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 18
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On December 18, 1883, he married Hattie H. Ingram, of Manning, South Carolina. They have had nine children, of whom eight are now (1907) living.
His address is West Hampton avenue, Sumter, South Caro- lina.
THOMAS MIDDLETON RAYSOR
R AYSOR, THOMAS MIDDLETON, was born in the county of Orangeburg, South Carolina, May 26, 1859. His parents were P. A. and Annie M. Raysor. His mother died while he was an infant. His father was a noted planter of Orangeburg, who, at the outbreak of the War between the States, enlisted in one of the South Carolina regiments and served with distinction until the close of that memorable struggle, during which he reached the rank of captain. He was graduated from the Citadel academy, Charleston; was a ready writer and a fluent speaker, and took a prominent part in all the political movements of his day in which the interests of the Palmetto State were especially involved. After the close of the war he went to Texas, where he remained until the time of his death.
Thomas Middleton Raysor's ancestors on his father's side were English; on his mother's side, Scotch-Irish. They came to America about the year 1731 and settled in South Carolina. Public life and state affairs seem to have engrossed the attention of the Raysors for generations past, for we find that the great- grandfather of the subject of this sketch was a member of an early legislature of the state, while his grandfather was a state senator, and, as above noted, his father was conspicuous in social, military and political life.
The early years of Thomas M. Raysor's life were spent in a little village and on his father's plantation nearby. Though not required to engage in any regular manual labor, he enjoyed working occasionally in the fields. For recreation and exercise he spent many hours in swimming, fishing and hunting. There were no difficulties in his way in acquiring a good education, for his father was possessed of ample means to send him to the best schools. After leaving the village school he was sent to Wofford preparatory school, at Spartanburg, and later to Orangeburg academy. In the class of 1878 he was graduated from Wofford college with the degree of A. B. After leaving college, Mr. Raysor began the study of law in the office of the Honorable Samuel Dibble. Law was his choice among the professions. He
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was always fond of reading, history, poetry and biography being his favorite subjects. The reading of Plutarch's "Lives" made a deep and lasting impression upon his mind when he was quite young, and later the teaching of Doctor James H. Carlisle had a great influence over him for good.
Mr. Raysor was a member of the South Carolina state legis- lature for three terms, 1884 to 1890; is now (1907) serving his second term as member of the state senate from Orangeburg county. He is attorney for and a director of the Bank of Orange- burg, and attorney for and a director in several other financial institutions.
From early manhood he has been a public-spirited citizen. He took a very prominent part in the work of establishing a graded system for the public schools of the city of Orangeburg that has been exceedingly satisfactory to the citizens of the place; he has ever been a strong advocate and supporter of South Carolina college and Citadel, and he introduced a bill in the legislature to provide for the rebuilding of the west wing of the Citadel. As a member of the senate, he is regarded as an earnest, faithful representative, loyal to the best interests of his own district, yet not overlooking the claims and merits of his fellow-citizens in every other part of the state.
His literary work has consisted chiefly of articles for the newspapers upon such topics as engaged the attention of the public at the particular time. He is a member of the Chi Phi fraternity; he is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias, and a member of the Orangeburg Business Men's club.
He married Miss Mattie Mandeville Rogers, of Darlington county, South Carolina. In politics he has always been a Demo- crat. His religious connection is with the Episcopal church. Much walking, an occasional day's fishing, and frequent horse- back riding are his favorite methods of recreation and amusement.
In a retrospect of his own life, though yet in the vigor and prime of manhood, Mr. Raysor feels that he has failed in some of his more youthful aspirations, principally because he did not take advantage of opportunities as they came in his way, and also through a lack of persistent, unflagging industry, which alone can win the coveted prizes. To young Americans who desire true success in life, and wish to accomplish some good work for the
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benefit of mankind, Mr. Raysor tenders the following excellent advice: "Let every one for himself cultivate the great virtue of self-control and lead a life of service and earnest high endeavor." Mr. Raysor's address is Orangeburg, South Carolina.
