Thomas Porcher Stoney


Thomas Porcher Stoney was the fifty-third mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, serving between 1923 and 1931.
Stoney graduated from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1911 and began a private law practice in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1915, he was elected solicitor for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, the youngest solicitor elected at that time. He remained in that office until 1923 when he was elected mayor of Charleston. He was re-elected in 1927 and completed that term. One of his major accomplishments as mayor was the creation of a municipal airport; the original site was on James Island, but it was moved to the present location in 1929. His administration also oversaw the construction of recreational facilities; the municipal golf course was laid out, William Moultrie Playground was opened, and Johnson Hagood Stadium was built.
He ran for a United States Senate seat but lost in the Democratic primary to James F. Byrnes in 1936 by a margin of about 10-to-1. During his life he swung across the political spectrum. He was a solid democrat in his early political life, but grew disaffected with the New Deal. In 1936 he gave a speech about the New Deal and said, "ll of this spending is like giving a drunk some drinks to sober him up." By 1964 he campaigned for Barry Goldwater, saying that the Democratic Party was "set upon a course that is hell-bent for national socialism."
Stoney died on April 22, 1973. He was struck while walking across a road. The driver left the scene of the accident and was never found. The once stately Charleston gentleman died at the tragic accident scene.
Stoney was born at Medway Plantation on December 16, 1889, in rural Berkeley County, South Carolina to Samuel Stoney and Eliza Croft Stoney. He is buried at Strawberry Chapel in Berkeley County, South Carolina.