USA > South Carolina > Men of mark in South Carolina; ideals of American life: a collection of biographies of leading men of the state, Volume III > Part 13
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The principal public service which he has rendered to the community in which he has lived has consisted in fair dealing, in providing for the wants of his fellow-citizens as a merchant, and in his management of the bank to facilitate the transaction of business with the surrounding country, as well as in his active interest in organizing and his executive ability in presiding over the manufacturing enterprise which has added very much to the population and the trade of his town.
He has been all his life a Democrat, and unswerving in his allegiance to his party and its candidates. He is a member of the Presbyterian church.
On November 6, 1873, he married Miss Kate Cleveland. Of their nine children, six are now (1908) living.
His address is Easley, Pickens county, South Carolina.
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Men of Mart. Publishing Go Washington, DC
yours dry fuly Tombestown
THOMAS COOK HAMER
H AMER, THOMAS COOK, chief clerk of the house of representatives of South Carolina, and lieutenant- colonel on the governor's staff in 1900, has practiced law at Bennettsville, Marlboro county, South Carolina, for the last fifteen years. He was born at Bennettsville, January 23, 1868, and is the son of Benjamin F. Hamer, a farmer of energy, good judgment and great capacity for work, who held the office of county commissioner. To his mother, Mrs. Susan Davis (Cook) Hamer, he is indebted for a strong influence for good upon his spiritual and intellectual life. Alfred Hamer, his grandfather, was among the earliest known ancestors of his line in America, and was of English descent, while his wife brought a strain of Scotch blood into the family. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Cook, was also of English descent, and was among the early Methodist preachers of the country.
His early boyhood was passed in the country, where excellent health and a fondness for physical sport made his enjoyment of life keen. Love of music, and a deep interest, even in early boyhood, in all good public speaking, whether upon religious or upon political or social themes, characterized his youth. As a boy he worked systematically on a farm, and this gave him "time for thought and time to settle definite business plans for life."
He attended the Bennettsville Male academy in preparation for college, and was graduated in law from the South Carolina college in 1891. He began the practice of his profession at once in Bennettsville, South Carolina, where he has since resided. His own personal preference led him to the choice of his life profession. He is interested in farming as well as in the practice of law. He was committee clerk of the house of representatives at first; then bill clerk; and in 1899 he was elected chief clerk of the house of representatives of South Carolina. He still holds that position in 1908.
Identified with the Democratic party, he has never varied from political allegiance to that organization, but has uniformly supported its platform, its principles and its candidates. He has
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been a member of several of its state conventions, and has served as secretary of more than one of these conventions.
He is a member, and one of the vice-presidents, of the South Carolina club. He is a member and a vice-president of the Bennettsville club. He belongs to the Masonic order, and to the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World, and the Elks. He is also a member of the Commercial club of Charleston.
He is connected with the Methodist church, in which he holds the office of trustee.
Exercise and relaxation from his professional duties, as a lawyer and as clerk of the house of representatives, he has found for years in the management of his farm.
On January 5, 1904, he married Miss Martha Blanche Gibson, daughter of Francis B. and Edith M. Gibson, of Gibson, North Carolina. They have one child, Blanche Isadora Hamer.
To his younger fellow-citizens of South Carolina he offers this advice: "Have a purpose in life, and be true to it. Be slow to incur obligations, and be careful to fulfill all that you incur."
The address of Mr. Hamer is Bennettsville, South Carolina.
FRANK HAMMOND
H AMMOND, FRANK, merchant and banker, was born in Tipton, Cedar county, Iowa, July 22, 1852. His parents were Willard and Susan (Gower) Hammond. His father was a merchant, and a captain in a Home Guards military company-a man of strong convictions and an excellent public speaker. The earliest paternal ancestor in this country was William Hammond, who came from Suffolk county, England, and settled at Swanzey, New Hampshire. (See Reid's History of Swanzey, New Hampshire.) One of his descendants was Joseph Hammond, a lieutenant-colonel in the Revolution, and great-grandfather of Frank Hammond. He went out with a company of Swanzey men immediately after the battles of Lex- ington and Concord, but was at home when the battle of Bunker Hill was fought. He knew that one of his sons and several of his neighbors were near the scene of conflict and might have been in the battle. To allay his anxiety on their account, he started on horseback for the field of battle and rode the whole distance, ninety miles, in one day. Finding his son uninjured, he returned home the next day. From their settlement in this country the Hammonds have been prominent people.
