USA > South Carolina > Biographical sketches of the bench and bar of South Carolina, vol. II > Part 5
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The chairs of instruction were efficiently and adequately filled. Ripe scholars, from the Universities of Edinburgh and Dublin, occupied prominent stations, and in their discipline rivaled the unenviable reputation of Dr. Busby, to whom the use of the birch was considered ancillary, if not an indispen- sable acquisition of learning. To such arbitrary power, or ruffian violence, the subject of this notice was never amenable. From the academy, he (with his two brothers,) was transferred to Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut; the celebrity of which was then in its infancy, and under the presidency of Dr. Dwight-a divine of rare excellence, profound learning, and an eloquence, that brooked no rivalry. It attained a rank among the literary institutions of the day which it has never lost. Some of the best-educated men in our State, claim her as their Alma Mater; among whom, we need only mention Stephen Elliott and John C. Calhoun-both of whom were proudly awarded the same grade of distinction, that of L.L. D. In 1804, John Gadsden graduated, and at the annual com- mencement was awarded one of the honors of his class. The part assigned him at commencement, though the youngest, was a merited distinction and mark of his superiority. He wrote the dialogue for the occasion; and its acceptance by the Faculty was an evidence of its high appreciation. He took his share in the performance, and in the exhibition found favor in a gratified audience.
His acquaintance with books, and the literature of the day, commenced here; and, in after-life, was cultivated and im- proved with an ardor irrepressible. Still, in his minority, “an
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age too soon," he entered on the profession of the law, and at the legal time assumed its robe of office. Deprived of the resources of an ancestral estate, he was stimulated to greater diligence and the more intense study; thus giving unsubdued energies to the attainment of what had been achieved by the greater lights of the Revolution and of the Forum, aspiring with no unholy ambition to the professional fame of the Pinckneys, Rutledges, Watieses, and others of kindred emi- nence.
He did not think his legal education complete, without the mastery of the Civil and Common Law.
Yet, under the pressure of adverse circumstances, he found a hinderance, which a too early admission to the Bar thrust upon him. Other than that, in his depressed (pecuniary) con- dition, he would willingly, with one of the ablest jurists of England, have given "vigenti annos" to its prosecution.
The knowledge, however, of both, was not inconsiderable, and had their bearing in all the important cases in which he was engaged. As a dialectician, he was, in no way, inferior to his competitors. He held with Blackstone, that he " would not derogate from the study of the Civil Law, as a collection of written reason," yet he did not carry his " veneration so far as to sacrifice Alfred and Edward to the manes of Theodocius and Justinian." Success at the Bar, is of slow growth ; his progress was, therefore, very gradual. In the absence of clients, he increased and added to his reputation, and laid up a store which, in succeeding years, was to be his pabulum.
He estimated his profession at the highest standard. No remunerative fees were ever tendered to him, which he did not merit ; and many were withheld where his services were onerous and gratuitous. The widow never tendered nor was asked a recompense. The poor had his advice, and in their consultation with him, left only their gratitude. His re- ward-the stimulus to the greater mastery of his profession- the ripened fruit of what he had chiefly coveted-a knowl- edge of the law. His soul was in his profession. He cared not for its emoluments. With the divine Hooker, he believed a thorough knowledge of it a link in the chain which unites
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earth with heaven-an inspiration from above. In the affairs of the State, though not an indifferent looker-on, he may be said to have taken no part.
In no sense was he a politician; yet, ever ready to obey the calls of his State, and those of his native city. He repre- sented the former in a half session of the Legislature, and successively filled the place of Intendant of our city, when its honors were considered an ample return for personal services. He was, unsolicited, appointed District Attorney of the United States. As successor to Thomas Parker, he filled, with like integrity, ability and learning, the position to which he was called ; and in the discharge of its duties, he closed his life.
