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 5
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His father was a planter, energetic, of rare good judgment, and of a high order of executive ability; a magnetic personality such as exerts great influence in any city or community. He was the originator of many enterprises of a public nature. From 1861 to 1865 he was commander of the Third Military district, and colonel of the Third South Carolina cavalry.
His mother (Mrs. Lucy O. Horton Colcock) was of English extraction. A most devout Christian, her influence on her son's character was marked. She died when he was eleven years old. Her early training left in him a "desire to do his utmost toward realizing her ambition for him"; and in the fulfilment of this desire he was constantly encouraged by his father. This home influence led him to pursue most assiduously his private studies. His own tastes, too, led him to study and reading; and he was especially interested in mathematics. Books of natural science and stories of adventure and history he enjoyed.
After a few years of preparatory training he entered the Holy Communion Church institute in Charleston, taking the classical course; was at the College of Charleston for two years; and later he matriculated at Union college, Schenectady, New York, to pursue a course in civil engineering. From Union he
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was graduated in 1875, with the degree of C. E., and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa.
Upon graduation he was made tutor in Union college, hold- ing this position for three years. Returning to his home, he became a planter. In 1885 he was appointed to the department of mathematics and sciences at the Porter academy, Charleston, South Carolina. So efficient was his work here that he became head master of the academy in 1890, a position of influence which he still holds. His greatest service to the public has been ren- dered through his work as a teacher.
He intends to edit and publish a series of mathematical text books. He has written a work, now in press, entitled "A His- tory of the Progenitors and Some Descendants of Colonel Ann Hawkes Hay."
In December, 1883, he was married to Patti Lee Hay, daugh- ter of Samuel J. and Susan C. Hay, of Barnwell, South Carolina. They have had two children, one of whom is now (1907) living, Miss Erroll Hay Colcock.
He is a member of the Sons of the Revolution; the Hugue- not society ; the Commercial club, of Charleston; and the South Carolina Historical society. He is affiliated with the Episcopal church.
He advises young people to make worthy friends in youth, and so to regulate their conduct in later life as to retain these same friendships. He says: "Where principle is involved, at any sacrifice act upon the conviction of right. In other cases, consult expediency. Idleness is the 'root of all evil.' Have an object in life that can be reached, and continually strive to reach it."
His address is Charleston, South Carolina.
THOMAS PERRIN COTHRAN
C OTHRAN, THOMAS PERRIN, lawyer and legislator, was born in Abbeville, South Carolina, October 24, 1857. His parents were James S. and Emma C. (Perrin) Cothran. His father was a distinguished lawyer, who was solicitor of the eighth judicial circuit for several years, was subsequently elected judge of the same circuit, in which position he won the highest regard of the people for his ability and impartiality. While serving as judge he was elected to the United States house of representatives, of which body he became an influential member.
Until his thirty-fifth year the home of Thomas Cothran was in the village in which he was born. After completing the pre- scribed course in its high school, he studied law at the University of Virginia two sessions, 1877-78, and in 1882 he took the summer law course at this institution. He commenced the practice of law in Abbeville, January 1, 1879, and remained there twelve years. In 1891 he removed to Greenville, South Carolina, and on January 1, 1892, became a member of the firm of Cothran, Wells, Ansel & Cothran, of which his father was the senior member. Subsequently, after the death of his father and of Captain Wells, he, with his younger brother, W. C. Cothran, formed a partnership with State Senator Dean, under the firm name of Cothran, Dean & Cothran.
In politics Mr. Cothran has always been a Democrat. In 1904 he was elected a member of the house of representatives from Grenville county for the term 1904-06, and soon won recog- nition as an able and conservative member. In 1906 he was reelected and was one of the authors of the celebrated "Carey- Cothran Local Option bill," the passing of which destroyed the state dispensary. As a lawyer he has won a high reputation for ability, fairness, and skill. He is assistant division counsel of the Southern Railway company.
