Turn of the Century (1890-1913)

Even Freed’s military service during World War I became a platform for his musical abilities. As an army sergeant, he continued composing and put on shows to entertain the soldiers.

Interest in social concerns and women’s issues quickened in this period, and Frost, who never married, became actively involved in women’s club work and the women’s suffrage movement.

Fuller believed that he had been sanctified in 1895 after he retreated to a cornfield for a time of intense prayer.

A phenomenon of the Reconstruction period, “fusionism” describes the awkward and short-lived political alliance between moderate wings of the South’s Democratic and Republican Parties.

General George Washington Goethals was made chief engineer of the Panama Canal in 1907, and he selected Gaillard to oversee dredging and excavation.

Dr. Gantt was a pioneer in public health, prevention of tuberculosis, medical inspection of schools, and social hygiene.

Gary served as a bill clerk in the state legislature for nine years before being elected by Abbeville County to the S.C. House of Representatives in 1890. He remained there until 1900 and served as Speaker of the House from 1896 to 1900.

Inspired by her “urge to write,” in 1895 she became the first woman to enroll in South Carolina College (later the University of South Carolina), two years after the General Assembly mandated that women should be allowed to attend the school as special students.

During his fifty-four-year career at the College of Charleston, Gibbes taught mathematics, chemistry, physics, and astronomy, and endeared himself to generations of students despite his exacting standards.

For his popular column, “Doing the Charleston,” Gilbreth wrote under the pseudonym Ashley Cooper. The column became one of the longest running in American newspaper history.

A powerful preacher who was at home with the Gullah dialect, Girardeau attracted large numbers of African Americans to the congregation. To accommodate the growing crowds, a new church building, Zion Presbyterian, was built on the corner of Calhoun and Meeting Streets primarily with money from the Adger and Smyth families of Charleston.

His first trial resulted in a conviction, but in a second trial he was acquitted. He was elected lieutenant governor of the state in 1872 and reelected in 1874, in which capacity he served as president ex officio of the S.C. Senate. Gleaves also served in the South Carolina state militia as a major and judge advocate in the First Brigade, colonel and aide to the governor, and colonel and judge advocate in the Second Division.

Lucile Godbold achieved prominence as one of America’s first female Olympic champions and as a pioneer in American women’s competitive athletics.

Inspired by the rise of Ben Tillman’s hate-mongering but successful campaign for governor in 1890, Ambrose, Narciso, and their younger brother William, founded the State newspaper in Columbia as an ardent and outspoken anti-Tillman daily.

Hoping to give a voice to the conservative wing of the Democratic Party after Ben Tillman’s election to the governorship, Gonzales joined with his brother Ambrose to found the State Publishing Company in January 1891, with the financial backing of conservative Democrats.

Working under his brother Narciso, William’s career in journalism began to take shape. Narciso had served as William’s greatest supporter and mentor, and his death at the hands of James Tillman in 1903 severely affected William.

He made perhaps his greatest contribution to the city with the opening of the Cooper River Bridge in 1929. Grace was president of Cooper River Bridge, Inc., which built the bridge connecting Charleston with Mount Pleasant, Sullivan’s Island, and the Isle of Palms.

The Grays were influential civic leaders, devoted Methodists, conservative Democrats, and contributors to the industrial development of their town.

During the 1910s and 1920s, hundreds of thousands of African Americans left the South for the great urban centers of the Northeast and Midwest. Spurred by declining opportunities at home, this internal migration of African Americans in the United States, dubbed the “Great Migration” by historians, significantly altered the racial makeup of the South Carolina population.

In 1870 Greener graduated with honors, earning the distinction of being the first African American to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard.