USA > South Carolina > History of South Carolina > Part 38
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daughter of Thomas Gary, a native of the same commonwealth, who rendered service in the strug- gle for independence.
William Gary Watson grew up on his father's farm and had a common school education. At the age of sixteen he left school to take charge of his mother's farm, and managed it until the breaking out of the war. In March, 1861, he enlisted in Company G of Colonel Orr's Regiment of Rifles, McGowan's Brigade. He was with that command eighteen months, when, on account of hardship and exposure, he was sent home with the rank of ser- geant. He returned home in the fall of 1862. When he entered the army he weighed a hundred and fifty-six pounds, and only ninety-six after eighteen months of service. Two months were spent in recuperating, after which he joined Trenholm's Squadron of Cavalry, and after eight months was transferred to Virginia and placed with the Seventh South Carolina Regiment, Company B, commanded by Col. A. C. Haskell. That was his regular com- mand until the close of the war. On one occasion a ball struck the breech of his gun, glanced and killed his file leader in front. The concussion produced a large carbuncle, but aside from that he escaped unhurt. In the summer of 1864 he was de- tailed to take charge of the broken-down horses of his command, his duty being to recruit and pre- pate them for further service. That was his work until the close of the war.
It required real courage and great resolution to take up the duties of civil life immediately after the war, but Mr. Watson felt the spur of duty and farmed his mother's place until he married and established a home of his own.
January 24, 1866, he married Amanda E. Allen. They then settled on a farm just south of the City of Anderson and began that happy domestic life which continued until the death of Mr. Watson thirty-seven years later. While his time was de- voted to his farm and its affairs, he became inter- ested in mercantile, banking and cotton mill enter- prises at Anderson. He was a high class business man, honest and square and well deserved the trib- ute paid him by an old friend, who said: "He was a gentleman of the old school, square in his busi- ness transactions, a true friend and a useful citizen." For years he was a valued member of the Baptist Church, and Mrs. Watson continues to share a part in the same denomination. Mrs. Watson resides in the beautiful city home, 2317 South Main Street, An- derson. She is a daughter of Charles P. and Sarah (Clayton) Allen, her father a native of Abbeville County and her mother of Pickens County. Both the Clayton and Allen families have been identified with South Carolina for several generations.
Mr. and Mrs. Watson became the parents of six children : Charles David; Haskell, deceased; Mary, always called Minnie, widow of Engene Milford; Walter Gary, deceased; John Fulwar Watson, a well known business man of Anderson, and Sarah, wife of Rev. Charles Burts, a Baptist minister. Mrs. Watson's grandson, Eugene Milford, Jr., was a soldier in the World war as a member of the Thirtieth Division, and is now in business at Greenwood, South Carolina.
JAMES WILLIAM ESKIW, who fought for the canse of the Confederacy during his young manhood, has spent a busy and useful lifetime of over fourscore years, and the greater part of it as a farmer. He has been a large land owner and still owns a fine home plantation in Centerville Township of Ander- son County, on Rural Route No. 4 out of the City of Anderson.
He was born in Pickens County March 22, 1837, a son of William Elliott and Catherine (Burriss) Eskew, and a grandson of Samuel Eskew, who was a native of this state and of Scotch descent. Wil- liam E. Eskew was born near the City of Anderson and his wife in Anderson County. All their eleven children grew up in Anderson County, where Will- iam E. Eskew settled in 1843. At that time he located on land now owned by his son James William in Centerville Township. Five of the sons were Confederate soldiers, Jacob, James William, Isham B., Josepli A. and John. Isham B. was killed in battle. The parents were Baptists in religion.
James William Eskew grew up on the home farm, and except for his service in the war remained at home until he was thirty-five years of age.
Mr. Eskew married Mollie Wheeler, a native of Georgia, and he and his wife then lived with her parents in Franklin County, that state, until their death. Mr. Eskew then bought the Wheeler farm and altogether remained a resident of Georgia about ten years. He then bought the old plantation where he spent his childhood and has lived there ever since. For this farm he paid $1,400, but it is now much more valuable. Mr. Eskew taught school for thirteen years in Anderson County and two years in Franklin County, Georgia, and acquired his own education in the country schools. He is a member of the New Prospect Baptist Church and has been church clerk for many years.