Frank Hammond's first American ancestor on his mother's side was Robert Gower, who came from Norfolk county, Eng- land, as a British soldier, and died in Farmington, Maine, in 1806. (See Butler's History of Farmington.)
In childhood and youth his health was poor. His especial tastes and interests were for reading; and from boyhood he preferred books on banking and on railroads. When he was twelve years of age he made his first money by working in a printing office, where he remained for one year. He then worked on a farm until he was seventeen. Defective health prevented his taking a course of study beyond the graded schools of his vicinity ; but by private study and reading he has kept himself well informed upon industrial and financial affairs, as well as on matters of general interest.
In November, 1869, he removed to Greenville, South Caro- lina, and in 1873 he there commenced the active work of life
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as a merchant. He was quite successful, and he soon entered upon broader financial undertakings, in which he has become distinguished. He has been vice-president and director of the Greenville Savings bank; vice-president and director of the Paris Mountain Land company; president of the Magnetic Iron and Steel Ore company; director of the Glenn Springs and the Caro- lina, Knoxville and Western railroads; director of the Blacks- burg Land and Improvement company and of the Piedmont Savings and Investment company ; vice-president and director of the Greenville Fertilizer company ; director of the Calisaya Tonic company and of the Gower Supply company. He is president and director of the People's bank; director in the F. W. Poe Manufacturing company; director and vice-president of the Brandon Cotton mills; treasurer and director of the Pine Creek Manufacturing company, of Camden; treasurer, general manager and director of the Seneca Cotton mills; president of the Moun- tain City Land and Improvement company; director of the Bank of Laurens; president of the Carolina Loan and Trust company, and director of the Gaffney City Land and Improve- ment company.
The influence of his mother has had a beneficent and enduring effect upon his intellectual, moral and spiritual life. The books which helped him most were history and biography. At the age of thirteen he read Thomas H. Benton's "Twenty Years in Congress," and from it he derived lasting inspiration. In the choice of his life-work he was allowed to follow his own prefer- ence. The first strong impulse to strive for the prizes of life came when he was fifteen years of age, from his accidentally reading a magazine devoted to banking.
In politics he is a Democrat, but on the free silver coinage issue he has supported the Republican candidates for the presi- dency. His religious affiliation is with the Presbyterian church. He is active in religious, educational and philanthropic affairs. In reply to a request that from his own experience and observa- tion he would make helpful suggestions to his young readers, he says that "Godly life, energy, and economy," are of vital importance in enabling them to win true success in life.
Mr. Hammond was married December 12, 1877, to Mary B. Caine. Of their eight children, four are now living.
The address of Mr. Hammond is Greenville, South Carolina.
JAMES THORNWELL HAY
H AY, JAMES THORNWELL, lawyer, formerly mem- ber of the South Carolina house of representatives and for the last nine years a state senator, was born in Columbia, South Carolina, April 28, 1847. His father was the Reverend Samuel Hutson Hay, a Presbyterian minister and "a faithful man." To his mother, Mrs. Mary Susan Hay, he attributes a particularly strong influence upon his intellectual and moral life. Among his ancestors in his father's line was Colonel Hawkes Hay, who had gone from Scotland to Jamaica and later had emigrated from Jamaica to New York before the Revolution -who, with the rank of colonel, served under General Washing- ton in the Revolutionary war.
Somewhat delicate in health in his boyhood, he studied for some years at home under the careful direction of his father and mother. He had a marked taste for good literature, and was especially fond of the study of languages. For a time, after his early studies at home and before he entered the Confederate army, he attended the school of L. McCandless at Camden.
During the last two years of the war he served in Company D, Fifth battalion, of the South Carolina reserves. At the close of the war he "engaged in any useful work which he could secure, toiling with axe and hoe, and finding that this manual labor was of great benefit" to him, as he declares he believes it would be to all young men if they would try it.
