USA > South Carolina > History of South Carolina > Part 59
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68
Doctor Durham is a member of the State and American Dental associations and is a Baptist. He married Miss Mildred T. Mccullough of Union County, daughter of Maj. John McCullough. They
V. a. Chandler
235 ,
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
have three children, James Robert, Marshall Tres- cott and Mary.
WALTER ALWIN CHANDLER. As soon as a proper perspective can be obtained of the conditions during and immediately following the great war, it will doubtless be seen that the complete revival of business and its forward impulse on a greater scale than ever before known have depended upon a com- paratively small group of men with the courage, in- itiative and vision to "start the ball rolling."
The early months of 1919 recorded several signifi- cant moves in Greenville that presage that city taking a leading part in the era of new progress. These moves chiefly hinged on some unprecedented real estate transactions, which betrayed the essential faith and confidence of men of capital in the soundness of American business with particular reference to Greenville.
The promoter and negotiator of several of these deals was one of Greenville's youngest and most en- terprising real estate men, Walter Alwin Chandler, who has figured as an authority on local realty val- nes and in past years has consummated a number of the larger transactions in local real estate records.
He was born in Oak Lawn Township, Greenville County, in 1886, son of Franklin S. and Lillian Inez (Shockley) Chandler. His father, also a native of Oak Lawn Township, was the son of the late J. Franklin Chandler and grandson of Josiah Chand- ler. Josiah Chandler's father came to South Caro- lina from Virginia about the close of the Revolu- tionary war, and settled in what is now Oak Lawn Township of Greenville County, where his descend- ants have continued to live to the present time. The Chandlers are a noted family in the United States. All of them, including those in New England, as well as those in the Carolinas and Georgia, trace their descent from William and Mary Chandler, who coming from England, were among the founders of old Jamestown, Virginia.
Walter A. Chandler was born and reared on the Chandler plantation, which is about sixteen miles south of Greenville and three miles north of Fork Shoals. He attended Old Hundred School nearby, and on April 7, 1907, located permanently at Green- ville. He married Miss Eva E. Russell, who was born near Traveler's Rest, in Greenville County. They have two sons, Walter Alwin Chandler, Jr., and John Franklin Chandler.
JAMES HARVEY CLEVELAND. It has been the en- viable choice and lot of James Harvey Cleveland to find his pleasant work and interests in a locality where he was born, and where his father, grand- father and many other members of the Cleveland family have lived for over a century, and where the Clevelands as a family have been chiefly in- strumental in furnishing the enterprise and varied personal and business resources for the upbuilding of the community.
This community is known as Cleveland in Cleve- land Township, Upper Greenville County. James Harvey Cleveland was born there in 1878 a son of Jesse Franklin and Emma Caroline (Goodwin) Cleveland. Of the historic character of the Cleve-
land family it is perhaps unnecessary to elaborate. The ancestry goes back to Robert Cleveland, son of John Cleveland of Prince William County, Virginia. Robert Cleveland was captain of a company of Partisan Rangers in the battle of King's Mountain during the Revolution. He served in that battle tinder command of his brother, Gen. Benjamin Cleveland, for whom Cleveland County, North Caro- lina, was named. Two sons of Robert Cleveland, Jeremiah and Jesse settled in Greenville County, South Carolina. Of these Jeremiah was the great- grandfather of James Harvey Cleveland.
Jeremiah Cleveland it is related when a youth worked for wages of five dollars a month at Ashe- ville, North Carolina, driving a freight wagon to and from Philadelphia for Patton & Taylor, a firm of traders in Western North Carolina. About 1805 Captain Jeremiah removed to Greenville and engaged in the mercantile business independently. His store was on South Main Street at the corner now occupied by the First National Bank. His business prospered, and his fortune was largely invested in land, of which he became an extensive owner. His character in business has been largely inherited by his descendants, all of whom have been citizens of extensive resources and of first rate business ability. Prior to coming to Green- ville Capt. Jeremiah Cleveland had bought land in the upper part of Greenville County in what is now Cleveland Township. On that land James Harvey Cleveland, whose name is inherited by his grandson, spent all his life, his home being within a few feet of the Cleveland residence now occupied by his grandson James H. The postoffice established there many years ago was named Cleveland. Its site is beautiful and picturesque, being at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Village of Cleveland is about twenty miles north of Greenville.