Mrs. Eskew died February 22, 1919, after they had been married nearly half a century. She was seventy-one years of age when she died. Five of their children grew up: John R. and William E., both farmers near the old home; Carrie, wife of Alonzo R. McLeese, also a fariner of Centerville Township; Mattie, who died at the age of seventeen ; and J. Frank, a carpenter in the City of Anderson.
SAMUEL NEWTON BROWNE. The ownership of a big farm, the cultivation of many acres of cotton and a growing multiplicity of business affairs have been the distinctive portion of the life of Samuel Newton Browne, who for over forty-five years has been a resident of Centerville Township, Anderson County.
He was born in that township November 14, 1853, a son of Newton and Jane D. (Morris) Browne. His grandfather, Elijah Browne, was a native of Virginia and came to Anderson County about 1794. He came of a Revolutionary family. He was twice married and had ten children by each wife. Newton Browne was born in Anderson County and died in 1853, at the age of twenty-nine. His wife, Jane D. Morris, was born in Anderson County, a danghter of David Morris, a native of the same county and a granddaughter of John Morris, who was born in Virginia and came to South Carolina prior to 1765.
Samuel Newton Browne was the only child of his parents. He lived with his mother until her
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death at the age of eighty-three, and grew up in the home of his grandfather David Morris, Ile never attended school after he was fourteen, and the suc- cess he has achieved has been largely the fruit of continuous industry. He has always followed farm- ing, and his present estate of about 800 acres was largely developed from the wilderness. He has handled much good livestock, but his principal crop has been cotton and he has a gin on his own farm to handle this crop.
Mr. Browne has also served thirty-three years as a local magistrate, and as school trustee for twenty years. He is a Royal Arch Mason.
In 1874 he married Miss Margaret E. Dobbins, who was born in Anderson County, a daughter of Clark Dobbins. Their six children are named David Oscar, St. Clair, Lees, Ora, Elizabeth and Samuel McPherson. The youngest son, Samuel MePherson, is a physician by profession, and served in the Ambu- lance Department with the rank of major and was in the Second Division of the American Expedition- ary Forces for nineteen months.
JAMES CHILDS BOLT. Representing one of the very long established and prominent families of Anderson County, James Childs Bolt is the son of a Confederate soldier, one of his own sons was in the World war, but his own life was spent in the comparatively peaceful era of this country. His life has been one of quiet and effective endeavor as a farmer and merchant.
He was born in Anderson County September 7, 1859, a son of John K. and Marian (Sherer) Bolt, the former a native of Laurens County, son of Asa and Hannah (Crombie) Bolt. Asa Bolt was born in Laurens County, son of John and Nancy Bolt. John Bolt was a native of Virginia and with his three brothers, Abram, Edmund and John, came from that state to South Carolina with their parents, who were natives of Ireland. John K. Bolt was a youth when his parents moved to Anderson County in 1851. and he grew up on the farm and was the oldest of nine sons, all of whom became soldiers in the Confederate ariny, four of them giving up their lives in the cause. John K. Bolt died soon after the war, at the age of thirty-seven years and ten months. His wife survived him many years, passing away at the age of sixty-five. They were the parents of the following children: Sarah Jane, James Childs, Gillam Martin, Mattie, Julia and Lou. The widowed mother proved her courage by keeping her young children together and managing the home farm so as to support herself and her young ones until they were ready for life's battle. She was a faithful Methodist and reared her family in that faith.
James C. Bolt lived with his mother and received the advantages of the common schools. In 1880 he married Miss Nannie Gerard, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Beard) Gerard. Mrs. Bolt was born in Anderson County January 29, 1861, her father being a native of England and her mother of Ander- son County. Her father came to this country when abont seventeen years of age, and was a soldier in the Confederate army. In the Gerard family were ten children, nine of whom are still living. Eleven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bolt. Two died
in infancy and those living are : John Thomas, Fred, Lonnie Caswell, Ira, Lela, Willie Hawkins, Murray, Edna and Clyde. The soldier son was Willie Hawkins, who was in the Aviation Corps and spent eleven months overseas in France and England. Mr. Bolt has prospered in his affairs as a farmer, and for the past twelve years has conducted a coun- try store at his home in Centerville Township. He and his wife are members of the Baptist Church.
CLIFTON AUGUSTUS REED, a retired business man who for over a half century was active in com- mercial affairs at Anderson, is one of the most wide- ly known Confederate veterans in the state, and for years has been a prominent officer in the United Confederate Veterans.
