The following articles are contributed by Louise Pettus, editor of The
Quarterly, York County Genealogical & Historical Society.
DELIVERING THE MAIL DURING THE CIVIL WAR
CC&A RAILROAD BUILT IN 1849
CATAWBA INDIAN LAND LEASES
HISTORY OF FLINT HILL BAPTIST CHURCH
MURDER OF STEPHEN PETTUS
MEDICAL PRACTICES OF THE CATAWBA INDIANS
CATAWBA INDIAN HUNTING AND FISHING METHODS
JAMES ADAIRS ACCOUNT OF A CATAWBA WARRIOR
FERGUSON BARBER
PRIVATE WILLIAM BARBER, CSA
BETHESDA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
HETTY BROWNE FARM SCHOOL
LUCIUS BIERCES TRAVELS-1822
A YORKVILLE GHOST STORY
COLONEL FREDERICK HAMBRIGHT
SAMUEL B. HALL & MAJ. LEWIS MERRILL
JOHN CRAIG'S STORY SHEDS LIGHT ON THE REVOLUTIONARY
WAR
KINGS MOUNTAIN BATTLEFIELD
DELIVERING THE MAIL DURING THE CIVIL WAR
by Louise Pettus
Confederate soldiers didn't need stamps, or money for that matter, to send
a letter home. All that was required was for the soldier to endorse the envelope
with his name, rank, company and regiment. The Confederate government was
not always efficient, but in the matter of delivering the mail there were
very few complaints and not one claim of robbery.
Not only did the soldiers have franking privileges, they were allowed to
send small items to the folks back home. These small items included finger
rings, brooches, lockets, etc. Many items were carved from beef bones and
gutta percha (a rubbery substance used for insulation).
Every town in York, Lancaster and Chester counties had a post office. So
did many rural communities, often located in a country store or perhaps an
inn.
Even remote areas, such as western York County, would receive mail once a
week at a minimum. The usual pattern was to deliver to the larger towns on
one of the railroads and from there the mail was distributed by riders to
the post offices.
Chesterville was not only the largest town in the area, it was the only town
in the three counties served by two railroads. The Charlotte, Columbia and
Augusta Railway (CC&A) was on the major north-south route, thereby bringing
the mail in from Virginia camps. The Kings Mountain Railroad also served
Chester.
Since 1854 Chesterville had had telegraph service connecting the town with
Charlotte and Columbia.
The people were so eager to get the news from the front that they organized
themselves in a network that could deliver daily mail. Arrangements were
made among individuals to go to the county seats on a set schedule to pick
up the mail. Thus, mail picked up in Yorkville would be taken to Hickory
Grove where the post master would hand over the mail destined for Smith¹s
Ford, Hopewell, etc., to someone from those communities for distribution.
John R. Alexander, the Yorkville postmaster, was lauded for his attention
to business and official courtesy, in promptly forwarding mail to its
destination.
Some of the Confederate memoirs tell of soldiers who were illiterate when
they entered the service who became so motivated to read and write in order
to communicate with their families, that they sought instruction. Many a
former school teacher found himself ³drafted² to teach during his
leisure time. Some officers organized classes. Years later, one of the former
teacher-soldiers remarked that the war was a great public educator.
The civilians were equally eager for news from the battlefield. When the
clicking telegraph at Chester would announce that a fight was going on, or
that the army was moving, the news would spread like electricity over the
whole country.² Couriers on the fastest horses available would take
the news in all directions.
It appears that the most exciting time of the war was the Seven Days Battle
in defense of Richmond, the Confederate capital. Gen. Robert E. Lee¹s
victory over Gen. George McClellan was loudly cheered across the countryside.
On other days and after other battles, gloom lay heavily.
Another source of information was the reports made by officers of the companies
to the newspapers back home. Companies were recruited from local communities
and likely to be known by the readers of the newspaper. While some reports
were descriptive of the battles, others only identified the company and regiment
followed by the casualties listed in three categories: killed, wounded and
missing.
Following the losses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July 1863, the casualty
lists became longer and longer.
CC&A RAILROAD BUILT IN 1849
by Louise Pettus
The late 1840s and the decade of the 1850s witnessed a great railroad boom
in South Carolina. The state legislature was in the hands of men who believed
that cotton was king and were willing to finance the railroads that would
haul cotton to the port of Charleston.
Camden was the upcountry market town for Lancaster, Chester and York.
Transporting cotton to Camden meant putting bales on wagons and then struggling
through the mire or dust of unpaved and nearly impassable roads. In spite
of attempts to build canals, the Catawba River was not navigable except for
short distances.
Because of the difficulties in shipment, any railroad construction was eagerly
anticipated. The first railroad to contemplate building in the area was the
Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad, which in 1849 became the Charlotte,
Columbia & Augusta Railroad.
The exact route that the Charlotte & South Carolina Railroad should take
was the subject of much debate. The most western route proposed would have
taken the railroad through the village of Ebenezer (now a Rock Hill suburb),
but people objected. They considered a railroad too noisy, too dirty and
a despoiler of fine cotton land.
Ebenezer residents proposed that the line should run through the blackjack
land Æ poor land for growing cotton because it lacked potash. The move
away from Ebenezer created Rock Hill, which was destined to outgrow its older
neighbor.
About six years passed before the first wood-fueled locomotive reached Rock
Hill in 1852. While there is no record of how many cars comprised the train
that day, it is known that the total rolling stock of the railroad in 1851
was four engines, two passenger cars and 12 boxcars.
The Rock Hill site was the highest point on the railroad between Charlotte
and Augusta (Withers-WTS Building on the Winthrop College campus sits on
the highest hill in Rock Hill). The story is that the crew laying the track
encountered so much rock that the supervisor, J. Lawrence Moore, gave the
place the name Rock Hill. At any rate, the village got a post office by the
name on April 17, 1852. Two months later, the first train came to Rock Hill.
A trestle was built across the Catawba River not far south of the present
location of the Hoescht-Celanese plant. The first train arrived in Fort Mill
on July 4, 1852. Fort Mill, like Rock Hill, had less than half a dozen homes
before the arrival of the railroad, and most of those homes were scattered.
Rail traffic provided a great stimulus for the growth of both towns.
At Fort Mill, the railroad crews ran into quicksand that turned out to be
harder to handle than Rock Hill¹s roack. It took a tremendous amount
of gravel, sand and rock before the track could be laid. Most of the labor
came from slaves. Local slave owners would contract labor for the laying
of the roadbed by their property. Between the river and Fort MIll a majority
of the earth movers were slave women who carried the dirt in their aprons,
according to old accounts.
Fort Mill celebrated the arrival of the train and the Fourth of July with
a picnic and all-day festivities. Col. A. Baxter Springs, forefather of Springs
textile leaders, hosted his neighbors with a barbecue. His father, John Springs,
was one of the major investors in the railroad. A. B. Springs was awarded
the Fort Mill contract to furnish the wood that was stacked in wood racks
along the railroad.
One of the early locomotives of the C&SC was ³The John Springs.²
Col. Elliott White Springs, a descendant of John Springs, had a 4-foot replica
of that locomotive cast into the weather vane that adorns the Williamsburg-style
depot of the Lancaster and Chester Railway in Lancaster. It is an interesting
reminder
of the days when water tanks and wood racks were essential to the transport
of goods in this area.
CATAWBA INDIAN LAND LEASES
by Louise Pettus
For fifty-five years, from 1785 through 1840, an area of land
fifteen-miles-square was leased by the Catawba Indians to white settlers
in present-day eastern York County and northern Lancaster County. The Indians
received the large tract, roughly 144,000 acres, in 1763 as a part of the
peace settlement of the French and Indian Wars. The English victors in that
war rewarded the Catawbas for their loyalty and participation in the fighting.