Interesting himself in the study of the law, he was admitted to the bar in 1868, and in that year he began the active practice of his profession at Camden, South Carolina, where he has continued as a practicing lawyer for nearly forty years.
In his early boyhood he became identified with the Demo- cratic party. He was prominently identified with the party in Kershaw county from 1868 to 1876; he was a "straight-out" Democrat in 1876, and he "answered all calls made upon him during that campaign." A few years later he was elected a member of the house of representatives of his state, and he devoted himself to the interests of his constituents and of the state. In 1895 he was chosen a member of the state constitu-
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tional convention of South Carolina. In the year 1896 he was elected to the state senate, and since 1896 he has continued a member of that body, having been repeatedly reelected.
He is a Presbyterian, and he has been a ruling elder in that church for nearly thirty years. He has also been for years a teacher in its Sunday school. He is not a member of any fraternities and clubs except the Knights of Honor.
In his choice of a profession he was influenced by circum- stances and by the preference of his father. He says he feels that he "owes more to the teachings of his parents and to their example than to all other influences" which have shaped his life.
On December 7, 1876, he married Miss Josephine Oakman. They have had ten children, of whom four are now living.
As advice to young Americans he writes: "Diligence, fidelity to yourself and to others, the telling and the practicing of the truth at all times, and living carefully within your means," will lead to success.
His address is Camden, South Carolina.
JULIUS H. HEYWARD
H EYWARD, JULIUS H., from 1881 to 1897 United States commissioner, and since 1897 standing master United States circuit court, and since 1898 referee in bankruptcy, was born at Beaufort, July 4, 1849. His father, Nathaniel Heyward, a rice planter, was for two terms a member of the South Carolina house of representatives, and served for one term as state senator,-a man of marked energy and of generous hospitality. His mother was Mrs. Eliza B. (Rhett) Heyward. The earliest known ancestor of this family in America was Daniel Heyward, who came from England about 1672 and settled in Charleston.
In his boyhood he had fairly good health, and while he was fond of reading, he was also intensely fond of hunting. Part of his childhood was passed on a rice plantation, and part of it in Beaufort and Columbia. Although he was but twelve years old when the War between the States broke out, he served for the last six months of the war, from November, 1864, to April, 1865, as a member of the corps of cadets of the South Carolina Military academy which acted as rear guard at the evacuation of Charleston.
His father was financially ruined by the war and its results. His son spent one year, 1866, at the College of Charleston, but was not graduated. In 1870 he obtained employment as a book- keeper in Savannah, Georgia, and he read law while so employed. In 1878 he was admitted to the bar, and in January, 1879, he established himself at Greenville, South Carolina. In this place he has been actively engaged in the practice of the law since that time. The choice of his profession was determined "simply by taste for the profession of the law." In 1881 he was made United States commissioner, serving until 1897. Since 1897 and until the present time (1908) he has been standing master of the United States circuit court. For the last ten years he has also had important duties to discharge as referee in bankruptcy,- meanwhile maintaining the general practice of his profession.
From childhood he has been connected with the Protestant Episcopal church. His political convictions have identified him
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with the Democratic party. His exercise and relaxation he has found in farming, riding and driving. He owns a stock and dairy farm near Greenville.
On March 10, 1882, he married Miss Elizabeth Smith Mid- dleton.
Mr. Heyward believes that the hope of the country rests now, as it always has rested, upon "the honesty, sobriety and industry of its citizens." "These virtues will bring true success."
His address is Greenville, South Carolina.
