USA > South Carolina > History of South Carolina > Part 64
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Doctor Dendy grew up in the home of his ma- ternal grandmother in Oconee County. The Steele estate was known as Greenway. He completed his high school course at Haysville, North Carolina, and then read medicine. at first under the preceptorship of his step-father, Dr. Charles Webb, and graduated from the Atlanta Medical College. He immediately located at Pelzer, and his work as a physician and surgeon has been practically uninterrupted. A large part of his services have been rendered the mill
community of Pelzer, and his practice has been of a character to test all his abilities. Doctor Dendy has endeavored to keep abreast of professional ad- vance, and in 1900 did post-graduate work in the New York Polyelinic. He is a member of the Anderson County Medical Society, the State Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the Tri-State Medical Society and the Southern Medical Association. He is a Master Mason and Knight of Pythias, and a member of the Presbyterian Church. Doctor Dendy owns an interest in a drug store at Pelzer and also one at Duncan.
Ile married Miss Sallie S. McGee, daughter of Abner Hill McGee, of Abbeville. They have four children, two now deceased.
JAMES J. IGOR was a native of the City of Charles- ton, which continued to be his place of residence until his death, which here occurred July 3, 1919, the date of his nativity having been July 7, 1859. Within the years intervening between these two dates large and worthy achievements marked the course of Captain Igoe, as he was familiarily known. He carly num- bered himself among those who "go down to the sea in ships," and he became a recognized authority in navigation and nautical science. His life was guided and guarded by the highest principles, his personal stewardship never faltered in integrity, and he so lived as to merit and receive the unqualified con- fidence and esteem of his fellow men.
Captain Igoe was a son of Thomas and Theresa (Donoghtte) Igoe, who were born and reared in County Longford, Ireland, where their marriage was solemnized and from whence they came to Charles- ton, South Carolina, about the year 1855. During the siege of the city by the Federal forces in the Civil war Thomas Igoe's health was so impaired that he was admonished to seek a change of climate. He attempted to comply with this urgent advice by taking passage on one of the vessels forcing the blockade of the port of the beleaguered city, but the ship was captured, he was taken as a prisoner of war to New York City, and he died while there confined, his remains being interred in the Catholic cemetery at Flatbush, New York. His widow even- tually became the wife of Edward Donnelly, and she continued to maintain her home in Charleston until her death. January 6, 1920, in her eighty-fourth year.
The early education of Captain Igoe was acquired mainly in private subscription schools in his native city, but the limited resources of his widowed mother did not permit him more than limited advan- tages. At an early age he began to assist his mother in providing for the other members of the family, and his ambition finally led him to enter upon an apprenticeship as a pilot. His alert mind and close application enabled him to make rapid progress in his study of navigation, and prior to attaining to his legal majority he has so thoroughly fortified him- self in the technical and practical knowledge of his chosen vocation that he was given a "branch" in active service as a pilot. In the passing years he became one of the best known, most skillful and most popular pilots and masters on the eastern coast of the United States. Following the sinking of the "Maine," which precipitated the Spanish-American
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war, he served as master of the dispatch boat "Con- fidence," which was chartered by the New York World and utilized in gaining information concerning the catastrophe. At the outbreak of the Spanish- American war Captain Igoc volunteered as a member of the First Division, South Carolina Naval Militia, and was one of the first to volunteer from the City of Charleston. He was later made master of the United States steamship "Celtic," with the rank of senior lieutenant. This vessel was placed in com- mission as a supply ship, and under his command it made many voyages between New York City and Havana, Cuba-in the transportation of supplies and ammunition from the Brooklyn navy yard. He con- tinued in service until the close of the war, when he resumed his former business activities in and from the port of Charleston. At the time of his death he held the office of master of the Pilots' Association.
During the World war, though too advanced in years for active service, Captain Igoe manifested his patriotism through every possible channel, espe- cially in teaching navigation to young men in serv- ice at the naval training station in Charleston. He held evening classes at his home, entered enthusi- astically into the work, and through his instruction and aid many young men were enabled to qualify for commissions in the United States naval service.
Captain Igoe was reared in the faith of the Catholic Church, in which he and the members of the family became earnest communicants. Genial, considerate, generous and tolerant, Captain Igoe was a man who "stood four-square to every wind that blows," and he ever commanded the high regard of all who knew him.
