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 18
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As a boy, Walter Riggs enjoyed good health ; he had a special liking for machinery and mechanical toys of all kinds. He built a great many miniature machines, modeled after those in his father's factory. His early life was passed in the town of Orange- burg. His father required him to work on Saturdays and during vacations in his lumber mill and paint shop. This work the son regards as the most valuable part of his early education.
Walter Riggs was brought up in an almost puritanic atmo- sphere. His mother's influence upon his spiritual life was especially strong. The first school he attended was that of Mrs. Rebecca Aldergotti, in Orangeburg. He then went to the high school taught by Mr. S. R. Mellichamp. In 1890, he entered the Alabama Polytechnic institute, graduating in 1893 with the degree of B. S. Personal ambition and a desire to gratify his parents proved in these years a powerful stimulus to the young man, while personal preference determined the choice of his career. During his sophomore year he won the declaimer's medal, awarded by the faculty. Because of his graduating at the head of his class, he was given a post-graduateship in the Alabama Polytechnic institute. In 1894 he received the degree of electrical and mechanical engineer from the same institution. During the summer of 1894 he did special work on electrical physics and mechanics at Cornell university, New York.
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His serious life-work began in his post-graduate year at Alabama Polytechnic institute when he assumed the duty of instructor in the department of English literature. At the begin- ning of the next session he was elected an instructor in physics. His life has been given to teaching. In 1893-94 he was post- graduate assistant in English literature; in 1894-95 he was instructor in physics in the Alabama Polytechnic institute; from 1895 to February, 1896, he continued the same work, when he was elected instructor in electrical engineering at Clemson college. Here he remained and, in June, 1901, was promoted to the position of director of the department of mechanical and electrical engin- eering and professor of electrical engineering. During his stay at Clemson college he has developed the course in electrical engineering, as now given, built and equipped the two electrical laboratories, and is now in charge of all the work given in elec- trical and mechanical engineering and mechanic arts. He has been, and is still, president of the Clemson Agricultural College Athletic association; and, for one year, was president of the Clemson Science club. He has published no work, but has, in mimeograph form, a work on Dynamo Design for the use of his classes. He is the author of the following papers: 1, "A Method of Conducting Electrical Engineering Laboratory Work," read at the Atlanta meeting of the American Association of Agri- cultural colleges and experiment stations; 2, "Electric Drive in Cotton Mills," given before the Engineering club of the Georgia school of Technology in 1902; 3, "Electrical Laboratory Equip- ment," a paper read in June, 1904, at the Niagara meeting of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering education, and many other papers of minor importance. Professor Riggs has patented no devices, but has invented a number of laboratory appliances.
He is a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, a member and director of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Educa- tion, and a member of the Audubon society. He is also secretary of the mechanical section of the American Association of Agri- cultural colleges and experiment stations, to which office he was elected in 1903. In politics he is a Democrat. He is not a church member, but, by rearing, is a Presbyterian.
He is devoted to athletic sports, finding his recreation in baseball and football. He has taken an active part in the organ-
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ization of the Southern Inter-Collegiate Athletic association and the South Carolina Inter-Collegiate Athletic association. Since the inception of the latter, in 1902, he has been its president and, since the same year, he has been vice-president of the Southern Inter-Collegiate Athletic association. These associations he feels have done a great work in the purification of amateur college sports. He introduced inter-collegiate sports at Clemson college, himself coaching its first football team. He has been president of the Clemson Agricultural College Athletic association ever since its organization in 1896. While a student at the Alabama Polytechnic institute he was captain and catcher on the baseball team and, for three seasons, was left end on the football team. He is a great believer in the benefits accruing to college life from inter-collegiate athletic sports.
He is one of the fortunate ones who feels that he has not failed in any of the principal objects of his life. To the young he offers the following wise suggestions: "Be accurately truthful, yet tactful; energetic and willing to work cheerfully in a subor- dinate capacity; never compare the amount of work done with the money compensation received."
On December 22, 1897, he married Marie Louise Moore.
His address is Clemson College, Oconee county, South Caro- lina.
