USA > South Carolina > History of South Carolina > Part 21
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Mr. Reid was born at Rock Hill, South Carolina, in 1894, son of Samuel L. and Francis Elizabeth (Baskin) Reid. His parents are now deceased. He was educated in the Rock Hill High School, attended the Locust Dale Academy at Orange, Vir- ginia, and in 1915 graduated from The Citadel at Charleston.
All his efforts for the past five years have been concentrated upon some phase of agricultural pro- motion. For two years after his graduation he was secretary of the Southern Carolina Association, whose chief object and work was to promote the agricultural development of lower South Carolina. The following two years he was agricultural agent for the Seaboard Air Line Railway, with head- quarters at Charleston. On June 1, 1919, he became editor and publisher of the Carolina Farmer and Stockman.
This journal had been published several years, but in the spring of 1919 the business was com- pletely reorganized with a strong board of direc- tors and stockholders representing some of the best business men, planters and stock raisers of the state. The directors chose Mr. Reid to take charge, of the paper, which is published semi-monthly. Under his vigorous and skillful management the Carolina Farmer and Stockman has achieved a cir- culation and influence worthy of its ideals. During the first year of his management Mr. Reid increased the circulation from about 17,000 to approximately 40,000 while the advertising patronage gives the journal a sound financial foundation.
The Carolina Farmer and Stockman, while ren- dering a direct service to the agricultural interests of the state, is also the medium of deserved pub- licity concerning the fabulous riches of South Caro- lina farms and plantations and livestock husbandry. It was left to the Carolina Farmer and Stockman to apprise even Carolinians of the fact that in 1919 the state led the entire country in the value of crops per acre. Not only in the great staple of cotton but in tobacco, corn, wheat, rye and barley this state led many of the rich agricultural states of the Middle West and West, not only in value of crop per acre but in total value as well. At no time have the farmers and stockmen of South Carolina been so wealthy and prosperous as today.
Mr. Reid is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of Omar Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston, also secretary-treas- urer of the Rotary Club of Charleston and inter-
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& Sottile
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ested in several other large corporations. He mar- ried Miss Frances Elizabeth Leathers, of Phila- delphia. They have one daughter, Margaret Alexia.
LEWIS EDWIN CAMPBELL is owner of one of the oklest farms in Anderson County. Its fields have been continuously cultivated by the Campbells for more than a century, and the farm has been in the possession of its present owner for over half a century.
Mr. Campbell was born in Anderson County, Sep- tember 25, 1844, a son of Alfred and Louisa (Kay) Campbell, who were also natives of the same county. llis grandfather, Daniel Campbell a son of William Campbell, was born in Newberry County and at an early date moved to Anderson County, where he acquired his land direct from the government, and no other name has appeared on the title since the United States relinquished it. Daniel Campbell was a sol- dier in the War of 1812. Alfred Campbell spent his life as a farmer. His first wife was Louisa Kay, whose father Charles Kay, was born in Abbeville County and from there settled in Anderson County. Alfred and Louisa Campbell had five children. Al- fred's second wife was Mary Cox, a daughter of Joseph Cox, and by that union he had six children.
Lewis Edwin Campbell grew up on the home farm and had a common school education. He was seven- teen years of age when he enlisted in Capt. John V. Moore's Company (Company F), Second South Carolina Rifles. Captain Moore was afterward colo- nel of the regiment. Mr. Campbell was a loyal and faithful soldier of the Confederacy for three years and six months, dating from January 2, 1862. He was a corporal and was the only non-commissioned officer who survived the great conflict. Mr. Camp- bell has long been known as Colonel Campbell, that title dating from his service in the Militia.
In 1866 he married Christiana Willams, a daughter of James C. Williams and granddaughter of Rev. Arthur Williams, a prominent early Baptist minister of Anderson County. Colonel Campbell and his wife after their marriage settled on their present farm, and in that environment they have passed more than half a century and have seen their children grow up in the old home. These children are four in num- ber : Ozella, wife of W. L. Anderson; Lena, who be- came the wife of John Gambrell and both are now deceased; Alfred Newton, who is a farmer and mar- ried Daisy Rilcy; and Eloise, who died after her marriage.
