Turning our attention to the windows in the vestibule, the influence of the Lucas family continues to be reflected.  The Three Marys was given in memory of Caroline Deas Ravenel Lucas (1859-1940). Mrs. Lucas was the daughter of Henry William Ravenel, a famed botanist. Caroline and Edward Henry Lucas had eleven children, including Marion D. Lucas, Susan Stevens Lucas Wilkinson (Jack Wilkinson’s mother), Caroline Ravenel Lucas Miller (Caroline Matthews’ mother), Simons Ravenel Lucas (Maitland and John Chase’s grandfather).

The Honorable Robert W. Sharkey (1889-1973) chaired the committee charged with commissioning the windows.  Sharkey served as senior warden at St. John’s (1919-1920, 1948), was a member of the Standing Committee and Diocesan Council, and was chairman of the American Red Cross in Florence. When he first moved to Florence, Sharkey was employed by the law firm of Willcox and Willcox as secretary to Frederick L. Willcox. In 1929, he was appointed the first judge of the Civil Court of Florence (Zeigler, p. 204).

The vestibule's west window, The Phoenix, was given by E.N. “Nick” Zeigler, Jr., in memory of his grandfather, Belton O’Neall Townsend (1855-1891). The phoenix is born from its ashes; thus it represents Christ in his resurrection from death.

In his brief life, Townsend made lasting contributions to his town and parish.  Born in Bennettsville, Townsend attended St. David’s Academy in Society Hill and graduated from South Carolina College at the age of eighteen. He was the only member of the class of 1873. Townsend wrote a series of articles about conditions in South Carolina and the 1876 election, which he sent to William Dean Howells, editor of the Atlantic Monthly. They were published in the February, April, and June 1877 issues of the magazine. Another article which he had sent to Howells appeared in the October 14, 1876 issue of the New York Tribune. These articles were published anonymously because Townsend’s observations were so critical of the attitudes of white southerners that it was considered dangerous to make his identity known. In 1883, against the advice of Howells - who told Townsend that his real talent was prose reporting, not poetry - he published a volume of poetry entitled Plantation Lays. The work earned a scathing review from Mark Twain; even his grandson, Nick Zeigler, calls it “mediocre.” Townsend desired to be a journalist and a poet, but - to appease his father, Benjamin D. Townsend (1815-1885) - he became a lawyer and opened a practice in Florence in 1878.

In Florence: A Renaissance Spirit, Nick Zeigler wrote that “Townsend was short in both stature and temper. He had a quick wit and was fond of satire. A political broadside which he wrote during the municipal election in 1879, in rhyming couplets, indicates that he had a deep contempt for the sort of politics being practiced in the town.”

In the 1870s, Townsend developed a practice of loaning books from his law office to colleagues and friends. This gave rise to the first library in Florence. Active in civic affairs, he served as a performer in the musicals and plays that were held to raise money for the Library and Monument Association, as a captain in the Florence Rifles, as organizer and leader of the Hope Fire Company, and as a 32nd-degree Mason. He was also an active member and vestryman (1879-1884) of St. John’s. He, along with fellow parishioner Dr. James Evans, was one of the strongest proponents of the movement to create Florence County. He dreamed of a Florence with a cosmopolitan character, separate from its identity as a railroad town, and published a pamphlet entitled Why the Proposed NEW COUNTY of Florence Should Be Established, which contained the strongest and most influential arguments in favor of the formation of Florence County.

When St. John’s began efforts to raise money to build the present church, Townsend was at the forefront of fundraising activities. Readers may recall that one of the more memorable fundraising events was a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore. Townsend sponsored the production. When the Ladies Aid Society purchased the land for the building, the title was placed in his name until the balance was paid and the property transferred by deed to St. John’s vestry.

In 1883, Townsend ran against another parishioner, William H. Day (1842-1928), for the office of intendant of the Town of Florence. In Refugees and Remnants, Zeigler writes that the race was “a bitterly contested election which had the aspect of a ‘town’ versus ‘rail’ encounter.” Day was master car builder in the railroad shops and was considered the most influential railroad man in Florence during the last 30 years of the nineteenth century.

Townsend died in a house fire in February 1891. His widow, Leah McClenaghan, remarried and, as Mrs. Daniel M. McEachin (1865-1945), was prominent in civic work after his death.