USA > South Carolina > Men of mark in South Carolina; ideals of American life: a collection of biographies of leading men of the state, Volume II > Part 18
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Mr. Simms is a member of the Masonic order-blue lodge, chapter, commandery, and fourteenth degree Scottish rite; Im- proved Order of Red Men, Woodmen of the World, and Knights of Pythias. He has been worshipful master in the Masonic order as well as a D. D. G. M. thereof for years; and has filled all offices in the Knights of Pythias, including grand chancellor and supreme representative from his state.
Mr. Simms is not a confirmed member of any religious denomination, but prefers to attend the Protestant Episcopal
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church, wherein he was christened when an infant. His exercise he finds in walking and swimming, to which he is devoted; he is also a member of fishing, social, business and agricultural clubs.
Mr. Simms is deeply attached to his state. In 1882-83 he was in San Francisco and other parts of California, and would, no doubt, have remained there, to his own personal advantage, had not his love for South Carolina, its history, traditions, insti- tutions, and aspirations, recalled him, that he might devote his life and powers to the service of this great commonwealth.
His advice to the young is to cultivate self-respect. He believes that where the home, associations with others, and even the church, have failed rightly to regulate and direct character, the inculcation of self-respect will hold the young in the right course and impel them to the highest attainments of which they are capable.
Mr. Simms's successes have all been achieved within his pro- fession. He has been engaged in the most prominent litigation on all sides in his county and elsewhere, and has given his exclu- sive attention to his profession. He regards political life as a failure, and office-holding as more of a curse than an advantage. Above all things, he esteems the life of a private citizen as most independent, dignified and desirable. Such a life, he believes, will make a man respectable when public life oftentimes will destroy him.
In January, 1886, Mr. Simms was married to Miss Emily M. Maher, daughter of the late Judge John J. Maher. She lived only a year after the marriage; and on April 18, 1894, Mr. Simms was married to her sister, Miss Fanny H. Maher. Of their six children, four are now (1907) living.
The address of Mr. Simms is Barnwell, South Carolina.
JOSEPH EMORY SIRRINE
S IRRINE, JOSEPH EMORY, civil engineer and engineer for industrial plants and water power development, was born in Americus, Sumter county, Georgia, December 9, 1872. His parents were George W. and Sarah E. Sirrine. His father was a carriage and wagon manufacturer, an energetic and public-spirited man, who was devoted to his family, and who, though never holding political office, was helpful in the commu- nity in which he lived. For many years he was president of the free public library of Greenville and also of the Hospital asso- ciation of that town. The earliest ancestor in this country whose name is known was John Sirrine, who was born January 4, 1769. His father, whose name is not remembered, came from France and settled in Louisiana. John Sirrine was the great great- grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He died February 4, 1812. On the maternal side, the great-grandfather of Joseph Sirrine was John Rhinelander, the name afterward shortened to Rylander, who either settled or was born near Savannah, Georgia. His family came from the province of Salzburg, in Germany. His mother's maternal grandfather was Joseph Brown, who resided in the old Abbeville district, South Carolina.
In childhood and youth Joseph Sirrine was strong and well. His home was in the village of Greenville, and he was fond of outdoor life and was also deeply interested in machinery. Except while at school he had regular tasks to perform, and he believes that this was of great benefit, because it taught him the value of close application to the work in hand. There were no difficulties to overcome in his efforts to secure an education. He was fond of reading and study, and his mother exerted a strong influence on his intellectual life. Until he was thirteen years of age he attended public and private schools in Greenville. He then entered Furman university, where he remained three years, but, as he omitted the last year of the course, he was not graduated. In his boyhood he was especially fond of books of travel, but while at the university his time was largely given to the study of mathematics. From very early years he had desired to become
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a civil engineer, and to this choice there was no opposition on the part of his relatives or friends. The active work of his life was commenced in June, 1890, as a rodman on a railroad survey. From this time to 1895 he was engaged in the general work of a civil and a mill engineer. In the year last named he became associated with the firm of Lockwood, Greene & Company, of Boston, Massachusetts, as constructing engineer. He remained with this firm until 1902. During the last three years of this connection, a period of great activity in the erection of cotton mills in that section, he was manager and chief engineer in their Southern department. Foreseeing a great development in the manufacture of cotton in the South which would bring a large amount of business to men in his profession, he severed his con- nection with the Boston firm, and in 1902 began business under his own name as a mill engineer. The success which had attended his work had given him an excellent reputation, and when he opened an office in Greenville, in which he employed several assistants, his services were in great demand, and from that time to the present he has carried on a large business in planning industrial plants and in water power developments. Many of the larger manufacturing plants now in operation in his section of the state were constructed according to his plans and under his supervision. It is safe to say that he is recognized as the foremost mill engineer in South Carolina, and his reputation has extended far beyond the bounds of the state.
