USA > South Carolina > History of South Carolina > Part 24
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ultimate success of the movement for which he is laboring so unselfishly Mr. Wannamaker finds great happiness. For he loves the South with a passionate devotion. He always identifies it with those whom lie loves and sees suffering as the results of the un- fortunate Civil war. But this southernism in Mr. Wannamaker is in reality not sectionalism. He does not set South over against North or East. He is every inch a good American. By contributing his part towards removing unjust economic conditions that have long enslaved the South and thus bringing to this part of our great country the prosperity that it has every right to enjoy, he knows that he will have done a great duty and brought a great blessing, not only to the South, but to the whole country.
The American Cotton Association is truly to be congratulated that it has at its head such a leader-a striking and original personality, one whose integrity is beyond all possible doubt, whose ability has been proved in his own personal success as a thinking business man, whose devotion to its interests is ab- solutely unselfish and without thought of future per- sonal profit, and whose confidence in its success, with the great blessings to result from the success, is so deep and unshakable as to inspire all who know him and work with him. Mr. Wannamaker sees his visions and dreams his dreams; but his long carcer as a practical, common-sense worker in the world assures all who know him that he is far from being a visionary or a dreamer. He is, in the words of a great governor of a great state, "the livest wire of them all"; and the elemental forces that give life to the wire are faith, hope and love.
DAVID DUNCAN WANNAMAKER, a son of J. E. Wannamaker, has exemplificd many of the best traditions of the Wannamaker family, whose influ- ence has been historic in the development of South Carolina's agricultural resources,
Mr. Wannamaker was born in St. Matthews No- vember 8, 1881, and was liberally educated. He attended common schools, graduated from Wofford College at Spartanburg in 1901, and followed that with a course in the Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. For one year he was in the advertising business, and had some varied business experience before returning to his native state and settling down to his real vocation. For two years he lived at Paris, Texas, spent two years in Norfolk, Virginia, and one year in San Francisco. For over ten years his time and energies have been devoted to extensive operations as a farmer at St. Matthews, where he owns, leases and operates about nine hundred acres. He is a diversified farmer, growing cotton, corn, livestock and general food products.
Mr. Wannamaker is a director in the Calhoun Agricultural and Investment Company, of St. Mat- thews, which is planting 1,000 acres. He is a Mason and a member of the Methodist Church, and has found no time for politics so far. June 8, 1907, he married Lucile Craig, daughter of T. D. Craig, a retired resident of Paris, Texas. They have three children, John Dorrance, Robert Duncan and Richard Craig Wannamaker.
Frank @Yaylay
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FRANK E. TAYLOR. While his life was spent at Charleston, the late Frank E. Taylor was one of the eminent South Carolinians of his generation, his ex- tensive business enterprises, his constructive citizen- ship and his personal character making him widely known outside his home community.
He was born at Charleston, March 22, 1846. His parents were James H. Taylor and Elizabeth Tyler Taylor, and was in direct descent from the Pilgrims of New England, to which stock both his parents belonged. His father, James H. Taylor, who was born in Sunderland, Massachusetts, in 1811, moved to South Carolina in 1830 and settled in Charleston, where he entered the cotton business. Being a ver- satile man, an extensive reader in the sciences and political economy, a collector of rare books and coins, and possessed of keen business ability, James H. Taylor rapidly rose to be one of the foremost citizens of the state. The ancestors of Frank E. Taylor on both sides were among the founders of the republic. The first governors of Massachusetts and Connecti- ent, Governor Wyllys and Governor Haynes, and the noted Col. Nathaniel Terry were his forebears. Hon. Ezra Stiles, an early president of Yale College, had married into the Taylor family, and a great-grand- father of Mr. Taylor had been connected with the founding of Amherst College. Thus in the educa- tional as well as the political life of the nation his ancestors had taken a very prominent part.
