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 9
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In 1876 he was a member of the "Red Shirt" organization, which overthrew negro domination and reestablished white supremacy.
Mr. Gossett is a Master, Royal Arch, and Council Mason, a member of the South Carolina Bankers association, the South Carolina Traffic association, the Cotton Manufacturers Associa- tion of South Carolina, the American Cotton Manufacturers association, and the American Asiatic association.
Mr. Gossett was married on November 20, 1883, to Miss Sallie Acker Brown, the eldest daughter of Doctor Benjamin Franklin and Sallie Wideman Brown. Eight children have been born to them, five of whom are now (1907) living. Mr. and Mrs. Gossett reside at "The Oaks," their home, in the beautiful little town of Williamston, South Carolina.
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ROBERT PICKET HAMER
H AMER, ROBERT PICKET, of Dillon, Marion county, South Carolina, planter, and president of the Hamer Cotton mills, was born at Little Rock, Marion county, on the 15th of September, 1838. His father was a planter, a magistrate, a commissioner of public buildings, and a man whose whole life was characterized by an interest in good citizenship, Robert Cockran Hamer. His mother, Mary Bethea Hamer, died when her son, Robert P. Hamer, was but one year old; and one of his aunts cared for him through his boyhood. His father's family were of English descent, and the first American ancestors of whom they have a record settled in Maryland.
His boyhood was passed in the country; and the poor health which he knew as a little child led him to delight in the out-of- door life of a plantation, particularly in the live stock, and, most of all, in horses. It was part of the wise plan of his father always to keep the boy employed, certain duties about the home and the farm inculcating orderly habits and giving to him, even in the early years of his boyhood, a sense that he was trusted by his father and that he was of use.
He attended the Little Rock academy; but his health con- " tinued so delicate that his father was unwilling to allow the son to attend college. He began the active business of life for himself in planting and farming in 1859. Before he had reached middle life he became a large and prosperous land owner, owning nearly three thousand acres of desirable land, and cultivating about eight hundred acres, while some six hundred acres are in pasture land, and fourteen hundred acres are of fine timber. From eighteen acres of his cotton land he recently gathered three thousand six hundred pounds of seed cotton per acre in one year's crop. As a planter, Mr. Hamer has interested himself in varied agriculture, peas, forage, corn and fodder, sharing his attention with cotton; while thoroughbred horses and Jersey cattle receive a share of his attention.
After attaining decided success as a farmer, Mr. Hamer interested himself in banking and manufacturing. He is a direc-
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tor of the Merchants and Farmers Bank, of Marion, South Carolina, and he is president of the Hamer Cotton mill.
He has never offered himself as a candidate for public office, although his fellow-citizens have frequently requested him to do so. He has contented himself with the practical service which he could render to the public interests of his community as commissioner of roads and as school trustee.
During the War between the States he saw a year of service as a private in the Confederate army. He is connected with the Democratic party, and declares that he has never changed his allegiance, "unless the avowed advocacy of Cleveland as a can- didate should be considered a change from Democracy." Mr. Hamer is also a member of the order of Masons. He is connected with the Methodist church. He has found sufficient exercise and amusement, he says, "in his daily business"; and following diversified pursuits as he has done in combining farming with manufacturing and banking, it is evident that the relaxation which comes from a change in the kind of effort put forth is made possible in the routine of Mr. Hamer's daily business.
He was married to Miss Sallie D. McCall on the 31st of October, 1859. They have had fourteen children, nine of whom are living in 1907.
Vol. I-S. C .- 8
ALEXANDER CHEVES HASKELL
H ASKELL, ALEXANDER CHEVES, soldier, lawyer, jurist, financier, and business executive, was born in the Abbeville district, South Carolina, on September 22, 1839, the son of Charles Thomson and Sophia L. (Cheves) Haskell. He is the scion of an old American family of English origin, which antedated the Revolutionary era. Elnathan Has- kell came to South Carolina with General Howe when he took command at Charleston, and left the army with the rank of major, subsequently settling in St. Matthew's parish, near Fort Mott, South Carolina. Here he married Charlotte Thomson, a daughter of Colonel William Thomson, who commanded the Carolinian Rifle rangers, organized in the state in 1775. Major Haskell's death took place on December 21, 1825, at Zantee, his country estate in Orangeburg district, South Carolina.
