The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-08-08
OLDEST ST. ANDREWS
SOCIETY IN AMERICA

Scots Charitable Society, Boston
said, 81 know it would be interest
ing reading to me and many Others
if President Mofitt or some other
member of the St. Andrews Society
of Charleston, would give US in these
columns a history of its founding"
Acting on that suggestion, the So
ciety at it's next monthly meeting
adopted a resolution entrusting to
me the grateful task of preparing
"a sketch of the history of the Soci-
ETY. for The Scottish American" A
brief sketch" it must be to adapt
it to the limits of these columns. To
do the subject full and worthy JUS
tice n could fill a good sized book;
for the history of our Society, unlike
the "short and simple annals of the
poor" embraces a period of almost
two hundred years during which the
Society had many stirring expert
enceS.
On st. Andrews Day, the 30th of
November, 1929, a number of Char
lesion gentlemen, nearly all Scots
by birth, formed themselves into a
society for the purpose of cultivat-
ing and maintaining "a good under
standing and acquaintance with one
another 'and with the design "of
promoting some public good by their
joint endeavor." They called the
society "The Saint Andrews Club,
at Charleston, in South Carolina"
Membership was not limited to men
of Scottish birth or blood, for the
rules declared that "any man of
honour and integrity, of what nation,
degree, or profession soever," was
admissible into the Society.
Let us note that this declaration
of the doctrine of human brother
hood was made by those Scots of
Charleston sixty-fve years before
Burns sang
cts comm yet, for a that,
That man to man, the world DER
Shall brithers be for a. that"
And how long agon in American
history all this happened is shown by
the striking fact that the city of Bal
timore and the Saint Andrews Socie-
ty of Charleston, were founded in
the same year-A. D.. 1929.
The list of new members added
in 1780-during the British occupa-
tion-discloses the fact that the st.
Andrews Society was loyal to the
Crown. Fifteen of those new men,
bers were British officers, including,
besides majors and captains, a Scot
fish peer, a baronet, and six colo
nels.
Between 1881 and 1857 there was
a great gulf fixed; and on the re-
vival of the Society in 1857 we find
that Gen. William Moultrie was
elected president,-a fact which tells
its own story. In the Columbian
Herald, Nov. 18th, 1887, appeared
the following interesting notice.
"The members of the Old St. An
drew's Club in Charleston, and those
who wish to become members of the
same, r requested to give in their
names at the Bar of Williams Coffee
House."
1t appears that the Society had no
hall mol home of its own until 1915;
and that it's meetings were held in
private houses. In the South Caro-
line Gazette of 1892 is an account of
the anniversary meeting of St. An
drew's Club, at which "his excel
lency the Governor, Alex. Skene,"
etc. etc., land about 40 other men,
bers residing in the province, met at
the house of Mr.. Henry Gignilliat.'
On st. Andrews Day, 1915, the
Society dined for the first time in
their own new hall, a handsome
building on Broad street, next the
old cathedral. Here were held their
annual and monthly meetings until
1861, when, on the night of Deem
Der, 18th, the St. Andrews Society
Hall was utterly destroyed in the
great fire which devastated half of
Charleston.
Fortunately the records of the
Society were saved, as were also the
greatly priced suff-mulls, as ancient
as the Society itself. The paintings
which had adorned the walls were
rescued, and sent for safekeeping to
Columbia, there to be lost when
Sherman's army burst Columbia in
February, 1865.
Of its cherished possessions the
Society values most highly the parch,
ment roll on which, besides the orr
ginal rules, are the autograph sigma.
lures of all the members from 1928
until the Revolutionary War. It is
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