USA > South Carolina > History of South Carolina > Part 29
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Mr. Thompson was born September 1, 1855, son of Beverly L. and Mary (Welborn) Thompson, and a grandson of James and Harriet (McElroy) Thompson. James Thompson was a native of Lau- rens County, moved to Greenville County where he married, and afterward settled in Anderson County, where he was a member of the farming community many years. He and his wife had children named Annie, Beverly L., Lizzie, William, Dorlie, Sallie and Josie. The son Dorlie died while in the Con- federate army and Beverly L. Thompson left home to join the Confederate army and after one of the engagements was reported among the missing and his subsequent fate was never definitely determined. His wife, Mary Welborn, was a daughter of Wil- liam and Nancy (Wadell) Welborn and was also born in Anderson County, where she died several years after the war. Beverly Thompson and wife had children named James Robert, William Walker, Lawrence R., Nannic and John Thompson.
James Robert Thompson has always lived in close communion with farming and rural interests. He had to start with limited education and with practically no financial aid and has achieved success, the more gratifying to him because it has enabled him to give his own children superior educational advantages.
In 1877 he married Florence Magnolia Williams, a daughter of Jasper and Naney (Gambrell) Wil- liams, of Anderson County, where she was born. Her paternal grandparents were Richard and Mary
A.m. Jumphice,
Labert Clean
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(Berry) Williams and her maternal grandparents, John and Mary ( Harper) Gambrell. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are members of the Lebanon Baptist Church. Their children are : Beverly Harmon, Beula C., a trained nurse; Nannie Jane, wife of Marcus King; Sallie, wife of Arthur King; Robert Francis and John Allen, twins; Alma Florence, wife of Perry William Jayroe; and Charles Frank Thompson.
ROBERT WILSON, M. D. The office of dean of the Medical College of the state of South Carolina is a significant and appropriate distinction for a physician whose work has met increasing appreciation in Charleston for over a quarter of a century, and who has never failed to exert his Influence for the eleva- tion of the standards of his profession and in behalf of the general welfare of his community.
On other pages is sketched the career of his father, Rev. Dr. Robert Wilson, one of the most prominent clergymen of the state. Dr. Robert Wil- son, Jr., was born at Statesburg. South Carolina, August 23, 1867. He was educated in private schools, the College of Charleston, and graduated in 1892 from the Medical College of the State of South Carolina. In 1887 he received the Bachelor of Arts degree from South Carolina College and thirty-one years later, in 1918, that institution honored his services in the interim by conferring upon him the LL. D. degree. After graduating from med- ical college he spent some time in further prepara- tion at New York City, but for more than a quarter of a century has been busily engaged in the work of his profession as a physician at Charleston. He is a member of the American Medical Association, Southern Medical Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is a member of several Charleston social and civic organizations. He was elected president of the State Medical As- sociation in 1905, the Southern Medical Association in 1916, and is now president of the Medical Society of Charleston. He is a member of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuber- culosis and the American Climatological and Clinical associations.
For many years Doctor Wilson has been a promi- nent member of the faculty of instruction of the Medical College of the State of South Carolina. He was instructor in bacteriology from 1889 to 1900, adjunct professor from 1901 to 1903, professor of medicine since 1904, and since 1908 dean of the Medical College. He has also served as chairman of the South Carolina State Board of Health since 1907. During the World war he was a member of the District Board for the Eastern District of South Carolina, being stationed most of the time in Co- Inmbia.
In 1895 he married Harriet Chisolm Cain, daugh- ter of J. Calhoun Cain of Pinopolis, South Caro- lina. Their three children are Robert, Harriet C. and James M.
ROBERT WELBORN PICKENS represents one of the very oldest and most prominent families in South Carolina, one whose patriotism is attested by serv- ice in every great war in which this country has been engaged. Mr. Pickens, who was a youthful
soldier of the Confederacy, has lived a prosperous life in Brushy Creek Township of Anderson County, near the farm where he was born August 31, 1847.