The American Revolution was carried into the heart of the Catawba Indian
Land in the summer of 1780. Able-bodied Catawbas joined Gen. Thomas Sumter's
troops, while the Catawba women, children, and infirm went to stay with friendly
tribes in Virginia. When the Catawbas returned in 1781, they found their
villages destroyed. They also found many whites, driven by population pressures
and economic need, who were desirous of making use of the Indian land for
themselves. The end result was that both parties--the whites and Indians--formed
compacts which allowed the whites to lease the Indian land. At the time,
it seemed to be to the mutual advantage of both groups.
In general, all of the leases contained the same elements: the names of the
contractors of the lease, the number of acres of land involved, the location
of the land (and occasionally an attachment of a plat), the terms and amount
of the rent, the length of time of the lease, the date, and, finally, the
signatures of the Catawba headmen, the white lessor, and the witnesses (at
first anyone might witness, later only state-appointed agents could witness.)
Over time, the form of the lease became standardized until, by the time of
the Nation Ford treaty in 1840, the state was producing a printed lease form
with blanks to be filled in. The first leases, especially before 1808 when
the state first required a survey of leased lands, were highly individual.
The first lease between the Catawbas and a white man (Samuel Knox)
began: "This indenture made this fifteen day of November in the year of our
Lord, one thousand seven hundred & eighty five, Between John Col. Airs,
Major Brown, Major John Thompson, Capt. Squash and Pine Tree George, with
the consent of Genl New river chiefs of the Catawba Indians. And Samuel Knox
of the County of Mecklenburg and State of North Carolina."
The lease continued with the location of the leased land, stating that the
land was "joining sd. Knox's own land whereon he lives on Steel Creek, beginning
about half way between Thomas Spratt's and sd. Knox's own house, and from
thence running along sd. branch to Steel Creek & cross sd. creek to east
side, thence up sd. creek to the sd Indian line joining Walter Davis's land
.... The contracting parties failed to state the number of acres involved
and gave only a verbal description without surveyor's markings, a serious
mistake that marred Knox's descendant's claims later.
Knox's lease covered a time period beginning in March 1783 for a period of
25 years. The practice of short-term leases was dropped within a few years
when 99-year-leases became standard.
Knox paid nine silver dollars and a black horse for the first five years
rent, a black mare for the next seven years rent, and a "rifle gun and one
silver Dollar" for the next four years, and one bay mare for the remainder
of the 25 years. At the end of 25 years, the rent would be 10 silver dollars
yearly "for as long as he or his heirs may please to hold the same." Such
complicated arrangements lasted only a short time. Soon, leaseholders paid
annual rents specified in coin or "in goods and chattels" that remained
consistent from year to year.
The five Indian chiefs signed by making their marks. General Newriver's mark
appeared to be a capital "N." Knox's signature did not appear on the only
existing copy but may have been on the original lease. The witnesses of the
first lease were three white men and two white women, all neighbors of Knox.
(Printed in the York Observer, January 15, 1988)
(William Pettus was appointed by the state of South Carolina as one of the
five superintendents to oversee the leasing process.)
HISTORY OF FLINT HILL BAPTIST CHURCH
by Louise Pettus, May 3, 1992 in York Observer column, Nearby History.
May 1, 1992 marks the 200th anniversary of Flint Hill Baptist Church, the
mother church of Baptists in York County, S. C. and Mecklenburg County, N.
C. In 1792 the Reverend John Rooker (1755-1840), his wife, Anna Hawkins Rooker,
and eleven friends, most of them from Warren County, N. C., joined to found
Sugar Creek Baptist Church of Christ. The name Flint Hill was later used
because of a huge 6-foot outcropping of flint rock that is located in front
of the main entrance of the church. The land was, until 1840, leased from
the Catawba Indians.
The other founders besides the Rookers were John Dinkins, John Smith, James
Spears and his wife, Ally Spears, William Pettus, Juba the servant of M.
Harris, Margaret Dinkins, Celia Weathers, Mary Smith, Alice Weathers, and
Mary Cooper.
Reverend Rooker, a Revolutionary War veteran, had joined the church in 1782
and the next year begun to preach in Warren county, N. C. Most of the Baptists
in North Carolina were Separates or New Lights, theological descendants of
New England Congregationalists. Rooker was not of this group. He wrote a
book, An Essay on the Sovereignty of God, published in Charleston in 1839,
in which he identified himself as an Arminian and further stated his belief
in ³the sovereignty of the Triune God, His everlasting covenant of
redemption for his elect in Christ Jesus, the depravity of fallen man, his
recovery through grace by effectual calling, and final perseverance unto
eternal glory and endless felicity. The only known copy of his book is in
the Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
By 1837 Reverend Rooker was infirm and Rev. James Thomas came to assist him.
One Sunday in 1837 no pastor came to the church so the people went to the
home of Rooker. There he preached what is believed to have been his last
sermon. It was titled, Finally, Brethren Farewell. In all, Reverend Rooker
served Flint Hill for 48 years. He outlived all of the other original members
except for his widow, Anna. The church carried out his instructions as written
in his will, that he be buried . . . in the northwest corner of the Baptist
Sugar Creek graveyard.
From the beginning Flint Hill offered more than just services on Sunday.
Beginning in 1793, the church made efforts to extend its ministry to the
Catawba Indians. A school was established for the Indians across Sugar Creek
on the Lancaster County side. A converted Pamunkey Indian, Robert Mursh,
served for many years as assistant pastor of Flint Hill and as a missionary
to the Catawbas. The effort to convert the Catawbas was abandoned in the
1820s.
The first church building was log and replaced by a larger log building in
1811. In 1828 a frame building encompassed the log building. The church grew
and by 1855 it was necessary to erect a larger building. The new frame structure
was 40 feet by 60 feet. It served until the present building was completed
in 1908. A parsonage, renovation of the sanctuary, erection of a marker for
Rev. John Rooker, and an education building were added in later years.
The church is unusual in that it has preserved membership records and church
minutes that span its entire history. The original records were copied by
W. P.A. workers in the 1930s and typescripts made. The originals are now
kept with other historical records at the South Caroliniana Library, University
of South Carolina.
The large, well-kept cemetery is a point of pride. Buried there are veterans
of all wars now approaching 200 in number. More than half of these were Civil
War veterans. In 1891 the Flint Hill Memorial Association, originally called
the Jefferson Davis Memorial Association, began the custom of meeting the
third Sunday of each May for a special ceremony and decorating the graves
of the veterans.
by Louise Pettus (Originally printed in the York Observer, Oct 27, 1985)
MURDER OF STEPHEN PETTUS
by Louise Pettus
A horse with a lifeless body tied to its back wandered up to a York District
farmhouse in early 1846. The body on the horse was Stephen Pettus, plantation
owner. Four of his slaves were soon apprehended and charged with the crime.
Such murders were unusual, but not remarkable, but the sequence of events
that followed the murder is most interesting and helps to instruct us about
the times.
Records are incomplete and we can only surmise some of the events that followed
the discovery of Pettus body. There was a trial within the month. William
Clawson, an in-law, neighbor and lawyer, became both the defense attorney
for the accused slaves and administrator of Stephen Pettus estate.
W. I. Clawson, William Clawson's relative, was commissioner of equity for
York District. He presided over the trial, but the case was not heard in
regular court because slave codes required that slaves be tried in slave
courts.
The slaves had admitted guilt from the beginning. Clawson sentenced the slaves
to be sold to parts West and to never return to South Carolina. Thomas Pettus,
a cousin of Stephen Pettus, was selected to escort the slaves and sell them.