Frank E. Taylor was educated at the high school of Charleston and at the Hillsboro Military Academy at Hillsboro, North Carolina. It was while he was a student at this latter school that he left with a sinall company of young men to join the Confederate army in August, 1863. He entered the army, joining Company A of the Hampton Legion under the com- mand of Capt. E. A. Thomas. He was detailed to do scout duty on the peninsula of Virginia, and per- formed this duty with such efficiency and fidelity that he won the approval of his commander. He was in fourteen engagements, including Knoxville, Peters- hurg, Richmond and Appomattox, besides numerous skirmishes in Tennessee and Virginia. He did not surrender at Appomattox, but on April 9, 1865, es- caped through the lines of General Grant's army with a number of others under the command of Gen. Mart W. Gary for the purpose of following President Jefferson Davis. The news of President Davis capture forced him to abandon his original plan. These facts are testified to in a letter written by Captain Thomas to General Gary. Mr. Taylor took his parole at Augusta, Georgia, on May 18, 1865.
After the war Mr. Taylor returned to Charleston and became connected with the firm of George W. Williams and Company, cotton factors and whole- sale merchants of that city, in which firm his father was a partner. Later Mr. Taylor was a member of the firm of Robertson, Taylor & Company, then of Robertson, Taylor & Williams, then of Robertson & Taylor. During this time the Ashepoo Fertilizer Company had been organized under the direction of the firm, and when Robertson & Taylor discontinued business Mr. Taylor was made vice president and general manager of the Ashepoo Fertilizer Company. For over thirty years he was connected with the mining of phosphate rock and the manufacture of fertilizer and was regarded as one of the most ef-
ficient and competent men in this business, whose opinion as an expert was constantly sought. During a large part of his life he was also engaged in the cotton business, both as a cotton factor and a manu- facturer. For a number of years he was president of the Charleston Cotton Exchange.
Mr. Taylor inherited from his father not only busi- ness ability, but likewise possessed a keen analytical mind and fine literary faste and an abiding interest in civic and religious matters. He was a man of strong personality with very decided views about right and justice and with no notion of compromise. He was direct and clear in his statements, having a rare sense of humor, and was at all times an informing and . delightful conversationalist. His religious convic- tions were strong and by faith and education he was a Presbyterian. He never advertised his charities. being content to do his alms in secret, giving liberal- ly and widely to many philanthropic and religious causes. In many respects, like his father, he was far ahead of his time, being of that broad and liberal type of mind with large visions for his people and striving to accomplish great things by virtue of an indomitable will and effective personality. He be- longed to that rare class of men who have con- tributed intelligence, courage, optimism, vision and untiring energy to the state and to the nation.
Mr. Taylor was a trustee of the William Enston Home for the Aged; a director in the Carolina Art Association, which his father had been instrumental in founding; president of the Howard Association, of which his father had been president ; first vice president of the Washington Light Infantry Sur- vivors Association; ex-captain of the Sumter Guards: member of the Huguenot Society; member of the New England Society, of which his father, James H. Taylor, had been secretary and treasurer, and of which society his maternal grandfather, Joseph Tyler, was one of the original members ; member of the South Carolina Society; member of the Charleston Country Club; in point of member- ship one of the oldest members of the Charleston Yacht Club; member of the Sons of the Revolution ; director of the Pacolet Manufacturing Company ; and director in the Carolina Savings Bank. He was also a member of the Port Society of Charleston, which society was organized to do work among the sailors. He was a real friend to the negro, by many of whom he was held in high esteem.
In 1868 he married Clara Scott Wilson, a daugh- ter of Janet Witherspoon Wilson, of Williamsburg, South Carolina. Janet Witherspoon was a descend- ant of the Witherspoons of Scotland, whose names have been closely connected with the history of our country. One of her ancestors, the Rev. John Witherspoon, was president of Princeton College, New Jersey, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The statue of this great patriot and minister of the gospel has in recent years been erected in the National capital.
Of this union there are nine living children The daughters are Harriette Taylor Armstrong, widow of Rev. D. G. Armstrong, of Virginia; a missionary of the Presbyterian Church to Brazil; the Misses Alice R. Taylor, Jeanette Witherspoon Taylor, Ruth Wyllys Taylor. Clara Wilson Taylor, and Mahel Harlakenden Taylor Hyde, wife of Tristram T.
