Sumter High School: Class of 1915

The Truth... What is it?

Sumter High School Class of 1915

Dave Pettigrew, SHS class of 1971, has developed an outstanding website in which yearbooks are being scanned onto his free website (HERE..click on a yearbook image) with many class photos, lists of graduates, and an outstanding graphics and text page of the school's history (HERE).

On this page you are now viewing, the memorial #s are memorials on the free Find a Grave (separate but owned by the subscription genealogy website, Ancestry.com).

I want to directly link to some old, online newspaper sources (Sumter's The Watchman & Southron via Library of Congress' Chronicling America, which detail some history and the senior class graduates.

S. C. petition of Legislature, May 1888, HERE.
Commisioner J. T. Green's 1890 letter about the schools, HERE.
Sumter public school system opens 2 Sept 1889, young John B. Duffie, superintendent.
First year (9 months) ends (students: 310 whites & 294 blacks), HERE (Watchman & Southron issue of 4 June 1890, vol. IX #43, page [image] 3, 2nd column from viewer's left near page top).

Links to classes 1889-1912, HERE. W & S of 1910 has 1891-1910 lists HERE and W & S of 1912 lists 1891-1911 HERE.

***(1889-1913, only 10 grades; 1914-1944, only 11 grades)***

***(Student names: before maybe 1915, names by which people were baptized were frequently & without legal process, changed before, say, age 12. Grade school nicknames often changed as the person became older (HERE). In cases of those with 1 or 2 middle names, either or both of those might be deleted as they became older or married. Old printed source material was printed by a more tedious process than today & typos were not uncommon. Females are especially hard to track down from names on graduate lists; so, the birth year range of a graduation group becomes helpful.)***

Sumter HS Class of 1915 (W & S 2 June 1915, p. 6, column 3, 4&5, "Certificates Are Presented to Forty-eight Students", HERE):
(the name they apparently "went by" in italics)

Boys (30):

John Madden Barrett, (born 1897), FaG mem. # 199360022.
"Charlie" Charles Rowland Boyle, Sr., (born 1898), FaG mem. # 85638834.
Charles Edward Bradham, (born 1896), FaG mem. # 127289829.
Hughes Vanderhorst Bradley, (born 1898), FaG mem. # 116536230.
Wiley Moreland Braziel, (born 1897), FaG mem. # 173687807.
James Albert Brogdon, (born 1897), FaG mem. # 94236401.
Hugh Gilbert Brown, (born 1897), FaG mem. # 74410944.
Joel Edgar Brunson, (born 1895), FaG mem. # 93012922.
Alwin Caruthers Burns, (born 1897), (his 1918 Davidson College junior picture...he was football team captain there, HERE), FaG mem. # 112713462.
Charles Herbert Curtis, Sr., (born 1897), FaG mem. # 77448951.
Dewey Coline Deal, (born 1898), (this may be him = FaG mem # 45438026).
David Milling DesChamps, (born 1893), FaG mem. # 71639971.
English Seale DesChamps, II, (born 1899), FaG mem. # 71640009.
John Ambrose Gallagher, (born 1894), FaG mem. # 32168452.
John Thompson Green, Jr., (born 1898), FaG mem. # 125837675.
Thomas Edward Hinson, Jr., (born 1899), FaG mem. # 34058238.
Walter Jennings, (born 18), FaG mem. # (not found yet).
Edward Marion, (born 18), FaG mem. # (not found yet).
Walter Eugene Mims, Jr., (born 1898), FaG mem. # 3735618.
Lawrence Vivian Middleton, (born 18), FaG mem. # (not found yet).
George Harris Rowland, Sr., (born 1897), FaG mem. # 83902183.
James Henry Sanders, (born 1898), FaG mem. # 132146172.
"Bub" William Flinn Shaw, Jr., (born 18), FaG mem. # 132051112.
William Henry Shaw, (born 1897), (died age 23 after one year at Clemson),
FaG mem. # 94237438.
Felder Smith, (born 1897), FaG mem. # 9196738.
Edward Alva Solomons, Jr., (born 1899), (WWII naval Rear Admiral),
FaG mem. # 51353195.
"Mac" Thomas McAlpin Stubbs, (born 1898), FaG mem. # 121478576.
Marion Branch Tolar, (born 18), FaG mem. # (not found yet).
Charles Hooper Wilson, (born 1898), FaG mem. # 112807771.
Robert Lee Wright, Jr., (born 1897), FaG mem. # 71159357.

Girls (17):

Mary Ruth Brown, FaG mem. # (not found yet).
Anna Eliza Brunson, FaG mem. # (not found yet).
Reba Blackwell Brunson, FaG mem. # (not found yet).
Anna Jennings Bryan, (born 1897), FaG mem. # 130156018.
Lillian Delgar, (born 1897), (her son, Harry W. Fowler...FaG # 89440800...would learn the Big Apple dance & become a famous shag dancer), FaG mem. # 89441733.
Minnie Beckham DeLorme, (born 1897), FaG mem. # 6430401.
Mae Cecilia Dunne, (born 1898), m. a Mexican and died in Mexico 12/10/1984; FaG mem. # (not found yet).
Sara DeSaussure Edmunds, (born 1897), FaG mem. # 132100640.
Katherine Flowers, FaG mem. # (not found yet).
Colzy Caroline Heriot, (born 1896), FaG mem. # 65570804.
"Bessie" Emma Elizabeth Hood, (born 1896), FaG mem. # 39031687.
Annie Inez King, (born ), FaG mem. # (not found yet).
"Kate" Katharine Wheeler Mellette, (born 1897), FaG mem. # 84622785.
Mary Ellen Richardson, (is this her?), (born 1894), FaG mem. # 48403333.
Virginia Evelyn Thomas, (born 1898), FaG mem. # 132163170.
Kathleen Walsh, (born 1897), (became First Baptist Church organist many years & piano teacher in Sumter), FaG mem. # 91960019.
Alice Wannamaker, (born 1897), FaG mem. # (not found yet).