His eligibility was based on the fact that he had occasionally served as
a sheriff¹s deputy and had been to Alabama three or four times.
Thomas Pettus was deputized by the sheriff to carry out the court¹s
assignment. Having been involved in the building of carryalls, the Southern
frontier¹s version of the Plains covered wagon, he decided to take along
a half-dozen to sell to Alabamians planning to move further West.
The wagons carried a large number of Seth Thomas clocks on consignment from
the firm of McElwee & Sutton of Yorkville. McElwee & Sutton would
give Pettus a commission on the clocks he sold. Before he left, Pettus advertised
that he would deliver letters and papers for hire as far as Chambers City,
AL.
The slaves were sold for $2,800, and the money turned over to the estate
of the murdered man.
Were there alternatives available for the Clawsons, Pettuses, and other lawyers
and slaveholders when facted with slave-committed murders?
In their eyes, to execute the slave and thereby lose the financial benefit
to the estate seemed unreasonable. In some Southern states, but not in South
Carolina, the law provided that the state reimburse the slaveholder the full
market value if the slave were found guilty of murder.
South Carolina had no state penitentiary building before the Civil War. To
imprison would be to place people in the county jail, which was large enough
to accommodate only a few prisoners. County jails were designed for short
-term incarcerations, not for a life time.
There is no way to tell what motivated the slaves to commit the murder. Slaves
courts were not required to set down the testimony and they required only
the agreement of a magistrate and three citizens. The law did not require
an attorney for the slave¹s defense, either. Clawson charged Stephen
Pettus¹s estate $50 for defending the slaves who murdered him. Ironically,
selling the murderers to parts West took care of the estate¹s best interest.
In 1846 the West was Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Demand for slaves
to work the virgin cotton fields was high. The price Thomas Pettus got was
the average price for a field hand in Alabama that year.
Probably, Sol and three others wore ankle chains and walked the distance
to Alabama. That would fit the descriptions of the time. Certain towns, such
as Chambers City, AL, were known to have depots, or pens, which were constructed
much like cattle stalls but tighter in order to prevent escapes. There the
slaves were held until the scheduled auctions.
Pettus probably received cash for the four slaves. When he returned he charged
Stephen Pettus estate $36 for trip expenses.
MEDICAL PRACTICES OF THE CATAWBA INDIANS
by Louise Pettus
When white settlers first came to this area they brought with them a number
of diseases that the Indians had never experienced--particularly smallpox
and measles for which the Indians had acquired no immunity.
The encounter of two vastly differently cultures worked two ways. The Indians
passed along diseases of their own. Over many, many years each group had
learned, mostly through trial and error, what "cures" were most effective.
Unfortunately, it was not until Dr. Frank Speck, an ethnologist from the
Univ. of Pennsylvania, came to do field work among the Catawbas in 1913 that
anyone wrote extensively on Catawba medical practices. Dr. Speck was not
a medical doctor but he was interested in the words that the Catawbas used
to describe their medicines and the healing process.
There were still a handful of Catawbas who spoke the native language. Dr.
Speck was able to list about 14 ailments and about 30 herbal remedies (Catawba
medicine almost totally relied on roots, bark and leaves of local plants.)
He found that the Catawba word for the concept of disease translated as "seizure"
or"grip."
The Catawbas treated 14 ailments: rheumatism, ague, fever, fever and ague
combined, heart complaint, headache, constipation, dysentery, jaundice, skin
afflictions, sores and boils, catch cold, backache and lumbago, hives and
nightmares (the last caused by dwarf-spirits or little people).
Sally Brown told Dr. Speck that sickness was brought by the shadow of a dead
person (a ghost) and that medicine was the weapon used to cure. She said
that it was important to gather the herbal medicine in a certain way. She
always peeled the bark from the north side of a tree. Roots were cut at an
angle. She always placed her knife blade on the west side of the root and
cut in a downward slice toward the east, or, as she said it, cut from sunset
to sunrise.
Enough of the plant was left to renew itself. The medicine would be ineffective
if taken from a destroyed plant. Some herbs were gathered at the waning of
the moon, some at the waxing.
An herb "doctor" prepared the medicine by boiling the roots, bark, or leaves
in an earthenware pot. The patient drank the concoction. A part of the liquid
was saved back for the doctor, who used a long cane to syphon up the liquid
and then blew it over the patient's body. In this way the doctor left some
of his personal power over the body of the patient.
For wounds from arrows or snakebite, the area was first probed with a pin
or a turkey wingbone. When the blood flowed freely the doctor sucked the
incision to remove the "bad blood" and then either blew medicine into the
wound with the cane tube or dropped the medicine through a bone tube. After
that, the patient drank the remainder of the prepared liquid.
Another way to insert the medicine was to use an eagle quill to puncture
the skin and let the medicine blow into the cut "like ink from a fountain
pen."
Bloodroot, which had a highly prized red dye, was smeared over the cut and
left there to wear off.
Frequently, the doctor and the patient bathed in the Catawba River before
beginning the treatment. This custom is the best explanation we have as to
why during the smallpox epidemic of 1759 the South Carolina Gazette reported:
"It is pretty certain that the small-pox has lately raged with great violence
among the Catawba Indians, and that it has carried off near one half of that
Nation, by throwing themselves into the river as soon as they found themselves
ill. . ."
CATAWBA INDIAN HUNTING AND FISHING METHODS
by Louise Pettus
The Catawba Indians were still using bows and arrows, blow guns and traps
as constructed and employed by their ancestors when Dr. Frank Speck, an
anthropologist from the University of Pennsylvania, visited them in 1913.
Over the years Specks returned to the reservation during vacation periods.
In the 1940s Speck published his notes on the "procuring methods" of the
Catawba hunters and fishermen.
Dr. Speck, writing of the poverty of animal food resources, stated that there
were only 10 mammal varieties, 3 birds and 13 forms of water life available
to the Catawbas. Still, the Catawba were able to demonstrate to Speck 5
distinctively different weapons for killing warm-blooded animals, 5 trap
mechanisms and 6 ways to catch fish. From this, Speck concluded that the
Catawbas were basically a hunting people, not agriculturalists.
Speck wrote, "Until thirty years ago Catawba men went about the region as
vagrant archers shooting for bets, at coins or similar targets, to earn money."
The bow was made from locust and was four to five feet in length. The arrows
were made of cane and wood, either hickory or sourwood. The points were of
sharpened cane or tin, suitable for killing small game. There were were no
large animals left to require the quartz or flint arrowheads of their ancestors
and the poverty-stricken Catawbas rarely had sufficient money to own guns,
or be able to buy ammunition for them.
Speck thought the arrow's feathering to be peculiar and interesting. A single
feather of a hawk or swift was used for the rudder and the "entire quill
is bound unsplit to the shaft, lying within one of the longitudinal grooves
that run between the nodules of the young cane shoots chosen for arrow making."
The point was hardened by pushing it into hot ashes. Speck made drawings
to illustrate the final product.
Dr. Speck investigated arrow poisoning and was told by Margaret Brown, who
died in 1922 at the age of 85, that the Catawbas took venom from the "maxillary
glands of of the venomous crotalids inhabiting the bottom lands of the Catawba
river, and allowed the liquid to permeate meat." According to tradition,
the poisoned meat and quartz points were stored together in small clay pots,
3 to 4 inches in diameter. Several eighteenth century literary sources refer
to the Catawba use of arrows dipped in rattlesnake venom.
The crossbow was used as a toy by boys and probably had been a hunting tool
but Speck could find no one competent with it.
