J. Henry Toole, York County, South Carolinba

J. HENRY TOOLE
By: Louise Pettus

For half a century, from 1870 to 1920, a black man lived in Rock Hill who was a remarkable leader, admired by both blacks and whites.

J. Henry Toole was born about 1852. The U. S. Census gives his birthplace as NC and another source says he was born in Raleigh.

As soon as Toole arrived he opened Rock Hill’s first barber shop which was for white men only. Each customer had his own shaving mug with gold lettering. No doubt this allowed Toole to gather much useful information from the town’s business community.

In 1872, Henry Toole was arrested with 194 others by Union officers and charged with being a member of the Ku Klux Klan. For 41 days Toole shared a Yorkville jail cell with Capt. Iredell Jones of Mount Gallant plantation and Samuel A. Fewell of Ebenezer. He was not charged but the three other black men arrested at the same time were sent to Columbia for prosecution.

In 1876, the SC Democratic Party endorsed the Confederate hero, Gen. Wade Hampton, with rallies and parades by white men sporting Red Shirts. Wade Hampton was present in Rock Hill to launch the parade. The Rock Hill Red Shirts included a cavalry unit of black men led by J. Henry Toole.

Toole was the only black Episcopalian in Rock Hill until the Rev. Edmond M. Joyner established St. Paul’s Mission for Blacks on W. Black St. in 1884. Toole became the leader of the Mission which operated a Sunday School and a trade and day school. The Mission closed in 1921 after Toole’s death.

In 1894 Toole sought a position as Register of Deeds for the District of Columbia, but the appointment went to a black man from Kansas. Toole probably was attracted to Washington because he had a brother, Gray Toole, who was President Grover Cleveland’s personal barber. Gray Toole even had a room in the White House. Charlotte, NC Directories show that Gray Toole had two barber shops in Charlotte in 1890.

During the 1880s and 1890s Toole purchased a number of city lots, losing at least two buildings to fires that swept off one side or other of Main Street. Maybe this is what tempted to open a barber shop in Yorkville in 1901, “under the Parish Hotel.” But he must have returned to Rock Hill by 1904 when Gov. D. C. Heyward appointed him notary public.

Toole was one of the founders of Rock Hill’s first black newspaper, the Rock Hill Messenger. When Toole endorsed Rev. P. J. Drayton to be president of Claflin College in Orangeburg, C. P. T. White, editor of the Messenger, wrote that he was voicing the “sentiments of every self-respecting colored citizen in South Carolina” who would rise up against the recommendation by a “Negro DemocratÆa Ku Klux. . .” Toole, calling the editorial “malicious slander” sued White for $5,000 and was represented by the Rock Hill law firm, Spencer and Dunlap , while White was defended by Wilson and Wilson of Rock Hill. The case was settled out of court.

In 1911, Toole sold his barber shop to Albert K. Collins of Indian Land, Lancaster County. The 1913 Rock Hill Directory stated that Toole owned a grocery store at 101 Main St. In 1913-1915, Toole petitioned for a black school and offered three rooms in a building he owned.

Toole died Oct 15, 1920. The funeral was at the Church of Our Savior with assistance by the pastors of First Presbyterian and St. John’s Methodist. The honorary pall bearers were Gilbert H. Greene, John T. Roddey, Ben M. Fewell, Henry Massey, Capt. J. W. Marshall, John A. Black, Julius Friedheim, W. W. Gill, David Hutchison, William C. Hutchison and Col. W. J. Rawlinson, all of whom were white business leaders, an indication of the high status that Toole attained with that group. Toole was buried in Charlotte in St. Peters Episcopal Cemetery.

Toole’s first wife was Lucy ____ who died in January 1893. He was survived by his second wife Ella Mikell of Charleston, 3 sons and daughter.

There were no Tooles listed in the 1933-34 Rock Hill City Directory.