USA > South Carolina > History of South Carolina > Part 18
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He has always been prominent in local politics. He was enrolled as one of the speakers in the Charleston mayoralty campaign in 1911. The fol- lowing year he participated in the state and county political campaign, and in 1912 was appointed a lieutenant colonel on the governor's staff. In that year he was also appointed a commissioner of elec- tions for Charleston County. In 1914, four years after leaving college, Mr. Fromberg was elected in the first primary a member of the House of Rep- resentatives from Charleston County. His reelec- tion in 1916 was accorded an even larger vote. He served as chairman of the Committee of Railroads in the House of Representatives, was appointed to serve as a member of the Committee on Military and the Committee on Offices and Officers.
Mr. Fromberg is prominent in fraternal orders. In January, 1916, he was elected president of the local lodge of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith. He is affiliated with Friendship Lodge No. 9, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Carolina Lodge No. 9, Knights of Pythias, and is also a mem- ber of the D. O. K. K.
HARRISON RANDOLPH, LL. D. Through twenty odd years of his great influence upon the lives of men and women of Charleston and the State of South Carolina, the College of Charleston has been suc- cessfully guided in its destinies hy Dr. Harrison Randolph as president.
Doctor Randolph, whose name is widely known in
Jos. Frombe
السادة عملاء
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educational eircles in the South, was born at New Orleans December 8, 1871, son of John Field and Virginia Winder Dashiell ( Bayard) Randolph. His father was a physician and surgeon and at one time held the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the United States Army. Harrison Randolph spent his boyhood days in Charlottesville, Virginia. Besides private schools he studied in Pantops Academy in Charlottes- ville and graduated from the University of Virginia with the degree Doctor of Laws in 1892. He specialized in mathematics and his succeeding work has been chiefly in that field. He has received the Doctor of Laws degree from Washington and Lee University and from South Carolina College, the former in 1899 and the latter in 1905. From 1890 to 1895 he was instructor of mathematics in the University of Virginia, and from 1895 to 1897 was professor of mathematics in the University of Ar- kansas. Since 1897 he has been engaged in his re- sponsible and congenial duties as president of the College of Charleston. Doctor Randolph is very fond of music and many of his most pleasant hours have been spent with the piano and organ and he has always been a leader in musical events at Charleston. He is a member of the Alpha Tau Omega and Phi Beta Kappa, the Huguenot Society, the South Carolina Historical Society, the Episcopal Church and in politics is a democrat. On June 27, 1911, he married Louise Wagener.
EDGAR ALLAN BROWN. Life is still young at thirty- two, and personal estimates are considered normally from the promise of fulfillment rather than on the basis of perfected achievement. But in the case of Edgar A. Brown, of Barnwell, it is different. He has already achieved. His brilliant qualifications and talents have already brought him to the fore as one of the strong lawyers and public men of South Carolina.
This young South Carolina lawyer, who has come to rank with the matured minds of his profession, was born near Shiloah Springs in Aiken County, July 11, 1888, son of Augustus Abraham and Eliza- beth (Howard) Brown. His grandfather, Needham Brown, who gave his life in the cause of the Con- federacy, was a sturdy North Carolinian, whose father before him, Ezra Brown, was an early Eng- lish settler in Eastern North Carolina, near Golds- boro. Ezra Brown was a Revolutionary soldier and was wounded at the battle of Eutaw Springs. Need- ham Brown and his family came to South Carolina long before the war between the states and settled in the Dutch Fork section of Lexington County, near Columbia. After the destruction of Columbia and the devastation of adjoining territory by Sher- man's army, the Brown family, Augustus A. being at that time a boy, moved to Aiken County, near Shiloah Springs. Elizabeth Howard was the daugh- ter of William and Letha Lott Howard, of Augusta, Georgia, William Howard being a business man in Augusta before the war between the states, and who likewise gave his life in the cause of the South.
