USA > South Carolina > History of South Carolina > Part 49
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He has always given dutifully of his time and means in support of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and has served as superintendent of the Sunday school. He married in 1879 Miss Lulu S. Dial, daughter of Albert Dial and a sister of present United States Senator N. B. Dial. Mrs. Gray died in 1892. the mother of three children, Albert Dial, Will Lou and R. Coke Gray. Mr. Gray married Miss Mary Montgomery Dunklin in 1897. They have a daughter and son Hattie D. and William L. Jr.
CHARLES J. LYON. Probably no executive officer of the forces of law and order in South Carolina is better known, and by one element more greatly feared, than Charles J. Lyon, who for seventeen con- secutive years was sheriff of Abbeville County and since 1915 has been United States marshal of the Western District of South Carolina.
He was horn at Abbeville, November 4, 1864, son of Dr. Harvey Thompson and Harriet Beatrice (Dendy) Lyon, both members of old time families in Abbeville County. His father became a physician
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soon after reaching manhood and followed that pro- fession until his death. During the war he was a military surgeon stationed at the General Hospital in Richmond. Marshal Lyon's paternal grandfather Joseph E. Lyon was also a resident of Abbeville County, and his maternal grandfather Charles Dendy built the first brick house in the Town of Abbeville, known as Dendy Corner, and left each of his chil- dren a farm of 1,000 acres and a house and home in Abbeville.
Doctor Lyon was a man of modest landed inter- ests and left each of his children a considerable legacy in land. At one time, however, especially the ten years following the close of the war, the owner- ship of land in South Carolina was more of an in- cumbrance than an asset, and many who owned liun- dreds of acres of land had to live close to the bor- ders of respectable poverty. It was in that period that the early life of Charles J. Lyon was spent. He had little opportunity to go to school and when he worked as a farm hand his wages were $36 a year, Io cents a day. His first real experience, however, was in a printing office. At the age of eleven he en- tered the office of the Medium, and was connected therewith for a number of years. He regards the printing office as the source not only of his best lit- erary education, but also of much of the knowl- edge which equipped him for dealing with men and with the affairs of the world. After he was grown he moved to a farm several miles from Abbeville, and it was as a quiet, hard working and slowly pros- pering farmer that he gained the respect and esteem of all his fellow citizens in Abbeville County. He continued to live on the farm until 1900 and he still . retains his property interests in the county, includ- ing the old home place and also most of the old Cal- houn lands, which he has purchased within the last few years. Mr. Lyon has a fund of interests and reminiscences of the noted characters and historic families that have made Abbeville County conspic- nous, such as the Calhouns, Nobles, MeDuffys and others.
In 1898 Mr. Lyon was elected and for seventeen years by successive clections held the office of sheriff of Abbeville County. An efficient and greatly respected official who enforced the law under all circumstances, he was by experience and every other measure of fitness the logical choice for the first appointment to the office of marshal of the newly formed Western District of South Carolina. He entered upon the duties of this Federal position early in 1915, and since then has made his home at Green- ville. His district embraces eighteen counties. Mfr. Lyon is a member of many fraternal orders, includ- ing the Woodmen of the World, Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Junior Or- der United American Mechanics.
While living the life of a farmer Mr. Lyon mar- ried Miss Margaret Elizabeth Wardlaw, member of the historic family of that name, one of the most widely known in upper South Carolina. Anything like pride that Mr. Lyon might justly take in his own career and achievements is completely sub- merged by the satisfaction and pride he takes in the record of his four sons, one son-in-law and five nephews, who followed the flag of their country as soldiers in the war with Germany-a record hardly
surpassed by any other family for self-sacrificing patriotism. His four sons in the army were Wil- liam Harry, Charles Joseph, David Wardlaw and John Uel. The last is in the United States Navy. The other three were all in the 118th Infantry, in the Thirtieth Division, one of the combat divisions making up the Second Army Corps. William H. was in Company C, Charles J. in a machine gun com- pany, and David W. a corporal of Machine Gun Company L. David Wardlaw Lyon was terribly wounded and permanently crippled and disabled while with his company in the trenches on the battle line, and at this writing (fall of 1919), is recuperat- ing in a hospital at Fort MePherson.
