The following articles are contributed by Louise Pettus,
editor of The Quarterly, York County Genealogical & Historical
Society.
LOCAL BRICKMAKING HISTORY
DR. BENJAMIN NEELY MILLER
LEILA A. RUSSELL, RURAL SCHOOL SUPERVISOR
"GENTLEMAN" FRANK ROSS
WILLIAM E. ROSE & ROSE'S HOTEL
JOHN ROOKER'S REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION
CAPT. WILLIAM LYLE RODDEY
ROCK HILL'S DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO & FIRES - 1926
ROCK HILL IN 1906
ROCK HILL'S CONFEDERATE MONUMENT
PINCKNEYVILLE
PHILADELPHIA METHODIST CHURCH
MURDER OF STEPHEN PETTUS
REPRESENTATION FROM THE CATAWBA INDIAN LAND--PETTUS, SPRINGS
AND PERSON
JAMES LATTA & OTHER PEDDLERS
YORK COUNTY PEACHES AND GRAPES
OLD TURNER HOMESTEAD
OGDEN JINGLES
OAK RIDGE SCHOOL & WINTHROP
SALLY NEW RIVER
NATION FORD TREATY OF 1840
LOCAL BRICKMAKING HISTORY
Our local red clay makes excellent bricks but there is no evidence that the
early colonists considered that. Timber was too abundant to think of building
with anything but wood. Conversely, in the Charleston area there were many
homes built with bricks that arrived as ships' ballast from England. In 1799,
James Latta, a successful merchant, determined to have himself a combination
brick store and home in the heart of the village of Yorkville (now York).
Like Charleston merchants, Latta built a store, office area and kitchen on
the first floor while the family lived on the second and third floors. He
also had a piazza overlooking an interior garden. The foundation of Latta''s
house was granite. The brick came from England. It is estimated that 750,000
brick went into the house. All of the brick was pulled by oxen from Charleston
to Yorkville on unpaved, rutted roads. There were between 200 and 300 cart
loads. The walls are 7 bricks thick. The Latta House was finished in 1803
and is still standing across the street from the York County courthouse.
A contractor, Thomas B. Hoover, was building homes in Yorkville at least
as early as 1820. In 1831 Hoover was hired by William Elliott White of Fort
Mill to build White's second home, this one of brick. The home is known today
as the White Homestead, property of the Close family of Fort Mill who are
descendants of William Elliott White. In 1911 the White Homestead was inherited
jointly by Elliott White Springs and his father, Col. Leroy Springs. Workmen
were hired to renovate the house. They found the original contract made with
Thomas B. Hoover. Hoover had used 6 iron brick "moles" (molds) which he rented
from Robert Clendenin, a Yorkville lawyer. The clay most likely was local.
It is believed that the White Homestead is the second-oldest brick home in
York County. From the 1830s on there were built more and more brick structures,
especially churches and store houses. However, there were still stores of
wood construction built on the main streets of local towns on up into the
1900s. Winthrop College came to Rock Hill from Columbia in 1896. All of its
buildings have been of brick construction. Used in the first two buildings,
now known as Tillman Hall (formerly Main Building) and Margaret Nance (formerly
North Dormitory) were brick made on the site by a company owned by W. N.
Ashe of Yorkville. Ashe used convict labor, loaned by the state. In 1906
Ashe built a large brick plant across the Catawba river in Van Wyck next
to Seaboard Airline Railway tracks. The plant still operates but is now owned
by an English company, Boral. Fort Mill got a brick company in 1901. It was
called the Charlotte Brick Company. Land was bought from Samuel Elliott White
that was near the Dinkins Ferry and the Southern Railroad tracks about two
miles from town. Three of the four owners were Charlotte businessmen; the
fourth owner was B. D. Springs, a Fort Mill native. Dormitories were built
to house about 75 workers, almost all of them single. Perhaps more than half
were European immigrants. There were a number of stables for the mules that
were a necessity in the early brick plants. The "village" was called
Grattonsville. The road to the old site is today called Brickyard Road. No
sooner was Grattonsville in operation than it was struck by a tornado in
mid-May 1901. Most of the buildings were demolished though the machinery
was not much damaged. The Fort Mill Times reported that mules were pinned
down in their stalls and that a cow belonging to B. D. Springs was killed.
