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 4
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At the battle of Reams Station, August 25, 1864, General Butler's dismounted cavalry carried line after line of breast- works, and were highly complimented by the gallant veterans of General A. P. Hill. For his bravery in this engagement, he was promoted to the rank of major general. On the 9th of March, 1865, General Butler rode up to the picket post of General Kilpat- rick, announced to the Federal pickets that he was General Butler, and if they fired he would have them shot. They surrendered with- out shooting, and said they belonged to the Fifth Kentucky, and on the morning of the 10th, Generals Hampton, Butler and Wheeler rode over Kilpatrick's sleeping troopers, surprising his camp and forcing that brilliant Federal general to fly for his life.
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MATTHEW CALBRAITH BUTLER
After the war, General Butler came home to desolation and poverty. He began the practice of the law again, without a dollar in the world, having as his capital only honor and brains. In his record at the bar, General Butler, by his conduct of important cases has given evidence of great learning and of brilliant talents as an advocate.
Governor Perry, in his "Reminiscences and Sketches," says: "At the bar, General Butler has shown in the argument of his cases, great learning and the most brilliant talents as an advocate. In a celebrated libel case tried at Greenville some time since, his speech was said to be by competent judges the most forceful and finished argument they had ever heard in a court of justice." The case referred to was W. E. Earle against Bailey, proprietor of the Greenville Enterprise; edited by S. S. Crittenden, a civic action for damages for libel and defamation of character, tried in April, 1876. When General Butler had taken his seat after the conclu- sion of his argument, W. D. Simpson, one of the opposing attorneys, afterwards chief justice, sent him the following from the opposite side of the bar:
"Dear Butler.
"That was the most powerful specimen of forensic eloquence that I have ever heard, and I do congratulate you most sincerely. "W. D. Simpson."
During the terrible days of reconstruction and misrule in South Carolina, General Butler was prominent in his efforts to free the people of his state from alien spoilsmen and from the awful misrule of free but ignorant negroes. In his efforts to bring about a change for the better, he went so far as to accept the nomination upon a conservative "reform ticket," hoping thus to bring about a better state of affairs; but in this most hazardous campaign he was defeated. In 1876, with General M. W. Gary, also an Edgefield man who made a gallant record in the war, General Butler inaugurated what was known as the "straightout movement." They summoned General Wade Hampton from his plantation in Mississippi, helped in the movement to nominate him for governor, and Hampton was elected. Except for the action of General Gary and General Butler, it is doubtful whether Hampton would have been persuaded to come from Mississippi to accept the office.
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The victory of 1876 made General Butler again a popular hero in his state; but he went quietly back to his professional work, after the hardships of the campaign. He was called from private and professional life by a nomination to the United States senate; and he was unanimously elected by the South Carolina legislature in 1876. He was sworn in as United States senator in December, 1877. His seat was contested by Corbin; but after a long contest the senate decided against Corbin and General Butler retained his seat. He represented South Carolina in the senate until March 4th, 1895, having General Wade Hampton as his colleague for twelve years. He made for himself an enviable reputation as debater, orator, legislator and statesman.
In 1894, General Butler stumped the state, and made a gal- lant fight for the principle of nomination by Democratic voters of their choice for the United States senate. He could not bring the Democratic executive committee of his state to his view, and he was not elected.
A few months after his retirement from the senate in 1896, he formed a partnership with two lawyers in the city of Wash- ington under the firm name of Shelley, Butler and Martin, which was dissolved in May, 1898, when he entered the military service. While he was engaged in professional work at Washington, the president of the United States, at the outbreak of the Spanish- American war, on May 28th, 1898, appointed him major general of United States volunteers. He was recommended, without his knowledge or request, by every senator with whom he had served in that body, Republican and Democrat, and his confirmation by the senate was unanimous, without even the formality of reference to a committee. And thus the military record of General Butler was rounded out; the youthful captain at Manassas, the young and gallant major general of Confederate cavalry who led his ragged veterans to victory at the battle of Reams Station in 1864, thirty-four years afterward was made major general in the United States army, commanding the first division, second army corps. When Horace Greely, in 1872, coined the phrase that favored "clasping hands across the bloody chasm of the late war," who could have foretold such unity of national life within a generation, as was shown by the commissioning to highest com- mands in the United States army, of General Fitzhugh Lee, General Joseph Wheeler, and General M. C. Butler ?
