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 5
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His first pastorate was over the Presbyterian church at Gainesville, Georgia, for the five years from 1889 to 1894. Called
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SAMUEL JACKSON CARTLEDGE
to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Washington, Georgia, he was minister at that church from 1894 until 1901, when he was called to the pastorate of the First Presbyterian church of Anderson, South Carolina, where he labored for five years, moving thence to Chester, South Carolina, March 15, 1906.
Mr. Cartledge married, November, 27, 1889, Miss Laura Burns; and they have had three children, of whom one is now living. He was married a second time, March 27, 1900, to Miss Reta Lamar Poullain. They have had one child.
His address is Chester, Chester county, South Carolina.
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN CATES
C ATES, ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, mill president, was born at Glenn Springs, Spartanburg county, South Carolina, November 8, 1854. His parents were Robert Allen and Adrianna Elizabeth (Zimmerman) Cates. His father was a planter and merchant-a man of strong prejudices, but with a keenly sensitive conscience, who served as a private in the Seminole war, and held the office of commissioner of widows and orphans for the Confederate States government during the War between the States. The mother of the subject of this sketch was a woman of fine mind and excellent disposition, and her influence upon the moral and intellectual life of her son was wholesome and enduring. The earliest known ancestors of the family in America were Thomas Cates and Jonathan Pratt, both of whom were of English descent, the former settling in North Carolina and the latter in Virginia; and John Zimmerman and Jacob Wannamaker, both of whom emigrated from Germany and settled in South Carolina in the early part of the eighteenth century. Jacob Wannamaker served as a lieutenant in the Revo- lutionary war.
In childhood and youth Robert Cates lived in the country. His health was not robust, but he had a good constitution, and outdoor life and exercise, which he obtained while performing the light tasks that were required of him, increased his strength and greatly aided in the development of physical vigor and mental capacity. His preparatory studies were under Mr. C. S. Beard, a classical scholar of fine attainments. He attended Wofford college, but at the close of the junior year he was obliged to leave on account of financial reverses.
The active work of life he began at Glenn Springs, South Carolina, in 1874, as manager of his father's estate. He retained this position for five years, and then for one year was a clerk in Spartanburg. In 1880 he engaged as proprietor in the handling of cotton and commercial fertilizers. His venture was successful and he continued along these lines until 1890. Meanwhile he had become convinced that the great changes in the industrial system which had been going on for two decades had made the
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South a promising field for the establishment and development of manufacturing interests, and he became president and treasurer of the Produco mills, in which capacity he served for eleven years. In 1896 he became president and treasurer of Arkwright mills, which position he still holds. His strong faith that the South was to become an extremely profitable field for manufac- turing industry has shaped his successful business life.
Mr. Cates is a member of the Young Men's Christian asso- ciation and of the Spartan City club. In politics he is a Demo- crat. His religious connection is with the Protestant Episcopal church. In response to a request for suggestions that will help the young readers of this sketch of his life, he says that those who would succeed should acquire accurate information, draw logical conclusions from the knowledge they obtain, and promptly perform all the duties which devolve upon them. He believes that men can be led far more easily than they can be driven, and that personal and political morality are essential to the success of individuals and to the welfare of society. And he holds that in order to increase the prosperity of the country the govern- ment should make efficient efforts to secure new outlets for our products in manufactured form.
On October 31, 1895, Mr. Cates was married to Miss Anna Leigh Lafferty, of Virginia. Of their three children, all are now living.
The address of Mr. Cates is Spartanburg, South Carolina.
JAMES DAVIS CHAPMAN
C HAPMAN, JAMES DAVIS, D.D., since December, 1907, pastor of the First Baptist church of Valdosta, Georgia, comes from a family which in several sucessive genera- tions has furnished a number of Baptist ministers to Georgia, while lawyers and doctors have been numerous in the family. They pride themselves rather upon their efforts to contribute to the moral and religious welfare of the communities where they reside, than upon any exceptional power either to acquire money or to arrogate to themselves public office.