Among the children of Major Haskell was Charles Thomson Haskell, father of Alexander Cheves Haskell, who was born in 1802. The elder Haskell was a prominent planter, and gained a wide celebrity in many portions of the state for his hospitality, genial companionship, and many other excellent traits of char- acter. For a number of years he served in the South Carolina house of representatives, and was generally active in the public life of the state. On December 1, 1830, he married Sophia L. Cheves, daughter of Langdon Cheves, of Charleston, South Caro- lina, and they had a family of ten children, of whom Alexander C. was the sixth in order of birth.
In early years, as was the custom in the best Southern fam- ilies, Alexander Haskell was educated at home under private instructors. When about fifteen years of age he attended a school for some time at Charleston, South Carolina. In 1856 he entered South Carolina college, at Columbia, from which he was gradu- ated with high honors in 1860. Among his classmates was T. M. Logan, who subsequently rose to the rank of brigadier-general in the Confederate army, and left a noble record of conspicuous service.
On January 3, 1861, young Haskell enlisted as a private in Company D, First regiment, South Carolina Volunteer infantry,
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under the command of Colonel Maxcy Gregg. The original term of enlistment for the regiment was six months, but at the expi- ration of that time it was reorganized, and Mr. Haskell was appointed adjutant, which rank he retained until November, 1861. At that time Colonel Gregg was advanced to brigadier- general, and Adjutant Haskell received appointment as his chief of staff with the rank of captain, continuing in this position until the death of General Gregg at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1862. He continued on staff service under General Gregg's successor, General Samuel McGowan, and also under General Abner Perrin. In March, 1864, he was appointed colonel of the Seventh South Carolina cavalry, and continued in command of that regiment until the surrender of General Lee's forces at Appomattox. On this occasion he was detailed by General Wil- liam H. F. Lee to surrender the Confederate cavalry to General Merritt of the Federal army.
During his years of military service, Colonel Haskell saw active duty from Sullivan's Island to Appomattox. He was engaged in the battles of Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancel- lorsville, Cold Harbor, and many other important engagements incident to the campaigns in which his command took part. At the battle of Malta-dequeen Creek, in May, 1864, he was seriously wounded, and still carries the ball. He was also wounded and left on the field among the dead at Darbytown, near Richmond, on October 7, 1864. Previously he had sustained wounds at Fredericksburg, on December 12, 1862, and at Chancellorsville, in May, 1863.
Upon his return from the army at the close of the war, Colonel Haskell began his civic career as a school teacher at Abbeville, South Carolina. In connection with his duties as schoolmaster, he simultaneously took up the study of law, which profession he had decided to follow. In December, 1865, he was admitted to the South Carolina bar, and in the same year was elected to the lower house of the state legislature from his native county. He served two years in this body, during which time he also pursued the practice of law, and at the end of the term was elected judge of the district court at Abbeville. He had just fairly entered upon his judicial duties when he was elected to a professorship of law in South Carolina university, at Columbia. Consequently, he resigned the judgeship in September of the
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same year to enter upon his professorship. He held the chair of law until July, 1868, when he was made a presidential elector, and took an active part in the state campaign in behalf of the Democratic national ticket, with great credit to himself and important results to the party.
At the close of this campaign he opened a law office in Columbia, and shortly thereafter associated himself in the prac- tice of his profession with Joseph D. Pope, a partnership which lasted until December, 1877. In the last named year he was elected associate justice of the supreme court of South Carolina, and during a career of two years on the bench gained much. distinction for his wide legal learning as well as for his distinct judicial qualities. Two years before the expiration of his term on the bench he resigned to accept the presidency of the Char- lotte, Columbia and Augusta railroad. This office he held until 1889. Meanwhile, in 1883, he was elected president of the Colum- bia and Greenville railroad, which has subsequently merged with the former company. In his administration of these roads he- exhibited a high order of executive ability, and showed himself to be a skillful financier. When they passed under a new owner- ship he became the chief leader in the organization of the Loan and Exchange Bank of South Carolina, to the presidency of which he was elected in 1886. He remained at the head of this bank until 1897. In December of that year he effected the con- solidation of the Loan and Exchange Bank with the Canal Bank, the latter going into liquidation, and its president, Mr. Edwin W. Robertson, becoming president of the Loan and Exchange. Bank, with capital raised to $150,000. In 1902 the Central National Bank of Columbia, capital $100,000, was absorbed by the Loan and Exchange Bank, the capital of the latter being raised to $300,000. In July, 1903, the bank was converted into the National Loan and Exchange Bank of Columbia, with a capital of $500,000. Since his resignation as president in 1897, Judge Haskell has been vice-president, and still occupies that position in the National Bank.