Men of Mark Publishing Co. Washington, D. C.
yours truly ATHardin
ABRAHAM TRACY HARDIN
H ARDIN, ABRAHAM TRACY, assistant general manager of the New York Central and Hudson River railroad, is one of the sons of South Carolina who by reason of efficient service shown in their own state through their early manhood have been drafted away by important corporations in other parts of the country, to serve in business relations which affect many states. He was born in York county, South Carolina, on the 20th of August, 1868. His father, Ira Hardin, was a farmer and surveyor, helpfully interested in the affairs of his town as school commissioner, town treasurer, etc., and is remem- bered for his industry and as a faithful adviser of his neighbors. His mother was Mrs. Elizabeth (Hamilton) Hardin, daughter of Lewis Hamilton and Mary A. (Falls) Hamilton, the former of Gaston county and the latter of Cleveland county, North Carolina. His great-grandfather, Davis Hardin, of French descent, at first settled at Patterson Springs, North Carolina, and later was one of those who made the pioneer settlement in the Piedmont region about 1750. His grandfather, Abraham Hardin, represented York county in the general assembly.
Passing his boyhood in the country and in the village of Blacksburg, with good health and with a hearty proclivity for "the amusements of Southern boys with a good equipment of guns, pistols, etc., for hunting," he early developed an omnivorous appetite for reading, and was particularly fond of biography and history. While a mere boy he became passionately desirous of an education in mechanics. He was trained to have regular tasks of manual labor on the farm, at cotton gins, and about a railroad. He learned the business of a telegraph operator, and paid his expenses through college by working during vacations as tele- graph operator and stenographer, having saved some money by working steadily at these occupations before he entered college. He was graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1894 with the degree of B. S., having completed a course in civil engineering. Asked to name the lines of study which he found most helpful in fitting him for his work in life, he writes: "The excellent technical course formerly given at the South Carolina
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university, which we hope is now being revived, was most helpful. No one needs it more than the Southern boy, and no one is better fitted to receive the training, nor will any one make a better use of it for the honor of his state and the upbuilding of his section than will the boys of South Carolina and of the South."
At the age of sixteen he became a telegraph operator and railroad agent and stenographer on the Richmond and Danville railroad. His position as operator and stenographer he intended to use as a means of obtaining a scientific education to qualify him for the life work of a civil engineer. It is gratifying to note his opinion of the home influences which surround a hard- working South Carolina boy. He says: "The early training of a Southern boy is an invaluable gift for the future, if he will observe the sound principles inculcated." He feels that next to home influences he owes most to his course of study at the South Carolina university; but continuous private study and incessant hard work have supplemented the study of these early years.
Briefly outlined, the record of this prominent railroad man- ager and engineer is as follows: Operator, agent and stenogra- pher of the Richmond and Danville railroad, 1884 to 1889. After his college course, secretary to the general road master of the Southern railway, from 1894 to 1898; track supervisor of the New York Central and Hudson River railroad, 1898 to 1899; division engineer of the same railroad from 1899 to 1900; track engineer from 1900 to 1903; engineer of maintenance of way, 1903 to 1905; assistant to the general manager of the New York Central and Hudson River railroad, 1905; assistant general man- ager of the same road since 1906.
By religious belief he is identified with the Baptist church. When asked "what has been and what now is the sport, amuse- ment, form of exercise or mode of relaxation which you enjoy and find helpful ?" Mr. Hardin answers: "Work."
Kindly recognition of Mr. Hardin's steady course of advance- ment in professional work has been made in various newspapers of his state, e. g., "The News and Courier," at Charleston, and "The Carolinian," published by the South Carolina university.
His advice to the young men of his state who wish to attain success is given in these sentences: "The Southern boy's richest heritage, and the one which he should most cherish and seek to perpetuate, is the code of honor established by our ancestors.
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In the past and today, to be a Carolinian is to be a gentleman anywhere. The element next in value is hard work and devotion to duty, with the determination not simply to accomplish some- thing for one's self, but to accomplish something, too, for others. Hard work is a new lesson for the Southern boy, but under new conditions he is learning it with marked rapidity."
The address of Mr. Hardin is Grand Central Station, New York city, New York.
IRVING SYLVANUS HARLEY
H ARLEY, IRVING SYLVANUS, president of the Farmers and Merchants bank, of Orangeburg, South Carolina ; president of four mercantile companies, and owner of much real estate at Orangeburg, was born in Orange- burg county, about fifteen miles from his present residence, on the 17th of January, 1854.