A consistent member of St. Philip's Church, he uniformly worshipped there-occupied the old family pew, and as it were, in the midst of a paternal ancestry, bowed his knee. With no love for religious polemics, he abhorred its contro- versies. He maintained his own opinions, yet never inter- fered with those of others. He was free from everything like cant and dogmatism, and considered that, in spiritual matters, it was an issue between every man and his Maker. His knowledge of his profession was profound. He gave himself wholly to its study. In the interval between professional duties, he hung over his books with an intensity which, if I may so speak, rapped up his very being. He never returned to his home at the usual dinner hour. His frugal meal was taken at his office; and at night, when his family had retired, he would, of a winter's evening, re-kindle his grate and renew his studies to midnight. Few men had so many resources within himself. He knew what was "due to his birth, though fortune threw him short of it." In all his transac- tions with mankind, he was not otherwise than just. In "his pretensions," he desired no other return than distant " intru- siveness." With no love for disputation, no pedantry, and no sourness of temper, there was an enviable complacency about him, that never tired. His conversation was pleasant and agreeable-in keeping with a ripe judgment, and a rich felicitous imagination. He gave to his closet, not the public, many of his best fugitive pieces, in poetry and prose. He
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had a keen perception of the beautiful in nature and art. In a tour embracing all the celebrated springs in Virginia-its mountains, valleys and streams-he would, around his own hearth, often entertain his friends with graphic delineations and exquisite pencillings.
In October, 1830, his health began to decline, and the soli- citude of his relatives became painfully intense.
The angry controversy on the subject of State Rights, was then in its incipiency; its rancor and ill-feeling found no response in his bosom. He escaped, by his early demise, arraying himself on either side of the foreshadowing crisis.
He was zealously interested in Jackson's first election, and, as a strong adherent to the Constitution of the United States, to which he had devoted his earliest consideration, it was his good fortune to have escaped the unprofitable strifes and collisions in our State, which, it would appear, have led to no advantageous result. He occupied at his decease, the ancient residence of his maternal grandfather, where he dis- pensed, with an elegance his own, the hospitalities of the educated and refined gentleman. On the 31st of January, 1831, after a lingering illness, and in his forty-fourth year, he entered on the unseen world.
Foe to loud praise and friend to learned ease, Content with science in the vale of peace, Calmly he looked on either life, and here Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear. From nature's temperate feast, rose satisfied, Thanked Heaven that he lived, and that he died.
He died prematurely, but not without achieving an envia- ble reputation, and a position at the Bar which ranked him among its highest aspirants.
He thought for himself-was slow to come to conclu- sions, which to others, seemed inevitable. His opinions once formed, were the abiding convictions of his life.
With an enviable and commendable gravity, he lived unob- trusively : neither seeking, claiming nor declining the honors of public station-accepting them when tendered, and caring nothing for them when withheld.
As a Member of the Legislature, Intendant of the City, and
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District Attorney of the United States, he had the confidence, respect, and regards of a generous community.
His manners were thought to be stern and repulsive, but it was the sternness of unyielding integrity, and unwillingness to encounter the every-day instability of public life.
His charities were those which exempted his "right hand from a knowledge of his left." His recipients found no " clutched gift," and were never made to feel the degrada- tions of poverty.
He lived and died "integer vitæ," leaving a bereaved widow, the granddaughter of his maternal grandfather, John Edwards, who soon followed him to his spiritual inheritance ; and an infant son, claiming the intellect and virtues of his gifted sire, and who, with high promise, is now ripening into usefulness and distinction in the pious calling to which he has dedicated his mission on earth.
SOLICITORS.
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DAVID R. EVANS.
He was a native of Great Britain, and was born at West- minster, 20th February, 1769. His father, David Evans, came to America, with his family, and settled in Fairfield, at Winns- boro', in 1784. It appears from the records of the first County Court, in 1785,-" Present, Richard Winn, John Winn, John Buchanan and Thomas Craig, Justices; John Milling was elected clerk, and David Evans deputy clerk. He afterwards became clerk, in the place of Mr. Milling, who resigned to make room for him."
David Evans was appointed, in 1795, as successor to Major John Winn, Commissioner of Taxations, for Camden Dis- trict-a very lucrative office.
David R. Evans was educated at Mount Zion College. The Rev. Thomas McCall was then the president of this ancient and valuable institution of learning. He studied law with Jacob and Daniel Brown, of Camden, who had an office at Winnsboro', and were the first lawyers who practiced at that place. Robert Stark, of Columbia-whose first wife was a Winn-and William Smith, of York, soon followed them. Mr. Evans studied four years, applied, and was rejected. After an interval of a year he applied again, and was admitted. This was in 1796. He was very wild and dissipated in early life, which accounts for his rejection.