Mfr. Lyon has three daughters, Ethel, Hattie Bea- trice and Miss Mildred. Ethel is the wife of Charles Everett Clew, who was also a soldier and before going into service was cashier in the People's Bank at Greenwood. Hattie Beatrice is the wife of Mr. A. M. Clew, a cotton buyer.
DRESDEN ANDREW SMITH. While Mr. Smith has served for several years in the county offices of Oconec County, being present county auditor, the name of his family has been longest and perhaps best known through active connection with printing and journalism.
Mr. Smith who was born at Walhalla August 13, 1881, is of English ancestry, having come to South Carolina from Virginia. His grandfather Whittaker Guyton Smith was a native of Anderson County, South Carolina, and lived a life of great prominence and usefulness, being a teacher in the old field schools, for many years on the examining school board, a practical surveyor and farmer, and always giving his influence to the betterment and progress of his community.
The late Dresden Aaron Smith, father of the present county auditor, was born in Anderson Coun- ty February 3, 1842. Early in life he learned the trade of printer and put in a number of years "at the case," before turning his attention to editorial duties. For more than thirty-five years he was one of the editors of the Keowee Courier at Walhalla and at the time of his death September 18, 1907, was the oldest newspaper editor in point of service in South Carolina with the possible exception of Mr. Hugh Wilson of Abbeville. He was also serv- ing his third term as judge of probate in Oconee County when he died. He was an ardent democrat, an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, was steward of his church many years, and for more than twenty-five years superintendent of its Sunday school. He was twice married, his wives being sisters. His first marriage was with Gertrude Small, who died in 1877 at the age of twenty-nine. She left a son Walter V., now de- ceased. His second wife, Kathleen O. Small, is still living at Walhalla, past sixty-five. She was the mother of Gertrude T., Dresden A., Marvin J., and Kathleen, the last being deceased.
Dresden Andrew Smith grew up at Walhalla, attended the public schools, but left school at the age of twelve to become a printer's devil in his father's office on the Keowee Courier. He served a complete apprenticeship at the printing trade and was a journeyman at the age of seventeen. Mr.
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Smith has had two periods of residence in the City of Washington. Altogether he spent five years in the capital city, working as a printer for job printers and also in the Government printing office. For one year lie did reportorial work on the Washington Times. Between his two sojourns in Washington he edited and managed the Oconce News at Seneca for a stock company. In 1905 he returned to Wal- halla to help his father, then in declining years and vigor, and was connected with the Keowee Courier until his father's death. He was then elected to fill out the unexpired terin as judge of probate and was elected to succeed himself without opposition. He was judge of probate five years and resigned to become a candidate for the office of county auditor. He has been twice re-elected to that office.
Mr. Smith is a past master of the Masonic lodge, is past chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias, a past grand of the Odd Fellows, and is past archon of the lleptasophis, which he has also served two terms as district deputy supreme archon and has twice been a representative to the Supreme Conclave. Mr. Smith is a steward of the Methodist Church.
April 26, 1911, he married Miss Julia Elizabeth McLeod of Kershaw County, South Carolina. They have two sons, Marvin McLeod Smith and Laurie Whittaker Smith.
REV. ISAAC E. WALLACE, Though a native of Ten- nessee Reverend Wallace has given all of his service as a devoted minister of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, and for a number of years has been identified with the Presbyterian Church at Seneca. .
He was born in Hamilton County, Tennessee, January 5, 1879, son of David N. and America J. (McDonald) Wallace, his parents natives of the same county. His grandparents were Rev. Benjamin and Mary (Anderson) Wallace, both natives of Eastern Tennessee and of Scotch an- cestry. Rev. Mr. Wallace's mother was also of Scotch descent, her mother being a daughter of Col. William Clift, a pioneer of Eastern Tennessee who fought in the war with Mexico and was a conspicuous member of one of the chief families in the City of Chattanooga and that vicinity.