Of fraternal orders, Mr. Sirrine is a member of the York Rite Masons, and is a noble of the order of the Mystic Shrine; while of scientific bodies he is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. In politics he is a Democrat, although in 1896 and 1900 he refused to vote the national ticket on account of its advocacy of the free coinage of silver. He is a close student and a hard worker, but occasionally secures recreation out of doors in the common sports, while for indoor amusement he enjoys card games, especially whist.
In reply to a request for suggestions in regard to habits and principles which help young people to attain true success in life, he says: "Work without regard to purely temporary benefits will
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insure a fair degree of success to any man of average mind and good habits. Faithfulness and energy are the only things that can make success."
On November 8, 1898, Mr. Sirrine was married to Jane Pinckney Henry. Their home is Number 326 North Main street, Greenville, South Carolina.
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AUGUSTUS WARDLAW SMITH
S MITH, AUGUSTUS WARDLAW, financier, merchant and manufacturer, was born April 29, 1862, in Abbeville, Abbe- ville county, South Carolina. His father, Major Augustus M. Smith, planter and member of the state legislature, a man of much public spirit and very popular, was killed in the battle of Gaines Mill, in the War between the States, while major of the First South Carolina regiment. His mother, Sarah (Wardlaw) Smith, was a cultured and pious woman and exercised a strong influence in the formation of his moral character.
He is of Scotch blood. His paternal great-grandfather, William Smith, moved from Virginia to Stony Point, Abbeville county, South Carolina, and his grandfather, Joel Smith, of Abbeville county, was a noted financier of the last century, who amassed nearly a million dollars previous to the War between the States. On the maternal side, Robert Wardlaw, his fourth great- grandfather, originally from Scotland, was the founder of the American branch of the family. He came from Ireland to Penn- sylvania at the time that persecution at home was sending a steady stream of Scotch and Irish Presbyterians to this country, then to Virginia, and finally settled in Abbeville county, where the family has been prominent ever since. John Wardlaw, his great-grandfather, was clerk of the county court for thirty-eight years. Judge D. L. Wardlaw, his grandfather, was a member of the South Carolina state legislature from 1826 to 1841; speaker of the house in 1836; judge of the circuit court in 1841; a member of the state conventions of 1852, 1860-62, and 1865; one of the signers of the ordinance of secession, and was in 1865 elected associate justice of the state court of appeals.
In childhood he was delicate, but soon grew more robust and in youth was active in such sports as horseback riding and fox hunting. He decided early from personal preference to make his: life a commercial one, and his education, arranged in accordance with that decision, was obtained at Judge W. C. Benet's school, Cokesbury, South Carolina; the high school, Abbeville, and the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. When he left the latter institution he went to work on a farm as a helper, at the
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age of seventeen, and remained there a year. This was a great help to him physically, besides teaching him how to apply him- self to work systematically.
Mr. Smith began his business career in 1881 as a clerk in his uncle's store in Abbeville; in 1883 he started a store of his own, and from that time his rise in the commercial world was rapid. In 1900 the business, having outgrown the town, was removed to Spartanburg, and soon became one of the largest in that section. In the same year he organized and became president and treasurer of the Woodruff Cotton mills, Woodruff, South Carolina, which he built and has made to rank among the finest and most prosperous in the state. A year later, in 1901, he organized and became president of the Bank of Woodruff, which stands high among the financial institutions of the state, and since 1905 he has been a director of the Central National bank, of Spartanburg. In November, 1906, he was elected president of the Union-Buffalo Mills company, the Union Manufacturing Power company, and the Union Glenn Springs railroad, all situated at Union, South Carolina.
