Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 31.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

Officers.

In the subsequent years the following officers were annually elected:

1867—J. M. Carson, President; H. B. Olney, Senior Warden; Samuel J. Burger, Junior Warden; J. L. Honour, Secretary and Treasurer.

1868—J. M. Carson, President; H. B. Olney, Senior Warden; H. I. Greer, Junior Warden; J. L. Honour, Secretary and Treasurer. [5]

1869—C. H. Simonton, President; H. B. Olney, Senior Warden; T. G. Barker, Junior Warden; J. L. Honour, Secretary and Treasurer.

1870—C. H. Simonton, President; H. B. Olney, Senior Warden; T. G. Barker, Junior Warden; J. L. Honour, Secretary and Treasurer.

1871—H. B. Olney, President; J. L. Honour, Senior Warden; F. L. Parker, M. D., Junior Warden; D. B. Gilliland, Secretary and Treasurer.

1872—J. L. Honour, President; F. L. Parker, M. D., Senior Warden; A. W. Taft, Junior Warden; D. B. Gilliland, Secretary and Treasurer.

1873—J. L. Honour, President; F. L. Parker, M. D., Senior Warden; A. W. Taft, Junior Warden; D. B. Gilliland, Secretary and Treasurer.

There are now few who can recall those nine years—1866-74– with the privations, humiliations and poverty, incident to those deplorable times of carpet-bag and ignorant rule, and, in stating what was done in those years, those conditions must be kept in view.

The money help disbursed to those who needed assistance was as follows: 1866-67, $15200; 1868, $201.50; 1869, $118.70; 1870, $187.00; 1871, $224.50; 1872, $190.50; 1873, $229.00; 1874, $169.00—a total of $1,472.20, or an average annually of $163.58!

Considering all the circumstances—the universal impoverishment of the community, and, of course, the very limited means of survivors—it is a unique, a marvelous exhibit, and is entitled to this permanent record; all being the contributions of members, except a gift of $150.00 from the late James T. Welsman, which, with some other surplus funds, was invested, to start a permanent Charity Fund. This amounted, in certain securities at par, to $744.00, and was transferred, at the consolidation of the ‘Charitable Association’ and ‘W. L. I. Rifle Club’ in 1875; this, then, is really the cornerstone of the present ‘Annuitants' Fund’ of the Washington Light Infantry of $17,000, now held by the trustees of that fund, of which reference will be made hereafter.

The political condition of South Carolina, then called ‘The Prostrate State,’ was so deplorable, the inability to have regular military commands, and the need of an organization of armed men, led to the forming of ‘Rifle Clubs,’ mostly on the basis of old military commands. The W. L. I. took part in this movement, and the first large turn-out of armed men seen in Charleston since [6] the war, was in the celebration of Washington's Birthday in 1873, when, upon the invitation of the W. L. I., all the ‘Rifle Clubs’ paraded together, and about one thousand men, with arms in their hands, marched through the streets of Charleston.

The writer had been called to the command of the Rifle Club in May, 1872, with the promise of a short two-year service, to secure a permanent life to the organization. Withdrawing from the command on 22d May, 1874, this extract is made from his letter of resignation: ‘While attention to military studies and exactness in drill should mark your future, be ever mindful of those in whose homes are the vacant chairs; whose young lives have been darkened by broad shadows from recent battle-fields—the widow and the fatherless! Let us illustrate our times with deeds of charity and of kindness, and if incentive is wanting for renewed exertion in this direction, refer to the records of our own’ Charitable Association ‘for reminder of what earnest men can do. * * * Under their auspices, they also erected the first memorial shaft raised in South Carolina in honor of the dead of the war.’

Within one year the ‘Easter Fair’ was held, the most brilliant public entertainment ever seen in Charleston, made so largely by the taste, talent and enegy of the late Major R. C. Gilchrist, and the effective work of the members of the Rifle Club. The net proceeds were over $8,000. In dealing with this handsome result, the Rifle Club created a trust (of five members), separate from the general Treasury of the command. The trustees have, in twenty-eight years, by judicious investments, doubled the original amount of 1875, and as far as is known, this is to-day the only Permanent Confederate Benefaction in the South. The management of this fund has been conducted throughout, without one cent of cost for administration—a labor of love by the trustees!