On the 25th of November, 1885, was solemnized the marriage of Captain Igoe to Miss Caroline F. Humphry, who was born in the State of New York, as were also her parents, Charles and Martha (Parker) Humphry, who were of English and Dutch ancestry. Captain and Mrs. Igoe became the parents of thirteen children, of whom eight, with their widowed mother, survive him, namely: Martha Teresa (Mrs. M. A. Condon), Rose Mary, Caroline Magdalene (Mrs. William F. Condon), Maude Ce- celia (Mrs. Louis Burmester), Gertrude Pauline, Helena, Mary Humphry and George Humphry.
MARK REYNOLDS, a Sumter lawyer, who was ad- mitted to the bar of South Carolina more than thirty years ago, has had an active career in his profession and his services have been employed for the most part as a railroad attorney.
He is a son of Dr. Mark and Julia V. (Rees) Reynolds. His father was a successful physician. Mark Reynolds attended school at Kirkwood, Geor- gia, the Bingham Military School in North Caro- lina, and studied law at Charleston and Columbia. He was admitted to the bar in 1885 and for seven years remained in Columbia, an associate with Col. John C. Hakell. He then practiced law in his native county, and for one year was editor of the Watchman and Southern. He served as counsel for the Southern Railroad until 1917, is local coun- sel for the Atlantic Coast Line and the Southern Express Company, and is a director of the National Bank of South Carolina.
October 5, 1887, he married Elizabeth Weties Anderson, daughter of Dr. W. W. Anderson. Their oldest child. Mark, Jr., was trained for army service in Camp Gordon. The second is Mrs. Benjamin D. Hodges of Sumter. William Mckenzie was a - member of the Charleston Light Dragoons, served as a sergeant on the Mexican border, and after- wards went overseas with the Thirtieth Division, and was a gas sergeant in France. Julia R. grad- uated from Radcliffe College at Cambridge, Mava- chusetts, in 1917, and has since been engaged in teaching. Mr. Reynolds is a senior warden in the Church of the Holy Comforter, Protestant Lips- copal, at Sumter.
PRESTON BROOKS ALLEN. There are many old friends and acquanitances who recall with pecular affection the life of Preston Brocks Allen in Ander- son County.
He was born near Lowndesville in Abbeville Coun- ty January 16, 1856, and died suddenly while on a business trip to Anderson March 8, 1901. He was a son of James T. and Anna Eliza (Banks) Allen, and a grandson of Banister Allen, a native of Virginia, who came from that state to Abbeville Conuty.
Preston Brooks Allen spent his youth in that try- ing period of the war between the states and the reconstruction era that followed. School advantages werc hard to obtain cven by the children of pros- perous people, and his father being a farmer hic learned his best lessons, those of industry and perse- verance, in the duties of the home farm. Hard work was the keynote of his life and it gave him that prosperity for which he was known in Anderson County.
In the fall of 1879, at the age of twenty-three, lie married Miss Bessie Jones. With limited means lie established a home of his own, acquiring a tract vi land in Anderson County just to the south of the Village of Starr, moving there in 1881. He worked early and late, clearing and improving his land. ard good judgment combined with industry brought him nearer to the goal of independence every year. He bought other land, and at the time of his death was proprietor of one of the best farms in the county. He built a handsome modern home in the Town of Starr, which is still occupied by his widow. Early in life he and Mrs. Allen joined the Method: 1 Episcopal Church, South. He was a Knight Tem; at Mason. Progressive as a farmer, he was pull. spirited in all his relations and could be der. 54 upon for an exact degree of integrity in every !- ness transaction. He was unpretentious, plain and direct, but in the circle of his intimate friends le was congenial, pleasant and popular. Though he and his wife had no children, his home was the center and ohjeet of his best affections and the scene of his greatest happiness. Mrs. Allen was born in An- derson County, a daughter of William and Emily (Adams) Jones and a granddaughter of James and Elizabeth (Austin) Jones, whose names as early settlers of Anderson County are mentioned else- where in this publication. In 1908 Mrs. Allen became the wife of Dr. Lawrence R. MeCalla, a native of Abbeville County and son of George McCalla. Doc- tor McCalla had practiced medicine in Georgia prior to his marriage to Mrs. Allen. His death occurred in 1915.
