Sunday’s Obituary~John Wilson Threatt

This is a reprint of the Obituary of John Wilson Threatt. It was originally transcribed and published on SC Genweb by my friend and fellow researcher Julie Hampton.
Fall 1947 (exact date unknown) MONROE JOURNAL (Union County, NC) 

Praise for soldier now long dead - Mrs. Edna V. Funderburke of Dudley, S.C., who used to write for the Monroe Journal, wrote an article in 1915 about a Confederate soldier, John W. Threatt, who had just died. The article is republished as follows:


All deaths are sad but we attended a burial on last Sunday afternoon that touched our hearts in a way not common to all such occasions. Mr. John Wilson Threatt was born in the northern part of Chesterfield County(S.C.) on March 24, 1836, died July 9, 1915, and was buried July 11th at Zoar church.
Note: NC Death Certificate #254 shows he died 10 July, 1915

The war record of Mr. Threatt is peculiarly interesting. If there ever was a man who laid his life on the alter of sacrifice for our beautiful Southland without expecting any reward, that man was John W. Threatt. He didn’t possess a foot of land, he never owned a slave, and I reckon he never expected to own one, but when the call came for volunteers, he forgot everything and fought for the land that he called home as bravely and as heroically as did the man who had his thousands at stake.

At the beginning of the War between the States, he enlisted in Company B, 8th South Carolina Regiment, under Captain M. J. Hough at Florence. He was in the following battles: both battles of Manassas, Gettysburg, Leesburg, Lynchburg, Petersburg, Harper’s Ferry, Cold Harbor, Gravel Hill, Deep Bottom, Spotsylvania, Battle of the Wilderness, Seven Days Fight around Richmond, and in an encounter near the Armstrong house in Virginia, where he was shot in the face.

There was one occasion that proved the mettle of which he was made and showed him to be one of the bravest of the brave. It was Berryville, Virginia. The flag was in the hands of Aaron Plyler when a Yankee shot broke his wrist, but the flag did not fall. Just as it was halfway down, John W. Threatt caught it, and rushed up to where the shot was raining down like hail stones, and shouted, “Rally to your flag, boys, follow your colors!”

Follow them they did, and captured the Yankee breastworks, putting them to flight. There were 18 holes through that flag in 15 minutes, as was learned afterward by actual count. At the war’s beginning, his regiment numbered 1,350 but it was reduced to 107.
Threatt was married March 11, 1862, to Miss Emiline Arant, who died 42 years afterward, leaving a son, J. S. Threatt, of Belleville, Georgia, one daughter, Mrs. Minor Melton of Union County.

He married a second time to Miss Rebecca Munn, who, with his children, survive him. He joined the Methodist Church in 1866 and Died in the Christian Faith.

The following Confederate veterans attended the burial, the first seven acting as pallbearers: W. H. Funderburke, J. M. Funderburke, Willie Jenkins, Moses Horne, Elic Osborne, H. H. West, James Cox, V. T. Chears, and Thomas Rorie.

As we stood there and saw those old soldiers place the still, cold form of their comrade beneath the sod, we did not wonder at the tears they shed as they thought of the hard days, and the dreary nights they had spent together away from home and loved ones in their fight for “The Lost Cause.”

We believe that if ever a man deserved a monument erected to his memory, J. W. Threatt was one of them, and some sweet day, when the Hills of Heaven shall bear on our sight, we expect to see the brave true spirit of John W. Threatt there resting in the light and the love of the God who never forgets.

John Wilson Threatt was the son of Green Threatt and Mary West according to his NC Death certificate. Two years after the death of Emeline, John W. married Rebecca Munn in 1907. His oldest child, daughter Frances “Fannie” Wilson was the informant on his death certificate.

Photo Courtesy of Margaret Price

John Wilson Threatt and his wife Emeline are buried in the Zoar Methodist Church Cemetery. Pageland, Chesterfield County, South Carolina.






















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[1] http://files.usgwarchives.net/sc/chesterfield/newspapers/misc01.txt
[2] Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, database and digital images, (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 2 January 2014); Memorial page for John W. Threatt; (24 March 1836–10 July 1915); Find a Grave memorial # 71694894, Citing Zoar Methodist Church Cemetery; Pageland, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, USA.