USA > South Carolina > Men of mark in South Carolina; ideals of American life: a collection of biographies of leading men of the state, Volume I > Part 17
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His postoffice address is Greenville, South Carolina.
Men of Mark Publishing Co. Washington, D G.
1
yours
Thomas Amokry
THOMAS PINCKNEY
P INCKNEY, THOMAS, was born in Charleston, August 13, 1828. He is the son of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of Charleston, and Caroline Elliott, his wife, of Beaufort, South Carolina. His father was a lawyer by profession, but spent the greater part of his life planting rice. He had no desire for political life, but was, nevertheless, once elected lieutenant- governor of the state, and was also a member of the Nullification convention of 1832. He was a devoted planter, but more deeply interested in the welfare of his negroes, both temporal and spir- itual, than in the advancement of his material interests. He was the first planter in the state to introduce the religious instruction of the negroes upon his plantation by the employment of mis- sionaries to preach to them on Sundays and catechize the chil- dren on week days. He was, moreover, assiduous in his own exertions in this direction. An instance of his consideration for them is illustrated by the fact that on one occasion a heavy rainfall had inundated the lowlands on his farm. One of his men, who attempted to return by a causeway across the valley, found the water had risen above his depth, and being unable to swim, climbed a tree and whooped for assistance. Mr. Pinckney, on discovering the situation, mounted his most trusty horse and swam out to the tree on which this terrified man had taken refuge, and putting him upon the horse, turned it loose. The horse made straight back for the shore, landing his rider safely there, while Mr. Pinckney breasted the surging current and swam safely to the highland.
The subject of this sketch is a descendant of the Pinckney family who were prominent in the early history of this country in framing the constitution of the United States, and in repre- senting their country in the courts of England, France and Spain. Thomas Pinckney, the first of the name to cross the ocean, sailed from England to the Barbadoes in 1691, and the year after landed in Charleston from the Loyal Jamaica with many other settlers. His son, Charles, was appointed chief justice of the province by Governor Glenn in 1752. His son, Thomas Pinckney, was a major in the Revolutionary army, and after the close of that war was
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appointed by Washington minister to the court of St. James. In the War of 1812 he commanded the Southern department, and also in the war with the Creek nation.
Thomas Pinckney, the subject of this sketch, was delicate in childhood, but the influence of a country life enabled him to outgrow this tendency. His early life was spent at El Dorado, a rice plantation on the Santee river, in winter, and in Pendleton in the summer. No work or unusual duties were required of him in youth, and to the influence of his parents he is indebted for his moral and spiritual growth. History and books of adventure were the reading most congenial to his taste. His first strong impulse to exert himself came from a realization of the fact that he could win success in life only by his own exertions, coupled with the examples of hard-working, energetic, successful men with whom he was thrown in contact in business. No financial obstacle stood in the way of his acquiring all the education he would take, first at village schools in Pendleton, then at the University of Virginia, where he spent two years in the academic department, after which he spent two years at the Medical college of Charleston, graduating in 1850, and took a subsequent course at the Medical college of the University of New York.
