USA > South Carolina > Men of mark in South Carolina; ideals of American life: a collection of biographies of leading men of the state, Volume IV > Part 14
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On the 24th of February, 1891, he married Miss Litsy Joynes, daughter of E. S. Joynes, LL. D., of South Carolina university. They have had six children, all of whom are living in 1909.
In addition to the duties of his practice, Mr. Macfarlan has always been ready to give freely his services to the community and the commonwealth, although he has never sought public office. He was a trustee of South Carolina college for six years. He is now a trustee of the University of South Carolina. He is a life member of the St. John's Academy society of Darlington, in control of the graded schools of that place.
By political convictions, Mr. Macfarlan is a Democrat. He is a member of the Presbyterian church. He is prominent in fraternal circles, having held the offices of senior deacon in the Blue Lodge of Masons, and that of senior warden; he is a Knight of Pythias, and past chancellor and deputy grand chancellor in that fraternity.
Mr. Macfarlan attributes much of such success as he has won in life to the influence of his aunt, Mrs. C. J. Hagner, sister of his mother, who gave him a mother's care and affection when he was left an orphan.
Among suggestions which he offers to his younger fellow- citizens as to the principles, methods and habits which will help to the attainment of true success, Mr. Macfarlan says: "The absence of a definite purpose to arrive at truth by honest methods, and of willingness to accept the legitimate results of actual con- ditions," is oftenest the reason why men fail of success. "First of all should a young man be honest with himself, then with his client or friend, and with his opponent and competitors, and with the world; and if he is willing and able to work, his success is almost certain." "Take no short cuts to any end." "In a republic more than in any other form of government, because there is no strong central power to enforce the law, the whole rests on strength of character and morality in the individual."
Vol. IV-S. C .- 13.
EPHRAIM GARRISON MALLARD
M ALLARD, EPHRAIM GARRISON, of Greenville, South Carolina, wholesale lumber dealer and president and treasurer of the Mallard Lumber company of Greenville, South Carolina, was born on a farm in Duplin county, North Carolina, on the 2nd of April, 1848. His father, John C. Mallard, was a farmer whose neighbors all recognized his piety and his deep love of home, of family, and of country. His mother was Mrs. Lucy A. (Garrison) Mallard, whose ancestors, the Mallards, came from France about 1680 and settled in Eastern North Carolina.
Robust and healthy as a boy, he early developed a strong taste for machines and mechanical appliances and an investi- gating interest in all kinds of machinery. When he was but eight years old, his father removed to Kenansville, the county seat of Duplin county, to give his children better opportunities for school; and they resided there until Ephraim was eighteen years old. He writes, "Our father worked his boys on the farm in the summer and sent them to school in the winter from September until April." Ephraim was the third of ten children for whose education their father had cared by a life of strict frugality and self-denial. As the oldest son among these ten children, especial responsibilities fell upon Ephraim, who was seventeen years old at the close of the War between the States. He took charge of the farm until he was twenty-one. The distressed financial con- dition of the South in the years immediately following the war, and the heavy strain involved in rearing so large a family, had led to financial embarrassment for his father; and the oldest son of the family decided for himself that he could better promote the family interests by leaving home and engaging in business. He hired himself as a hand in a saw mill at ten dollars a month and board. His efficiency was soon felt, and within six months he was earning fifty dollars a month, which was regarded as high wages. For fifteen years he worked as a sawyer at this mill-for ten years sending his wages to his father.
In 1885, while he was in the employ of two brothers, in Sumter county, the elder of the two was run over and killed.
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The family of the survivor wished him to give up the saw mill business. Unwilling to do so, he consulted with Mr. Mallard and another employee, and with their promised assistance he continued the saw mill business with such efficiency that within two years the debts that had hampered the business were all paid off, and he sold the business to Mr. Mallard and his fellow- workman, who gave their personal notes for twenty-five thousand dollars for the property and paid off all this indebtedness within four years. The mill was removed to Williamsburg county; but the panic of 1893 which quickly followed checked the growth of the business for a time. In 1896 a large force of planers was added, and the plant and the business were incorporated. In 1900 a business site was purchased in Greenville, South Carolina, and a large business was established. From the time of its organ- ization Mr. Mallard has been president of the company owning this property.