All of the chickens were killed except the rooster and he was completely
stripped of his feathers. Oddly, the tornado took away the walls and roof
of the brick company's office building but left the desks and chairs in place.
The company survived at least until World War I.
DR. BENJAMIN NEELY MILLER
Benjamin Neely Miller, M. D. (1871-1952) practiced medicine in western York
County for over a half century. From 1900 until a few months before his death
he served the Hickory Grove-Smyrna areas directly but indirectly affected
all of the people of York County. He worked tirelessly and is credited with
being one of the leaders in founding the York County Medical Society and
in establishing two hospitals--Divine Savior in York and York County General
Hospital. Educated at Davidson College and the University of the South (Sewanee),
he went on to the University of Maryland Medical School. Dr. Miller chose
to begin his practice in the village of Smyrna. He traveled in horse and
buggy over a wide range of scattered communities that included Kings Creek,
London, Piedmont Springs, Kings Mountain National Park, and Cherokee Falls.
In 1900 it was more a mining area than anything else. In the early 1900s
every summer brought typhoid epidemics. In 1905 the epidemic season began
in March. In April Dr. Miller contracted the dread disease. It would be 10
years before a typhoid vaccine was developed. The only known treatment was
a starvation diet in an attempt to avoid intestinal ruptures. It was June
before the doctor, then very thin, was able to go back to work. That same
summer, Miller and his bride of less than a year, Adeline Jane Whitesides,
moved into a new home. He had a small office built along the side of the
road near his house. The only telephone was in the house. Addie took his
calls, kept the doctor's books and kept house. It was a transition period
in medical history. There were few drugs available and only two available
for two specific diseases. Quinine, long used by Indian tribes, served to
treat malaria. The other drug was Salvarsan used to treat syphilis. Dr. Miller's
satchel carried iodine for patients who might be suffering from pleurisy
and phlebitis and to paint a circle around an infected area to prevent it
from spreading. Epsom salts , digitalis (a heart stimulant) and syrup of
squill (for coughs) were among his staples. He never trusted the stethoscopes
of his time and always put his ear to the patient's chest. He always carried
two bags, one for the medicine, a few insturments, cotton and gauze. The
other was his obstetrical bag. Neely delivered many babies. In the early
years of his practice he often stayed all night in the mother's home. It
was the most time-consuming element of his work. In the first quarter of
the 20th century the birthrate was very high with most families having 6
to 9 children. Pneumonia, influenza (called "the grippe" at that time) and
whooping cough were prevalent in the winter. Dipththeria, typhoid and colic
tended to be present more in the summer. His daughter, Martha Miller Douglas,
who wrote his biography, says that Dr. Miller always tried to keep up with
the latest medical practices and adopted them whenever possible. "He had
the joy of using antibiotics, delivering babies in a hospital, and having
access to good hospitals, staffed with good doctors, to whom he could refer
patients." Travel was difficult. Mrs. Douglas wrote that "Western York County
seemed to be overlooked every time money became available for improvement
of roads in York County." (A perennial Western York County complaint.) She
wrote that her father would drive "as far as the road permitted in his buggy.
Someone always met him with a horse to carry him over the last few miles."
Dr. Miller was so concerned about the road problems that he ran for road
commissioner and got all but 10 or 15 votes. In 1936 he was drafted as mayor
of Hickory Grove. When asked why he practiced medicine by a State newspaper
reporter, Dr. Miller said, "Because I love it."
LEILA A. RUSSELL, RURAL SCHOOL SUPERVISOR
Leila A. Russell, an 1889 Winthrop graduate, was destined to become one of
the college's most distinguished alumnas. Her potential was evident as an
undergraduate when she organized the campus YWCA and became its first president.
Leila spent several years teaching in Anderson County and then was hired
as York County's first supervisor of rural schools. Soon she was also teaching
at Winthrop. She combined the two jobs neatly. Leila Russell was resourceful,
creative and very persuasive. Problems abounded but she thrived on the challenge.
No student teacher had an automobile (students weren't even allowed to have
cars on campus until 1953). How would they get to the rural schools? Miss
Russell arranged for the girls to be placed in country schools on, or near,
train depots. Among others, York County schools that fitted the bill were
at Blairsville, Catawba Junction, Lesslie, Friendship, Oak Ridge, Hickory
Grove, Ebenezer, Ogden, Glendale, Oakley, Smith's Turnout, Tirzah and Smyrna.
