John Lawrence Frierson (b. 9/4/1883, d.1/30/1963) is my paternal grandfather – we called him “Papa” and his many friends called him “Johnny”. He was born in Stateburg, S.C., prepared for college at Porter Military Academy in Charleston and entered Hobart College (now Hobart and William Smith College) in Geneva, New York, in 1901 where he studied for two years. His oldest brother Nelson Frierson had graduated from Hobart in 1896 and no doubt Nelson encouraged John to follow in his footsteps. Hobart at the time was affiliated with the Episcopal Church as was the Porter Military Academy and it was always my understanding that admitting “Southern boys” into the mix at Hobart was an attempt by the Episcopal Church at reconciliation between the North and South after the Civil War. John played lacrosse and joined the Kappa Alpha fraternity while at Hobart, but left before graduating and returned in 1903 to Stateburg to the family home Cherry Vale where he worked as a cotton merchant and farmer. The stationery below was apparently used as a notepad by Nelson to annotate the grave locations of various military men of the Revolution, War of 1812 and the Civil War who hailed from Stateburg.
In April of 1911, he married Georgia Dargan (1886-1974) at her home Marston (incorrectly spelled in the Watchman and Southron issue of April 26, 1911, below) and over the next few years they built their own house which they named Fairview and began their young family. John L. Frierson, Jr. (“Jack”) was born in 1915 and George Dargan Frierson, my father, was born in 1921. John and Georgia and their sons were very active in the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross at Stateburg, where John was lay reader, served on the vestry and was Senior Warden and Georgia was the organist for many, many years.
The photo of the family in church vestments was likely taken at the church probably in the late 1930s and shows (l. to r.) Jack, Georgia, John, and Dargan.
The photo below that one shows Dargan, John, and Jack outside Fairview – it was also probably taken in the late 1930s. I think I still have that old rocking chair behind them!
John and Georgia continued their involvement with the Holy Cross Church as long as they lived in Stateburg and in 1950, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the laying of the present Church’s cornerstone, John wrote a short History of the Holy Cross Church. In it he describes the two churches that preceded Holy Cross, the people who were involved during those early years (including his grandfather John Napolean Frierson and his grandmother’s father, Holy Cross’ longest-serving rector Rev. Augustus Lawrence Converse), and many other interesting facts and figures about the Church. I recently found a copy of the history and have uploaded it on archive.org . Here’s the link and I hope you enjoy reading through it. The document can be read on the archive site or downloaded to your own device in .pdf format.
History of the Church of the Holy Cross
John and Georgia moved to Darlington, S.C., in 1957 after losing a battle with the U.S. Air Force to keep their home from being engulfed by the expansion of Shaw Air Force Base (this is another interesting story in itself that I’m working on!), and John died in Darlington in 1963 at age 79.