Mr. Campbell was ordained a Baptist minister at the age of fifty-seven, was a regular pastor only two years but has served the church as a local preach- er. In July, 1918, he rounded out fifty years of con- tinuous memebrship in the Masonic Order and has served many terms as master of his lodge. In poli- tics he has been an ardent democrat, and he was an active participant in the campaign of 1876 when South Carolina was restored to white man's rule.
GIOVANNI SOTTILE came from Italy to Charleston, South Carolina, as a young man of sterling char- acter, excellent scholastic attainments and purpose- ful ambition. He encountered a full quota of adverse
conditions ere he found his merited potential and proved himself a master of the situation which con- fronted him in the land of his adoption. He achieved eventually the material success and the high personal standing which the United States ever offers to energy, ability and determination, and he hecame not only a representative business man of Charleston but also served with distinction as Italian consular agent in this city, a position to which he was appointed by the Italian government May 31, 1899, and of which he continued the incumbent until his death, June 28, 1913. Of his service in this office the following estimate has been given : "He did much to strengthen the cordial relations between the two governments and to aid those of his countrymen who, like himself, had sought the opportunities afforded in America. In just appreciation and rec- ognition of his services the Italian government con- ferred upon him an order of knighthood, with the title of chevalier."
Giovanni Sottile was born at Gangi, Italy, June 29, 1866, and was the son of Salvatore and Rosina (Albergamo) Sottile, the family of which he was a scion having been one of special distinction in con- nection with educational affairs in Italy for many years. Salvatore Sottile, the father of the subject of this sketch was numbered among the patriotic sons of Italy who served with Garibaldi in the his- toric struggle for liberty in 1870. Giovanni Sottile was a studious youth and his early educational dis- cipline was largely supervised and directed by one of his aunts, a talented woman who held the posi- tion of superintendent of the schools of Gangi. Later he continued his studies in a college at Palermo, where he became specially proficient in mathematics. After leaving school he served four years in the Italian army, in which, by reason of his ability and superior education, he was promoted and assigned to responsible service in the accounting department. After leaving military service Mr. Sottile, moved by worthy ambition, determined to seek the superior advantages which he believed were to be found in the United States. He arrived in New York City in the autumn of 1889, and forthwith sought employ- ment. At that time there was an insistent demand for workmen in the phosphate mines in South Caro- lina, and groups of men were being sent almost daily from the national metropolis to engage in this work. A stranger in a strange land, with only a superficial knowledge of actual conditions, it is not strange that the young Italian immigrant soon found himself en route to South Carolina, after having accepted a seemingly attractive offer to take the position of an accountant in one of the phosphate camps, not far distant from Charleston. Of the deplorable condi- tions, the brutal treatment of the laborers, most of whom, like Mr. Sottile, had been imposed upon by the crafty "padrones." it is not necessary to enlarge, but it may be stated that the actual experience and the knowledge gained during his period of service in the phosphate camp formed the basis of the great service which he was later enabled to render his countrymen in America.
After a short sojourn Mr. Sottile left the uncon- genial phosphate camp and made his way, on foot, to Charleston. His personality gained to him stanch
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friends in the city, and among those who manifested kindly interest in the young stranger was Comman- der Hitchcock, who was in charge of the lighthouse service in this district. Mr. Hitchcock, who had traveled extensively and was especially fond of the Italian language, recognized his. talent and sterling character and secured his services for his family as an instructor in the Latin and Italian languages. He soon became established in Charleston, and it was not long before he was joined by his mother and sister and four brothers, of whom more specific mention will be made in a later paragraph and who came to America upon his advice. It is not neces- sary in this brief review to enter into details con- cerning the achievement and rise of Mr. Sottile as one of the valued citizens and representative business men of Charleston, where Giovanni Sottile and his four brothers became important factors in connec- tion with commercial progress.
In 1806 Mr. Sottile returned to Italy, where was solemnized his marriage to Miss Carmela Restivo, a friend of his childhood days in Gangi, where she likewise was born and reared. Mr. and Mrs. Sottile became the parents of four children, Salvatore, Rosina, Giovanni and Carmelina, all of whom were born in Charleston, where they remain with their widowed mother.