From memories of his boyhood, Chief Sam Blue described the throwing club
made of green hickory stock and its use by John Brown, Thomas Harris, Peter
Harris and Epps Harris. Four or five hunters accompanied by dogs always went
together and chased the rabbits over burned brush. Each carried three clubs
to throw at the hemmed-in rabbits. Dr. Speck thought the Catawbas had picked
up this hunting method from Virginia Indians who practiced it. The Cherokees
did not use this method.
The blowgun was frequently used to kill small game and birds. A cane tube,
5 or 6 feet long, was used with 8-to 10-inch darts that were constructed
from oak, pine or cedar trimmed to a sharp point. On the "piston end" of
the dart there was a wadding made of soft feathers or down.
"Bird brushing" was quite simple. A group went out at night armed with a
pine torch and several small tree branches. When the bird, blinded by the
light, attempted to escape it was beaten down by the brushes. At the end
of the evening the birds were thrown into a pile. On a "good night" there
might be a hundred birds. The birds were placed in a single pile for the
chief or the hunt organizer to determine how they would be distributed.
Dr. Speck went on one of bird brush hunts. When it was over the handful of
birds were given to elderly Sally Brown whose "only source of food consisted
extensively of birds gotten in this way, and by her grandchildren on their
way to and from school, armed with the almost universal small boy's weapon,
the sling-shot."
JAMES ADAIRS ACCOUNT OF A CATAWBA WARRIOR
by Louise Pettus
James Adair, appointed Indian agent in 1735 by King George III, visited the
Catawba nation, probably in the 1740s. Adair wrote that since "time immemorial"
the "Katahbas" had been at war with the Iroquois Confederation, or "northern
Indians." The Confederation was originally made up of five nations, the Senecas,
Mohawks, Oneidas, Onandagas and Cayugas. About 1722 the Tuscaroras joined
them to make up the Six Nations.
The Iroquois were known for their fighting ability and were considered the
strongest confederacy in the colonies. In spite of this, they were defeated
in battle by the Catawbas many times.
Based on Adair's account, Robert Mills in 1826 tells an interesting story
of a Catawba warrior out hunting who ran into a party of Seneca Indians obviously
come to attack Catawba villages. The Catawba ran, firing his gun as he did
so. He killed 7 of the enemy but there were too many and he was captured.
It was a long journey to the Seneca headquarters. Walking hundreds of miles,
fed little, and sleeping on the bare ground with his feet and hands tied
to stakes, the captured warrior behaved in such a manner that he was treated
with respect by his captors, says Adair. However, when they stopped in Seneca
towns the women and children beat and whipped him. Eventually a trial of
some sort was held and the Catawba was condemned to "die by the fiery tortures."
While being led to the spot where he was to be executed by burning at the
stake, the warrior suddenly dashed for freedom. He threw himself into the
nearby river and swimming underneath the water "like a otter," he managed
to avoid the bullets. [Mills, throughout his account, writes of the Indians
using guns and bullets and not of bows and arrows.] Emerging on the opposite
bank, the Catawba made "several signs of contempt.[and] put up the shrill
war-whoop, and darting off in the manner of a beast broke loose from its
torturing enemies, he continued his speed so as to run, by about midnight
of the same day, as far as his eager pursuers were two days in reaching."
After a short rest the Catawba found 5 Senecas camping. Waiting until the
camp was asleep, he crept in and killed them all with one of their own tomahawks.
"He stripped off their scalps, clothed himself, took a choice gun, and as
much ammunition and provisions as he could well carry in a running march,
set off afresh, with a light heart, and did not sleep for several successive
nights."
The Catawba then headed for the spot where he had first slain 7 of his enemies.
He dug up their bodies, scalped them, burned the bodies and went home "in
singular triumph."
The Seneca pursuers are said to have found this last camp and gone into shock.
They decided the Catawba was an enemy wizard and that it would not be wise
to pursue him any longer. They turned and went home.
Adair told this story in order to make the point that the Indians (speaking
of all the tribes he knew in the 17th century) were determined to take revenge
on the enemy, "like the Israelites." He wrote, "I have known the Indians
to go a thousand miles, for the purpose of revenge, in pathless woods; over
hills and mountains; through large cane swamps, full of grape-vines and briars;
over broad lakes, rapid rivers, and deep creeks. . .exposed to . . . hunger
and thirst. . . .to satisfy the supposed craving ghosts of their deceased
relatives."
While Adair stressed the element of revenge of blood, other observers point
out that the taking of scalps also brought great prestige and titles to
revenge-seeking warriors.
FERGUSON BARBER
by Louise Pettus
When Ferguson Barber died in Rock Hill in May 1908, his obituary stated that
he was the "largest and most successful land owner in York County."
Barber, a native of Chester County, was born in 1832 on Rock Creek about
three miles from Richburg, the son of Alexander and Sarah Barber. He was
noted as a planter who very early practiced diversification of crops, terracing,
and strip farming. Strip farming was the practice of alternating crops in
bands, or strips, so that crop pests would not widely spread. Commercial
fertilizers and chemical pesticides did not exist. Barber plowed under green
crops and rotated his fields.
Some time before the Civil War, Barber's leg was badly broken by a horse.
He stayed in bed for 9 months and remained a cripple for life. Twice he tried
to join the Confederacy but was rejected.
In 1867 Barber moved to Rock Hill. He had an interest in several mercantile
houses as well as managing several large farms in the county.
In 1882 he returned to Chester County and organized a group of investors
who set up the Fishing Creek Manufacturing Company on the west bank of the
creek at the village of Lando. Barber was elected president. Within a few
years the company went bankrupt. Barber bought the mill and renamed it Lewisville
Cotton Mill. In 1898 he went bankrupt. According to Wade Roddey, Barber was
the victim of "unscrupulous selling agents."
The Lewisville Mills ended up in the hands of Benjamin Dawson Heath. Heath,
a native of upper Lancaster County, had made a fortune from numerous business
enterprises, including the Bank of Charlotte (now NCNB), which he founded.
Heath changed the name of the mill to Manetta.
Wade Roddey said that Barber could have taken advantage of the bankruptcy
laws but that his wife, Elizabeth Watson Barber, was a stout Christian who
believed that every penny had to be repaid. The couple sold their fine Richburg
home and much of their land and moved to the country and started over.
Barber moved back to Rock Hill. He bought more land and held the majority
interest in the Mutual Dry Goods Company of Rock Hill.
Barber was said to have never touched tobacco or whiskey. This alone would
mark him as different from most of the men of his day. When the State Dispensary
was created in 1892--allowing the state to manufacture and sell alcohol--Barber
was violently opposed.
There was a dispensary shop in Tirzah but none in Rock Hill and that largely
because of Barber's opposition. Wade Roddey said he vividly remembered the
day Rock Hill voted on the issue: "Venerable old Mr. Ferguson H. Barber was
early at the voting place, took his seat in a chair and just sat there all
day from the time the polls opened until the close. . . . As far as I know
he never made any appeal to any of the voters, he just sat there. . . . and
stroked that long white beard and when the voting was over Rock Hill had
turned thumbs down on whiskey."
Roddey continued, "Prior to the day of voting Mr. Barber had told his friends
that he had lived in two whiskey drinking towns, Helena, Arkansas and Rock
Hill; and that the only difference was that in Helena, Ark., they threw the
murdered men in the Mississippi River while in Rock Hill they gave them a
decent burial."
The Record editor wrote about Barber at the time of his death: "Firm always
in his convictions and often blunt in his expression of them--when he was
a friend to man or cause he could be depended on to the last hour."
PRIVATE WILLIAM BARBER, CSA
by Louise Pettus
Many Civil War generals left their memoirs. Officers down through the rank
of lieutenants might keep a journal or write long letters--letters that have
survived. Few privates kept any records at all. If their memories were ever
recorded it was usually by some relative or an occasional newspaper reporter.
