William Adger Law (Spartanburg, SC)
William Adger Law (Dec. 26, 1864 – Jan. 21, 1936)
Biography
- Name: William Adger Law
- Birth: December 26, 1864 Hartsville, Darlington County, South Carolina
- Death: January 21, 1936, Greensboro, North Carolina; Buried Spartanburg, South Carolina
- Shot in hunting accident
Early life and family
On December 26, 1864, William Adger Law was born on a cotton plantation near Hartsville, Darlington County, South Carolina, the son of Rev. Thomas Hart Law, a Presbyterian clergyman, and Anna Elizabeth Adger Law. Very shortly after his birth his father accepted a call to the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church of Spartanburg, South Carolina, and it was there that William A. Law received his elementary and high school education. The son inherited from his father the same qualities which before his death brought to Rev. Law the post of stated clerk of the Southern denomination of the Presbyterian Church, a post, incidentally, in which he succeeded the father of the late Woodrow Wilson. Vision, courage, self-reliance, respect for his own convictions, but respect also for the convictions of others, and a real interest in people were qualities the father passed on as a heritage to his son.
William A. Law was one of six children--three boys and three girls. One brother, John Adger Law, five years his junior, succeeded to the presidency of the Central National Bank of Spartanburg, when Mr. Law went to Philadelphia, and was a well-known financier and manufacturer of that South Carolina city. Another brother, Robert Adger Law, for years was professor of English in the University of Texas, at Austin. In addition to numerous academic and scholarly distinctions, Dr. Law was noted for his development of brilliant young tennis stars, notable among those being Berkley Bell and Wilmer Allison.
After his preparatory education. Mr. Law matriculated at Wofford College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1881 with his bachelor's degree. He taught school for two years in Wilmington, North Carolina and then became official stenographer for the Seventh Judicial District of South Carolina, turning to practical account the stenography which he had learned in college. At that time he made his first gamble he left the relatively cloistered employment of the Court and in 1891 organized and became president of the Spartanburg Saving Bank.
On December 4, 1889, Mr. Law married Miss Lucy Lathrop Goode in Americus, Georgia, and they had two daughters, Miss Margaret Lathrop Law and Mrs. Anna Harris. A son, William Adger Law, Jr. died at the age of 2 in 1898. In Philadelphia, the Law's made their home 440 Chestnut Avenue, Chestnut Hill.
Banking career
In 1891 Mr. Law organized and became president of the Spartanburg Saving Bank. The Institution was an immediate success and only two years later he accepted the presidency of the Central National Bank of Spartanburg, South Carolina. By 1901 he had organized the South Carolina Bankers' Association, and beyond the borders of his own State the financial world was beginning to take an interest in this young Southerner who was making his voice heard below the Mason and Dixon Line. In 1903 his work had become so prominently recognized that he was offered the post of assistant cashier of the Merchants National Bank of Philadelphia and he accepted. He was made manager of southern business for the Merchants National, one of the leading financial institutions in the country. There was a two-fold courage in that even then, a man born in the old South, in the very years of the Rebellion, and of conservative stock, had to be exceptionally gifted to earn a call from the pushing, hard-driving North. He heard the call and, taking a gamble on his own self-reliance and his own evaluation of his abilities, he achieved remarkable success in relatively short order. He was successively vice-president and president of the Merchants, and when in 1910 it was absorbed by the First National, he became first vice-president of the institution holding Charter No. 1 under the National Banking Act.
On January 11, 1910, F.W. Ayer declined re-election as president and William A. Law, vice president for the previous three years, was unanimously elected to the presidency of the First National. F.W. Ayer was made chairman of the board of directors, an office newly created, and he continued as a director. From 1922 to 1923 William A. Law served as chairman of the board of the institution.
He was 58 years old and he had scaled the heights of Philadelphia's financial eminence, but he didn't hesitate when he was asked to become president of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company in the same year that he became chairman of the First National's board.
