USA > South Carolina > History of South Carolina > Part 48
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-Colonel Smith married Sarah Wardiaw, of the dis- tinguished South Carolina family of Wardlaw, which has furnished a number of able characters to the history of the state. The family was founded in this country by Robert Wardlaw of Scotland, who first settled in Pennsylvania, later in Virginia, and finally in Abbeville County, South Carolina. John Wardlaw, great-grandfather of A. W. Smith, was the first clerk of the County Court of Abbeville County and held that office for thirty-eight years. Judge D. L. Wardlaw, father of Sarah Wardiaw. was one of the state's distinguished lawyers and jurists, and was the first male child born in Abbeville County. He served as a member of the State Legis- lature from 1826 to 1841, as speaker of the House
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in 1836, as judge of the Circuit Court in 1841, a meni- her of the state conventions at different times be- fore and after the war. In 1865 he was elected an associate justice of the State Court of Appeals. Ilis brother was Chancellor Francis Wardlaw, who wrote the Ordinance of Secession.
While Augustus Wardlaw Smith has a proper pride of family, it is evident that throughout his career he has chosen to depend upon his own abil- ities and efforts to win achievement. As a boy he did not possess a vigorous physique, but developed good health by active particpation in outdoor sports. Ife early determined upon a commercial career and received his education with that in view at the Benet's School at Cokesbury, in the high school at Abbeville, also attended school at Baltimore, spent two years in the University of the South at Sewa- nee, Tennessee, and became a member of the first class in the South Carolina College at the redemp- tion of that school from the Carpet Government in 1876. Only eighteen when he left college, he applied himself for a year to work on a farm in Abbeville County, where he was born in 1862. In 1881 he went to work as clerk in his uncle's store at Abbeville, and in 1883 was proprietor of a small store of his own. His success as a merchant was all that could be desired, and the business having outgrown the town he moved into Spartanburg in 1900, and he is still president and owner of the Augustus W. Smith Company, a large and successful department store at Spartanburg.
He first entered the cotton industry in 1900 when he built the Woodruff Cotton Mills at Woodruff in Spartanburg County. Since then his interests in cotton milling have dominated all others in im- portance. He kept his home at Woodruff for four years, then returned to Spartanburg, and in 1916 established his permanent residence in Greenville. However, he still owns his first mill, the Woodruff Cotton Mills, of which he is president and treasurer. On coming to Greenville Mr. Smith, with others, acquired the controlling interests in the Brandon Mills and Poinsett Mills, of each of which he is president and treasurer. The Brandon Mills is easily one of the most conspicuous textile plants of the Piedmont region, has a capital stock of $1,500,000 and is equipped with 2,100 looms and 86,- 000 spindles. The Poinsett Mills, capitalized at $600,- 000, operates 726 looms and 26,434 spindles.
A number of other business and civic interests have employed Mr. Smith from time to time. He or- ganized and was president of the Bank of Wood- ruff, has been a director in the Central National Bank of Spartanburg and has served as president of the Union-Buffalo Mills Company, the Union Manufacturing Power Company and the Union Glenn Springs Railroad, all located at Union. He served as mayor of Abbeville in 1891-2 and in 1890-91 was colonel of the Third South Carolina Regiment of State Militia. He is a member of Christ Episcopal Church, a director of the Y. M. C. A., a director of the Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Greenville Board of Water Commissioners.
Mr. Smith married January 5, 1887, Mary Noble. On June 5, 1901, he married Belle Perrin, daughter of Lewis W. Perrin of Abbeville. Mr. Smith has
four children living: Mrs. Flora McBee; Miss Mary Noble, Augustus W., Jr., and Lewis Perrin Smith.
GEORGE DUNCAN BELLINGER. The Bellingers of South Carolina are descended from Landgrave Ed- mund Bellinger, a native of County Westmoreland, England, who came to the Province of Carolina in 1688. His wife was Elizabeth Cartwright. He was appointed surveyor general of that part of the province lying south and west of Cape Fear River. This appointment was made by the Lords Proprietors April 1. 1698. It carried with a grant of 43,000 acres of land. His home was near Charleston on the Ashepoo River. .
The family through more than two centuries has sustained the strong intellectual powers and the great virility of the founder of the family. Many of the name have filled high office and played inter- esting and dignified roles in the history of the state.