The serious work of his life began when he commenced rice planting, which was accomplished by his going heavily into debt for negroes to plant some of his father's unoccupied land. A balance of this debt he has discharged since the war, although some of these very negroes had been enlisted in the ranks of the opposing Northern army. On the secession of his native state, he raised a cavalry company, and was put on duty by Governor Pickens in guarding the seacoast from the depredations of fre- quent raiding parties sent in from the blockading fleet. In 1861 his command was mustered into the Confederate service, merged into the Fourth South Carolina cavalry, and after one year's similar service at Pocataligo, under General "Live Oak" Walker, this regiment was transferred to General Hampton's division in the Army of Northern Virginia. In a hotly contested engage- ment between Generals Hampton and Sheridan, at Hawes Shop, Virginia, Captain Pinckney was captured, and, after seven months' imprisonment at Point Lookout, Fort Delaware, Morris Island, and Fort Pulaski, he was exchanged, rejoined his regi- ment, then with General Johnston's army (General Hampton
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having been promoted lieutenant-general and transferred to com- mand all the cavalry of that army). Here he had the misfor- tune to have a leg broken a few days before the final surrender in 1865. In November he returned to Santee, to resume rice planting and face the troubles precipitated upon the South by the iniquitous reconstruction acts, and to realize the curse that had been visited upon the country by the Fifteenth amendment to the Constitution, and the blighting consequences it has entailed for all future time. At El Dorado he found the negroes, upon their emancipation, had "shared" out the household furniture, as well as the planting land, among themselves, and the books from the old library were thrown out of doors and strewed around on the plea "that the white people had gotten all their sense out of them, and should get no more good from them." The planters were obliged to call in the aid of Federal troops to dispossess them of what they had appropriated, and restore order on the plantation, and it was only after their means of subsistence had been exhausted that they could be induced to resume work to obtain their rations; under which circumstances as laborers they were most unsatisfactory and insubordinate, serious collisions frequently arising between the two races.
Captain Pinckney, preferring the quiet, more independent life of a rice planter as it existed in ante-bellum days, declined propositions made to him to take part in public life, though after the war he did his utmost for the preservation of our civilization, so seriously threatened by those reconstruction acts which dis- franchised our prominent men in both civil and military life and enfranchised the negroes, who soon proved themselves utterly unfit to be trusted with the ballot. On one occasion only did he deviate from this rule, when chosen a member of the Taxpayers' convention in 1875, which led to the nomination of Wade Hamp- ton for governor, and thus to the redemption of the state. During the winter of 1865-66, after returning to his desolated home, he supported himself by his gun, selling his game in Charleston market, and thus supplying himself with what he was otherwise unable to buy.
He is a member of the Masonic order; of the Society of the Cincinnati; of the South Carolina society; the Agricultural Society of South Carolina; Camp Sumter Veteran association;
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Charleston Library society; the Historical society; Art associa- tion; St. Cecilia society; Charleston club; Westmoreland club, of Richmond; member of the board of trustees of the Porter Military academy; Church of the Redeemer for seamen; Church Home and Orphanage; Society for the Advancement of Chris- tianity for South Carolina; Society for the Relief of Widows and Orphans; Bible society, etc., and he has served on the board of trustees of the University of the South.
In educational work he has always taken a deep interest, feeling assured that upon the enlightenment and virtuous training of the rising generation the future of this country must depend.
He was always a Democrat, though he could not approve of the adoption of the free silver heresy. He has also grown up in the faith of his forefathers, as exemplified in the Protestant Episcopal church. He has always had a great fondness for outdoor sports, especially riding, hunting and shooting.
As to his advice to the youth of the country, he suggests that they must not hesitate to push themselves forward by all honorable means in attaining the object of their praiseworthy ambitions, and adds: "A strict adherence to principle, even though it appear to the disadvantage of the individual, is the basis upon which the most exalted characters have been founded, and on the preservation of such ideals the future of our country will depend."
He is a strong opponent of the dispensary law as it has been administered in this state, for although he admits that the closing of bar rooms has done some good, he thinks this is more than counterbalanced by the amount of fraud, as well as hypocrisy, its administration has engendered, demoralizing those who have come in contact with it, as a rule, from the highest to the lowest, besides which it has led to many murders at the hands of its minions.
Thomas Pinckney was married twice; first to Mary Stewart, of Brook Hill, Virginia, in 1870. Of this marriage, six children were born, of whom one son alone survives, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of Richmond, Virginia. The second marriage was to Camilla Scott, of Richmond, Virginia, in 1892, of which marriage one daughter, Josephine, survives.
Fabilong Company Washington D. C.