D. CLAUDE ROSS
R OSS, D. CLAUDE, president of the National Bank of Gaffney, president of the Gaffney Savings bank, presi- dent of the Gaffney Trust company, and a director in most of the cotton mills and building and loan associations and companies of Cherokee county, was born in Spartanburg district, now Cherokee county, on the 14th of January, 1866.
His father, S. S. Ross, was a planter who was also interested in mining. His mother was H. V. Lipscomb, whose father came from Louisa, Virginia. His father's family is of Scotch descent, Thomas Ross, the first American ancestor of the family, having come from the north of Scotland and settled in New Haven, Con- necticut; a few years later (about 1750) removing to Elizabeth, New Jersey. Certain of his descendants settled in South Carolina after the war.
D. Claude Ross spent the first twelve years of his life upon his father's plantation. In 1878 his father removed to Gaffney, South Carolina, where the son has since resided. He attended the country and village schools near his early home, and was for one term a student at the South Carolina college; but he did not com- plete the course there.
He was strongly attracted to business in his early manhood; and he began the active work of his business life by taking the position of bookkeeper for the firm of Carroll and Stacy, cotton merchants. After some years spent in this position, he became identified with the National Bank of Gaffney, at the organization of that institution becoming its cashier, and retaining that posi- tion until (in 1904) he was elected president. He had also served as secretary and cashier of the Gaffney Savings bank from its organization until he was chosen its president in 1904. He is vice-president of the Bank of Grover, North Carolina. As the new industrial development of South Carolina in the establish- ment and development of cotton mills has gone forward, Mr. Ross has been actively interested in promoting the establishment and in helping to direct the management of the numerous mills in his part of the state; and his name is found on the board of directors of many of these factories.
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By political conviction, he is identified with the Democratic party, and he uniformly supports the nominees and the principles of that party.
In his church life, he is connected with the Baptist denom- ination.
Mr. Ross is also a Knight of Pythias, and a member of the Order of Red Men.
His address is Gaffney, South Carolina.
Vol. IV-S. C .- 17.
WILLIAM HERBERT RUFF
R UFF, WILLIAM HERBERT, of Ridgeway, South Caro- lina, merchant, president of the Bank of Ridgeway, was born in Richland county, South Carolina, on the 3d of February, 1859. His father was Daniel William Ruff, a planter ; his mother was Mrs. Harriett (Shedd) Ruff. His father's family originally came from Holland, and settled in South Carolina in colonial days. His mother's ancestors were Scotch-Irish.
At the death of his grandfather, Daniel Ruff, the manage- ment of the plantation fell to Daniel William Ruff, the father of the subject of this sketch, who had then recently married Miss Harriett Shedd, daughter of William and Margaret Shedd. In 1861, at the outbreak of the War between the States, and when William Herbert Ruff was but two years old, his father entered the Confederate army, in which he served until he was stricken with typhoid fever, in 1863, in the Virginia campaign, dying after a brief illness. His widow was left with three small children, and at the close of the war, with money exhausted, lands rendered useless by the freeing of the slaves, and society disorganized by the war, she began with great courage, life under the new condi- tions which involved a stern struggle on her part and on the part of her children as they grew up. She removed at this time to Winnsboro, South Carolina ; and after spending two years in that town, she went to live upon a small farm which she owned in the country nearby. Driven from that farm by the unsettled condition of the country which rendered it unsafe for an unpro- tected woman with only small children in her family to live at so great a distance from her neighbors, she removed to Ridgeway when her son was thirteen years old.
He attended the schools within reach of his home in his early years, and for a time he was in the public schools of Ridgeway. He had known a healthy boyhood, and had been trained to care for stock, to work in the garden, to cut wood, and systematically and methodically to use his hands and his physical strength in work that helped to make a home, even while he was a small boy. From the Ridgeway schools he went to Wofford college, but not
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having the means for completing his course there, he withdrew before graduation and passing a few months at Eastman's Busi- ness college, he was graduated from that institution.
