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 2
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He was married to Miss Lulu Cornelia Day, on April 20, 1874; and of their six children four are now (1909) living.
He was elected president of the Evangelical Lutheran synod of South Carolina, in October, 1902, and was reelected president on November 11, 1903. He has been a member of the board of trustees of Newberry college for twenty-four years, and for that
Vol. IV-S. C .- 2.
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ZACCHEUS WRIGHT BEDENBAUGH
entire time he has never missed attending a meeting of the board. In March, 1908, he was elected treasurer of the Holland Hall building fund of Newberry college. He has also been for fifteen years a member of the executive committee of his synod.
GEORGE ANDREW BLACKBURN
B LACKBURN, GEORGE ANDREW, preacher and pastor, was born in Green county, Tennessee, October 16, 1861. His parents were John Nelson and Eliza Jane (Arm- brister) Blackburn. His father was a Presbyterian minister who was in the service of the American Home Missionary society from 1850 to 1856, and in the year last named became president of the Benton Female academy, which position he held until 1859. From 1861 to 1865 he was a pastor in Green county, Tennessee. At the close of this period he engaged in evangelistic and supply work in middle Tennessee and northern Alabama which he continued until the time of his death. He was noted for his sound common sense, his piety, and his perserverance in carrying out his plans. The earliest paternal ancestors of the family to come to America emigrated from the north of Ireland sometime before 1740. They settled in Pennsylvania and Virginia. From the Virginia branch the Blackburns of North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri are descended and in all of these states representatives of the family have attained considerable prominence. Within the last century the Presbyterian church has received from it more than a hundred ministers and elders. A large number of these came from the female lines. Among the families which have sprung from Blackburn women may be named the Halls, Kings, Meyers, Carsons, Whites, Bradshaws, Caldwells, Morrows, Clarks, Howells, Rankins, Alexanders, Bradfords, Maburys and Noyes. Many of these were widely known as "preacher families." Of the Armbristers, the maternal ancestors came from Germany. They settled in Virginia and spread through North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. This family was principally Methodist in its religious connection, and its members were divided between mercantile and professional occupations.
With the exception of about three years spent in Athens, a small town in Alabama, George A. Blackburn lived in the country until he was prepared for college. His health was good, and he was fond of the sports and pastimes of the boys of his own locality. When not in school he did the various kinds of work that are required of a boy whose home is a farm. This outdoor
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GEORGE ANDREW BLACKBURN
exercise tended to establish his health, and it gave him what he considers of great value-a respect for all those who labor with their hands. His education was commenced at the public school in his neighborhood and was continued at the high school in Athens, the county seat of Limestone county, Alabama, and at the Southwestern university at Clarksville, Tennessee. In 1883 he entered Columbia Theological seminary and was graduated in 1886. He took a special course in systematic theology in that institution in 1888-89. Immediately after his graduation he became pastor of the Olivet church, in York county, South Caro- lina. At the close of one year of service with this church he accepted (1887) a call to the Second Presbyterian church in Columbia with which he has remained until the present time. He has not only served his church with great fidelity, but he has done much to advance educational and religious interests. He founded the Presbyterian high school at Columbia in 1892. He represented the Charleston presbytery in the "Sabbath case" before the Southern General assembly in 1894. He edited Girar- deau's "Discussions of Philosophical Questions," and "Theological Discussions" by the same author. He finds his favorite recreation in hunting and fishing. In politics he is a Democrat.
On April 7, 1886, he was married to Miss Annie Williams Girardeau. They have four children living in 1909.
His address is Columbia, South Carolina.
NORMAN HORACE BLITCH
B LITCH, NORMAN HORACE, of Charleston, South Caro- lina, one of the most prominent of the prosperous citizens of South Carolina who are engaged in truck farming, president of the Combahee Fertilizer company, and vice- president and secretary of the Standard Truck Package company, was born at Elabelle, Georgia, on the 15th of January, 1865.