Faithfully Yours Jos Danie Pope
JOSEPH DANIEL POPE
P OPE, JOSEPH DANIEL, professor of law in the Uni- versity of South Carolina, at Columbia, was born April 6, 1820, in St. Helena parish, on the sea island of the same name, upon the coast of South Carolina, upon his father's plantation called Mullein Hill, within three miles of the Atlantic ocean, in the house that was the home of his grandfather, Joseph Pope, in the present county of Beaufort and within eight miles of the town of Beaufort. His father's name was Joseph James Pope and his mother's maiden name was Sarah Jenkins. His father was a sea island planter of comfortable fortune consisting mostly of lands and slaves, and though not of great wealth, his means were ample. He held few public offices, being averse to public life, but in spite of his indifference to office he was several times elected a member of the South Carolina legislature, and took much comfort to himself for being one of those who voted to establish the lunatic asylum in Columbia in 1822, against very strong opposition. He also voted for the nullification ordinance in 1832. His marked characteristics were great personal dignity, high courage and integrity and remarkable conversational gifts. He was esteemed by all who knew him as a man of profound judgment and was always a leading member of the community.
Mr. Pope numbered among his ancestors on his father's side the distinguished portrait painter, Jeremiah Theus; Colonel James Theus, of the War of the Revolution, and Simon Theus, who was the first Republican collector of the port of Charleston. The Pope family came to South Carolina from Pope's Creek, Westmoreland county, Virginia, about the year 1700. The earliest one of the name was Thomas Pope, who settled on tidewater, in the low country of South Carolina, where the family lived and prospered, both socially and pecuniarily, until they were utterly broken up and impoverished by the invasion of the Federal army in 1861. On his mother's side, Mr. Pope traces his ancestry to the Scotts, the Jenkinses, the Adamses and the Ashes, all families of great respectability and social standing.
Mr. Pope grew up upon his father's sea island plantation and was a healthy boy, fond of outdoor life and developing no
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special tastes, except for horseback riding, gunning and boating. He was not compelled to do any manual labor, as his father was in easy circumstances, with the best trained negro servants to wait upon the members of the household at every call. Naturally, in such conditions, the influence of his parents was paramount in his early life. His education began at his mother's knee, and after he was eight years old the combined influence of both his father and his mother affected the whole of his moral, spiritual and intellectual development. When he was twelve years old a New England teacher was employed in the family, who, in spite of many personal objections to his character and opinions, was nevertheless of the greatest service to his scholar in opening his mind to knowledge and in teaching him how to study and to educate himself. This teacher subsequently left the South, and his letters, published after his death, were filled with many slanders concerning the Southern people, especially with regard to the period of nullification, but Mr. Pope has always felt that this did not detract from the intellectual debt which he owed to him as above suggested. After his mind had been opened by this early training, the books that he found most helpful to him for his work in life were the writings and speeches of John C. Calhoun, Hallam's Constitutional History, and Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and in a literary way the writings of W. M. Thackeray. Without claiming to be a classical scholar in the proper sense of the term, Mr. Pope has read the usual classical courses of the colleges, and very widely and largely in English literature, and has all his life been a student of the best models of English style.
After a time Mr. Pope was sent to what was known as the Waterboro academy, kept by the Reverend Mr. Van Dyck, by no means a ripe scholar, but an admirable teacher to others of what he himself knew, and his pupils were greatly benefited by his instruction in the Greek and Latin languages. In 1840, Mr. Pope was graduated from the University of Georgia with the degree of A. B., while Doctor Church was its president. He did not engage in professional study at any institution after his gradu- ation, nor did he take any post-graduate course at any college; but he received from the University of Georgia the degree of A. M., and, in later life, the degree of LL. D. from Furman university.
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On the 11th of December, 1845, he married Catherine Scott, the daughter of Doctor John A. P. Scott, of the Parish of St. Helena. His married life lasted fifty years and nineteen days. Seven children were born to him, two of whom are now (1907) living; his daughter, Mrs. Reed Stoney, living with him in Columbia, and his son, of his own name, living in Florida.