Edgar A. Brown was educated in the common or grade schools of Aiken County, and at Graniteville Academy. As a boy he was fired with an ambition to become a lawyer, and characteristically bent every
thought and energy to that end. First becoming a stenographer, a means by which he could work his way into the law (having no means to go to col- lege), he soon obtained a place as stenographer in the office of Col. D. S. Henderson at Aiken, and there began the study of his chosen profession. Be- fore he was twenty-one and could be admitted to the bar, however, after competitive examination, he was appointed by Judge Robert Aldrich as official court stenographer of the Second Judicial Circuit, a posi- tion which he held for several years with great credit to himself. In 1910 he was admitted to the bar and moved to Barnwell, and while continuing his official work as court stenographer, immediately began to practice law. In January, 1915, he formed a partnership with James Julien Bush under the firm name of Brown & Bush. The success of this young firm has been almost phenomenal. Although the firm is only five or six years old, it is one of the strong law firmns of Lower South Carolina. They are engaged on one side or the other of practically all important cases tried in Barnwell County, and their practice is not limited to Barnwell County, but to other counties in many instances in other states. The firm does a tremendous general practice, and are also interested in banking, real estate, farm- ing, etc.
Mr. Brown is regarded as an able trial lawyer. He is serious and sincere in his presentation of his side of an issue, whether in court or in public de- bate, and one is at once impressed with his clarity of ideas. He is a student of state and national political affairs; is democratic county chairman, president of his Democratic Club, a member of the State Democratic Executive Committee, and while he has always been interested in politics has never been induced to enter the political arena until 1920, when he was elected a member of the Legislature from his county. A man of conviction, he has that quality which serves to distinguish him from so many men in polities at the present time, the cour- age of expressing them. Mr. Brown is deeply in- terested in reconstruction affairs following the World war, holding that the South, with its labor and negro problems, has as much to fear from re- construction now as following the war between the states. Not long ago, speaking at a reunion of Con- federate veterans at Camp George W. Morrall, re- ferring to the negro and reconstruction in South Carolina, he said: "If the negro has political am- bitions in this white man's country, he had best keep them under his shirt; if he does not, let him beware that he is not consumed in the flames of his political ambitions."
In his studious pursuits Mr. Brown's hobby is Jeff Davis. In one of his public addresses on the life of Davis, he is quoted as saying: "I believe as firmly as I believe anything that if there is anything today which reflects upon the Government of this great country it is the treatment accorded Jeff Davis by the Federal authorities after his capture. Supposing that he were a rebel, and that he had led a rebellion, it was the great rebellion-called so by those who opposed us, and one that taxed the ener- gies of the nation for four long years. He repre- sented many millions of people, and instead of treat- ing him with dignity and decency, the Federal Gov-
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ernment loaded him with chains, thereby brutalizing his frail body and spirit, and insulting the great cause which he represented."
Mr. Brown is a lieutenant-colonel on Governor Cooper's staff. He is a Mason, Shriner, Elk, Knight of Pythias and Woodman of the World. Be- cause of physical disabilities he could not get into the World war, but he rendered conspicuous service at home by organizing the first Red Cross Chapter in his county, leading in each Liberty and Victory loan drive, and delivered many war lectures for the benefit of Red Cross and bond drives in the state.
Mr. Brown married in 1913 Annie Love Sit- greaves, eldest daughter .of Edwin McBurney and Centellia (Martin) Sitgreaves. On both sides she is descended from families who since the early settle- ment of the colonies have rendered conspicuous service to the Government. She is lineally descended from Judge John Sitgreaves, a distinguished law- yer and soldier during the Revolutionary period, who in 1790 was appointed by George Washington as United States district judge, his commission, signed by the first President, still being in the fam- ily. Mrs. Brown is a direct descendant of Gen. Allen Jones of Revolutionary fame. General Jones' name was adopted by Commodore Paul Jones, whom Gen- eral Jones had befriended and cared for at his his- toric home, Mount Gallant, near Upper Roanoke Falls. This phase of Mrs. Brown's ancestry is fully detailed in "Life and Letters of John Paul Jones," by Mrs. Reginald DeKeven. Other direct ancestors in her family include Benjamin Martin, one of the early settlers of Virginia; Barnabus Horton, who settled on Long Island in 1640; Andrew Moore, whose descendants were prominent in the early set- tlement of Pennsylvania during colonial times. In the paternal line her great-grandfather was Col. An- drew Love, who was wounded in the battle of King's Mountain and was otherwise distinguished as a Revolutionary soldier, winning promotion for his bravery at King's Mountain. His father came from York, Pennsylvania, and his place of settlement in South Carolina he named in honor of his former town, York.
