Edgefield County, South Carolina - The whole text, 1897 (part 2 of 11)

Of the sons of Sampson Pope, George was^ elected Clerk of the Court of Edgefield, and died while in office. He was very popular, and more than merely popular, he w^as beloved by the people. Thomas H. made his home in Newberry - was a distinguished lawyer - was elected to the Legislature from that county. One of his sons was, in 1891, Attorney General of the State. Afterwards Associate Justice, and one was Clerk of the Sena'te; they both having been previously members of the Legislature. One son, Thomas H., became a Baptist preacher. He was an earnest and good man. He died young, and his body rests in Rosemont Cemetery in the town of Newberry. I was writing "Within the Vail" and in the act of penning the following lines when I was startled by the appearance of a funeral procession passing with the body of Rev. Thomas H. Pope to the grave. I dropped my pencil and paper and joined the procession:

"The insect of to-day, Whose little life is ended in a week. Is as immortal as the god-like man; - It lives, grows old, and dies within a week; - Three score and ten, the limit of man's life, Is to eternity of equal date. ' '

Zachary Smith Brooks

Capt. Zachary Smith Brooks I remember seeing often in my youth and early manhood. Zoar Methodist church, Persimmon Creek, as it was then called, was one to which I frequently went in my youth. Col. Brooks was a regular attendant. For many years, if my memory is not at fault here, his was the only carriage in all that part of the country, and the only one seen at that meeting house. It then seemed to me to be a very grand sort of life to be able to ride to church in a two horse carriage with a servant driving. And then when the carriage stopped to have him to let the steps down and help the master out! I remember the horses were bay, with nicked tails, as was the fashion in those days. I believe the first time I ever shook hands with Col. Brooks was at a Baptist camp meeting at or near Mt. Enon. Carriages and buggies became quite common in that community after awhile and the good old fashion of riding horseback to church gradually gave way, though it is not entirely abandoned yet. Horseback riding has its advantages - it gave young folks such splendid opportunities of cutting one another out, which, I dare say, the girls enjoyed, but some of the boys, especially those who were cut out, did not.

In the same general region of country, not far from Persimmon Creek, settled Crawford Perry and the Merchants, whose names are still well known in that community. The Barneses also came in at an early day. There was also a Captain John Hamilton and his brother Edward. These, however, did not come to Edgefield until after the Revolutionary War. Of this I am not right sure. Captain Hamilton was an officer in the British army, serving under his brother Col. Hamilton, who commanded a regiment in the left wing of the army at the Battle of Camden and aided greatly in the defeat of the Americans. These Hamiltons were Scotch, but they had been living in South Carolina - Eee, in his memoirs, says Norfolk, "Virginia - engaged in mercantile pursuits before the war, but, unfortunately, took the wrong side in the contest, as many good men did. At their death they left very little property. I know of no descendants.

Journey Of Washington

When Washington, in May, 1791, passed through Soutk CaroHna from Augusta to CoUimbia, the newly chosen capital of the State, his journey lay through the lower part of Edgefield. Of this journey Washington says: "I,eft Augusta about 6 o'clock Saturda}^ May 21st, and taking leave of the governor and the principal gentlemen of the place at the bridge over the Savannah River, where they assembled for the purpose, I proceeded in company with Colonels Hampton and Taylor and Mr. lyithgour, a committee from Columbia, (who had come on to meet and conduct me to that place), and a Mr. Jameson, from the village of Granb}^ on my route. Dined at a house about twenty miles from Augusta, and lodged at one Odem's abovit twenty miles further." The next day, Sunday, he rode about twenty miles to breakfast. Observe, that the Father of his country did not hesitate to travel on Sunday: but he foundered his horse and was compelled, in consequence, to remain in Columbia through Tuesday, the 24th, a day longer than he had intended. Of this route Washington says: "The whole road from Augusta to Columbia is a pine barren of the worst sort, being hilly as well as poor. This circumstance, added to the distant length of the stages, want of water and the heat of the day, foundered one of my horses very badly." His route lay by the Pine House and the Ridgs. At every place along the road where he could be seen he was met by many citizens who were anxious to see and do honor to the great man. At one of these places he was seen by Mr. Crawford Perry, who lived at the time not far from the place now know as Perry's Cross Roads.

I think there is some land along that route the owners of which would not be pleased to have it now spoken of as a "pine barren of the worst sort."

Abney Meeting House

Before I take a final leave of the Saluda near Higgin's Ferry, I may as well mention that a church, or house of worship, free to the use of all denominations of Christians, was once built on the road about a mile from the ferry, near Joel Abne3^'s, and was known as the Abney Meeting House. All vestige and trace of it vanished from the earth long ago. In this meeting

House the eccentric Lorenzo Dow, on his journey northwards, once preached. He also preached at Newberry Court House the next day or evening, on the same journey. I have in ray possessson the original subscription list with the names and amounts to be paid by each one. The money was to be paid to the Trustees on the first day of January, 1803. There are twenty-three names on the list of which seven are Abneys. Francis Higgins subscribed ten dollars; William Irby five dollars; David Parkins five; and William Kennedy three dollars. The whole amount subscribed was $156.00. Elias Boatner subscribed two dollars. These names, Irby, Parkins, Kennedy and Boatner, though not strange to the country, vanished from that section long ago. At what meeting house the people of that section worshiped before the building of this house I do not know. Evidently they must have had some place, for too many years had elapsed since the first settlements were planted there for the people to be without divine worship and religious instruction. Without churches and school houses no people can be considered truly civilized, and these always go wherever English speaking people go.

Before proceeding any further with this history I must beg my readers, - if my accounts of the early history and traditions of some sections are fuller and more complete than they are of others, - to believe that of those particular sections I have been able to obtain a greater amount of information, and not that I have any special liking or partiality for those sections. I wish to give a fair and impartial history of the whole county; but wha; I do not know, or cannot learn, I cannot write.

By an Act of the Legislature, passed 22nd of March, 17S6, a Ferry was established at Parkins' Ford on the Saluda River at the mouth of Bush River; one over the Savannah River by the name of Lemar's Ferry, in Edgefield County; one at a place called Snow Hill, in the County of Edgefield, on the Savannah River, to the land opppsite thereto, in the State of Georgia; and a road was ordered to be laid out and made the nearest and best w"ay from Friday's Ferry on the Congaree, where Columbia now is, to the Ridge between the north and south forks of the Edisto - thence by the nearest and best way to the established ferry on the Savannah River opposite to Augusta; and also another road from the said ferry to Bevin's Bridge, on Horse Creek; from thence by the best and most direct way into the road leading from Fort Moore, (now Hamburg) to the White Ponds. This was partly the route of Washington. In 1788 a public road was established from Anderson's Ferry, on Great Saluda , to Mr. Enoch Grigsby's, and from thence to Captain Butler's, and from thence to intersect the road leading from Juniper to Orangeburg; also a ferry on Saluda, at the mouth of Rocky Creek, where the district line crosses; - and a road on the south side of the river was established from a place known as Weaver's Old Field to the said Waters' Ferry; and a ferry having been established in 1786 and vested in Philemon Waters, but no road leading thereto, laid out, a road was established and ordered to be laid out from, or near the W^idow West's on the Ninety-Six Road, to the said Philemon Waters' Ferry, and Jacob Pope, Nathan Milton and William Boram were commissioners for laying out said road. In the same year, 1788, a road was ordered to be opened, by and under the direction of the Courts of the Counties of Abbeville and Edgefield, twenty-five feet wide, and leading the nearest and best way from Whitehall in the County of Abbeville to proceed near Samuel Anderson's in Cuffeetown, from thence to Charles Williams' on Turkey Cieek, from thence to John Furman's on the Beaver Dam, from thence to Charles Martin's on Home's Creek, from thence to Seth Howard's on Chaver's Creek, and from thence, in the most convenient way, to the warehouse opposite the town of Augusta, - and that Seth Howard, Robert Anderson, John Thurman, James Hargrove and Fields Pardue be the commissioners for opening the said road.

I am thus particular in noticing the opening of roads and the establishing of ferries, because these show so clearly the needs and wants of the people and their progress in improvements. For the same reason we will take note of the building of railroads and telegraph lines, and of all other public institutions which illustrate and meet the demands of the age.

The History of Edgefield, says a frien.' - J. C. Edwards - who has given me great assistance in the preparation of this work, is grouped around four important centres. Mount Willing, Old Cambridge, or Ninety-Six, Edgefield Court House and Hamburg.