Although Mr. Evans studied law with Daniel Brown, yet, in 1800, he acted in an affair of honor between him and Thomas Baker, as the second of the latter. In a lawsuit against Baker, who was a farmer, living near Winnsboro', Brown had said or did something, which was offensive. Baker, in retaliation, called him a d-d saddle-bag lawyer. Brown challenged Baker to fight a duel. Baker was anxious to settle the difficulty by an affair of fisticuffs. Mr. Evans, his second, insisted he should accept the challenge, which he did. The parties met on the Wateree River, were placed back
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to back, walked five paces, wheeled and fired; both fell and died. Baker lingered for a few minutes, and said: "Evans, are all men like me on the field of honor?" This, perhaps, showed the heroism of the man. The whole transaction was one of unrelenting ferocity, and was part and parcel of the wickedness of the times. In after-life it must have been, to Mr. Evans, a subject of grief, that he had been the instigator of the duel, on the part of Mr. Baker, instead of being, as he ought to have been, a pacificator.
In 1799, he married a daughter of Gen. Richard Winn. In 1800, he was elected to the Legislature (the House of Repre- sentatives) of South Carolina. Before the election his popu- larity was much affected by his connection with Minor Winn, a very unpopular man; but a speech, which he delivered on the 4th of July, and which was republican in its sentiments, secured his election. Col. McCreight says, that he visited Camden soon after this speech, and that Capt. Carter, a Revo- lutionary soldier, congratulated him on having such a repub- lican in Winnsboro'. A Mr. Lee had delivered, at the same time, a 4th of July speech, which was very displeasing to Capt. Carter. He obtained Mr. Evans' speech, published and circulated it widely. This old soldier said that he commanded a company on the extreme left of Gates' line, at the battle of Gum Swamp, near Camden, and, at the first fire, all his men fled : left alone, he went to the captain, next to him, whose men had also abandoned him, and asked what was to be done? He received no satisfactory answer. Whereupon he said to his neighbor: "I'll be d-d if I am here to be shot down." He jumped on his pony, which he had fastened in the bushes, left the field, and said he, "I suppose I was the first man out of the reach of danger."
Mr. Evans was probably continued in the Legislature until he was elected Solicitor of the Middle Circuit, in 1804. He continued in this office until 1811, when he resigned, and David Johnson, of Union, was elected in his place.
Mr. Evans early distinguished himself as a lawyer, in his management of the case of the State vs. Golding, indicted for a rape. Col. McCreight, who knew Mr. Evans from his begin-
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ning to his death, thinks him the ablest lawyer whom he ever heard in a Court House. He ranks him as superior to Judge Smith, as an argumentative speaker. He was, perhaps, too severely logical. His sentences were short and pointed; this gave clearness and effectiveness to his speeches. The melody of his voice added much to the pleasure of hearing him.
From 1800 to 1812, Mr. Evans had a very large and lucra- tive practice. During this time he met at Winnsboro', on his circuit, the most eminent lawyers of the time-Smith, Brevard, Nott, Stark, Blanding, Hooker, and Gist-and he was not re- garded as inferior to any of them.
In 1805, he lost the wife of his youth. She died childless. In December, of this year, he was elected a trustee of the South Carolina College, for four years. In 1809, he was again elected for another term. In this year he was married to Miss Nancy Yongue, the daughter of the Rev. S. W. Yongue, of Winnsboro'.
In 1812, he was elected to Congress, as a Representative from Laurens, Newberry, and Fairfield. On this occasion he triumphed over Robert Creswell, Esq., of Laurens-a good and virtuous man, and a lawyer of considerable celebrity. He served only one term. On his way to Washington, in 1814, travelling in his own carriage, he was near enough to hear and did hear, the firing at Bladensburgh, which preceded the burning of the capitol. He accounted for the disgraceful, cowardly flight of our militia, on that occasion, by the fact that great numbers of people, men, women, and children, were gathered together from curiosity to see the British soldiers. They, of course, fled at the approach of danger, and thus created a panic among the militia, who were in arms.
Mr. Evans found his health unequal to the duties of a Rep- resentative in Congress; he therefore, declined being a candi- date in 1814, and retired to the privacy and enjoyment of domestic life, on his plantation, near Winns' Bridge, on Little River.
In 1818, he was elected Senator, from Fairfield District, and again, in 1822. He could not be induced to serve again in 1826. His hearing was becoming more and more indistinct,
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and his general health was much impaired. He, therefore, abandoned, public life.
