Lewis Malone Ayer

Lewis Malone Ayer junior

Lewis Malone Ayer junior (born November 12, 1821 in Barnwell , South Carolina , † March 8, 1895 in Anderson , South Carolina) was an American lawyer , plantation owner and politician . He belonged to the Democratic Party .

Career

Lewis Malone Ayer junior was about six and a half years after the end of the British-American war on Patmos, the plantation of his father, near the old Beaufort Bridge in Barnwell District born. He was the third child and only son of Lewis Malone Ayer senior (1769–1863) and his third wife, Rebecca Ervin. During the War of Independence , his father worked as a courier boy for Francis Marion (1732–1795) and was distinguished on many occasions by his quick-wittedness. His grandfather, Thomas Ayer (1723–1781), who was of Scottish - Irish descent, came to Virginia as a child and grew up there. In 1759 he moved to the Marlboro District, South Carolina, where he held an officer's license from the Crown for a time. He was a member of the Marlboro District Grand Jury , which was very early in favor of independence. The Tories ravaged the Ayers' lands during the War of Independence. At that time, Lewis Malone Ayer Sr. fled with his then-wife and a child and all of their worldly goods on an ox cart and settled in the Barnwell District. There he became a plantation manager for some wealthy plantation owners. Over time he was able to establish himself as a trader and plantation owner. He became one of the wealthiest men of the time. He represented his district in the House and Senate of South Carolina for 25 years . He died at the age of 95.

Lewis Malone Ayer junior received extensive training. For a time he visited the Mercer Institute , a Manual Training School in Penfield ( Georgia ), she left but then again because of the cruelty of his teacher. He later went to the Mount Zion Academy in Winnsboro (South Carolina), which was then headed by Professor James W. Hudson. Ayer made lifelong friendships with Dr. Francis Peyre Porcher (1824–1895) from Charleston (South Carolina) and to Congressman Preston Brooks (1819–1857), who commanded the cadet company, where he was a lieutenant. In 1838 he attended South Carolina College for a while, but left before graduating to go to the University of Virginia , where he was the editor of the college newspaper. He studied law at Harvard University . During this time he attended the lectures of Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853) and Joseph Story (1779-1845) there. His student days were overshadowed by the economic crisis of 1837 . After graduation, he returned to Barnwell and began to practice under Angus Patterson (1790-1854). He later gave up his practice as a lawyer for an unknown reason and went into farming for several years.

He also served in the South Carolina Militia while serving as an attorney . Ayer held the rank of Colonel in the 43rd  Regiment and later Brigadier General in the 3rd  Division . He was the youngest in command of the last listed unit. He also represented the district in the South Carolina House of Representatives between 1848 and 1856 several times. He was characterized by his independent thinking and acting, often defending opposition measures in front of his colleagues.

Ayer set up and equipped a company at his own expense at the start of the border war . With this he then marched in 1856 into the Kansas Territory to ensure the protection and promotion of slavery there. During his absence, his brother-in-law, Judge Alfred Proctor Aldrich (1814-1897), wrote to him and asked for his consent to nominate him for the post of governor of South Carolina. Ayer declined this request, assuming the nomination for his old friend's congressional seat was Preston Brooks. He later ran against Mr. Owens of the Barnwell District for nomination in the third constituency of South Carolina for the United States Congress . He was finally elected to the 37th US Congress in 1860 , but did not take his congressional seat because of the secession. In 1861 he represented the Barnwell District as a delegate to the South Carolina Secession Assembly, where he voted for his state's secession. After that he wanted to take an active role in the defense of the state by helping to raise troops. On the advice of friends, he gave up his military career ambitions to serve in the Confederate Congress instead . He ran against David Flavel Jamison (1810-1864), the chairman of the Secession Assembly, for a seat in the Confederate Congress. In November 1861 he was finally elected to the first Confederate Congress for the third constituency of South Carolina , where he took up his post on February 18, 1862. In his re-election, he ran against Robert Rhett (1800–1876), editor of the Charleston Mercury. After his successful election to the second Confederate Congress , he worked there until 1865.

After the end of the Civil War he worked as a tobacco salesman in Charleston (South Carolina) until 1868. It was then that he began working his Barnwell District plantation again. In 1872 he became a Baptist minister . Ayer moved to Anderson, South Carolina in 1881, where he founded a seminary for young women. He died there in 1895 and was then buried in the Old Silverbrook Cemetery .

family

Lewis Malone Ayer junior was married twice. In 1842 he married Anna Elizabeth Patterson (1825-1862), daughter of Hannah Frizzell Trotti (1798-1889) and Angus Patterson (1790-1854), with whom he began to practice as a lawyer. The couple had seven children together: Isabel, Joseph Aiken, Alfred Aldrich (1847–1937), Lewis Malone III. (1849–1892), Thomas Raysor (1850–1919), Francis “Frank” Trotti (1855–1883) and Anna Iris (1856–1890). The first two children named died in childhood. After the death of his first wife, he married Lillie Moore (1846–1919), daughter of Sarah Blythe (1816–1849) and Thomas Verner Moore (1818–1871) in 1864. The couple had five children together: Malcolm, Marie Louise "Lulah" (1865-1938), Hartwell Moore (1868-1917), Verna Blythe (1869-1952) and Paul Earle (1876-1910). The first-named child died in childhood.

Web links

• Lewis Malone Ayer in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Lewis Malone Ayer Junior on The Political Graveyard website
• Lewis Malone Ayer Junior on the University of Virginia website
• Anniversary Edition - House Divided - The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lewis Malone Ayer Sr. in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015.
2. ^ Lewis Malone Ayer Sr. in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015. (with different date of death)
3. ↑ Rebecca Ervin Ayer in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015.
4. ↑ Thomas Ayer in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015.
5. ↑ Fairfield County - Mount Zion Academy
6. ↑ Book of Relations - Professor James W. Hudson ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ^ Francis Peyre Porcher on the Waring Historical Library website
8. ^ Angus Patterson on the archive.org website
9. ^ Alfred Proctor Aldrich in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015.
10. ↑ David Flavel Jamison in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015.
11. ↑ The Confederate States almanac and repository of useful knowledge: for the year 1863 , Gale Cengage Learning, ISBN 9781432804930 , p. 33
12. ^ Robert Barnwell Rhett in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015.
13. ↑ Anna Elizabeth Patterson on the ancestry.com website
14. ↑ Lewis Malone Ayer on the ancestry.com website
15. ^ Francis "Frank" Trotti Ayer on the ancestry.com website
16. ↑ Anna Iris Ayer Smith in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015.
17. ^ Lillie Moore Hamilton in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015.
18. ^ Lillie Moore on the ancestry.com website
19. ↑ Marie Louise "Lulah" Ayer Vandiver in the database of Find a Grave . Retrieved January 7, 2015.
20. ^ Hartwell Moore in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015.
21. ↑ Verna Blythe Ayer Akerberg in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015.
22. ↑ Paul Earle Ayer in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015.