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General Butler's long service in the senate, his thorough knowledge of diplomatic forms of procedure, his acquaintance with international law, and his military experience, combined to make most appropriate his appointment on the Cuban peace com- mission, where he served with Admiral Sampson and General Wade of the United States army, to assist the Spanish govern- ment in evacuating Cuba and turning over the government of Cuba to the United States on the 1st day of January, 1899, and later to the Republic of Cuba by the successors of the Cuban commission.
President Mckinley urged General Butler to accept retire- ment as an officer of the United States army; but this General Butler declined to do.
Returning to South Carolina, he has become one of the large planters of the state. He was president of the Mexican Mining and Exploration company and other mining companies in Mexico. He is also a member of the Confederate Veterans association of South Carolina, and of the Confederate Veterans association of the Southern States. He is a member of the United States Aztec society. He retains his membership in the Army and Navy Club and the Metropolitan Club of Washington, District of Columbia.
Since the above sketch was put in type General Butler died at Columbia, South Carolina, April 14, 1909.
Vol. IV-S. C .- 4.
THOMAS BOTHWELL BUTLER
B UTLER, THOMAS BOTHWELL, lawyer, state senator, was born near Carlisle, Union county, South Carolina, January 11, 1866, the son of Dr. Pierce B. Butler and Arsinoe Jeter Butler. He comes of an ancestry which for gener- ations has been prominently identified with the state and has had a place in the annals of the nation. His ancestors came to this country from Ireland before the Revolutionary war, and settled in Pennsylvania. A century prior to that time Charles II. had conferred upon one of them a peerage, with the title of Duke of Ormond. The Butler family furnished several gallant soldiers and officers to the Continental army and to our forces in the War of 1812. Of these, perhaps the most notable was Major General Richard Butler, a gallant soldier, and a distinguished officer, who, after serving as colonel in command of the Ninth and later of the Fifth Pennsylvania regiment, was placed second in command of the army organized by General St. Clair for an expedition against the western Indians. In the disastrous battle fought on November 4, 1791, General Butler was mortally wounded, being at the time in command of the right wing of the American forces. In this same engagement Major Thomas Butler, a brother of Richard, was severely wounded; and still a third brother, Captain Edward Butler, bore an honorable part.
Another very distinguished member of the family, from whom Senator Butler is descended, was General William Butler, who was not only prominent in the War of the Revolution, but afterwards served as a representative in congress. Senator Butler's grandfather, a son of General William Butler, was also a member of the national house of representatives. Among other prominent members of the family who ought to be mentioned were Judge A. P. Butler, United States senator, and the Hon. P. M. Butler, governor of South Carolina, who afterward held a command in the Mexican war, and was killed in battle at the head of his troops. Ex-Senator Matthew Calbraith Butler, a nephew of the distinguished naval officers, Commodore Oliver H. Perry and Matthew Calbraith Perry, is also a member of the
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same family. His record is to be found in preceding pages of this volume.
On his mother's side, Senator Butler claims kinship with another family of prominence, the Jeters, his mother having been a sister of Governor Thomas Bothwell Jeter, after whom Senator Butler is named.
He lived in the country until he was twelve years of age, and during the period of his preparation for college he resided in Union, South Carolina, working on a farm between terms, and later teaching in country schools. His education was obtained partly in the common schools of his native county and partly through private study, under the direction of Hon. William Munro, a distinguished member of the Union bar. He entered South Carolina college, but left before graduation.