Henry Mayson, who lived near Good Hope Baptist Church for many years and died during the year 1891, at about eighty years of age, was born at Ninety-Six. His father's house, in which he was born, is the only building of that old time now left standing there. After the decay of Cambridge Mr. Mayson removed to Hamburg, where he engaged in the mercantile business in company with the late Colonel Thomas G. Bacon,

Catlett Connor

Catlett Connor, a very celebrated character in that day, and who was elected to the State Senate over Eldred Simkins, afterwards member of Congress and one of the most eminent men in the State, lived near Ninety-Six in the house, the residence in 1891, of Hon. Calvin W. Kinard. This Mr. Connor was a blacksmith, a man of intelligence and of great force of character. Being considerably ambitious and jealous of the influence of the Butler and Simkins families in the county, and thinking that they were getting rather more offices than they were fairly entitled to, wrote and published a pamphlet against them. He was ably seconded by Mr. Matthew Jones of Ridge Spring, father of General James Jones, Captain I^evvis Jones of Edge- field, and Major Edward Jones of Trenton; and the father-inlaw of General Paul Quattlebaum of Lexington; Major Tillman Watson of Ridge Spring, and the Honorable William Gregg, the founder of Graniteville. Party feeling ran very high, so high, indeed, that Mr. Matthew Jones and Colonel Smith Brooks had a fight about the election at Mount Willing in which, it is said, that Colonel Brooks got the worst of it. Connor's gin house, said to be the first one built in Edgefield County, was still standing in the winter of 1890-91, and may be standing yet.

That part of Edgefield now constituting the townships of Mobley, Norris, Rhinehart and Huiett, used to hold their battalion muster at Mount Willing. At the beginning of the Revolutionary^ War this section was, perhaps, more thickly settled than any other part of the county. The original settlers came mostly, not from the lower counties of the State, but from Virginia and the Middle States. Many of them were noted for their independence and public spirit. Just before the breaking out of the war of Independence, there was not, perhaps, a happier, more prosperous, contented and independent people on the face of the earth, than the people of middle Carolina were - than the people of Edgefield were. The Indians were gone; much of the soil was fertile; game abounded in the forests and fish in all the branches, creeks and rivers. Taxes were light; so light, indeed, that the burden of taxation was not felt at all. He who was not able to live well and to grow rich was, indeed, one of nature's weaklings. It was, or might have been, equal to the poet's dream of life in Arcadia. The young men wooed and won the fair daughters of the pioneers who lived on the fertile shores of Cloud's Creek and Eittle Saluda, and built home nests of their own as cheerful and happy as the very birds that enlivened the forests around with their many and varied songs. But clouds came over the happy scene.

After the State threw off its allegiance to Great Britain, which was several months before the Declaration of Independence, by the General Congress at Philadelphia, it was necessar>' to have elections to fill all county offices, and also to elect members to the General Assembly. That election was held during the summer of 1776. Colonel Robert Cunningham was a candidate for election to the House of Representatives for the District of Ninety-Six. Cunningham was an avowed lyoyalist, and sent his relative, William Cunningham, afterwards the celebrated Bloody Bill, over to Mount Willing to look after the interests of that place. While the voting was in progress an unfortunate row occurred between the Whigs and the Loyalists, in which Cunningham and many others, on both sides, were beaten nearly to death. I think Cunningham was elected. Two years afterwards, in 177S, he was elected to the State Senate over Colonel James Williams, who was afterwards killed at the battle of King's Mountain.

But I must not omit to mention some events that occurred during the year before the Declaration of Independence. In this year, 1775, William Henry Drayton and Rev. William Tennant were sent by the Governor and Council of Safet}" into the upper parts of the State to conciliate the inhabitants and bring them to unite with the people of the low country in resistance to the arbitrar}- measures of Great Britain. In their progress through the up-country we find that Mr. Drayton had appointed a meeting to take place at the Ridge on Friday, the first day of September, 1775; but learning that Moses Kirkland had, without lawful authority, assembled men in arms in the district, and it being evident that, to his treachery against the Colony, he intended to add crimes of a deeper dye and, by force of arms, to violate the public peace, he declared that it was inexpedient for the meeting to be held, lest it should furnish occasion for bloodshed. He also declared that all persons following Kirkland and assembling in arms without authority, should be deemed public enemies, to be suppressed by the sword. This is the same Kirkland whose home was on Saluda, and who was captured while on his way to Boston to concert measures with General Gage for a general uprising of the Cherokees at the same time the attack should be made on Charleston by General Clinton. The British fleet was repulsed; the Indians made war as agreed, but the war ended in their total defeat and ruin.

From a letter from \Yilliam Tennant to the Council of Safety in Charleston, September ist, 1775, we learn that he was then on the south side of Saluda, and that Mr. Draj-ton had just gone on to Augusta. This letter was dated at L,ong Cane, in Ninety-Six District. Three volunteer companies were formed to repel the Indians and to keep the Tories in check. One under Major Terry; another under Colonel Pickens; and another under Captain James McCall. There was great terror felt by the well disposed inhabitants of the District.

On the i6th of September, 1775, a treat}?- of neutrality was formed between William Henr}^ Draj-ton and Colonel Fletchall, and on the 21st Mr. Drayton wrote to Colonel Robert Cunningham, asking him if he considered himself included as a party to that treaty. Colonel Cunningham replied that he did not consider himself included as a party.

A report of the militia and volunteers on dut}' in the fortified camp at Ninet3'-Six on Sunday, the 19th of November, 1775, under the command of Major Andrew Williamson, by order of the Honorable the Provincial Congress:

N. B. - It is supposed that Major Mayson and his thirtyseven Rangers ought to be added to this return. William Abney, brother of Nathaniel Abney, was one of his officers.

These men were besieged in a fortified camp at Ninety-Six by Joseph Robinson, Patrick Cunningham, and Richard Pearis, and a strong force of Loyalists under their command. There was some fighting between the parties, and some loss was sustained by both sides. The men under Major Williamson were compelled to dig for water within their fort, as they were entirely cut off from a supply otherwise.

On the 22nd of November, 1775, a cessation of hostilities was agreed upon, a copy of which is here given with a letter from Major Mayson to Colonel Thomson enclosing a copy, and also giving an account of the affair; also a letter from Major Williamson to Mr. Drayton, giving an account of the siege, action, and treaty at Ninety-Six.

Agreement for a cessation of arms between Major Joseph Robinson, commander of a body of his majesty's militia, now under arms for himself and the troops under his command, of the one part; and Major Andrew Williamson and Major James Mayson, commanders of the fort at Ninety-Six for themselves and the troops therein under the direction of the Provincial Congress :

3rd. That the fort shall be destroyed flat without damaging the houses therein, under the inspection of Captain Patrick Cunningham and John Bowie, Esq., and the well filled up.

4th. That the differences between the people of this District and others, disagreeing about the present public measures, shall be submitted to his Kxcellency, our Governor, and the Council of Safety, and for that purpose that each party shall send dispatches to their superiors - that the dispatches shall be sent unsealed and the messenger of each party shall pass unmolested.

5th. That Major Robinson shall withdraw his men over Saluda, and there keep them embodied, or disperse them as he pleaseth until his Excellency's orders be known.

7th. Should any reinforcements arrive to Major Williamson or Major Mayson, they also shall be bound by this cessation. 8th. That twenty days shall be allowed for the return of the messengers.

In witness whereof, the parties to these articles have set their hands and seals at Ninety-Six this twenty-second day of November, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, and in the sixteenth year of his Majesty's reign.

Ninety-Six, November 24th, 1775. I now enclose you a copy of the cessation of arms agreed upon by Major Williamson and myself the day before yesterday, by which you will be able to judge of the terms we are to abide by on both sides. The persons chosen to represent the matter before the Provincial Congress are Major Williamson, John Bowie, and myself, on the behalf of the associators for this Province; and Major Robinson, Captains Cunningham and Bowman, on behalf of the King. We who are appointed are to meet here on Monday next, the 27th inst., in order to proceed to town to settle this disagreeable business. I shall now give you a small narrative of our battle. On Saturday last, about A o'clock in the afternoon, we received intelligence that all the people assembled in arms over Saluda River, had marched over, and encamped about four and a half miles from our camps, in number about two thousand. We had, at most, not more than five hundred men. At first consultation with Major Williamson, we agreed to march and meet the opposite party and give them battle; but, upon consideration, we thought it most prudent to march all our men to Colonel Savages' old field, near Ninety-Six, as our numbers were small, compared with the other party, and to fortify the same with the rails thereabouts. We arrived there about day break, and in about two hours a square of one hundred and eightyfive yards was fortified in such a manner as to keep off the enemy; but before three da3'S had expired our men began to be outrageous for want of bread and water, and we had not above sixteen pounds of gun-powder left. On Tuesday last, in the afternoon, the enemy held out a flag of truce and sent into our fort a messenger with a letter from Major Robinson to myself, which was the first beginning of this treaty. We have only one man dead since this battle, and eleven wounded; some will be mortal by the doctor's opinion. The enemy say the}' had but one man dead, who is a Captain lyUper, and about the same number wounded as ours; by the best information thc}^ have buried at least twenty -seven men, and have as many wounded. I am certain I saw three fall at the first fire from our side. The swivels are to be delivered up this evening to us, although inserted m the articles of cessation as given by us up, as agreed to b}' the head men of the other party.