He is a direct descendant of Robert Pickens, who was born in Ireland, in 1697, of French Huguenot stock. This Robert Pickens moved to Maryland, while his brothers, John and Andrew moved to Pennsylvania, and they were the founders of the family of that name in the United States. His son, Robert Pickens was born in Maryland in 1747, and was eight years of age when brought to South Carolina. He was a patriot soldier in the struggle for American independence and served as captain under Gen. Andrew Pickens. After that war he removed from Long Cane Creek in Abbeville Coun- ty and received in 1784 a land warrant for 250 acres in Brushy Creek Township. Anderson County, then the Ninety-Sixth District. The original copy of that historic document is now in the possession of Rob- ert Welborn Pickens. The 250 acres granted by this conveyance has never been out of the possession of the Pickens family. It was inherited from the Revolutionary soldier by his son Robert, grand- father of Robert Welborn Pickens. Robert Pickens, the Revolutionary soldier, died in Brushy Creek Township in 1831, in his eighty-fourth year.
Col. William S. Pickens, father of Robert W. Pickens, was a native of Brushy Creck Township, and lived to be eighty-three years of age. He was a highly successful farmer and one of the most prom- inent and influential citizens in the county for many years. His first wife was Julia Welborn, and they had sons named Robert Welborn, William H., An- drew W. and Charles W. The youngest died in childhood. Colonel Pickens married for his second wife Emaline (Oliver) Smith. She was the mother of Nancy E., Mary F., James Oliver, Ida Lee and Prudence Irene Pickens.
Robert Welborn Pickens has lived his busy and industrious life in the same country where he was born and reared. He acquired an academic educa- tion, and from September 1, 1864, to May 2, 1865, was a soldier of the Confederacy, coming out of the army when still under eighteen years of age. His father, Colonel Pickens, was also in the Confederate army during the last six months of the struggle. Robert W. Pickens taught school for five years dur- ing his early manhood, and served as public school trustee sixteen years, but farming has been his chief occupation. He is an active member of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, Sontlı.
In 1871 he married Catherine Wigington. They hecame the parents of Virginia. Maggie, Robert, Marion Elihu, Truman, Andrew, Prudence (who died young), and Lura. Truman was a soldier of the World war, having volunteered on the Ist of June, 1917, and served in the Third Division of the Amer- ican army in France. Another son, Andrew, is a Baptist minister, and during part of the World war period was engaged in Y. M. C. A. work in the army camps at Fort Screven. Georgia, Camp Shelby, Mississippi, and Plattsburg, New York. Robert and Andrew have been family names, from the Hugue- not ancestor, in every generation of the Pickens family during eight generations and now living in almost every state in the United States.
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SAMUEL MARION WOLFE, attorney general for South Carolina, had in addition to ten years of suc- cessful law practice at Anderson many other de- cided qualifications for his present high post. Before he entered the law he was a successful teacher and distinguished himself during his student life at Furman University.
His father, Samuel C. Wolfe, was for many years engaged in business at Charlotte, North Carolina. His mother, Ida May Mobley, was a native of Lan- caster County, South Carolina, and related to the Ervins and Marions, some of the most conspicuous families of the state. Mr. Wolfe had an ancestor in both the maternal and paternal line in the battles of the Revolutionary war. Many of the families were represented in the armies of the Confederacy.
Samuel M. Wolfe was four years old when huis father died, and he grew up in South Carolina re- ceiving most of his education and training at the hands of his mother, who desired that he become a minister. He attended night school while em- ployed in the day, was educated in the high schools and the Patrick Military Institute; and after two years there, entered Furman University at Green- ville, where he graduated in the classical course in 1903, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. At Furman University he was one of the ahlest de- baters and orators, carrying away many prizes for his original thought and eloquence. He represented Furman in the intercollegiate contest and was also class president, president of his literary society, connected with the college papers, editor in chief of the college annual, and a member of the Glee, and Dramatic clubs and was much interested in athletics.
After leaving Furman he taught high school for three years, reading law in the meantime, and so far as his finances permitted pursued the regular study of law in South Carolina University. After his admission to the bar he began practice at Ander- son, and was honored by election as president of the Anderson Bar Association. He was a prominent member of the Legislature from Anderson in 1914- 16, and in 1918 was nominated for the office of attorney general, in the democratic primary. After his election in the general election of 1918 he as- sumed the duties of this office in January, 1919, for a term of two years. His record in the attorney general's office has thus far been one of signal suc- cess. The work has been unprecedented in char- acter and volume and several cases of much import- ance to the state have been won for the state.
CHESTER MARTIN DUCWORTH is an old resident of Anderson County, has been a practical farmer for over forty years, and in that time has seen some of his best ambitions realized and his reasonable desires fulfilled.
He was born in Anderson County March 18, 1853, one of eleven children, whose parents were William and Frances (Brezeale) Ducworth. His father spent several years in the uniform of the Confederate sol- dier, otherwise was a farmer, and he and his wife were life-long Baptists. Chester Martin Ducworth is a brother of the late Dr. John Griffin Dueworth, one of the most prominent physicians of Anderson County.
In his home community Mr. Ducworth is always known as "Ches." Ducworth. His early life was spent
on a farm. In that period occurred the war and re- construction and there was little chance to get a formal education. Hard work and a constant exer- eise of his strong native faculties have brought him many of the results which men of superior school advantages would envy. Farming has been his life occupation. He has never become a large land owner, and has been best satisfied with good farm- ing. His home lies west of Five Forks, where he has lived many years and has reared an interesting family.
In 1876 he married Miss Sallie Margaret Guyton, daughter of Gen. John Washington Guyton, also a Confederate soldier and farmer of Anderson Conn- ty. Mrs. Ducworth was born in that county. To their marriage were born seven children: Daisy, who is an employe of the People's Bank of Anderson; Bessie McCurdy, Rufus McSwain, Lura Lee, Willie Belle, Wylie Carroll and Malcolm G. Two of the sons were soldiers in the World war, Wylie Carroll and Malcolm Guyton. The latter spent his training period in camp in this country. Wylie Carroll went overseas as a member of the Eighty-first Division, Twentieth Engineer Corps. Mr. and Mrs. Ducworth are members of the Lebanon Baptist Church.
JAMES HENRY EARLE, proprietor of the Central Garage at Anderson, is a business man of wide and varied experience, formerly connected with the Southern Express Company, and later in the whole- sale grocery business.
He was born on his father's farm, "Engleside," in Anderson County, February 5, 1870, son of Rev. Julius R. and Lucy Ann (Brockman) Earle. His parents were natives of this state, his father of Eng- fish and his mother of Scotch-Irish lineage. Julius R. Earle merited the high esteem he enjoyed in An- derson County, where he operated a farm, provided a living for his family from agriculture, and devoted much of his time to preaching the gospel.
James Henry Earle, who was one of a large family of thirteen children, spent his early life on the farm and acquired a common school education. He was a student for two years in high school, and started the battle of life for himself as clerk in a general store at Deans. A year later he was made transfer clerk for the Southern Express Company at Palatka, Florida and was transferred as cashier by the company to Gainesville, Florida. During the period of the Spanish- American war he was in the transfer department of the Southern Express Company at Port Tampa, later at Tampa as cashier, and for one year was the company's agent at Havana, Cuba. From September, 1901, to May, 1902, he was again cashier at Tampa, and then resigned to engage in the wholesale and retail grocery business at Gainesville, Florida. The business was first conducted under the firm name of O'Donald, Saunders & Earle, and later as Saund- ers & Earle. Mr. Earle disposed of his interests in September, 1910, and after seven months of travel throughout the United States and Canada returned to his native county in February, 1911, and with his brother, under the name Earle Brothers, engaged in the automobile and garage business. Mr. Earle in 1914 acquired his brother's interest and is now sole proprietor. He has a large patronage and carries a general line of automobile supplies and does general repair work.
Samen wolfe
WILLIAM F. CARR
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In 1900 he married Miss Carrie Pringle, of Sumter, South Carolina. Their daughter, Victoria, was born in 1901. Mfr. and Mrs. Earle are members of the Baptist Church and lie is a Royal Arch Mason.
WILLIAM LATIMER BRISSEY. In his position as president of the W. L. Brissey Lumber Company of Anderson, Mr. Brissey is directing head of a busi- ness for the upbuilding of which he is directly and chiefly responsible. In his early manhood he pos- sessed little beyond industry and sound mechanical intelligence, and on the basis of hard and con- tinuous work has gained an influential place among the business men of this prominent city of South Carolina.