Among the strongest influences which impressed themselves upon him in his boyhood was the example of his uncle, Thomas B. Jeter, first state senator, and afterwards governor of South Caro- lina. It seems to have been this influence which led him to the study of law. Entering upon the practice of his profession in Union county in 1888, Mr. Butler was appointed United States commissioner in 1889, by Judge Charles H. Simonton. During his residence in the town of Union he served two terms as alder- man. Having removed from Union to Gaffney, his present place of residence, in 1897, Mr. Butler "led in the fight for the county of Cherokee"; and on the formation of the county he was elected its attorney. In 1902 he was elected chairman of the Cherokee county Democratic organization, and declined reelection two years later.
Elected to the house of representatives of South Carolina in 1900, by what was practically a unanimous vote, Mr. Butler suc- cessfully contested the election for state senator in 1902, which office he held until November, 1906. In 1908 he was unanimously chosen Democratic elector at large for South Carolina and he was selected by the electoral college to deliver its vote to the president of the United States senate at Washington.
Since his election as attorney for Cherokee county, in 1897, Senator Butler has achieved a record for success as a lawyer of ability, having been retained in practically every case of importance tried in the Cherokee courts. He is an unusually
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strong advocate and has defended some fifty persons for murder, and as yet none of his clients have received the death sentence.
Although Senator Butler has not, like his military pro- genitors, seen active service in time of war, yet he has held important military positions. Appointed paymaster (with rank of captain) by Governor Richardson, he was in 1896, elected lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, without opposition, and in 1907 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel on the staff of Governor Ansel. In July, 1903, he was appointed assistant adjutant-general of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, by Commander Stone, of Waco, Texas. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity (South Carolina college chapter) and of the Knights of Pythias. In politics he is a Democrat; in religious affiliation he is a member of the Methodist church.
He married Miss Annie O. Wood, November 7, 1899.
His address is Gaffney, Cherokee county South Carolina.
FRED HARVEY HALL CALHOUN
C ALHOUN, FRED HARVEY HALL, Ph. D., educator, was born in Elbridge, Onondaga county, New York, June 27, 1874, the son of John Hamilton and Ellen Hall. Among his ancestors were General Edward Paine, who gained distinction in the Revolutionary war; and Peter Douglas, an early settler of central New York, and prominent for his interest and efficiency in state as well as local affairs. The original stock was Scotch-Irish. He recalls with special pleasure his mother's decided interest in his general culture, physical, intellectual, and moral, and the strong influence she brought to bear upon the shaping of his course in life. In his reading, matters of scientific interest especially engaged him.
In 1893 he was graduated from the Auburn high school, and in 1898 he received the degree of B. S. from the University of Chicago, where he also pursued post-graduate studies and was honored with the degree of Ph. D .; meanwhile, from 1899 to 1902, also acting as instructor in the correspondence school of the university. He has been assistant geologist, United States Geological survey; assistant professor Illinois college, 1902-04; professor in Clemson college, 1904, in which year he was married to Miss Grace B. Ward. He gained two scholarships and two fellowships in the university; is a member of the Society for Advancement of Science in America, and secretary of the Clem- son college science club.
In the field of original endeavor, he has made, and reported to the government, geological investigations in Montana, and has in preparation a government folio based on Pickens' topo- graphic sheet, and a popular bulletin on rocks and minerals in South Carolina. He is also the author of various articles pub- lished in scientific magazines. He is a member of the Greek letter fraternities Phi Delta Theta, and Alpha Nu. He has found pleasure as well as physical advantage in athletic sports, especially baseball, walking, and riding. He was captain of the track team while at the university and has won prizes in various games of this description.
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FRED HARVEY HALL CALHOUN
He advocates temperate living, plenty of exercise for bodily health, hard work, and a cheerful outlook upon life, as the best means of insuring happiness, worthy ideals and a good measure of success. His religious affiliations are with the Presbyterian church. Politically, he is a Republican in affairs of the nation, but a Democrat in those of the state.
His address is Clemson College, South Carolina.
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JOHN CALHOUN CAMPBELL
C AMPBELL, JOHN CALHOUN, of Blenheim, Marlboro county, South Carolina, farmer, from 1888 to 1890 county commissioner of Marlboro county, from 1892 auditor until 1898, and from 1900 to 1902 member of the general assembly of South Carolina from Marlboro county, was born in Marlboro county on the 11th of July, 1854. His father, Robert H. Camp- bell, was a farmer,-"industrious, but generous, and somewhat impulsive." His grandfather, Captain Robert Campbell, served in the British army during the Revolution. His mother, Ann Campbell, was a daughter of Colin Campbell, who came to South Carolina from the Highlands of Scotland.
