Sumter High School: Class of 1918

The Truth... What is it?

Sumter High School Class of 1918

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 1918 (W & S 8 June 1918, p. 5, columns 3&4, "High School Commencement", HERE):
(the name they apparently "went by" in italics)

Boys (9):

John Ingram Blanding, (born1900), FaG mem. # 132142195.
Robert Marion Cothran, (born1900), FaG mem. # 144955853.
Robert Witherspoon DuRant, (born 1899), FaG mem. # 67414733.
Leland Nicholas Edmunds, (born 1889), FaG mem. # 128450873.
William Palmer Gourdin, (born 1900), FaG mem. # 16682403.
Aaron H. Green, (born ?), FaG mem. # (nothing found yet).
Francis Marion Hurst, Sr., (born 1900), FaG mem. # 132247681.
Albert Carroll Phelps, Sr., (born 1903), FaG mem. # 19451590.
Walter William Rowland, Jr., (born 1901), FaG mem. # 131657117.

Girls (20):

"Katie" Kathryn Louise Baker, (born 1898), FaG mem. # 104010465.
Lllian James Blackwell, (born 1900), FaG mem. # 34075207.
Mary Bland, (born 1901), FaG mem. # 116730514.
Lila Constance Brown, (born 1899), FaG mem. # 112764327.
Pearl Brunson, (born 1899), FaG mem. # 78560568.
Constance Ernestine Bultman, (born 1901), FaG mem. # 38930185.
Mary Belle Burgess, (born 1900), FaG mem. # 119641847.
Marian S. Bynum, (born ?), FaG mem. # (nothing found yet).
Mary Elizabeth China, (born 1900), FaG mem. # 103640631.
Marguerite L. Jones, (born ?), FaG mem. # .
Elizabeth LaMotte Lesesne, (born ?), FaG mem. # (nothing found yet).
Susan Janie McKnight, (born 1899), FaG mem. # 46624498.
Elizabeth Osteen, (born 1901), FaG mem. # 75518214.
Kathleen Parham, (born ?), FaG mem. # (nothing found yet).
Antonia Gibson Pitts, (born 1902), FaG mem. # 103845101.
Vermelle E. Pitts, (born 1900), FaG mem. # 132243227.
Maggie Lois Seymour, (born 1900), FaG mem. # 59276185.
Thelma E. Turner, (born ?), FaG mem. # .
Alice Mellichamp Wells, (born 1901), FaG mem. # 63534587.
Jeanette Lee White, (born 1901), FaG mem. # 67836349.

Lincoln HS Class of 1918:
(W&S 15 June 1918, p. 3, column 4, "Lincoln School Notes", HERE)

Boys (4): Bauregard Brock, Lloyd Gary, Mahurley Miller, and Samuel L. Sumpter.

Girl (10): Alethia Anderson, Bessie Alma Buckner, Rachel J. Davis, Mamie Ethelyn Dines, Orilla Durant, Bertha T. Moore, Caroline Lee Richardson, Martha Rivers, Helen E. Roberts, and Minnie B. Spears.

Years 1892-1912, LINKS:

1891

1892

1893 (no graduates, W&S 7 June 1893, p5, col. #3, HERE)

1894

1895

1896

1897

1898

1899

1900

1901