Of the four brothers mentioned above, Nicholas Sottile came to Charleston in 1800. He is president of the company conducting a leading china and glass emporimin on King Street, and is actively associated with other business activities, especially in the han- dling of real estate and the incidental furtherance of the development of Charleston. He also is a member of the City Council of Charleston, holding that position by virtue of his election as alderman at large of Ward 4. He is chairman of the most important cominittee on education of that body and likewise a member of the Ways and Means Com- mittee.
Santo Sottile, who arrived in Charleston in 1894. is president of the Sottile Cadillac Company, owning one of the largest and most modern automobile establishments in South Carolina, and has the ex- clusive agency of the Cadillac car for that entire state. He also has similar connections in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and is president of Charleston Automotive Trade Association of that city, where he has other exten- sive interests.
Albert Sottile was but fourteen years old when he came to Charleston in 1891. He is now president and treasurer of the Pastime Amusement Company and is one of the most prominent theater owners and managers in this section. Under his auspices were built in recent years the Victory, the Princess and the Garden theaters .in Charleston, comparable in beauty of design and comfort of appointment to any like establishments in the country.
James Sottile came to Charleston in 1899, and like his brothers has here achieved marked success. He is president of the Charleston-Isle of Palms Traction Company, an elcetrie railroad and steamboat line operating. between Charleston and suburban towns and resorts; is vice president and general manager of the Charleston Hotel Company, and is interested in other representative enterprises in his home city.
He is deeply interested in the development and ex- tension of his city, as illustrated in his activities in founding and managing the extensive Wagener Ter- race improvements, being the prime mover and prac- tically the sole promoter of same; and he was like- wise connected with the large and important develop- ment of the Hampton Park Terrace and Rose Gar- den properties, which have added so materially to the enlargement and beauty of his town.
GEORGE F. VON KOLNITZ, JR. The name von Kol- nitz has been a prominent one in the Charleston bar for many years. George F. von Kolnitz, Jr., though a young lawyer, has won a secure prestige at the bar, and during the past several years dur- ing the absence of his father in New York and the other member of his firm in France has han- dled a large part of the local business alone.
He was born at Charleston January 19, 1891, a son of George F. and Sarah C. ( Holmes) von Kolnitz. His father was a native of Charleston, and the grandfather, who bore the same name, was born in the same city. The great-grandfather, Henry von Kolnitz, was a native of Hanover, Ger- many, and came from Germany direct to Charles- ton, where for many years he was a rice planter and miller. The father of Henry von Kolnitz was an officer in the Prussian army during the Napol- eonic era in Europe. He was shot by a soldier of Napoleon by the direct order of the Emperor.
Saralı C. Holmes, mother of the young Charles- ton lawyer, was the daughter of Prof. Francis S. Holmes, who discovered phosphate rock in South Carolina. Through his mother Mr. von Kolnitz is a direct descendant of Landgrave Smith, a colo- nial governor of South Carolina.
Mr. von Kolnitz, Jr., was educated in the College of Charleston, graduating in 1909, and was a student in the University of Pennsylvania during 1909-II. He was admitted to the bar May 3, 1912, and at once engaged in practice with his father and John B. Farrow in the firm of von Kolnitz & Farrow. Mr. von Kolnitz married Miss Alice Putnam Gadsden, daughter of Norman P. and Mary (Hughes) Gadsden. Mrs. von Kolnitz died Janu- ary 17, 1919, leaving one son, George F. III, who was born in 1914. Mr. von Kolnitz is a member of the Charleston Club, Charleston Country Club, Carolina Yacht Club, the Woodmen of the World, the Kappa Alpha College Society, and is an active democrat.
JOHN P. DEVEAUX has been a well known man in the financial and commercial affairs of Charleston for many years, and left banking to become president of the Consumers Coal Company, an organization which he still directs.
He was born at Charleston September 1, 1861, and his ancestry in the paternal line is that of one of the oldest Huguenot families in the Carolinas.
In the War of the Revolution as was the case with many families, there were representatives on both sides. Col. Andrew DeVeaux, a daring Roy- alist, recaptured and held the Island of New Provi- dence for the King, of which a spirited account may be read in Johnson's "Traditions of the Revo- lution."
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George S van Mobning
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Les. a. Kraft
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The original home of the family was Beaufort, South Carolina.
