TOMPKINS, ARTHUR SMYLY, farmer
and lawyer, of Edgefield, South Carolina, was born at Meeting Street
post office. Edgefield county. South Carolina. March 31. 1851. His
father. DeWitt Clinton Tompkins. was a physician who served as
magistrate in his county, and in the War between the States was
captain of Company K. Fourteenth South Carolina
regiment., a man
who is remembered for his amiability and his conversational powers.
His mother, Mrs. Hannah Virginia (Smyly) Tompkins. was a woman of
exceptionally strong mind, of good business ability, and a strong
Christian character, whose influence over her son has continued
strong throughout his life. Her earliest known American ancestor was
Colonel James Smyly, born in Ireland, who came to South Carolina
about 1785. His father is descended from Captain Stephen Tompkins,
who raised and commanded a company of cavalry in the Revolutionary
war. His boyhood was passed in the country. Until thirteen he was
robust and vigorous; but after that age his health was delicate.
Even in early boyhood he was required to do some regular work on the
farm. He says: "It hardened my muscles and gave me a tough
constitution." While still a boy he became passionately fond of
three books: the Bible, Shakespeare, and Virgil. He attended the
country schools of Edgefield, and entering the South Carolina
university at Columbia, he was graduated in 1872.
His father had
made easy for him the way to a liberal education, providing him with
ample funds. After completing the undergraduate course at the
University of South Carolina, he
took a two years' course in law
at the law school of Columbia university, at Washington, District of
Columbia. He then read law for a year in the office of Frank H.
Miller, Esq., at Augusta, Georgia, where he was admitted to the bar,
June 15, 1875. He opened a law office the same summer in Augusta.
Georgia, where he resided until 1876. In 1879 he settled in
Edgefield, Edgefield county, where he has since divided his time and
attention between the practice of law and farming. Of the
occupations and experience of a South Carolina lawyer in the rural
districts, Mr. Tompkins gives his impressions in these words: "A
lawyer in a country town is a sort of waste-basket for all the petty
ills and quarrels of the country around him, and must be a man of
all sorts of capacities, who will not mind interruption; he must
often undertake the hard task of trying to explain to his client how
he lost his case. But a country lawyer has a heap of leisure and a
lot of fun."
Mr. Tompkins was married, June 15, 1880, to Lizzie
D. Hoistein, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Moses N. Holstein, of Ridge
Spring, both of whom are still living in the house into which
they moved when they were married fifty four years ago. They
have had several children, but during all this long period the
family circle has not been broken by death. The father of Mrs.
Holstein was Allen Dozier, a wealthy planter who was noted for
his piety and whose home was near Big Creek, in what is now Saluda
county. They have had nine children, of whom eight are living in
1907. Mr. Tompkins has contented himself with attempting to
discharge the duties of a private citizen, and he has never held or
aspired to hold any official position. In college he was a member of
the Chi Psi fraternity. He is a Knight of Pythias and a Knight of
Honor. In his church relations he is affiliated with the Baptists.
He finds his favorite exercise in walking, swimming and hunting.
He has all his life been very strongly impressed with the
conviction that children should pass their lives until they are
nearly twenty in the healthful surroundings of the country; and
during their years of schooling should be taught gardening, farm
work, and other useful out-of-door occupations. He holds it "self
evident that the city is no place for a boy." He advocates
systematized efforts, on the part of parents who live in cities, to
organize schools for their little ones in country places, and even
at the cost of separating children from their parents, he advises
the training of all city children in country
schools.
Men of Mark in South Carolina By James Calvin Hemphill
Published 1907 – transcribed and contributed by Barb
Ziegenmeyer