He was born at Cave Spring, Floyd county, Georgia, April 3, 1861. His father, William B. Chapman, was a planter and merchant, for years a justice of the peace, and a man greatly esteemed by the members of his own church, to whom he was an especially helpful friend, his life characterized by honesty and piety. His mother was Anna (Davis) Chapman, a daughter of Rev. James Davis, whose father, William Davis, served in the Revolutionary war under Lafayette. Through both his mother's and his father's ancestors he is of English descent.
As a young boy he had very delicate health and was inclined to devote himself exclusively to reading, the Bible and the Eng- lish poets and orators being his especial delight. But during his later boyhood and his early manhood the outdoor work which he did upon a farm thoroughly established his health. He says: "I ploughed on a farm for nine years. This outdoor work gave me a strong constitution by the time I was twenty."
He prepared himself for college while he was working on the farm; and studied algebra, geometry, and the elements of Latin and Greek, with occasional consultations of an hour or two with a scholarly friend. In 1881 he was able to enter the sophomore class in Mercer university, at Macon, Georgia, from which institution he was graduated in 1884 with the degree of A. B. and with the second honor in his class for average standing in the studies of the course. "A growing conviction that to enter the Christian ministry was his duty" led him to undertake a course of study at the Southern Baptist Theological seminary at Louisville, Kentucky, from 1884-1887, when he received the degree of Master of Theology. For the seven years from that
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time until 1894 he was pastor of a Baptist church at Milledge- ville, Georgia. For the next year he served as financial agent of Mercer university. From 1895-1896 he was pastor at Hawkins- ville, Georgia. For the four years from 1896 to 1900 he dis- charged the duties of pastor of the Duffy Street church, at Savannah, Georgia, and from 1900 to December, 1907, he was. pastor of the First Baptist church of Anderson, South Carolina. On the date last named he resigned in order to become pastor of the First Baptist church of Valdosta, Georgia. In each and every field of his labor he has been an active and effective helper in educational, mission and benevolent work.
While in national politics he finds himself in sympathy with the members of the Democratic party and has voted with that party, he says: "I always try to vote for the best man, regardless of party."
The appreciative estimate placed upon Doctor Chapman by the denomination in which he is the pastor of one of its most influential churches, is shown in the fact that he was a trustee of Mercer university from 1893-1899; that Mercer university conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1894; and that he has been a trustee of the Southern Baptist Theo- logical seminary at Louisville since 1902.
He married Miss Janie May Weston, of Albany, Georgia, November 2, 1887. They have had five children, of whom four are now (1908) living.
Questioned as to the books and the lines of reading which he has found most helpful in fitting him for his work in life, Doctor Chapman answers: "The Bible, both in the English and in the original; the lives and the works of Benjamin H. Hill, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster, in political life; the works of John A. Broadus, Charles H. Spurgeon, and Dwight L. Moody, for practical theology." He also feels himself personally indebted to the editorial work of H. H. Tucker in the "Christian Index" for intellectual stimulus and aid in forming his habits of thought. To the young people of his state, in writing of sound ideals for American life, he says: "Honesty, sobriety and industry, coupled with the right relation to God and a desire to be useful to our fellow-men, will make us not only the foremost people of the world in wealth, but the leaders in happiness- making for our own people and in the uplifting of all nations to the highest ideal of life."
The address of Doctor Chapman is Valdosta, Georgia.
JOHN ABNEY CHAPMAN
C HAPMAN, JOHN ABNEY, bookseller and author, was born in Saluda (then Edgefield) county, South Carolina, March 9, 1821. His parents were John and Sophia (Abney) Chapman. His father was a land surveyor and manufacturer of cotton gins, who held the office of magistrate or justice of the peace, and was noted for his devotion to truth and abhorrence of profanity. The earliest known ancestor of the family in America was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Giles Chapman, who came from Bridlington, on the North Sea, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and was one of the first settlers of the town of Newberry, South Carolina.