One of the descendants of Landgrave Bellinger was the late George Duncan Bellinger, perhaps chiefly distinguished by his service as attorney gen- eral of South Carolina. In that capacity he was called upon to decide many questions growing out of the adoption of the new constitution. It is said that in nearly every case his ruling was sustained by the Supreme Court.
He was born at Barnwell November 4, 1856. His mother died in 1860. His father Lieutenant John A. Bellinger in 1863 was an unfortunate victim in a duel between himself and a fellow officer of the Con- federate army. George Duncan Bellinger from the age of seven was reared in the home of a guardian. Early in his career as a student at Furman Univer- sity the property left him by his father and maternal grandfather was lost by unfortunate management. Through the aid of a relative he remained in col- lege, graduating A. B. in June, 1879. In the fall of that year he entered the office of former Judge John J. Maher at Barnwell, and was admitted to the bar in December, ISSo. For thirty years until his death at Columbia in 1910 he was regarded as one of the leading lawyers of South Carolina. He was chosen to the Legislature in 1882, and 1883 Governor Thompson appointed him master in equity. He also served seven terms as mayor of Barnwell, be- ginning in 1883. He was president of the Enter- prise Manufacturing Company and at one time vice president of the savings bank at Barnwell. In 1892 he was elected solicitor of the Second Circuit and re- elected in 1896. In the meantime he served as a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1895 and was chairman of its committee on jurisprudence. He is credited with being the author of three sec- tions in the Constitution, those relating to change of venue on motion of the state in criminal cases, codification of the laws and prevention of lynching of persons in charge of officers of the law. Soon after the adoption of the last provision occurred a lynching in his circuit, and his vigorous presecution of this case was one of the factors which led to his election as attorney general in 189S. He was re- clected in 1900. For many years he was chairman of the democratic party of Barnwell County.
June 14. 1881, he married Miss Fannie J. O'Ban- non. Their son George Duncan Bellinger qualified for the practice of law the same year his father died,
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but is best known for his long service as probate judge of Richland County.
Judge Bellinger was born at Barnwell in ISSS, and was educated in Clemson College and the University of South Carolina. He graduated from the law school of the State University in 1910, and has always practiced at Columbia. He still carries on a general practice as a lawyer, being associated with John W. Crews. In little less than a year after he began practice he was elected probate judge of Richland County. That office he has continued to fill by successive elections, and these repeated clec- tions are the best proof of the rare judgment he has exercised in his probate administration.
DAVIS AUSTIN SAULS, who is conducting a gen- cral store at Church Flats near Meggetts, is a man who appreciates the advantages of this part of the state and has spent the greater part of his life here. He was born at Walterboro, South Carolina, Feb- ruary 21, 1860, a son of Caleb Sauls, who was born, reared and educated at the same place, and spent his life there. The paternal grandfather, Isaac Sauls, was born on the Peedee River, but lived at Walterboro, and it was his father, a native of Ger- many, who founded the family in the United States. On his mother's side Davis A. Sauls belongs to the Anstin family, she having been Miss Georgianna Austin before her marriage. Her father was Davis Austin, and both of them were born in South Caro- lina. Mrs. Sauls survives and makes her home at Walterboro. She and her husband bad nine chil- dren, of whom Davis Austin was the second in order of birth.
Reared and educated at Walterboro, Mr. Sauls remained there until 1890, in that year coming to Church. Flats, where he opened his present store, and has continued here since with the exception of five years. His stock is carefully selected with reference to the requirements of his trade, is timely and fresh and his prices are as low as is consistent with the quality of the goods and the market.
On February 5. 1890, Mr. Sauls was married first to Johanna W. Volmer, of Charleston, and they had four children, namely: Georgia, wife of Elbert Davis; Hattie, wife of H. K. Perry; Lutcia, de- ceased, and Louisa, wife of Solan Hinson. After the death of his first wife Mr. Sauls was married to Laura F. Blitch, and they have four children, namely: Susie, Austin, Laura' and Mary. A Mason in high standing, Mr. Sauls belongs to the local lodge and also the local chapter of the Eastern Star. He is active in Baptist Church work and is a man who is held in very high esteem by those with whom he is brought in contact in either a business or social way.