In 1890-91 he was colonel of the Third South Carolina regi- ment state troops, and was mayor of Abbeville 1891-92. He says he has never had any ambition beyond being a good business man and a good citizen, both of which he is beyond question. He has devoted much time to mathematics and the study of books on the manufacture of cotton. This study, together with his natural ability and his untiring energy, enabled him to achieve a marked success before he reached middle age. His career has been a practical demonstration of the value of his advice to the young man starting in life in any line of endeavor: "Be strictly honest in all dealings; never procrastinate in what is to be done; always be polite and just; overcome all obstacles in business by attention and perseverance."
Among the potent influences of his life he rates home first and contact with men next. He is a member, past chancellor commander and department grand commander of the Knights of Pythias, and he is a member of the Alpha Omega college frater- nity. His religious connection is with the Protestant Episcopal church, of which he is a member. In politics he is a Democrat. He finds his most enjoyable recreation in quiet rest at home.
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On January 5, 1887, he married Mary Noble, daughter of Edward Noble, of Abbeville, and on June 5, 1901, Belle Perrin, daughter of the late L. W. Perrin, of Abbeville; five children have been born to them, of whom four are now (1907) living. His address is Spartanburg, South Carolina.
RUFUS FRANKLIN SMITH
S MITH, RUFUS FRANKLIN, M. D., successful financier, was born in Equality, Anderson county, South Carolina, August 17, 1858. His father was James Monroe Smith, a Southern planter and merchant, who has been described as "a dignified gentleman of the old school." His mother was Hester Watkins Smith, and his maternal great-grandfather, David Wat- kins, whose father came to this country from Wales.
Doctor Smith grew up on a plantation, where, as a well- developed, sturdy youth, he took a lively interest in farm life, and especially in horses. After attending Adger college in Wal- halla, South Carolina, he took a course in the medical department of the University of Virginia, where in 1881 he was graduated with the degree of M. D. He supplemented this training by special courses at the University of Pennsylvania, at Jefferson college in Philadelphia, and in New York. He then returned to the plantation and took up the practice of medicine, which he continued until 1900. In that year he relinquished his profession in order to devote his attention to his large financial interests. He is president of the Easley Oil mill, president of the Easley Loan and Trust company, and was identified with the establish- ment of the Easley graded school. He is an elder in the Presby- terian church; an active member of the Masonic fraternity, of the Knights of Pythias, and of the Woodmen of the World. In his professional work he has been connected with county, state and national medical societies.
Doctor Smith takes an active interest in political affairs. He was a member of the South Carolina constitutional convention of 1895, and was sent as a delegate to the national Democratic convention at St. Louis in 1904. Whether in politics, in the medical profession, or in the financial world, he has always been an earnest and persevering worker.
He is interested in the study of evolution as it affects the human family, and retains his early love for fine horses and other blooded stock, as well as for all athletic sports. He owns exten- sive farming lands, is largely interested in agriculture and cotton
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manufacture, and he is a director in the Easley, Glenwood, Lib- erty, and Calumet Cotton mills. He is also president of the Easley Cotton Seed Oil mill, of the Liberty Cotton Seed Oil mill and of the Easley Loan and Trust company.
On August 22, 1888, he married Ida J. Hollingsworth, of Pickens, South Carolina. They have had six children-two daughters and four sons-all of whom are now (1907) living.
His address is Easley, Pickens county, South Carolina.
THOMAS BASCOM STACKHOUSE
S TACKHOUSE, THOMAS BASCOM, son of T. F. Stack- house and Mary A. (Bethea) Stackhouse, was born near Dillon, South Carolina, in Marion county, on November 3, 1857.