During the memorable campaign of 1876, Judge Haskell was chairman of the Democratic State Executive committee, and his part in the politics of the state was commendable both for wis- dom and generalship. At its close, when the dispute over the
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governorship had reached an acute stage, he was chosen to repre- sent the state at Washington to secure the recognition by the Federal authorities of General Wade Hampton as governor. After six weeks of unremitting effort, General Hampton was recognized and popular government vindicated through his per- sistence, ability and tactful conduct of the situation. From 1887 to 1889 he was, through appointment by President Cleveland, one of the directors on behalf of the United States government of the Union Pacific railroad, and was chairman of the com- mittee which originally reported the plan followed in the final adjustment of the relations growing out of the situation. He was in this capacity associated with Mark Hanna, Judge Savage, Franklin H. McVeagh, and Frederick R. Coudert, as government directors. In 1890 he led the opposition to Governor B. R. Tillman, and received the nomination for governor as a protest against the issues of that well-known gubernatorial campaign.
Judge Haskell has achieved notable success in several fields of endeavor. He is a brilliant lawyer, a capable jurist, an expe- rienced financier, a strong executive and organizer, a forceful advocate, whether of the cause of a client or the larger issues of the people, and he made an excellent record on the field of battle.
He has been twice married. First, on September 10, 1861, to Rebecca C. Singleton, daughter of John and Mary Singleton, of Richland county, South Carolina, who died on June 20, 1862, leaving one daughter; and second, on November 23, 1870, to Alice V. Alexander, daughter of A. L. and Sarah H. Hillhouse Alexander, of Washington, Georgia, and sister of General E. P. Alexander, of Savannah. By his second marriage he had ten children, all of whom are now (1907) living. His second wife died on October 29, 1902.
His address is Columbia, Richland county, South Carolina.
JOHN CHEVES HASKELL
H ASKELL, JOHN CHEVES, lawyer, planter, and legis- lator, was born on a plantation in Abbeville county, South Carolina, October 21, 1841. His parents were Charles Thomson and Sophia Lovell (Cheves) Haskell. His father was an energetic and industrious man, of imperious dispo- sition, who owned and successfully managed a large plantation. Although he did not seek public life, he served for two years as a member of the state legislature. His mother was a daughter of Langdon Cheves, whose father came from Scotland and whose grandfather was a banker near Glasgow. Langdon Cheves removed to Charleston, South Carolina, and practiced law there with great success until he was elected to congress, where he served as chairman of the Ways and Means committee and suc- ceeded Henry Clay as speaker of the house, in which position he served for two terms. Later he became president of the Bank of the United States. After several years' service in this capacity he resigned and accepted the position of chairman of the com- mittee under the treaty of Ghent. Later he became judge of the circuit court of South Carolina. After resigning from this position he removed to Georgia, where he became a successful planter. The earliest ancestors of the family to come to this country were named Thomson, who came from Wales and settled in Massachusetts. Some members of the family were prominent in the war of the Revolution. One of them came to South Carolina with General Gates, married and made his home in Charleston, and conducted farming operations on a large scale in Orangeburg county.