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COL. PETER KEYS MCCULLY. After the men who died fighting and have the gold stars on South Carolina's roll of honor, one of the most conspicuous sons of the state on the battlefields of France was Col. Peter Keys MeCully, commander of the fa- motis One Hundred and Eighteenth Infantry in France. As head of his regiment Colonel McCully had the distinction of leading the first American regiment across the borders of Belgium in the sum- mer of 1918.
Colonel McCully comes of a family of fighters. He
was born at Anderson in 1873, son of Peter Keys and Margaret (Cathcart ) McCully. Ile is of Scotch-Irish ancestry. The McCullys were among the first settlers in Anderson County and in South Carolina. Peter K. MeCully, Sr., was a cadet in The Citadel at Charleston during the war and in 1864 was a member of a battalion of cadets called out for field duty and served until the close of hos- tilities. His older brother Capt. Newton A. Mc- Cully was captain of the Palmetto Rifles of .Ander- son in the war. After the war Peter K. MeCully, Sr., served as .a captain of this organization. The Cathcart family has also been well known in the history of upper South Carolina.
Col. Peter K. MeCully is also a graduate of Sonth Carolina's famous military institution The Citadel. He completed his work there in IS91. The previous year he had become a member of the Palmetto Rifles as a private. In 1903 upon the organization of the National Guard of South Carolina he was made captain of the Palmetto Rifles, thus holding a position which both his father and uncle before him had honored. He remained as captain until 1905, when he became regimental adjutant of the First South Carolina Regiment of Infantry. He served in that capacity until 1915, when he was made lieu- tenant colonel of the regiment. As lieutenant colo- nel he went to the Mexican border. In April, 1917, after the declaration of war against Germany his regiment First Infantry South Carolina National Guard was called into the service, and subsequently became the One Hundred and Eighteenth Infantry, Thirtieth Division. The One Hundred and Eight- eenth Infantry is "South Carolina's Own" com- posed almost entirely of the First Sonth Carolina Regiment of National Guards. The regiment was trained at Greenville as part of the Thirtieth or Old Hickory Division, and in May, 1918, was sent overseas to France. It landed on French soil May 27th, was in training behind the lines and at the first of July started for the front. On the 4th of July Colonel McCully led his regiment on to Belgium soil. The Thirtieth Division was joined with the Twenty-Seventh Division and was part of the Brit- ish forces operating in the famous Ypres salient. For nearly two months it was within the zone of action at that part of the front, and was then transferred to an even more strenuous sector, being given a place of honor in cooperation with the Australian Corps on September 29th and October Ist in the assault on the Hindenburg line where the San Quentin Canal passes through a tunnel under a ridge. The Thirtieth Division speedily broke through the main line of defense and in this and later actions from October 6th to October 19th the Second Corps captured nearly 6,000 pris- oners and advanced over thirteen miles. The One Hundred and Eighteenth Regiment's losses in killed and wounded is probably as great as that of any other regiment of the American Expeditionary Forces engaged during the climax of the war in the summer and fall of 1918. After an absence of nearly eleven months the regiment was sent home, and Colonel McCully received his honorable discharge April 23, 1919.
"He at once resumed his business career at Ander- son. Though always interested in military affairs he has been a business man since early life. He
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was a merchant at Anderson until 1900 and since that date has been in the cotton business. He is a member of the firm of the Stringer Cotton Company, cotton buyers and exporters.
The miltary record of the MeCully family is also supplemented by a son of Colonel McCully, Lieut. Robert 11. McCully, also a graduate of The Citadel, who served with the Palmetto Rifles on the Mexi- can border and was under his father in France as lieutenant with the Headquarters Company of the One Hundred and Eighteenth Regiment. Colonel McCully married Miss Margaret Fretwell of Ander- son, a daughter of Mr. A. G. Fretwell and niece of J. J. Fretwell. Colonel McCully's three children are Robert H., Lydia and Margaret.
MAJ. WILLIAM DOUGLAS WORKMAN. Among South Carolinians who won real distinction in the World war, it is significant that Major Workman, who in the spring of 1919 returned to Greenville to resume his practice as a lawyer, had that fine quality of the true soldier in modestly disclaiming any special merit for himself and at every oppor- tunity shifting praise from the individual to the organization of which he was a part. He was a member of the Thirtieth Division, and paid one of the finest tributes ever written of the work of that division in the critical days of September and Oc- tober, 1918, when it bore a spirited part in breaking the stubborn German defensive lines.