Riverside elementary school in Lancaster county was also used. How would
the student teachers be housed? Miss Russell found parents who were willing
to give the Winthrop students room and board. Many of the regular teachers
had never been to college. Miss Russell diplomatically dealt with that problem
and saw to it that the regular teacher's skills were upgraded. Most of the
schools were in terrible condition. How could the money be raised to make
needed improvements? Miss Russell had a plan. She organized the parents into
clubs and persuaded them to hold benefits of any kind that would raise money.
By 1912 she had persuaded 8 school districts to levy school taxes for improvement
of existing facilities and in other cases persuaded communities to build
larger and better schools. She started a newspaper column which was printed
weekly in the Yorkville Enquirer. After a paragraph or two of suggestions
for improving the schools she added letters from students (having asked the
students in each school she visited to send her letters that told what their
school was doing). A typical Leila Russell item in the Enquirer: "Are you
boys and girls making use of the libraries in your schools? And if you have
no library in your school can you not manage in some way to raise ten dollars
to secure one? Having done this, ask your trustees and Mr. Carroll for ten
dollars from the school fund, and Mr. Carroll will see that the state gives
you ten, so that you will have thirty dollars to put into good books." She
promised all the boys and girls who read at least six books to have their
name read on County School Day and to have the name published in the Enquirere.
She formed the boys into Corn Clubs and the girls into Tomato Clubs and saw
that the best ears of corn and finest jars of tomatoes were displayed at
the county fair. Walter Kerr, an 8th grade student, wrote that before Miss
Russell came and talked to the Oak Ridge students that his school was unpainted
except for a place that was painted black for a blackboard. There was only
one classroom and the little stove could not heat it. Water had to be brought
a long distance from a house in the community. Writing in November 1912,
Walter said that now that his school was new and built according to one of
the Clemson plans. The school was painted white; the windows were screened.
A large Old Dominion stove heated the room and they now had a bell, a clock,
two large maps and a piano. They had not had a library before, now they had
148 books. The trustees had seen to it that Oak Ridge had a "deep bored well"
and a shady play ground. All of this for $1,500 and a great deal of contributed
labor. Leila Russell personally prodded at least 15 rural communities to
build new and better schools in the years 1911-13. With that accomplishment
behind her she accepted an appointment as executive secretary of the Winthrop
Alumnae Association, a position she held until 1945.
"GENTLEMAN" FRANK ROSS
One of York County's Revolutionary War heroes was Maj. Frank Ross with the
Whig militia in the Regiment headed by Col. Thomas Neel. Ross was with Neel
in the "Snow Campaign" of 1775-1776 which was mounted against the Cherokees
and called by that name because of the heavy snows the men struggled with
in the Blue Ridge Mountains. In the summer of 1776, Ross commanded a battalion
that took part in the Keowee expedition, a second attempt to contain the
Cherokees who were assisting the English armies. On their way to the "Block
House" in Greenville County, the York battalion heard that Colonel Height,
a Whig Indian trader, had been killed by the Cherokees who had abducted Mrs.
Height and two doughters. When a young son of Mrs. Height attempted to follow
and rescue them, he was murdered. Ross and his men pressed on to the Keowee
towns. The advance guard had 125 men with 25 Catawba Indians as scouts. The
Catawbas, according to Maurice Moore, "would often pause in march and examine
with the greatest care the bark of the tallest trees to ascertain if they
had been recently ascended." When the army entered a cove, the Catawbas halted
them and pointed out that the fresh marks of many men trampling the wild
peavine and weeds. The Indians advised the men to wait until the main army
came up before advancing any further. The whites were too impatient and insisted
on going ahead. Reluctantly, the Catawbas again led the way. They went into
a small valley with a branch. The Indians saw more evidence, including a
fresh footprint, that the enemy was near. This time the Catawbas said they
would go no further. For half an hour the whites intrigued them to move but
they refused. A young French officer, an aide to General William Moultrie
who was present, suddenly shouted, "I will lead, if the rest will follow!"