His family is of German descent. Foyes Wilson and Thomas Blitch emigrated from Germany to this country, coming with the original colony founded by Oglethorpe, the first governor of Georgia ; and Thomas Blitch, serving as a patriot in the Revolu- tionary army, was killed in the battle of Brandywine. His son, Henry J. Blitch, died in 1857; and his grandson, also named Henry J. Bitch, the father of the subject of this sketch, is still living, vigorous and hearty, at nearly eighty. He has been all his life a farmer; from 1852 to 1856 he served as sheriff; he has been distinguished all his life by robust health, great energy, and exceptional personal bravery. He has reared fifteen children, and thirteen of them are still living. His wife, Mrs. Lavinia English, was a daughter of Reuben and Eliza English, of Ella- ville, Georgia.
Their son, Norman Horace Blitch (who traces direct kinship with Benjamin Franklin, the great statesman-patriot of the Revolution and the first electrician of America), passed his early life in the country, nine miles from the nearest railroad station. "Our family," he writes, "was large, and each one of the children had his own part in the work on the farm to perform, even in boyhood; and later in life each had to look after his own share in the work of a turpentine farm." He says the influence of his mother was strong in his boyhood, and has continued with him through life, her industry, her remarkable executive ability in the management of household and farm affairs, and above all her intense spiritual life, impressed her son very deeply. The circumstances of the family were such as to make school facilities for him limited; and such as he had, he could only enjoy by walking three miles to and from school through an uninhabited
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section of the country. He did not attempt to fit himself for a college course; and he was able to attend the district country schools but three or four months out of the entire year. But from the first he found an especial delight in the study of arith- metic, and in mathematical computations.
The best part of his education, he feels, has come from per- sonal application to the details of his business, and from reading systematically on every subject connected with his occupation in life.
Working with his father on a farm and in the management of the hands who were engaged in the manufacture of turpentine, he lived at his father's home until he was twenty years of age. In 1885, he accepted the offer of his brother, T. W. Blitch, removed to Young's Island, and became foreman in the business of his brother. He soon had entire control of the truck farm; and in a short time he started the business of truck-farming on his own account, beginning with a small holding of land, but from the very first year clearing a considerable sum of money. His business has steadily increased. He has been among the most active of the truck-farmers who have built up so large a business in market gardening along the shore and on the islands of South Carolina.
He says of himself, "My life has been one of hard work; and I have simply followed out the training given me in my youth by habits of punctuality and perseverance." Mr. Blitch has never sought public office-indeed has several times refused, when he has been urged to accept it; but he has given abundant evi- dence of a public-spirited interest in the welfare of the com- munity, and in enterprises which meant profit to others as well as to himself. He has been largely instrumental in building up the business of the Standard Truck Package company, of which he is vice president,-a corporation whose factory is at Young's Island, while its principal office is at Charleston, South Carolina. As president of the Combahee Fertilizer company, and in various other connections, his business experience has been systematically employed in the management of the affairs of these important commercial concerns.
On the 22d of November, 1887, he married Miss Emily A. Commins, daughter of John Commins, of Charleston, South
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NORMAN HORACE BLITCH
Carolina. They have had five children, three of whom are now living.
Mr. Blitch is a member of the Commercial club and of the Country club, of Charleston, South Carolina. In his political associations he has always been identified with the Democratic party. By religious faith, he is a member of the Roman Catholic church.
The changes and improvements wrought by his business on Young's Island were the subject of an article in the Charleston "News and Courier" in May, 1904.
To the young men of South Carolina who wish to succeed in life, Mr. Blitch recommends "mastery of the details of the busi- ness in which they are engaged; and the habit of regarding honesty and perseverance as the keynotes to success."
His address is 64 Meeting street, Charleston, South Carolina.
JULIUS ELKANAH BOGGS
B OGGS, JULIUS ELKANAH, lawyer, solicitor for the eighth circuit, was born in Pickens county, February 14, 1854. His father, G. W. B. Boggs, was a farmer, "of energy and enthusiasm," a descendant of Joseph Boggs, of a Scotch-Irish family, who came from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1650, his son, Livingstone Boggs, migrating in 1702 to Virginia. His mother was Eliza K. McWhorter, and her son says of her influence upon his intellectual and his moral and spiritual life, "all that is of any worth in me in these lines, is due to my mother, and to my wife."