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Hyde, Jr. The sons are : Rev. Dr. James H. Taylor, pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church of Wash- ington, D. C., which church President Woodrow Wilson attends, and formerly chaplain general of the Society of Mayflower Descendants; Dr. John E. Taylor, of Little Rock, Arkansas; and Herbert Tyler Taylor, of Charleston, South Carolina.
On May 18, 1913, while apparently in good health and in fine spirits, Frank E. Taylor died suddenly of cerebral hemorrhage. He was buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston. -
JAMES W. DILLON. In an age of intense indi- vidualism the late James W. Dillon exhibited to rare perfection a breadth of achievement and public spirit that comprehended among its beneficiaries an entire community. Ifis apparently inexhaustible fund of energy and initiative was always guided and domi- nated by a sense of responsibility to mankind, imposed not by law or circumstances, but derived wholly from an inner conscience that is the supreme crown of man's wisdom. Business was to him not a means of acquiring wealth but an instrument of service, and he dignified the idea of service in business long be- fore that word became perverted by constant nse. A long life enabled him to realize an almost perfect fruition of his best hopes and plans. From humble beginnings he became a great merchant, through his business connections encouraged agriculture, pro- moted and secured the building of railways and im- proved transportation facilities, was a benefactor in every phase of progress and increasing welfare in his district, and when after many years of struggle on his part a new city and county were created the honor involved in his name being given to hoth the city and county was an appropriate tribute not only to the efforts extended by him in their behalf, but as a lasting memorial to one of the truly great men of his generation in South Carolina.
His ancestry undoubtedly gave him assets that his character and will converted into distinct ad- vantages. He descended from one of the ancient families of Great Britain and Ireland, where the Dillons for generation after generation were dis- tinguished by their achievements in war and in peace. They possessed many titles and landed estates and for two centuries the Earl of Roscommon in Ireland was a Dillon.
The founder of the family in America was Joshua Dillon, who was born in 1720 near Liverpool, Eng- land. After the death of his mother he was placed in the home of an uncle, a London ship owner, and spent ten years of scafaring life. He first came to America, it is said, about 1737. He made one or more trips back to England, being there in 1775, but soon afterward sailed for America, and he and his brother William were stanch patriots throughout the war for independence. After that war he settled in South Carolina in the upper part of Marion County, near the site of the Town of Little Rock. . Hle died suddenly at the home of his son Henry in Marion District, Angust 1, 1824. when nearly one hundred and four years of age. Like his family for a genera- tion or so preceding he was a stanch Quaker, but evidently reconciled his part in the Revolution with his profession of faith. Joshua Dillon was three times married, and two of the sons of his first wife were
also soldiers in the Revolution. Many descendants of Joshua Dillon have become widely dispersed over the South and Central West. Ilis third wife was Mary Blackwell, and one of their sons, William, was the father of James W. Dillon. William Dillon was a farmer in the old Marion District and married Lucretia Cottingham.
The late James W. Dillon was born November 25. 1826, and was very young when his father died. He had to be satisfied with an education that em- braced only the fundamentals and his early training was largely work in the fields. In 1853, at the age of twenty-seven, he started a modest store at Little Rock. From the first he exemplified those principles of bedrock honesty and justice that were characteris- tic of his entire life and are fundamental in mer- chandising, and soon had the confidence of both the small farmers and the rich planters tributary to Little Rock. At that time the nearest railroad was nearly twenty-five miles away, and all his goods had to be hauled by wagons over rough roads. As a mer- chant he had to accept the prevailing practices of long time credit, establishing his own credit with wholesale markets and extending it to his patrons. During the period of the Civil war many of the accounts on his books became worthless, but when the war was over and at the very earliest opportunity he settled all his bills, dollar for dollar, with north- ern wholesale merchants. This act was in perfect accord with and what might have been expected of his personal integrity, but should be mentioned because it contributed to the general renewal of con- fidence and trade relations hetween the North and the South. After the war Mr. Dillon handled the greater part of the cotton grown in upper Marion County. Soon he opened a private banking institu- tion, and his business affairs grew apace and yet there was scarcely a detail which he did not per- sonally supervise. Altogether it was a period of struggling rehabilitation from the devastation of the war times, and this generous merchant again and again proved his faith in the country and in its peo- ple by extending credit and encouragement to the planters and farmers, so that many a man in that section of the state' owed his start and success in life to the patient consideration and sound advice of Mr. Dillon.