Ready for college when the war closed, the financial difficul- ties of his family compelled him to give up a college course.
On the 17th of April, 1881, Mr. Mallard married Miss Mar- garet E. Carr, daughter of W. D. Carr and Kelista E. Carr, of Duplin county, North Carolina. They had one child, who is now living. Her mother died in 1884. On the 15th of April, 1885, Mr. Mallard married Miss Susan L. Carr, the sister of his first wife. They have had seven children, of whom five sons are living in 1909.
Mr. Mallard is a Mason. By his political convictions he has always been identified with the Democratic party. He is a mem- ber of the Presbyterian church. His business has always been so engrossing and has involved so much of physical exercise that he has never felt the need of any special physical relaxation or amusement. Musicales and lyceum lectures have been his favorite relaxation.
To young South Carolinians he writes: "Choose your life- work, and try to make no mistake in choosing. Then stick to it. Persevere. Be ambitious and determined to win success. Hold to one thing. If you attempt something for which you have had no training the chances are that you will not make a success of it."
ABRAM VENABLE MARTIN
M ARTIN, ABRAM VENABLE, professor of mathe- matics and chemistry in the Presbyterian college at Clinton, South Carolina, was born in Goochland county, twenty miles above Richmond, Virginia, on the 16th of October, 1868. His father, Reverend Stephen Daly Martin, was a minister in the Presbyterian church who served as captain commanding the Twelfth Virginia battalion of light artillery in the Confederate States army, was devoted to duty, a man of remarkable energy and power of will, of deep sympathies, a noted orator, a favorite with the young people, and exceptionally fond of hunting and all out-of-door sports. His mother was Mrs. Isabella B. (Venable) Martin, whose ancestors furnished several officers in the Continental army, and from colonial days have been planters, lawyers and physicians in Virginia, actively interested in the politics of their state. His father's father came from Ireland in the early part of the last century. He was a portrait painter of some note in his section of the country.
Born in the country, passing the years from five to eleven in the city, and eleven to manhood in the country or in a small village, he was an active boy, fond of sports, rather less fond of school than the average small boy, and trained by a careful father to learn to do with his hands as many things as possible. "Reg- ular tasks were prescribed for all the children, although not severe enough to have the effect of steady hard work." Professor Martin feels that his entire life owes much to this systematic training in daily tasks involving manual labor.
The only difficulties which he met in securing an education, he writes, were "a preference for sport rather than study; and at college, a serious trouble with my eyes, which compelled me to drop out of college for two years." The necessity of earning one's own way and helping to support one's self in college, Professor Martin does not regard as "a real difficulty if the man is in earnest." He was graduated from Hampden-Sidney college, Vir- ginia, in 1891, with the degree of B. A. In 1889 he had taught for a year in the public schools; and after his graduation, in 1891, he taught in graded schools and academies for four years.
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He spent the academic year 1895-96 in special courses of study at the University of Virginia; and in the summer of 1900 he attended special summer courses at Cornell university at Ithaca, New York. In the fall of 1896 he was appointed professor of mathematics and chemistry at the Presbyterian college of South Carolina, and he filled the chair until 1899. For a year he was professor of mathematics and chemistry at King college. In 1900 he returned to his old chair in the Presbyterian college of South Carolina, where he still discharges the duties of that professorship with acceptability and efficiency.
On the 18th of November, 1903, Professor Martin married Miss Mary Barnett, daughter of Rev. Edward H. Barnett, D. D., of Atlanta, Georgia. They have a son, Edward Barnett Martin.
Professor Martin is a Knight of Pythias and he has repeat- edly represented his lodge in the grand lodge of this order.
Of his political relations he writes: "I am still a Democrat; but I rejoice that Negro disfranchisement makes it possible for a Southern gentleman to vote according to his convictions, and not to be compelled to vote for anything or anybody that the party bosses may choose to put on a platform or on a ticket."