In his boyhood he was trained to work on the farm with the negroes; and he says, "I thus kept the weeds and briers cut away from my childhood and youth." The Bible, Shakespeare, Presi- dent Francis Wayland's moral philosophy, and law-books, have been his favorite reading. His early education was limited to such schooling as could be obtained in the country schools near his home. He was led by personal preference to the study of the law. To his first impulse toward the study of that profession, he refers in these words: "When I was a youth, in 1872, I had some friends and relatives who were tried for murder and arson. I wanted to defend them. I decided to study law." He worked in a mill for some years; and by himself learned to read Greek. He puts the influence of his own home first, in good effect upon his life; and his own private study, second in importance; schooling and contact with men have had a less marked effect in shaping his life.
He was admitted to the bar January 16, 1880, having com- pleted a course of private reading and study of the law. He began practice at once, in Pickens county. He was elected a member of the legislature in 1882, and was reelected, serving until 1886. In 1890 he became president of the Pickens Railroad company. In 1900 he was made solicitor of the eigth circuit-a position he still (1908) holds.
In his party relations, he is a Democrat. In religious convic- tions, he is a member of the Presbyterian church, and has been a ruling elder since 1878. He has been several times elected a
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JULIUS ELKANAH BOGGS
commissioner to the assemblies of his church. He is a Mason, and a Knight Templar; he is also a Knight of Pythias. For young Americans he would emphasize the principle of unselfish effort to serve one's fellow men. He says, "The good Samaritan is my ideal; but I have not lived as nearly up to it as I would like to have done." And he adds, "If we are selfish we shall die, but if we live for the good we can do to others, we shall learn how to make it life to live."
December 23, 1882, Mr. Boggs married Miss Minnie Lee Bruce. They have had four children, all of whom are living in 1908.
The address of Mr. Boggs is Pickens, South Carolina.
ROBERT ESLI BOWEN
B OWEN, ROBERT ESLI, was born September 8, 1830, at George's Creek, Pickens county, South Carolina. He was the son of John and Elvira Hunt Bowen. His father was a farmer and surveyor who, from 1848 to 1852, held the position of tax collector; a man of honorable and upright char- acter, marked by firmness, push and energy.
Moses Bowen, the oldest know ancestor in America, came from Wales about 1698. He married Rebecca Reese.
Robert E. Bowen was, as a boy, healthy and vigorous. He was reared on a farm and loved country life. He "commenced plowing" at the age of nine years, and continued at times to do this work until he was seventy years of age.
He was educated in the schools of his neighborhood, and always stood at the head of his classes. About the year 1850 he studied surveying under his father and helped him in the field. The books which influenced him in early life were Webster's "Blue Back Spelling Book," the "History of the State and of the Revolution," the "Life of David Crockett," "Georgia Scenes," and similar literature. His active life-work began at the age of twenty, when he assumed the task of overseer for his father.
Except during the time occupied by a horseback ride to and from Texas in the year 1853, he lived with his parents contin- uously until his marriage, and aided them on their home estate. He was appointed a life trustee of Clemson college by Mr. Clemson and rendered faithful service. In 1864 he was elected representative in the South Carolina legislature and attended throughout the session; in 1865 and in 1872 he was reelected to the same position and, in 1875, he was elected to the state senate. Mr. Bowen was also connected with the Hampton-Chamberlain gubernatorial convention, being the first chairman of the com- mittee to investigate the frauds of the Republican party in connection with that famous contest. In 1861 he entered military service in the Confederate army, as first lieutenant; in January, 1862, he was promoted to the rank of captain; in October, 1863, he was promoted to the grade of lieutenant-colonel; in January,
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1864, he was promoted colonel of the Second South Carolina regi- ment of rifles.
