JOHN McSWEEN 

McSWEEN, JOHN, of Timmonsville, South Carolina, president of the John McSween company, is a business man who 
by his energy, perseverance and probity, has built up in a comparatively small place a business such as would deserve 
and command attention in any city of the South. Born in Argyleshire, Scotland, December 21, 1847, and entering a store 
in Glasgow, Scotland, as messenger boy, when he was but fourteen, he has steadily won his way by industry and fair 
dealing; and now, for thirty-three years a merchant, and for fourteen years a banker, his success in business life entitles 
him to be ranked among South Carolina's "men of mark." 

His father, John McSween, was a Gaelic school-teacher, a man of piety and character, who did necessary religious 
missionary work while he taught among the Scotch highlanders. Both he and his wife, Mrs. Catherine McSween, had a 
decided and deep influence for good upon the character of their son, who was the second of the family to come to America. 

Strong and healthy as a boy, making good use of the limited opportunity for an elementary education, which was open to 
him in a Scotch country school, John McSween laid the foundation of a business education in the public school at Port Ellen 
Islay, Scotland. The "Lives of Eminent Scotchmen," and other biographies, early stirred his ambition; and as he met with or 
read of men who had succeeded in life, he says: "I determined, if hard work could accomplish it, to succeed, myself." His 
own choice led him toward a mercantile life; and at fourteen he became errand boy in a Glasgow store. 

In 1868 he came to South Carolina, and he established himself at Timmonsville soon afterward. In 1873 he began an 
independent business there, on his own account. It has grown under his management until it has become the important 
corporation known as "The John McSween Company, Wholesale and Retail Dealers in General Merchandise," whose 
spacious building is one of the marked features of Timmonsville, while the trade of the company is widely distributed 
through all that section. 

Mr. McSween is president of the company. He is also president of the Bank of Timmonsville. He was one of the 
commissioners to look after the construction of the public buildings when Florence county was established. He is a 
member of the Commercial club and of the St. Andrew's society of Charleston. 

In his political associations he is a Democrat. Born of a Christian mother, whose religious beliefs and Christian life 
impressed her son deeply, and having a devotedly pious father, he early became by conviction and choice identified with the 
Presbyterian church. "The influence of home was paramount in my life," he says, "and association with clean companions, 
and good reading," helped to form sound principles and high ideals of business life. 

On March 12, 1882, he married Miss Kate Keith; and they have two children. 

This successful and honorable merchant, whom all Carolinians who know him would gladly enroll among the natives 
of South Carolina if they might, writes for young men of his adopted state this brief advice: "The young man who would 
succeed must be willing to pay the cost of success. He must apply himself in earnest. He must use self-denial. He must 
have high ideals of life. He must dare to do right." 

His address is Timmonsville, Florence county, South Carolina.   

Source:  Men of Mark of South Carolina; Ideals of American Life; a Collection of Biographies of Leading Men of the State, Vol. I, J.C. Hemphill, 
Editor of "The News Courier", (c) 1907, pp. 246-247