A Glimpse of Greenville: TQ Donaldson’s Critical Leadership

of donaldson The name is not only associated with Greenville’s history, Donaldson Career Center, Donaldson Center Airport and Donaldson Road. While prominent Donaldsons abound, the local heritage rests on the family’s remarkable ancestry. Colonel Thomas Quinton (TQ) Donaldson I.

TQ grew up on his father’s farm, Nimrod Donaldsonin Fork Shoals area of Southern Greenville CountyHe received an excellent education at Williamston under Wesley Leverett, studying Latin, Greek and mathematics. After graduating, the 19-year-old briefly taught before joining the law firm of Charles E. Elford, becoming his legal partner within a few years.

TQ laid down its roots on the occasion of his marriage to Susan Hawke in 1859 and soon had the first of four children. His early involvement in society began with membership in the First Baptist Church in 1854 when it was in its original location. Sons of Temperance He also served as editor of the local Patriot and Mountaineer newspaper before joining the local militia, the Butler Guard, in 1861. First Battle of Bull RunA serious health condition interrupted his service in the Civil War and he returned to Greenville. TQ he purchased a house off Augusta Road (now 412 Crescent Avenue, one of Greenville’s oldest homes) in 1868 and expanded it into his current two-story configuration.

As Greenville faced difficult years, reconstruction, railroad connections to the area had, fortunately, already been secured with the arrival of the Greenville and Columbia Railroad in 1853. TQ was elected its clerk in 1867, beginning his lifelong interest and investment. Greenville rail systemIn 1870, TQ led an effort by Greenville to become part of the new Airline Railroad as chairman of the local committee, soliciting a total of $200,000 for affiliation. That same year, he ran for mayor, but was narrowly defeated. His social importance was secured by his victory in his landslide election as state senator from 1872 until 1876, where he served. He resumed his legal practice in 1876, and in 1897 the governor ordered him to amend the state tax code. He was elected president of the Greenville Bar Association in his 1901. The year of Reconstruction also saw the start of a series of investments by TQ in the city’s financial structure. In 1877 he founded the Mechanics Construction Lending Association, and in 1901 the Mutual He Loans He became a director of the Fund, Western Carolina Fire Insurance CompanyIn 1896 he founded the Mechanics Perpetual Building & Loan Association and in 1910 was elected Vice President of City National Bank.

When Greenville’s textile industry took off in the last decades of the 20th century, TQ should have been fully involved in it too.When Huguenot Mill TQ was chartered in 1882 and TQ was a major local investor and its first president with Charles Laneau Jr., a transplanted to Charleston, as treasurer. A few years later he became a major investor in a startup. mills manufacturing Located on Mills Avenue. When Brandon Mill opened in 1901, he was one of its original directors, and two years later he was elected to the board of McGee Manufacturing.in the middle Woodside Mills After major expansion in 1911, making it America’s largest factory, TQ was elected to the board of directors.

Beyond TQ’s involvement in the military, news, legal, political, transportation, financial and textile aspects of the city, perhaps his most enduring legacy was his appointment as the city’s first chairman of the school board in 1886. It was the leadership that established the school system. Upon his TQ’s death in 1912, the School Board made the following public resolution: A copy of this preamble and resolution shall be placed in our minutes, a copy sent to his family, and the same printed in the city newspaper.” Four years later, he attended Donaldson Elementary School on his street in Tyndall. was named after him. The family’s local presence is such that retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Donaldson V and his wife Debbie relocated to a house off the road in Augusta near his ancestral home on Crescent Avenue. It continues.