The men fell behind him and he led them up a trail toward a bald mountain
covered with wild peavine has high as a man's head. About 400 yards on the
crack of a rifle was heard an the Frenchman was dead. Suddenly the Cherokees
were everywhere. The Whigs tried to run and tangled themselves helplessly
in the peavines. The Cherokees, equipped only with tomahawks and scalping
knives, had the advantage. One of the attacked soldiers was Maj. Frank Ross.
Ross, who was 6 feet tall and weighed around 200 pounds, was more muscular
than his adversary. Ross dropped his musket and grappled with the
tomahawk-carrying Cherokee whose greased body made him difficult to hold
The tomahawk sliced into Ross' skull but before the Cherokee could strike
again one of Ross' men came to the rescue. Though bleeding heavily, Ross
took the tomahawk and buried it in the Indian's brain. The soldiers finally
located Mrs. Height in an Indian village. She had been murdered. They buried
her there but saw no sign of the two daughters. The two daughters were "sold
from one tribe to another" and five years after first captured were on the
banks of the Mississippi River where a French trader found them. He purchased
them from the Indians, took them to New Orleans and saw them placed on a
boat for Charleston to rejoin their South Carolina relatives. Three years
after Maj. Ross was nearly scalped, he was back in Cherokee country. This
time he was not so lucky. Gen. Joseph Graham of North Carolina wrote in his
journal: "The brave Major Frank Ross died of his wounds the 31st of March,
and was buried with military honors the 1st of April, in sight of, and opposite
to, Augusta, on the Carolina side." Ross was 35 years of age and left a widow,
Rachel, the daughter of Alexander and Margaret Moore Love. There were also
three small sons, James, Alexander and William. A Moore family history called
Rachel Ross a "rather remarkable woman" It was said that the night before
her husband was killed, Rachel Ross dreamed of his death and was not surprised
when she received word. She died in 1790 and was buried in Turkey Creek Cemetery
in York County.
WILLIAM E. ROSE & ROSE'S HOTEL
William E. Rose, 1813-1892, was a self-made man. Born in Langley,
Buckinghamshire, England, he had only a little education when he landed in
New York, aged 11. Without "friends or fortune" the boy made his way to Albany
where he obtained an apprenticeship as a silversmith. Rose's employer lost
his business before the boy was trained so he found a job with a large iron
establishment where he worked several years. Hearing of Tredegar Iron works
in Richmond, Va., Rose worked there and then drifted off to several iron
works in Pennsylvania. When Rose was 27 and had saved enough money to go
into business for himself, he heard of an iron works he could lease in South
Carolina. The lease on the Spartanburg Iron Manufacturing Company expired
in two years. Rose then secured a two-year lease on the Cherokee Iron Works
which was followed by a six-year stint as manager of the High Shoals Works
in Lincoln County, N. C. In the year 1852 Rose abandoned iron manufacturing
and moved to Yorkville, S. C. where he purchased a hotel building he named
for himself. Rose's Hotel, located on South Congress street, became Yorkville's
number-one hotel. The handsome chandeliers were often commented on by visitors.
Dances were frequent in the elegantly furnished main floor. Rose's Hotel
was a three-story structure with a veranda. There was a livery stable attached,
not only to care for the guest's horses, but had horses for rent. A hotel
omnibus carried people to nearby Sutton's Springs and other attractions.
Carriages carried people from the depot free of charge. Rose's Hotel was
in walking distance of the courthouse and housed many of those from out-of-town
who had reason to appear in court. Attorneys and circuit-riding judges were
housed there as well those who came to testify during the major sessions.
Charlestonians made Yorkville a favorite summer resort as they attempted
to escape the fevers of summer in the low country. From the balcony of Rose's
Hotel, the Confederacy's secretary of war, John C. Breckenridge, addressed
the citizens of Yorkville at the time of Jefferson Davis' flight from Richmond.
When Union troops occupied Yorkville during Reconstruction, they chose to
make the hotel their headquarters and placed the 7th Cavalry in the building.
After the withdrawal of federal troops in 1876 the building returned to hotel
use until the World War II era. Rose became superintendent of the King's
Mountain Railroad in 1860 and president of the railroad in 1864. His presidency
lasted only a year. When it became obvious that the Confederacy was losing
the war, Rose left Yorkville to return to the iron business in North Carolina.