Jesse Franklin Cleveland aside from his service during the war in the Confederate army spent all his life on the old Cleveland homestead. His brother Richard Mayes Cleveland was for many years promi- nent in civic affairs, representing Greenville County several terms in the General Assembly.
James Harvey Cleveland finished his education in Sonth Carolina's famous military school, The Citadel, at Charleston. While his career in the main has been comprised in the routine of agriculture, he has for seven years been engaged in cotton mill- ing, part of the time in association with Dr. Jesse F. Cleveland in the mill at Tucanau. He owns extensive tracts of land in Cleveland Township. and besides his own property he has charge of several thousand acres of farming and timber land for other owners.
During the late war Mr. Cleveland was a mem- ber of . Exemption Board No. 1 for Greenville County. He had a high sense of the duties and responsibilities involved in this position and was most diligent and sacrificing of his own interests in their discharge. His friends call Mr. Cleveland one of the best fellows in the world, and his varied relationships with the community is proof of the assertion. Mr. Cleveland married Miss Hazel Baker of Greenville County. Their' two children are named J. Harvey, Jr., and John Baker.
236
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
COL. WILLIAM CALHOUN KEITH was a man of versatile abilities and character, and served his state and community well as a Confederate soldier, lawyer, editor and leader in public affairs.
He was born in what is now Oconce County February 6, 1836, and died at Walhalla, where he spent most of his active career, on February 7, 1889, at the age of fifty-three.
He was a son of William Lafoon and Elizabeth Brown (Reed) Keith. His grandfather Cornelius Keith was a Virginian and came to South Carolina at an early day and located in what is now Pickens County in Oolenoy Valley. He reared a large family. William L. Keith was clerk of court for thirty-six years in Pickens District.
William Calhoun Keith was one of a family of five sons and three daughters, was born and reared on a farm, but received an excellent education. One of his teachers in the elementary school was Rev. J. L. Kennedy, a prominent educator of that day. He took his higher education in South Caro- lina College, where he had as classmates such men as Hon. M. C. Butler and Capt. H. L. McGowan. In competition with them he stood at the head of his class graduating in 1857. His scholarly mind and other qualities inclined him to the law, and he was well fitted and prepared for the profession which he adorned. He began the study of law with his brother Col. E. M. Keith of Pickens County
July 18, 1861, he entered the Confederate army as sergeant in Company A of Orr's Regiment of Rifles. Later he was promoted to lieutenant of this company and finally made adjutant of the regiment. Toward the close of the war he was captured. He was a popular soldier and officer and showed the qualities of leadership which men everywhere es- teem. After the close of the war he resumed the study of law, was soon admitted to the bar, and enjoyed a rapid rise to prominence and secure position. For years he excelled as a criminal lawyer and ranked hardly second to any in the state. He was a powerful and effective advocate before the jury, and cases of prominence in which he appeared always attracted many of his fellow attorneys, who came to admire the strength of his arguments and his profound knowledge of the law. His practice was not confined to the courts of Oconee County, but included many important cases in different parts of the state. .
For nearly twenty years prior to his death Colo- nel Keith was one of the editors and proprietors of the Keowee Courier. He wielded a trenchant pen, and made his paper a distinctive influence in the life and affairs of the state at large. He was a consistent democrat and a leader in his party and soon after the close of the war he was chosen a member of the Lower House of the Legislature. He served two terms and was then elected to the State Senate for four years. He then retired and declined further political position. He was one of the men who worked steadfastly and unflinchingly for the restoration of white rule in South Carolina, culminating with the triumph of 1876. He was appointed colonel of a militia regiment by Governor Orr, but as that was in the time of reconstruction the regiment was never brought into active service.
However, from that time dated his popular title as colonel.
Colonel Keith was a Mason and a member of the Methodist Church. He had friends by the thou- sands and his domestic life was ideal.
