Singleton and Related Genealogy Pages
A history of many families.
1910 - 1987 (76 years)| Name | Jasper Thomas JAMES [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] | |
| Suffix | Jr. | |
| Birth | 27 Aug 1910 | |
| Gender | Male | |
| HIST | Tradition of Service- Sumter Casket Company adjusts to industry trends, while focusing on relationships- By Joe Perry- In November 1894, Sumter Casket Company on South Magnolia Street was formed by the Witherspoon brothers - who brought aboard J. T. James Sr., shortly after the turn of the century. The Company has been run by the James family throughout several generations, making it the second-oldest continuous family-run business in Sumter, after “The Item” under the stewardship of the Osteen family. • Both companies have been going strong ever since. • “My great-grandfather came in like the early 1900s,” said Michael James, plant operations manager. “He moved down from Burlington Coffin and Casket Company out of North Carolina. I think it was around 1905 or 1906.” • “It used to be two operations: One was the woodworking end and one was the casket end,” said J. T. James III, company president. He said the company shipped caskets by rail all up and down the East Coast. “My daddy (J. T. James Jr.) was president and general manager from 1927 to probably ‘55 or ‘56. He traveled North Carolina - that was one of our sales territories. He was a salesman for eastern North Carolina.” • J. T. James Sr. ran the company from about 1906 until he died in 1951 or 1952, J. T. James III said. • “After my grandfather died, he (J. T. James Jr.) came into the plant to run the operations. He was (employed) here for 60 years, from 1927 to 1987, he said. “I’ve been here from 1965 to present, and that’s what, 41 years?” • J. T. James III’s son Michael graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1992 and has been part of the family business ever since, he said. • “It’s amazing how time flies - it feels like yesterday...,” Michael James said. • As times have changed, the James family has adopted to those changes, and one of the biggest challenges, J. T. James III said, was during World War II when all steel production went toward the war effort. • “We started manufacturing steel in 1950,” James III said. “My grandfather (J. T. James Sr.) died in ‘51 or ‘52 and he lived long enough to see the first metal casket produces and finished,” James III said. • About this time, the Witherspoons’ interests were completely taken over by the James family, and the business was consolidated, melding the woodworking and casket manufacturing into one concerted effort. At the outset of Sumter Casket Company, cloth-covered wood caskets were the standard, but those were “associated with sort of the pauper,” J. T. James III said. Varnished caskets in the ‘20s and ‘30s were similar to what furniture manufacturers used to make, he said, but the finished-wood casket business has pretty much remained the same. • Nowadays, the company’s business is about half steel and half wood, Michael James said, although the industry norm is more 60 percent steel and 40 percent wood. • “With our woodworking facility for so long, we’ve been known for more wood caskets,” he said. “We’re kind of a reverse trend.” • Back in the day, customers used to order caskets directly from them, he said, but not any more. • “We sell direct to funeral homes,” he said. “We’re basically a wholesaler.” • One of the most recent changes - endemic to almost any manufacturing business - is foreign competition. The elder James said most of their suppliers come from Indiana, but the rise of products from Mexico is hard to ignore. Cheaper labor, fewer regulations and generally less oversight equal much lower overhead, he said. • “It’s the same thing that’s driven the furniture industry out and the same thing that’s driven the textile industry out in South Carolina,” he said. • Nevertheless, some homegrown companies still attract and retain their clients through good old-fashioned quality workmanship. • “J. B. Martin is still here; we still buy all of our velvets from them. They’re manufactured in Batesburg-Leesville,” Michael James said. “We still try to buy as much in South Carolina and locally as we can.” • Another trend that could be a stumbling block is the move towared cremation, during which families generally prefer lowerend, less expensive caskets, he said. However, this usually happens with retirees who have no family, or in crowded metropolitan areas, James said. • One of the biggest challenges is meeting the deadline, and with a turn-around time averaging about an hour, delivering a casket in a timely and efficient manner is the benchmark of their success. • “When the funeral is set, it’s set,” James said. • His father agrees. • “Relationships and service are the two keys,” J. T. James III said. “You don’t tell somebody you can do something and not produce. They depend on that and it’s got to be there, rain or shine, it doesn’t make any difference. Our business is built on that reputation of dependability and service and quality,” he said. • When someone dies, the family must go through a grieving process, but they need to remember the good times, Michael James said. And customizing their casket is easily done. Whether the deceased was an avid outdoorsman, a motorcyclist, belong to the Masons or Rotary, or was particularly enamored with a certain ball team, putting the personal touch is becoming more and more requested. • “Whatever the person enjoyed in life is what we try to portray,” he said. “Our motto is: ‘It’s a celebration of life, so you should memorialize.’ Instead of being sad, it should be a happy time.” 