Mr. Pope's professional life began as a student of law in Charleston, in the office of James L. Petigru, the famous jurist. He was subsequently admitted to the bar and practiced his pro- fession for many years with marked success. He was for many years a member of the house of representatives of South Carolina, and held the chairmanship of the committee on federal relations. At the time the John Brown raid occurred, Mr. Pope, as chairman of that committee, carried the house with his report and speech thereupon. Subsequently, Mr. Pope became a member of the senate of South Carolina, and his services in that body upon the judiciary and finance committees were of the greatest public importance. He was a member of the senate during the exciting period of secession. He was also a member of the Secession convention, and took a prominent part in its deliberations, as will appear by its published proceedings.
During the War between the States Mr. Pope was a member of the senate of South Carolina, and was subsequently appointed by President Davis chief collector of the Confederate war tax for that state, and also, for a time, superintendent for the printing of the Confederate notes. After the war was over he returned at once to the practice of his profession in Columbia. He deter- mined never to hold again a public office of any kind, but this did not prevent him from taking a very active part in what is generally known as the Hampton movement for the redemption of the state from negro rule. About 1886, at the solicitation of the trustees of the South Carolina college (now the University of South Carolina), Mr. Pope was induced to enter upon the laborious task of building up a law school in the college, and since that time he has conducted that department with marked ability and success. He has graduated about three hundred stu- dents in the period indicated, and the law school has added greatly to the character, ability and learning of the South Caro- lina bar.
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JOSEPH DANIEL POPE
Mr. Pope having led a busy life in the law courts and in public affairs, has not been the author of books, but he has written a great deal for the daily press and has contributed articles for the magazines. He has delivered numerous literary addresses, on sundry occasions, which have always been well received.
His postoffice address is Columbia, South Carolina.
patates
Warof Mark Publishing Company Washington, D C
Yours sincerely y. J. Pope
YOUNG JOHN POPE
P OPE, YOUNG JOHN, chief justice of the supreme court of his native state, was born in Newberry, South Caro- lina, April 10, 1841. His parents were Thomas Herbert and Harriett Neville (Harrington) Pope. His father was a distinguished lawyer and statesman, who for several years was commissioner in equity, and was also an influential member of the South Carolina legislature. His death at the age of forty- seven years was a great loss to the legal profession and to the state at large.
In childhood and early youth Young John Pope was rather frail, but with increasing years his health greatly improved. He was fond of hunting and of other sports that were common to boys of his age. But while permitted to engage in them to a reasonable extent, he was taught by his mother to be industrious and was required to work in her flower garden, and perform other tasks, before his hours for play. He had no difficulties in obtaining an education. After a preliminary course he entered the Newberry Male academy, in which he was prepared for college. He then studied at Furman university, Greenville, South Carolina, from which institution he was graduated August 6, 1860. He had chosen the legal profession and immediately after his graduation began the study of law under the direction of John Belton O'Neall, one of his kinsmen, who was then chief justice of the supreme court of South Carolina. Early in the following year, when the War between the States began, he left his studies and was among the first to enter the military service of the Confederate government. He enlisted as a private in Company E of the Third South Carolina infantry, and in a short time he was promoted its first sergeant. In April, 1862, on the reorganization of the regiment, he was promoted adjutant. This regiment saw a great deal of hard fighting, and its losses of killed and wounded were very heavy. Mr. Pope was wounded seven times, and at the battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, while acting adjutant-general of Conner's brigade, he was shot through the face with a minnie ball that destroyed the sight of one eye.
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At the close of the war Mr. Pope returned to his home, and under the direction of Colonel Simeon Fair resumed the study of the law and was soon admitted to the bar. His progress was very rapid, and in a short time he gained a high rank in his profession. As early as 1865 he was elected district judge for Newberry. This position he held with credit for three years, when the district courts were abolished and the government came under the dominion of the alien and the negro. His general practice was large and many of his cases were important. For eleven years he was attorney for the National Bank of Newberry, and in 1878-79 he was one of the attorneys for the state in the famous suits involving the validity of certain bonds issued by the "radical" government that dominated South Carolina from 1868. to 1876. One of the results of these suits was the elimination, in a legal and equitable proceeding, of a million and a half dollars of fraudulent bonds, thus reducing the valid debt of the state by that amount.
