One of the most popular sections in each issue of the Wofford Today is the alumni news and notes. Various college publications have carried alumni news over the years. In the 1890s and early 1900s, before a separate alumni magazine or campus newspaper existed, the Wofford College Journal, the literary magazine, carried alumni updates.
Here’s a selection of alumni updates from the December 1897 issue of The Journal.
Bishop W. W. Duncan, class ’58, will preside at the coming Methodist Conference, which convenes at Florence, S. C. on December 8th. [Interestingly, the South Carolina Conference will meet in Florence this coming June 8.]
L. C. Cannon, ’71, is running the Thompson Gold Mine in Union County. The senior class under the supervision of Prof. DuPre, will visit the mine sometime in the spring.
J. E. Wannamaker, class ’72, is manager of one of the largest farms in Orangeburg County. He expects to raise a bale to the acre on one hundred acres. In addition to his farm, he is running a large and paying saw-mill business.
Rev. A. C. Walker ’75, the father of our star baseball pitcher of last season, is preaching at St. Georges.
S. J. McCoy, class ’95, is teaching school in the Holly Hill Graded School, Berkeley County. He is also assisting his father on his farm.
W. H. Breeland, who was a member of the class of ’00, is taking a medical course at the Charleston Medical College.
H. C. Folk, class of ’80, is running a mammoth mercantile establishment at Bamberg.
F. C. Cummings, class ’96, is principal of the Pacolet Graded School.
J. J. Cantey, class of ’95, is taking a PhD course at Johns Hopkins University.
C. B. Waller, class ’92, is taking a PhD course at Vanderbilt University. [Dr. Waller returned to Wofford and taught chemistry until the 1940s.]
J. J. Burnett, class ’84, is a promising young lawyer of the Spartanburg Bar. He had the high honor of winning the last Greek medal that was offered at Wofford.
E. D. Smith ’89, a brother of Prof. [A. Coke] Smith, is a member of the legislature from Sumter County, having been elected by the largest vote ever received by any legislator from that county. [In 1908, he would win the first of six terms in the U. S. Senate.]
L. M. Dantzler, who completed the Soph. year with the Class of ’99, is studying law at the South Carolina College.
B. F. Wait, class ’95, after leaving Wofford, took his MA at Vanderbilt and is now studying for his PhD at Columbia University in New York, which he will receive in one more year, making him among the youngest PhD’s as he will only then be twenty-one years of age.
A. H. Moss ’92 is practicing law at Orangeburg. He has the reputation of being among the best lawyers of that city, and no doubt in a few years, will be among the foremost lawyers in the state.
S. H. McGhee, class ’95, is teaching school at Dothan, Marion County. Sam was the tenor singer of the famous quartette of ’95.
J. A. Wiggins, class ’95, is professor in the Denmark Graded School.
W. K. Smith, ’96, is managing his father’s general merchandise store at Brighton, Hampton County.
S. C. Hodges, ’95, is clerking in a drug store in Greenwood.
Rev. W. J. Snyder, class ’94, is pastor of the Antreville Station, Anderson County.
H. Z. Nabers, ’93, is teaching school at Coronaca, Greenwood County.
Jones Fuller, ’90, is studying medicine at Vanderbilt.
N. D. Lesesne, ’92, is superintendent of education in Williamsburg County. [His son, J. M. Lesesne, graduated from Wofford in 1919 and became president of Erskine. His grandson, Joab Lesesne Jr., became president of Wofford in 1972.]
D.T. Outz, class ’75, is cashier of the National Bank of Johnson, SC.
Rev. H. F. Chreitzberg, ’73, was removed from the Reidville, NC station to the Tryon Street Methodist Church, Charlotte, NC, at the recent session of the Western North Carolina Conference.
From this, you can see the variety of professions Wofford graduates entered after leaving college.