He was born on a farm in Greenville County Janu- ary 23, 1866, and a year later his parents, Jesse A. and Fannie (Rodgers) Brissey, also natives of Greenville County, moved to Pickens County. Jesse A. Brisscy operated a wheat, corn and saw mill and cotton gin in Pickins County. William Latimer Bris- sey grew up in Pickens County, and in the intervals of his school attendance worked in his father's mills. In 1889 the family moved to Pelzer, where father and son combined their efforts as carpenters. A few years later they moved to Anderson, continuing their work as carpenters. After three years W. L. Brissey and Jesse M. Smith as partners engaged in the lum- ber business in a small way and with very limited capital. After four years Mr. Brissey sold his in- terest. The W. L. Brisscy Company was incorpor- ated in 1907, and Mfr. Brisscy is president. He owns two-thirds of the stock of the company. This cor- poration has enjoyed a constant increase of business and is one of the leading concerns of its kind in Anderson County. It handles lumber stock from all sections of the country, but the company also works up much native timber, operating a saw mill and producing great quantities of mill work in their planing mill.
Mr. Brissey has served two terms as an alderman of Anderson, is a democrat, a trustee of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Woodmen of the World, Travelers Pro- tective Association and the Anderson Rotary Club. In 1886 he married Miss Mattie Holcombe.
SAMUEL MASSEY KILGORE. For nearly three- quarters of a century the Kilgore family has been one of the most constructive in the community of Spartanburg County, of which Woodruff is the center. Samuel Massey Kilgore has been a business man of that town for a quarter of a century and is also an extensive planter. His personal influ- ences and his resources have again and again been used to promote the improvement and welfare of his community in business, civic, educational and moral movements.
Hle was born at his father's plantation on the Enoree River in Spartanburg County in 1860. His birthplace and where the family has lived for many years is six miles below Woodruff. He is a son of Dr. B. F. and Frances Amanda (Massey) Kilgore and a grandson of Josiah Kilgore. Josiah was born and spent most of his life in Greenville County and was a man of prominence in Upper Carolina. For a number of years he held the office
of state surveyor, with offices in the capitol at Columbia. Dr. B. F. Kilgore was a physician by profession and made that vocation a means of wide and important service to his community in Spartanburg County, where he located about 1850. Before the war between the states he was a mem- ber of the Legislature and was a signer of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession. During the war he was a military surgeon in the Confed- crate army. His mother was Harriet Mildred Ben- son, daughter of Joshua Benson of Columbia. Joshua Benson was one of the first settlers of Columbia, built the first brick house and was one of the early city officials. He also helped establish the Presbyterian cemetery at Columbia, where he is buried. The Kilgores are of Scotch-Irish Pres- byterian stock, and in the various generations have exemplified all the sterling character and stability of the best of that race. Dr. B. F. Kilgore's wife was a daughter of Capt. Ben Massey of Lancas- ter County.
Samuel Massey Kilgore removed from his farm on the Enoree River to Woodruff in 1892, but still exercises close oversight of his planting interests. He owns a fine farm near where he was born and much other valuable land in Spartanburg County, besides business and resident property in Woodruff. For a quarter of a century he has been a cotton buyer and in the insurance business at Woodruff.
Much of his influence in public affairs has been directed to the improvement of educational facil- ities. He was largely instrumental in having built the present fine public school at Woodruff. For several years he has been a member of the County Board of Education and is an elder in the First Presbyterian Church.
He married for his first wife Miss Lillie Hunter. She was the mother of six children, Janie Massey, Mildred C., Ben M., W. Belton, Helen Mills and Mary Benson Kilgore. For his present wife Mfr. Kilgore married Estelle Rca, who was born in Providence Township of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. They have three children, Roberta, Adeline and Samuel Rea.
His oldest son, Ben M. Kilgore, a graduate of the University of South Carolina, saw twelve months of active service in France. He entered the officers' training camp at Fort Oglethorpe, was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Eighty-Sec- ond Division of the Field Artillery, and since his return from overseas has engaged in business at Woodruff.
MRS. ADA O. (SMOAK) CARR. One of the highly esteemed ladies of this part of South Carolina is Afrs. Ada O. (Smoak) Carr of Meggetts. She is a native of the state, having been born at Orangeburg, and her entire life has been spent within its confines. Here she was reared by careful parents and given advantages which developed her abilities, and she is one of the most charming and cultured ladies of her neighborhood.