Until he was seventeen years of age, John Haskell lived on his father's plantation in Abbeville county. He attended the local schools and then entered the famous school of Searle, Miles and Sachtleben, in Charleston, where he was prepared for college. His favorite books were works on history and biography- especially Plutarch's Lives. In December, 1859, he entered the South Carolina college, at Columbia. Here he remained until the opening of the War between the States. Early in April, 1861, he entered the Confederate States army and was serving
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on Sullivan's Island as courier and volunteer aide to Colonel Richard Anderson when Fort Sumter fell. He was promoted junior lieutenant of Company A, First South Carolina regulars. After the surrender of Fort Sumter the company was equipped as a light battery and was sent to Virginia soon after the first battle of Manassas. He reached the rank of colonel, took part in many battles, and won the esteem of his commanders and of his comrades. After the close of the war he located in Missis- sippi, and for ten years was engaged in planting, but during the last two years of the time he read law, and at the expiration of that period he was admitted to the Mississippi bar. In 1877, Mr. Haskell removed to South Carolina and was elected a mem- ber of the state legislature and by successive reelections continued in that capacity until 1896. During the last four years of his legislative service he was chairman of the Ways and Means com- mittee. When the Tillman forces gained control of the state, Mr. Haskell resigned from the legislature and since that time he has not held public office. For two years after returning to his native state he gave much time to planting. He then removed to Columbia, where, when not engaged in legislative duties, he practiced law with great success, until 1890, when he became receiver of a railroad and also of a company which was engaged in mining coal and iron ore and operating furnaces at Bristol, Virginia. He was engaged in this work until 1896, when he received an injury which disabled him, temporarily, from active service. He is a member of the D. K. E. fraternity and of the Clariosophic society of the South Carolina college. In politics he has always been a Democrat. His religious affiliation is with the Protestant Episcopal church.
In 1865, Mr. Haskell was married to Sallie Hampton, daugh- ter of General Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, who died in 1886. In 1896 he married Lucy Hampton, daughter of Colonel Frank Hampton. Of his four children, by his first wife, all are living in 1907.
His postoffice address is Columbia, South Carolina.
EDGAR CHARLES HAYNSWORTH
H AYNSWORTH, EDGAR CHARLES, was born June 27, 1859, in Sumter, South Carolina. He is the son of William F. B. and Mary L. Charles Haynsworth. His father was a lawyer, a commissioner in equity, and county treasurer under the Hampton administration. The earliest known paternal ancestors, the Haynsworths and Furmans, moved in the middle of the eighteenth century from Virginia to South Caro- lina. Mr. Haynsworth's paternal grandmother was a Morse, from Connecticut. His maternal ancestors, the Charles family, moved to the state from Philadelphia at about the same time as did also other of the maternal relatives, i. e., the Lides and Pughs, of the old Welsh Neck settlement.
Mr. Haynsworth's early life was passed at Sumter. For three years he attended Furman university. He came of a family of lawyers. His father, grandfather, and other of his relatives, followed this profession. This fact influenced his choice of the same line of work. For a time he taught school, studying law meanwhile. Later he entered upon the practice of his profession.
Mr. Haynsworth has held offices in his county and on city boards of education. He is a member of the Chi Psi college fraternity and of the Knights of Pythias. He is a Democrat in politics; in religion, a Baptist. His relaxation he finds in the pursuit of agriculture.
On June 27, 1898, he married Clara B. Talley. Seven chil- dren have been born of this marriage.
Mr. Haynsworth's address is 103 E. Calhoun street, Sumter, South Carolina.
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DANIEL SULLIVAN HENDERSON
H ENDERSON, DANIEL SULLIVAN, was born in the town of Walterboro, Colleton district (now county), South Carolina, April 19, 1849, and was a son of Daniel S. Henderson and Caroline Rebecca Webb, his wife. His father was a lawyer of prominence and for some time a member of the general assembly of South Carolina. His marked characteristics were honesty, fair dealing, and Christian fortitude. The Hen- dersons had come to America from County Armagh, in the north of Ireland, and the Webbs from England. Benjamin Webb, his great-grandfather, married, in 1763, Rebecca Pinckney, a daugh- ter of Major William Pinckney, sometime master in chancery, and sometime commissary general of the province of South Carolina, and brother of Chief Justice Charles Pinckney. Mrs. Webb was, therefore, a first cousin of Charles Cotesworth Pinck- ney and Thomas Pinckney, distinguished soldiers of the United States army, and diplomatists. Her brother, Colonel Charles Pinckney, was a distinguished soldier and statesman of the Revolution, and her nephew, Charles Pinckney, was four times governor of South Carolina, a United States senator and some- time United States minister to Spain.