GEORGE ROGERS REAVES
R EAVES, GEORGE ROGERS, of Mullins, Marion county, banker, merchant, and member of the legislature, was born in Marion county, near Mullins, September 3, 1863. His father was a planter, George W. Reaves, who filled acceptably the office of magistrate, and was known as a liberal giver to church work in his town. His mother, Mrs. Emma (Rogers) Reaves, had a strong influence for good on her son. His great- grandfather, Solomon Reaves, who came from Virginia about 1790, was a famous Baptist preacher of the Revolutionary days.
Born on a farm, he early learned farm work. He says: "My father lost everything in the war, and as he was growing old, I had to help early to support the family; and I took the plow as a regular hand at twelve years of age. As a consequence I had only such opportunities for an education as were afforded by the common schools." In 1884, however, he took, at the Commercial college of the University of Kentucky, a course in business principles and methods, bookkeeping, and elementary commercial law, which has been of great use to him in managing his own business and that of the bank of which he is president.
From the reading of the Bible he got, in his boyhood, his first and strongest impulse to make his life count for something. Biographies of successful men in all lines of life also stirred his ambition to succeed.
He took the first position in business which was open to him; and as the merchant to whom he engaged himself proved an honest and fair man, Mr. Reaves continued in his employ until the time came when he himself was ready to assume directing control. Then he planned the incorporation of the business, and was made president and general manager of the Mullins Hard- ware company.
Upon the organization of the Bank of Mullins, Mr. Reaves becames its president. In 1904 he was elected a member of the legislature, and was reëlected in 1906.
In politics he is a Democrat, and he has always acted with that party. He is a member of the Baptist church. He is a
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Knight of Pythias, and has filled several important offices in that organization.
He was married February 15, 1893, to Katie Daniel, daughter of W. H. Daniel. They have had six children, five of whom are living in 1907.
Like many other men who have succeeded in commercial life and as bankers, Mr. Reaves feels that he owes much to the excel- lent health and the habits of systematic work which were acquired by his early life on a farm. He writes: "My own experience leads me to the conviction that early life on a farm, with regular employment, is the best possible life for boys. They come nearer to Nature there."
i
Men of Mark, Publishing Company Washington, D. C.
yours truly R . Rher
ROBERT GOODWYN RHETT
R HETT, ROBERT GOODWYN, lawyer, banker, financier, was born in Columbia, Richland county, South Carolina, March 25, 1862, son of Albert Moore and Martha (Good- wyn) Rhett. He is descended from an old colonial family, whose earliest American representatives were Thomas Landgrave Smith, governor of South Carolina in 1693, and his brother, George Smith, who came to Charlestown, Massachusetts, about 1670. These two Smiths were the grandsons of Sir George Smith, of Exeter, who was also the grandfather of George Monck, Duke of Albemarle. The grandson of George Smith came to Carolina and married his second cousin, Sabina Smith, the granddaughter of Governor Thomas Smith. In 1744 their son, also named Thomas, married Sarah Moore, the granddaughter of Colonel William Rhett, and his grandchildren, amongst whom was Thomas Moore, the grandfather of Robert Goodwyn, adopted the name of Rhett, about to become extinct.
William Rhett attained to most creditable distinction in the pioneer days of the colony of South Carolina, and in 1706 was speaker of the house of commons of that colony. In the same year he received a commission as vice-admiral of an English- Colonial fleet fitted out against the French, and in 1717 he com- manded the expedition which resulted in the capture of the pirate Bonnet.
The paternal grandfather of Mr. Rhett, Thomas Moore, was a planter, and took no part in public life. Two of his brothers, however, attained considerable distinction-Albert Moore and Robert Barnwell.
The rise of Albert Moore Rhett in his profession and in public life was one of remarkable rapidity. In the same year that he was admitted to the bar he entered the state legislature, where he took rank with the ablest debaters in the state, and at the end of his four years' service he had also risen almost, if not quite, to the head of the bar. In 1843 he removed to Charleston, and in October of that year was stricken with yellow fever, and died at the early age of thirty-four years.