Even then, the accounts rarely go beyond that which could be found in the
public records: name, rank, major battles, whether wounded or not, and a
tribute to General Lee.
In 1927 a local correspondent from Clover, James Stanhope Love (also known
as "Ben Hope") wrote a column for the Rock Hill Record titled "A Confederate
Veteran of Clover." The veteran, William Barber, was a private in Company
G of the 18th S. C. Volunteers under Gen. N. G. Evans. Most of Company G.
was raised in Kings Mountain district of York County.
Private Barber was from Clark's Fork; others in his company enlisted from
the communities of Bethany, Hickory, King's Creek, Hoodtown, Zadok, and Stump.
William Barber's father was George Barber and his mother a Miss Neil from
North Carolina. His mother died when he was five and he had few memories
of her but could recall a happy childhood on a farm.
General Evans' troops were independent of other units in the army, described
by Barber as "freelance." Consequently, Barber in three years time served
and fought in engagements from the Mississippi River to northern Virginia.
Although frequently in the thick of very heavy fighting, Barber was never
wounded. In one battle, he recalled that he was the only soldier in his unit
who was not wounded or killed. He did contract pneumonia after swimming in
the Pearl River in Mississippi. And he got whooping cough while on furlough
in York county.
Looking back, Barber believed that the Confederate War (as Hope called it)
was "an ill-advised conflict." Hope pointed out that Barber was proud of
his role in the war but that, at the same time, Jefferson Davis "kept the
war going too long after it had become evident...that defeat was inevitable."
Especially, Barber believed that the South should not have fought to perpetuate
slavery. Barber thought the whole slave system was "rotten" at the time he
enlisted. Why, then, did he fight for it? Barber said there was nothing else
for him to do at the time--that the South had to fight for her right to govern
herself. He was convinced that the North would have had slaves if the conditions
for slavery there had made it profitable.
When asked if he ever killed a Yankee, Barber replied: "I don't know whether
I killed a man or not; I only know that I did some mighty close shooting."
After describing the battle in which he was his company's only unwounded
man, Barber added, "Yes, it was a scrap, and one time in such a thing is
enough for any man."
In the last months of the war many of Barber's comrades deserted. Others
tried to tempt him to quit but Barber steadfastly refused. He said it was
bad luck to start anywhere and then turn back at the last.
Ben Hope reported Barber as saying: "Once when I was home on furlough, and
expressed my opinion that the war would soon be over and the South
whipped,--though some of the folks at home just would not believe it then,--one
of my friends advised me to hide out for a while until it was all over with.
And I could have done so; but I would not, and now I am glad I didn't."
Barber was captured at Dinwiddy Courthouse near Petersburg, Virginia on April
1, 1865 and kept a prisoner at Point Lookout, Maryland until June 16. He
said that he had no unpleasant memories of prison camp.
After the war, the Ku Klux Klan was very active in York County. Barber refused
to have any part in it saying that he had already seen enough of strife and
bloodshed.
BETHESDA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
by Louise Pettus
Bethesda Presbyterian Church, located 8 miles southwest of Rock Hill on Highway
322, was founded in 1769. It was the second church in York County (Bethelis
5 years older)
Originally Bethesda was a "meeting house." To be called a church, the
congregation had to be served by an ordained minister. Presbyterian ministers
were few and far between on the frontier. Old Waxhaw Presbyterian Church
(founded in upper Lancaster County in 1755 and the oldest church in the South
Carolina upcountry) was served by the Rev. William Richardson.
The original site was about a mile east of the present building. The first
building was of logs. The log building burned in 1780 and was replaced by
a wooden frame structure.. About 1820 the present brick building was constructed.
It is now the oldest church structure and the oldest brick building in York
County.
In 1785 the first meeting of the South Carolina Presbytery was held at Old
Waxhaw. Assignments were made for supply pastors. Rev. John Simpson preached
at Bethesda once a month.
Robert E. Walker became the first full-time pastor in 1795, serving the church
for 40 years. For 25 of those years Walker also was pastor of Ebenezer
Presbyterian Church. At other times he supplied various smaller churches.
In 1835 Walker was succeeded by the Rev. Cyrus Johnston who served for five
years.
Johnston, like so many of his parishioners, went "West." In Mississippi,
Johnston established a Presbyterian church also called Bethesda Presbyterian..
As the years passed, cotton culture attached itself to the area. Slave labor
was an element of the cotton culture. Blacks attended the same churches as
their masters. In 1854 Bethesda's rolls listed 73 black members.
Records show remodeling from time to time. The original church floor had
been made of brick. In 1857 the brick floor was replaced by a wood floor.
In 1880 the present-day altar was installed. In 1979 the church received
a $24,200 grant to apply new mortar to the old brick and to restore the pews.
The women of the church played a major role in improvements. The Ladies Aid
Society of Bethesda was organized in 1887. They raised money for a handsome
chandelier (there was no electricity before the 1930s so kerosene was used
for lighting.) The Ladies Aid Society carpeted the church several times,
bought various items of church furniture, purchased a silver communion set,
all of which contributed to the general attractiveness of the church.
An education building was completed in 1954. The first floor has 8 classrooms
and there is an assembly room and kitchen upstairs.
Any time of the year, but especially in the summer, passersby can see visitors
amidst the cemetery's ancient tombstones. The oldest known tombstone can
no longer be read but in 1937 was transcribed as, "William Neely, Dec. 8,
1776. 42 years old." Also, still legible in 1937 were two others: "Elizabeth
Neely, Oct. 25, 1785. 91 years old" and "Mary Neely, Oct. 16, 1815. 73 years
old." The oldest tombstone still legible is for Peggy Black who died Nov.
5, 1777, aged 28 years.
The names most frequently found that date before this century are: Adams,
Ash/Ashe, Black, Bratton, Burris, Byers, Clinton, Crawford, Davison, Erwin,
Gordon, Hanna, Johnson, Lindsay, Love, Lowry, Mendenhall, Moore (the most
frequent of all), McConnell, Sadler, Sandifer, Wallace, Williams, and Williamson.
Bethesda is on the National Register of Historic Places.
HETTY BROWNE FARM SCHOOL
by Louise Pettus
Visitors to Hetty Browne's one-teacher school found it difficult to comprehend
that they were observing a school that met all the state and county requirements
that a more traditional school had to meet.
The building was constructed like a comfortable farmhouse with a wrap-around
veranda. The 28 students, aged 6 to 16, were scattered about working alone
or in small groups.
Some students were measuring and cutting garden stakes in the carpentry room;
some were preparing the noon meal in the kitchen. A few were at the chalkboard,
whiles others worked in the garden outside. Mrs. Browne, the teacher, was
on the porch listening to two children read.
There were no school desks to be seen. No child was assigned a grade level;
in fact, he might read in a third grade reader and work his arithmetic out
of a fifth grade book, or vice versa. He worked at his own pace unhampered
by a rule of silence. The tools for the child¹s learning were numerous:
plows, hoes, books, pencils, paper, yardsticks, saws, globes, pots and pans.
His curriculum materials were the plants, animals, soil and climate that
made up his environment inside school and out. The children were being trained
for their future roles as farm men and women.
The experience was so designed that the youngster was forced to make constant
decisions about things that mattered to him. His problem-solving skills were
challenged by realistic farm problems. The teacher asked questions; the child
discovered the answers.
The year was 1911 and 79% of the South's rural schools had only one teacher.
To combat this problem, the Peabody Fund contributed $600 to found an
experimental school. The S. C. Department of Education seleted Winthrop College
as the site for the school. Clemson College cooperated by furnishing the
blueprints for a variety of rural schools, chicken coops, garden layouts
and outhouses.