Isaac E. Wallace grew up in Tennessee, attended the public schools, graduated in 1900 from King's College at Bristol, Tennessee, spent two years in Columbia Theological Seminary and in 1903 grad- uated from Princeton Theological Seminary. He was ordained a minister in 1904, by Bethel Presby- tery and for about five years served churches in Lancaster and Kershaw counties. Prior to that he had heen working in pastorates in Anderson Coun- ty, South Carolina, and for five years was the regular pastor at Pelzer. He then accepted a call to the duties of the church at Seneca where he has served for six years. He is an able preacher and a man of much executive and administrative ability, witnessed in the fact that Seneca has a very progres- sive congregation and its modern church edifice was erected since Mr. Wallace came to the pastorate. He is a member of the Masonic order and the . Knights of Pythias.
In 1904 he married Miss Sarah Phoebe Sherard
of Anderson County. She is of Revolutionary stock and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Alexander Sherard, a native of County Antrim, Ireland, emigrated to the Ameri- can colonies at an early date and settled in Ander- son County, where he took out naturalization papers in 1808. He was a farmer and merchant at Mof- fettsville. His son Thomas A. Sherard succeeded him as a merchant and the latter's son W. T. A. Sherard in turn took the proprietorship of the store. In the same storeroom three generations of the family have been successful merchants. Thomas A. Sherard was born in Anderson County in 1823 and spent all his life there, dying at the age of seventy-two. He had served as a soldier in the Confederate war. He married Virginia C. Baskin. The mother of Mrs. Wallace died in 1917 at the age of seventy. She was of a particularly notable ancestry. Her father was William Stuart Baskin, her grandfather James Hall Baskin, and the latter was a son of William and a grandson of Wilham Baskin, Sr., who came from Virginia in an early day and settled in Abbeville County, South Caro- lina on Little Rocky River. His sons William, Jr., Hugh and James Baskin were officers in the Colonial army in the American Revolution, William serving as lieutenant. In 1779 he was promoted to a captaincy for bravery. William Baskin, Sr., married Mary Stuart, his son William married Annie Reid, their son James Hall Baskin married Margaret Hartgrove Thompson. The next generation was represented by William Stuart Baskin, the maternal grandfather of Mrs. Wallace.
CAPT. MOFFATT G. MCDONALD was for several years an officer in the old South Carolina National Guard, and from August, 1917, until July, 1919, was in the service of the National Army with the rank of captain in the Quartermaster's Department, in charge of much important and difficult work in various camps and at the army headquarters at Washington.
Captain McDonald is a lawyer by profession, and is member of one of the prominent firms of Columbia. He was born at Winnsboro in Fairfield County in 1889, son of James E. and Lillie (Elliott) Mc- Donald. His father, still a member of the Winnsboro bar and a former president of the South Carolina Bar Association, is the son of Rev. Laughlin Mc- Donald, who was a minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Clinrch. The McDonalds are of Scotch ancestry and have been identified with several south- ern colonies and states since about 1760.
Captain McDonald was educated in Erskine Col- lege at Due West, being a graduate of that institu- tion, and graduated with the class of 1913 from the Law Department of the University of South Carolina. He was a member of a college fraternity. He began practice as a member of the law firm Barron, Mckay, Frierson & McDonald at Columbia, and since his return from the army has resumed law practice as a member of the firm Tompkins, Barnett & McDonald which enjoys many prominent associations with the bar of the state
Captain McDonald was originally a member of the Third South Carolina Infantry of State Guard. L'pon the reorganization of the National Guard he
Wohin & Sailmany
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became a member of the First Regiment, with which the old Third was incorporated. He was captain in the First Regiment Quartemaster's Department. On August 1, 1917, he was mustered into the Federal army and stationed at Camp Sevier as Assistant Construction Quartermaster, continuing the rank of captain. Later he became assistant quartermaster on the Headquarters Staff of the Thirtieth Divi- sion. In March, 1918, he was sent to Camp Wheeler as assistant construction quartermaster. continuing duty under his former commander Maj. Alex C. Doyle. In May of the same year he was made construction quartermaster at Camp Sheridan, Mont- gomery, Alabama, and in October was assigned to duty as construction quartermaster at Camp Gordon, Atlanta. His duties kept him at that camp until February 1, 1919, when he was called to Wash- ington for duty as assistant to the Chief of the Construction Department and became a member of the Board of Review of Property Accountability. His final work was as assistant to the Chief of the Contract Section. Captain MeDonald received his honorable discharge July 1, 1919, after nearly two years of army service, given at the expense of the complete neglect of his professional work at Columbia.