Mr. Cothran belongs to several orders, including the Masons, Odd Fellows, and Elks. His religious connection is with the Presbyterian church. He enjoys social life, is a close student, and a discriminating reader, keeping well informed regarding
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current events. On January 6, 1886, he was married to Ione Smith, of Abbeville, South Carolina. She died July 29, 1887. His address is Greenville, South Carolina.
WILLIAM ASHMEAD COURTENAY
C OURTENAY, WILLIAM ASHMEAD, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, February 4, 1831. His grandfather, Edward Courtenay, who came to Charles- ton in 1791, was a native of Newry, County Down, Ireland; he was a member of the Protestant family of that name which, long resident in the north of Ireland, was a branch of the historic family of that name in England, dating back to the Norman Conquest. He was an excellent scholar and able teacher, who for many years conducted one of the best and most widely known schools of the higher grade in Charleston.
William A. Courtenay had only a limited education, and entered upon a business life in his fifteenth year. Previous to the war, he, with his elder brother, the late S. Gilman Courtenay, conducted a large publishing and book selling business on Broad street, Charleston. Mr. Courtenay was a "book man" in the wider sense as applied by James Russell Lowell to himself. He enjoyed the personal friendship and esteem of such leaders in the literary life of the Old South as William Gilmore Simms, Henry Timrod, and William J. Grayson. The war, however, destroyed this book business.
From early manhood Mr. Courtenay had been an enthu- siastic member of the Washington Light infantry, a corps which furnished several general officers to the Southern Confederacy. In the War between the States he responded to the first call to arms, served with fidelity in South Carolina and Virginia, and rose to the rank of captain. Returning home from the war, William A. Courtenay became, and for many years continued, active in the shipping business, managing steamship lines to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, with their related com- mercial connections. During this active period, Mr. Courtenay became president of the Charleston chamber of commerce, con- tinuing for three years. In 1879 he was elected mayor of Charleston and served eight years. Later he removed to the upper section of South Carolina and founded a cotton mill enter- prise at Newry, where he lived until his removal to Columbia several years ago. Ten years of success have crowned this effort
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in a new field. Mr. Courtenay represents South Carolina on the Peabody Education trust; he has received the degree of LL. D. from the University of Tennessee, and also from the South Caro- lina college. His deep interest in education during his mayoralty, when he served as a school commissioner, induced the commis- sioners to name one of their new school houses after him.
As mayor of Charleston, Doctor Courtenay was a working official and left enduring proofs of his devotion to the public interest. Perhaps his greatest public service was rendered when the city of Charleston was nearly destroyed by the earthquake of August 31, 1886. The city had survived four bombardments and many cyclones, and the world had come to regard the spirit of her people as invincible. But up to that time so disastrous an earthquake had never occurred in the United States. The boldest spirits quailed before so overwhelming a calamity, and councils were divided as to the best means to rehabilitate the stricken city. Although they met with some opposition, the plans of Mr. Courtenay were approved by the great majority of the most intelligent citizens, and were carried into effect with most grati- fying results.
He substituted granite blocks and flagging for plank and cobblestone roadways and brick pavements; caused heavy flag- ging to be placed on the High Battery to resist the force of cyclones and storm-tides; converted the undesirable and neglected location at the west end of Broad and Beaufain streets into the "Colonial Lake"; caused the removal of the city hospital from a building wholly unsuited to one much better adapted to the needs of patients; caused the police station to be removed to a better location and criminals to be more humanely cared for; renovated the City Hall building and improved the City Hall park. He effected a two-per-cent. reduction in the interest on the ante-bellum six-per-cent. bonds, thus saving the city a consid- erable sum each year. He changed the fire department from a political to a nonpartisan force, in which one hundred men now do more and better work than thirteen hundred volunteers once did. Finally, he established the William Enston Home, an insti- tution designed, in accordance with the will of William Enston, "to make old age comfortable," and laid out the attractive village which is now the home of about one hundred men and women who, in earlier life, had lived in their own happy homes. At his
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suggestion, the legislature founded the "Historical Commission of South Carolina," of which he was the chairman for years.