While at college, his favorite forms of exercise were football and baseball; in later years, lawn tennis and "best of all, quail shooting."
As a South Carolinian, Professor Martin advises thus his young fellow-citizens who wish to attain true success in life: "Do not be ashamed of any kind of work. Learn to do everything as well as possible, and some one thing preeminently well. Be a good neighbor and a loyal friend."
WASHINGTON CONNORS MAULDIN
M AULDIN, WASHINGTON CONNORS, since 1900 president and treasurer of the Hampton and Branch- ville Railroad and Lumber company, and now (1909) also vice-president of the Hampton Loan and Exchange bank, which he helped to organize, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 10th of August, 1868. His father, William Harrison Mauldin, preceded his son in the office of president and treasurer of the Hampton and Branchville Rail- road and Lumber company; and he had been a member of the house of representatives for two years, and for seven years had represented Hampton county as state senator, holding this office at the time of his death. As a railroad man and a legislator he is remembered for his energy and his public spirit. He had married Miss Leonora Connors, daughter of G. W. Connors, of Clarendon county, a descendant of the Irish immigrants of that name who were among the earliest settlers of Sumter county (now Clarendon county), South Carolina, where they have been identified with the Calvary Baptist church for over a hundred years. The wife of Mr. Mauldin's great-grandfather Connors was Elizabeth Dukes, of the Dukes family of Charleston, South Carolina, of Scotch descent. Elizabeth Willis, grandmother of W. C. Mauldin, was a granddaughter of Richard Willis, who came from Petersburg, Virginia, and settled in old Spartanburg soon after the Revolution, and was of English descent. Jonas Brewton, of Spartanburg, was the maternal grandfather of Eliza- beth Willis. The Mauldins are of English descent, and were among the first settlers of Greenville county. The grandmother of the subject of this sketch was Adeline (Hamilton) Mauldin, whose ancestors, the Hamiltons, came from Augusta county, Virginia, and settled in old Pickens and Abbeville before the Revolution. They intermarried with the Liddles near Anderson court-house.
When but three years old his family removed from Charles- ton, and the rest of his boyhood was spent in the country. With his brother he was taught to "do the chores" about his early home. He knew a healthy and happy boyhood, with its fair
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proportion of outdoor sports, hunting, swimming, fishing, etc. He feels that in his early boyhood he suffered much from the lack of good schools within reach of his home, but he completed preparation for college and entered South Carolina college in 1886. He did not complete his course, however, but left the insti- tution in 1888, before graduation. Early in boyhood he had acquired a love of reading, which has been a great delight to him throughout his life, and of material advantage in many ways.
On leaving South Carolina college in 1888 he ran a line of levels and drew a profile of the ground from Branchville, South Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida. When that piece of work was finished he returned to his father's home to be an assistant to his father, and ready to take up any portion of his father's duties which could properly be done by a son at home. For some two or three years before the organization of the Hampton and Branchville Railroad and Lumber company, in 1891, he worked in his father's sawmill near Hampton, for most of the time having charge of the mill as foreman. For nine years, from 1891 to December 26, 1900, he was superintendent of the Hampton and Branchville railroad. On his father's death he succeeded to the presidency of that railroad and lumber company, on December 26, 1900.
Mr. Mauldin declares that he has been too busily engaged to have time for public office, or for the transaction of public business; but he holds it the duty of a good citizen never to let pass an opportunity to "talk in favor of good schools as well as colleges, good roads, plenty of drainage, and diversified farming which seeks to raise all needed provisions at home and not to confine the product exclusively to one crop."
On November 4, 1908, Mr. Mauldin married Miss Agnes Zulime Tobin of Allendale, South Carolina.
In his party relations he has always been a Democrat. His family are connected with the Baptist church; but he has never joined any church.
He is a Knight of Pythias and a member of the order of Elks. He also belongs to an order of Lumbermen.
Throughout his life he has found amusement and healthful exercise in swimming, hunting and fishing. He finds relaxation from business cares in giving attention to the raising of poultry and in cultivating a small farm and pecan grove.