Both the father and grandfather of the subject of this sketch bore the name John Porteous De Veaux and were born in Charleston. His father served with conspicuous gallantry as a lieutenant in the Confederate army during the war between the states. The mother was Martha Angela Ward, a native of Charleston. Her mother, Mary Gowdy Johnson, was of a family distinguished in the Colonial annals of the state. Through this branch Mr. DeVeaux is of Seotch and English ancestry.
He is the oldest in a family of three sons and one daughter. After leaving high school he took up commercial work and in 1881, at the age of twenty, was appointed a deputy in a county office. For four years he was also custom inspector during Cleve- land's administration. Mr. De Veaux for twenty-one years faithfully served the First National Bank of Charleston, sixteen years of that time being senior teller. In 1910 he became president of the Consum- ers Coal Company.
In October, 1886, he married Harriet Holmes Green, a daughter of Rev. J. Mercier Green of Charleston. They have two sons and one daughter, Jolin Porteous, Mercier Green and Marian Edith. The daughter is the wife of Frank C. Riddick.
Mr. De Veaux is a past master of Orange Lodge No. 14, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, is a past chancellor commander of Carolina Lodge No. 9, Knights of Pythias, a past consul commander of Live Oak Camp, Woodmen of the World, and is a member of Camp Sumter of the United Confederate Veterans. Ile also belongs to the Elks, Chamber of Commerce and has been active in politics. He was a member of Governor Heyward's staff.
REV. GEORGE A. KRAFT. As pastor of St. Mary's Church Father Kraft is occupant of a position dig- nified by the historic associations of more than a century and a quarter and in fact one of the old- est Catholic churches of the South.
The site and original building of St. Mary's was secured August 24, 1789, nearly a year before the first American Catholic bishop, John Carroll, was consecrated, thereby establishing the American Hierarchy of the church. The original building was purchased from a Protestant congregation, and this building was in use until the great fire of 1838, when it was replaced by the edifice still standing, which in turn has been frequently improved and refurnished.
St. Mary's has been well called the mother church of all the Catholic congregations now found in the three states of North and South Carolina and Georgia. ' While the history of the church has been continuous since it was founded, its course en- countered vicissitudes, including the noted "Charles- ton Schism" of 1815-18, the devastation caused by the Charleston fire of 1838, and the interruption of church services while Charleston was exposed to the fire of Federal war vessels during the War between the States. Several prominent Catholic clergymen have served St. Mary's during the last century. One of the best known in the period before the war was Dr. James A. Corcoran, assist- ant to Dr. Baker, whose service was one of the
longest, concluding with his death in 1870. One of the best beloved priests was Father Claudian B. Northrop, who succeeded Dr. Baker, and was pastor until his death in 1882. Father J. D. Wool- ahan succeeded him as pastor until 1890. Rev. J. D. Budds and Monsignor P. L. Duffy served short terms, and in 1894 Rey. Dr. T. F. Hopkins became pastor.
Father George A. Kraft, who has been rector of St. Mary's since 1901, was born in Baltimore, Mary- land, October 18, 1868. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Frederick Kraft, were natives of Germany, his father of Wuertemberg and his mother of Bavaria. Father Kraft attended the parish school of the Holy Cross Church, the public schools of Baltimore, and completed his classical studies at Loyola College in Baltimore, receiving his Mas- ter's degree with the highest honors. For one year he taught in St. Charles College at Ellicott City, Maryland, and another year at Gonzaga College, Washington. He began his theological course in St. Sulpice Seminary, Paris, France, and complet- ed it at Mount St. Mary's College, Emmittsburg, Maryland. Prior to his ordination to the priest- hood he taught one year in the parochial school at Littletown, Pennsylvania. He was ordained Decem- ber 21, 1895, in the Cathedral at Baltimore by his Eminence Cardinal Gibbons.
Father Kraft came to Charleston in January, 1896. For one year he was assistant at the Cathe- dral and missionary at Beaufort and surroundings. In November, 1896, he was appointed rector of St. Peter's Church for colored Catholics, and in Sep- tember, 1901, became rector of St. Mary's to suc- ceed Dr. Hopkins, resigned.