Mr. Stackhouse is a man of distinguished ancestry. Com- mencing with the year 1502, down for upwards of two centuries, may be found members of the Stackhouse family noted as col- legians and writers, most of them being in orders. At present several of the name are priests in the Church of England. Lead- ing the list of divines in the family was Thomas, at one time principal of St. Austin's hostel, Troters; vice-chancellor of Cambridge, and chaplain to Henry VIII, and rector of Kirby Sigiston, Yorkshire. Others are Hugh Stackhouse, collegian and naturalist; Thomas Stackhouse, Bible historian, and William Stackhouse, D. D., rector of St. Erme, Cornwall. Thomas Stack- house was a classical scholar, and John a botanist. Another Thomas Stackhouse was famous both as a Friend and antiquarian. From Yorkshire this family has spread over the world. Richard Stackhouse came to New England in the Puritan times; two Thomas Stackhouses and a John came to the Province of Penn- sylvania. The elder Thomas married twice; his first wife's family were of distinguished lineage, and the second has given to the Society of Friends some of its most illustrious writers. John, the brother of Thomas, Jr., left many descendants. Thomas, the elder brother, left no children. He was a prominent Friend in his day.
Thomas Stackhouse, the younger, came to America when about twenty-one. He was wealthy, occupied many offices of trust, was one of the four collectors of money granted proprie- tary; represented Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in the Colonial assembly, 1711-13-15, and was reelected in 1716, but refused to serve. He built the first meeting house at Middletown, Bucks county, in 1690; was on various committees of the society, and was three times married. The coat-of-arms in this family is argent on a bend engrailed, sa, three bucks' heads of the field.
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Crest : A buck's head, as in the arms. Motto: "Er cordiad y caera." (From foundation of the fortress.)
William Stackhouse was born in Bucks county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1736, and came to Marion county, South Carolina, about 1760. He took part in the Revolutionary war, and was paroled at the surrender of Charleston to Cornwallis. He had two sons, William and John.
John Stackhouse was born October 22, 1766. He had five sons : Herod, Isaac, John, Tristram, and Hugh, and died June 22, 1819. Isaac Stackhouse was born October 10, 1790. He had six sons : Maston, Thomas, William, Tristram, Milton and Robert. All of these were successful farmers.
Eli Thomas Stackhouse was the pioneer in intensive farming in South Carolina, a colonel in the Confederate army, and a member of congress. He died June 14, 1892, while a member of congress.
Tristram F. Stackhouse was born the 23d of August, 1835. He inherited from his father the lands settled on by William Stackhouse about the year 1760, and cultivated these lands to the time of his death, June 6, 1905. He represented his county, Marion, in the legislature for three terms, and was noted for his fairness and honorable dealing. He had three sons, Thomas, Randolph and Lawrence. Randolph P. Stackhouse has devoted his life to agriculture, and now cultivates, in addition to other lands, the lands which belonged to the Stackhouse family for about a century and a half. He was a member of the Consti- tutional convention of South Carolina in 1895.
Thomas B. Stackhouse was brought up in the country. He loved horses, worked on the farm when not in school, and fre- quently picked more cotton than any negro on the place. The forces which affected the life of young Stackhouse were the beneficent influence of his mother, reading, school, early com- panionship, private study, and contact with men. He taught school before going to college and during every vacation. He attended Wofford college, graduating in 1880 with the degree of A. B., and was for several years a trustee of that institution. He was a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity. His active life began in 1881 as a merchant at Little Rock, South Carolina, in which business he was successfully engaged till 1885. From 1882 to 1902 he farmed near Dillon, South Carolina. In 1897
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he organized the Bank of Dillon, and had the active management of same till 1903. In 1900 he was instrumental in building the Dillon Cotton mills, of which he was elected president. The latter part of 1902 he resigned his position in the Bank of Dillon and the Dillon Cotton mills and moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he helped to organize the American National bank and the Southern Trust company, of which he was respect- ively cashier and treasurer during 1903 and 1904. In January, 1905, he was elected vice-president of the National Loan and Exchange bank, of Columbia, and president of the Bank of Dillon, which positions he still (1907) retains. In addition to his official connection with these two banks he is a director in the American National bank and the Southern Trust company, of Spartanburg, the Security Savings and Investment company, of Newberry, the Cowpens Manufacturing company, the Hamer Cotton mills, and a trustee of the Epworth orphanage.
His address is Columbia, South Carolina.