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Mr. Mauldin believes that "a boy should be taught system and method in the performance of all his duties and in study"; but he adds: "I do not believe in weighting a boy down with responsibilities, thus making a man of him while he is still too young for the cares of manhood."
The address of Mr. Mauldin is Hampton, South Carolina.
Men of Mary Publishing Washington, DC.
John Maxwell
JOHN MAXWELL
M AXWELL, CAPTAIN JOHN, was a man of striking personality and strong character. He was born at "The Grove" in the old Pendleton district (now Green- ville county), in 1791. He was of Scotch parentage. His father had been sheriff of the district; and in colonial days the authority and the influence of the sheriff were not altogether unlike those which belonged to the position of a ruler of a petty principality in central Europe. The hardships which the sheriff must bear and the risks and dangers which he had to encounter, had to do with defence against hostile Indians, with the clashing claims of Indians and Whites, and with the checking of the illegal acts and the repression of the crime of lawless white settlers. Often the sheriff, in his efforts to maintain order, carried his life in his hands. This was literally true of Sheriff Maxwell, who was martyred in the performance of his public duty. He fell by the bullet of an unseen foe-a criminal who in the past had been made by the sheriff to feel the heavy hand of the law as executed by this intrepid officer. Soon after the death of his father, John Max- well, while still a little lad, was taken to the home of his close kinsman, General Robert A. Anderson, who at that time lived on the Seneca river near the point now known as "Cherry's Bridge." Here he was reared to manhood, under the care of the old general, a rugged Scotch Presbyterian who was accustomed every morning to take a plunge and a bath in the river which ran close by his homestead, although in the winter he often had to break the ice in order to get his bath.
But the sterling manliness and the religious principle of the veteran general, were a strong influence in the boyhood of John Maxwell. Stern principle, based upon deep religious conviction, and demanding first of all steadfast devotion to duty however hard and severe, on the part of the man who followed it, was fixed as of steel in his character, and the sturdy qualities of the Scotch Presbyterian, General Robert A. Anderson, furnished a solid basis for the character of the young kinsman to whose boy- hood and youth he had given a home. John Maxwell grew up to manhood, grafting upon the sturdy principles of the Scotch
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Covenanter many of the graces of the chivalric gentleman. If we may trust the testimony of those who knew him, in his early manhood and throughout his life he was a veritable Bayard in courteous chivalry.
In early manhood, he married Elizabeth Earle, a sister of Judge Baylis Earle, and daughter of General Earle. The young couple established a home for themselves on the Seneca river at a site which soon became well known as "Maxwell's Bridge"-the name it still bears. There eleven children were born to them: four boys, Dr. Robert, Samuel, Baylis, and Dr. John H. Maxwell (whose biography is found in Volume III. of this series) ; and seven daughters, Harriet, who married Dr. M. B. Earle; Eliza, who married Dr. Thomas L. Lewis; Mary; Emmala, who married Joseph B. Wyman; Martha, who married John A. Keels; Annie, who married Benjamin Sloan, and Miriam.
All these children were educated in old Pendleton; whose schools, in those days, were under the trusteeship of such men as John C. Calhoun, the Pinckneys, the Hugers, the Elliotts, and other men of that ilk; and were very much above the average schools of the South at that time. Teachers in these schools were paid salaries quite equal to those received by the college professors of today; and they were men and women of broad culture.
A man of large means, and successful in the management of his private affairs, Captain John Maxwell gave most freely of his time and his energies to the promotion of the public good, and to the defence of the public welfare. He served in the war against the Creek Indians in Florida; he was captain of a company of militia during the War of 1812; and he saw active service in the War between the States, although he was then an old man. In 1828, he was sent to the state legislature from his district; and he served for several successive terms, uniformly leading the ticket in the electoral tests. His love for his native state was intense; and he was always found in the front ranks of those who sought to serve her and to defend her good name and her influence. In the days of President Jackson Captain Maxwell was a defender of the nullification act and later when the war clouds finally broke, he was a member of the convention which passed the ordinance of secession. At the bombardment of Fort Sumter, he bore musket as a soldier on Sullivan's Island; and when Orr's famous
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regiment of rifles was mustered into service at Sandy Springs he took his place in the ranks, but was refused active service because of his advanced age. At home, he served the state and the Con- federacy with no less efficiency than one of its best soldiers, by reason of his active sympathy in all that concerned the result of the war, his zealous encouragement of the defence of his state, and the generous freedom with which he gave of his substance for the support of the cause of the South.
