Saul Abbicia Camp (b. abt. February 1857, abt. 1910?)
South Carolina. White.Occupation: Laborer, patent machine agent.
Father's occupation: farmer.
Saul (or Solomon) A. Camp was born around 1856 in Limestone township in Spartanburg County. His parents were Narcissa and Peter Quinn Camp. When Saul was born, his father Quinn had lived in Limestone township all his life and was a successful farmer. Before the Civil War, the Camp family owned about 1,400 acres which they farmed with the help of 9 enslaved workers. For a time, Quinn also worked as a postmaster.
Saul was too young to have served in the Civil War. However, his brothers John J. and William E. served for most of the war. They both enlisted in the Palmetto Sharpshooters Regiment on April 13, 1861. In summer 1862, John was severely wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines. William was killed at Amelia Courthouse on April 5, 1865. Four days later, John Camp was one of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers who laid down their arms after General Lee surrendered. This event largely brought the war to an end.
In addition to death and injury in the family, the Camp family suffered financial difficulties during the war. Quinn had fallen into debt by the time the war broke out. By the war's end, he had lost most of his farmland. However, he was able to purchase a smaller farm and maintain his livelihood.
Despite his sons' service to the Confederacy, Quinn was a life-long supporter of the Republican Party (highly unusual for white South Carolinian of his generation). However, he had been largely inactive in politics before the war. This changed afterwards. He joined the local Loyal (or Union) League and regularly attended their meetings. He also held the government positions of county tax assessor, land commission surveyor, and trial justice. Later he explained his decision to hold the position of trial justice as follows:
I have always been a man that tried to stay at home; I never 'tend to anybody's business but my own, and refused many a time before to accept the office of trial justice, or justice of the peace, as it was called, until I found that they had one before by whom it was so abused, that all the neighborhood were at me, and got up a petition, and had me appointed.
Quinn's political activity was questioned by some community members, especially conservatives. The fact that Quinn held both the position of tax assessor and land surveyor was a cause for particular concern. Using his position as tax assessor, he could overvalue a given tract of land so that the owner was unable to pay taxes on it. He could then facilitate the purchase of the land by the state Land Commission in his capacity as surveyor. Quinn or a friendly third party could then purchase the land from the commission. Generally speaking, the state Land Commission is widely regarded to have been wracked by corruption.
The concerns about Quinn abusing his political offices were publicly expressed (in a newspaper letter, for example) by J. Banks Lyle, allegedly an influential member of the state Klu Klux Klan.
Quinn and his family were threatened personally by the Klan in 1871. That year Spartanburg County was a center of Ku Klux violence. White Republicans were generally a target for harassment by Kluxers. Quinn became a special target in September after he issued a warrant for the arrest of 11 men accused of participating in a Ku Klux attack. After doing this, he began to receive warnings that the Klan was planning to attack him.
On October 16, 1871, Ku Klux violence came to Quinn's home. That night Quinn watched Klan members arrive in a field in front of his home and heard them whip someone. Frightened, everyone in his household fled except for Quinn and an older Black man who worked on his farm. The Ku Kluxers then came closer and began to surround the house, prompting the remaining two to flee. Within a week, Quinn and his family had moved to the town of Spartanburg and largely remained there until at least July.
In Spartanburg, Quinn began collecting the names of victims of Klan violence in Limestone township. By July, he had collected over 100 names. Quinn was aided this work by soon-to-be-USC Professor A. W. Cummings. Professor Cummings had collected the names of about 200 victims, mostly around Spartanburg. Both submitted the lists and provided testimony to a Joint Congressional Committee charged with investigating Klan violence on July 15.
Their work documenting Klan violence was a continuation of a professional relationship that had started in 1869. That year Professor Cummings was appointed assessor for Spartanburg County, and he helped Quinn collect taxes.
Quinn's son Saul left Spartanburg County for Columbia to attend the University of South Carolina.
He registered as a "special student" on October 8, 1874. The only other special student that year was Professor Cummings' son Francis. Saul and his father seem to have maintained good relations with Professor Cummings as Saul lived the Cummings family while attending university. By 1876, Saul was in the Third Class of the Preparatory School. The university closed before he completed a degree.
By 1880, Saul had moved with his parents to Gainesville, GA. In Georgia, Saul worked as a laborer. He had moved to Watkinsville, Georgia by 1900 and was working as a patent machine agent. In 1910, he remained in Watkinsville but had changed professions and was working as a salesman. He last appears in the historical record in the 1910 census.
Sources
1). 1860; Census Place: Northern Division, Spartanburg, South Carolina; Page: 286; Family History Library Film: 805226
2). 1870; Census Place: Limestone, Spartanburg, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1508; Page: 481B; Family History Library Film: 553007
3). 1880; Census Place: Gainesville, Hall, Georgia; Roll: 150; Page: 19A; Enumeration District: 132
4). Nelson, Scott Reynolds. Iron Confederacies : Southern Railways, Klan Violence and Reconstruction, The University of North Carolina Press, 1998. p. 130-131.
5). Eighth Census of the United States 1860; Series Number: M653; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29
6). 1850; Census Place: Spartanburg, South Carolina; Roll: 858; Page: 239b
7). Seventh Census Of The United States, 1850; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29
8). Congressional testimony on KKK. p. 895
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