February 8, 1865, he married Elizabeth Margaret Reid, daughter of Samuel Reid who was sheriff of his county and otherwise prominent in local affairs. Mrs. Keith died August II, 1893. Colonel and Mrs. Keith hecame the parents of ten children : Samuel Reid, deceased; William Reid, who is a resident of Newberry, and by his marriage to Mary Comelia Smith has six children; May, wife of Eugene J. Harris of Birmingham, Alabama, and mother of two daughters; Thomas Reid Keith, who is unmarried and lives on the old homestead; Caroline, wife of John R. Anderson of Anderson, South Carolina; James R., who married Luta Frier- son and lives at Anderson, and has two children; John R. Keith who died in the Philippines while in the United States army; George R., who died un- married ; Eliza who is the wife of Walter D. Moss, a merchant of Walhalla, and the mother of two children; and Charles, who died in infancy.
DON R. BURRESS, M. D. A physician and surgeon whose services and talents are in great demand in the community of Iva, Anderson County, is member of a well known family in that section of the state, and has had a busy professional career for over ten years.
Doctor Burress was born on his father's farm five miles northwest of Anderson December 17, 1880, a son of William and Nancy Louisa ( Dick- inson) Burress. His grandfather Reuben Burress was a native of Virginia and an carly settler in Anderson County, where Doctor Burress' father was born. William Burress served throughout the war between the states as a Confederate soldier, was married after the war and then settled on a farm five miles northwest of the City of Anderson. The mother of Doctor Burress was born in Alabama, where her father John Dickinson settled after com- ing from Ireland.
Doctor Burress attended the high school at Leba- non in Anderson County, and after finishing his education there worked for his father on the farm up to 1904. At the age of twenty-four he began the study of medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Atlanta, spent one year in the University of Maryland at Baltimore, and in 1908 graduated in medicine at the University of Louis- ville, Kentucky. The following five years he prac- ticed with his brother Dr. 1. J. Burress in the country five miles east of Starr, and since then Doctor Burress has made his home at Iva and looks after a large general practice in and around that village.
Doctor Burress is a member of the medical socie- ties, is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner and a member of the Baptist Church. In 1911 he married Miss Madge Jackson, daughter of James L. Jackson of Starr. They have one daughter, Majoritte.
JOHN W. PARKER, JR., M. D. Since his honorable discharge from army duty as specialist in gastro- intestinal diseases at the Base Hospital at Camp
237
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Wadsworth, Doctor Parker has located at Green- ville and now gives all his time to his specialty, in which he is one of the foremost authorities in South Carolina. Doctor Parker has practiced medi- cine in this state since graduating from the Uni- versity of Maryland.
He was born at Durham, North Carolina, April 16, 1880, a son of John W. and Jane ( Lunsford) Parker of Durham. He grew up in the famous tobacco city, was educated in Rutherford College and the University of North Carolina, and did his work in preparation for the medical profession at the University of Maryland where he graduated in 1905. The first three years he practiced in Lee County, South Carolina, and from that time until 1914 at Williamston in Anderson County. He had become well established in his profession at Green- ville when the World war came on, and he vol- unteered his services in the Medical Reserve Corps. Upon being taken into the National army he was assigned to duty as specialist in gastro-intestinal diseases at the Base Hospital at Camp Wadsworth, Spartanburg, and was on continuous duty there from January 3rd until September 8, 1918.
Doctor Parker has specialized for a number of years in gastro-intestinal diseases, and his skill and success have brought him well deserved recog- nition from the medical profession. He has every advantage bestowed by experience, personal skill and complete facilities. These facilities in his fine suite of offices in the Wallace Building at Green- ville include the latest Bellevne Model X-Ray ma- chine of the Woppler Electric Company.