Jas. Mayson

on the 14th, by the Express, and am happy to find my past conduct met the approbation of your Honor and the Congress. It shall always be my study to discharge my duty and the trust reposed in me by that respectable body. Before I received your letter I had reinforced Fort Charlotte with fiftytwo militia and supplied them with provisions, and have since given orders for their continuing there one month longer; I have also furnished Captain Caldwell with iron for the carriages to mount the guns.

I should have had the honor of transmitting you an account of my situation before now, but could obtain no certain intelligence from the opposite party, until the seventeenth instant in the night, (notwithstanding I had used all possible endeavors and some expense to obtain some knowledge of their strength and designs,) when I learned their numbers amounted to at least fifteen hundred men, and understood that it was chiefly owing to an affidavit made by Captain Richard Pearis, that so many men were embodied - a copy whereof I now enclose you, as also a copy of the oaths they imposed on those who happened to fall into their hands, all of whom they disarmed, except such as were willing to join their party.

On the eighteenth, in the evening, I received certain information that they were crossing Saluda River on their march towards us, and then was joined by Major Mayson, with twenty-seven Rangers. I immediately ordered the men under arms, and took the resolution of marching to meet them, and demanding their intentions, and if they were determined to come to action, to be ready before them, and on acquainting the officers and men thereof, found them all cheerful and willing to proceed, but afterwards reflecting on the fatal consequences should we have been defeated, proposed in a council of war, consisting of Major Mayson and all the captains, to march from the camp near Ninety-Six into the cleared ground of Colonel Savage's plantation, where we could use our artillery with advantage, and there fortify our camp till we should receive more certain information of their strength (being in immediate expectation of being joined b}' Colonel Thompson and the Rangers at least, and also some men from the lower part of this regiment and Augusta,) which was unanimously approved of, and early next morning we marched to Ninety-Six with all our provision and baggage, and in about three hours erected a kind of fortification of old fence rails joined to a barn and some out-houses, which, before we had quite completed, they had surrounded us with a large body of men with drums and colors. I then sent out an officer to demand their intention, who, on his return, reported that Major Robinson and Mr. Patrick Cunningham refused to have any conference but with the commanding officers. I then sent out Major Mayson and Mr. Bowie, whom they and Mr. Evan Mclyaurin met be tween their men and the fort in sight of both, and after about fifteen minutes conference they returned and reported that they insisted on our immediately delivering up our arms to them and dispersing; which were the only terms they were determined to grant us, and that at parting they told them to keep our people within the fort, which was the only place where they could be safe; and immediately they took two of our people just by the fort, before my face, whom I gave orders to retake, and a warm engagement ensued, which continued with very little intermission from three o'clock in the afternoon of Sunday until Tuesday sunset, when they hung out a white flag trom the jail and called to us that they wanted to speak to the commanding officers. I replied if they wanted to send an officer or any message they should be safe. On which they sent a messenger carrying a lighted candle and a letter from Major Robinson, directed to Colonel Mayson, demanding of us as before, to deliver up our arms and disperse, giving us one hour's time to return an answer; to which Major Mayson and mj'self jointly answered that we were determined never to resign our arms, and in about two hours Mr. Bowie, who carried our answer, returned with a letter making the same demand, and with him Patrick Cunnin^'-ham, whom I met about fifty } ards from the gate, where we conversed for some [time, and then he came with us into the fort, where, after some time, we agreed to have a conference on the morrow, at eight o'clock. Accordingly, on Wednesday morning Major Mayson, Captain Pickens, Mr. Bowie and myself met with Major Robinson, Messrs. Patrick Cunningham, Evan McLaurin and Richard Pearis, and agreed to the cessation of hostilities now inclosed you, which was lucky for us, as we had not above thirty pounds of powder, except what little the men had in their horns; but no scarcity appeared, as no person knew our stock but one gentleman and myself. We had thirty-eight barrels of flour with four live beeves in the fort, and got very good water the third da 5', after digging upwards of forty feet, so that if we had had a sufficiency of powder we could have stood a siege for a considerable time. It will appear to your Honor by the articles that we gave up the swivels; but that was not intended either by them or us, for after the articles were agreed on and were ready for signing, their people, to the number of between three and four hundred, surrounded the house where we were and swore if the swdvels were not given up they would abide by no articles, on which the gentlemen of the opposite party declared upon their honor that if we would suffer it to be so inserted in the agreement they would return them, which they have done, and I have this day sent them to Fort Charlotte.

I am sorry to acquaint 3'our Honor that some small difference arose between Major Mayson and me about the command of the militia, but flatter myself the ser\dce has not suffered thereb}'. To prevent any bad consequences I agreed that if he would come to camp I would receive orders from him for the militia and volunteers, and give them myself until a gentleman should arrive who would command us both, but when I received your letter >vith orders from the Congress, I thought myself no longer bound by that agreement, especially when he told me he was ordered to attend the Congress; I beg to be understood that I don't wish for command, but would willingly be of any ser\'ice to my country that I possibly could.

I am obliged in justice to the officers and men on this expedition to declare that their behavior greatly exceeded the most sanguine expectation. They did not, during a siege of near three days without water, either murmur or complain, and cheerfully stood at their posts during three nights without any fire, nor was there any symptoms of fear to be seen among them. Our loss was very small, owing chiefly to blinds of fence rails and straw with some beeves' hides, erected in the night behind the men who would other\vise have been exposed to the fire of the enemy. We had only thirteen men wounded, one of whom is since dead, most of the rest very slightly. The loss of the opposite party is said to be considerable.

"A Colonel Williamson, with twelve hundred men, first arriving, took possession of a stockade fort, where he was instantly besieged by Cunningham with his party. Williamson having remained confined for two days in the fort, destitute of provisions and water, was forced to sally with his men on the third day. But they were attacked by Cunningham in the attempt and totally dispersed. The Committee men made so good use of their heels that only twenty-five men were killed in the flight, for fight there was none."

In the Spring of 1776 George Mason collected a small company of men and marched with them to assist in the defense of Charlestown. He had the misfortune to lose a leg at the battle of Fort Moultrie, June 28th, 1776. Mr. Mason lived to be an old man and met his death by being drowned in Red Bank Creek while under the influence of rum or whiskey.

From the unsuccessful attempt on Fort Moultrie in 1776, to the Fall of Charlestown in 1 780, matters were generally quiet in this part of Edgefield and the country was prosperous. However, in 1779, Benjamin Bell raised a company, composed of both Whigs and Loyalists, and joined Gen. Williamson in his expedition against the Cherokees, The Indians, in a spirit of derision, were accustomed to speak of General Williamson as a cow driver. William.son retorted by calling them cattle. Captain Bell was killed in this expedition and I have been informed that some of his descendants think to this day that he was killed in the up-country while looking after his cows. Hon. John M. Bell, of Aiken, and the Daniels and Edwardses, are worthy descendants of this brave and worthy pioneer. A short time before his death he had been digging for silver on the south fork of Little Saluda, and his comrades, after their return from the expedition against the Cherokees, called it Mine Creek, which name it still bears.

After the Fall of Charlestown and the surrender of Lincoln's army. General Williamson, feeling that it was useless to struggle longer, submitted to the British authority, and took what is known as British protection. Very many good men did the same; among the number were Major May son and Colonel Pickens and Le Roy Hammond. Their condition was simply that of paroled prisoners, the same as that of the soldiers and garrisons in Charlestown. When called upon to take up arms by the British authorities, against their countrymen, many good Whigs refused and immediately took the field in the cause of independence, regarding the call to arms by the British as a violation of their parole, which it was. General Williamson, still regarding the Whig cause as entirely hopeless.

did not join them. For this his memory has always rested under a shadow, and some have called him a traitor - the Benedict Arnold of the South. This judgment is evidently entirely too harsh. He never betrayed any trust. He never sought any position for the purpose of betraying it. So far as I have been able to discover he never did anything worse than weakly yielding to what he thought was irresistible pressure. He never took up arms against the State. He disbanded his command and retired to his home. Ramsay, in his History of South Carolina, says nothing of any treason - nor does Mills, in his Statistics. Mills puts him in his list of eminent men of the upper country, and says nothing of his treason. It is true, however, that his act of submission gave great offense and was a serious disappointment to many of his subordinate officers, some of whoni«left the State. For the time they were helpless and the State was overrun. With all due deference ta great names and to the opinions of other historians of the State^ I submit that the proposition made by Governor Rutledge and his Council of Safety to General Prevost to surrender the city and State and hold them neutral during the war, was about as shameful and disgraceful as any proposal well could be; and equally as bad morally as General Williamson's course. It is said that this was a mere ruse. General Moultrie and the soldiers did not so regard it.

