Philip Weaver

Background

Philip Weaver was a son of John and Ruth (Wilbur) Weaver of North Scituate, R. I, and a descendant of Clement Weaver who was in Weymouth, Massachussets, by 1643.

Career

As early as 1812 Philip went from his home in Coventry, R. I, to work for the Dudley Cotton Manufacturing Company, Dudley, Massachussets; in 1815 he was associated with Weaver, Hutchings & Company, for whom he did work on patterns and rollers. Early in 1816 he moved to Spartanburg District, S. C. , accompanied by his brothers, John, Wilbur, and Lindsay, as well as William Sheldon, John Clark, Thomas Slack, William Bates, and Thomas Hutchings. He was unhappy in South Carolina, chiefly because he felt that he and his family were "looked down upon with contempt" because they were "opposed to the abominable practice of slavery"; nevertheless, he remained there for a number of years. Between December 1816 and 1820 he and his associates experienced serious difficulties because of shortage of cash; the Spartanburg Judgment Roll lists several judgments against them for both large and small sums. In 1819 Weaver was arrested for non-payment of one of these claims, but one Thomas Craven went his bail. The Weaver mill was on land owned by Rev. Benjamin Wofford who, was at that early date accumulating the fortune with which he later founded Wofford College. In December 1818 he sold to Nathaniel Gist the tract of sixty acres on the Tiger River containing the mill, but Philip and John Weaver continued to operate the mill after the sale. Philip Weaver owned no land in Spartanburg district until August 14, 1819, when John Withers of Columbia sold Weaver & Company 300 acres on the east side of the Tiger. Whether or not the Weaver mill was the first cotton mill in Spartanburg District has been a matter of controversy. Kohn inclines toward the view that the Weavers were first, while Landrum is inclined to accept the claim made for George and Leonard Hill. Wallace thinks it reasonably clear that the Weavers a little antedated the Hills as manufacturers in Spartanburg. Certainly both the Weaver and Hill mills provided an energetic element in the cotton manufacturing industry in Spartanburg and Greenville counties which undoubtedly laid the foundation for the extensive textile development before 1860. Philip Weaver left Spartanburg District before 1826 and subsequently settled in Attica, Ind. , where shortly before the Civil War he was killed by a runaway horse. His former associates continued in the manufacturing business: John Weaver built a mill nineteen miles from Greenville, on Thompson's Beaver Dam, and operated it until his death several years after the Civil War; Hutchings built and operated several mills in succession with apparent profit, while in the thirties William Bates established the Batesville Cotton Mill.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Dictionary of Herefordshire Biography by Philip Weaver (2015-11-02)

Connections

He had married Miriam Keene, by whom he had four daughters.

Father:

John Weaver

Mother:

Ruth (Wilbur) Weaver

Spouse:

Miriam Keene