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In an article from the pen of an early friend of Albert Moore Rhett, high praise is given to his abilities as a public speaker. "In his address," says this writer, "Mr. Rhett was self-possessed, grave, and earnest; but when he was warmed by debate his logic and invective were overwhelming. His fine voice and tall, hand- some person added not a little to the graces of his elocution; while his choice and pregnant English reminded one by turns of the terseness of Tacitus and the solid periods of Milton. He was as severe in the selection of his phrases as in the order of his logic, and when he spoke on the spur of the occasion, or after much preparation, no link ever dropped from the chain of his argument, and his periods were filled up and rounded with all the completeness that rhetorical art could impart. If he had lived to old age, he would have been one of the first men and one of the greatest orators of South Carolina."
Robert Barnwell Rhett was also a distinguished lawyer and advocate of states' rights. He was in congress for a number of years, and upon the death of John C. Calhoun he succeeded the latter in the United States senate. He was a rival of Jefferson Davis for the presidency of the Confederate States of America after the ordinances of secession had been passed.
Robert Goodwyn Rhett's father is a native of South Caro- lina, and was born in 1834. He was one of the pioneers in the manufacture of fertilizers from the phosphate rock discovered near Charleston in the late sixties, and constructed the largest of the factories there. Upon the acquisition of nearly all the fertilizer factories in South Carolina by the Virginia-Carolina Chemical company, he was placed in charge of them all, which position he now occupies. His mother was a daughter of Doctor Robert Goodwyn, of Virginia, who fought with gallantry in the Florida war, and afterwards settled in Columbia, South Carolina, where for more than twenty years he was president of the branch of the State bank located at that place.
The early life of Mr. Rhett was spent in and about Charles- ton, South Carolina, where he grew up amid a cultured environ- ment. He fitted for college at Porter academy, Charleston, and at the Episcopal high school, near Alexandria, Virginia, and entered the University of Virginia in the fall of 1879. In 1883 he was graduated from that institution with the degree of M. A., and in the following year took his degree in law. Immediately
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thereafter he entered the law office of Brawley & Barnwell, of Charleston. In 1886 he formed a partnership with George M. Trenholm, under the firm name of Trenholm & Rhett. In 1893 W. C. Miller, and in 1899 R. S. Whaley, were admitted to the firm, which was then styled Trenholm, Rhett, Miller & Whaley.
It was not long after his admission to the bar before Mr. Rhett attained a prominent position in the profession, but his energies were not confined to the practice of law. The business of fertilizer manufacturing attracting his attention as one which could be profitably extended, he became instrumental in the establishment of two large factories, and continued to take an active and leading part in this industry until it was concentrated in the ownership of the Virginia-Carolina Chemical company.
In 1896 he was elected president of the South Carolina Loan and Trust company, and in 1899 he acquired a controlling interest in and became head of The Peoples National Bank of Charleston, the oldest national bank in Charleston. The latter position he still retains.
Mr. Rhett's faith in the future of Charleston has never wavered. His interest in its commercial life has been wide and deep. In the relation of a private citizen he has touched the business of the city at many points, and has unsparingly devoted his time, thought and means to its support. He has been at one time upon the board of direction of not less than twenty-five Charleston companies.
Believing that building and loan associations, when honestly and intelligently managed, are important factors in the upbuild- ing of a community, he has lent them his hearty support, and has himself been the president of eight such associations. One of the most notable achievements by the business men of Charleston in recent years has been the establishment of the Commercial club of Charleston. This club was shaped and organized under the direction of Mr. Rhett, and he enjoyed the honor of being its first president.
In politics Mr. Rhett is a conservative, though aggressive, Democrat, and has taken an active part in local, state and national campaigns. He was alderman from 1895 to 1903; mayor of Charleston from 1903 to the present (1907), and has again been reelected for another term of four years in the office of mayor; and was delegate-at-large to the Democratic national convention
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held in St. Louis in 1902. In 1905 he was elected president of the League of American Municipalities. The most important public enterprises under consideration during Mr. Rhett's term of office as alderman were the construction of a navy yard by the United States government, and the location and building of a new system of waterworks by the Charleston Light and Water company. Mr. Rhett manifested an absorbing interest in each of these measures, and in the case of the waterworks, its final accomplishment was due in no small measure to his untiring efforts.