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Samuel E. Mlita
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CAPT. SAMUEL E. WHITE was for many years a distinguished citizen, husiness man and industrial leader in York County. He was founder of the Fort Mill Manufacturing Company.
He was horn on the ancestral estate of the White family in that locality, and the family had been identified with Fort Mill from the time of his great- grandfather. Captain White was educated in the King's Mountain Military School at Yorkville, the Arsenal at Columbia and The Citadel at Charleston, and spent portions of three years in the southwest in Texas and Mexico. He returned home in the latter part of 1860 and soon enrolled in the mili- tary forces of the first seceding state. He was com- missioned a lieutenant and afterward promoted to captain. In one battle he received a severe wound in the head which nearly ended fatally. After the war he resumed his residence on his farm near Fort Mill, and soon became interested in merchandising. He lost heavily in the financial crisis of the late 'ros, which bankrupted practically all the merchants of that vicinity. He recuperated his fortune by farming and subsequently established the Fort Mill Manufacturing Company, which was the first ging- ham mill built in the South. This he served as presi- dent. One of his associates in that enterprise was his son-in-law, Col. Leroy Springs, and the Fort Mill factory is now one of that notable group of cotton mills controlled by Colonel Springs.
Captain White was also a banker, one of the largest land owners in York County, and through all his life was distinguished by his many benevo- lences. He married Miss Esther P. Allison, of Concord, North Carolina.
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Captain White served as a member of the late Constitutional Convention. He erected in 1890 the first monument ever raised to the women of the Confederacy. He also crected a monument to the fa ful negro slaves who took care of their masters f. ilies and served so faithfully during the period of the War between the States. A great deal of note has been given to the erection of these two monuments, which were the first of their kind to be erected in the South. He also, with the people of Fort Mill, took the lead in the erection of a monument to the Confederate soldiers, and also one to the Catawba Indians, which tribe furnished sol- diers in the three wars. All these monuments were erected in the Confederate Park at Fort Mill, South Carolina.
COL. LEROY SPRINGS. In that group of men of constructive genius whose work has counted for most in the industrial development of South Carolina, the great and varied achievements of Col. Leroy Springs have made him a powerful if not the dominating fig- ure for many years. He is one of the greatest of American cotton manufacturers. In his home city of Lancaster he is president of the Lancaster Cot- ton Mills, the largest textile plant under one roof in the South. He is president of half a dozen other mills, all of which contribute to the industry, wel- fare and prosperity of their surrounding community. Two of these large mills are at Fort Mill, two others at Chester, and one at Kershaw.
The industry at Chester is known as the Spring- steen Mills. This was the original name of Colonel
Springs' family in Holland, but when his ancestors left that country and settled in New York about 1623 they afterwards abbreviated the name to Springs.
Colonel Springs was born at Fort Mill in York County, South Carolina, November 12, 1861, a son of A. Baxter and Julia Blandina (Baxter) Springs. Representing a substantial family of old American traditions, Colonel Springs nevertheless began life practically at the bottom round of the ladder and has relied upon his rare initiative and executive ability to promote him to the high place he now enjoys. He received his education in local schools and was a student in the University of North Caro- lina from 18,8 to 1880. On leaving college he be- came a salesman for the wholesale grocery house of Springs & Burwell at Charlotte, North Carolina, but in 1884 transferred his home and enterprise to Lan- caster, South Carolina. In that year he founded the Leroy Springs & Company, wholesale and retail dealers in merchandise. This is now the Lancaster Mercantile Company. Colonel Springs was presi- dent of the business for sixteen years. He has long been prominent both as a merchant and banker. He organized the firm of Springs & Shannon at Camden in 1885, the Kershaw Mercantile & Banking Com- pany in 1888, the Springs Banking and Mercantile Company at Heath Springs in 1889, the Bank of Lancaster in 1880, the Bank of Kershaw in 1904.
During the first fifteen years of his career he devoted practically all his time and energies io mer- chandising and banking. He entered the cotton mill industry in 1895 when he built The Lancaster Cotton Mills, which consisted of 10,000 spindles and 250 looms and had a capital of only $150,000 at that time. He increased it from year to year out of the earnings of the mill until this immense plant now covers nearly nine acres and the business as a whole represents an investment of over $5,000,000. Surrounding the mills are some 400 or 500 cot- tages owned by the corporation, and it is one of the best mill villages in point of architecture, com- fort and community spirit in the South. The mills are equipped with nearly 140,000 spindles, over 3,000 looms, and use 24.000 bales of cotton annually. Cot- ton mill men all over the country know of this plant, not only because of its size but because of its uninterrupted career of prosperity under the management of Colonel Springs.
