Sumter High School: Class of 1919

The Truth... What is it?

Sumter High School Class of 1919

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. The June 1, 1919 issue of the State newspaper, page 24 has a report of the SHS uniqueness wriiten by Dr. S. H. Edmunds & has a Girls School graduates group photo and a Boys School graduates group photo without graduate names with either.

***(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 1919 (W & S 14 June 1919, p. 7, column 3, "High School Commencement", HERE):
(the name they apparently "went by" in italics)

Boys (24):

Edward Simons Booth, Jr., (born 1902), FaG mem. # 116076677.
Douglas Cooper Cheyne, Sr., (born 1903), FaG mem. # 103793122.
George Lloyd Cothran, (born 1902), FaG mem. # 211432262.
Clifford Rankin Crawford, (born1902), (pro baseball player & went by nickname, "Pat"),
FaG mem. # 24348971 ; Wikipedia entry, HERE.
Calhoun Dove Cunningham, (born 1901), FaG mem. # 50339476.
Charles Leslie Denniston, Sr., (born 1902), FaG mem. # 193830361.
Alexander Colclough Dick, (born), FaG mem. # 179409046.
James Doby Dinkins, (born 1900), FaG mem. # 133763008.
Samuel Henry Edmunds, Jr., (born 1901), FaG mem. # 20811889.
Robert Leland Edmunds, Jr., (born 1902), FaG mem. # 126066513.
"Donnie" Donald Fraser Kirven, (born 1901), FaG mem. # 130085937.
Furman Jenkins Knight, (born 1901), (co-owner Knight Brother's Office Supply)
FaG mem. # 92749668.
Henry Eugene Lewis, (born 1900), FaG mem. # 187885259.
James Wesley Lewis, (born 1903), FaG mem. # 52337514.
Eugene Henry Moses, Jr., (born 1903), FaG mem. # 65556235.
"Archie" Archibald Phelps, (born 1901), FaG mem. # 19451519.
James Everard Raffield, Sr., (born 1902), FaG mem. # 82489993.
Wade Riley Reynolds, (born 1900), FaG mem. # 84809158.
Leslie Kenneth Schwartz, (born 1903), FaG mem. # 211435956.
John Whitworth Shaw, Jr., (born 1901), FaG mem. # 74499878.
Henry Wiley Sholar, Jr., (born 1904), FaG mem. # 140266408.
Walter Claude Smith, (born 1901), FaG mem # 84044417
Robert Jennings Till, (born 1902), FaG mem. # 89136524.
Alexander Dick Tisdale, (born), FaG mem. # (not found yet).