EARLE SLOAN graduated from the University of Virginia in 1882 and for thirty years has been one of South Carolina's leading authorities in the science of geology. He is a mining engineer and geologist and his associations have brought him in contact with many mining corporations not only in his native state but all over the South and parts of the West.
Mr. Sloan, who resides at Charleston, was born on the Cherry Hill plantation near Old Pendleton, South Carolina, October 18, 1858, a son of Col. John Baylis Earle Sloan and Mary Seaborn Sloan and a grandson of Benjamin F. Sloan and of George Sea- born. Both his grandfathers were planters and Grandfather Sloan founded and owned the first suc- cessfully operated cotton mill of the state. His father was a planter and cotton factor and colonel of the Fourth Regiment of South Carolina in the Confederate army. Mfr. Sloan is heir to a notable ancestry. His great-grandfather, Captain David Sloan, founder of the family in America, was a sol- dier with the Continental forces in the Revolution. A great-grandfather, John Baylis Earle, the grand-
son of Sammel Earle (III), a member of the House of Burgess in Virginia, was a soldier in the Ameri- can Revolution, and one of the earliest members of Congress from South Carolina. A great-great- grandfather, Col. Samuel Taylor, commanded South Carolina troops in the American Revolution.
Earle Sloan did not confine himself to a conven- tional education. His chief interest and enthusiasm were centered in the lessons he could learn direct from nature in the fields, and in his professional life he has been chiefly a "field worker." He at- tended country schools, the Classical School of Pro- fessor Sachtleben, the Carolina Military Institute, and was in the University of Virginia from 1877 to 1882, following which he did post-graduate work in chemistry and geology. Since then his work as mining engineer, geologist and chemist has taken him to many of the mining districts of the West. Some of his services were employed in consultation, field investigation and development in the great mining districts of Alabama, more particularly around Birmingham. At one time he was assistant United States geologist, and on May 1, 1901, was ap- pointed state geologist for South Carolina. As assistant United States geologist he made the in- vestigation of the Charleston earthquake of 1886, reporting on its causes and effect. He has con- tributed many scientific papers and official reports on the geologic formations and resources of South Carolina.
October 11, 1894, he married Miss Alice Reeves Witte, daughter of Charles O. and Charlotte ( Reeves) Witte. Mr. and Mrs. Sloan have four children.
Mfr. Sloan is a member of the following organiza- tions : Phi Beta Kappa Society, president of the South Carolina branch of the University of Vir- ginia Alumni Association since its organization, hon- orary member of the Philosophical Society of Vir- ginia, life member of the Association of American Geologists, American Museum of Natural History, American Institute of Mining Engineers, honorary curator of geology of the Charleston Museumn, Charleston Club, Carolina Yacht Club, Tri-State Hunting and Fishing Club and Sigma Chi Fraternity.
RICHARD HARVIN WICHMAN. Whether the ele- ments of success in this life are innate attributes of the individual or whether they are quickened by a process of circumstantial development, it is impossi- ble clearly to determine. Yet the study of a suc- cessful life, whatever the field of endeavor, is none the less interesting and profitable by reason of the existence of this uncertainty. So much in excess of those of successes are the records of failures or semi-failures, that one is constrained to attempt an analysis in either case and to determine the measure of causation in an approximate way. But in study- ing the life history of Richard H. Wichman, well known business man of Walterhoro, and one of the substantial and enterprising citizens of the southern part of the state, we find many qualities in his make-up that always gain definite success in any career if properly directed. The splendid success which has come to Mr. Wichman is directly tracea- hle to the salient points in his character, and today, because of his high personal character and the
Ruf Michwaw.
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splendid success which he has won, he has earned and enjoys the unbounded confidence of the entire community with which he is identified.