Regarding Colonel Bowen's military services Evans's "Con- federate Military History" (Volume V, p. 311, note) contains the following :
"Colonel Robert E. Bowen, then senior captain commanding the second rifles, in a description of this battle of Wauhatchie, Will's Valley, or Lookout Valley, says that during an observation of the Federal movements from the summit of Lookout, General Jenkins asked permission to attack and capture the supply train for Rosecrans' army, for which Hooker's troops were mistaken, and the attack was made with that understanding; Law's brigade being stationed at the river to prevent reinforcements from Chat- tanooga. Colonel Bowen commanded the brigade skirmish line of six companies which drove in the Federals until he found them in heavy force in line of battle, when he notified General Jenkins and was ordered to go as far as possible. He now opened fire, lying down to load, and the brigade advanced their line to within a hundred yards of the Federals, and there stopped on account of the evident strength of the enemy. Colonel Bowen was severely wounded, and Sergeant G. W. Bradley, a noble soldier, was killed."
On pages 314 and 317 of the same work and volume, further mention is made of Colonel Bowen's services.
Colonel Bowen is a member of the Hawthorne Camp at Easley, South Carolina. Through life he has been a constant and unchanging Democrat. To his mind, however, that party, during the many years of his connection with it, has undergone modifi- cations, perhaps even a transformation. He is an elder in the Presbyterian church, having held this position for twenty-two years.
Colonel Bowen has always been a great horseback rider. In addition to the noteworthy trip to Texas, above mentioned, he traveled on horseback in 1854, over the state of South Carolina and the Indian Territory.
His advice to the young is that they should be truthful, moral, industrious, and economical, and always have the nerve and push to accomplish anything they set out to do. In his
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ROBERT ESLI BOWEN
opinion there has never been a time so promising as now to those who will thus govern their lives.
On October 15, 1857, Colonel Bowen married Martha Adaliza Antoinette Oliver. They have had two children, a son and a daughter. Of these only one, the daughter, is now living.
Since the above sketch was written Colonel Bowen died at his home in Easley, Pickens county, South Carolina, on January 11, 1909.
ILDERTON WESLEY BOWMAN
B OWMAN, ILDERTON WESLEY, lawyer, of Orange- burg, South Carolina, member of the state legislature from 1894 to 1896, member of the South Carolina Consti- tutional convention in 1895, and author of the provision in the constitution which prohibits divorce in South Carolina, was born in Orangeburg county, on the 20th of September, 1837. His father, Orrin N. Bowman, was a physician of sterling honesty and good executive ability, who during the trying days of 1876, and for years before, was a member of the county Democratic executive committee. His mother was Mrs. Isabella E. (Lime- house) Bowman. The ancestors of his father's family came with a colony from England in the reign of William and Mary, at the close of the seventeenth century. His mother's ancestors were also English.
His boyhood was passed on a farm and he had the best of health. He was fond of out-of-door sports and was enthusiastic in all kinds of athletic exercise, while he was equally fond of mathematics and English literature. He had the best opportuni- ties at school which his part of the country afforded. He passed but one year in regular work upon a farm, but was enabled to fit himself thoroughly for college, and entering Wofford college, he was graduated therefrom in June, 1879, with the degree of A. B.
Soon after graduation he began to read law in the office of Honorable Samuel Dibble, and he was admitted to the bar in December, 1882. He taught school for a year near Rowesville, from 1879 to 1880, while he was reading law.
Establishing himself for the practice of his profession at Orangeburg, South Carolina, he grew steadily into the confidence of his fellow-citizens, and his practice increased from year to year. He is attorney for one of the leading banks, and for the Home Building and Loan association, the largest institution of its kind in his city. From 1894 to 1896 he represented his county in the legislature of South Carolina. Chosen a member of the Con- stitutional convention in 1895, he drafted and successfully advocated the adoption of the provision in the South Carolina state constitution which prohibits divorce.
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ILDERTON WESLEY BOWMAN
Mr. Bowman is a Mason and a past master of the Shibboleth lodge, Number 28, A. F. M. He is a member of the Woodmen of the World. At college he was a member of the Chi Phi fraternity.
His political convictions have always been such as to ally him with the Democratic party, and he has never at any time swerved from allegiance to its principles and its nominees. He takes an active interest in the municipal affairs of his city.
By religious conviction he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He has four times represented his church as a delegate in the annual conference of the state.
To the young men of South Carolina he says: "I believe that this is the day of opportunity. The young man who possesses integrity of character and practices close application to business, driving his business instead of letting his business drive him, if wide awake to opportunity, will surely succeed."
