South Carolina. Mulatto/Black.
Occupation: instructor, physician.
Father's occupation: minister, tailor, teacher, carpenter.
Nathaniel Hill was born in 1856 in South Carolina to Abram and Sarah Bing Middleton. Sarah was a free person of color. Abram was born into slavery in Charleston, although he led a life of relative privilege. He was a literate skilled laborer who worked as a carpenter. After the Civil War, he moved the family to Midway, South Carolina and worked as a school superintendent. He was a delegate to the 1868 South Carolina Constitutional Convention and a founding member of the Trustees of Claflin University. Abram's brother Benjamin represented Barnwell County in the South Carolina House of Representatives, 1872-74.
Nathaniel registered as a student on April 1, 1874. He entered as a freshman in the college student following the modern track. The university closed before he completed his studies.
In 1880, he was working as a teacher in Orangeburg, South Carolina. During the 1878 election, he served as a supervisor of election at the polling station for Bull Swamp (in Orangeburg County). Each polling station was assigned two election supervisors, one appointed by the Democrats and one appointed by Republicans. Nathaniel was the Republican representative, and his Democratic counterpart was W. C. Wolfe, a White farmer.
The 1878 election was an important one as it was the first election held since the end of Reconstruction. Statewide, the election resulted in an overwhelming victory for Democrats. Republicans contended that Democrats had won the election through acts of voter fraud, such as ballot box stuffing.
Allegations of voter fraud in Orangeburg County attracted particular attention. The county was part of the 2nd congressional district. The incumbent district Representative, Republican Richard H. Cain, chose not to run for re-election, and the election ended up being a contest between Democrat Michael P. O'Connor and Republican Edmund W. M. Mackey. Both were White South Carolinians who had previously served in state government. The general election saw O'Connor winning the election after receiving 20,568 votes to Mackey's 13,182. However, Mackey contested the outcome, claiming that reported outcome was fraudulent and he had received a majority of the votes legally cast.
Congress investigated Mackey's claims and took testimony from individuals involved in the election. Both Nathaniel and the other election supervisor offered testimony. To maintain order, a (Republican) U.S. deputy marshal and some (Democratic) state constables were present at the polling station. However, they presence proved unnecessary as the election proceeded in a "peaceably and quietly" manner. However, when the election supervisors and the election managers counted ballots, they found irregularities. Over the course of the day, they had kept a list of everyone who had voted. They counted that 328 people has cast votes, but 429 ballots were found in the ballot box. Furthermore, some ballots had been submitted with extra ballots folded inside. They destroyed those extra ballots, and then an election manager pulled out ballots and destroyed them until the count of ballots agreed with the count of voters. The election return was then found to be 205 votes for O'Connor, 122 votes for Mackey and 1 ballot left blank. When this outcome was announced, many African-Americans voters appeared "discontented." Upon seeing this, Nathaniel remarked to them that they would have been more successful if they had supported the Wade Hampton, the popular Democratic governor, instead of Republican candidates. This reflected a view held by some Republicans that it was a mistake to have run candidates for the election instead of supporting the ticket headed by Hampton (who was seen as a moderate within the Democratic party).
Congress ultimately upheld the legitimacy of the election and O'Connor remained in office. However, two years later (in 1880), O'Connor ran for re-election against Mackey. O'Connor was declared the winner of the election, but Mackey alleged that the victory was secured through fraud and contested the outcome. Unlike the previous election, this time Congress affirmed his claim and awarded him the congressional office.
While Congress was deliberating, Nathaniel continued his studies at Claflin University, and he graduated with an A.B. degree around the Congress made its ruling. Nathaniel was one of the first two students to receive a college degree from Claflin. He left for Tennessee shortly after completing his studies.
Nathaniel moved to Tennessee to attend Meharry Medical College. He began his studies there in fall 1882. There he studied alongside fellow former U of SC students James E. Asbury, J. J. Durham, and Zebulon W. McMorris. Nathaniel graduated and received his M.D. in 1884.
After completing his education, Nathaniel moved to southeastern Texas. He first moved to Oakland (a small town in Colorado County) and started a medical practice with Governer R. Townsend. Governer had graduated with Nathaniel from Meharry and had moving to Texas from Lumberton, North Carolina.
Nathaniel's partnership with Townsend seems to have only lasted a year as Townsend then left Oakland and moved to Victoria, Texas, a town about 80 miles away. Nathaniel himself left Oakland for Columbus, the county seat, around 1887. He remained there for about 10 years before returning to Oakland.
In Oakland, Nathaniel was joined by his former UofSC classmate Robert L. Smith. Nathaniel and Robert seem to have remained in touch after they moved to Texas. Around the time he returned to Oakland (In 1893), Nathaniel purchased roughly one-third of an acre of land adjacent to a tract owned by Robert.
Sadly, Nathaniel was found dead in the Navidad river on April 1, 1900. A local newspaper reported that he had fallen in the river and drowned, possibly after suffering an epileptic fit.
Sources
1). 1870; Census Place: Midway, Barnwell, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1484; Page: 292A.
2). 1880; Census Place: Orangeburg, Orangeburg, South Carolina; Roll: 1237; Page: 266A.
3). Middleton, Earl M with Barnes, Joy W. Knowing Who I Am: A Black Entrepreneur's Struggle and Success in the American South. University of South Carolina Press. 2008
4). Beckford, Rhoades Beckford. Biographical Dictionary of American Physicians of African Ancestry, 1800-1920. Africana Homestead Legacy Publishing, Cherry Hill, New Jersey. 2011.
6). United States, Congress, House. E. W. M. Mackey vs. M. P. O'Connor: Papers in the Case of Mackey vs. O'Connor, Second Congressional District of South Carolina. Government Printing Office, 1880. 46th Congress, 2nd session, Mis. Doc. No. 40., Part 1. pp. 345-346.
7). United States, Congress, House. E. W. M. Mackey vs. M. P. O'Connor: Papers in the Case of Mackey vs. O'Connor, Second Congressional District of South Carolina. Government Printing Office, 1880. 46th Congress, 2nd session, Mis. Doc. No. 40., Part 2. pp. 1290-1301.
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