In 1882 he took into partnership his son Thomas A. Dillon, and after that for many years the firm of James W. Dillon & Son continued the merchan- dising, banking and other extensive interests founded by the senior partner. The Town of Dillon was established for the most part on land owned by the firm of J. W. Dillon & Son, who donated to the Florence Railroad Company a half interest in fifty-four acres. The Florence Railway had been partially completed . in 1888, and it was in the fol- lowing year that a branch of the main store at Little Rock was established on the site of the new town. By 1801 this branch store had so grown that the firm abandoned the old site at Little Rock. After that James W. Dillon concentrated his time and energies upon the welfare and prosperity of the town and sought to further its every interest, whether in schools, churches or civic development. In 1003 his extensive business affairs were incorpo- rated as the J. W. Dillon & Son Company, in which
for Dillian
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he held the post of president the rest of his life, though the active duties more and more devolved upon his son, Thomas A. Dillon.
In the eighty-seventh year of his life, James W. Dillon passed away July 29, 1913. He had passed the age of three score and ten, busied with a multi- plicity of commercial and other interests. But the object on which he concentrated his enthusiasm and effort during his later years was the establishment of a new county out of old Marion. The movement for a new county had begun in 1895, but it required fifteen years of agitation, several elections, and all the influence that could be brought to bear upon the Legislature before the bill providing for the creation of Dillon county was signed by the gov- ernor February 5, 1910. In the ceremonies and cele- bration attending the signing of the bill and the cre- ation of the new county James W. Dillon was the central figure, and justly applauded as "father of Dillon County." For years he had worked to that end, and in providing for the new county an ap- propriate scat of government, J. W. Dillon & Son not only donated a half square of land but $25,000 in cash as a birthday gift to the county. Three years before the death of James W. Dillon the court house had been completed at a cost of $100,000, one of the handsomest county buildings in the state.
It was most appropriate that after his death his remains were laid in state in the white marble cor- ridor of the court house. Many of his old friends and fellow citizens will appreciate to read here and recall some of the language of the address delivered by his pastor, Dr. R. M. Stackhouse, summarizing his career and its achievements.
"He began life a poor boy, was early thrown on his own resources, and yet by industry, honesty, square-dcaling and indomitable pluck and perse- verance he accumulated wealth, carved a name for himself, and rose in public esteem and usefulness until he was universally and affectionately known as the father of his town and county. While he made money, he never used it selfishly. The re- verses of the Civil war fell on him in common with all his countrymen, and in the destitution succeed- ing that dreadful struggle it became necessary to conduct the business of the country largely on a credit system. In this emergency Mr. Dillon helped many a man to get on his feet and had it not been for his generosity in extending credit to many fami- lies where there was scarcely a possibility of ever paying him, there would have been little food on many tables in this section and many would have felt the pinch of cold. In addition to his liberality itt supporting schools and churches and other agencies that worked for the common good, it is no exaggeration to say that two or three fortunes, as we counted fortunes in those days, were in his long business career entrusted to the dependent people of this section and never returned to him. He demonstrated again and again that his object in carrying on business was not merely to amass wealth for himself, but to benefit his fellow men, and with- out doubt he goes to his grave with the blessing of more poor people resting on him than any other man we have known.
"For many, many years his whole heart had been listed in his country's development. He began his Vol. III-7
mercantile career in 1853, sixty years ago. At that time much of this country was virgin forest, and what open land there was yielded labor but a scant return. He it was that furnished food and clothes for the labor that cleared the new grounds, dug the ditches and opened our roads. He it was that intro- duced the fertilizers and pioncered the improved agricultural implements that have brought our lands to rate among the best in the state. His influence with railroad officials it largely was that located the A. C. L. Railroad in this section, his generosity in giving half interest in more than fifty-four acres of land it was that located this town where it is, his public spirit and money were prime factors in win- ning the long struggle for the new county. His liberality it largely was that brought the First Methodist Church here into existence, and his will- ingness for his large holdings here to be taxed con- tributed to our successive school buildings and all our public utilities. It was his unbounded faith in Dillon's future that had much to do with project- ing everything here on large lines and with the cre- ation of what has come to be known as the Dillon spirit.