No sketch of Doctor Courtenay's life could be complete without reference to his untiring and munificent efforts in aid of Southern literature and history. He has not only prepared and published invaluable historical annals, but he has assisted with voice and pen and purse in publishing the definitive edition of the poems of his friend, Henry Timrod; the "Life of Wil- liam Lowndes"; the "Poems of Carlyle Mckinley"; "Lederer's Travels," and many elegant biographical brochures. He has recently published a superb edition de luxe of "Early Voyages to Carolina," which in paper and typography probably surpasses any work heretofore issued from the printing press of the South. In June, 1906, he presented to the Charleston library four hun- dred rare and valuable bound volumes, relating in the main to South Carolina history; and he has commissioned an eminent artist to paint for that historic institution portraits of eight of South Carolina's most distinguished statesmen and litterateurs.
Doctor Courtenay's address is Columbia, South Carolina.
Nast ayton _ _
Very respectfully Asbury Coward
ASBURY COWARD
C OWARD, ASBURY, LL. D., superintendent of the South Carolina Military academy, for many years principal of the King's Mountain Military school, from 1882-86 state superintendent of education for South Carolina, brigadier- general of militia, was born at Hyde Park plantation, eastern branch of Cooper river, in what was then Charleston county but is now Berkeley county, in South Carolina, September 19, 1835. His father, Jesse Coward, was a rice planter, "forceful, fond of reading," whose ancestors came from England to the United States. His mother, Anne Keziah DuBois, who died when he was but three months old, was descended from a French family who had resided for some generations in the Southern states.
The first nine years of his life were spent in the country, in the sports and early studies of a healthy, active boy. After he was nine he attended regularly the schools of Charleston; but he spent his vacations in the country, and he was intensely interested in athletic games and in hunting, fishing and horse- manship. Books of travel and adventure (among them Frois- sart's Chronicles), and books upon natural history, furnished the reading which interested him most deeply in his youth; and he has always pursued reading along these lines. The only diffi- culties which he encountered in acquiring an education, he says, came "from his fondness for out-of-door sports." After attend- ing the day schools in Charleston, he entered the South Carolina Military academy as a cadet, and was graduated from that institution in November, 1854. He read law for some time, completing the usual course of preparation for admission to the bar under the direction of W. B. Wilson, Esquire, of Yorkville, South Carolina.
In January, 1855, at Yorkville, South Carolina, he began the work of his life as educator. He was "co-founder and principal of the King's Mountain Military school." His father had died in 1850; and his choice of a life work was due to his own preference. He continued co-principal of the King's Mountain Military school until the breaking out of the War between the
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States. Entering the Confederate army as captain in the adju- tant-general's department, in the field he was promoted major in the same department after the battle of Malvern Hill, and a few months later was made colonel of the Fifth South Carolina regi- ment. With the exception of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, he was in all the great battles of General Lee's army until the close at Appomattox. For forty-one years, since the war, he has been serving in connection with the military institutions; and for five of these years he was a brigadier-general of militia. At the close of the war he became, in 1866, the sole principal and proprietor of the King's Mountain Military school, and he held that position until 1886. He was elected state superintendent of education in 1882, for a term of two years; and in 1884 was reelected, serving another term of two years, with efficiency and acceptance. In 1890 he became superintendent of the South Carolina Military academy, known as the Citadel academy, of Charleston, South Carolina.
Identified with the Protestant Episcopal church, Colonel Coward is also a Mason, a member of the St. Andrew's society, and a member of the Knights of Honor. He has served as grand dictator of the Knights of Honor. In political convictions he is with the Democratic party.
He married Miss Eliza Corbett Blum, December 25, 1856. In answer to the question as to his first strong impulse to strive for prizes in life, he writes: "I am not aware that I have won any prizes, except a good wife." They have had seventeen chil- dren, of whom two daughters and two sons are living in 1907.