Major Workman comes of old Southern fighting stock. He was born at Charleston in 1889, a son of Charles E. and Rose (Douglas) Workman. His father's family have for several generations lived in Kershaw County. Through his mother he is descended from the Douglas and Campbell families, prominent in the early history of Charleston.
Major Workman graduated from The Citadel at Charleston in 1909, probably not realizing at the time how much his military training would avail him in after years. He studied law and was admit- ted to the bar in 1914, and in the same year began practice at Greenville. He had achieved a high place as a lawyer, though his professional career had been dimmed by his military record. In 1919 he, in company with Mr. J. N. Watkins, opened a real estate, insurance, stocks and bonds business in the Palmetto Building, Greenville. This business, while yet in its infancy has proved a marked success.
Soon after coming to Greenville he joined the Butler Guards, a unit of the old First South Carolina Regiment of the National Guard. June 15, 1916, he was called to the Mexican border with this unit, serving there as captain of the Butler Guards. He was mustered out of the border service in December, 1916, and soon afterward was made superintendent of the Chick Springs Military Academy at Chick Springs, a short distance east of Greenville. Thus there was hardly a real break in his military service on the Mexican border and the call to arms in the war with Germany in April, 1917. He was assigned to duty in South Carolina and was sent overseas in advance of the 118th Infantry in the spring of 1918. In France he was assigned to the Infantry Specialty School, but before completing his course was trans- ferred to the School of the Line, and was next or- dered to the Army General Staff College, the highest
school of the American army. After five months in those schools Major Workman on September 16th, was sent back to the Thirtieth Division as brigade adjutant of the Sixtieth Infantry Brigade. He had the good fortune to he adjutant to Brig. Gen. S. L. Faison. On October 23, 1918, he was promoted from captain to major, and the general order pro- viding for this promotion, issued by Brigadier Gen- eral Faison, was as follows: "Captain William D. Workman, 118th Infantry, having been promoted to the grade of Major and assigned to and ordered to join the HISth Infantry, is hereby relieved from duty as acting adjutant of his Brigade. His Brigade Commander takes this occasion to bear public testi- mony to his splendid support, uniform courtesy and marked ability and efficiency in the performance of all duties while on duty at these headquarters. His future is assured."
Many letters sent from overseas at different times have spoken in the highest praise of Major Work- man and the warm affection in which he was held by his men. While his superior officers held out every encouragement that would attract him to a military career, he was firm in his determination to return to Greenville, where he had established such congenial connections professionally and socially. Major Workman married Miss Vivian Watkins of Greenville, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. N. Watkins. Two young children welcomed the returning soldier, named William Douglas, Jr., and Vivian Virginia.
ROBERT LEE GRAY. In point of continuous service Robert Lee Gray is one of the oldest merchants of Laurens County. With the exception of a few years his life has been spent at the ancestral and family home of Gray Court, a community named in honor of his father. Mr. Gray's present establish- ment at Gray Court is within 100 yards of the spot where he was born and reared.
His grandfather was Hezekiah Gray who married a Miss Fowler and was a native of Laurens County. Robert A. Gray, father of Robert L., was born in Laurens County September 28, 1828, and died May 12, 1904. He was a farmer except during the period he served as a Confederate soldier. He and his wife were both active members of the Methodist Church. His wife Hannah Abercrombie died in 1883 at the age of fifty. Three of their twelve children died in infancy and the others are all living.
Robert Lee Gray was born at Gray Court May 10, 1864, spent his carly life on a farm, having a common school education, and as a young man from 1882 to 1886 was associated with the mer- cantile firin of Gray, Sullivan & Company and its successor Gray and Sullivan at Laurens. In 1886 returning to Gray Court he opened a store, and has been active head of that increasing business for over thirty years. The firm was first known as Gray, Sullivan & Gray, subsequently as W. L. and R., L. Gray, and now for a number of years under the simple title of R. L. Gray.
While so much of his life has been given to merchandising Mr. Gray showed a keen judgment many years ago in the value of farm lands in Laurens County, and as opportunity presented bought land and for many years has conducted a
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large property as a farmer. In 1908 he became one of the organizers of the Bank of Gray Court and from the beginning has served as its president. Mr. Gray built at Gray Court a beautiful modern home which would be a credit to any city. He is an active member of the Methodist Church.