Judge Pope also rendered efficient service as mayor of New- berry for five terms of one year each. During his administration there was a marked improvement, not only in the outward appearance, but also in the general spirit of the municipality. In 1887 he was elected a member of the lower house of the state legislature. The following year he was elected to the state senate after one of the greatest contests ever known in his county. His opponent was highly popular and up to that time had never been defeated in an election. In 1890 Mr. Pope was elected attorney- general of South Carolina and entered upon the duties of that office on December 3 of that year. In December, 1891, he was elected by the legislature one of the associate justices of the supreme court of the state, and in January, 1896, he was unani- mously reelected to this position. On January 20, 1903, he received a unanimous election as chief justice of the state, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Chief Justice McIver, and on January 23, 1906, he was, without opposition, reelected for the. full term of eight years. In the same month and year the South Carolina college conferred upon him the degree of LL. D.
Judge Pope has always been a Democrat, and for many years, including the remarkable campaign of 1876, he was county chairman of Newberry. Since his elevation to the supreme court. he has, very properly, kept entirely aloof from political manage-
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ment. His religious affiliation is with the Baptist church, of which he has been an honored and efficient member for many years.
On December 3, 1874, he was married to Mrs. Sallie H. F. Rutherford, daughter of Colonel Simeon Fair, and widow of Colonel W. D. Rutherford, of Newberry. Of their two children, one is living in 1907.
The postoffice address of Judge Pope is Newberry, South Carolina.
ROBERT OBADIAH PURDY
P URDY, ROBERT OBADIAH, was born February 11, 1857, at White Plains, near Lawrenceville, Brunswick county, Virginia. His father is James Purdy, and his mother Jane Wells Purdy. His father is a farmer, characterized by honesty, sobriety, great industry and decision of character. The father and mother came from County Down, Ireland, after they were married, and are both living.
Robert Purdy's tastes were literary in his youth. He grew slowly, but enjoyed the advantages of life in the country. Here, on the farm, he was inured to toil. Before going to school in the morning and after returning in the evening, a distance of three miles each way, he was required to perform his daily tasks. The means for school expenses up to seventeen years of age were furnished by his father. After that he paid all of his expenses, including the cost of a course in the University of Virginia, earning the money by his own effort. In 1873 he attended the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical college (now the Virginia Polytechnic institute). In December, 1874, lack of means neces- sitated discontinuing his studies, but on October 1, 1880, he was able to resume college work, and entered the University of Virginia. Here he took the full law course, and after one year, on June 30, 1881, received his diploma.
Among the books which most influenced him may be men- tioned Scott's novels, Warren's "Ten Thousand a Year," and other literature of this class which he read between the time of his leaving the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical college and entering the University of Virginia. Home was the greatest influence in shaping his character, though he feels that, while school was a valuable factor, his education consists largely of what he has learned from men by association and contact. At seventeen years of age he resolved to study law; and, through poverty and discouragements, never gave up the idea, and never thought of entering any other calling or pursuit.
On December 5, 1881, at Manning, South Carolina, he began the practice of law. In 1886 he removed to Sumter to take the position of partner of the late Senator Joseph H. Earle. When
Washington _ _
yours truly R. Q. Pardy!
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ROBERT OBADIAH PURDY
Senator Earle removed to Greenville, South Carolina, Judge Purdy formed a partnership with Mark Reynolds. Judge Purdy's life as a lawyer was not different from the life or expe- rience of a busy county lawyer, enjoying a full general practice. From 1890 to 1892 he was mayor of Sumter; he was also several times alderman. In January, 1902, he was elected judge of the circuit courts of South Carolina by the legislature, commencing his term of service in December, 1902. He is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha college fraternity.
Through life Judge Purdy has been, of course, a Democrat. He was not identified with the Reform movement inaugurated by Mr. (now Senator) Tillman. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His legal and judicial pursuits he varies with fishing and bird hunting. To the young he commends honesty, industry and faithfulness, and promptness in business matters of all kinds. "A prompt, honest and energetic man can," he declared, "and will, meet a full measure of success here."
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