The new position was unsatisfactory. Rose was soon back in Yorkville. At
the end of the Civil War, South Carolina was occupied and power shifted from
the Democratic Party to the Republican Party backed by Federal troops. Rose
affiliated with the Republican Party and was elected to the state sene from
York County. He served from 1868 to 1872. When elected to the SC Senate in
1868 Rose moved his wife and children to Columbia where he purchased the
Congaree Hotel property which he managed until his death in 1893. Rose wished
to be buried in Yorkville beside 8 of his deceased children--5 sons and 3
daughters. When the Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago (3 C's) train arrived
in Yorkville with the body, there was an escort of prominent Yorkville citizens
waiting. Following a funeral service in the Episcopal Church, Rose was buried
in Yorkville's Rose Hill Cemetery.
JOHN ROOKER'S REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION
On June 7, 1832 the United States Congress, for the first time, voted to
reward eligible Revolutionary War veterans with pensions. It was a little
more than 50 years after Yorktown, the last battle of the Revolution. Surviving
veterans had to prove their service at the courthouse or swear to a judge.
They were required to furnish evidence by "living witnesses, by documentary
proof, by traditionary evidence, by incidental evidence, or by the rolls."
John Rooker, aged 77, of York District went to the courthouse and took with
him what George Taylor, the examining clerk, called "traditionary evidence."
What Rooker furnished was his statement that he entered the service in Franklin,
N.C. in August 1776 as a private for 6 months "to go to Kentucky to guard
its Inhabitants from the Ravages of the Indians." In March 1777 he volunteered
to serve under Col. Daniel Boone and served under him for 7 months until
Col. Hagans of Virginia brought a reenforcement of 100 men. After this service
Rooker returned to North Carolina and stayed until December 6, 1790 when
he "Removed to South Carolina York District." Rooker had no written evidence,
no discharge papers, and knew no one in 1832 who could testify of his service.
He offered as character witnesses the name of Benjamin Chambers, the Judge
of the Court of Ordinary (Probate Judge) of York District and Bartlett Meacham,
a citizen of Fort Mill District. Rooker's claim was approved. For the rest
of his life Rooker would receive a United States treasury check for $43.35
annually. The widows of veterans were eligible for pensions of lesser amounts
if they were married to the pensioner before January 1, 1794. Five years
after her husband's death and a year before she died, Anna Hawkins Rooker,
then age 86, applied for her pension. She swore that she married John Rooker
in Lincoln County, N.C. sometime in the year 1780. In neither pension application
was there any reference to children or other family members who might be
able to support their parents. The Rookers had nine children-- four sons
and five daughters. Anna Hawkins Rooker also had to have character witnesses.
Willis Reeves appeared before James Quinn, a York District Justice of the
Peace, and testified to Anna Rooker's character. Reeves also submitted a
two page preface torn from a book written by John Rooker. The book was titled
"An Essay on the Sovereignty of God" and was published in Charleston by W.
Riley in 1839. (A copy of the book is in the Louisville Baptist Seminary
- the only known copy.) In his book preface, Rooker described his military
service and its aftermath more fully than he had on his pension application
but in neither case did he mention having being wounded in the war. Some
of Rooker's parishioners, however, vividly recalled his hands as wounded
in the Revolution. In a letter to Lyman Draper in Draper's MSS one man recalled
that while Rooker was preaching he would hold up his hands "cut all to pieces
by sabre wounds." This in contrast to another veteran who hid his hand inside
his coat. Rooker occasionally filled in at other Baptist churches. He tried
very hard to establish a successful mission among the Catawba Indians. His
assistant pastor was Robert Mursh, a full-blooded Pamunkey Indian who had
a Catawba Indian wife. He also set up a school in Lancaster District among
the Catawbas which was taught by James Lewis. David Hutchison, a state-appointed
commissioner for Catawba Indian affairs, once wrote that Reverend Rooker
settled near the Catawba towns "with a view of teaching and preaching. I
had high hopes that he would be successful...and I believe exerted himself
to the best of his abilities. The result of which he candidly acknowledged
to me was, that he thought he left them worse than he found them...." Rooker
died June 24, 1840 and is buried at Flint Hill Baptist Church, one of three
churches he founded.. Six years later his widow was buried in a field on
a farm they once owned near Clover with two sons, Jennings and Joseph Dorris
Rooker. Anna never joined her husband's church. She remained a faithful
Episcopalian all of her days.