'A celebration of life' One local manufacturer has been in business for more than 120 years in Sumter, and like all thriving industry, it has had to change with the times. posted: August 25 Sandra Conyers installs a patriotic-themed head panel in a coffin at Sumter Casket Company. The local company offers many customizations ranging from the head panel to the type of wood or metal to colors and sizes. BY JADE ANDERSON janderson@theitem.com One local manufacturer has been in business for more than 120 years in Sumter, and like all thriving industry, it has had to change with the times. "The baby boomers are more personalized individuals," said Michael James, operations manager of Sumter Casket Co. "They want what they want whether it's a fire engine red or a Carolina or Clemson casket." He is the fourth generation of Jameses to own a majority share of the business and has worked at the place for close to 20 years. "I do a little bit of everything," he said. "Ordering, sales, marketing. Just day-to-day operations. I can line a casket and paint. I can sand and put handles or other hardware. I can drive the truck. The only thing I can't do is sew. "Fortunately, I have a great group of employees (from) painters and seamstresses to help paint, line, trim and deliver the casket quick, sometimes just in time for the funeral. Sometimes we get a call at 9 a.m., and they want it by 4 p.m. the same day. Usually it's more of a 24-hour turnaround. It's not a Monday to Friday business. We don't like to ship on Sunday, but sometimes we have to." The company currently employs 12 people. "My father (J.T. "Bubba" James III) still comes in here about every day," Michael James said. "We call it being a little retired. He works, but he enjoys his freedom." Founded in the 1890s by the Witherspoon brothers, the company originally made furniture as well as coffins. It wasn't long before they hired J.T. James, and in the early 1900s, he purchased controlling interest of the company. Michael James' grandfather, J.T. James Jr., also worked at Sumter Casket, and his grandmother, Eleanor James, worked in the office for 63 years. The company serves all of South Carolina as well as parts of North Carolina and Georgia. "We buy a shell," James said. "We prime it, sand it, paint it what color it needs to be, put handles on it and sew the interior here. It gives us a lot of flexibility to work with the funeral directors. It's really more for the living than the deceased to help celebrate that life. That is how we look at our job, as a celebration of life." The company's motto is "Committed to the Celebration of Life." He usually sells 200 to 300 caskets a month with January through April typically being his busiest time of the year. "It's flu and pneumonia season," James said. "In winter, the death rate is up, and that affects business." The seasonal changes often affect the color choices as well. "October, November and December we tend to see browns and more fall colors," James said. "We see brighter colors in the summertime." Besides special colors, the company offers cloth-covered caskets. Head panels can be changed to feature religious themes, sports teams, hobbies, occupations or outdoor scenes such as hunting and fishing. A screen print of a digital photo can even be embroidered or vinyl emblems affixed on the outside of the casket, too. "We try to customize it exactly as the family wants," James said. "We talk to funeral directors to get ideas of what families are asking for. Probably once a week I hear about something I never would have thought of putting in a casket or that they may not have 20 years ago. Figuring out how to make this decal or manufacture this color keeps it from getting boring. Custom stuff is the fun side of it, so to speak." While he sells more metal-oriented pieces, the company also offers a wooden line including kosher and orthodox boxes. "They are doweled and pegged together with no metal to meet the rabbi or diocese needs," James said. "We can use anything from a plain pine box with no finish to maple, mahogany or oak." The company also offers a simple veneer wood such as solid pecan for cremation and a green line that features paint with no harsh chemicals, which is very similar to the orthodox models, James said. Sumter Casket has larger caskets - taller, wider or both - as well as children's and youth caskets. "Children's caskets are not something I enjoy, but it's unfortunately a necessary part of society," James said. For more information on Sumter Casket Co., visit sumtercasket.com. Reach Jade Anderson at (803) 774-1250. Posted in Business on Sunday, August 25, 2013 [2, 4] | |
| Occupation | he ran the Sumter Casket Company, Sumter, South Carolina, from 1927 to 1987 [2] | |
| _UID | 59DDCC53C94C423EA0ABF37D9070637078EA | |
| Death | 21 Jun 1987 | |
| Person ID | I17270 | Singleton and Related Families |
| Last Modified | 14 Aug 2025 | |
| Father | Jasper Thomas JAMES, Sr. d. Abt 1951 | |
| Mother | Marie JENKINS | |
| _UID | B3ACDEC15BF1444AA784DBDB712465D68923 | |
| _UID | B3ACDEC15BF1444AA784DBDB712465D68923 | |
| Family ID | F53011 | Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family | Eleanor Sims WHAM, b. 17 Mar 1917, Laurens County, South Carolina  d. 6 May 2017, at the home of her daughter, (Pat James Fidler, Sumter, Sumter County, South Carolina) (Age 100 years) | |||||
| Marriage | 13 Mar 1938 | |||||
| _UID | E07BA213BD62455089FDF3837D927CC40F76 | |||||
| _UID | E07BA213BD62455089FDF3837D927CC40F76 | |||||
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| Family ID | F11124 | Group Sheet | Family Chart | ||||
| Last Modified | 23 Mar 2026 | |||||
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