Bio: Dr. William S. Frierson, Desoto Parish , La Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, The Southern Publishing Company, Nashville & Chicago, 1890 Submitted by: Gaytha Thompson **** ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ***************************************************** Dr. William S. Frierson, physician and surgeon near, Gloster, La, and one who ranks high in the medical fraternity, owes his nativity to South Carolina, his birth occurring in Charleston in 1834. His parents, Dr. George P. Mary A (Screven) Frierson, were also natives of Charleston, S. C., the former born in 1808 and the latter in 1810. They were reared and married in their native city and there made their home until 1888 when they removed to Lowndes County, Ala. In 1849 the father moved to De Soto Parish, settled in the woods near where Kingston now stands an six miles from any white family, and there he improved a good farm. The mother had died in Alabama it 1844 and the father afterwards married a sister. of his first wife. The second wife died in Pensacola, Fla., about 1880 and Mr. Frierson, himself, died five years after. He was a graduate of Charleston College and also of Charleston Medical College. He was a very successful physician, but did not practice much in Louisiana. He was a planter, a good business man, was president of the Police Jury many years and was quite wealthy.. He had four sons in the Confederate army, one, John W. Frierson, who was killed at Chancellorsville, Va., was not only a graduate of Princeton College, but also graduated in law at the, University of Louisiana, and was a very promising young man. Soon after the war Mr. Frierson's entire family with the exception of our subject, removed to Honduras. The latter remarried and took charge of the vast property, which was greatly devastated by the ravages of the war and managed this with such ability and skill during the reconstruction period, and with the then unaccustomed free labor with its evil tendencies, that it is now considered, not only one of the very best plantations, but is one of the largest tax-paying plantations in De Soto Parish. The elder Mr. Frierson and family remained in Honduras three or four years and then removed to Florida, where he owned considerable real estate. After the children had grown to mature years they returned to De Soto Parish to assist on the farm, and the father also came there to pass the closing scenes of his fife. The mother had died in Florida. The father was an elder in the Presbyterian Church and was a man held in the highest esteem. The paternal grandfather of our subject, John Frierson, was also born in Charleston, S.C., and was of Scotch-Irish Descent. He was a wealthy planter and died in the State at his nativity. The maternal grandfather, Thomas Screven, was also a planter and died in Charleston. He was a direct descendant (probably a grandson) of the distinguished Baptist divine, Rev William Screven, who came from Somerton, England to Kittery in the province of Maine, as early as 1673. Here he was ordained a Baptist minister, but soon after, his religious views not being in harmony with the standing order, concerning the ordinance to baptism, he was brought before the proper authority, found guilty of the charge, and upon refusing to give bond for his appearance at the next term of the court he was incarcerated in jail. The court tendered him liberty to return to his home in case he would forbear such disorderly and turbulent practices for the future, This he refused to do and the court required him to give bonds for good behavior. Upon hearing this Mr. Screven decided to depart from the province and thus, in 1683, he began forming a settlement near the present city of Charleston, S. C., which he named Somerton, after his old English home. Here he organized the first Baptist Church in the South, and in this he officiated for many years. He afterward organized a chinch at Georgetown, S C., where his death occurred on October 10, 1713, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. His tomb is still to be seen at Georgetown, and his name is not only revered by a numerous posterity, but by the members of his church throughout the South. Dr. William S. Frierson, the eldest of five children--four sons and one daughter by the first wife--received his early education at a private school in Lowndes County, Ala., and graduated at Oglethorpe College, Ga., in 1853. After reading medicine with his father for some time he entered Charleston Medical College and graduated from this institution in 1857. He began practicing at Kingston, and was there married in 1859 to Miss Flora, daughter of Rev. D. R. W. and Caroline (Wilds) McIver, of Darlington District, S. C. When Mrs. Frierson was a girl her parents moved to Dallas County, Ala., and afterward to De Soto Parish where Mr. McIver died in 1864. The mother had died many yours previous to this. Mr. McIver had been a Baptist minister of no little prominence nearly all his life. Mrs. Frierson was born in Darlington District, S. C., and graduated from Barhamville College at Columbia, S C, one of the most celebrated schools in the south. She is the mother of one son and two daughters. Soon after marriage Dr. Frierson removed to Texas, and at the breaking out of the war went to Richmond, Va., where he received an appointment in the medical department of the Confederate service as a surgeon, spending most of this time in the hospital at Richmond, Va., where his wife assisted as a nurse. After the war Dr. Frierson spent a year or two in Texas again until requested by his father to assume the management of the old plantation, which he did in connection with his practice for about thirteen years. Since then he has been on his present plantation near Gloster, which consists of 600 acres and makes a fine home. He has had an extensive practice, and for about ten years he has been president of the police jury.