In this particular part of Edgefield that now includes the townships of Mobley, Norris, Rhinehart and Huiett, the Whigs were in the majority, but the Tories had the assistance of the British, which gave them confidence and the ascendency for some time. Four companies of Whigs were raised and organized in these townships: One on Mine Creek, commanded by Captain Solomon Pope, who lived on what is now known as the Jennings Place, about one mile south of Red Bank church; one on Cloud's Creek, commanded by Captain Mike Watson. The present Rhinehart township was very thinly settled at that time, but the men took a very active part in the war. Captain James Butler, one of the heroes of Edgefield, lived in that township on the place now owned (1891) by Dr. John W. Kennerly. The Tory company was commanded by Captain Neely Carghill and they lived mostly in the region between the Eittle and the Big Saludas. This was the country of Moses Kirkland and the Stewarts, though the Stewarts lived a little higher up. Captain Butler, with his company^ was attached to the regiment of Colonel Le Roy Hammond of the Savannah side. The Tories under Carghill were subject to the orders of Colonel Robert Cunningham. Captain Pope's and Captain Watson's companies of Whigs also formed part of Le Roy Hammond's regiment.

Siege Of Ninety-Six

In the spring of 1 781, when General Greene invested the fort at Ninety-Six, there was a general gathering of Whigs to his assistance, and of the Tories to re-enforce Colonel Cruger, the commander of the fort. Cruger himself was a Tory from New York, and all his garrison of five hundred men were Tories, two hundred from New York and three hundred from South Carolina, mostly from Ninety-Six District. The Tories under Carghill went up early in the spring to the assistance of Cruger. The Whig companies were ordered up in May.

General Greene, after besieging the fort for several days, hearing of the approach of Lord Rawdon with re-enforcements, was compelled either to raise the siege and retire or to endeavor to carry the place by assault. Could he have waited a few days longer, the place w^ould have been his, but Lord Rawdon was too near; he could not wait. The assault was determined upon, but failed, and General Greene was compelled to retreat. He was pursued by Lord Rawdon across the Saluda and until he had crossed the Enoree. At that point Lord Rawdon ceased the pursuit, returned, and recrossed the Saluda, and sent word to Cruger to abandon Ninety-Six and go eastward, south of the Edisto, while he himself passed down south of the Saluda. General Greene, after crossing the Enoree, camped for a few days near Broad River. While he w^as here occurred that romantic episodj ^f the war, the sending of Emily Geiger with dispatches to General Sumte*", who was I'nen on the Wateree. It would please me to tell i at story liere, but I am writing the history of Edgefield, and have already related it in the Annals of Newberry, and also i.-- the hi .orj'- of the State. Edgefield has its romances, the stories of which will be told in due season.

try, he permitted Carghill's men to visit their homes, and they on their way passed the house of Captain Solomon Pope, where they found three of Pope's men, Aaron Wever, Joe Allen, and Fred Sissan, whom they made prisoners. Having no place of -confinement after the loss of Ninety-Six, they took them into a swamp near by on Mine Creek and put them to death. Captain Pope immediately called his company together, hastened to Mount Willing and called on Captain Butler for assistance. With their united forces they met the troops under Carghill in the fork of Cloud's Creek and lyittle Saluda, where a bloody fight ensued, in which Carghill's men were completely exterminated. It is said that about half of them were killed after they had surrendered, so great was the exasperation of the Whigs at their conduct in murdering Pope's men a short time before. Only one man v\^as left alive, Henry Etheredge, and he was saved by the interposition of Clark Spraggins, they being closely connected by marriage. Henry Ktheredge lived to be over four-score years of age and died on Little Saluda in November, 1840. Captain Mike Watson followed the retreating Cruger as far as Orangeburg, where, or near which place, he was killed by the Tories in a severe skirmish. After his death Bud Eskridge, a brave but rather rash man, was placed in command.

Tory Marauders

Early in the fall of 1781 Pope and Lieutenant William Butler joined General Greene, who was then in the lower part of the State, leaving the militia in this part of Edgefield under the command of Cajotain Bud Eskridge. Soon afterwards a ' marauding party of Tories came up from Lexington into the neighborhood near Mount Willing, and carried off a considerable amount of booty. The Whigs immediately assembled for pursuit. They wanted Captain James Butler, father of Lieutenant William Butler, who was with General Greene's army at the time, to take command. But he begged to be excused, on the ground that the hardships he had so recently undergone had rendered him unfit to take command of such an expedition. He had only recently been released from prison in Char-, leston, where he had been closely confined ever since the British occupation of Ninety-Six, for having refused to take the oath of allegiance and accept British protection. The men were willing to excuse him, but his son James, who was quite a youth, refused to go with the party unless his father commanded. Captain Butler consented to go, but refused to take camniand, and would only go as an adviser. They pursued the Royalists, overtook them at Farrar's Spring, in lycxington, defeated and dispersed them, and recaptured the horses and cattle which they had carried away. On their return home elated with their success, contrary to the advice of Captain Butler, who urged them to push on without delay, they stopped at a tavern on Cloud's Creek kept by a Mr. Turner, to remain all night, thinking themselves safe from pursuit. Over confident and under the influence of liquor, they neglected to take the necessary precaution to post sentinels to guard against surprise.

The party of Tories, whom they had just defeated, formed part of Cunningham's band of raiders, then on their way through the up country on their last revengeful foray. This our party did not know, but they were soon aroused to a knowledge of the fact. The first intimation they had of the approach of Cunningham was given by Turner's daughter, who told young James Butler of his approach from the direction of Charlestown' with several hundred men. There were in fact about three hundred. The house in which the Whigs had taken refuge was quickly surrounded by Cunningham, who demanded an unconditional surrender. He said, however, that he was willing to receive a communication from them. Smallwood Smith was selected by the Whigs to conduct the parley. When he presented himself Cunningham's first demand was: "Who are of your party?" When informed that young James Butler was one, he determined to give no quarter. The conflict then began by James Butler killing a man named Stewart. Butler himself was soon killed, and the whole party shortly afterwards surrendered. It is said that, after the surrender in a formal meeting of the Tory officers, Cunningham advised and ordered the massacre of the whole party. It was then that Captain James Butler caught up a pitchfork, which happened to be lying near, and defended him self until his right hand was cut off and he was shot dead. One man, Bartley Bledsoe, was spared as a compensation shown to Henry Etheredge a few months before. Mrs. Sarah Smith, sister of Captain James Butler, with other women, wives, mothers, and sisters of the slain, went the next day with their negro servants, dug graves, and buried the dead as decently as possible. Lot, a negro that belonged to Smallwood Smith, told Mr. Edwards long afterwards, that he helped to bury th'.ee men, and that he saw a Tory strutting around, wearing a coat of his master's that had been badly cut with swords.

This butchery occurred during that celebrated raid of Cunningham's as far up as Hays' Station, in Laurens County, which he seemed to have made for the sole purpose of glutting a ferocious desire for revenge and getting one last copious drink of blood. Such must have been the purpose, for it was impossible for the expedition to dj any good towards re-establishing the British authority.

Cunningham S Raid

After this affair Cunningham, on his way up Saluda, devastated the property of the Whigs as far as he was able. He burned the property of Dannett Abiiey, who was sick at the time and unable to make his escape, and slew him in his wife's arms. He crossed Saluda with his men at Saluda Old Town or Anderson's, and passed through the upper part of what is now Newberry County, on his way to the Caldwell Settlement and Hays' Station. In the upper part of Newberry he encountered a party of twenty men under Captain William Turner, who had fortified themselves as well as they were able in a strong log house. These men he slew after they had surrendered, and after he had pledged his word to spare their lives. At Hays' Station, where there was a general massacre of all taken, Cunningham himself used his sword so unsparingly that his right arm became so weak and weary that he was scarcely able to raise his sword. This was nearly the last of his butcheries and the end of this raid.

The present writer remembers seeing in his boyhood the charred remains of Dannett Abney's corn burned by Cunningham. He made a clean sweep of everything combustible on the place. On Cunningham's way back to Charlestown his party encountered, not far from Saluda Old Town, Oliver Towles, famous, as the Tories alleged, for stealing their cattle.

hung him with a thong cut from the rawhide of a Tory's cow, so that he might meet his doom from that which he was so fond of hfting. A kind of grim humor not very humorous to all the parties concerned. Parties under Pickens, I,e Roy Hammond, Butler, and others, started in pursuit. Seven fresh parties also started. Cunningham's party was broken up - his men were scattered and dispersed, many of them killed. Cunningham escaped, his fine horse carrying him safely through all dangers to Charlestown. Twenty-three days after reaching the city. Ringtail died, ridden to death, and his master wept like a child. Bloody Bill as he was, over the dead body of his poor friend. He buried him with military honors.

Condition Of The Country

As might naturally be expected, this part of Edgefield was in a very deplorable condition at this time and soon after the close of the war. A great deal of property had been wantonly destroyed - houses' had been burned - negroes stolen and carried away, and nearly half the men had either been killed or died of disease while in camp. I doubt whether any part of the State, or of the United States, suffered more from the strife between Whig and Tory than did this particulr section of Edgefield, the history of which we are just now trying to sketch. Cunningham w^as a man of strong will and of fine intellectual power, and, aided by such men as Ned Turner and the Stewarts, and Carghill and others, who lived on and near the Saludas, and, contenling against such men as the Towleses, Butlers, Corleys, Edwardses, Brookses, Smiths and others of equal will and courage, the strife too often degenerated into one of mere personal animosity and bitterness. Men, in these intense, concentrated strifes, too often cease to contend for the original cause of quarrel, and fight and devour each other animated by a spirit of pure personal hatred.