In 1818, he was elected President of the Fairfield Bible Society, at its organization. He was the President of Mount Zion Society from 1836 to 1841. He was a ruling Elder in Lebanon Church, (Jackson's Creek,) and in the Presbyterian Church, at Winnsboro', for thirty years before his death.
His second wife died also childless, and preceded him to the tomb.
He died 8th March, 1843, being 74 years and 16 days old.
Out of his estate, of $100,000, he gave $8,000 to benevolent societies, of which $5,000 was given to the Tract Society. The balance he bequeathed to his nephews and nieces.
Thus, in the fullness of time, a good and great man was gathered to his everlasting rest.
In his intercourse with men Mr. Evans was plain and un- pretending. His life was one of unostentatious usefulness. He had the reputation, with the Bar and Bench, of a profound lawyer. His long service at the Bar, as a lawyer and solicitor, gave him a position far above any other lawyer of his circuit.
As a legislator, he was characterized by honesty and faith- fulness more than show. He commanded respect, both in the Legislature and Congress. He was a Christian, and in his life and conversation, for more than forty years, showed that he feared God, and worked the works of righteousness; and in all the relations of life was an example of purity and faith- fulness.
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JAMES ERVIN.
He was the son of Hugh Ervin, who lived about five miles from Indian Town, Williamsburgh District, and was born in October, 1778. His mother was a Cooper or James; my informant, the venerable John D. Witherspoon, does not remember which. By an unfortunate accident, at his birth, one of his feet was dislocated in the middle, turning the toes at a right angle to the heel. No surgeon living, in that section of the country, his foot was suffered to remain so. This foot, eg and thigh, were somewhat smaller and shorter. The other leg and thigh were longer than usual. He was a hearty boy, strong and active. His lameness excited the pity of his father and relations, and they determined to send him to college. His father died when he was nine years old, but his friends remembered and carried out his parent's purpose. When he was eleven or twelve years of age, they sent him to a grammar school, kept by the Rev. Thomas Reese, in Salem County, part of Sumter District. He remained in that school about two years, until Mr. Reese broke up his academy. About 1792, he was sent to the grammar school at the Long Bluff, (now Society Hill,) kept by Thomas Park, afterwards Professor of Languages in the South Carolina College, where he was prepared for college.
He went to the Rode Island College, now Brown Univer- sity, and entered the sophomore class, in May '95. Whilst in college, he conducted himself orderly and correctly. He early distinguished himself as an orator, and was considered the best speaker in the college. This faculty and his correct deportment procured for him the salutatory oration and the second honor of his class. He graduated in September, 1797, and soon entered the office of W. D. James, Esq., as a law student. He was admitted to the Bar, in Columbia, Novem- ber Term of the Constitutional Court, 1800. In the summer
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of that year, he was started as a candidate for the House of Representatives, from Marion District, and was elected. He thus became a law-maker before he was a law-expounder. Such an instance of early popularity, is of rare occurrence. He was elected a second time in 1802. In December, 1804, when Solicitor Wilds was elected a Judge, Mr. Ervin was elected Solicitor of the Northern Circuit. He remained in office until 1816. In December, 1809, he was elected for four years a member of the Board of Trustees of the South Caro- lina College. In December, 1813, he was again elected for four years. In October, 1816, he was elected to the House of Representatives, in Congress, against Mr. Benjamin Huger, and was returned a second time, without opposition. He was the only member from this State, who adhered to the original policy to encourage domestic manufactures. He voted for Mr. Clay's Tariff Bill. He introduced, and eloquently advo- cated resolutions, calling upon Congress to do what they had promised in honor of General Washington's memory. But his eloquence was wasted on the empty air. Congress, if they had not forgotten the Father of his Country, were too busily engaged in the pursuit of factious projects, to honor him who had advised against all such things.
Mr. Ervin's health failed in Congress. He retired to pri- vate life after 1820, and so remained until 1841, when he died.
He was a very popular boy and man, and had a better start in life, than any young man in the Pee Dee Country. He never took a very high stand as a lawyer, not from the want of talent-for, in this behalf, he was very respectably endowed- but his mind was devoted more to the acquisition of property- in trading in lands and negroes-than in the pursuit of legal knowledge. He had a fine constitution, and was killed by a fall from his horse.
The foregoing statement is from my venerable friend, John D. Witherspoon, Esq., of Society Hill. I have seen Mr. Ervin, but I had no such knowledge as enabled me to give such a life-like description as is above.