General Reed was horn at Anderson, June 5, IS45, and had rendered his part as a brave and courageous soldier before he attained his majority. His parents were Jacob Pinkney and Theresa Caro- line (Hammond) Reed. While a hoy at Anderson he acquired a fair education. He also attended the Arsenal Military Academy and left there in Febru- ary, 1863, to join the Confederate forces in the field at the age of seventeen. He became a private in the Rutledge Mounted Riflemen, under the com- mand of Capt. William L. Trenholm. For about a year the command was on duty along the coast of South Carolina, and in the early part of 1864 was ordered to Virginia, proceeding on horseback to Richmond. Here the company became a part of the Seventh South Carolina Regiment of Cavalry, under the command of Col. A. C. Haskell. Not long afterward Mr. Reed and four others were sent out on scout duty and in the course of the expedi- tion, while with the Fourth South Carolina Cavalry, Gen. Wade Hampton's Division, engaged the enemy at Hawe's Shop, May 28, 1864. Mr. Reed, while in the act of reloading his gun received a gunshot wound in the left wrist and right arm, both wounds coming from the same bullet. He lost his right hand, and being therefore incapacitated for further military duty returned to Anderson.
To quote his own words Mr. Reed was sure that the only way to regain a right hand was by mar- riage. In October, 1864, Miss Frances E. Kingsley, of Dalton, Georgia, became his wife. She with her grandparents and family had refugeed to An- derson during the war. Mr. and Mrs. Reed had one daughter, now the wife of Mr. R. S. Ligon, a prominent wholesale grocer of Anderson.
During all the years since the great war General Reed has been devoted to the interests of his comrades, especially in the organization of the United Confederate Veterans. He served on the staff of every commanding officer for several con- secutive years with the rank of colonel, and in 1914, at the annual reunion of the South Carolina Veterans, was unanimously elected commander of the Second Brigade to fill the vacancy caused by the death of General Creach. Each year since then he has been honored by re-election, with the rank of general.
As to politics General Reed has heen satisfied to support the dominant party and allow political honors and offices to go to others. On returning from the army General Reed engaged in business
C. a. Reed-
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as a merchant at Anderson, opening a general store in February, 1866. Somewhat later he sold the first carload of western buggies ever sold at An- derson. His success in this transaction encouraged him to engage in a strictly vehicle business, but later he added a line of pianos and organs, and eventually made his business exclusively that of musical instruments. He continued in that line with gratifying success for more than thirty-tive years. He sold out in November, 1916, after hav- ing been a merchant for more than half a century, and at the time of his retirement was the oldest merchant in Anderson, both in point of continuous service and age. General Reed is a fine type of the courteous Southern gentleman of the old school and is greatly beloved in his commumty at Ander- son. He sustained the great loss of his wife's death in 1902. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Anderson.
OLIVER BOLT, who was a youthful soldier of the Confederacy, has spent a half century as a farmer in Anderson County, and though at the time of his marriage he settled in a log cabin home he has accumulated a comfortable prosperity and reared a family of children who have taken responsible places in the world.
Mr. Bolt was born in Laurens County April 25, 1847, a son of Asa and Hannah ( Crombie) Bolt, natives of the same county. The grandparents were John and Nancy Bolt, the former a native of Vir- ginia, while his parents were natives of Ireland. jolin Bolt and his brothers Abram and Edmund canie with their parents from Virginia to South Carolina and settled in Laurens County, where John Bolt spent the rest of his life. Asa Bolt and Hannah Crombie were married in Laurens County, and in 1851 moved to Anderson County and settled in Pendleton Township, where they spent the rest of their days. They were farmers in that locality and were active members of the Baptist Church. They had nine sons and three daughters. A remarkable record of this family is that all of these sons par- ticipated in the war between the states. Their names were William, Toliver, John K., Thomas, Crombie C., Abram, Lewis Martin, Edmund and Oliver. Four of the sons gave up their lives for the cause, Thomas and Crombie being killed in battle, while Lewis Martin and Edmund died of fever. The oldest and youngest sons are the only ones now living. The three daughters were named Elizabeth, Mary Caro- line and Tersa Adaline, Elizabeth alone surviving.