Soon after the Whigs got the upper hand in this section they arrested Rev. Mr. Norris, of Cloud's Creek, for preaching the doctrine of non-resistance, and lodged him in jail at Ninety- Six. The imprisonment he, of course, bore with great patience, as it was a good opportunity to exemplify in practice what he taught so earnestly in preaching. After the war was over the State behaved with great magnanimity and forbearance towards all Tories and mal-contents. In many instances, and to large amounts, property, that had been confiscated and was already in possession of the State, was restored to the owners on condition of the payment of a fine of lo per cent. Cruger, on the discharge of his men, many of whom were natives and citizens of Ninety-Six District, advised them to remain in the State and return to their old homes. Many of them did so, and some came to this part of Edgefield where they lived as good citizens, leaving large and respectable families when they died. Many also came over from the Catawba and Broad River sections of the State. Prominent among these were William and Abram Ferguson, brothers of Colonel Ferguson, who was defeated and slain at King's Mountain. These men lie buried at Denny's, just across the road in front of the store. They once owned the Mickler and Denny plantations.

In the year 1791, Washington, on his return North from his Southern tour, passed through this part of Edgefield. He visited Ridge Spring and shook hands with all who came forward to greet him - indeed, with the most of the ancestors of those who are living there nov/.

Great Demoralization

In the early part of the century there was great demoralization in this part of Edgefield, as well as in other parts of the District and the country. The great besetting sin was the too free use of whiskey or rum; and to this may be added their usual accompaniments, card-playing, profanity and the disregard of the Sabbath. Many persons now living can remember when there was a grog-shop at every cross road, and sometimes between, when the cross roads were too far apart. Sometime, in the early part of the century, M. L. Weems wrote and published a history of Edgefield, in which he gives some account of the very deplorable state of morals then existing. He calls Edgefield a Pandemonium, which, being literally interpreted, means, I suppose, a home of all the devils. I hope it is some better now, and that some, at least, of the devils have been cast out. This book of Mr. Weems' I have never seen, but, judging from his Life of Washington, which I have read, and which I have now in my library, I am inclined to think that Mr. Weems was somewhat lavish in the use of glowing adjectives and strong language.

The state of morals was no doubt bad enough in all conscience, it always is for that matter. About the year 1809, a great reformation and revival of religion took place. It is said that in that year no less than sixteen hundred persons in Edgefield joined the church under the preaching of the celebrated Lorenzo Dow. In 181 1 was the great earthquake, the greatest ever known in this State, with the exception of the one in 1886. Perhaps that also helped to deepen and render more firm the religious convictions of the people; for, certainly, it is a little startling and well calculated to impress us with the instability of all earthly things to feel the solid earth beneath our feet rise and fall and roar and quiver like the unstable waves of the sea.

Settlers From Maryland

In or about the year 1805, a considerable number of persons came from Maryland and settled not far from the Saluda. James Bonham and Jared Edwards were among the number. Edwards first came to South Carolina as a soldier in the Maryland line under General Gates and was in the battle of Camden when Gates was defeated, August 16, 1780. Not long after he came to Edgefield he married Rebecca Bell, youngest daughter of Captain Benjamin Bell, who was killed in the campaign against the Cherokees in 1779. From this union sprang the present large family of Edwardses.

James Bonham married Sophia Smith of Mount Willing, a lady of rare intelligence and culture and noted for her extraordinarily fine manners. Governor Milledge L. Bonham was their youngest son.

During the war of 181 2 the State was never invaded and, consequently, there were no conflicts of armed forces on land, though troops were raised and sent to the coast for defence. The troops were commanded by Major General William Butler. His son, George Butler, was commissioned colonel in the regular United States Army. I have heard it related that he was at home engaged in laying a brick walk from the door of the dwelling house to the kitchen door for his mother's benefit, when a courier rode up and handed him his commission in the army. He .'Sprang to his feet and, reading his commission, he swore he would work no more that day. Samuel Mays was brigadier general.

Before this time there had not been much migration from Edgefield to the West; but the defeat of the Indians by General Jackson and the driving of them further towards the setting sun, opened up vast fertile regions for the occupancy of the white man, of which opportunity many in Edgefield were not slow to avail themselves.

of ten thousand dollars to Mrs. Randolph, the daughter of Thomas Jefferson. This appropriation caused great dissatisfaction in Edgefield and gave offense to many voters and tax payers. They construed it as an unlawful use of public money, as aiding in keeping afloat a decaying aristocracy, and not as a reward, a gift, a public testimonial, for the great services rendered to the whole country by her illustrious father, and entirely inadequate to those services. The opposition to the measure was led by Catlett Connor, a man of energy and intelligence, who denounced the appropriation in the strongest terms, and those members of the Legislature who had voted for it. A. P. Butler was one of them, and his popularity received a severe wound, but he bided his time and entirely recovered and reinstated himself in the affections of the people. He retained his popularity to the close of his life.

Colonel Ryden Grigsby, a brave soldier, died in 1825. He had represented the District in the Legislature. His daughter became the wife of Captain Jonathan Wever, a man of great wealth, who lived three or four miles north of where the town of Johnston now is. The only son of the marriage was the somewhat celebrated John R. Wever. He became brigadiergeneral of militia and a member of the Legislature. He was a man of free and easy manners and lavish in the use of his money. He was wealthy and lived as though he was seized, and possessed of the River Pactolus, the waters of which flowed full of gold, and the sands at the bottom were not common sands but diamonds and gold dust and silver. His property slipped through his hands; the stream of Pactolus ran dry; and from being a man of great wealth, he descended to very hum^ ble circumstances in life and died poor.

Rev. John Manly married a daughter of Zebulon Rudolph, of Red Bank, about the j^ear 1825, and remained in Edgefield a good many years. The mention of Rudolph recalls to my memory an old Edgefield tradition that the celebrated Marshal Ney of France, the bravest of the brave, was a Rudolph, born on Red Bank, in Edgefield District, and that his name was Michael Rudolph; that, in his youth he went to France; enlisted in the army; soon became noted for his bravery; was made corporal, sergeant, lieutenant. At that period, in the history of France when promotion once began it was rapid, and before many years he rose to the highest rank in the army, that of Marshal of France. It is really wonderful how such traditions begin, and how they hold their own, once started. There is, however, this much of truth in the story to build upon. Ney's name w^as Michael. Alison in his History of Europe, and Ney's biographers, name the place of his birth, his education, his father, his enlistment, his rise from the ranks, &c. It is impossible for him to have been Michael Rudolph of Red Bank in Edgefield. But perhaps not, after all, for the Rudolphs of Edgefield were of noble German or Alsace origin.

There is a tradition also, that Jefferson Davis was a native of Edgefield. This is a mistake. He was born in Kentucky - his mother a native of South- Carolina. But Edgefield can claim, as a well known and well established fact, that Lieutenant General James Eongstreet, the right hand of Eee during the great war of Secession, was born in that district. The place of his birth is known as the "old Dent place," and is near the line of Aiken and Edgefield, a few hundred yards north of the north prong of a small stream known as Fox Creek, some seven or eight miles from Augusta, and about four miles east of the Savannah River. It is a rough, rugged spot, and has no house there now.

In the good old days there lived on Mine Creek an industrious man named Travis. His wife bore him no children and she was frequently begging her neighbors to make her a present of one; but the neighbors did not feel like parting from one of their own in this way. At last, however, her importunate prayer was gratified in a way she had not anticipated. Going out one morning to the cow pen as usual to milk her cows, she found hanging on the bars a little bundle carefully done up, which on examination she found containing a fine baby boy. She adopted him at once and named him Bar Travis from the place where he was found. He grew up a fine, healthy boy; became an active, energetic man, an honor to those who had adopted and reared him. In due time he married and finally settled a place one mile north of Bethlehem church - a place lately the home of Hon, W. J. Ready. It was here that Colonel William B. Travis, the commander and hero of the Alamo, was born in 1809. The grave of Bar Travis is still to be seen. William B. Travis emigrated to Alabama and from that State went to take part in the Revolution in Texas and was there murdered in the Alamo, March 6, 1836, by order of General Santa Anna, with all the other defenders of the place. Among them was the celebrated David Crockett, of Tennessee, and Colonel Bonham and Colonel Bowie. "Remember the Alamo!" was the war-cry of General Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto, where his great victory was gained and Santa Anna taken prisoner. A biographical sketch of Colonel Travis will be given further on and I hope to be able to say a little more about the others also.

