City Directories and History: 1905 – Mrs. C.L. Wilhite, 1909 – Mrs. Cora L. Wilhite,
This home in the colonial tradition on the corner of South McDuffie and East River Streets was built by Dr. Philip Abney Wilhite about 1860. Still a handsome residence, it is interesting to note the capitals of the columns which do not conform to any of the classic models but seem to have been an invention of the builder.
Dr. Wilhite was a born in Georgia. He graduated from the medical college in Charleston in 1852, and the next year located to Anderson. Mr. A.E. Holman’s Memories of Anderson History states, “Mr. Michael Lesser and Dr. Phillip Wilhite were friends in Carnersville, Ga., and moved together to Anderson in 1858.”
Dr. Wilhite had married Cora Lavinia Hilley a few years earlier. They lived for a few years in “the old Towers house,” on Whitner Street before building on McDuffie. The Wilhites occupied the McDuffie Street house for about eighty years. Miss Mary Wilhite, a daughter of the doctor’s, lived there until her death.
Dr. Wilhite became a popular physician in Anderson. In addition, he operated a drug store with a succession of partners: Harrison, Major, John R. Williams, and this his sons, Frank Turner Wilhite and Dr. Joseph Oliver Wilhite. Dr. Wilhite was a member of the U.S. Medical Association (the forerunner of the American Medical Association), and at one meeting of that body he was acknowledged to be the discoverer of anesthesia. He participated, along with Dr. Crawford Long, in the first surgery ever performed using ether as anesthesia, and it was determined that his services ought to be recognized by the federal government, but this was never done. When he died in 1892, he was the last member of the original Board of Health for South Carolina. Mary Wilhite, the daughter of Frank Wilhite, was the last of the family to live in the house.
In 1939, John Donald Brown bought this house, and he and his wife, Frances Harper of Greenwood, lived there until the 1970’s. These Browns were descendants of George and Rachel Felton Brown who migrated to Pendleton District from North Carolina, in 1805, influenced by their friend Arthur Gentry. They bought a 403 acre tract of land on Generostee Creek, a short distance northwest of the present town of Anderson, for $1.75 an acre. The Brown property was part of a huge land grant made to Peter Keys by Governor Charles Cotesworth Pinckney some eight years earlier.
The Brown’s neighbors were the Gentrys, the Burrisses, the Keys, the Chamblees, and the Fretwells. J. Donald Brown was a son of Joseph Dexter Brown and Eula Donnald of Honea Path. J. Donald Brown’s forefathers were farmers until shortly before the Dexter Grocery Company was established in 1903. The Chamber of Commerce brochure of 1909 stated that the company was owned and operated by “Dexter Brown,” a wholesale dealer in groceries and supplies of all kinds. At that time traveling three salesmen supported the company and traveled throughout the surrounding area. The Dexter Brown grocery building was located so that railroad car shipments could be unloaded directly into the large building by an electric elevator. The company has grown and operated into the 1970’s, now being in the third generation. Dexter Brown’s large home of Greek Revival architecture was located on the Boulevard and is was the the residence of his widow, who was Frances Finley of York, South Carolina. (Source: Anderson County Sketches by the Anderson County Tricentennial Commission, 1969)
Additional Links:
- Eight Molecules That Changed the Rules of the Game: Diethyl Ether
- Under the Kudzu Ep. 11: Dr. Philip A. Wilhite
- Bulletin Anesthesia History, Vol. 29, #4, “P. A. Wilhite and the Discovery of Ether Anesthesia” (pg 53-54, 57)
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CATHI MYTKO says
We need to save this historic house. It is now in foreclosure/bank owned and the price has dropped to $135,500. The new photos show that it has been ravaged of many of the fixtures and original architectural details. Anderson County has to step up to the plate on this one.