The Truth... What is it?





  Sumter High School, Early Years (Class of 1921)

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 1920) (W & S, 15 June 1921, p. 3, column 2 "Closing Exercises of Sumter High School"
[47 graduates], HERE)
***Online yearbook HERE.***
(the name they apparently "went by" in italics)

Boys (22):

  • Robert Purdy Bland, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 1167318812.
  • Fred Edward Buck, (born 1903), (sec.-treas. of boys class), FaG mem. # 132154153.
  • Jack Willard Chandler, Sr., (born 1903), FaG mem. # 110425410.
  • Frank Kennedy Clarke, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 128632913.
  • Charles Lynum Cuttino, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 130181944.
  • Joel Turner Davis, (born 1902), FaG mem. # 78817487.
  • DeSaussure Davis Edmunds, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 8146104.
  • James Henry Fogle, (born 1905), FaG mem. # 55695155.
  • Ernest Mason Friar, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 200544691.
  • Randolph Hobson Guthrie, (born 1905), FaG mem. # 82685562.
  • Charles Riley Haynsworth, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 142278935.
  • Henry James McLaurin, Jr., (born 1904), FaG mem. # 79766336.
  • William Moran, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 176160184.
  • Harry Bayard Price, (born 1905), possibly became the writer about The Marshal Plan, etc....a if so, a possible Did You Know; FaG mem. # .
  • Harry Joseph Ryttenberg, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 80079882.
  • Henry Harby Shelor, (born 1905), FaG mem. # 76698309.
  • Samuel Frank Sholar, (born 1903), FaG mem. # 24850499.
  • James Blanding Upshur, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 46299213.
  • Stanley Capers Weinberg, (born 1903), FaG mem. # 101945522.
  • Vivian Percival Weldon, (born 1902), FaG mem. # 211570911.
  • Robert Harrall Whilden, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 57341217.
  • George Williamson Wray, Sr., (born 1903), (boys' class president) FaG mem. # 97729719.
  • Jack Wright, (born 1904), (VP boys' class), FaG mem. # 115429975.

Girls (26):

  • Ella Mae Allen, (born 19), FaG mem. # .
  • Ethel Bateman, (born 1903), FaG mem. # 117492623.
  • Sarah P. Brogdon, (born 191902), FaG mem. # 94236651.
  • Mildred Marian Brunson, (born 1903), FaG mem. # 129291770.
  • Ethel Shaffer Bynum, (born 19), FaG mem. # .
  • Mary Allene Carroll, (born 19), FaG mem. # .
  • Bayis Earle DuRant, (born 1903), FaG mem. # 67438546.
  • Thelma Magalis Gaston, (born 1902), (class sec.-treas., girls), FaG mem. # 129130015.
  • Donna Elizabeth Mims, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 112627407.
  • Agnes Doris Moses, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 80065107.
  • Meddie Mae Nunnamaker, (born 1902), FaG mem. # 109559611.
  • Bessie Parham, (born 19), FaG mem. # .
  • Bertha Ragin, (born 1902), FaG mem. # 115226702.
  • Myra Ramsey, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 65637882.
  • Sarah Kate Reames, (born 1903), FaG mem. # 93060106.
  • Margaret R. Sanders, (born 191903), FaG mem. # 41914692.
  • Martha Priscilla Shaw, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 106621111.
  • Evelyn Shirer, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 211617147.
  • Daisy Emily Smith, (born 1903), FaG mem. # 40617814.
  • Frances Genevieve Smith, (born 1903), FaG mem. # 93022602.
  • Floride Gwendolyn Smith, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 112815950.
  • Sarah R'Envy Till, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 186618714.
  • Nannie Eugenia Vaughn, (born 1901), FaG mem. # 121379450.
  • Mary Katherine Vogel, (born 1904), FaG mem. # 79457976.
  • Cornelia Letilla White, (born 1903), FaG mem. # 115928475.

Lincoln HS Class of 1922:
(none yet found)

Boys (?):

Girl (?):

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

1902

1903

1904

1905

1906

1907

1908

1909

1910

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915

1916

1917

1918

1919

1920

1921

1922

1920 through at least 1972
(then click on any yearbook image)

***PLEASE!!! email me (poptop43@yahoo.com) about errors, broken links, & infomation "leads"***

check out the Highest TRUTH

(posted 27 January 2018; latest update June 2020)

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