Joshua Lazarus
Merchant
1826-undetermined
Cheraw, SC 29520
FAMILIES: Lazarus
In 1826, Joshua Lazarus (1796-1861) created a warehouse on the Great Pee Dee River. In doing so, he built upon the trading route previously established by the Cheraw and Pee Dee people and ushered in the region’s golden age of steamship service. Located at the head of the Great Pee Dee River’s navigable waters, Cheraw served as major shipping center that was further bolstered by the abundance of corn, tobacco, rice, and indigo growing nearby.
In describing Joshua’s operations, a local newspaper noted “We are mistaken if every one does not agree with us in saying, that the navigation of our fine river could have been placed in no better hands.”1 The year before, Lazarus was also unanimously elected president of the Cheraw Bank, which at the time, was the largest bank in South Carolina outside of Charleston.
Joshua Lazarus was no stranger to commanding positions such as these. Born in Charleston to Revolutionary War sergeant major Marks Lazarus (1757-1835) and his wife Rachel Dorris Lazarus (1762-1847), Joshua likely moved to Chesterfield County in the 1820s. By 1830, he enslaved 20 men and was accompanied by a free Black woman in her late 20s or early 30s. In 1835, he married Pheobe Yates (1794-1870), and together the couple had one son, Edgar Marx (1838-1884).
Returning to Charleston by 1840, Joshua took on the mantle Charleston Gas Light Company president and has since been credited with introducing gas to the state’s most populous city. While away from Cheraw, he continued to profit from a tannery he established there in rotating partnerships with Samuel Keeler and A. J. Moses.
Between 1840 and 1860, census records reveal that the Lazarus family continued to enslave between 10 and 17 people. In 1850, half of those individuals were age 18 or younger. Joshua Lazarus ultimately died just months into the Civil War and did not live to see the people he enslaved emancipated.
1 “Cheraw Steam Boats,” unidentified clipping, October 4, 1826, Darlington County Historical Commission & Museum, Darlington, SC.
Main Image: Watercolor painting of Joshua Lazarus by Amelie Dautel D’Aubigny, completed c.1840. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC.
Above Image: Left: Watercolor painting of Mrs. Joshua Lazarus (Phebe Yates) by Amelie Dautel D’Aubigny, completed c.1840. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC. Right: Newspaper clipping dated October 4, 1826. Image courtesy of Darlington County Historical Commission & Museum, Darlington, SC.