WILLIAM FRANCIS STEVENSON
S TEVENSON, WILLIAM FRANCIS, lawyer, banker, and ex-speaker of the house of representatives of South Caro- lina, was born near Statesville, Iredell county, North Caro- lina, on the 23d of November, 1861. His parents were William Sidney Stevenson and Eliza (McFarland) Stevenson. His father was a farmer by occupation, but for some time was engaged in teaching. He was a man of tenacious memory and conspicuous piety, and was a leading elder of the Presbyterian church of his neighborhood for nearly fifty years. The earliest ancestor of the Stevenson family in America was William Stevenson, the great great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who came to Pennsylvania in 1748 and removed to Iredell county, North Caro- lina, in 1761, where the family has since lived. Among Mr. Stevenson's distinguished relatives were his second cousins, Adlai E. Stevenson, vice-president of the United States; J. H. Bell, an associate justice of the supreme court of Texas, and A. P. McCor- mick, United States circuit judge, of Dallas, Texas.
Mr. Stevenson's physical condition in childhood and youth was strong and robust; he was very fond of active outdoor life and passed his early years in the country. From the time that he was ten years old until he was eighteen he labored on his father's farm, working regularly in the making and harvesting of every crop and doing all sorts of farm work. In winter he attended the public schools. He prepared for college in Taylors- ville, North Carolina, and was finally graduated at Davidson college, North Carolina, with the A. B. degree. His education was not acquired without difficulty, as he had to make his own way through college, but inspired by home influences, especially the influence of his mother, he attained his college degree with distinction. His chief reading was in the line of history and the works of D'Aubigné, Alex. H. Stephens, and Macaulay, were among his greatest favorites. Subsequently to his graduation he studied law in the office of General W. L. T. Prince, of Cheraw, South Carolina, and he began the practice of law at Chesterfield, South Carolina, in July, 1887.
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Mr. Stevenson has had a busy and successful career. In addition to his work as a lawyer, he has been president of the Merchants and Farmers bank, of Cheraw, South Carolina, since 1900; president of the Chesterfield and Lancaster Railroad com- pany since 1901; director of the National Loan and Exchange bank, of Columbia, since 1903; district counsel of the Seaboard Air Line railway; vice-president of the Chesterfield County Oil company from its organization in 1901 until it was merged in the Independent Cotton Oil company, of which he is a director. He is now (1907) attorney for the state commission of South Carolina which was appointed to wind up the affairs of the late state dis- pensary, a concern which owed about a million dollars and had assets worth about the same sum when it was forced out of business by legislative enactment. He has also been conspicuous in political life, having been a member of the South Carolina house of repre- sentatives from 1896 to 1902, speaker of the house from 1900 to 1902, and mayor of Cheraw from 1894 to 1896. Mr. Stevenson is a member of the Presbyterian church and has been an elder in that church since 1888. He was moderator of the synod of South Carolina in 1900, being the first lay moderator ever appointed. Mr. Stevenson was president of the Democratic state executive convention in 1900 and was chairman of the legislative committee that investigated the penitentiary of South Carolina in 1899, an investigation which resulted in the discovery and exposure of great abuses. He is a member of the Beta Theta Pi college fraternity. He has always been a Democrat, and all his public services have been given to the furtherance of his party principles.
On November 13, 1888, Mr. Stevenson married Mary E. Prince.
His address is Cheraw, Chesterfield county, South Carolina.
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CHARLES WIGHTMAN STOLL
S TOLL, CHARLES WIGHTMAN, lawyer, since 1904 mayor of Kingstree, Williamsburg county, South Carolina, was born near Kingstree, on the 4th of February, 1867. His father, James C. Stoll, was a minister of the Gospel, active in the work of the South Carolina conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and for four years presiding elder of the Florence district,-a man who is remembered for his "high sense of honor, his purity of purpose and character, the spiritu- ality of his life, and his marked and intense love of reading." His ancestors were English and Scotch immigrants, who settled in Charleston and in Williamsburg county in colonial days. The family is identified with the history of Old Bethel church, on Calhoun street, Charleston, South Carolina; and one of the small streets of Charleston carried the family name. His mother was Mrs. Mary (McCollough) Stoll. Her ancestors came from Scot- land with the body of Scotch-Irish settlers of old Williamsburg. They are related to and intermarried with the Jameses, Pressleys, Witherspoons and other historic families of Williamsburg. They were planters and slaveholders, and were noted for their family sense of honor and their patriotism.
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