Richard Harvin Wichman was born at Walter- boro, South Carolina, on February 27, 1861, and is the son of Albert and Margaret Amanda (Brad- ford) Wichman. Albert Wichman was born in Hanover, Germany, where he was reared to the age of seventeen years, when he came to the United States, his entire cash capital at that time being $50 in gold. He first located in Cincinnati, Ohio, but subsequently went to New Orleans, Louisiana, thence to Charleston, South Carolina, and finally to Wal- terboro, where he made- his permanent home. For a period of ahout sixty years, covering the years before and after the Civil war, he conducted a suc- cessful mercantile business here. He was a soldier in the Confederate army during that war, and he lived to the age of nearly eighty years. He mar- ried Margaret Amanda Bradford, who was a direct descendant of Governor Bradford, who came over in the historic Mayflower and was for many years governor of Plymouth colony. She lived to be eighty-five years old. She was the mother of one child, the immediate subject of this review.
Richard H. Wichnian received a good education, attending the schools of Charleston, South Carolina, Bellevue, Virginia, and Adger College at Walhalla, South Carolina. Upon taking up the active affairs of life on his own account he was first engaged in farming and stock raising for a number of years, in which he met with good success, but he later became associated with his father in the mercantile business at Walterboro. He also established the Walterboro Cotton Oil Company and the Farmers and Mer- chants Bank at Walterboro, both of which enter- prises have contributed in a very definite way to the material prosperity of the community. Upon his father's death he succeeded to the ownership of that business, which under his management has grown to be the largest establishment of the kind in Colleton County. Mr. Wichman has also estab- lished in recent years the largest and most success- ful antomobile sales agency in the eastern and south- ern part of South Carolina, as is evidenced in the statement that in 1918 this company sold as many as 520 machines in this section alone.
In 1883 Mr. Wichman was married to Sarah G. Solomons, the daughter of Elliott G. Solomons, of Hampton County, South Carolina, and to them have been born ten children, of whom five survive, namely: Albert H., Frampton P., Gladys A. (wife of I. M. Fishborn, of Walterboro), Mayble and Elizabeth.
A plain, unassuming gentleman, caring nothing for the plaudits of men, Mr. Wichman has quietly gone on his way, accomplishing definite results and often laboring with disregard for his own welfare if thereby he miglit attain the object sought. He is a consistent supporter of every worthy movement that promises to benefit the community, and today he is secure in the enjoyment of the confidence and esteem of the people with whom his entire life has been passed.
HARVEY SIMONS WELCH, who for many years was senior partner, is now manager of the firm, Welch
& Eason, wholesale and retail grocery merchants at Charleston. The prosperity of this firm is chiefly due to the enterprising methods of its members, though historically the business is one of the oldest of its kind in Charleston, being in a sense a con- tinnation of a grocery business established soon after the close of the war between the states by Mr. Welch's father, the late William Hawkins Welch, long distinguished as a public-spirited Charlestonian and successful business man.
William Hawkins Welch, who died about five years ago, was born in 1845 at Philadelphia, then the temporary home of his father, Samuel B. Welch, a native of Charleston. Three years later the family returned to Charleston, where William H. was reared and educated. He was only sixteen when in January, 1861, he entered the military service of the state as orderly sergeant of the Charleston Zouave Cadets. With that command he was on duty at Morris Island when the Star of the West was fired upon and driven back, and also on Sullivan's Island when Fort Sumter was bombarded. Subse- quently he was employed in guarding prisoners from the battlefield of First Manassas, at Charleston and at Castle Pinckney, and after the prisoners were removed assisted in mounting guns at the latter fortress. Upon the disbandment of the Zonaves early in 1862 William H. Welch enlisted in the Rut- ledge Mounted Riflemen, serving with that com- mand on the coast and participating in the Battle of Potocaligo. When the troop was divided into Com- panies A and G, Seventh South Carolina Cavalry, he became second sergeant of Company G, and later acted as orderly sergeant. He was with his regiment in Virginia as Second Cold Harbor, Bottom Ridge, Riddle's Shop, Tilghman's Gate, Samania Church, Fussell's Mill, Gatewood Farm, Newmarket Heights and in other fights around Richmond. October 7, 1864, he was captured, and as a prisoner was kept under fire seven days at Dutch Gap Canal and later at Point Lookout, Maryland. There he endured the hardships of scanty rations, suffering from the cold by sleeping on the ground without blankets, and insulting treatment from the negro guards. In March, 1865, he was paroled, and returned to South Carolina in time to participate in the two minor skirmishes before the close of the war.