Doctor Parker is a member of the County, State and American Medical Associations. He married Miss Andrina Anderson of Anderson County, a daughter of George W. and Narcissa (Nesbitt) Anderson. George W. Anderson was born in Green- ville County, South Carolina, March 7, 1828. He was the son of John Anderson, a native of Ire- land, who came to America with his parents. Thomas and Nancy (Ewing) Anderson, in his childhood and settled in Greenville, Green- ville County, where he died in 1837. Of ten children living at the time of John Ander- son's death, Major Anderson and his sister are the only ones surviving. Thomas and Nancy Ander- son, the grandparents, spent the remainder of their lives in Greenville County, the latter living to be nearly 100 years old. The mother of Major Anderson was Mary Terry, who survived her hus- band a great many years, dying at the age of seventy. Four sous of John and Mary Anderson served in the Confederate army; James, John, David and George W. James died in 1863 from sickness contracted in the service; John was cap- tured at the fall of Petersburg and died from the effects of his treatment on the boat while on his way to Charleston to be released; David survived the war and farmed in Alabama until his death in 1896. George W. was educated chiefly at the Cokesbury High School. He taught for one year in Alabama, but began a mercantile business in Laurens County, South Carolina, in 1851. For several years before the war he was a major in the state militia, commanding the upper squadron of the Tenth Regiment of cavalry. In the fall of
1863 he entered the army as a private in Company K, Seventh South Carolina Regiment of cavalry, commanded by Col. A. C. Haskell, and served with it to the close of the war. He was in the battles of Drewry's Bluff, and shortly afterward detailed as a courier for Gen. G. T. Beauregard, serving as such for some time, after which he returned to his command, and participated in the battle of the Crater. He was present at Lee's surrender at Appomatox. Major Anderson located in Williamston, South Carolina, in 1868. As a merchant after the war he was very successful. He was a very active and loyal churchman and at that time when prohibition was very unpopular, he took a strong stand in support of it and was instrumental in the publication of a prohibition paper. To the poor and needy he was unusually kind and generous. He was married February 21, 1860, to Miss Naney Narcissa Nesbitt, who sur- vived him nine years, and died November 27, 1901, leaving seven children, four sons and three daugh- ters. Her maternal ancestry includes the notable Nesbitt family of Spartanburg County. She is a granddaughter of James Nesbitt and a great- granddaughter of Jonathan Nesbitt of Spartanburg County. Jonathan Nesbitt was a Revolutionary hero. At the battle of Cowpens the breech of his gun was shot off by enemy fire. He was parti- cipant in a number of other battles in North Caro- lina, and at his death was buried with military honors in old Nazareth Presbyterian Church in Spartanburg County. The Nesbitts were among the founders of this historic congregation. They had located in Upper South Carolina a number of years before the Revolutionary war and repre- sented some of the finest of the Scotch-Irish stock in that vicinity. One of the prominent members of the family was Col. Wilson Nesbitt, who was a member of Congress in 1817-18, and had in this and otherwise a brilliant career. He married Miss Susan Tyler DuVal of Washington, District of Columbia, and he died at Montgomery, Alabama. to which place he had removed from Spartanburg County later in life.
The two children of Doctor and Mrs. Parker are : Andrina Anderson Parker and John W. Parker, III.
LAWRENCE R. THOMPSON has spent his life in Anderson County and his first conscious memories were of the period of the war about the time his father went away from home as a Confederate soldier never to return. His early manhood and mature years have been passed as a farmer with ever growing means and accumulations and he is one of the well known residents of the Pendleton com- munity.
He was born March 1. 1859, son of Beverly L. and Mary (Welborn) Thompson, both natives of Anderson County. His grandfather James Thomp- son was born in Laurens County, and in early man- hood moved to Greenville County where he married Harriet McElroy. Later he settled on Three and Twenty Creek above Williamston in Anderson Coun- ty and finally on the Saluda River where he was a planter and spent the rest of his life as a highly respected citizen. James Thompson and wife had
238
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
the following children: Annie who married Robert Welborn; Beverly L .; Lizzie, who became the wife of Frank Welborn and had two children; William; Dorlie, who died while a Confederate soldier ; Sallie, who married Maj. F. M. Welborn and had three daughters; Josie, better known as Maggie, married Mr. Baker of Greenville County and left two chil- dren.
Beverly L. Thompson while in the Confederate army was reported missing on the records, and his final fate was never determined. His wife survived him several years. She was a daughter of William and Nancy (Wadell) Welborn. Her five children were: James Robert, William Walker, Lawrence R., Mrs. Nannie Mosley who died at the age of twenty- three leaving one child, and John Thompson.
Lawrence R. Thompson learned farming by prac- tical experience and acquired his education only in the local schools. In 1882 he married Miss Essie Brown, a daughter of Peter R. Brown of Anderson County. They have three children: Ola, wife of W. A. Cooner; Peter Guy who married Carrie Smith; and Nettie, wife of C. D. Merritt.
