Last week, we saw County Record owner, Louis Bristow's, passionate editorials in the pursuit of justice in the wake of the Frazier Baker lynching. At that time, Bristow had owned The County Record for slightly less than a year. However, the 22-year-old was already a seasoned newspaperman.
Louis Judson Bristow as a young man.
Born in Timmonsville and raised in Darlington, the young Louis Bristow had dreams of becoming a minister. However, his father died when Louis was 15, forcing him to drop out of school and go out on his own, as his mother could not support nine children. He found work as a printer with the News & Courier in Charleston, earning $6 a week. But the paper soon learned that young Bristow could write and gave him a reporter's job, which paid $10 a week. At age 20, he was offered the editor's job at The Georgia Reporter in Washington, Georgia, which he accepted. But a year later, he got the opportunity to buy The County Record in Kingstree from Pinckney A. Alsbrook, and at age 21 found himself the owner of a newspaper.
Bristow did much to improve The County Record, increasing the number of subscriptions greatly and taking the Kingstree Town Council to task for allowing weeds to grow in the streets. He also editorialized frequently about trash in the downtown area and railed about livestock, such as cows and pigs, being allowed to roam freely through the streets of Kingstree. There was one issue, though, on which Bristow refused to weigh in. He noted, "Several parties have asked me to 'raise Cain' with certain young men in town for the manner in which they dress themselves these hot days, but we must refrain from doing so as it is entirely a matter of personal pride with the young men."
While in Kingstree, he was active in the Baptist Church. On one occasion when he attended a statewide Baptist convention, he noted that in his absence, "one of Kingstree's fairest young maidens will wield the local reportorial pen." We don't know who the young lady was, but we might surmise that it was Barbara Jacobs, daughter of Louis and Mary Jacobs, as Bessie Britton many years later noted that Bristow dated Barbara while he lived here. She married W.I. Nexsen, however.
As much he enjoyed his role as owner and editor of the newspaper, when the United States entered the Spanish-American War in April 1898, Bristow answered the call of duty, enlisting as a private. He sent dispatches about Army life to both The County Record and the News & Courier, and he chafed at being stuck in the states when he had thought he would be sent immediately to Cuba. In November 1898, he sold The County Record to Charles Wolfe. Bristow saw no fighting but was a part of the occupation forces in Cuba after the war. He was back in South Carolina by April 1899, where he was mustered out of the Army as a lieutenant. The Governor then appointed him Chief of Ordnance for the state of South Carolina, bestowing on him the rank of Colonel. In this capacity, he was one of the delegation sent to New York to welcome home Commodore George Dewey from the Philippines.
Bristow briefly returned to newspaper work in Darlington, but the call to ministry had become stronger while he was in the Army, and he soon enrolled at the Baptist Seminary in Louisville, KY, working his way through school by writing columns for the Louisville Courier Journal. Upon graduation, he accepted the call to Wedgefield and Ramsay Baptist churches in Sumter County. While there, he met and married Caroline Winkler of Summerville.
Not long afterward, he accepted the call of Marion Baptist Church. While in Marion, the Bristows welcomed a daughter, Gwen, and a son, Louis Judson Bristow, Jr. And while he obviously enjoyed the work as a minister, journalism was still in his blood, and when he got the chance to become the co-owner of the Baptist Press, publisher of the Baptist Courier, in Greenwood, he jumped at it. But in late 1906, he began to suffer with throat trouble. His doctor encouraged him to spend more time outdoors and suggested that a move to Anderson County might be beneficial. Bristow was able to reach an agreement with Williamston Baptist Church that allowed him to preach only twice a month and moved his family there.
He spent three years in Williamston, and while there, he began to think about a mission that would become his life's work. Years later in an interview in New Orleans, he said, "I saw that the Protestant churches were not doing enough to relieve the sick and suffering; our Lord ministered to bodily hurts as well as spiritual ills, and it seemed inescapable that the churches should follow the same path."