In childhood and youth John Chapman was in delicate health. He lived near the Saluda river, remote from towns and railroads, amid the beautiful surroundings of an almost ideal country home. His naturally poetic temperament was developed and strengthened by his walks in the fields and forests, and this early and intimate association with nature made an impression upon his mind which strongly influenced all his subsequent life. He also had a marked taste for books, but his facilities for obtaining an education were limited to the "old field" schools of his neighborhood, which were of a very low grade, and to private study.
From September, 1863, to the close of the War between the States, Mr. Chapman was a private soldier in the Confederate States army, but he was so severely wounded in May, 1864, that he was wholly incapacitated for further service in the field.
For the active work of life he chose first the occupation of his father, the making of cotton gins; but this work was dis- tasteful, and he discarded it in order to study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1855, but as the profession was not at all to his taste, he followed it only five years. He then commenced teaching school, but this proved even less agreeable than the law, and in 1861 he exchanged the vocation of educator for the business of bookseller, in which he found a most congenial occu- pation. For a long term of years "Chapman's Bookstore" was one of the best known institutions of the town.
Vol. III .- S. C .- 5.
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JOHN ABNEY CHAPMAN
While carrying on his book business Mr. Chapman was a careful reader along the lines of history, biography, romance, poetry, science, religion, and philosophy. He chose his books wisely, and was a profound and independent thinker. As an author he has won wide and most honorable recognition. His "History of South Carolina," which was adopted several years ago by the board of education, is still in use as a text-book in the public schools of the state. He assisted the late Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, in the preparation of Stephens' "History of the United States," the larger portion of the research and the writing being done by Mr. Chapman, who, while engaged in the task and afterward, paid frequent visits to "Liberty Hall" and spent much time there with Mr. Stephens in his home. In 1892 he wrote and published a second part to Chief Justice John
Belton O'Neall's "Annals of Newberry." This was a heavy undertaking, involving the tracing of numerous families and individuals through several generations and states; for the work was largely biographical, embracing a roster of the men from Newberry county who served in the War between the States, with many biographical sketches. The work possesses great local interest, and, with O'Neall's "Annals," makes a valuable book. He also wrote a "History of Edgefield" (1897). Besides his prose works, Mr. Chapman has written a great deal of poetry. Of this, the larger part is in a serious and contemplative vein, dealing chiefly with the spiritual side of life, yet free from the sadness and melancholy that usually pertains to poems of this character. His poems breathe hope and happiness for the present and peace and joy for the future. Among his books of poems are the following: "The Walk and Other Poems" (1875) ; "Within the Veil" (1879) ; "Poems for Young and Old" (1896), and "The Wandering Jew" (1900). Because of his scholarship and the great value of his literary productions, Newberry college con- ferred on him the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
Mr. Chapman never took an active part in politics. The only official positions he ever held, and these were almost forced upon him, were those of town clerk of Newberry and justice of the peace. He is a man of deep contemplation and earnest thought, desiring and seeking to know whatever is knowable concerning human life and destiny. He is a man of great moral courage and of strong faith. Living a life of such earnestness
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JOHN ABNEY CHAPMAN
of purpose, with a profound sense of the great aim and end of human existence, he is not afraid of the mysteries of either the present or the future, and is ready any time to exchange the one for the other. His attitude, now past his four score years, is thus expressed in his own verse:
"My spirit yearns for that far other shore Towards which the purest spirits all aspire."
Yet he is not a recluse. His is no discontented old age. His interest in current events and in good literature is real and active. He walks the streets with a step which, though not so elastic, is as cheerful as in the time when he was young, and greets his friends with a smile as brave as he gave them in his early days. He has set a most excellent example, and has devel- oped a noble character. He has done useful and honorable work in literature, and he has been a power for good in the community in which he has lived. He has had high ideals and his conduct has been guided by them. And so it is safe to say that, when judged by the standards that are always true, his life has been a great success.
On May 1, 1845, Mr. Chapman was married to Miss Mary A. Chapman. Of their six children, five are now (1908) living.
Since the above sketch was written, Mr. Chapman died at his home in Newberry, South Carolina, September 9, 1906.