JAMES BOYCE
B OYCE, JAMES, educator, and minister of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church, was born near Gastonia, Gaston county, North Carolina, January 25, 1860, the son of Rev. E. E. Boyce, D. D., a much loved minister of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church, and for forty-three years pastor of the churches at Pisgah, North Carolina, and Bethany, South Carolina. His mother was Rachel E. McElwee, who was descended from John McElwee, the Revolutionary patriot who lived near the King's Mountain battle ground (was a lieutenant under General Sumter) and is celebrated in Lossing's sketches of the men of the Revolution as "the last of Sumter's men," a man of noble and heroic character. Both his father's and his mother's ancestors were of Scotch-Irish descent. The Rev. James Boyce, D. D., of Due West, South Carolina, his uncle, was also a leading minister and teacher of theology in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church.
The subject of this sketch spent a healthy and vigorous boy- hood in the duties and sports of a country boy, with an especial interest in the study of birds and of nature; while domestic duties and out door farm work early taught him the value of system, order, and continuous daily work with the hand as well as the head. To his mother he feels himself greatly indebted for a moral and spiritual impulse which has continued through his life. The Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, the missionary travels of David Livingstone, and all biographies of the heroes of Christian missions, interested him from his early boyhood. He began his preparation for college at the Elk Shoals academy, in Iredell county, North Carolina; and he afterward studied at Bethel academy, York county, South Carolina. He was graduated from Erskine college with the degree of A. B. in July, 1878; and he passed the next two years as a student in Erskine Theological seminary. Becoming the assistant of his father, in his pastorate at King's Mountain, North Carolina, Mr. Boyce feels that his entrance upon the ministry, while it was his own personal preference, was in no small degree the result of his father's life and preaching. To Dr. W. M. Grier, president of Erskine college,
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he feels that he owes a life-long debt for high ideals of life and scholarship. He was pastor of the Associate Reformed Presby- terian church at Louisville, Kentucky, from 1882 to 1896, and of the church of the same denomination at Huntersville, North Caro- lina, from 1897 to 1899. On July 1, 1899, he was elected president of the Due West Female college, an institution to the development and administration of which he has since devoted himself. Of this work he says, "I believe that the greatest service I can render to my country is to help to educate young women. The hope of the state is a pure home. Our women give tone and character to society. To train our young women in the arts and habits of noble living, is the best service one can render."
President Boyce is the principal clerk of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian synod, having been thrice reelected to the office, his service beginning with 1890. He has been president of the Louisville Ministerial association, secretary of the Ken- tucky Sabbath association, and chairman of the executive com- mittee of the Kentucky Sunday school union. He represented the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church on the joint com- mittee of nine Presbyterian Reformed churches, to revise the metrical version of the Psalms. And as editor of the youth's department of the "Associate Reformed Presbyterian," he is known to the children of that church as the "Dear Mr. Boyce," to whom the children's letters were addressed. President Boyce from his early manhood has been identified with the Prohibionists as a political party. He says that his deepest wish is to see a greater work done in the liberal education of the young women of his state; and "next to this, my great desire for South Carolina is to see the dispensary destroyed and prohibition established."
He married Miss Jennie Thompson, daughter of Robert A. Thompson, Esq., of Millersville, Kentucky. They have four daughters.
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RICHARD NEWMAN BRACKETT
B RACKETT, RICHARD NEWMAN, Ph. D., was born September 14, 1863, in Richland county, South Carolina. His parents were Gilbert Robbins Brackett and Louise T. (Newman) Brackett. His father was a Presbyterian minister, who served the following churches: Third Creek church, Rowan county, North Carolina, 1864-66, Scion church, Winnsboro, South Carolina, 1866-71, and the Second Presbyterian church, Charles- ton, South Carolina, from 1872 until his death on November 30, 1902. Gilbert Robbins Brackett was marked by an intense love of and a desire for learning, by scholarly attainments, and by strength of character coupled with gentleness and extreme modesty. He was a lover of music and poetry.
The earliest known ancestor of the family in America was Richard Brackett, who came from England to America with the early Puritans and settled in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1691.
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