Banks, Vance, and Young families papers

Land papers, genealogical information, speeches, personal papers, unattributed essays and writings related to the Banks, Vance, and Young families of South Carolina. Majority of the early land papers relate to property owned by the Young family in Laurens District (S.C.). Several generations represented in this collection include the Rev. William Banks (1814-1875), of Chester County (S.C.); his son Alexander R. Banks (1847- ), and his son-in-law the Rev. Joseph Bingham Mack (1838-1912), a native of New York, chiefly raised in Tennessee who served as pastor in several churches around South Carolina, including at First Presbyterian Church (Columbia, S.C.), and who, in 1864, married Harriet Hudson Banks Mack (1845-1937). Rev. Banks's grandson, also named William Banks (1874-1924), worked as a reporter for the Columbia Register before entering the army during the Spanish-American War. He returned to Columbia and worked for The State, before becoming editor of two upstate newspapers in Anderson County (S.C.) during the early 1910s: the Anderson Daily Mail and Anderson Independent. Banks returned to Columbia (S.C.) to serve as editor of the Columbia Record for the period 1915-1917, before resigning to become head of the South Carolina Public Service Commission and the State Supervisor of Mill Schools. He also served for a number of terms as president and vice-president of the South Carolina Press Association. Journalist William Banks (1877-1924) also had a son named William Banks (1907-1992) who worked as a bank teller at the South Carolina National Bank branch in Columbia's Five Points business district. This collection documents the youngest Banks's involvement with the National Association of Bank Officers and Comptrollers as well as the Five Points Businessmen's Association, the Columbia Civitan Club, and the Columbia Chamber of Commerce.