His name recalls two Bar anecdotes, which I have often heard, and which may amuse some one:
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A woman was indicted for an assault and battery on a boy ; the little fellow was the witness. He said that he and the son of the defendant-near to her house-had quarrelled and fought; that he whipped her son, who ran crying to her. She came out with a rope in her hand, and, said he, "she penned me up in a corner of the fence." He stopped, supposing that everybody knew what followed. The Judge, Mr. Justice Bay, said, " what then, what then, my little man ?" "Maybe she did not pour into me about right," was the reply. Mr. Ervin asked, " what was the woman's name?" The little boy said, " Mr. Ervin, you know her as well as I do; she has been at your still-house a hundred times. She is called Big Sall and Fighting Sall !" The woman was, of course, con- victed. The venerable, and usually kind Judge, was so much outraged by the account given of the woman, that, on sen- tence day, he told her, " her conduct was very unmatron-like, that she had been at still-houses, and was called "Big Sall and Fighting Sall." " I therefore," said he, " will lay you in jail one month" -- " stop, stop, Mr. Clerk," said he, " add another month to her imprisonment."
In another criminal case, it was important to prove that the defendant had ran away. The Solicitor put up a rather quizical sort of witness, and asked, "did not the defendant elope ?" The witness replied, "she pulled string." "Pull, pulled string," said the Judge, " what do you mean by that ?" "She cut dirt," was the witness's reply. " Cut, cut dirt-pull, pull string"-" what do you mean ?" said the Judge. "I mean," said the witness, "she puffed the gravel." "Pull, pull string-cut, cut dirt-puff, puff the gravel," said the Judge -- "the man is crazy; take him out of Court, Mr. Sheriff." The Solicitor said, he means that she eloped. "Well, well, my man, why could you not say so?" The witness re- plied, " every man to his notion, as the woman said when she kissed her cow." This startled the Judge, as a monstrous thing; and he said, in his most emphatic, stammering way, "this woman kiss a cow-take him out of Court, Mr. Sheriff."
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ROBERT STARK.
Robert Stark was born near Petersburgh, Virginia, 10th Jan- uary, 1762. His parents must have removed, when he was very young, to South Carolina, probably to the Bridge, Edge- field District. At the age of sixteen, he entered the service of his country, as a soldier, and was in the battles of "Black- stocks," " Cowpens," and "Eutaw Springs." At the battle of Eutaw, he belonged to a company commanded, as I under- stood him to say, by Captain Richard Johnson, of Edgefield District. I see he is called Lieut. Johnson, in a correspon- dence between Judge William Johnston and Col. Hammond. In a charge made by that company, they drove the artillerists from the gun, before the Brick House. Captain Johnson leaped off his horse, and took from his pocket a twenty-penny nail, and, placing it in the touch-hole, with the hilt of his heavy dragoon sabre, drove it as far as he could, saying, as he did so, "you have plagued us all day, and you shall do so no more." Mr. Stark told me, that Capt. Johnson, when he entered upon that battle, was dressed with a white vest and pantaloons; and, when he left it, he was covered with blood from his breast to his boots. Before the close of the war, Mr. Stark became the adjutant of the regiment commanded by Colonel Hammond.
On the 11th September, 1785, he married Mary Winn, of Fairfield, South Carolina, who was the mother of nine chil- dren, all of whom are dead, except Elizabeth, the youngest, now Mrs. Heriot, of Georgetown. Mrs. Stark died 10th December, 1801.
He was admitted to the Bar, in the County Court, at Orangeburgh, on the 22d October, 1787, on the condition that he should produce credentials, according to law, at the next Court. The law, then, was, that an applicant for admission to the Bar, who was not a graduate, but who had studied four years, might, if competent, be admitted by the Judges of the
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Court of Common Pleas. P. L. 363. Hence, I suppose, he was admitted, in the Circuit Court at Orangeburgh, in the November following.
The scene in the County Court between Carnes and him- self is worth repeating. Mr. Stark was a rather unpromising beginner at the law. Carnes was the County Attorney. Stark was engaged in the defence of an assault and battery case. In the course of the controversy, Carnes said, "may it please your worships, I don't believe the young gentleman knows what an assault and battery is." Stark, shaking his fist in Carnes' face, said, "that is an assault," and, following it with a full blow above the eye, said, "that is battery." Carnes, rubbing his forehead, sat down, exclaiming, "I did not think the fellow had so much sense."
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