Before there was Spiderman, there was the Human Spider, a ‘steeplejack’ who climbed atop towers, steeples, and even South Carolina’s State House dome without harness or ladder, and apparently without fear.
An Eye-Catching Photograph
For years, Richland Library has gathered donations of photographs, postcards, yearbooks, and other ephemera from our community and preserved them in the Walker Local & Family History Center. Recently, one such donated photograph caught my eye. The photograph, taken in 1910, shows a man standing on the top of the flagpole over the State House dome with his arms spread wide. My first thought was, "Yikes!" Especially since I am afraid of heights. But then, a lot of questions bubbled up in my mind. Who was this man? Why was he up there? Did he take any safety precautions? And did he experience any ill effects of this action during his lifetime? As a local history librarian, I figured I would try and answer these questions.
Postcard Yields Clues
Digging deeper, I found a historic postcard in the library's collections which gave me a great starting point. Printed on the front was a death-defying photograph of a couple standing atop a water tower with a crowd of craning onlookers below. It was captioned “J. R. Whalen and Wife on top of 190 ft. tank at Bennettsville, S.C.” The postcard wasn't dated, but visual clues led me to think it was taken around 1915. Inset was a close-up of the couple in a studio portrait looking like a calm but serious pair, one that you wouldn’t really expect to be up to too much mischief. But obviously looks can be deceiving! Now there was not just one death-defying member of the family, there were two! I had even more questions.
What Records Revealed
After looking into census records, newspapers, and other public records available in the library’s databases, I found that the "J.R. Whalen" on the water tank was John Roy Whalen. He was born in Maryville, Tennessee in 1885 and was one of 5 children in a working-class family. His mother, Melinda Wilcox Whalen, died when he was 8. His stepmother, Mary, was a seamstress in the local mill and his father, James K. Polk Whalen, was a gardener. Mary had brought 2 more children into the family, so it was a crowded house. At age 13 young J. R. was no longer in school but was working as a house servant. His older brother was a spinner in the mill, a likely fate for J. R. too, but he apparently had other plans for his career. J. R. became a painter. Apparently one with no fear of heights.
Whalen first arrived in Columbia around 1909 to work as a steeplejack. His job was to paint the steeple at Columbia’s First Presbyterian church, one of the tallest structures in Columbia at the time. That year, perhaps while working in Columbia, he met and married Lillian Pleasants of Rion, a small town in Fairfield County, and the couple began traveling to various towns for Whalen’s work. This research answered a lot of my questions. Happily, the “wife” of postcard fame now had a name too.
But how did he end up on the State House flagpole? In 1910, First Presbyterian’s steeple famously caught fire and burned. Whalen returned to Columbia to work on the repairs. While here on that job, Whalen looked over at the State House dome and decided to climb to the top just for sport.
While up on the dome, Whalen fashioned a pair of rope stirrups and stood up on the pole holding a flag in each hand, waving them for the astonished crowd below. A photographer snapped a photograph, which later made its way into the library's Local History collections.
King of the Skyscraper
The next day, Whalen followed up the State House stunt by climbing the Barringer building, the city’s lone “skyscraper,” and standing on the flagpole at the top. This apparently prompted a competition when a local factory inspector named Alex McDougal tried to one-up Whalen by climbing the exterior of the Barringer building without ropes, to the astonishment of his friends. Both survived the competition, but Whalen was the only one to get to the top of the flagpole. He was thus dubbed the Human Spider by the locals. Sadly, no photograph of Whalen, or McDougal, atop the Barringer building has come to light.
Whalen’s unusual skill was in high demand, and throughout his career as a steeplejack he traveled to almost every state in the U.S. and to Canada and Mexico. In 1922 the couple were in Texas when Lillian gave birth to their son John Roy Whalen, Jr. who, fittingly, later served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Like his father the traveling romantic, Whalen Jr. met and married a woman in Naples during the war; she later immigrated to South Carolina where the family settled. Also like his father, Whalen Jr. was a steeplejack and high-altitude painter, but only on the side. His main occupation was as a reporter for several newspapers. He sounds a bit like South Carolina's answer to Clark Kent.
A Wanderer Returns
In 1945, at 61 years old, J. R. Whalen Sr. returned from his wanderings to settle in Rion. But even at that advanced age he gladly took on extraordinary jobs and reportedly had recently climbed tall structures at Fort Jackson and the smokestack at Baptist Hospital to do a little repair work. The newspaper referred to his strange talent as “a zest for the heights.”
John Roy Whalen died at age 89 at home. He was survived by his wife Lillian, his son John Whalen, Jr., and four grandchildren. For Whalen, it was a peaceful end to a life led wandering the world on the edge of danger.
Sources
The following sources are available in Richland Library’s NewsBank database, Ancestry Library Edition, or in the collections of the Walker Local & Family History Center at Richland Library.
- “Steeple jack at top of Capitol flag pole,” Columbia Record, August 31, 1910, page 2.
- “M’Dougal is some climber: factory inspector proves a human fly, rivals the steeple jack,” Columbia Record, September 1, 1910, page 5.
- “‘Human Spider,’ well known here, returns to city,” The State, July 28, 1945, page 2.
- “John R. Whalen, Sr.,” The State, June 28, 1974, page 10-B.
- “Being down on your luck seldom dishonorable at time : former newsman recalls father’s Hobo experiences, tells of Depression’s hard times,” Times and Democrat, May 2, 1999, page 2F.
- “John Roy Whalen, Jr.” The State, July 8, 2008, page 5-B.
- “Who stood on the steeple?” The State, March 28, 2015 page 1-B.
- The glory of the Lord risen upon it: First Presbyterian Church Columbia, South Carolina, 1795-1995 by David B. Calhoun. Printed by R. L. Bryan Co., Columbia, S.C. 1994.
- J. K. P. Whalen household, U.S. Census. Year: 1900; Census Place: Cleveland, Bradley, Tennessee; Roll: 1559; Page: 2; Enumeration District: 0012
- J. R. Whalen household, U.S. Census. Year: 1910; Census Place: Augusta Ward 3, Richmond, Georgia; Roll: T624_210; Page: 2a; Enumeration District: 0059; FHL microfilm: 1374223
- W.H. Pleasant household, U.S. Census. Year: 1920; Census Place: Township 9, Fairfield, South Carolina; Roll: T625_1695; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 63