CAPT. WILLIAM LYLE RODDEY
One of Rock Hill's early business leaders, William L. Roddey, was born Aug.
10, 1834 at Roddey's Station, about 7 miles south of Rock Hill, the son of
John and Mary G. (Wylie) Roddey. When he was 16 he went to work as a mercantile
clerk in Lewisville, Chester County. In the same pattern of William Henry
Belk and many other early merchants, Roddey worked hard, learned the secrets
of merchandising, saved his money, waited to marry and in a few years opened
a store of his own. He was 26 when he married Anna Cousart Baskin, the daughter
of a prominent Chester family. The day of their wedding, South Carolina seceded
from the Union. Roddey entered the ranks of the 24th SC regiment as a
first-lieutenant and eventually became Captain Roddey, a title he would carry
the rest of his life even though, in the closing months of the war, he was
appointed colonel. Wounded at Chickamauga, Roddey returned to battle in Dalton,
Ga. where he suffered a head wound and was left for dead on the battlefield.
Captured by federal troops, he was held at Johnson's Island prison camp for
3 months after the war's end. When Roddey returned to Lewisville he found
that he could not collect what was owed him nor pay his own debts. He borrowed
$2,000, paid off his debts and with a few hundred dollars left moved to Rock
Hill where he was a partner in Wylie, Roddey and Augurs for 6 years. Joseph
Wylie managed the Chester store and W. L. Roddey the Rock Hill store. From
then on it was a great success story (a biographer wrote that Roddey was
penniless in 1866 and when he died was the largest taxpayer in York County).
His second business was W. L. Roddey & Co. The store was of brick
construction, a rarity in 1882. With partners J. E. Roddey, J. F. Reid and
S. L. Reid, Capt. Roddey operated the largest, most prosperous store in town.
Soon Capt. Roddey and son, William Joseph Roddey, opened the first bank in
Rock Hill -- First National Bank, which evolved into National Union Bank.
Roddey retired from active involvement in the mercantile business in 1887,
leaving day-to-day operations to others. The store building and its second-floor
hotel burned in 1889 but reopened. In 1894 the Roddey store was reorganized
and R. E. Saddler, Oran S. Poe, and John A. Black were brought into the business
with Roddey's sons and the Reids. After Captain Roddey's death the store
continued as Roddey-Poe Mercantile Company with J. E. Roddey and O. S. Poe,
owners. In 1925 the building and goods were bought by Belk Brothers of Charlotte
and became a part of the Belk department store chain. Captain Roddey turned
to other enterprises. He became the largest stockholder in Victoria Mill.
In 1901 Roddey founded a newspaper he named The Journal which soon became
The Record. He was the treasurer of the Land and Town Site Company that developed
Rock Hill's first subdivision, Oakland. He also set up a construction company
in 1903 to build India Hook Dam, designed by his son-in-law, W. C. Whitener
(another son-in-law was Frank Dowd, publisher of the Charlotte Observer).
Capt. W. L. Roddey, who has been characterized as "broad-minded, public-spirited,
generous, and scrupulously honest," served many years as a Rock Hill school
trustee, backed the $60,000 bond that Rock Hill put up to entice Winthrop
College, donated 2 acres of land to Clinton Junior College campus, among
many acts of charity. In a time when most men chewed tobacco and drank heartily,
Capt. Roddey was noted for never using either tobaccko or alcohol. He owned
the first automobile in Rock Hill. Captain Roddey died June 10, 1909. He
was a member of the Neely's Creek Associate Reformed Church but the funeral
was held at the ARP church in Rock Hill. The funeral processional was impressive
with "eight colored men forming a bodyguard, four on each side of the hearse."
Immediately behind the hearse, "Uncle Lige," a lifelong friend of Roddey,
rode horseback.
ROCK HILL'S DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO & FIRES - 1926
A destructive tornado struck downtown Rock Hill on the afternoon of Nov.
26, 1926. It was the day after Thanksgiving, rather late in the season for
such a violent storm. The "black as ink twister" took less than 10 minutes
to change the face of the business section. Beginning on the west side of
the town, the twister cut a path about three blocks wide. The main force
of the tornado hit Main, Hampton, Johnston, Saluda and Moore streets. Everything
not nailed down was blown away. Trees toppled. Electric and telephone wires
were whipped loose. Every automobile parked downtown was severely damaged.