Oliver Bolt grew up on the home farm and his army service was rendered before he was eighteen years of age. He then returned home and in 1867 married Miss Permeler Crombie, daughter of Lewis and Anna ( Henderson) Crombie. Her parents came from Laurens County to Anderson County in 1861. Mr. and Mrs. Bolt became the parents of five sons and two daughters, the record in brief being as follows: John Thomas, a farmer of Anderson County; Julia Eva, widow of George Keasley ; William Edmund, deceased; Corana, deceased wife of William Massey; Lewis Baylus, a railroad engi- ncer ; Belton Asa, a machinist at Boston, Massachu- setts; and Joe P., a farmer of Anderson County.
Mr. and Mrs. Bolt have lived on their present
farm west of Anderson since 1876. As noted above, their first residence was a log cabin and the land uncleared. The fields have been developed and have yielded successive crops for nearly forty years, and all the improvements constitute a good country home. Mr. and Mrs. Bolt are members of the Baptist Church.
BENEDICT MAYER AULL, now manager of the Pen- dleton Manufacturing Company at Autun, has achieved deserved prominence in the industrial af- fairs of the state and comes of a notable family, one much interested in the various generations in the business and milling affairs of this state and otherwise leaders in their respective . communities.
He is a great-grandson of the Rev. Herman Aull, who was born in Orangeburg County, South Caro- lina, September 20, 1786. Herman Anll was the son of Philip Aull who came from Germany and settled in the lower part of the state prior to the Revolutionary war. Rev. Mr. Aull was a Lutheran preacher for twenty years and until his death was prominent both in the religious and civil life of his community. He married Christina Rickard, who was the mother of two sons, John P. and Calvin W., and several daughters. He married for his second wife Mrs. Eve (Riser) Werts. They also had two children, Jacob Luther Anll and Louisa, the latter becoming the wife of Nathan A. Hunter.
John P. Aull was born in Newberry County, South Carolina, February 22, 1822. He married for his first wife Caroline McQuerns and for his second Eugenia L. Smith. The two children of his first wife were James H. and Carrie Aull. Those of the second marriage were William B., Edward P., Henry P., Drucilla, S. Beanregard, Leila E., John I. H. and Anna Bachman. Leila married the late Au- gustus J. Sitton and Anna B. became the wife of Robert M. Russell. The father of these children, who died at his home in Newberry County January I, 1879, was a prominent planter and mill man, being founder of the mill known as the "Steam Mill," which he operated many years until his death.
William Benjamin Aull, father of the Autun manufacturer, was born in Newberry County Sep- tember 23, 1851, and grew up on his father's planta- tion and from early life was familiar with the milling industry. He finished his education in New- berry College and after the death of his father took charge of the mill and farm. He became superinten- dent of the Newberry Cotton Oil Mill, but in 1900 left that position to become manager of the Pendle- ton Oil Mill and has since resided at Pendleton, where he is still active in business affairs. He was a faithful Lutheran in earlier years, but is now a member of the Presbyterian Church. He married Mary Elvira Barre, daughter of Jacob and Eliza- beth ( Houscal) Barre. Her father was a son of Jacob Barre, Sr., whose father, Colonel Barre, served with distinction in the Revolutionary war with the South Carolina Continental Troops and was of English origin. William Aull and wife have the following children: Benedict Mayer, Julia Estella, Martha Caroline, William B., Jr., Louise, Julius A. and Walter H., all of whom are still living.
Benedict Mayer Aull was born September 2, 1876, in Newberry County, and finished his education in
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Newberry College. In 1894, a quarter of a century ago, he entered Clemson College, graduating in 1896, and after two years of employment in Newberry became in 1808 general manager of the Pendleton Manufacturing Company at Autun. That notable industry has been under his immediate supervision for the past twenty years. He is also general man- ager of the Cohannet Mills at Fingerville in Spartan- burg County, an office he has held since 1910. Both of these are important industries and his position in industrial affairs is correspondingly great.
Mr. Aull married in 1903 Miss Henrietta Sitton, member of the well known Sitton family of Pendle- ton, a daughter of Joseph J. and Sue H. (Gillard) Sitton.
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GEORGE M. WRIGHT, president and treasurer of the Watts Mills, at Laurens, came to this city in June, 1919, and has since been active in business affairs in the county seat of Laurens County. He was born December 14, 1879, in the vicinity of Richmond, Vir- ginia, a son of Rev. George M. and Josephine (Leitch) Wright, natives of Virginia, in which state was done the life work of his father, a Methodist preacher who died in 1885 at the age of forty-six years. Although a minister of the Gospel, during the war between the states he donned the uniform of the Confederacy and fought bravely as a member of Jeb Stuart's Cavalry.