While he was at school at Ridgeway, he begun to work in the store of his uncle; and soon after he had completed his course at business college he became identified with trade and merchan- dise at Ridgeway, making his way steadily until he became the head of the important business which was conducted in his name. Since the organization of the Bank of Ridgeway, in 1898, Mr. Ruff has been president of that institution.
While at college he was a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity. He is a Mason. In his political relations he is iden- tified with the Democratic party.
He has never connected himself with any religious denomina- tion or ethical society.
He has found his favorite form of recreation and exercise in "taking long tramps through the woods and in fishing."
On the 28th of September, 1882, Mr. Ruff married Miss Eloise Nott Davis. They have had four children, all of whom are now living.
ARTHUR KENDRICK SANDERS
S ANDERS, ARTHUR KENDRICK, farmer, of Hagood, Sumter county, South Carolina, from 1888 to 1892 and again from 1894 to 1898 a member of the South Carolina house of representatives, and since 1901 chairman of the board of directors of the South Carolina penitentiary, was born at Hagood on the 3d of July, 1860. His father, Thomas Osborne Sanders, was a farmer, successful as a planter and as a business man, who never aspired to political office. His mother was Mrs. Cornelia (Hicks) Sanders. His father's family trace their descent from William Sanders who emigrated from England and settled in South Carolina in 1738.
His boyhood was that of a healthful and happy country boy, fond of all kinds of sport, but taught to work systematically in the fields on his father's farm when not in school, from his early boyhood until he went to college. His father's circumstances were such as to open the way to regular schooling and to a course at the Carolina Military institute at Charlotte, North Carolina, from which institution he was graduated in 1879. In his boyhood he began to be fond of books, and during his school years he became confirmed in the habit of reading for delight as well as for information. He has all his life been a lover of books.
In 1882, at the age of twenty-two, he began life for himself as a farmer in the town where he now resides. He says: "Having come from a race of farmers I took to it naturally, and have never been anything else." In 1888 he was elected to the South Carolina house of representatives, and he was reëlected in 1890 as an anti- Tillman candidate; but he lost his seat for the next two years because he would not agree to vote against Wade Hampton for the United States senate. He was reelected to the house of repre- sentatives in 1894, and again in 1896. In 1899 he was elected by the legislature of his state a member of the board of directors of the penitentiary; and in 1901 he was made chairman of that board,-a position which he still holds in 1908.
Mr. Sanders is a Mason, a member of the Knights of Pythias, and Woodmen of the World. A Democrat in politics, he has never swerved in his loyal allegiance to the principles and nom-
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inees of that party. By religious convictions he is affiliated with the Methodist Church, South, although he is not a member of any church.
On the 16th of December, 1885, Mr. Sanders married Miss Eva J. McLeod, daughter of Henry G. McLeod, of Sumter county, who died in 1899. They had five children, four of whom are living in 1908.
WILLIAM HENRY SARTOR
S ARTOR, WILLIAM HENRY, prominent manufacturer and capitalist of Union, South Carolina, was born near the city in which he now resides on January 17th, 1863. His father was William Henry Sartor, and his mother was Mrs. Cath- arine Young Sartor.
He received his early education in the common schools of the county, and of the city of Union. Instead of fitting himself for a college course he deliberately chose to enter early upon a mer- cantile business, and his success as a merchant was marked, even while he was a very young man.
Early convinced that a new and more prosperous future awaited the people of South Carolina when they should plan for and control the manufacturing on their own territory of most of the cotton crop which constitutes so large a part of the products of the state, Mr. Sartor early became interested in the organizing and building of cotton mills in South Carolina.
In 1901 he organized the Ætna Cotton mills of Union; and he erected the buildings in which those mills now operate 20,060 spindles and 5,000 looms, employing about two hundred and twenty-five operatives. Upon the organization of the Ætna Cotton mills Mr. Sartor was at once elected president and treas- urer. These positions at the head of this important corporation he still filled in 1908.