Mr. Thompson located on his present farm in 1890. He has his farm well improved and his residence is one of every convenience and comfort. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are members of the Bap- tist Church and they reared their family in the same faith.
HON. RAVEN I. McDAVID. While his business career at Greenville has been one of most enviable success, Mr. McDavid is most widely known as a trenchant and vigorous civic leader, one who has shown unnsnal force and sagacity in planning and advocating improvements for his home city and in concentrating civic energies where they would bring the greatest results and most benefits to the entire community. Mr. McDavid is now a member of the General Assembly of South Carolina.
He was born at Woodville in Greenville County October 16, 1883, son of Andrew W. and Nina (Evans) MeDavid, who were also natives of Green- ville County. The McDavids are one of the oldest families of the county. His great-grandfather Mc- David was a Seotchman from County Antrim, Ire- land, who came to America in the early part of the nineteenth century and about 1810 or 1812 settled in Greenville County, where his son James was born in 1813. James McDavid was the grand- father of Raven I. MeDavid.
The latter received his early education at Wood- ville, and from there entered Davidson College in North Carolina, where he was graduated with the class of 1906. The same year found him located at Greenville, and for five years he was connected with the Bank of Commerce. In recent years he has given most of his time to building, real estate and property interests. He is a man of important financial resources and his different enterprises have been attended with most unusual success. He is owner of the MeDavid Apartment Building and some other high class residential properties.
His civic service was especially notable during the four years he was a member of the City Council. During that time he was chairman of the Com- mittee on Streets. As such he was the leader in
the movement for street paying and street improve- ments, and when Greenville is referred to, as is frequently done, as one of the best paved cities in the South, Mr. MeDavid might properly claim that enviable fame as the result of his individual leader- ship and strenuous efforts. He gave many months of his own time in getting necessary petitions signed by property owners and in formulating and having enacted the necessary legislation under which these improvements were carried out.
In the primary elections of 1918 Mr. MeDavid received the democratic nomination for member of the Lower House, and was elected in November, taking his seat at the beginning of the session at Columbia in January, 1919. Mr. McDavid is a Pi Kappa Alpha college fraternity man and is also a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner.
He married Miss Marie Louise Henderson of Lexington, Virginia. Mrs. MeDavid is a great- great-granddaughter of Alexander Hamilton, whose constructive statesmanship in uniting the battling colonies of North America into a firm and lasting union is a matter of record in every American history. Alexander Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler. Their son John Church Hamilton had a son Alexander Hamilton, and this Alexander Hamil- ton was father of the mother of Mrs. MeDavid. Mrs. McDavid's parents were Francis W. and Maria (Hamilton) Henderson. Mr. and Mrs. MeDavid have three children : Raven I. MeDavid, Jr., Marie Hamilton MeDavid, and Elizabeth Schuyler Me- David.
JOHN DAVID CAMPBELL is a comparatively young man, still vigorously engaged in the business of farming, and owns a good farm and a good home in Centerville Township of Anderson County.
He was born in Rock Mill Township of that county September 17, 1876, a son of David A. E. and Nancy J. (Eskew) Campbell. The paternal grandparents were Alexander and Hannah ( Terrell) Campbell, natives of Anderson County. David A. E. Campbell was a farmer by occupation, was born in Rock Mill Township August 3, 1846, and as a youth entered the Confederate army toward the close of the war and got as far as Charleston hefore hostilities ceased. His death was due to an injury received when a team of mules ran away June 21, 1883, and he died a little more than a month later on the 19th of July. His wife was born in Anderson County May 16, 1846, and died in her seventieth year. Her parents were William Elliott and Catherine (Burriss) Eskew. David Campbell was a Presby- terian and his wife a Baptist. They had the fol- lowing children : Thomas and William, twins, Law- rence T .. Minnie. Kate, John D. and Ideal.
John D. Campbell lived at home with his mother until he was twenty-one years of age and then married Miss Pollie Gerard, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Beard) Gerard. Her father was born and reared in the Town of Charles, Lancashire, England, and after coming to America served as a soldier in the Confederate army. Her mother was born in Anderson County, a daughter of John Beard. a native of South Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell have seven children : Mary, John Thomas, Cecil, Bonta, Elvin, George Wilton and Fleeta. Mr.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.