Colonel Springs acquired the Eureka Cotton Mills at Chester in 1899 and increased the plant from 5,000 spindles to 25,000 spindles, and this plant, like several others, has been completely rehabilitated under the genius of Colonel Springs and his asso- ciates. He organized and built the Kershaw Cotton Mills in 1913 and in 1904 reorganized the two mills at Fort Mill, known as Mills No. 1 and No. 2 of the Fort Mill Manufacturing Company, and in- creased them from 5,000 spindles to 20,000 spindles each. This company was established in 1888 by Samuel E. White, a prominent South Carolina planter and capitalist. Colonel Springs became pres- ident of The Springsteen Mills in 1906 and rebuilt and brought that industry into a flourishing condi- tion, increasing it to double its original size.
The character of Colonel Springs is much broader than that of the practical business man and mill
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owner. In the words of a recent issue of the Southern Textile Bulletin. "he is not only a man of fine executive ability and splendid business judg- ment, but is a man who is keenly interested in his employes, finds much pleasure in mingling with them, and the relations between him and all his em- ployes and members of their families are of the most cordial and friendly sort. In his big, generous- hearted manner he is developing his mills toward higher ideals." Thus the well improved villages and living conditions in his various mill communities are to a large degree a direct result of this kindly interest and enlightened business policy.
Besides being president of seven large cotton mill companies, Colonel Springs is president of the Bank of Lancaster, the Lancaster & Chester Railway, the Lansford Water Power Company. is vice president of the Bank of Kershaw and is director in a large number of corporations, including the Catawba Fer- tilizer Company, the Lancaster Cotton Oil Company, National Loan and Exchange Bank, and Union Na- tional Bank of Columbia. First National Bank of Camden, National Exchange Bank of Chester. Bank of Kershaw, Savings Bank of Fort Mill, Southern Home Fire Insurance Company of Charleston, Pru- dential Fire Insurance Company of Greenville, and is a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. He is a member of the National Chamber of Commerce, the American Manufac- turers Association, South Carolina Bankers Associa- tion, New England Manufacturers Association, and the New York and New Orleans Cotton Exchanges and the Cotton Manufacturers Association of South Carolina. From 1886 to 1890 he was a member of the staff of Governor John P. Richardson, and as a result of that service has since been known as Colonel Springs. He has served as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Lancaster graded schools. . He is a Presbyterian, and as a democrat was a inember of the National Conventions of 188S. 1904 and 1912. He was one of the most ardent and per- severing supporters of the nomination of Woodrow Wilson at Baltimore in 1912.
December 28, 1892, Colonel Springs married Grace Allison White, daughter of Captain Samuel E. White of Fort Mill, founder, as above noted, of the Fort Mill Manufacturing Company. On November 20, 1914, Colonel Springs married Lena Jones, daughter of T. M. Jones of Pulaski, Tennessee.
For all the imposing array of his business achieve- ments Colonel Springs during the last year or so has not been ill pleased to see the fame of his son Elliott White Springs tonch that of his own. But the story of Capt. Elliott W. Springs deserves an article all to itself.
CAPT. ELLIOTT- W. SPRINGS. Occasionally it is the province of an editor to overrule the inherent modesty of a man of real distinction and state the facts of a record which would be vouched for by all competent to speak except himself alone. That is true of Capt. Elliott White Springs, who has been declared one of South Carolina's most distinguished young men in the great war and one of whom the entire state is proud. Early in the spring of 1919 he was one of the ten American aces awarded the highest rating of the War Department, that of military aviator. The award carries with it an auto-
matic raise from the rank of lieutenant to captain
Than York County no section of South Carolina is stronger in tradition and record of proud achieve- ment. King's Mountain plants its feet upon the soil of this county, and the battle of the Cowpants was not far away. The Springs and White janahey of York County have been intimately associated with the achievements and forward movements of upper Carolina for many generations. 34. A. B .... ter Springs, planter, railroad builder and manager, legislator, was one of the strikitw figures of the state in his day. Samuel Elliott White, naver and manager of large farming interests, protrek: ap ! developer of manufacturing and banking pfos. too retiring to care for politics but sent woh .t 1 . request as a delegate to the Constitutional i tion. These two men of intellectual force .. the highest patriotic impulses have left :tal that will be well maintained in the person of grandson, Capt. Elliott White Springs of 1. . like them in hardihood, in chivalrons bearit ". tellectual fibre-the sturdy scion of two pior? families.