Soon after the close of the war Mr. Welch en- gaged in the grocery business at Charleston, and a number of years later he was founder of the busi- ness which is now Welch & Eason. He was also interested in other husiness affairs, was a director in the Enterprise Bank, and especially deserving of memory was his part as founder and president of tlie Yoting Men's Business League, an organization which gave Charleston its real start as an industrial and commercial center and entitled it to take ad- vantage of the great opportunities presented since the death of William H. Welch.
Harvey Simons Welch is a son of William Haw- kins and Amarintha (Browning) Welch, and was born at Charleston Angust 22, 1871. He was reared and educated in his native city and practically grew up in his father's business.
Mr. Welch married Miss Pauline Julia Bergmann, of Charleston. Her father was the late Prof. C. H. Bergmann, whose memory is a grateful one with
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hundreds of Charleston men. Professor Bergmann was for a number of years principal of the old Ger- man Academy, one of the finest schools of Charles- ton. The six children of Mr. and Mrs. Welch are Harvey S., Jr., Julia B., Pauline, Edith, Wilhelmina and Charles Henry. The son, Harvey, is a graduate of the University of South Carolina, and is now active in business in Charleston.
MADISON PEYTON HOWELL. The southern courts of South Carolina have long been distinguished for the high order of their benches and bars. Perhaps no other section of the state can justly boast of abler jurists or attorneys .. While the growth and development of the state in the last half century has been splendid, viewed from any standpoint, yet of no one class of her citizenship has she greater rea- son for just pride than her judges and attorneys. In Madison P. Howell are found united many of the rare qualities which go to make up the success- ful lawyer. He possesses perhaps few of those brilliant, dazzling, meteoric qualities which have sometimes flashed along the legal horizon for the moment, then disappearing, leaving little or no trace behind, but rather has those solid and more sub- stantial qualities which have commended him to the consideration of intelligent men.
Madison Peyton Howell was born in Walterboro, Colleton County, South Carolina. on March 28, 1884, and is the eldest of the ten children born to Mad- ison P. and Harriet Francis ( Foreman) Howell. The father was a native of St. George, Dorchester County, whence he came to Walterboro in 1872. He was a lawyer by vocation, in which profession he was an acknowledged leader, and remained actively in the practice until his death, which occurred in 1907. He was active in local public affairs and served as chairman of the Democratic County Committee for Colleton County from 1876 up to the time of his death, when he was succeeded by his son, the subject of this sketch. The father was also prominent in fraternal circles, being a member of the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias, and was a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He took a deep interest in the welfare of his community and particularly during the days of the reconstruction period his services to the publie welfare were invaluable. His father, and grandfather of the subject, was J. S. A. Howell, also a native of St. George and a farmer by vocation, as was his father before him. The family originally came from Wales, some of the members of the family settling in Georgia and others in South Carolina. Mfrs. Har- riet Howell, the subject's mother, was a native of Beach Island, Aiken County, South Carolina, and the daughter of Dr. Isaac and Jane (Rountree) Foreman.
Madison P. Howell received his elementary edu- cation in the common schools of his home commu- nity. He completed his studies in the South Caro- lina College (now University of South Carolina), graduating there in 1904 with the degree of Bach- elor of Arts. Immediately afterward he took up the study of law in the office and under the direction of his father, and was 'admitted to the bar in 1906. He has been engaged continuously since that time in the practice of the law and has earned a wide
reputation because of his success. By a straightfor- ward, honorable course he has built up a large and lucrative business and has been successful beyond the average of his calling.
On December 21, 1909, Mr. Howell was married to Martha Williams Gage, daughter of Judge George WV. Gage, of Chester, South Carolina, and to them have been born four children, namely: Madison Peyton, Harriet Foreman, Margaret Hemphill and Martha Gage.
Fraternally Mr. Howell is an appreciative mem- ber of the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias, while his religious affiliation is with the Methodist Episcopal Church, Sonth. His life has been one of usefulness and honor, and his life-long residence in this community has but strengthened his hold on the hearts of the people with whom he has been associated, and today no one here enjoys a larger circle of warm friends and acquaintances, who es- teem him because of his sterling qualities of charac- ter and his professional ability.
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