In 1910 he was elected president of the Pennsylvania State Bankers' Association, and four years later he was named to the presidency of the American Bankers' Association. During the war he was active In all of the war-time civic movements, serving as chairman of the Philadelphia Committee of the Belgian Children's Relief Association, and he was chairman of the Philadelphia Reno-vise Campaign. Although far from a cloistered individual, Mr. Law never permitted himself to "fall behind" in his knowledge of day-to-day developments in the world of finance, of economics and of government. He was much sought after as a spokesman on the problems of the day, and his addresses were notable for their clarity of expression and their militant refusal to enter into either partisan bias or run-of-the-moment financial and economic idiosyncrasies.
Other career highlights
On April 5, 1922, Mr. Law was unanimously elected president of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia. He was an An incorporator of the American Investment Co. of Spartanburg and was the President of Saxon Mills, a cotton mill charted in 1901 with $200,000 in capital. Despite his intense pre-occupation with his successive professional positions, he was fond of outdoor sports, particularly hunting and golf. At one time he was a student of the violin, and, though increasing demands upon his time compelled him to relinquish any hope of becoming an adept musician, his fondness for music continued throughout his life. Mr. Law was a regular attendee at performances of the Metropolitan Opera Company and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Law, in addition to being a director of the First National Bank, was a director of the Fire Association of Philadelphia, the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company, the Philadelphia Electric Company, and the Reading Company. He was manager of the Saving Fund Society of Germantown and its vicinity, a trustee of the Graduate Hospital, and president of the Board of Trustees of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America. He was a member of the Rittenhouse Club, the Huntingdon Valley Country Club and the Sunnybrook Golf Club.
Later life and death
On January 21, 1936, Willlam A. Law was shot and fatally wounded near Greensboro, North Carolina, while quail hunting with two fellow members of a private hunting club. He sustained his fatal injury when S. Clay Williams, 52-year-old president of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and former chairman of the National Industrial Recovery Board, tripped on a trailing vine of honeysuckle and discharged his shotgun into Mr. Law's left leg, just below the knee, at a distance of 20 feet. It was a tragic coincidence that the two men, who had never previously met, but who had an enthusiastic mutual admiration and a desire to meet, arranged the day's hunt. The third member of the hunting party was A.L. Brooks, president of the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company and well-known Greensboro attorney. The accident occurred at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon in a remote section of the 200-acre quail hunting preserve which was leased by members of the Brushy Creek Hunting Club, of which Mr. Law with five or six friends, was a member. Mr. Williams became a member only recently, and both he and the Philadelphian had looked forward eagerly to their first meeting as fellow sportsmen. Due to the inaccessibility of the section where the tragic accident occurred, the injured man was not brought into the Wesley-Long Hospital until early in the evening. Although oxygen was administered while a blood-transfusion was being made, he died a short time later without regaining consciousness. Mr. Williams was reported as being in a state of collapse. Immediately after the accident, he and Mr. Brooks made a tourniquet out of a leather bolt and then carried their injured companion for an hour until they were able to procure an automobile. They then sped to Siler City, a small community near the hunting lodge, where the flow of blood was halted and first aid administered by a physician. During the better part of the 45-mlle drive to Greensboro, it was said Mr. Law was conscious, very cheerful and was giving his entire attention to dissipating Williams' extreme distress over the accident. Apparently he was either unaware of the seriousness of his condition, or concealed it in order not to increase the self-reproach of his newly-met friend. Mrs. Law, the former Miss Lucy Lathrop Goode, and her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Dwight J. Harris, were informed of the accident and left Philadelphia immediately for Greensboro. They were not Informed of Mr. Law's death until a message intercepted their train at Washington. Mr. Law's other daughter, Miss Margaret Lathrop Law, well-known authoress, also was en-route to join her mother.
