From These Roots

“…From that Piedmont belt, noted for producing moonshiners and Baptist preachers, came such esteemed and valuable men as Dean and Buford Crain and James Howard.” – Dr. David M. Ramsey

Throughout its history, Tigerville and the rest of the “Dark Corner” of Greenville County had a bit of a reputation for moonshining. Corn grows well in this part of the county and people could make more money making moonshine out of their corn than they could make selling the crop. The people were much more than their way of making money, though, and they should be remembered for more. The Howards were one of the most well-known families of the “Dark Corner”.

Jim Howard was born on October 18, 1894, at the foot of Glassy Mountain to parents James Holland Howard and Margaret Elizabeth Moon Howard. He attended school in a one-room building called Glassy Mountain School where he was taught and influenced by J. Dean Crain. His first job was hauling moonshine down the mountain and at one point it seemed like he would join the family moonshining business. However, his father Holland accepted Jesus at a revival gathering and turned from moonshining. He was so convinced that moonshining was wrong that he became an unpaid constable and spent the rest of his life trying to stop moonshining.

Eventually, Jim decided he wanted to further his education. When he was 20, he attended Fruitland Institute in Hendersonville, NC (now Fruitland Bible College). He accepted Christ at the age of 21 and felt the call to go into the ministry. However, his education was put on hold for a time while he served in World War I. After leaving the Army, with his ministerial call in mind, he enrolled at Furman University in 1920 where he was a star football player called “Big Jim”. During his time at Furman, tragedy struck his family when moonshiners shot and killed his father during a still raid on Hogback Mountain. In response, Jim wrote an impassioned plea to The Greenville News for people to stop buying moonshine because, without customers, the moonshiners would stop. Despite his loss, Jim graduated from Furman with his A.B. degree in 1924. He taught school at City View School and pastored local churches including Southern Bleachery Baptist and Calvary Baptist for a few years before he went to Texas to enroll at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He returned to South Carolina after finishing his Th.M. degree in Texas and went back to teaching and pastoring. He was teaching at North Greenville and pastoring Ligon Memorial Baptist Church in Spartanburg in the early 1930s when he met his future wife and class of 1924 North Greenville Baptist Academy alumna, Ruth Hill. The couple married in 1934 at a ceremony performed by Rev. J. Dean Crain. From 1936-1940, Jim served on the board of trustees for North Greenville including some time as the chair of the board. He resigned from the board in 1940 to take a position in Texas as the district missionary for the Texas Baptist Convention. In 1940, the couple returned to South Carolina so that Jim could replace E.B. Crain as the pastor of City View Church in Greenville. Four years later, he was chosen to be the Secretary of Evangelism for the South Carolina Baptist Convention so they moved to Columbia. He held this role until his retirement in 1961. The couple retired back to the foot of Glassy Mountain and in 1964, Jim was elected as president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. During his lifetime he also served as a trustee of Limestone College and Southwestern Seminary. He also received an honorary doctorate degree from Furman University in 1951. Locally, he became known as a historian of the Dark Corner and wrote a book about the area in 1980 titled, “Dark Corner Heritage”. The North Greenville University Archive includes recordings of some of his lectures about “The Dark Corner”.

James “Jim” Howard passed away in 1988 and is buried at Highland Baptist Church where he was a member. In 1996, Ruth Howard was the benefactor of a new dorm on the North Greenville campus and it was named “JR Howard Hall” in honor of the couple.

“Jim understands the thought of the common people and works closely with the small churches as well as the larger churches. He is appreciated by people of all walks of the Baptist ranks. He is sincere in what he undertakes to do and when he feels it’s the right thing to do he is willing to make any effort or sacrifice to get it done.” – A close associate in a 1963 Greenville News article