WILLIAM GUION CHILDS
C HILDS, WILLIAM GUION, banker, and since its organization president of the Bank of Columbia, now residing at Columbia, South Carolina, was born at Hoke Factory, South Carolina, October 2, 1850. His father, Lysander D. Childs, was a strong business man engaged in manufacturing and banking; and his mother was Mrs. Nancy (Hoke) Childs.
He was born in the country. His health as a boy was deli- cate, although as a man he has always had vigorous health. The circumstances of his family were such as to relieve him from the necessity of working in order to secure the means to defray the expenses of an education. His father sent him to the Virginia Military institute at Lexington, Virginia, from which institution he was graduated, at the age of twenty, on July 4, 1870. Text- books on engineering were his favorite subjects of study; and reading along this line he has found profitable and helpful in subsequent years. Soon after his graduation from the Virginia institute he began to work as a clerk in the Carolina National bank, at Columbia, South Carolina; and since the Bank of Columbia was organized, in 1892, Mr. Childs has been president of that bank. He has been president of the Columbia, Newberry and Laurens railroad since the completion of that line of railway in 1890.
Mr. Childs has interested himself in military affairs, and served for a year as the first lieutenant of the Governor's Guards of Columbia. He is a Mason. A Democrat by conviction, he has never departed from his allegiance to that party, although he has uniformly declined to have anything to do with "free silver doctrines."
In his religious convictions he is identified with the Epis- copal church.
On September 2, 1872, Mr. Childs was married to Alice Gibbes, daughter of the late Robert W. Gibbes. They have had eleven children, of whom eight are living in 1907. They also have ten grandchildren.
In response to the question, "what sport, amusement, form of exercise or mode of relaxation do you enjoy and find most
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helpful ?" Mr. Childs replies, "attending to my own business, letting other people's business alone." Since he seems to young Americans the spirit of this maxim, while it is evident that his own business has often consisted in doing business for others, while through his success many beside himself have profited, it is to be inferred that Mr. Childs does not intend to have a strictly selfish interpretation put upon his words. To the young people of his state who wish to attain success in life, Mr. Childs com- - mends "honesty in business affairs, and the habit of not fearing work."
ABEL MCKEE CHREITZBERG
C HREITZBERG, ABEL MCKEE, D. D., is one of the honored fathers in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of South Carolina. He is the author of "Early Methodism in the Carolinas," a history prepared to make the present generation more familiar with the rugged and heroic Christian characters of those early apostles of Methodism in the Carolinas, the circuit riders and tireless evangelistic preachers of the first half of the nineteenth century. Doctor Chreitzberg at eighty-six, in his ripe and well-preserved old age, to the younger ministry and to the laity of his denomi- nation and to the citizens of his state, all parts of which from coast to mountains have witnessed his earnest Christian labors, himself stands as a mellow and lovable type of the Methodist preachers and pastors of whom he writes.
Born in Charleston, South Carolina, December 17, 1820, in the home of an humble but pious baker of sterling honesty, George Chreitzberg, a class leader, steward and trustee in the Methodist church, he knew in his childhood the pure and helpful influence of a Christian home in which the best traditions of ancestral German piety and love of the Bible sweetened and strengthened a life of honest daily toil.
"Early in life," he writes, "I was brought under the influence of the early Methodist preachers, such men as Bishop William Capers and Bishop James O. Andrew, with others like them; so it is no wonder that I became early in life a Methodist minister." His boyhood was passed under such influences as these; the prime of his manhood was spent with the generation who lived in the stirring times of the War between the States and the decades that followed it; and as an active itinerant preacher he has been known and loved for half a century in all parts of the state.
