The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-04-26
CHARLES PEARCE PELHAM.

The fears expressed IN our issue Oh yesterday a.
to the critical condition of our editorinchief have
alas proved but too true and to-day The Register
goes to our readers draped in mourning, and
ing the sad tidings of his decease. He expired at
o'clock yesterday morning, without pain, quietly
and calmly, resigned to his departure at peace with
God and man.
Charles Pearce Pelham was born in Marlboro
County, South Carolina, November II, 1916. At
Bennettsville its county seat he received his early
education. He was prepared for college, however,
ut the excellent academy in the charming little
town of Cheraw, where he had the invaluable as
sistance among other teachers Of NOTE Of the cee-
brated DR.. Thornwell, principal of the academy,
then and always his friend and admirer. He en-
tered the South Carolina College In 1886, gradna-
ting with distinction in 1888. The memories Of
some of his unpublished productions, during his
undergraduate course, yet linger among his con-
temporarics. Such was his proficiency in the Greek
and Roman tongues, and so great the estimate in
which it was held by his instructors, that immedi-
ately upon his graduation he was elected by tho
faculty tutor in the department of languages, the
duties Of which important position he discharged
with signal ability until the summer of 1S43, when
upon an outward-bound voyage, for the realization
of an enjoyment to which he had been looking for
ward with pleasure-the visiting in person, the
scenes with which his intimate knowledge OF the
classics had made him as familiar as household
words. He travelled through England with the
lively interest and the obseryant eye OF m educa-
ted American, proud of the glories and familiar
with the history of that grand old country whence
we derive 80 much Of our literature and life, social
and political, and in whose living language were Ut
tered the first broken sentences Of constitutional
liberty through France with tho zest OF one In
tensely enjoying the novel revelations Of contnen-
tai life and reveling in the art treasures OF the gay
est and most gorgeous of modern capitals through
Switzerland with tho appreciation of the grand and
beautiful, so keen in nature so fresh and taste
so cultivated as his. But in Italy and Greece he
fingered with the veneration of q worshipper and
the gratitude of child His pleasure was ike the
qualification of the pilgrim who sees at length with
his eyes the far-of shrines of his early idolatry;
and he realized to the full the truth Of the remark
of traveller ola few years before to the same classic
scenes the prime English lerateur of the century:
"surey it Is better to travel in mature years, with
all these recollectons in ones head, than TO rush
over the continent while still boy" In the pithy
language Of the graceful historian of the college,
"at his mature age and familiar with the grent a-
thors of antiquity 1t may readily be believed that
it was truly school of wisdom, and in q very spe-
cial sense important to the life which he was des-
tined to lead upon his return to Carolina" The
exotic grace impaired to his style by his delightful
sojourn in these lands Of song and story was per-
ceptible to the last. Immediately upon his return
from abroad he was called to the classical chair Of
Mount Zion College, at Winnsboro, so long and so
widely known as the training school Of the upper
country for the State college. But conspicuous as
was this position, the Trustees Of the South Caro-
lima College, the pride and glory Of the State in her
better days and the nursing mother Of so many OF
her sons, "whose names aftertimes will not will
ingly let die" regarded him necessary among its
corps of professors, and in November 1886 elected
to the chair of Roman literature, in which he con-
tinued until September, 1857, when he was elected
Professor of History Political Economy and Polit-
ical Philosophy, which he held until November 25
of the same year. when his career in the college
ceased.
The bent of his natural and acquired tastes, his
high culture and foreign travel all peculiarly fitted
him for the appreciation Of whatever is elegant,
commanding, graceful or lovely in the wide domain
of the Latin tongue. All Of that brilliant galaxy
who with him in 1850 illustrated "intersras acadia
n,r whatever there was of classic or scientific in
South Carolina, have preceded him to the grave.
Preston the President, the first Of living orators,
whose unstudied talks to his classes were worth
more than they found in Blair and kames; Liebcr,
whose knowledge Of history seemed almost univer-
sal, and whose fame extended TO both hemispheres;
Brumby, most acute aud enthusiastic Of chemists;
facie princep, of all Americans who in these lister
years have followed Calvin and bowed down to
Aristotle Williams, gulleess as child, most exact
of mathematicians; Henry, who filled with ease
any role in the department of professor confessed
ly first of Grecians and LaBorde, most amiable
of men, most afectionate Of instructors, to whom
twas vouchsafed to photograph forever the life of
that alma mater with which his own was bound up,
before be was borne to the grave amid the tears of
three decades of students who had sat Mt his feet
and now the last survivor Of that select corps is
gone. His services and theirs are recorded In the
history of the college and live in the memory of its
graduates.
Among the critiques and contributions period
icals during the period of his proiessoriate Is an
article in the Southern Quarterly Reriep for 1885, on
Cicero O6lciis which shows so thorough an appreci-
alton of that great bd5k, called by high authority
the foundation of all modern equity, and OF its