Wightman, William May, Dd, Ltd

Wightman, William May, D.D., LT.D.

a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, was born at Charleston, S.C., January 8, 1808. He was converted at sixteen, graduated from Charleston College in 1827, entered the South Carolina Conference in 1828, and immediately sprang into position and popularity. After laboring successively on the Pedee, Orangeburg, Sumter, and Abbeville circuits, and in Charleston and Camden stations, he was appointed agent for Randolph Macon College in 1834; in 1837 was made professor of English literature in that institution; two years later presiding elder of Cokesburg District; in 1840 editor of the Southern Christian Advocate; in 1854 president of Wofford College; in 1859 president of the Southern University at Greensboro, Alabama; and in 1866 bishop, an office which he filled with great ability until his death in Charleston, February 15, 1882. He was singularly effective as a preacher, dignified and successful as an administrator, ardent as a friend, and modest and earnest as a Christian. See Minutes of Annual Conferences of the M.E. Church South, 1882, page 151.