With the best of health in his boyhood, and fond of boyish sports, he was an insatiable reader. At fifteen he secured for himself a place as clerk and bookkeeper with Wilkes & Middle- ton, factors, at Charleston, and he kept their books for three years, until he was eighteen. He had been trained in the city
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schools of Charleston from the time he was three years old until he was fifteen. Having no other plan for life than to fit himself for commercial business, he had made no preparation for college. When the call to be a preacher of the Gospel came to him, and he announced to his employers his purpose to become a preacher, the firm were unwilling to let him leave them. In reply to his statement that he intended to "preach," the senior partner said : "There is no money in that." "I told him that I was fully aware of that fact," says Doctor Chreitzberg, "but that money was not my object." He was at once admitted as a preacher on trial (although a boy of but eighteen) by the South Carolina conference held at Cheraw, in January, 1839. Two years were spent at Wilbrahan academy, that Methodist institution in Mas- sachusetts which has trained so many useful preachers for the Methodist church.
For fifty-four years Doctor Chreitzberg was engaged in the active duties of the Christian ministry, and of the fourteen years since he retired from more active duties he writes, with a touch of that practical and pious humor which has given pungency to his preaching: "I can occasionally preach still ! and I still hold to practice as important !" A presiding elder for twenty-three years (ten stations, nineteen circuits) ; for two years a missionary among the negroes; in 1897 publishing an exceptionally interest- ing work, the result of much painstaking preparation, yet done with heartiest love of the subject, "Early Methodism in the Carolinas,"-Doctor Chreitzberg has been for over threescore years closely connected with the Methodist Episcopal ministry of South Carolina. He has written much for the religious press, and he still delights in the use of his pen at eighty-six.
On December 26, 1839, he married Miss Anna E. Manno, and of their four children, one (Reverend H. F. Chreitzberg) is a preacher, a member of the Western North Carolina conference. After some years he was married a second time, to Miss Hattie E. Kilgore, of Newberry, South Carolina. Of their five children, four are living, and after liberal courses of education are engaged in the active work of life.
After a life which seems to have been filled with such active efforts for his fellow-men, he nevertheless says, in the humility which has marked so many preachers of the Gospel: "I have tried to do good. Many have done better. My failures may
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have been for lack of industry. It is always well to be 'zealously affected in a good work.' My only employment was in building up churches in Carolina for fifty-four consecutive years, and striving to better human life as I could."
In June, 1890, Wofford college conferred upon him the well- merited honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Asked to make a helpful suggestion to the young Americans of the state to which he has given his life, he writes: "I do not know anything better than Ecclesiastes xii : 13: 'Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God, and keep His com- mandments: for this is the whole duty of man.'"
The address of Dr. Chreitzberg is Columbia, South Carolina.
NIELS CHRISTENSEN, JR.
C HRISTENSEN, NIELS, JR., editor, state senator, son of Niels Christensen and Abbie Holmes, was born at Beau- fort, Beaufort county, South Carolina, April 21, 1876. His father, a native of Denmark, settled in Beaufort soon after the war and established a lumber and hardware business and became the largest individual taxpayer in the county. He served for many years as consul for Norway and Sweden at Beaufort, and was for several terms warden of the town. The founders of his mother's family came to this country from Ireland and Scotland about the year 1719 and settled in New England. When she was twelve years of age the family removed to Beaufort, South Carolina.
The subject of this sketch inherited a good physical consti- tution and a fondness for outdoor life. He was interested in reading history, biography, and essays upon questions of public interest. Until he was twelve years of age he lived at Beaufort. He then spent some time in New England, attending first the Allen school, at West Newton, Massachusetts, in 1888-89, and then the high school at Brookline. He began the active work of life as a clerk in his father's hardware store, bookkeeper, and superintendent in planing mill, becoming at length his father's partner in these business enterprises. In 1899 he was appointed to his first political office,-a member of the county board of education.
To the pursuits already mentioned he added, in 1904, the more congenial work of publishing and editing "The Beaufort Gazette." He conducted this weekly newspaper with such intel- ligence, zeal and energy that in 1904, after a spirited campaign against an incumbent who had held the office for eight years, on an anti-ring-rule issue, he was elected state senator for Beaufort county, taking the oath of office in January, 1905. In that year he introduced a resolution providing for a legislative committee to examine the state fisheries and recommend legislation to develop and protect the same and provide the state a revenue therefrom. This resolution was passed, and he was made chair- man of the committee. The recommendations were enacted into
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