Mrs. Hetty Browne, a member of Winthrop College's education faculty, thought
that most rural schools were poor copies of city schools with all of the
formality and dry bookishness of the city. It was understood from the beginning
that she would have a free hand.
Mrs. Browne's school was successful and soon surrounding school districts
requested similar schools To 6 of those schools houses were attached (so
that the teacher could live in the farm community, and Winthrop sent student
teachers who would receive an A. B. degree in rural education along with
a lifetime license to teach when they graduated.
Mrs. Browne wrote of her experiment in 4 prestigious journals. The wire services
gave the school national publicity. Postcard views of the school were made
for sale.
The garden was the center of all the school activity. The children learned
how soil is formed and how to recognize the types of soil. They learned the
effects of moisture, and they recorded weather observations daily. They estimated
the amount of seed needed, ordered from catalogs, and read agricultural books.
They germinated seeds and learned botany. They studied birds, moles, rabbits,
and all the garden insects, helpful and destructive. They wrote a book based
on their observations and titled it A Book of Bugs.
The children planted vegetables in individual plots 7 feet by 35 feet. After
harvesting, they studied how to prepare nutritious meals. The surplus was
sold and the profits used for the benefit of the school. The students kept
all the records.
The school wasn¹t all work. Mrs. Browne had strong feelings about the
value of play. She even participated in the active games which included
footraces.
Everything that happened in Mrs. Browne¹s Farm School evolved around
the principle of learning by doing.
LUCIUS BIERCES TRAVELS-1822
by Louise Pettus
Lucius Verus Bierce, 21, a recent graduate of Ohio University at Athens,
set out by foot from Ohio to the Carolinas with an undergraduate friend,
Peter Doty.
On Nov. 2, 1822, the two young men entered York District. The first night
was spent at the home of Widow Hambright, 14 miles west of Yorkville.
The widow had three pretty sociable girls and a nice home. Not only were
they entertained, the two also got their clothes washed so that they could
put their best foot forward when seeking employment in Yorkville.
About the county seat, Bierce wrote that it was a pleasant village of about
fifty houses built of wood, some of them elegant, also a courthouse, jail,
and a female academy.
The town is handsomely laid out and has an appearnce of wealth, taste, refinement
and prosperity.
The two young men were down to $1.25 between them. Finding that a room in
a good boarding house was $2.50 each for a week, they concluded they must
quickly find some sort of work.
Posing as gentlemen who were only traveling for the purposes of information,
they let it be known that they found the area so attractive that they were
willing to teach in order to defray our current expenses.
They were referred to the Rev. Samuel Williamson, a future president of Davidson
College, who was then head of the academy at Bethel.
Doty stayed in Yorkville while Bierce sought out Williamson, who had no opening
but gave Bierce a reference to Mr. Pharr at the Waxhaw Academy in Lancaster
District.
While Bierce was away at Bethel, Doty secured a position at Ebenezer Academy.
Bierce set out for Waxhaw alone. He soon encountered the Catawba Indians
and wrote that the Catawbas mustered about 50 warriors and were ³highly
incensed against the General government because they were not called out
in the last war.
(Bierce may have meant the War of 1812, but more than likely refers to the
Jackson expedition into Florida against the Spanish, who were not controlling
the Seminole Indians.)
Bierce crossed the Catawba River at Landsford by a rope ferry. He found Mr.
Pharr too weak to talk with him and the principal trustees absent. Failing
to get employment, there was nothing for Bierce to do but retrace his steps
to Yorkville.
The Yorkville landlord generously allowed Doty and Bierce to defer paying
for their room and board until the end of the Ebenezer session. Bierce went
with Doty to Ebenezer. Several weeks later he found a position at the Pleasant
Valley Academy in the Indian Land section of Lancaster District.
In Pleasant Valley he found the complexion of the men to be sallow but that
of the ladies fair in the extreme. Probably no State in the Union can vie
in female beauty with this. The farmers of Pleasant Valley grew cotton, corn,
sweet potatoes and figs, but no wheat, apples, currants or Irish potatoes,
as did the farmers of Ohio.
For breakfast, Bierce found himself eating fried salt pork, rice mush, johnnycake
(corn bread) and fried crout (kraut).
For dinner he had pork, boiled crout, sweet potatoes, johnnycake and sour
milk and for supper the same, cold, with rice mush. The buttermilk he at
first found disgusting, but ³at length palatable and even delicious.²
About life in Pleasant Valley he had mixed emotions. Experiencing the institution
of slavery was distasteful. On the other hand, he enjoyed the favorite diversions
of hunting and dancing.
He mentioned the frequent balls, including one that had about 200 persons
in attendance. He also observed that morals are loose.
On March 4, 1823, Bierce left Pleasant Valley and returned to Ebenezer by
way of Landsford. He described the canal has having four beautiful and
substancial locks and noted that the Catawba River was almost literally covered
with wild ducks and geese.
Doty decided to remain at Ebenezer. After a painful parting of the two friends,
Bierce, uncle of the famous author Ambrose Bierce, left for Georgia and Alabama.
He walked in the rain the 22 miles to Chester, a beautiful village of about
sixty houses.
A YORKVILLE GHOST STORY
by Louise Pettus
There was a haunted house in Yorkville in the last century according to Dr.
Maurice Moore (1795-1871). Called the red house, Dr. Moore located it on
the cross street, presumably at the juncture of Liberty and Congress streets.
The house was built by John McKnight, a carpenter.
Not long after he built the house, McKnight moved to Florida and the house
passed from one hand to another. There were numerous stories of strange noises
within.
A former sailor by the name of Abernathy came to Yorkville from Charleston
with some trunks of dry goods which he hoped to sell. Accompanying Abernathy
was his wife and his mother. The bottom floor was used to display the merchandise
on tables. The Abernathys slept upstairs.
Soon, there were stories circulated about weird noises in the house. Although
the house was locked with no way for intruders to enter, the Abernathys would
wake to noise from downstairs. As soon as a candle could be lit they would
investigate. They found overturned tables and clothing scattered.
Sometimes there were rappings in different parts of the house. Finally, the
Abernathy family could stand it no more and moved out.
The house was acquired by Dr. Crenshaw who decided to remode. He hired Abernathy
to replace the glass missing from almost every window.
One day, while working, Abernathy drank more than usual and lay down in front
of a fire he had made and went to sleep. He slept all night without being
awakened by any noises. Abernathy woke the next morning and was thrilled
to find that he had slept all night in what he thought of as a haunted house.
Abernathy sought out Dr. Moore, then a young fellow who had not yet gone
to medical school, and tried to set up a bet with Moore that he could sleep
at the house all night without being disturbed. At first Moore resisted but
finally decided to humor Abernathy. ³The stake, by his own choice, was
a fine hat, and a condition of the bet was that after he once laid down that
night he was not to rise.²
Moore asked 3 or 4 friends to help him play a trick on Abernathy. Their weaponry
was one of Mrs. McCall¹s cats. Moore and friends tied to the cat's tail
a bladder holding gun shot. William McCaw had a syringe that would hold a
quart of water ready to spray Abernathy.
Because Abernathy was drunk, pranksters managed to pry off the wooden shutters
that Abernathy had nailed shut. He woke to the noise of shot rattling in
a bladder as it was pulled by the terrified cat. At first Abernathy assumed
that, indeed, there were pranksters. He shouted, I know you boys are trying
to scare me! I'll shoot you!
The cat again frantically dashed about. Finally, Abernathy abandoned his
post and lost his chance for a good hat. Eager to leave the house, he managed
to get the nails off the barred door. As he stepped outside, William McCaw
caught him square in the face with his syringe of water.