His interest in the material development and the prosperity of Union has not been limited to his work in organizing and managing the Ætna Cotton mills, however. When the city, in 1897, installed a municipal electric light plant, water works, and a sewerage system, Mr. Sartor was made one of the three commis- sioners of public works. He has been steadily reelected to this position and he is now chairman of that board. In all that con- cerns the public welfare and civic betterment of Union, Mr. Sartor has had a prominent part for the last fifteen years.
In 1885, he married Miss Effie Moore. They have two daughters.
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WILLIAM HENRY SARTOR
Mr. Sartor is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
While he has devoted himself steadily and with great assiduity to the interests of the city and of the important manu- facturing company of which he is the president and treasurer, he has always taken a keen interest in questions of national politics. He has made an especial study of the questions of the national debt, taxation and sound currency.
ROBERT BETHEA SCARBOROUGH
S CARBOROUGH, ROBERT BETHEA, lawyer of Conway, South Carolina, has served the people of his state as state senator, lieutenant-governor and member of the United States congress; and at the same time has been so successful in the practice of his profession that the people and the corporations who have depended upon him have not felt that their interests intrusted to him were allowed to suffer by reason of his public services.
He was born in Chesterfield, Chesterfield county, South Caro- lina, October 29, 1861. His father, Rev. Lewis Scarborough, was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, who was noted for great originality in thought and in his manner and mode of expression, and for an extraordinary memory, as well as for his intensely religious character and his scrupulous honesty. His mother, Mrs. Ann (Bethea) Scarborough, had a marked and deep influence for good upon her son. John Bethea, her great great-grandfather, immigrated to Virginia from England, in the last decade of the seventeenth century. Lewis Scarborough's grandfather came to Virginia from England about 1740.
The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm, but his health was rather poor, and he early manifested a decided prefer- ence for study and a strong love of literature. Taught to labor on the farm, he says, "I learned self-reliance, and that labor is the price of success and brings sure reward. It taught me the value of time, how to deal with hired labor, and how to econo- mize."
He attended the common schools, and Mullins academy, but did not take a course of study at any higher institution of learn- ing. Like many another man of strong native ability and limited opportunities, he made the profession of school-teaching and the habit of private study serve him as college and university. At Mullins, he first taught; and later at Little River, South Carolina. From his earliest recollection he had determined to be a lawyer; "not for the honors and emoluments of the profession alone, but from a desire to know the law and to apply it to concrete cases." By private study and persistent reading he fitted himself for
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admission to the bar, at the same time reading history, and some- thing of the classics and of natural philosophy.
He began the practice of law at Conway in June, 1884; and he soon took a position at the bar which secured for him the business of several important corporations as well as of numerous individual clients. He was attorney for Horry county, 1885 to 1893, and attorney for the Wilmington, Chadbourn and Conway railroad, from 1886 to 1890. The Burroughs and Collins com- pany, the Waccamaw line of steamers, the Conway, Coast and - Western railroad, all of Conway, soon secured his services as attorney, and still retain him in 1908.
He has served as chairman of the board of public works of Conway, and in that capacity, has done much for his town. He is a member of the Pee Dee Historical association. He is a Knight of Pythias.
In 1896 he was elected state senator, serving for four years. In 1899 he became lieutenant-governor of South Carolina upon the death of Governor Ellerbe. Elected member of congress for the sixth district of South Carolina in November, 1900, and reelected, he served from March 4, 1901, to March 4, 1905, declining another reëlection.
The success of his professional and public career he attributes, in large part, to the incentive he received from private study and from a "natural inclination to investigate and to be a factor in affairs."
A Democrat in his party relations, he has never swerved from strict allegiance to the party in its choice of measures and of men. He is a member of the Methodist church.
On December 15, 1881, he married Mary J. Jones. Of their four children, two sons are living in 1908.
While he feels that he has had a good measure of success in whatever he has undertaken, Mr. Scarborough writes, "I regret that I have not been a more diligent student and more helpful to my fellow-men."
To the youth of South Carolina who would succeed in life, he commends, "a willingness to serve-to render an honest day's work for an honest wage; truthfulness and sobriety ; love of home and of family ties; and the seeking of money not from sordid motives but as a means for accomplishing good."