He is an active member of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and is a Royal Arch Mason. Captain McDonald married Miss Rachel Boyce of Due West, South Carolina.
WV. LINDSAY WIT.SON. A resident of Greenville since 1913, Mr. Wilson is manager of the Greenville Iron Works, and by his many other active interests is one of the younger leaders who are making Green- ville widely known as one of the most modern and progressive cities of the South.
Though his home has been in Greenville hut a few years, Mr. Wilson is identificd with South Carolina as a native of Abbeville County and by an ancestry including several of the old and historic families of the Abbeville district. This ancestry, dating hack nearly two centuries, includes men who were participants in every important war on this continent beginning with the French and In- dian war.
Mr. Wilson's great-grandfather was Allan Wilson who settled ahout four miles from Abbeville Court ยท House and whose father, a Scotchman, came from Ireland to this country long before the Revolutionary war. William Wilson, grandfather of the Green- ville business man, was well known in Abbeville County, and at the time of the war between the states, being too old for military duty, did his bit for the Confederacy by raising large crops of mus- tard, a much needed commodity, and mustard still grows voluntary on the bed which he carefully cul- tivated. One of his sons, John E. Wilson, now owns and lives upon the old home estate of John C. Cal- houn in Abbeville County.
W. Lindsay Wilson is a son of James S. and Mil- dred Stone (Child) Wilson. His father was one of the first to respond for service in the Confederate armies, and six of his brothers and seven of his first cousins were killed during that struggle. In April, 1861, he volunteered in Company A of the First
South Carolina Cavalry, and was all through the fighting with the Army of Northern Virginia.
Mildred Stone Child was a daughter of James Wesley Child. His mother was a daughter of Thomas Stone of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Frances ( MeCaslin) Child, his mother's mother, was & daughter of Moses Oliver MeCaslin, one of the founders of Clear Springs Academy, the first edu- cational institution in upper South Carolina. His father Robert McCaslin, with his mother, Margaret McCaslin, of Scotch parentage, came from County Antrim, Freland, to America in 1785 and located in Abbeville County. The members of the carly generations of the McCaslin family are all buried in the old Long Cane Cemetery in Abbeville County.
The maternal grandmother of Mildred Stone Child was Susannah Foster, daughter of Robert Foster, whose father, also named Robert, was an American patriot killed in a skirmish with the Indians and Tories during the Revolutionary war. Susan Fos- ter's mother was a Miss Clark, a relative of George Rogers Clark, the leader instrumental in opening up .the Ohio valley during the Revolution and by the capture of Vincennes delivered that country from the English. The history of the Clark and Foster families in Abbeville County goes back to 1740 and perhaps earlier.
Mr. Wilson in preparing for the duties of life began his first training in the local school of his native county, later had three years in the University of Tennessee, supplemented by special work in the University of Chicago and the University of Cin- cinnati. For several years he devoted his time to educational work, chiefly in Tennessee. The rela- tions he sustains to his home city of Greenville, where he located in 1913, are as secretary and treasurer and managing official of the Greenville Iron Works, an industry specializing in the manufacture and upkeep of textile machinery and equipment; as president and treasurer of the Piedmont Shippers Association, and as a member of the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce.
He has also done his part in maintaining the mili- tary and patriotic record of the family. In the Spanish-American war he was in Company A of the First South Carolina Infantry, being out nearly a year and receiving a commission as lieutenant in the regular army.
Mr. Wilson married Miss Sadie Esther Waller, who was horn within two miles of the old home of Thomas Stone, the connection of her husband's family above mentioned. on the eastern shore of Maryland. Her grandfather, Capt. Jonathan Waller, commanded the Delaware troops in the War of 1812. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are the parents of two chil- dren.
AIKEN FAMILY. To record however briefly the names and achievements of the Aiken family of South Carolina is to call a long roll of some of those who have been mnost eminent and useful within the borders of the state since the founda- tion of the Republic. Their patriotic qualities have made soldiers almost without number, and always the name has stood for the finest virtues and flower of citizenship and business and personal integrity.
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They have been known for statecraft, for con- structive service in many public positions, for use- fulness in commerce and agriculture, and the name has been represented in practically every profession.