With that, Abernathy dashed into the street. The pranksters liberated the
cat and waited in the weeds beside the house. Soon Abernathy was back with
his landlord, Mr. Smith.
Smith tried to convince Abernathy that , . . . it just some of the boys who
were trying to scare you, ² but Abernathy would have none of that notion.
Abernathy was sure that there had been noises like forty wagons running away.
Abernathy showed the landlord how wet his shirt was and how clear the sky.
Smith had to admit that something unexplainable had happened.
Dr. Moore concluded his story with the observation that Abernathy never said
hat or bet to me afterward, and neither again did he try the experiment of
sleeping in the haunted red house.
COLONEL FREDERICK HAMBRIGHT
by Louise Pettus
One of the heroes of the Battle of Kings Mountain was Frederick Hambright
(1727-1817). Hambright was born in Germany, where he lived until he was 11
years old. He then went to Pennsylvania with his family and that of his uncle.
The two elder Hambrights were Adam and Conrad, but no one know which of the
two was Frederick's father.
The Hambrights, like so many of this period, headed for the port of Philadelphia
and became a part of that large group known as Pennsylvania Dutch. Like a
number of others, Frederick Hambright migrated elsewhere to seek his fortune.
In 1755 he moved to Virignia, where he married Sarah Hardin. Five years later,
he was living on the south fork of the Catawba River in Lincoln County, N.
C.
When the American Revolution broke out, Frederick Hambright volunteered and
was made captain. He was 49 years of age and had no previous military experience
but believed wholehartedly in the Patriot cause.
Records are scanty, but they seem to indicate that Hambright went wherever
there was action. He fought the Indians on both sides of the Appalachian
mountains. In 1779 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was present
at the siege of Charleston. When it was obvious that Charleston would fall
to the British, Hambright came up to the Broad River and began recruiting
in what later would be Chester and York counties.
On Oct. 7, 1780, Hambright was at Kings Mountain. Because of his age, Hambright
was not given battle command as his rank entitled him, but chance placed
him in the right place at the right time.
About 2 miles from the British camp, Hambright spotted a young man named
John Ponder whose brother he knew was a Tory in the British camp. Hambright
ordered Ponder stopped and searched. Ponder was carrying a dispatch from
Colonel Ferguson to Lord Cornwallis imploring Cornwallis to send additional
men. When Ponder was told to identify Ferguson, he said that Ferguson was
the best-dressed man on the mountain but that day he was a checked shirt
over his uniform. Col. Hambright, in his Pennsylvania Dutch accent, called
out to his men, Well, poys, when you see dot man mit a pig shirt on, you
may know who him is, and mark him mit your rifles.
Maj. William Chronicle, a younger, more vigorous man than Hambright, was
assigned to lead one of the companies up the side of the mountainÆ one
with about 60 South Fork men. Chronicle did not get far when he was mortally
wounded. Hambright was then in charge of the company.
Toward the end of the fighting Hambright was wounded in the thigh, severing
an artery. His boot soon filled with blood but he pressed on and is quoted
as shouting, Huzza, my prave poys, fight on a few minutes more and the battle
will be over! It was soon over. Ferguson was killed and the British surrendered
in what has been called the turning point of the Revolution.
When the battle was over, it was found that Hambright had not only been wounded
in the thigh, but his hat had three bullet holes in it. Hambright recovered
but some of the sinews in his leg were cut and he never walked well again.
This ended Hambright's Revolutionary service.
When the war was over, Hambright moved to York County. He built a sturdy
two-story log cabin on King¹s Creek within sight of Kings Mountain where
he remained until his death at the age of 90.
Large families were the rule in Hambright¹s time, but Hambright had
more than average. By his first wife, Sarah Hardin, there were 12 children
and by the second wife, Mary Dover, he is thought to have had 10 more.
Frederick Hambright was buried in Old Shiloh Presbytrerian cemetery just
over the Gaston County, N. C. line in Grover. The stone includes the verse:
"Adieu to all, botrh far and near/My loving wife and children dear/for
my immortal soul is fled/I must be remembered with the dead".
SAMUEL B. HALL & MAJ. LEWIS MERRILL
by Louise Pettus
In the dark days of the Reconstruction era, it was easy for the unscrupulous
to take advantage of the situation to line their own pockets and to advance
in political office. Two men of totally different background, happened to
find their opportunity to profit in the county seat town of York. Their lives
crossed in a strange way.
The first man, Samuel B. Hall, a native of York with a good classical education,
married, a father, and politically ambitious, joined the Republican Party's
radical branch, as he frankly admitted, "to make money out of it."
Hall joined the Union League in March 1870 in an initiation ceremony with
a half dozen other whites and blacks who he thought shared his motives and
"had no scruples as to how the money was made. The Radical Republicans saw
to it that Hall became probate judge of York County.in the fall of 1870.
A part of Hall's eligibility was that he had not served in the Confederate
forces.
The second man was Maj. Lewis A. Merrill, a graduate of West Point, where
he earned the nickname "Dog" Merrill, had headed a Union cavalry unit during
the Civil War and came to York in 1871 to head the federal occupation forces
and to subdue the Ku Klux Klan activity in a nine-county area.
Merrill and Co. K., Seventh Cavalry soon were rounding up anyone suspected
of possibly being a Ku Klux Klan member. The arrests were generally made
after midnight with the head of the household routed from his bed and taken
away without any explanation to the terrified family. Later it was written
that "even Merrill's subordinate officers were ashamed of his ruffianism
in 1871."
During the August political campaigning of 1872, Samuel B. Hall spoke to
about 500 York citizens from the courthouse steps. He was defending himself
against Merrill's charges that Hall had used the probate judge's office to
line his own pockets. Indignantly, Hall struck back with the accusation that
Merrill was guilty of the "most infamous lie that was ever told on the streets
of Yorkville, even in the State House at Columbia."
Hall charged that Merrill, "by the use of money and having men swear lies,
thought he could go to work to have the Writ of Habeas Corpus suspended"
but that, instead, Merrill was thwarted by Pres. U. S. Grant's pardon of
Merrill's chief intended victims. Hall contended that Merrill, nevertheless,
threatened the innocent and extorted money from them.
To press his charges further, Hall wrote a little book titled "A Shell in
the Radical Camp" in which he gave an account of York's Union League members
and their behavior. Hall also recounted stories he had heard of Merrill's
cowardice during the Civil War.
Hall's shocking little book didn't help his own cause. He was arrested by
the party he had lately been a part of, tried and convicted of "official
misconduct." He was sentenced to one year in the county jail and was ordered
to pay a $1,000 fine.
Major Merrill, who had recently passed the S. C. bar examination and become
a practicing lawyer, persuaded the S. C. legislature to award him $15,000
for his "services". The impropriety of a Union officer acting as an attorney
in court cases that he instigated, plus requesting a reward for army services,
was questioned by people even of his own party. Perhaps this is why Merrill
was quickly transferred to Fort Dakota in the west. However, Merrill stayed
only a short time in Dakota before being transferred to Louisiana to head
the military district of northern Louisiana.
While Hall was in jail, a Union officer named Benner who was drunk at the
time, "foully and grossly" approached the teen-aged daughter of Hall. Infuriated,
Hall wrote a letter to a Charlotte, N. C. newspaper, Southern Home, owned
and edited by the Civil War general, D. H. Hill, a York County native.
After the newspaper printed the "insult", Benner, thinking that Hill was
to be the speaker at a Sunday School convention at York County's Bethel Church,
sent a posse to arrest Hill for libel. Hill did not appear (and said he was
not invited), but word got around of Benner's intentions and he was soon
transferred.