Fraternally, he is a member of the Charleston, Commercial, and Country clubs, of Charleston, and in religion holds member- ship in the Protestant Episcopal church. He is fond of music, golf and society when disengaged from professional and business cares.
On November 15, 1888, Mr. Rhett married Helen Smith Whaley, daughter of William B. and Helen Smith Whaley, of Charleston, South Carolina. To this union four children were born, three of whom, Helen Whaley, Margaret Goodwyn, and Robert Goodwyn, Jr., are now (1907) living. Mrs. Rhett died April 26, 1904. On August 8, 1906, he married Blanche Sally, the daughter of D. Hammond and Ida E. Sally, of Aiken county, South Carolina.
His address is Number 116 Broad street, Charleston, South Carolina.
Men of Mark Publishing Company Washington, D. C.
Verythinly yours
EDWIN WALES ROBERTSON
R OBERTSON, EDWIN WALES, lawyer and banker, was born in Columbia, South Carolina, September 3, 1863. His parents were Thomas J. and Mary O. (Caldwell) Robertson. His father was a successful planter and a member of the State Constitutional convention. He was elected to fill out an unexpired term in the United States senate, and was reëlected for a full term, thus giving him continuous service in that body from 1868 to 1877.
The preparatory studies of Edwin W. Robertson were taken at the Emerson institute at Washington, District of Columbia, and the Hopkins Grammar school, of New Haven, Connecticut. In 1881 he entered Yale university, and was graduated therefrom in 1885. In the year last named he entered the law department of South Carolina college, from which he was graduated in 1887 with the degree of LL. B. He soon afterward formed a partner- ship with M. Herndon Moore, under the firm name of Robertson & Moore, and secured a large and profitable practice. But Mr. Robertson had long been thinking, and in 1893 he became fully convinced, that in the wider field of finance, with the industrial development which it would produce and sustain, he could cer- tainly be of greater service to the public, and could probably win a greater measure of success for himself than would be possible if he continued to practice law. Foreseeing that in the near future the South was to become a magnificent field for manu- factures, commerce, and agriculture, he gave up the law and with energy, skill and enthusiasm, he entered upon what has proved to be a brilliant career as a banker and a manager of industrial affairs.
Until 1861 the Commercial bank, of which John Crawford was president, and the Branch bank of the state, of which Robert H. Goodwyn was president, were the best known and the most successfully conducted financial institutions outside of Charleston in the state of South Carolina. Then, as now, Columbia was the seat of the state government and the home of many wealthy planters, as well as the town in which wealthy merchants had made their fortunes. It was not, however, a large and growing
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manufacturing and railroad center, and the two banks which have been named were able to furnish all the money which was needed to conduct the business operations of the time. But Mr. Robertson saw great opportunities to develop various industries which would require a large amount of capital and make additional banking facilities necessary. Consequently, in May, 1893, with Gilbert M. Berry as his associate, he established the Canal Dime Savings institution with a capital of thirty thousand dollars, which was increased to fifty thousand dollars in the fall of 1895, when the name was changed to the Canal bank. On January 1, 1898, the Canal bank bought a controlling interest in the Loan and Exchange bank, of which Colonel A. C. Haskell was the founder and president, and the two institutions were merged into the Loan and Exchange bank of South Carolina, with Mr. Robertson as president, which position he has since held, and Colonel Haskell as vice-president. The bank then had a capital of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In February, 1902, the bank bought a controlling interest in the Central National bank, and the two institutions were merged into the Loan and Exchange bank, with a capital stock of three hundred thousand dollars, and on July 4, 1903, a national bank charter was obtained with a capital of five hundred thousand dollars, the largest bank capitalization in South Carolina. Dividends of ten, twenty, and thirty-three and one-third per cent. have been declared by the Loan and Exchange bank, in addition to its regular semi-annual division of profits. In October, 1903, the bank took possession of its new and perma- nent home, on the site of the modest building in which the Canal Dime Savings institution originated, in a superb structure. The building is constructed of Columbia brick, of which over one million and a quarter were used, steel, and Indiana Bedford stone. It has thirteen stories, including the commodious basement, and measures one hundred and eighty-four feet from cellar to roof. The first suggestion of erecting such a magnificent home for the National Loan and Exchange bank was made by its president, Mr. Robertson. The almost marvelous development from a Dime Savings bank, with only thirty thousand dollars capital, into South Carolina's strongest national bank, with a capital of five hundred thousand dollars, and showing the largest deposits of any institution of the kind in the state, in a period of only ten
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years, is indisputable evidence of excellent judgment and remark- able financial ability on the part of the manager of its affairs.