During nullification times Press Bland was quite a prominent and influential character in Edgefield, though he never held any office nor aspired to any. He was a strong nullifier, and being a man of considerable wealth and strong will his influence was very decided and submissionists found no favor in his ej'es. He left several daughters who were much esteemed. I have heard it related of Mr. Bland that he would sometimes on horseback, booted and spurred, visit Aiken, which in his day was a small railroad village. When ready to leave, inspired bj^ the potent influence of John Barley Corn, he would mount his horse and ride through the town singing at the top of his voice :

During the war with the Seminole Indians in Florida, on the call for men from this State, Da\'id Denn}- raised a large company, of which he was elected captain, and took part in the campaign of 1836. Captain Denny was a brave and true man, and those who knew him well bear him in honorable and kindly remembrance. There were also the Huietts living in the same section of countrv. Colonel John Huiett was major during the service of the South Carolina Volunteers in the war in Florida. He was afterwards elected to the Legislature. He died in Augusta, Ga. His brother, George D. Huiett, I have heard mentioned as one of the best men that ever lived in Edgefield. He was industrious, honest ?.nd pious. If I am not mistaken he ser\xd a term of six months as an officer in the Second Regiment of State troops commanded by Colonel William Fort, attached to the Brigade of General Walker, stationed at Pocotaligo in 1863-64. He died a few years ago - (I write this September, 1891,) on the place where he was born in Huiett township.

Very few volunteers went from the lower battalion of the Tenth Regiment, South Carolina militia, to the war with Mexico. They were mostly from the neighborhood of Ninety-Six and the Court House. A Roll will be given of all these, with the casualties, as well as of all who entered the Confederate service from the Count3\

Colonel Reuben Bouknight, a man of much promise and of rather more than ordinary ability, was elected to the Legislature from this section. He died at the early age of thirty-six. Captain B. I. Bauknight, of Emory Chapel, is a son of his, and a daughter was married to E. J. Goggans, of Newberry, who, after marriage, deserted Newberry and made his home at Mount Willing and the neighborhood, where he was living at the close of the year 1891 - living 1894.

We will now pass on into the neighborhood of the Ridge and Cloud's Creek. Cloud's Creek, which bears the name of a man who once lived there, is a lovely stream. Its source is a half dozen small creeks which rise in the Ridge. They unite, forming Cloud's Creek; flow on through Rhinehart and finally mingle with the turbid waters of Little Saluda. Cloud's Creek has long been noted, and is yet noted for its quarries of fine granite and millstones. This part of the Ridge is now Norris Township. Before the year 1850, very few men in this section were aspirants for office or sought popular favor. About that time James Cameron, a man of wealth and intelligence, became a candidate for the Legislature. He was not elected, and soon afterwards he sold his land, upon which he had built a fine house and made a beautiful home, and went west. The place is now owned by Dr. H. M. Folk. A few years afterwards Wade Holstien was elected, but his own affairs required his exclusive attention, he retired from public life. Moses N. Holstien is a son of his. Major Tillman Watson was a grandson of Captain Mike Watson of the Revolution, of whom a biographical sketch will be found in this volume. He married Elizabeth Jones, a daughter of Mr. Matthew Jones, who lived near by. Major Watson was not a man oi. much education or reading; but he was an honest and true man; of good natural ability, and had the respect and confidence of his neighbors and of all who knew him. He was once elected to the State Senate over Colonel James Carroll, one of the ablest lawyers of the Edgefield Bar and afterwards Chancellor. A good many stories illustrating the ignorance of Mr. Watson and showing his unfitne; s for public life, were told about this time. Here is one not at all to his discredit as an honest man, how^ever much it might show that he was not well posted in public affairs. When State Senator he was asked what he thought of the Kansas- Nebraska Bill, which was then under discussion in the Congress of the United States. He at once replied: '"Why, sir, if it is a just bill it should be paid." Mr. Watson was possessed of abundant wealth and being childless, he left it all to the children of his brothers and sisters.

Dr. J. C. Ready

I do not know any more appropriate time and place than the present to introduce a brief notice of Dr. John C. Ready, a physician of talent and of extensive practice, who lived for many years in Edgefield County and who died at his home on the Ridge in 1870 or 1871. Dr. Ready was born in Chester District in 1802. If I mistake not, I have been told that after taking his degree in medicine he practiced for awhile in Newberry District, but I may be mistaken in this. The first time I ever saw Dr. Ready was in Edgefield County, not far from the Saluda River at the muster ground of the Yellow Jacket Volunteer Company, during the nullification excitement - the year I do not remember. The doctor was then unmarried; a new comer into the county, and, being a good talker, of good education and of fine intelligence and ambitious of distinction, he was called upon to make a speech. There was a barbecue on hand, and, without doubt, a good supply of the ardent to stimulate the patriotism of the people, which was already glowing with considerable heat, burning in opposition to the high protective tariff measures of Congress. But in spite of our opposition; in spite of nullification, a high protective tariff has been imposed upon certain classes of goods from that day to this, and I suppose will be to the end, for it is the natural disposition of those who have the power to rob and oppress the weak. In fact, it may be laid down as a law, fixed and unalterable, that the weak have no rights that the strong are bound to respect. We see this principle, or law, established and exemplified through all animate and inanimate nature. Wherever there is life the strong and vigorous organization overshadows, oppresses, and destroys the weak. The strong man, the strong party, the strong nation, is only acting in accordance with fixed, unalterable law when robbing and destroying the weak. But a protective tariff that makes one industry pay for the support of another, more than the legitimate earnings of that other, is robbery all the same. Although it is robbery, yet what will we have? It is manifest that laws were not made, and cannot be, for the strict administration and securing of positive and absolute justice. How can the ends of justice be attained by law^ when no man is just? After all, it is not justice that is desired, but order, which is far more important.

Yes, it is order that is the great desideratum, not justice. After all, again, the tyrant of to-day; the oppressor is no happier nor better off than the oppressed. The autocrat of all the Russias is a poor -unfortunate wretch, whose nights and days are dreams of terror. The wretchedest exile in Siberia is not more unhapp5' than he. And, again, how can we have justice in this world, when no man wants it, but wants, instead, to get the upper hand of somebody else. After all, again, the oppressor is no happier nor better off than the oppressed. Say that he gets all he wants; let him pile up his millions; he cannot take them out of this world. They are of the earth and must remain on the earth. But he dies and goes to hell, and when he gets there he curses himself for being such a damned fool while here. Even then, though, he would not change himself, but his condition, for he can have no idea of any happiness, of any joy in life, except that which comes from selflove and the gratification of all selfish desires and purposes. If he ever hears or thinks of heaven, of a place, or State, where men are happy and not wretched like himself, he only thinks of those who are there as having been wiser and sharper than he, and as having made a better bargain with somebody. That his surroundings are himself, and that heaven and hell grow out of the persons who are in them, is a thought that it is impossible for him to entertain. But a tariff for protection, that fosters one industry at the expense of another, is robbery for all that, and everyone who receives any benefit from it is a robber to that extent. Yes, it is order that the world wants, not justice, not right; and let the robbery be done in due and ancient form and no complaint should ever be made - that is, ought not to be made. Though complaints will be made. There are always some restless, dissatisfied persons who cannot see, who will not see, rather, that order, the good order and welfare of society, requires that things should always remain

It was on this theme that the doctor was holding forth the first time I ever saw him. What he said I cannot remember, but it was in opposition to the tariff. He was a good speaker, and a very good practicing physician, but he was entirely unfit to be a surgeon, on account of a weakness and unsteadiness of nerve. I saw him once try to remove a small object from one of the nostrils of a child. His hand shook and trembled so much that it was impossible for him to insert the forceps into the nostril, and he had to give it up and send the child away. The object was soon afterwards removed by some one by the simple process of pushing it back into the mouth.

During the great religious revival that swept over the country from 1830 to 1836, Dr. Ready became converted under the preaching of Barnes, Hodges, and Worthington; joined the church, and was himself quite a zealous Baptist preacher for awhile. He married Miss Eliza Rook, of Daurens County, an estimable and excellent lady. After marriage he settled at Mount Enon and built him a good house where he lived for a number of years, prospering and accumulating property. He then sold his property and removed to the Ridge. His son William J. Ready and some others of his children were born at Mount Enon. I remember William as a boy, but do not think I ever saw him after his father moved to the Ridge.

He, too, is gone, after an honorable career; having been an officer in service during the War of Secession, and afterwards elected to the House of Representatives -and State Senator. His estimable widow, in a few months after his death, also departed this life.

That Yellow Jacket Company

I think this company should have more notice than the mention of its name, as it was certainly one of the most unique institutions of the kind that ever was devised. It was a rifle company and met on the old Ninety-Six Road, at the Summers' Place, not far from Perry's Cross Roads, and near a plantation belonging to Colonel Smith Brooks. It was at this place that I first saw Colonel Brooks and heard him say something to the people about having been an old Revolutionary soldier.