His father was John Harley, and his mother Mrs. Mahala Bullock Harley. She died when her son was three years old; and she entrusted him especially to his grandmother, Mrs. Mary Bullock, whose loving and motherly care and wise counsel he has remembered most gratefully throughout his life.
His grandmother's home, where he spent his early boyhood, was a two-room log house, the cracks between the logs being closed with split clapboards, while the front door was fastened by a wooden pin thrust into a slanting auger hole in the doorpost, and the door to the inner room had a sliding latch with a string attached, which passed through a gimlet hole in the door just above the latch. Mr. Harley likes to recall the primitive sur- roundings and manner of life of this early home, where, when his recollection begins, they used no matches, but got a fire each morning by the use of a flint and steel with a tuft of scorched cotton, or tinder. His early opportunities for schooling were very limited. A log school house in the middle of an abandoned field, with only one grade of pupils, and with but one text-book (Webster's "Blue-back Speller"), was the first school he attended. When the pupils had mastered the speller, as there were no funds to buy other text-books, they read from the New Testament and hymn-books-the best of literature, so far as the Bible lessons were concerned, and a source of wholesome moral and religious instruction, through the hymns read. With no watch or clock in the school house, the time for the noon recess was fixed by observing the shadow at the "noon mark" on the floor.
When the War between the States ended, Irving Harley was a boy of eleven; and the little home in which he lived had to face the new order of things, while the struggle for existence became more and more intense, as his grandmother grew older
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and feebler. Although not yet in his teens, he did the work of a plough-hand; and he recalls with amused interest the "Confed- erate mule" which came into his grandmother's possession at this time-a mule which had seen service in General M. C. Butler's command and in consequence bore the name of "Butler," while the fighting qualities showed themselves in the obstinate battle he fought with his driver at the end of every furrow before he could be induced to "move on." This early experience with the heavy toil of farm work left the growing boy little time for sports or exercise; but he learned the value of steady application to work. And the gentle but powerful influence of his grandmother, in this humble home of his boyhood, fixed him in principles which have kept him from drinking intoxicants or using tobacco, while she had the tact to interest him in his work throughout most of the day; and in the long winter evenings they read together the Bible by the light of pine-knot fires.
Even in his boyhood, however, Irving S. Harley began to show a disposition toward and a liking for trade, and his boyish possessions, pocket knife, or plaything, or simple tool, he was inclined to exchange with any of his mates, either in barter or in a money transaction, and he repeated these exchanges as often as possible, beginning to save a boy's "capital."
He lived with his faithful and well-loved grandmother, and cared for her continually until, at the advanced age of eighty- one years, she died in 1882. After her death he went to the city of Orangeburg "to seek his fortune" in mercantile enterprises. Having a total capital of only ninety-five dollars, and thinking that too small a sum with which to begin business, he tried to get employment with men who were already established, but he found no opening. Undaunted, he determined to establish a business of his own; and, adjusting his plans to conform with his capital, he bought a cloth tent and stocked it with the few salable articles of merchandise he could afford to buy. This was the simple and humble beginning of a mercantile career which has made him the president of four or five companies, the owner of many valuable buildings and much real estate in Orangeburg, and the president of an important banking establishment.
Mr. Harley has been a member of the city council of Orange- burg, and has always taken an interest in everything which concerns the public service and the public welfare of his city
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and county. Early trained to rely upon his own efforts, he has worked with a steady hand, guided by a cool head, and has been willing to wait patiently for results. As a boy, looking forward upon day after day and year after year of toil, he was not saddened or discouraged by the prospect, but he determined that out of these difficult conditions he would win success, and he put his hand to the work fearlessly and cheerfully, learning to love steady industry and honorable thrift.
When he was twenty-one years of age, in 1875, he married Miss Laura E. Whetsell. She died in 1887. They had one son. After some time he married Miss Olivia Whetsell, daughter of John Whetsell, of Orangeburg county. After five years she died leaving him a son and a daughter. On the 28th of June, 1897, Mr. Harley married Miss Fannie O. Ruple, daughter of A. J. Ruple, of Orangeburg county. They have had four children, all of whom are living in 1908.
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