He began broaching the idea to South Carolina Baptists that they should consider building a hospital that would serve all denominations. At the same time, his throat better, he accepted a call from Abbeville Baptist Church. He threw himself into the community, working with the Boy Scouts, joining the Rotary Club, serving as President of the Abbeville Library Association. He also served as secretary-treasurer on the board of Anderson College. He often preached on a topic he called, "Civic Righteousness," and it is obvious that he practiced what he preached. In addition to his community activities, he was the driving force behind construction of a new church and parsonage.
First Baptist Church, Abbeville, SC
He also lobbied hard to get his proposed Baptist Hospital located in Abbeville, but the committee appointed by the Baptists to look into building a hospital eventually chose Columbia as the site for the building. The Anderson Daily Intelligencer in July 1914 noted that the agreement to build the hospital was "quite a triumph for the untiring labors of the brilliant young preacher, who is also secretary of the board of Anderson College."
An early postcard of the Baptist Hospital in Columbia.
Bristow was named president of the Baptist Hospital board. He had no desire to oversee the daily operation of the hospital, but after its first year, it was deeply in debt and the future did not look promising. The board prevailed upon him to take over the duties of hospital superintendent, which he felt he must do to attempt to save the hospital. One year and four months into his tenure, he had greatly reduced the debt, painted the building, purchased an X-ray machine, added beds, renovated the heating plant and installed a new telephone system. The hospital was also commended for its extremely low mortality rate.
During Bristow's three years in Columbia, another daughter, Caroline, joined the family, while older daughter, Gwen, graduated from Columbia High. Each year, too, the hospital grew and began to prosper. In June 1918, he commissioned plans for the construction of a new hospital.
In December of that year, the members of Abbeville Baptist Church again issued a call for him to become their minister. Believing that the hospital was on a sure financial footing and missing the life of an active minister, Bristow accepted. Back in Abbeville, he continued his civic engagement. By August of 1919, he was also once again editing the Baptist Courier in addition to his other duties while its permanent editor worked with war-torn European countries in the wake of World War I.
Selma Baptist Hospital, Selma, Alabama
In 1921, the trouble with his throat returned, and in July he received an offer to oversee the building of a Baptist hospital in Selma, Alabama, which he accepted. The State Baptist Hospital of Selma was dedicated on Valentine's Day 1922. While in Selma, he also proposed and was overseer of the construction of a hospital for the city's black residents. After its completion, he served as superintendent for both hospitals.
The Baptists from New Orleans came calling in 1924, asking him to re-locate to their city to work on building the Southern Baptist Hospital of New Orleans. Once again, he worked to build a hospital and then became its superintendent. This time, though, he appeared content to stay in New Orleans, serving as superintendent there until his retirement in 1947. During those years, he wrote three books. The most well-known was Healing Humanity's Hurt, published in 1927. "Healing Humanity's Hurt" was also the motto of the Baptist Hospital in New Orleans. At the time of his retirement, it was noted that he had served as a hospital administrator for 35 years and never ended a year with a deficit.
Southern Baptist Hospital in New Orleans, LA.
He had planned to return to South Carolina in retirement but was asked to consult at Baton Rouge General Hospital and ended up living out his life in New Orleans. He died there on November 15, 1957. It is also interesting to note that in reading reports of speeches or interviews he gave while in Selma and New Orleans, he always mentioned Kingstree and The County Record, and his ownership of it was prominently mentioned in his obituary.
Newspaper photo of Louis Bristow in 1932.
Gwen Bristow Manning
Dr. Louis J. Bristow, Jr.
For all Bristow's accomplishments, though, he was overshadowed by daughter, Gwen, who built a reputation as a tenacious reporter for Louisiana newspapers and made a name for herself nationally as an author of novels, such as Celia Garth, Deep Summer, and Jubilee Trail, among others. By the 1940s, Louis Bristow was identified in many news articles as the "father of novelist Gwen Bristow." Louis, Jr, went to medical school and became head of the radiology department of the hospital in New Orleans that his father built. Caroline married a doctor and settled in Mississippi.
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