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SOUTH CAROLINA WRIT7RSI PROJ2CT
Life History
TITLE: How Mr. Ti. S. UoLure cams to be in
the real estate business.
Date of First Writing February 16, 1939
Name of Person Interviewed Ti, 8, Maur. (white)
Street Address West Main Street
Place Union, S. C.
Occupation Real Estate Man
Name of Writer Caldwell Sims
Union, S. C.
Nme of Reviser E. F. Kennedy
which he owns.
nr. S. MoLure lives in a beautiful home on South Street,
It has an attraotive yard and the house is well kept
and commodious in its appointments. He has an easy, smooth -running
oar. His other property, which is dotted all over Union, is also
well kept and his rental houses are attractive to the eye of the
beholder. In his developing and buying of land in the city limits
he has always tried to improve and beautify the landscape and also
to see that his renters kept up their premises.
Mr. Mauro has developed North Church Street by building
a group of four -room houses on it. The lawns are planted and kept
He always protects the trees that nature
attractive all the year round.
has planted on his property all over the town, often adding shrubs
or more trees where shade and beauty are needed. He has his houses
well lighted, and adequate plumbing installed in them.
On historic "Tosch" Branch is a well kept valley,
known as MoLure Bottoms. The native growth on the branch through
the MoLure property has been protected and remains undisturbed.
Where the branch is traversed by fashionable South Street a portion
of it is a beauty spot the entire year round. The bottoms are
planted in a forage crop mixed with vetch and lespedeza, thus
furnishing a pioture of charm and prosperity to the eye throughout
all seasons.
Mk. MoLure's awn account of his career is as follows:
My father, J. W. MoLure, came to Unionville from Chester, S. C.,
when he was only eighteen years old. His uncle, John UoLure, ran
a mercantile business on Main Street at the site now occupied by
Wright -Baker. He took Father in with him and this was Father's first
business enterprise. I grew up here.
"When I was a small boy there were only four buildings
on Main Street, that are still standing now. They are the Fob Nob
Restaurant, Wright -Baker's, the Flynn Home, and further down the
street the building which now houses the Arthur Stores.
As a youth, I felt within me a desire to be something
and had an idea of owning a home and real estate, some future day.
I .,anted to be what people would call a good citizen, a builder and
one whom my associates would lcok an with admiration.
My- first work was with my father in his general
merchandise store known RS the firm of Rice and MoLure. It was
an old frame building which stood on Main Street at the site of
our present marble yard. I stopred school and began to work here
when I Was between fourteen and fifteen years old. Father paid
MA 4,100 a year, and I saved some money from this salary. Of course
I lived at home with him and paid nothing for room and boar. I had
ambition to save some, and I have had a desire to have something
ever since. I enjoyed this work anr received valuable business
training under Father.
I desired more education. So, after a year in the
store, Father sent me to Charleston to the holy Communion Church
Institute, now Porter :Vilitary Academy. I studied there during
1882 and 1883. Some of my classmates have become distinguished.
They are General Charles P. Sunnerall, of the Citadel, Charleston;
Philip H. Gadsden of Philadelphia, and others who are well known
in this country today. At the end of the year I left Charleston
and returned to Union, again working for Rice and neleLure.
stayed with the firm until they went out of business in 133g.
Father then went into business EtS J.*. McLure,
A,ent for M. H. Roseborough of Chester, S. C. He ran a general
mercantile business where the Rialto Theatre now is. He remained
there until 1891. I continued woreing for my father and mede
450 a month, which is the most I ever made aS a salesman. By
this t!_me I had a wife and two children. All of my earnings went
for the upkeep of my family. 4 wife beceeee ill and lived only
ehree years. I had heavy doctor's bills and other expenses,
which I did not ret cleared up for several years afterwards.
"my brother, J. Fred McLure, studied law in
Chester under his cousin, Joe McLure, and was admitted to the
ber in Columbia. Lhen he returned from Chester, he and I
bought Father's business from the creditors and we ran it
together until 1920. 'ee used my meagre savings to buy our
4
small stook of goods. My brother gradually paid me back what
he awed me and we were an a fifty-fifty proposition. We made
some money each year and increased our stock of goods at the
beginning of each year.
"All this time we were making money on our side lines.
I began my first dabbles in real estate. I sold coal; bought cotton
seed meal and hulls on the side. And brother did some law practice
an the side. During this time we bought and paid for the building
in which we were doing business. We also buiWanother building,
which is known as the Hob Nob Restaurant. Before that we had built
the store back of the Hob Nob.
"However, 1920 found our mercantile firm a failure;
so we went into bankruptcy. Brother Fred bought the stook and
re -Opened as J. F. McLure. When we were together, we were known as
J.F. and W. S. MoLure, Now Fred had complete ownership of the store,
and I gave my time to the real estate business. I had been active
in the real estate business since 1914, and I organised "The McLure
Realty Company", a corporation of which I KM now the president and
treasurer. Since that time I have gone on in the even tenor of my
ways, slowly building houses, principally on a cash basis, very little
credit at any time. I have found in my experience that the four -roam
house is the most practical house to rent in Union. I own a good many
in a nice section of town that I rent by the month.
"During the period that my brother and I were in the
mercantile business, and I in the realty business, I was a director
in the Citizens Bank, from the time of its organization. For
eighteen years I was a member of the Commission of the Light and
Water Plant of Union. During this period much building and development
has gone on in Union, and property has increased in value."