Among the interesting incidents chronicled and remembered by his family as illustrating Captain Maxwell's resourcefulness and energy when he was past seventy it is recorded that a band of marauders in the last weeks of the war, coming from Georgia homeward through the northwestern part of South Carolina carried off all Captain Maxwell's plow horses, which were being brought toward his house by negroes as the band of marauders passed. Two or three days later, the same party returned on their track laden with plunder; and the faithful servants hurried into the house to bring Captain Maxwell the news while he was at dinner. Leaping from the table, calling for his horse and his double-barreled muzzle-loading shotgun, taking with him two companions, each with a single brass-barreled duelling pistol, heirlooms in the family, he rode to a turn in the wooded road which the marauders were taking and as they came from the house of a neighbor, laden with new spoils, he led his force of one shotgun and two single-barreled pistols against six soldiers armed with breech-loading, ten-shooting Spencer magazine rifles. So vigorous was his charge that the six men threw up their hands and surrendered. A few days later the entire brigade approached his house to take vengeance. Aroused from his noonday nap, he escaped from the rear of the house, mounted his favorite mare, and pursued by two or three hundred troopers, made his escape through a perfect shower of bullets, jumping fences and ditches, until he reached a boundary fence in a dense wood which bordered the river, where he faced about and defied the few straggling troopers who had held on in the effort to capture him. Awed by his bold stand, they turned back.
Captain Maxwell was a model farmer, and a good adminis- trator. His plantation, with its fertile bottom lands, was the "Nile slope" of all that part of the country, extending westward to the Tugaloo river and beyond into the hill country of Georgia.
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He was a lover of fine horses, and was always splendidly mounted. For some years he kept a set of racers, and maintained at his own expense a racing track on his plantation.
His generous hospitality brought many visitors to his place. He was respected and loved by his neighbors without exception.
On the 23rd of August, 1870, the life of this generous-hearted and useful citizen was ended by a peaceful death. His was a knightly soul; and it shed a light over the entire community in which he dwelt.
JOHN WILLIAM MAYNARD
M AYNARD, JOHN WILLIAM, of Cheraw, Chesterfield county, South Carolina, organizer of and a large stock- holder in the lumber firm of William Godfrey and company, was born at Holly Springs, Wake county, North Carolina, on the 26th of March, 1872. His father, W. Q. Maynard, was a farmer of industrious habits, who never sought or held public office. His mother, Mrs. Esther Ann (Avent) Maynard, was a sister of the Reverend Isaac Avent, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and her influence on the life of her son has been strong for good. His father's great- grandfather emigrated from England in colonial times; while his mother's great great-grandfather came to the colonies from Scotland. On his mother's side he is connected with the family of James K. Polk, president of the United States.
The circumstances of his life in boyhood were such as to make him early familiar with the work on a farm. He enjoyed such opportunities for attending school as were open to him; and throughout his later life he has greatly regretted that he did not persist in attending school and acquiring a more thorough edu- cation from books. But he began early that self-education which comes from doing thoroughly difficult tasks. While he was a small boy he worked on his father's farm; and he drove wood and lumber to market at Raleigh, where he seemed too young to be in charge of a team, and purchasers used to insist that "he was too small to do such work." But he feels that even the hardships and exposures of those years were beneficial; that nothing has done more to form his habits and to give him success in business that did the strenuous discipline of his early life on the farm. After attending school at Middle Creek and Oakwood, he studied at the Holly Springs high school.
At the age of twenty, in 1892, he began the active business of life by building a cotton gin and a sawmill near Apex, North Carolina. A year later he had contracted for the purchase of a farm; and for two years he devoted himself to the management of that farm; but owing to the low price of farm products, he decided, in 1894, to try some other line of life. Securing a
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