The history of this family goes back to County Antrim, Ireland, near Belfast, where James and Elizabeth Aiken lived during the last half of the eighteenth century. James Aiken died there in 1798, leaving a widow and eight children. His oldest child was William Aiken, who had come to America and settled at Charleston about 1787. In a few years he was a prosperous merchant, and later became prominent in public affairs, being chosen president of the South Carolina Railroad, the first railroad in South Carolina and the first of any consequence in the United States. The Town of Aiken was named in his honor. He was killed when his horse ran away in the streets of Charles- ton in March, 1831. His wife bore the maiden name of Henrietta Wyatt and this branch of the family became conspicuous through their only son William Aiken, who was a graduate of South Carolina College, the class of 1825, and who was elected governor of South Carolina in 1844.
The Charleston merchant and business man upon learning of the death of his father in Ireland sent money to his mother to bring her and the younger children to America. They reached Charleston in 1799, and were soon located in the Little River section of Fairfield District. To that community two of the older sons, Hugh and John, had al- ready proceeded.
The youngest of the eight children of James and Elizabeth Aiken of County Antrim was David Aiken, who on coming to South Carolina remained with his brother William as a clerk at Charleston during the winter and in the summer went to the home of the family in Fairfield County to work on the farm. In 1805 with the assistance of his brother William he opened a small store at Winnsboro. He had as much commercial ability as his brother, was pros- pered and acquired large landed possessions and for many years was one of the wealthiest residents of Fairfield County. He married in 1812 Nancy Kerr, also a native of County Antrim, Ireland, who had come to the United States in her youth and after the death of her parents was reared by her uncle Maj. Joseph Kerr, a resident of York District, South Carolina, and a veteran of the War of 1812. David and Naney Aiken spent their married lives in Winnsboro and their remains are now at rest in the old cemetery of Scion Presbyterian Church in that town. They were survived by seven sons and two daughters, then past their majority. The following paragraphs are a brief record of these seven sons and two daughters: James Reid grad- uated from South Carolina College in 1832, was for many years his father's partner as a merchant at Winnsboro. He was a soldier in the Seminole Indian war of 1836, and for two terms represented Fairfield District in the Legislature.
Elizabeth Rachel, the oldest daughter, became the wife of Dr. Osmund M. Woodward of Fairfield County.
Joseph Daniel, the third child, graduated from South Carolina College in 1841, hecame a Charleston lawyer, served in the Confederate army and after
the war was a cotton factor and agent for a line' of steamers at Charleston, where he died in 1884 when nearly sixty-seven years of age.
The other daughter of David and Nancy Aiken was Caroline Margaret, who never married.
Hugh Kerr Aiken had a brilliant military record, rising to the rank of colonel of the Sixth South Carolina Cavalry, and was in command of that regi- ment when killed in action near Mount Elon Church, Darlington County, South Carolina, 1865.
Dr. William Edward Aiken, the sixth among the children, was graduated from South Carolina Col- lege in 1846, attended medical lectures in Charleston and Baltimore, finishing his medical course in Paris. He was practicing at Winnsboro when the war between the states broke out and at the urgent request of the community and local authorities re- mained to care for the sick instead of entering the army. He continued practice at Winnsboro with great usefulness and honor until his death in 1900.
David Wyatt Aiken, like his brothers was a grad- uate of South Carolina College, being an honor man of the class of 1849. He turned his attention to farming, and in after years was editor of the Rural Carolinian advanced and advocated many ideas and methods of agriculture that are being practiced today as modern farming. He was also a Confederate soldier and was colonel of the Seventh South Caro- lina Regiment and was severely wounded in action September 17, 1862. Thereafter on account of physical disability he was assigned to lighter work as Cominandant of the Post at Macon, Georgia. Following the war he farmed in Abbeville County, and used all his great influence in hehalf of the cause of redeeming South Carolina from reconstruc- tion misrule. He was also elected to Congress from the Third District, and was its representative at Washington for ten consecutive years. He died in 1887.
Isaac Means Aiken graduated from South Carolina College in 1851, became a merchant at Winnsboro, and from there moved to Georgia where he engaged in the lumher business, and volunteered with the Forty-Seventh Georgia Regiment in the war, being elected captain of Company H. Following the war he returned to the lumber business at Pensa- cola, Florida, where he died in 1907.
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