Identified with the educational work of South Carolina, through his service for two terms as state superintendent of education, and still more closely identified with the educational interests of the state through his lifelong administration of military schools, which have had a marked influence in shaping the ideals of the boys and young men of South Carolina, Colonel Coward is remembered with esteem and affection by a great multitude of the citizens of his state who have been his students. South Carolina college, at Columbia, South Carolina, conferred upon him, in 1896, the honorary degree of LL. D.
The address of Colonel Coward is Charleston, South Carolina.
ZIMMERMAN DAVIS
D AVIS, ZIMMERMAN, for the last sixty years a resident of Charleston, alderman of that city from 1891 to 1899, chairman of the commissioners of the city hospital, mayor of Charleston, pro tempore, for the year 1899, prominently identified with the commercial and social interests of the city, and from 1880 secretary and treasurer of the Charleston Water Works and the Charleston Water and Light company until May, 1906, when he was appointed general agent for the lower portion of South Carolina of the Southeastern Life Insurance company, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, was born at Monticello, Fair- field county, South Carolina, October 8, 1834.
His father, William Kincaid Davis, was a planter. The earliest known ancestor of the Davis family in America, Rev- erend David Davis, came from Wales and settled (1710) in New Castle, Delaware. Another ancestor, William McMorris, an emigrant from Belfast, Ireland, about 1740 settled in Fairfield county, South Carolina. A great-grandfather, James Davis, was an officer in the Revolutionary war; and another great-grand- father, James Kincaid, was a captain of cavalry under Generals Marion and Sumter in the Revolution.
His boyhood was passed on a farm until he was twelve years old. In that year the family removed to Charleston, South Carolina, where he still (1907) resides.
He studied at the Charleston high school, and later at the College of Charleston ; but he did not complete his course. While a member of the junior class (but not until after he had taken the sophomore prize for elocution, giving evidence of that interest in and capacity for public speaking which has marked his later life), he was obliged to leave college and enter business life by reason of reverses in business experienced by his father. He has all his life been known as a wide reader, fond of the best of English and American prose, especially interested in "all histo- ries, ancient and modern; and above all, in the Bible."
Upon breaking away from his college course and taking up business, he became (1853) a clerk in the cotton commission business. From 1857 to 1865 he was a partner in the firm of
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Adams, Frost & Company; from 1866 to 1876 he was a partner in the firm of Reeder & Davis; and from 1886 to 1889 in the firm of Davis & McCall, cotton factorage and commission. In 1880 he was made secretary and treasurer of the Charleston Water Works and the Charleston Light and Water company- a position which he held until recently, when he entered the life insurance business.
In December, 1860, his business career was interrupted by threatenings of the outbreak of the War between the States. He served in the Confederate army from December, 1860, until April, 1865, the entire period of the war. He was a private in the Washington Light infantry from December, 1860, until April, 1861; then successively third lieutenant, second lieutenant and first lieutenant, from April, 1861, to 1862. He became a captain in the cavalry, and served as such from 1862 to 1864, when he was promoted colonel of the Fifth South Carolina cavalry, Butler's brigade, Army of Northern Virginia, serving as colonel from October, 1864, until the close of the war.
Identified by his convictions with the Democratic party, he has not varied in his allegiance to that organization. He was secretary of the Democratic State convention (in 1876) which nominated General Wade Hampton for governor. As president of the Survivors' association of Charleston, he presided and made the opening address at the meeting of the citizens of Charleston on the occasion of the death of Jefferson Davis, December 11, 1889.
Colonel Davis is in constant request for addresses upon civil, religious, military, and political subjects, both in his own city and in other parts of the state.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity; of the Charleston Commercial club; of the South Carolina society; of the South Carolina Historical society; of the Camp Sumter United Con- federate veterans, and was commander of the Camp from 1889 to 1891. He is a member of the Sons of the Revolution, and is vice-president of the society. He has been president of the Alumni association of the College of Charleston, and he is vice- president of the South Carolina Historical society. He was grand marshal of the Grand Lodge of Masons from 1874 to 1885; and he has been grand treasurer of the Grand Lodge for the last twenty-one years. He is also brigadier-general of the First
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brigade of the South Carolina division of the United Confederate veterans, having been annually elected by his comrades of the state for the past seven years.