Born on a farm and spending his boyhood in the country, from the age of fourteen he found himself the burden-bearer of the family, which consisted of his widowed mother and one younger brother. "My youth," he says, "was one of exceptional trial and hardship. It knew no regular tasks, except those imposed by great and urgent responsibility and the need of doing what I could to support my family. I was compelled by these circumstances to leave school early and to give up all hope of a good education after I was fourteen years of age; and my school opportunities up to that time had been limited to indifferently good country schools. But I was especially fond of reading, and I devoured the musty old volumes which I found in the little book-shelf which had been my father's,-among them one which I always remember with gratitude, a volume of the 'Letters of George Washington.'"
Beginning work on the farm where he was born, and com- pelled by circumstances to accept whatever work was offered, his early experience taught him "the grim determination to stick to whatever I undertook until it was done, and not to know how to fail." For four years, from 1882 to 1886, he attempted mercan- tile business on his own account; but he writes: "I found I had missed my calling, and went back to farming."
In 1886, Mr. Campbell invented a cotton plow, which is known as the "Campbell Sweep," and is still extensively used throughout his section of the state. In 1888 he was elected county
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commissioner, serving until 1890. Six years of service as auditor followed, from 1892 to 1898; and two years later, in 1900, he was elected to the legislature to represent Marlboro county.
Mr. Campebll is a Knight of Pythias and a Woodman of the World. In party relations he is a Democrat. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
On the 20th of December, 1877, he married Miss Annie Kilgo, daughter of Reverend J. T. Kilgo, of the South Carolina Methodist Episcopal conference. They have had three children, but no one of them is living.
Mr. Campbell has all his life been an advocate of life in the open air for health. During his early years he was steadily engaged in hard work upon the farm. In later years he has found opportunity for hunting, fishing, etc., which he has always enjoyed when he could get time for them.
To the young people in South Carolina who may feel that they are severely limited by narrow circumstances, and are tempted to believe that poverty stands in the way of their attaining true success in life, Mr. Campbell offers this encour- aging suggestion : "I firmly believe that hard experience in early life develops in us a pluck that knows no yielding." This is the conviction that underlies the advice of that leader in industrial education, General Samuel C. Armstrong, of Hampton, Virginia, who used to say to the students of the Hampton institute who were inclined to think that they were heavily handicapped by poverty : "Young men, remember that you have the advantages of your disadvantages!"
JOHN ELAM CARLISLE
C ARLISLE, JOHN ELAM, minister and presiding elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, son of John Mason Carlisle and Elizabeth Catherine Carlisle, was born May 10, 1851, at Cokesbury, Abbeville, now Greenwood, county, South Carolina. His father was a minister of the Gospel. In youth, John Carlisle was healthy and fond of reading, hunting, fishing, and playing. His early life was passed partly in town, partly on the farm, and in the country. As a boy, he was brought up to labor. From twelve to seventeen years of age he worked mostly on the farm; during the same period he worked, at times, in a mill, and also as clerk in a store.
The end of the war found Mr. John Carlisle more than ever under the necessity of laboring. This seriously hindered his attempts to secure an education. By dint of effort and per- severance, however, he succeeded in attending college, and he was graduated from Wofford college June 25, 1873, with the degree of A. B. After entering the ministry, Mr. Carlisle took the confer- ence course of study from 1873 to 1877. In 1875, the degree of A. M. was conferred on him by Wofford college.
Impelled by the conviction of a divine call to preach the Gospel, Mr. Carlisle adopted the ministry as his profession. In December, 1873, he was received on trial into the traveling con- nection of the South Carolina conference of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, at Sumter, South Carolina. Since that time, Mr. Carlisle has continuously served as pastor of churches until December, 1904, when he was appointed presiding elder of the Cokesbury district. This appointment was followed in December, 1905, by a similar one, namely, to the office of presiding elder of the North Charleston, now Kingstree, district.