"His love for this town and county was as his love for his own children-tender, warm, provident and unselfish, and was a holy passion that made his life to glow like the bush that burned, yet was not con- sumed. All sections of the county revered and loved him as a father and his death comes as a personal bereavement to all our homes. When this town was named and later when the county was to be named and the question was submitted to popular vote there was but one thought as to what it should be called.
"Mr. Dillon will never be thought of as an old man. Retaining his keen business insight and all his mental faculties in full vigor to the last, and maintaining interest in current issues, he will al- ways be remembered as he was in his prime. After a career of sixty years in business without a stain on his escutcheon, the friend of all men, the bene- factor of the poor, the unselfish patriot, the pure- minded, courteous gentleman, full of years and honors, he sinks to rest by all his country's wishes blest."
James W. Dillon was three times married. His first wife, Harriet Jones, daughter of Allan and Mary Jones, was born February 14, 1834, in Fay- etteville, North Carolina, and died February 1, 1865, She was the mother of four children, the only daughter dying in infancy and also one son, while the two sons to grow up were William Sheppard and Thomas Allan. His second wife was Sallie McLaurin, who was born May 17, 1845, and died July 10, 1885, daughter of Daniel and Mary Mc- Laurin. The two children of this marriage were Daniel McLaurin and Harriet. For his third wife he married Sallie I. Townsend, who was born Feb- ruary 14, 1836, and died February 4, 1904. She was a daughter of Jacob R. and Sophronia Town- send. William S. Dillon, his oldest son, was born February 18, 1854, and died June 19, 1905. He was liberally educated and studied dentistry. He was twice married, his only child being James Dillon. Daniel McLaurin Dillon, the son of James W. Dil- lor by his second wife, was born September 3, 1866,
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and has spent his active life as a farmer. Harriet Dillon, the only daughter to survive infancy, was born April 15, 1869, finished her education at Co- lumbia College, and in 1889 became the wife of Frank B. David, who died July 21, 1901. Her chil- dren were: James W., who died in 1891; Frank Bethea, Jeddie Bristow, William J. and Thomas Dillon David.
Thomas Allan Dillon, who has been described as the counterpart of his father in his keen sense of finance, his genial kindly spirit and his unselfish devotion to the public good, was born August 8, 1861, and acquired a thorough business education in private schools and in Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. As noted above, he became a partner with his father at the age of twenty-one and for practically forty years has borne a great and responsible burden in the buisi- ness and civic life of the City of Dillon. He is president of the Peoples Bank of Dillon, has served as president of the Dillon Wholesale Grocery, the Dillon Land and Improvement Company, an official in the Dillon Oil Mill, Dillon Cotton Mills, and has been mayor and otherwise closely associated with the civic affairs of the community.
BERTE DEAN CARTER. A lawyer who has rapidly made his mark in the profession at Bamberg during the last ten years, Mr. Carter is yet a young man, but knows life from the standpoint of a varied experience that has brought out all of his qualities of self-reliance and has thoroughly tested his resolu- tion to achieve something worthy of his name.
Berte Dean Carter was born near the little Town of Lodge in Colleton County, South Carolina, April 20, 1881, being the fifth son of Miles McMillan and Janie I. Carter (whose life is told elsewhere in this publication), both of whom died when Mr. Carter was quite a small boy. After the death of his father and mother he continued to reside and work on the farm, living with relatives of the family, and at the age of fifteen he had full charge of a five-horse farm. It was a man's job, but he measured up to all the responsibilities of industrious manhood for five years. During this time he had received only such intermit- tent instruction as the common schools of his county afforded, and, being devoted to farm life, he reached the age of twenty years before he was able to realize his ambition for a college education.
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