His favorite forms of exercise and amusement are horseback riding; hunting; shooting with gun, rifle and pistol; billiards, and gardening, with floriculture. He is identified with the Bap- tist church.
On November 10, 1857, he married Miss Cornelia McIver; and of their eight children, six are living in 1907.
The wide acquaintance, the public spirit, and broad interests of General Davis, and a genial capacity for friendship with men without sacrifice of independence and personal convictions, have given him a very large circle of acquaintances and friends in the city with which his life has been for three-score years so closely identified.
GEORGE ROSWELL DEAN
D EAN, GEORGE ROSWELL, was born in the post village of Calhoun, Anderson county, South Carolina, January 25, 1844. He was the son of Reverend Charles Pinckney Dean and Lucinda Caroline Horton. The immediate ancestors of his parents were immigrants from Virginia, where the for- bears of his father were located at Alexandria as early as 1750. Adam Broyls, the ancestor of his mother, was of German birth and one of the settlers at the historic Germanna, on the Rapid Ann river, in Spottsylvania county, in the early part of the eighteenth century, and noted as the seat of iron manufacture in Virginia by. Governor Alexander Spotswood, "the Tubal Cain of America," who brought thither from Germany many operatives employed by him. These were the progenitors of many of the most highly respected citizens of the country. In religion they were members of the Lutheran church.
The father of the subject of this sketch was a minister in the Baptist denomination and served acceptably in many churches. He was noted for his sincere piety, unobtrusive charity, kind- liness of spirit for his fellows, and devotion to his family. The mother was a woman of fine Christian character, and her influ- ence upon her son was beneficent and enduring.
George R. Dean was a healthy and robust lad and fond of outdoor sports, with a decided ingenuity in mechanics. His youth was passed partly in the village of his birth and partly in the country, as the residence of his father varied with his pastoral charges. The tasks of the lad were those which usually fall upon a country boy. He was fond of reading, and was charmed with the "Pilgrim's Progress," and later with the lives of heroes and great commanders of the past and present. His primary education was in the village school under John Wesley Leverett. He later attended Furman university, and took the degree of B. A. at the South Carolina Military academy in 1865. For a time he taught school at Belton, South Carolina, to acquire means for continuing his education; in the meantime devoting his spare time to the study of medicine. He attended the South Carolina Medical college in 1866-67, and the Jefferson Medical
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college, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1867-68, and was grad- uated from the last-named institution, with the degree of M. D., in 1868. He subsequently attended the Polyclinic class at Phila- delphia in 1889-90, and performed bi-annual hospital work in Philadelphia and New York. A great stimulant to success in his studies and professional career was the opposition of his family and friends to his abandoning life on a farm for that of a physician.
He served gallantly in the Confederate States army, rising from a private soldier to the command of a company with the rank of captain.
He has been engaged in farming and the practice of his profession, and has won honorable recognition as a citizen, physi- cian, and surgeon. He served as a member of the South Carolina assembly, 1886-87. He has been the censor of the Medico-Chi- rurgical college since 1898, and served as president of the South Carolina Medical association, 1902-03, and as president of the South Carolina Regimental surgeons, 1902-03. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity, of the order of Knights and Ladies of Honor, and also of the South Carolina, Southern, the American Medical, and the American Geographical associations. In 1902-03 he was president of the Association of Southern Rail- way surgeons.
In religion he is a Baptist. In politics he has been constantly identified with the Democratic party, and he has been zealous in his efforts to promote the best interests of his community, state and country. While he holds in just reprobation the despoilers of his state, he favors the enactment of stringent laws to prevent peculation, private and public, and deprecates mob violence, insisting that the majesty of the law should constrain and prevail.
He holds that the way to success in life is by adherence to moral precepts and pertinacity of purpose, that one should select his profession or vocation and give his energies persistently to thorough achievement.
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