineteenth day of April, 1795. He was, there- fore, in his sixty-fifth year, at the time of his death. He was admitted to the Bar in 1810, and located at this place, where he continued to reside until his removal to Columbia, in March last. He entered political life in 1830, and connected himself with the Nullification party. He was chosen a dele- gate to the Anti-Tariff Convention, which met at Philadelphia, and in 1832 was elected a Member of the House of Repre- sentatives. From the commencement of his political career, down to the close of his life, he was a consistent member of the States-Rights party. He was several times elected a Mem- ber of the Legislature, where he displayed fine powers of debate, and great talent for legislation.
However distinguished his political career, it was as a lawyer we knew him best; as a lawyer we most appreciated him, and as a lawyer I shall speak of him. For many years past, he has been at the very head of this Bar, and enjoyed a more extensive reputation than any lawyer in the upper country.
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He did not have, perhaps, great quickness of apprehension, or vivacity of intellect; but he had a strong mind, capable of great effort, great powers of observation, and a remarkable memory for legal principles. In preparing his cases, he ac- quired slowly but surely. He had great power of expression, and a remarkable command of simple yet forcible language. Few excelled him in clearness and vigor of style; none in his powers of argumentation. He was one of those rare exam- ples of the highest intellectual qualities, united with sound, practical, sturdy common sense. He never studied the graccs of oratory, or that petty mannerism, which is becoming so common, and which is so offensive to good taste. There was nothing in his nature that could court favor or conciliate opinion; but his character was resolute, self-reliant and inde- pendent. He relied rather upon the strength of his case, than the factitious aid derived from empty rhetoric or fine address. His speeches were generally simple, unaffected, and without pretension or anything like an effort at display. He always showed a nice appreciation of the difficulties of his case, and great facility in surmounting them. Instead of attempting to conceal weak points, by a brilliant display of empty declama- tion, he met them and mastered them with a force of logic rarely surpassed. His powers of discrimination and analysis were very fine; and the most complicated question of law and fact took shape, and form, and life, under his touch.
As chairman of the committee, I beg leave to present the following preamble and resolutions:
The melancholy duty has been assigned us, of paying a tribute of respect to the memory of one, who, for a long period, has occupied a prominent position at this Bar, and who has just passed away from our midst.
Profound as is the regret inspired in this community by the intelligence of the death of Colonel Herndon, it cannot but affect with a deeper sense of loss, the members of that profes- sion with which he was so long and so honorably connected. For a great many years, he has dignified and enriched the profession with the exertions of his cultivated and vigorous intellect. As an advocate, he has long enjoyed the respect
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and confidence of his fellow-citizens, and how well he has justified their high opinion, we, who have labored at his side, will bear ample and willing testimony. In all that was en- trusted to his care, he was earnest, zealous and faithful, and devoted himself with indefatigable assiduity to the wearisome duties of his profession. Throughout life, an earnest, consis- tent and uncompromising States-Rights Republican, he never swerved from the line of duty; but, under the most trying circumstances, ardently supported the principles of his youth and manhood.
Be it, therefore,
Resolved, That, in the death of Colonel Z. P. Herndon, the State has lost a distinguished citizen, and the legal profession one of their most eminent and useful members.
Resolved, That we sympathize with his family in their great affliction, and that the Secretary of this meeting be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to them.
Resolved, That the chairman of this meeting present these resolutions to the presiding Judge, at the next Court, with the request, that the same be entered ou the minutes.
Resolved, That these proceedings be published in the Union- ville Times.
The preamble and resolutions were seconded briefly by A. W. Thomson, Esq., and unanimously adopted.
The meeting then adjourned.
D. GOUDELOCK, Chairman. JAS. B. STEEDMAN, Secretary."
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JOHN McCRAVEN.
John McCraven, Esq., was a native of Abbeville District, and was admitted to the Bar in 1817. Chancellor Bowie says of him : " He was rather a remarkable man, and was without any preparatory instruction, except a good common English education, embracing only reading, writing and arithmetic."
I remember to have heard Mr. McCraven argue Duncan vs. Hodges, 4th McC. 239. A short note of his argument will be there found. I was much impressed with the clearness and neatness with which his views were stated.
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