DAVID CUNNINGHAM SCOTT
S COTT, DAVID CUNNINGHAM, M. D., physician and financier, was born November 23, 1849, in Kingstree, Williamsburg county, South Carolina. His father, John Ervin Scott, cotton planter, was a man of strong faith in his religious belief, and strict integrity. His mother, Mary McCrae (Gordon) Scott, a refined and spiritually-minded woman, greatly influenced his moral and spiritual life. His ancestry is Scotch on both sides. John Scott, the paternal, and Archibald McCrae, the maternal, founders of his family in America, were neighbors, friends and co-religionists in Scotland, and, to avoid persecution in the reign of the Stuarts, went to Ireland together, and not being satisfied there they came in 1734 direct to Williamsburg county, South Carolina, where they settled and reared families, the descendants of which are numerous in that section. The men of both families have been noted as home-lovers and home-makers and for their lack of ambition for public life.
The early life of the subject of this sketch was spent in the country. Having been always healthy, he had all the average country boy's love for hunting and fishing, and he was given plenty of time for both, as no working tasks were put upon him at home. The effect of the War between the States upon the prosperity of the cotton planters disarranged all the plans for study that his parents had laid for him, and made it necessary for him to get the most of his education by his own efforts. When only a boy he chose, solely from personal preference, the profession of medicine, and the choice was not in the least affected by the gloomy outlook that confronted him at the close of the war. He attended the country schools, got all they could give him, and by hard study and frugality got into college, but lack of means compelled him to drop out before finishing the course. Then there was a period of work and hard private study, which was a test of his staying qualities as well as of the strength of his ambition to become a physician, but he stood the test, and in 1873 matriculated at the Medical College of South Carolina, where he was graduated M. D. in 1876. The following year he
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began the practice of medicine in Kingstree, where he has long enjoyed a high reputation as a physician.
As he accumulated means his business acumen in the invest- ment of his money attracted attention to his marked ability as a financier; and in 1901, when the Bank of Kingstree, the first bank established in Williamsburg county, was organized, largely through his personal efforts and influence, he was elected its president. This choice has been fully justified by the prosperity of that institution. In 1905 the Kingstree Real Estate company was organized by himself and a number of his prominent business friends, and he was elected its president. He is still president of both the institutions above named.
Though one of the busiest men in his section, he neglects none of the duties of good citizenship. He is public-spirited and progressive, and has always taken an active and prominent part in the affairs of his town and county. He was largely instru- mental in the establishment of graded public schools in Kingstree. In politics he is and has always been a Democrat, but has had no aspirations for official position. He is a Mason and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He thinks home life and contact with business men have been the most potent influences in his efforts to win success. He is fond of home life and gets therein his most enjoyable recreation.
On December 11, 1884, he married Martha Brockinton, the daughter of Doctor John F. and Elizabeth (Scott) Brockinton, of Williamsburg county, South Carolina. Four children have been born to them, of whom three are now (1909) living.
His address is Kingstree, Williamsburg county, South Caro- lina.
WARREN NOBLE SCOVILL
S COVILL, WARREN NOBLE, of Orangeburg, South Caro- lina, for fifty years a merchant in the town where he now resides, and for the last fifteen years vice-president of the Bank of Orangeburg, was born in Vernon, Oneida county, New York, on the first of January, 1830.
His father, Sheldon Scovill, who had married Miss Emily Noble, was a farmer of Oneida county. He was descended from Ezekiel Scovill who came from England in 1730 and settled in Litchfield county, Connecticut.
Warren Noble Scovill had the advantages of such of the country schools as were within reach of his early home, until he was fifteen years old, at which time he was apprenticed to a mer- cantile establishment, starting as a boy of all work, and making his way steadily up to the position of manager of the entire business. He began as clerk in a store in Connecticut. But in 1851, at the age of twenty-one, he removed to Orangeburg, South Carolina, and identified himself with the mercantile business there ; and he has made for himself a long record of usefulness as merchant and public-spirited citizen, identified with all that makes for the welfare of the town in which he resides.
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