The Wright family, of Scotch lineage, is an old and honored one in Virginia, while the Leitch family is of Irish-Scotch stock. At the time of her hus- band's death, Mrs. Wright, who still survives, was left with three small children-George M., Mary and Leitch. In order to care for them and gain them an education, this courageous and capable woman took student boarders at Randolph Macon College, at Ashland, Virginia, and at that college George M. Wright was a student for two years. On leaving that institution he began business life as a clerk in a bank at Richmond for several years, and in 1897 came to South Carolina to accept a clerical position in the offices of the Union Cotton Mill, at Union. There he remained nine years, having worked his way to the office of general manager, which he filled for the last two years of his stay, and in 1907 went to Goldville, where he was the main factor in the organization of the Banna Manufacturing Com- pany, of which he has since been president. In 1919 he changed his residence to Laurens, where he has since been president and treasurer of the Watts Mills. He is a business man of marked capacity who occu- pies a firm place in the confidence of his associates.
In 1903 Mr. Wright married Jennie White, of Abbeville, South Carolina. Mr. Wright is a Metho- dist, while Mrs. Wright holds to the faith of the Presbyterian Church. His only fraternal connection is with the Royal Arch Masons.
FRANCIS EUGENE HARRISON. A record of a most prominent and interesting family of old Anderson County centers around the figure and personality of the late Col. Francis Eugene Harrison, whose life fell in the middle period of the last century. As a family the Harrisons have taken part in the business, financial, industrial and civic development of Anderson County for nearly a century.
Colonel Harrison was born in the old town of Andersonville in Anderson County, April 29, 1821, a son of James and Sarah ( Earle) Harrison. His father, of English lineage, and a native of Vir- ginia, came to South Carolina, and at Anderson was engaged in merchandising, also operated a grist and flouring mill and a cotton mill and achieved success and reared a large and respectable family. Though an old man at the time, he espoused and gave every support in his power to the South dur- ing the war. At one time he moved to Madison, Florida, and died there. He had unusual ability as a business man. He had five sons and two daughters. One daughter died in childhood. Eliz- abeth became the wife of Joseph Newton Whitner, long a distinguished lawyer and jurist of Ander- son, now deceased. James Harrison, the oldest son, became a lawyer and after several years of successful practice at Anderson moved to Walhalla, where he died, but lies buried at Anderson. The second son was Samuel Earle Harrison, who died early in life, unmarried, as did two other sons, Elias and William Henry.
Francis Eugene Harrison, the youngest son, ac- quired an academic education, supplemented by a period of study in the University of Virginia. He was not a college graduate, but all through life was a close observer and an ardent reader and thus became well informed. He left the school room to aid his father in the increasing mercantile and mill interests at Andersonville, then an in- portant center of trade. He was thus occupied when the war broke out. As soon as hostilities be- gan and his state called for volunteers he offered his services and was elected captain of a com- pany in Orr's regiment of riflemen. In 1862 he was promoted to the rank of colonel, and as such served with distinction to the end of the war. He was twice wounded, at Appomattox and Peters- burg. One of the wounds was in the leg below the knee and caused him intense suffering for many years after the war.
On returning home Colonel Harrison assumed charge of his father's business at Andersonville, succeeded to its ownership and kept it growing and prospering until his death, which occurred Novem- ber 19. 1874. Before, during and after the war, Colonel Harrison was regarded as one of Ander- son County's foremost citizens, successful in busi- ness, leaving a large estate, equally useful in the effort and the influence he expended to the com- munity at large. At the age of twenty-one he was ordained a ruling elder in the Presbyterian. Church. and remained active in that cause the rest of his life. He was the founder of the well known Roberts Presbyterian Church of Anderson County. A true Southerner by birth and training, a democrat in politics, a leader in his party, he was without ambition for political honors. In early life he was prominent in the Masonic fraternity. In busi- ness it is said of him: "He was honest and just," and lie never deviated from those fundamental principles that are accepted as the truest rule of life. He gave four years to the cause of the Con- federacy, endured the trying and leand financial times that followed, and achieved success. He was progressive, public spirited, was true as a friend, and faithful and devoted as a husband and father.
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