An account of the shooting was given by Brooks, who said he was making the statement for himself and Williams. Brooks said Law and Williams were accompanied by a guide, Willie Brower, in a remote part of the preserve owned by the Brushy Creek hunting preserve. "Mr. Williams' feet became entangled in a honeysuckle vine, and he tripped, accidentally discharging his gun," the attorney said. "The charge of birdshot struck Mr. Law In the left leg, near the knee. "It was about 3 o'clock when the accident occurred," the attorney said, and it took practically two hours to get Mr. Law to Siler City, where he was given first aid. Loss of blood had weakened him noticeably, so he was hurried to Greensboro in an ambulance." On the way, Brooks related, the wounded man urged Williams to refrain from self-approach, and quoted him as saying: "It was just one of those things that happen." Siler City authorities said Brower gave the same account of the tragedy. They quoted him as saying Law was about 20 feet away when Williams tripped and discharged the gun. At the very moment that the Mr. Law was fatally injured, insurance representatives of the company which he headed were gathered in Philadelphia for a ceremony that was to have been held in his honor tomorrow. He was to have left on a train for his home that evening. The month of December was made "Law Month" by the Penn Mutual, and all of the general agents throughout the country made a strenuous effort to roll up an impressive volume of business as a testimonial of their regard for their president. The official summation of that month's effort, which was the largest volume of insurance contract closures in years, was to have been disclosed to Mr. Law on the 22d at the Wellington Hotel in Philadelphia. Following a meeting of the board of directors of the company last Wednesday, according to associates here, Mr. Law decided to take a rest and have a few days hunting at the club, a sport which he loved. He had been suffering from a persistent cold for several weeks, and felt that a brief absence from his desk would overcome it. Mr. Williams went to the club last night, and intended to leave again in the afternoon.
On January 23, Funeral services were held at the First Presbyterian Church which he attended during his early manhood while a resident of Spartanburg. They were conducted by the Rev. Henry W. Dubose, the pastor. Among those who attended were a number of business associates and friends from Philadelphia. Two special railway cars brought the Philadelphia party. Their train was late and the funeral was delayed half an hour for their arrival. S. Clay Williams of Winston-Salem sat in a pew near the family.
The widow of William Adger Law was named life beneficiary of his estate of "$200,000 and upward" by his will probated on the 29th of January. Mr. Law stipulated that on the death of his widow, Mrs. Lucy Goode Law, the income shall revert to his two daughters. Miss Anna Law Harris and Miss Margaret Lathrop Law, writer and poet. On their deaths grandchildren were to share the principal. The executors were his widow, his son-in-law, Dwight J. Harris, and the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Co. At the time there were two grandchildren, William Adger Harris and Mary Harris.
Bank Officer Summary
During his banking career, Wm. A. Law was involved with the following bank(s):
- Spartanburg Saving Bank, Spartanburg, SC: President 1891...1892
- Central National Bank, Spartanburg, SC (Charter 4996): President 1895-1902; VP 1904...1907
- Merchants National Bank, Philadelphia, PA (Charter 2462): Cashier 1905-1906, Director 1906-1910, Vice President 1907-1909, President 1910
- First National Bank, Philadelphia, PA (Charter 1): Vice President 1910...1914, President 1915-1921
- Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company: Director
Sources
- William Adger Law on Findagrave.com.
- Banks & Bankers Historical Database (1782-1935), https://spmc.org/bank-note-history-project
- "United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-37912-36380-22?cc=2185145&wc=3XCP-K66:1056306501,1056352801 : accessed 25 August 2015), (M1490) Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925 > Roll 2731, 1925 Mar, certificate no 7500-8099 > image 329 of 894; citing NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.)
- The Bankers' Magazine, Vol. 86, Jan. 1913-June 1913, p. 641.
- The State, Columbia, SC, Sat., Oct. 7, 1899.
- The State, Columbia, SC, Wed., Mar. 4, 1903.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, Wed., Jan. 13, 1906.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, Sat., Jan. 15, 1910.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, Wed., Jan. 22, 1936.
- Asheville Citizen-Times, Asheville, NC, Fri., Jan. 24, 1936.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, Thu., Jan. 30, 1936.