Young Daniel S. Henderson was healthy as a child, and fond of study. His mother died while he was yet quite young, and he was reared by a relative-a woman of excellent qualities of mind and heart-whose influence upon him was beneficent and enduring. He was raised up in his quiet little native village and attended the Walterboro academy until old enough to attend college. His spare moments were spent in reading history and travels, so that his preparatory training had well fitted him to win a scholarship at the College of Charleston, where he was graduated in 1870 with the first honors of his class. The war had left his family poor, and the young student had to work his way through college, but, with that energy and intelligence which has always characterized him, he succeeded as few in such circumstances do. For a short time after leaving college he studied law in the office of Simons and Seigling in Charleston.
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At the expiration of this period he went to Chester, South Caro- lina, as a school teacher. His manly bearing, self-reliance and thorough methods won him success as a teacher. In his spare moments he continued the study of law. In 1872 he was admitted to the bar and went to Aiken, South Carolina, and opened an office. He made friends rapidly, and those friends were not long in finding out that he was an unusually able young man, and his rise in his profession and in business was rapid. During the troublous campaign of 1876, when South Carolina was redeemed from the disgraceful rule of ignorant, illiterate native whites, half savage negroes, aliens, and a general combination of thieves, young Henderson came to the front as a leader in the struggle for white supremacy, honesty, and decency. When six hundred respectable and prominent citizens of the State were arrested and haled into court for complicity in the Hamburg riot of that year, he defended them, and the manner in which he conducted that defence won for him a lasting reputation as one of the ablest lawyers of the state. A motion for bail was made before Judge Maher and was opposed by the radical Attorney-General Stone and United States District Attorney Corbin. General M. C. Butler and Colonel A. Pickens Butler were two of the most prominent defendants. The trial resulted in a victory for the defendants.
Mr. Henderson also defended, in the United States court, those charged with complicity in the riots at Ellenton. He there proved himself not only a lawyer of ability, but a stubborn fighter of untiring perseverance, coolness, and determination. His splendid plea for the defence, and especially his examination of the witnesses, was openly praised by Chief Justice Waite of the United States supreme court, who presided at the trial. He charged no fee for conducting this defence, but to this day he wears a gold watch and chain that were presented to him by the people of his county in recognition of his patriotic services to his people on this occasion. He declined the Democratic nomi- nation to the State senate from his county in 1876. He was too young to enter politics. In 1880 he was elected to the State senate from Aiken county. He was now a State leader. He was the author of the anti-duelling oath prescribed for office-holders in South Carolina. He was an earnest advocate of the legislation by which a railroad commission for the regulating of railroad
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traffic was established for South Carolina; of the law against carrying concealed weapons; and of the eight-ballot-box law, by which the white man's rule was perpetuated through an educa- tional test for voters. He retired from the senate in 1884. In the same year he was a delegate to the Democratic National convention, held in Chicago, which nominated Cleveland for president. In 1886 he was a candidate for congress in the then second district. His opponents were Honorable George D. Till- man, the incumbent, of Edgefield county, and Colonel Robert Aldrich, of Barnwell. Mr. Henderson went into the convention with ten votes from his home county. Colonel Aldrich had the twelve from Barnwell county and the three from the portion of Colleton county lying in the district. Mr. Tillman had the twenty votes from Edgefield and Hampton counties. For over three weeks the convention ballotted without breaking the dead- lock. Two of the Colleton delegates were the first to desert their favorite and go to Tillman, and finally a Barnwell man made the twenty-three necessary to a choice, but Henderson's followers from first to last were as immovable in his support as a stone wall. In 1895 his county sent him as a delegate to the State Constitutional convention, receiving the support of both factions of the Democratic party in the party primary. There he was one of the leaders. In 1896 he was elected to the State senate by an overwhelming majority and was reelected by a like majority in 1900. Conspicuous among the legislative enactments to which he gave his support on the floor of the senate were the county government law; the law equalizing the taxes of the cotton mills and fertilizer factories; the separate coach law, and the anti-trust law. He was chairman of the committee on education.
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