When Benner and his Union detachment left, Southern Home editorialized that
it was good riddance of "the herd of a band of roughriders as ferocious and
unfeeling as the dragoons of Cleverhouse."
John Craig's story sheds light on Revolutionary
War
by Louise Pettus
John Craig, born in Ireland in 1761, was only 15 years old when he enlisted
to fight in the Revolution in August of 1776. He was then living in present-day
York County. Fortunately for us, Craig in later life wrote an extensive account
of his service in the militia.
Craig's first tour was under Col. Thomas Neel of York. Neel was then with
Gen. Williamson at Seneca Fort in what was later Pickens County, S.C.
The first battle Craig participated in was against the Cherokee Indians,
who were then allied with the French. Craig said the battle took place on
the "waters of Hiwassee." His company lost 12men.
Col. Neel and his men moved on to the Savannah River, still seeking the Cherokees
but failing to find them. The army then moved on to Orangeburg and there
received orders to rendezvous with Gen. William Moultrie. Craig ended up
in Charleston, or Charles Town as it was known at that time.
More than three years later, in May1780, Charleston fell to the British.
Craig reenlisted and was at Rocky Mount, a fort close to the Catawba Falls,
later called Great Falls. In 1854 the old veteran remembered that his captain
was John McClure and that his two lieutenants were Hugh McClure and John
Steel. At Rocky Mount Hugh McClure was wounded in the arm. His company took
nine prisoners. "Our number at this time was 27 soldiers and the three officers,
against a formidable force of 300 Tories. (We) put the Tories to flight."
That was May 24,1780. Two days later Craig and his fellows were fighting
at Mobley's Meeting House, a battle won without the loss of a single man.
The British were "enraged" at their defeats and turned to torching houses
of Whig families and plundering the countryside. Craig got permission to
go to present-day York County to recruit more men. Only seven of his fellow
soldiers would agree to join him.
In York they found devastation and gloom. The small band went on into North
Carolina, near Salisbury, in search of an English colonel named Brian. There
they found that Brian had fled back into South Carolina but had no heart
for battle. Craig's band of men then found and defeated a company of Tories
at Ramsour's Mill in North Carolina.
Leaving North Carolina, they headed for the Nation Ford of the Catawba River.
Crossing into present Fort Mill Township, they camped with Gen. Thomas Sumter's
men and began to recruit over the countryside. Craig did not say how many
men enlisted but he was heartened by an increase in numbers.
"Our next engagement was at Williamson's Lane, commanded by Cols. Andrew
Neal, and Lacy, Bratton, Maj. Dickson, Capt. McClure, and Capt. Jimeson."
Craig remarked that Gen. Sumter stayed in the camp. Nowadays the skirmish
at Williamson's Lane is usually referred to as Huck's Defeat (or Houk's Defeat).
It happened on July 12,1780.
Craig said the Whigs had 110 men who defeated 400 under the command of a
Col. Floyd. The Americans killed Maj. Patrick Ferguson and Capt. Huck. They
also took prisoners - 30 or 40 - with the loss of only one of their own men.
After the skirmish at Williamson's Lane (close by Col. William Bratton's
plantation), the soldiers went to General Sumter's camp.
Ten days later they were at Rocky Mount with Gen. Sumter in a devastating
defeat that included the death of Col. Andrew Neal. A week later the battle
of Hanging Rock in lower Lancaster County took place with considerable loss
on both sides. At Hanging Rock Capt. McClure was severely wounded and later
died from the wounds.
Craig and his fellow Whigs then went home and were not involved in any battles
until February1781 when they lay siege to Congaree Fort below Columbia. There
they had a "goodly number" of wounded but no deaths. A few days later they
met the British at the home place of a Col. Thompson, known as Thompson's
Fort. There, Craig's company lost a man and had several more wounded.
Next Craig and his friends crossed the Savannah River and went to "Big Savannah."
They soon celebrated the capture of seven wagons laden with clothing for
three British regiments. In the process they killed 13 British and took 66
prisoners. But, the spoils were soon retaken by the British, who forced the
Whigs to swim the river and march to Fort Watson.
At this point Craig ended his account of his Revolutionary War experiences
which was printed in The Chester Standard, March 16,1854, 12 years after
his death on Feb. 10,1842. Little is known about John's personal life. His
wife was named Catherine, her maiden name not known. Some time after the
war Craig moved from York to Pickens County.
Kings Mountain's national status was hard-fought
battle
by Louise Pettus
October 10, 2000 is the 220th anniversary of the Battle of Kings Mountain.
Kings Mountain National Military Park came into existence in 1931. Getting
the Revolutionary War site to that status was not easy. In 1903 a Monument
Bill had passed the U.S. Congress. There was no federal money in those days
for parks, only monuments. It had been a fixed policy of Congress that the
only parks federally sponsored were Civil War battlefields.
The U.S. congressman for this area in 1903 was David E. Finley. It was Finley's
hope that Kings Mountain battlefield would become a park some day. Meantime,
with the assistance of Joe Cannon, an N.C. native and the most powerful speaker
of the House in U.S. history, Finley secured $100,000 for a monument, which
was completed and dedicated in 1909.
In 1926 Congress passed the Act Providing for Battlefield Commemoration.
W.F. Stephenson was then congressman for this district and was as enthusiastic
as Finley had been for getting Kings Mountain recognition and federal funding.
Stephenson saw to it that a military historian, Col. H.L. Landers, was hired
by Congress to write a battlefield history and to rate the battlefields according
to a system that Congress had mandated. There were to be three classes of
battlefields and only Class 1 sites would be funded as parks. Colonel Landers
saw to it that the Kings Mountain battlefield and potential park were surveyed.
The War Department decided Kings Mountain was a Class 2 candidate in spite
of Landers' judgment that it was a Class 1 candidate for funds.
Meantime, by 1931 the Kings Mountain Chapter of the Daughters of the American
Revolution had raised the funds to purchase the battleground site. The fringe
land was optioned to the Kings Mountain Battlefield Commission composed of
Jacob Hambright of Cherokee County, A.M. Grist, editor/owner of The Yorkville
Enquirer and G.G. Page of Cleveland County, N.C., all appointed by Congress.
The 150th anniversary of the Battle of Kings Mountain occurred in October1930.
The DAR managed to get President Herbert Hoover as the sesquicentennial speaker.
Hoover stated that "History has done scant justice " to the claims of many
historians that the Battle of Kings Mountain was a great turning point -
that Lord Cornwallis was in control of the South up to that point and won
not one battle afterward. (Before Kings Mountain the British hoped to negotiate
a separate peace with the Northern colonies, giving them their freedom with
Britain keeping the Southern colonies.)
Hoover's speech, with its endorsement of the idea that there be a park to
commemorate the importance of the battle, is thought to have been crucial
in persuading some key Republican senators to vote for the bill. N.C. Sen.
Cameron Morrison sponsored the bill in the Senate. S.C. Sen. Cole L. Blease,
a master at slipping his favorite bills through the last minute budget
negotiations, got the necessary funding with very few negative votes.
The Observer gave all the credit for the passage of the bill to Morrison
and various N.C. congressmen. This infuriated the editor of the Yorkville
Enquirer, who wrote: "Kings Mountain National Military Park is the baby of
Congressman D.E. Finley, nurtured by Congressman W. F. Stephenson, and reared
to maturity by Sen. Cole L. Blease. All its life was cared for by the maternal
love of and hands of Kings Mountain Chapter of D.A.R., of Yorkville, for
whom it would have died of inattention years ago."
The women of the DAR donated the battlefield land that they had worked for
by selling cakes, sponsoring bazaars and saving their dimes.
These pages and information thereon are not to be reproduced in any form
for profit
or distribution without the permission of Louise Pettus © Copyright
2001
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