Father Kraft has many business qualifications for service in a post of so much dignity and responsi- bility as St. Mary's, which is not only an old church but is thoroughly cosmopolitan in the complexion of its congregation and its services. He is a mem- ber of the Bishop's Council, and examiner of the clergy of the diocese; was for six years chaplain of the local council, Knights of Columbus; was superintendent of the Catholic schools three years. Father Kraft has found his gift as a linguist a means of increasing the effective service of St. Mary's. On the occasion of the visit to Charleston Harbor of foreign vessels, Father Kraft has many times addressed the crews from his pulpit in their native language. He has a fluent command of the English, German, French and Italian, and also a fair knowledge of Spanish.
For two years he was editor of the South Caro- lina Catholic. He is author of a history of his home parish in Baltimore, and is the only honorary member of the "Societe Francaise" and wrote its constitution in English for the use of its present membership.
WILLIAM Y. STEVENS. Captain Stevens is a rep- resentative of one of the old and honored families of Charleston County, South Carolina, and, like other members of the family, he has been long and prominently identified with navigation interests. He is now vice president of the Stevens Line Com- pany, engaged in a general passenger, freight and towing business throughout the coast-island waters
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of South Carolina, with residence and business head- quarters on Yonges Island in Charleston County. Of the importance and operations of this company more specific data may be found on other pages, in the sketch of the career of Capt. Joseph S. Stevens, an older brother of him whose name introduces this review.
Capt. William Yates Stevens. was born at Legare- ville, Johns Island, Charleston County, on the 9th of August, 1871, and is a son of Daniel Augustus Stevens and Agnes Isabel ( Yates) Stevens, the for- mer of whom was born on Johns Island and the lat- ter in the City of Charleston, she being a daughter of Rev. William B. Yates, who gave many years "of devoted service as a sea chaplain and who main- tained his home at Charleston until his death, the lineage of the Yates family tracing back to Welsh origin.
Daniel Augustus Stevens was reared and educated in the maritime district of Charleston, and was one of the gallant young southern sons who went forth in defense of the Confederacy when the Civil war was precipitated on the nation. He served with the rank of first lieutenant in a South Carolina Regi- ment, and after the close of the war, in 1865, re- turned to his native island. Later he resided for a time in the City of Charleston, and he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives on Edisto Island. He was a son of Dr. William Stevens, who for many years was established in the practice of medicine on Johns Island. Doctor Stevens was a son and namesake of Dr. William Stevens, Sr., who served as a surgeon with the patriot forces in the War of the Revolution and who was captured by the British. He was taken to England, where for nine months he was held a prisoner in the historic Tower of London. After his release he returned to South Carolina, where he passed the remainder of his life.
Daniel Augustus Stevens died about the year 1905, and his widow still maintains her home on Edisto Island. Of their six children one died in early childhood; Capt. Joseph S., eldest of the number, is individually mentioned on other pages of this work; Jennie, now deceased, was the wife of Cecil Wescott, of Edisto Island; William Y. is the immediate sub- ject of this sketch; Daniel Augustus, Jr., is a resi- dent of White Point, South Carolina; and Mary Gertrude is the wife of William Bailey, of Edisto Island.
To the schools of Edisto Island William Yates Stevens is indebted for his early education, and he was only fifteen years old when he initiated his service in connection with navigation interests. He worked on various boats sailing from South Carolina ports, later was connected with navigation on the Great Lakes, with headquarters in the State of New York, in 1893, but for the past twenty years he has been associated with his elder brother, Capt. Joseph S. Stevens, in successful and independent enterprise incidental to navigation interests about Charleston, where he is now vice president of the Stevens Line Company. The Stevens Line operates three steam- boats of modern type and also two motor boats, as well as a number of tugs. One of their steamers operates in connection with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, and a substantial and prosperous passenger and freighting business is controlled by the cor-
poration. The company is at the present time giving attention to the development and improvement of Folly Beach, which is destined to be one of the most attractive resorts in the metropolitan district of Charleston.
Captain Stevens is a popular and appreciative member of the Sea Island Yacht Club, of which he is serving as commodore at the time of this writing, in 1920. He holds membership in the Pilots' Asso- ciation of Charleston-Palmetto llarbor, No. 74. and is affiliated with the Jacksonboro Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. He is well known in the mari- time and business circles of Charleston and in a generic sense it may consistently be said that his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances.
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