Elliott White Springs was born at Lancaster Iv 31. 1896. He was educated in the Asheville $1 . 1 of Asheville, North Carolina, the Culver Mih ... Academy at Culver, Indiana, and Princeton U'nis - sity, where he graduated with the A. B. degree in 1917. Immediately upon the declaration of war he volunteered in the Aviation Seetion, Signal Corps. United States Army, though his previous trites would have enabled hin to serve with distinction in other branches. He took private flying lesseps at Princeton Aviation School before graduation After he was mustered into the army he took the Guy. ernment course in military acronanties with the !! class at the Princeton ground school. He : " .. teered for service abroad and was sent to Mod 's where 150 cadet aviators were being mallet or go to Italy for actual flying training
He sailed in September as cadet officer in charge and landed in Liverpool. Orders were changed ... ! this detachment of 150 were sent to Oxford. ! '" :- land, where they took the Royal Flying Corps at the school of military aeronanties. Ile tok. 1. preliminary flying training at Stamford and i. : there was sent to London for scout training Hr then took the course in aerial gunnery at Tun'y, and the course in aerial fighting at Ayr, Se alt !!
In the spring of 1918 Maj. W. A. Bishop, the famous Canadian pilot, was mobilizing a squadron near London to take to the frut.t Bishop requested that Lieutenant Spring. a" ! other Americans be permitted to join this As a number of American pilots were at! definitely to the Royal Flying Corps, 1 training but for service at the front. 1 Springs then became a member of Maier 1. Eighty-fifth Squadron and flew with them from England to the front in May. He saw active service with them several months and was successful in bringing down three German planes. In July he was brought down by a German two-seater over Armeintiers, but succeeded in reaching the lines and crashed into a shell hole in the forest of Neippe. When he came back to the Eighty-fifth Squadron from the hospital he was promoted to flight com- mander on the. recommendation of the British
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Leroy
Ceciot W Springs
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authorities and sent to Dunkirk to assist in the or- ganization of the 148th American Squadron, which operated with the British until November, using the British Sopwith-Camel scout planes. This squadron was composed of American pilots who had been trained with the Royal Flying Corps. This squad- ron brought down morc enemy aircraft than any other American squadron and was several times mentioned in dispatches.
In August Captain Springs was decorated by the British with the Distinguished Flying Cross. The following is the citation: "On August third, 1918. while leading his patrol, which was escorting DHys to Bruges, this officer shot down in flames one of three Fokker biplanes which were driving on the D Hs and succeeded in driving off the rest of the E A and escorting the bombers safely back to our lines.
"On the morning of August 22nd, 1918, he at- tacked five Fokker biplanes, one of them he shot down which was seen to crash, in a wood south of Velu. He engaged another E A and sent it down out of control and immediately turned to attack another which he drove east. Having shot away all his ammunition, Lieutenant Springs pulled out of the fight.
"In the afternoon of August 22nd, he engaged three Fokker biplanes that were driving on a lower flight. One of the three pulled out of his dive; another turned east and the third Lieutenant Springs shot down out of control. It was last seen by one of the patrol diving into the ruins of Bapaume.
"Lieutenant Springs has been on active service in France since May 22, 1918. He has destroyed five E A and driven out of control two. This in addi- tion to numerous indecisive engagements in which E A have been driven down.
"This officer has at all times shown the greatest determination and courage and his work as Flight Commander in this squadron has been marked by a rare combination of cool judgment and most ag- gressive fighting tactics."
Several weeks later he was decorated with the American Distinguished Service Cross, the citation for which is as follows: "First Lieutenant Elliott White Springs, Air Service. For extraordinary heroism in action near Bapaume, France, August 22, 1918. Attacking three enemy planes (type Fok- ker) who were driving on one of our planes, Lieut. Springs after a short and skillful fight drove off two of the enemy and shot down the third. On the same day he attacked a formation of five enemy planes (type Fokker) and after shooting down one plane was forced to retire because of lack of am- munition. Home address : Lancaster, S. C."
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