In all that pertains to the well-being of his native city and state, Mr. Robertson is always deeply concerned. He is financially interested in important enterprises which are designed to promote industrial, commercial and agricultural prosperity, and in several large corporations he is a leading spirit. He is president of the Electric Street Railway Light and Power company, the Columbia Gas company, the Columbia Real Estate and Trust company, the Public Service company, the Union Cotton mills, the Buffalo Cotton mills, the Union Manufacturing and Power company, and (1906) receiver of the Union and Glenn Springs Railroad company. He is vice-president and director of the Standard Warehouse company, and of the Capital City mills, a director in the Olympia mills, the Prudential Building and Loan association, the Land and Investment company, the Interstate Trust company, Hermitage Cotton mills, Home bank, and the Steamboat company which has opened an active trade by river between Columbia and Georgetown, thus securing for Columbia cheaper freight rates. The facts and figures which have been given show that Mr. Robertson has secured a high rank as a financier, and the records show that his success has been honorably won. A notable evidence of wide recognition as a man of character and a financier of ability is manifested by his appointment as a director of the Equitable Life Assurance society of the United States, when that society was in process of reorganization, in company with such men as Valentine P. Snyder, Paul Morton, George Victor, Thomas Randolph, and others of the highest standing in the financial world. And it is vastly to the credit of Mr. Robertson that he has won this high degree of eminence without the spur of necessity. He had ample means and could have lived in the most comfortable manner, without following a profession or engaging in business of any kind. But he preferred to be a laborer rather than a drone, and in early manhood he determined to do great things for his city and his state. And this record, though necessarily incomplete, shows that his purpose has been fully accomplished.
The Robertson home, an elegant and costly structure built in the colonial style, crowns one of the lofty hills upon which Columbia is built. From its spacious collonade one can see far
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over into Lexington, perhaps into Sumter county, across the valley of the Congaree, and the smoke curling from many mill stacks reminds the beholder, who may chance to be Mr. Robert- son's guest, what an all-important factor his host has been in rebuilding, in larger proportions and in greater beauty than it had known before, the Columbia which in 1865 was only a mass. of smouldering ruins.
Mr. Robertson, although a busy man, is far from being an ascetic. He believes in meeting with his fellows, and he holds that man should be of a social disposition. He is a member of the Pi Sigma Tau and Psi Epsilon fraternities; of the Yale; the University, New York city; the Columbia, and the Metropolitan clubs; and is a Mason and Knight of Pythias.
In September, 1886, he was married to Miss Evelyn P. Titcomb, of Kennebunkport, Maine. Of their four children, all were living in 1907.
The postoffice address of Mr. Robertson is Columbia, South Carolina.
Wenn Mark Publishing Company
Washington, DC
Sincerely yours W. . Redday
WILLIAM JOSEPH RODDEY
R ODDEY, WILLIAM JOSEPH, banker and manufacturer, was born in Chester county, South Carolina, October 2, 1861. His parents were William L. and Anna Cousart (Baskin) Roddey. His father is a prominent business man and capitalist, a man of clear foresight and excellent judgment. He resides at Rock Hill, and has long been closely identified with its interests and has done much to promote its prosperity. In addition to various minor positions which he has held, he has been president of the following named corporations: The First National bank, the Victoria Cotton mill, and the National Union bank, in all of which his son has also been an officer. The earliest known ancestors of the family in this country were of Scotch- Irish blood. They settled in South Carolina about the time of the Revolutionary war.
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