This was during the period of the nullification excitement. The uniform of the Yellow Jacket Company was certainly one of the funniest ever devised by the ingenuity of man; but it had one exceeding great virtue - there was no excess of drapery about it. It was hand}'. The company wa? called the Yellow Jacket Company because the uniform was of a yellowish hue, nankeen or copperas, and cotton at that. The coat was a roundabout jacket, with the funniest little frizzled up duck's tail that I ever saw to a jacket, somewhat like that which race jockey boys have to their coats. The people I saw there, even all the boys that were wath me that day when I heard Dr. Ready speak are all gone. My elder brother, Giles, was there. He was killed at the Battle of Buena Vista, in Mexico, wdien General Taylor gained his great victory that made him President of the United States. My uncle Daniel Abney was there - gone long ago. James Black, gone more than forty 3'ears ago. Mike lyong - gone. I do not remember that I saw George Spearman that day. He is living yet. His mother was a Nunn - first married Abney - the grandfather of A. P. Coleman, who lives near the old cro.ss-road - when a widow' married Spearman, the father of George and Nancy, who are both now living. Nancy Spearman married Lewis Sample, the father of Frank and Sam. His widow lived and died near the place on which she was born, which was within a few hundred yards of the Yellow Jacket muster ground. At this same barbecue, of which I have been telling, I remember seeing Alexander Stewart, a scion of that Tory family of the Revolution, the same who preserved as sacred relics the red coat and other things worn by some of his people during that time. Aleck Stewart was himself of rather unsavory reputation, but I received treatment from him that day that warmed my heart towards him and kindled a grateful feeling that never has died out and never can. I was a very bashful and diffident boy, and have always been a very bashful and diffident man, though my friends might not know it, and might not believe it should I tell them, but it is true, neverthele.ss. Alexander Stewart seeing my diffidence and backwardness, took me up to the table, waited upon me and gave me whatever I wanted, and as much as I wanted to eat. I have never forgotten it. I am afraid of boys. It seems to me, sometimes, that a great many boys try to be smart, and make themselves too smart. They are not all so. Some are too diffident and backward, and in such cases if you can give a little kindly encouragement, be it ever so little, you do a world of good and make to yourselves lasting friends. Girls always receive attention, it is their due; but boys often fail to receive the small sweet courtesies, when they would be of great and lasting benefit to them.

A Fight At Edgefield

As I am now writing of events that occurred in the midst of Nullification times, the Yellow Jacket Company, being a redhot nullification rifle company, I may as well relate an incident that occurred at Edgefield Court House, in which a 3^oung Irishman or Scotchman, named Archibald Armstrong, who, I think, was a member of the company, was an interested party. One public day at Edgefield, whether Court -week or Sale-day, not now remembered, Armstrong was there, a jolly, rollicking young giant, ready for a fight or a trolic. In that day and time at Edgefield Court House one did not have to go far to find either a fight or a frolic. I am glad to say it is now a seat of culture and refinement. The crowd that day was decidedly a nullification crowd, and decidedly in earnest, as Edgefield crowds, in town or count}% always are. There may have been some anti-nullifiers or submissionists there, but if there were any they found it necessary to lay low and keep dark. This crowd, seeing that Armstrong was a stranger, and some of them taking it into their heads that he was a submissionist, picked a quarrel with him and soon got into a fight. They put one of their best men forward, but after a few rounds he was used up and rendered unfit for further service. They tried him with another, and another, but he still remained master of the field and the situation. He then told them to come on one at a time and he would tan out the whole crowd if they wished; but they had enough, and no other one was found willing to tackle him. Armstrong had a friend present whom they all knew and respected; but until he spoke they did not know he was Armstrong's friend, as he had remained very quiet and was looking on to see fair play. He told them that Armstrong was as good and true a nullifier as any of them; that he knew hiin well and could vouch for him. This friend was James Boulware, of Big Creek, whom I knew well in my boyhood and early manhood. He moved to Alabama, and long- afterwards I met him once at Edgefield Court House when he had passed the meridian of life; but he stood straight as an arrow and his step w^as firm. His beard was white, as white as snow, whiter than my own is now, and hung down upon his breast. His eyes were bright, his face was ruddy and full of health, and I thought him the finest looking man I had ever seen. Mr. William P. Butler of Edgefield, when I saw him last, a long while ago, was a very handsome man, but Mr. Boulware was larger, and there was a strength and vigor in his appearance, that impressed me so much that I still bear him in mind as the finest looking man I have ever yet seen. His brother, Humphrey Boulware, was Sheriff of Edgefield for some years. His grandmother was a Rutherford, of the patriotic family of Colonel Rutherford of the Revolution. She sleeps her last sleep at Red Bank Baptist Church, of which she was a member.

A Remarkable Phenomenon

Just before the great and decisive act of Secession, in the Fall of iS6o, as I have been told it was, but my memory would place it a year or two earlier, in 1859, I think. I did not witness the phenomenon, but was told of it the next morning. I was absent from home in I^aurens County, and the display occurred after the usual hour of retiring to sleep. It was a wonderful display of the Aurora Borealis. "I awoke," says my informant, "with a great thirst, being a little boy at the time, when my mother, of blessed memory, took me to the piazza to get some water. The whole element appeared to be a solid sheet of blood, and the reflection from the sky caused a pale yellow light to shine upon the earth. Many others saw it, and some say they heard music also. The old men called them 'war lights,' and said such things occurred to their fathers just before the Revolution." I did not see this magnificent disylay of the heavenly light, but remember hearing it spoken of as ominous of coming trouble. Comets were once so regarded and eclipses of the sun, and all unusual and remarkaable displays of natural phenomena. Indeed, a great display of the Aurora Borealis is enough to strike any beholder with feelings of awe, and the unlearned with terror. It is a phenomenon which the most learned and scientific men of the age have never been able to explain satisfactorily. It is too hard for science. It seems to be one of those unexplainable phenomena. Similar phenomena occurred about ten years later, beginning in August and continuing almost nightly, until far into the spring following. Some of the auroras were exceedingly beautiful, rising in the northeast in great pillars of reddish light, passing westward across the pole and sinking in the northwest. As for the music, I know not whether any was heard then, but that music is sometimes heard in the atmosphere above us without any visible producing cause, I know; but whether it be an echo from music at a distance, or whether it be strains descending from supernal sources, I do not know. One day at the burial of a child in Rosemont Cemetery, New- berr}^ officiating minister Rev. W. D. Kirkland, of the Methodist Church, I heard distinctly a strain of music, coming, it seemed to me, from far above, yet floating around and near. It might have been - I know not which - a response to the hymn just sung at the grave, or a welcome from angelic choirs to the soul of the child. Be its source what it may, I heard it. Some years afterwards a friend told me that riding by the same cemetery one evening near sunset, when everything was quiet and still around, he heard similar strains floating in the air far above him. Is it superstition to believe that there is another and a better world very near to this, and that sometimes, whether by eye or by ear, or by some other sense, we may have perception of its nearness?

Secession At Mount Willing

When the State seceded, December 20th, 1S60, the cannon of rejoicing that were fired at Hamburg were heard as far as Mount Willing, and even beyond. The cannon fired at Charleston, during the bombardment of that city by the F'ederals, were heard very nearlj^ as far as Ninety-Six; but they were of much larger calibre than those at Hamburg. A few days after the passage of the Ordinance of Secession, the lower battalion of the Tenth Regiment was assembled at Mount Willing and a company of volunteers was formed to go into service. David Denny, the same man who commanded a company during the Seminole war, was elected captain. This da}^ will always be remembered in the history of that battalion. A beautiful flag, attached to a rope stretched from the top of the storehouse to the limb of a large oak, was waving in the air. The ladies, carried away by the enthusiasm of the time, waved their handkerchiefs and cheered their friends and relatives as they volunteered; while the band kept up a continual strain of music; and the militia officers paraded and swore at a fearful rate, as fully as terribly as ever our army did in Flanders. Aunt Fannie Smith, a free colored woman, who sold ginger-cakes and beer at musters, did a great business that day. Thomas L. Smith was the Colonel of the Tenth Regiment of militia. When a hundred men had enlisted and enrolled themselves. Miss I,izzie Dozier, who, after the close of the war, married Captain Charlton, presented them their flag. J. C. McElroy re- ceived it and assured the ladies that he would carry it from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, if necessary. He did his best during the war. He carried it beyond the Potomac, and his heroic dust now lic-s beneath the soil, or mingled with it, of one of the famous battle fields of Maryland. Several other companies were formed and went to the front. The names, as far as it is possible to procure them, of all, both officers and men, who went from the county, with the casualties, will be given before I close.

It is impossible in this book, nor does it come within its scope, to give a history of the War of Secession; but some incidents and anecdotes will doubtless be given before the work is done. Many brave deeds were performed, many lives were lost, and many cripples were made during that great contest; but the only question finally settled and decided was the relative strength and power of endurance of the parties. The great political question as to the relations existing between the States was left precisely in static quo ante bellum. Slavery? That was a mere accident or incident of the quarrel, and not the question - not a question at issue between the parties. The real question at issue was: Whether a State, once independent, having formed a union with other independent States, could sever that union at will. We affirmed; they denied. The other side fought for the union, solely and simply, under any conditions. We fought for the freedom and independence of the States as States, without regard to any particular forms of government, whether Democratic, Republican, or Aristocratic. We were Greeks; they were Romans, who fought for empire. And as Rome conquered Greece in ancient days, so, in modern times, the Empire has conquered and the Greek States have perished. Let us see to it that Greek culture, Greek art, Greek thought, and Greek poetry, and Greek inspiration, have not perished, though the States have. In time we may reconquer the empire, as Greece through her letters at last conquered Rome.