Mr. Carlisle is a third degree Mason, although for many years he has not attended the lodge. In politics he is a Democrat, but he votes for prohibition when the issue is made.
On May 2, 1877, Mr. Carlisle was married to Miss Emma Legare Jones. On November 6, 1895, he was married to Miss Katharine Roland. Of his first marriage one child was born, not now living. His address is Charleston, South Carolina.
JOHN MASON CARLISLE
C ARLISLE, JOHN MASON, educator and preacher, was born in Fairfield county, South Carolina, October 29, 1826, and died at Spartanburg, in the same state, July 7, 1905. His parents were John and Susan (Mason) Carlisle. His father was a farmer by occupation and was characterized by good sense, integrity and piety. The earliest ancestors of the family to land in this country were James and Mary Carlisle, grand- parents of the subject of this sketch, who came from County Antrim, Ireland, in 1821 and settled in Fairfield county, South Carolina.
In childhood and youth John M. Carlisle lived in the country. His health was good and when not in school he had the usual tasks which fall to the lot of a boy on the farm. His educa- tion was commenced in the common schools and continued in the Cokesbury Conference school. In the last named institution he prepared for the junior class in South Carolina college but was never able to proceed with his studies. He entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Columbia, South Carolina, December 25, 1844, and at once became a "traveling preacher" in the South Carolina conference. In this work he was both faithful and successful. In addition to preaching, he labored earnestly and efficiently in the cause of education. For some years he was president of the Asheville, North Carolina, Female college and afterward taught at Williamston and at Greenwood, South Carolina. For a time in 1861, and for several months in 1863, he served as chaplain in the Seventh regiment Confederate States army volunteers. From 1879 to 1882 he was presiding elder of the Spartanburg district.
In the choice of a profession he followed his own inclination. He felt that he was "called" to preach the Gospel. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity in which he had taken many degrees. In politics he was allied with the Democratic party. He was of an inventive turn of mind and many years ago took out two or three patents.
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JOHN MASON CARLISLE
On April 30, 1850, Reverend Mr. Carlisle was married to Elizabeth Catherine Sharpe. Of their seven children six were living at the time of his death.
The necessarily meager material from which this sketch has been prepared was supplied by the eldest son of its subject, Rev- erend John E. Carlisle of Charleston, South Carolina.
FRANCIS JULIAN CARROLL
C ARROLL, FRANCIS JULIAN, physician, intendant of the town of Summerville, county chairman of Dorchester county, and a delegate to the National Democratic con- vention at Denver from the first congressional district; editor of "The Summerville News," and a leader among the younger men of the state, was born in Branchville, Orangeburg county, South Carolina, in 1874.
The name of Carroll has been an honored one in the history of South Carolina, and the record of achievement and public service of the particular branch to which Francis J. Carroll belongs has confirmed the good repute in which this name is held. Two generations of men who were engaged in teaching and in scholarly pursuits preceding his birth laid the foundation for that rapid advancement in professional and public life which has come to this young leader. His grandfather, B. R. Carroll, was a teacher and historian, and his father, Edward Carroll, was well known in Charleston as the principal of the Shaw Memorial and the Bennett school, where his straightforwardness, his scrupulous attention to duty and his reputation as a strict dis- ciplinarian made themselves felt in the life and character of his scholars.
As a boy he was delicate; but fondness for athletic sports developed early in life, confirmed his health, so that a robust youth gave promise of an early capacity for leadership. Life in his native town with freedom from the necessity of any manual labor left him at liberty to study and read although somewhat irregularly. Of history he was particularly fond. His mother's influence was strong both in his intellectual and his spiritual life.
At the Porter Military academy he received his preparatory schooling while his professional studies were carried on at the Medical College of South Carolina, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D., in 1896. In the same year he became house physician at St. Francis Xavier infirmary in Charleston, and in the following year he took up active practice in the town of Summerville, where he has since lived. Since graduating in medicine Dr. Carroll has been a frequent contributor to the
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