Mrs. Carr is a daughter of Samuel P. and Ella ( Baldwin) Smoak, both of whom were born in South Carolina, in Orangeburg County, where they grew to maturity and were married. There they spent their useful lives, and, dying, were laid to rest side by side. Both the Smoak and Baldwin families
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are old ones in the state, the former having been established here by representatives of it from Eng- land, and the latter by those from New York. Samuel P. Smoak and his excellent wife became the parents of ten children, of whom Mrs. Carr is the fifth in order of birth.
In 1898 Ada O. Smoak was united in marriage with William Franklin Carr and after the first year of her marriage has resided at Meggetts ever since. Mr. Carr died of the influenza October 16, 1918, after ten days' illness and after pneumonia had de- veloped. He was born in South Carolina November 14, 1870, a son of H. M. and Agnes ( Staley) Carr. He was educated in South Carolina. He was a Mason and Shriner, an Elk and a member of the Eastern Star. Mrs. Carr is also an Eastern Star.
Mr. Carr was a successful man and gained a multitude of friends. He formed a partnership with Henry Carlton in the general produce business, which lasted several years. The Carr home was built by Mr. Carr.
Mr. and Mrs. Carr became the parents of three children, namely: Samuel P., Alva F. and Enid F. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Carr has de- voted herself to the rearing of her children, al- though she takes the interest to be expected from one of her intellectual attainments in local affairs, and gives her support to movements looking toward a betterment of existing conditions and a general moral uplift.
GEORGE FREDERICK TOLLY. With the death of
- George Frederick Tolly at Anderson, January I, 1910, that city lost one of its oldest residents, and one who had played many useful roles in its upbuild- ing and progress. Mr. Tolly was a man of first rate ability, strong and resourceful in business affairs, upright and the soul of honesty in all that con- cerned his relations with the public, and he fully earned and merited every measure of respect and esteein paid him.
He was born in Prussia, Germany, November 4, 1835, and in 1850, at the age of fifteen, came to America with his father, John Tolly. They located at Baltimore, where the son soon begati an appren- ticeship at the cabinet maker's trade. Six years later he came to South Carolina, and after a brief sojourn in Greenville located at Anderson, where he made his home for more than half a century. In 1858 he opened a shop as a cabinet maker, and was busily engaged in the service represented in such a shop until the opening of the war. He at once volunteered, enlisting in April, 1861, in Company B, of the Fourth South Carolina Regiment. He served one year, the term of his enlistment, and then en- tered Company C, of the Palmetto Regiment of Sharpshooters. With that noted command he re- mained until taken prisoner in battle, and spent more than a year in the Federal prison at Rock Island, Illinois. He was wounded in the battle of Frazer's Farm, though not seriously injured.
With the same courage he had faced the hard- ships and dangers of a soldier's life he resumed his career after the war, meeting and overcoming many difficulties in a time of abject poverty for all the South. In addition to cabinet making he took up what was then considered the closely affiliated trade
of undertaking, and also became a dealer in ready made furniture. In 1890 his son George M. Tolly was admitted to partnership, and since then the title of this business house has been G. F. Tolly & Son. It is one of the oldest firms of its kind in South Carolina, and the title of the organization continued not only because the old name is an asset in itself, but as an appropriate memorial to the founder and upbuilder of the business. It is engaged both in a retail and wholesale furniture business, and its un- dertaking department has for years been one of the most perfect organizations of its kind. Its large volume of business was achieved through the original policy of the late Mr. Tolly in insisting upon qual- ity as the supreme test of all the merchandise handled. George M. Tolly is now head of the con- cern, and is one of Anderson's most prominent and progressive business men.
The late George F. Tolly served three consecu- tive terms as intendant at Anderson, and after An- derson was incorporated as a city he served seventeen years as mayor. This public service was rendered not without much sacrifice on his part, both to his business and to the pleasures of his home life. In that as in every other relation of his life he was faithful, dignified and efficient. He was a stanch democrat, and for many years served as ruling elder of the First Presbyterian Church at Anderson. He was also a Mason.
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