Mr. Lincoln cared no more for the freedom of the negro than Mr. Davis did. His Emancipation Proclamation, which has been so much lauded by his admirers, was issued only as a war measure, in the hope that it would weaken the defences of the South by exciting insurrections, insubordination, and en- couraging runaways from the Southern fields. It expressly excepted from its operation all States and parts of States not in rebellion against the government of the United States, and slaves in all such States and parts of States were to remain in slavery because their masters were loyal.

Men went to the froi.t full of enthusiasm, leaving wives and children at home. In a little while it was impossible to go to church, or to any gathering of people, without seeing wounded soldiers at home on furlough, with arm in a sling or limping on crutches. Every mail brought news of a neighbor or a friend being wounded or killed in battle. The most distinguished officers that were killed from the section of country embraced in the lower battalion of the Tenth Regiment, were Lieutenants J. R. Bouknight, W. J. Denny, J. M. Daniel, Levi Crouch, W. A. Rutland, and Hiram Holstein; Captain Norris and Major John Crowder. These were all brave and patriotic men. No doubt there were many brave deeds done b}^ private soldiers, as well as by the officers, that ought to be recorded; and the pen of this scribe would move gladly and swiftl}^ in recording them, but no record was made of them at the time, and they have passed into the sum of all, lost, but not lost, as a drop of water in the sea.

Old soldiers still often speak of the unrivalled fun and courage of Loss Padget, a youth of twent}', who was killed in Virginia just before the surrender of Lee's army. The men now living who were most prominent in the war from the lower battalion, are Captain P. B. Waters, now a lawyer at Edgefield; James Mitchell, A. P. West, A. P. Bouknight, James Boatwright, Henry Vanzandt, S. L. Ready, and Colonel E. J. Goggans.

This war gave freedom to the negroes, but it settled no question of right or wrong. It did not even settle the right or wrong of slaver}-. It only settled the question whether it should be or not be - that is the question. If African slavery was wrong, it was wrong whether triumphant or not. That it was ..wrong, and a very great wrong, I never doubted from the time I was old enough to read and to think for myself. But I was a slave holder until the close of the war, and would be one even now, I suppose, if the institution had continued till to-dav undisturbed. We did not fight for slavery, in it- self considered - that was a mere side issue - as lyincoln and others never fought against it per se, but only as a means of hurting us. We fought for the States as States; for the right to pursue our own course, our own policy, to manage our own affairs, undisturbed and uninterfered with. We were Greeks, animated by the old horoic spirit of Greece, that led us to fix our aflFectiou upon our own State, and make it first and foremost, the glory of the world. The northern sentiment was Roman, with Lincoln as the head and chief exponent. That sentiment regarded the States as nothing, save as integral parts of the empire which centered at Washington, as the Roman Empire did at Rome. This question the war did not settle, and could not. It settled no question except the relative strength of the parties to the contest. Rebellion! He who uses that word as applicable to the people of the South is himself a tyrant or an ignoramus. We are a conquered people. Is it possible for a conquered people to love that power which conquered them? Is it possible for us to love a union which is forced upon us? We may acquiesce; we may faithfully do our duty as subject citizens; but that love, which ought to animate the heart and soul of every true citizen, must be wanting. The true union is free and not forced. I feel now as I have always felt, that the strongest bond of union possible to be devised, is for each and every State to have the acceded right and to be at perfect liberty to leave the union, with or without cause, whenev^er it might choose to do so. If the United States in i860, or 1 86 1, had said to South Carolina: "Well, you have left us; all right. You think you can get along without us; we know that we can do very well without you. Go in peace; let us live in peace." If this had been the ruling sentiment of the United States, South Carolina would have become the laughing vStock of the world, and would soon have been knocking at the door for readmission into the Union. Suppose that now any State had the conceded right to leave the Union at once, if it saw proper, the State, of course, bearing its proper and proportionate share of the existing public debt. What could the State ! ope to gain by it? Nothing short of madness could induce any State to do it. But when the Union is one of force, when the chain that binds the States is one of iron or of steel, fast riveted, and not the golden fetter of good will and love and good fellowship, it galls and hurts, no matter how lightly and loosely and easily it may hang upon the limbs. It is a fetter imposed by force, and from that very fact becomes hateful, because the wearer knows that whenever the will of the master requires, it may be drawn so tight as to crush and destroy all freedom of motion. But I cannot doubt that a Divine Providence is in all human affairs, and that, in the War of Secession, God permitted the South to be beaten because slavery existed there, and that He wanted to destroy.

Soon after the war desperate white men, some of -whom, it is said, had belonged to the Federal army, got in the Saluda country, and, there and elsewhere, committed robberies and other desperate deeds, that would do honor to the brigands of Spain, or Italy, or the James Brothers, or to the celebrated John A. Murrell. Major Hodge and a man named Thomas were leaders of these desperadoes. Thomas I saw once at a party, a social gathering in Edgeiield County, in 1865, and again in my own bookstore in Newberry in the year 1866. He had bargained with a tobacconist from North Carolina, for the purchase of a wagon load of tobacco, with the wagon and :eam, to be delivered at a certain specified time and place; and they came into the store together to draw up the contract or agreement in writing. Soon after the tobacconist heard some rumors in regard to the reputation of Thomas and he did not appear and deliver the tobacco, &c. , at the time and place agreed - probabl}' from fear of being robbed and murdered. It was rumored afterwards that Thomas was hanged for some crime, and that Hodge was captured and hanged by the Federal garrison at Augusta. This period of lawlessness lasted, perhaps longer than it would have done if the government of the State had not passed entirel}^ out of the hands of the native white men, citizens, as one of the results of the war. David Graham, a full-blooded negro, who lived near Red Bank, was elected to the I^egislature several times during the period from 1868. And nearly all the representatives and county officers were negroes.

Ministers Of The Gospel

Herlong was a native of Orangeburg, though his home for man}^ years was in Edgefield near the Little Saluda River. He was a good farmer as well as a good preacher and good man. He was a Methodist preacher, but, I believe, never an itinerant. He was the founder of Emory Chapel. I learned something from him once about the mixture of soils and earths, which is worth remembering. Just below the public road and on the east or right bank of Little Saluda, he had a small piece of bottom land so crawfishy that it was worthless and unproductive. In course of time red clay from a hillside in the road washed down upon it in considerable quantities, and the quality of the soil became entirely changed and produced heavy crops of corn. He then made further experiments and found the red clay upon such places to be most excellent manure. Mr. Herlong was the father of Rev. Vastine Herlong, whom I used to see frequently and to know well. Spann's was named in honor of Rev. Henry Spann. Revs. Michael Rauch, Paul Derrick, Emanuel Caughman, and A. M. Eindler have all, at different times, preached the Word to the Lutheran churches in this part of Edgefield. Their names will probably again appear in a sketch of the Lutheran Church.

Revs. Mark Abney,",George Bell, A. P. Norris, and Abner Asbil were all acceptable ministers amongst the Baptists here. Mark Abney and George Bell, this writer, many j'ears ago, knew well. Mr. Bell was a 3'oung man grown at Mount Enon School in 1835, when the writer was a little boy. Being nearsighted or having some defect in his e3'es, he wore glasses, which we little fellows thought very singular. He became a very excellent business man, as well as acceptable preacher and good citizen.

At the time of the ministrations of the Revs. Herlong and Spann in this part of Edgefield, the people called Methodists were not very numerous; but they were, and are, so active and aggressive, and withal, so sympathetic, that they have increased greatly in numbers.

I have already written .something on the subject of education, but it is never out of order to give additional information, as the schoolmaster certainly occupies one of the most useful and responsible positions in the world. There have been some very excellent teachers in the Lower Battalion. David Pugh, a graduate of Cambridge University, in England, taught for nian}^ years a large school near Mount Willing. Dr. John Barrett, another highly cultivated Englishman, spent a great part of his life as a teacher. Many of the prominent men of Edgefield for several generations , were students of theirs. It was the custom in those days for schoolmasters to work, like other people, the year round and all day, Saturday excepted. Now it is not thought necessary. Possibly ours is the better plan. It was quite common also in those days for educated men and women from the North to seek and find situations here as teachers. It is not so common now. The change in our domestic institutions has produced of necessity a very great change in our home life as well. At this time we have Training Schools for teachers, and many men, women and girls take pride in fitting themselves for doing the most perfect work possible, and our schools are taught mostly by trained teachers, "native and to the manner torn." This is as it should be.