December 25, 1888, he married Miss Emma Dial, a daughter of Capt. Albert Dial and a member of the prominent Dial family of South Carolina. To their marriage were born nine children, one of whom died in infancy, and several of the sons did patriotic duty to the Government during the war. The living children are Laura, Robert Albert. Ellis Barksdale, Carrol Dial, Gladys, Cecil, Robert Lee and Jerome. Robert A. is a dry goods merchant at Gray Court. Ellis Barksdale is a graduate of Trinity Col- lege in North Carolina, finished the medical course in Harvard University, was in the Medical Reserve Corps during the war and is now in the Pennsyl- vania Hospital at Philadelphia. . The son Carrol Dial is also a graduate of Trinity College and spent one year in the United States Navy at Savannah and Charleston, now being cashier of the Bank of Gray Court. The son Cecil was also in an army training camp.
THOMAS AUSTIN WILLIS. While Mr. Willis spent the greater part of his active career as a substantial farmer of Laurens County, he has more recently been identified with the commercial interests of the Town of Gray Court. Out of the difficult struggle of his early years he has achieved success, is a man of congenial temperament, public spirited and very popular in his home community.
He was born on a farm July 28, 1866, son of George Washington and Elizabeth (Jones) Willis, hoth of whom spent all their lives in Laurens County. The paternal grandfather William Willis came to South Carolina from Georgia where he was born. The maternal grandfather William Alfred Jones was a native of Virginia and of Scotch-Irish lineage, his father coming to America from Ireland. He married Mary Bramblett, daughter of Lewis Bram- blett, who was born in Ireland of Scotch-Irish lineage and was an early settler in Laurens County. George W. Willis, father of the Gray Court business man, spent his life as a farmer and lived to the age of sixty-eight. His widow died November 12, 1919, at the age of eighty-four. They had two sons, the older William Alfred being deceased.
Thomas Austin Willis grew up on a farm, and as a young man started out to make his own way with the limited capital and with only such training as he had been able to acquire in his home locality. He continued farming to the age of forty, and since then has been a resident of Gray Court. For five years he did a large business in general merchandise and , in later years has been a cotton buyer and dealer in cotton seed and fertilizers .. He had a partner in that business, Festus Tombs Curry. Mr. Willis is a Mason and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1884 he married Miss Lizzie Dacus, who died in 1910 the mother of four children. In 1912 Mir. Willis married Miss Lila Bramblett. His son Rob- ert Watt Willis died at the age of twenty-two. The youngest child, Mary Ellen, died in 1913 aged
nineteen. Mr. Willis has two living children: Cora Belle, wife of J. E. Curry, and Lilly, at home.
WILLIAM LAFAYETTE GRAY forty years ago had been admitted to the bar and had begun the task of building up a law practice in his home City of Laurens. He gave up the legal profession in favor of merchandising, where he found a more congenial field, and his career as a business man has been one of growing importance and success.
He was born March 7, 1856, at Gray Court, a town named in honor of his father. It is an old and well known name in this part of South Carolina. His grandfather was Hezekiah Gray who married a Miss Fowler. William L. Gray is a son of Rob- ert A. and Hannah (Abercrombie) Gray. His father was born in Laurens County September 28, 1828, spent his active career as a planter, and served in the Confederate army. He lived to the age of seventy-five. He and his wife were active mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Of their twelve children three died in infancy.
William L. Gray, the oldest of the family, spent his early life on his father's farm, acquired a com- mon school education and in 1876 graduated from. Wofford College in Spartanburg. The following two years while teaching school he was studying law and was admitted to the bar in 1878. He then practiced at Laurens for two years, but began dividing his time between his law office and the interests he had acquired on a local mercantile establishment, and eventually gave up his law prac- tice altogether. For many years he was a leading general merchant. being a member successively of the firm H. E. Gray & Company, Gray, Sullivan & Company, W. L. Gray & Company and R. C. Gray & Company. He was a leading factor in these firms for twenty-five years and then sold his inter- ests but did not give up merchandising altogether, being a member of the present organization known as the Laurens Hardware Company. In connection with other affairs Mr. Gray has been a cotton buyer for many years and owns and operates some valuable farming land in his home county.
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