Some were moved up on the sidewalks; others were smashed. Lyle Hospital had
its roof lifted off, and the whole building was flooded. The First Presbyterian
Church tower was ripped away and set down on the church lawn. Every house
on Quantz Street in the Aragon Mill village was damaged. The Aragon Mill
baseball stands were scattered to the winds. The mill lost 35 bales of cotton
in a fire started by the storm. The Industrial Mill was even worse off. The
main roof was taken off by the twister. The boiler room was torn apart. The
final estimate was $100,000 in damage. The smokestack of the city water and
light plant toppled onto the roof of the office building. Practically every
house and office building lost chimneys, if nothing else. The southside of
the Episcopal rectory was torn off, and part of the roof went with it. The
porch of St. John's Methodist Church was lost to the wind. The First Baptist
Church skylight was broken, and the First Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Church lost a memorial window. Bethel Church was destroyed. A recently released
prison inmate became a hero by rescueing two small children from the middle
of the street. One person was killed. Joe Crockett, an employee of Southern
Railway, lost his life when the storm picked up two railroad cars and slammed
them against an embankment. The following day, visitors swarmed Rock Hill
to view the damage. One of the gawking sightseers ran over a 5-year-old boy
sitting on a curb. The boy's foot later had to be amputated. With only one
life lost, Rock Hill was luckier than many other towns. The great storm which
had started in the Ozarks and whipped across five states, killed 74 people
and injured 200. On each side of the three-block-wide swath there was very
little damage. Winthrop College and houses along Oakland Avenue were not
touched. Fort Mill reported high winds but no damage. York had neither wind
nor rain. About the time downtown Rock Hill was repaired, another disaster
struck. This time it was fire. On Jan. 31, 1927, four buildings were destroyed
including two drugstores -- J. L. Phillips Drug and Rock Hill Drug. Doctors
Blackmon, Strait, Massey, Hay, Walker and Stevens all lost their offices,
which were located on the second floor over two drugstores. The fire was
believed to have started in the Manhattan Cafe. The Friedheim Building adjacent
to the cafe had a fire wall that saved it. The London Building was lost.
On March 5, 1927, another fire hit Main Street. This time the A & P store
and the Western Union building were damaged extensively. The Elks club and
Morris Jewelry were destroyed. The feeling was that the whole block would
have burned if the fire had not been spotted by Anna Poe, who was serving
a late supper at the Rose-Ann Tea Room to members of the cast of the Denishawn
Dancers, who had performed earlier in the evening at Winthrop College. On
April 25, 1927, another fire burned City Wholesale Co. Oil-soaked was found
there and at R. T. Fewell's lumber yard. Fire Chief T. O. Flowers was convinced
that Rock Hill had a "firebug." All fires had occurred on a Friday night.
The last fire was May 12. The arsonist, if there ever was one, was never
caught.
ROCK HILL IN 1906
Towns often grow in spurts. Rock Hill's growth from village to town occurred
in the 1890s, largely from the stimulus of cotton mill building and the
successful bid for Winthrop College. By 1906 Rock Hill was having growing
pains. The town had 5 cotton mills and an estimated population of 12,000
people. Still, there was no sewage system, few sidewalks, and inadequate
street lighting. The only public transportation system was a mule drawn streetcar
that traveled from Main Street to just past the Winthrop College campus.
One of the reasons Rock Hill had won Winthrop College in 1895 was its proud
boast that it had more paved streets than any other community in South Carolina.
(Columbia and Charleston soon passed Rock Hill's 10 miles of macadamized
roadway.) In a January 1906 letter to the editor of The Record, an irate
citizen complained that Rock Hill was losing ground by not building a sewer
system and installing paved sidewalks. He added that he did think the present
town council was superior to the council of a few years before, about which
he "was informed that the entire time of one meeting of council was consumed
in discussing whether or not a hitching post should be two feet or two feet
and six inches high!" The Record editor wrote that Rock Hill's major need
was a trolley system that would connect Rock Hill to Yorkville, Fort Mill,
Ogden, Smyrna and Edgemoor. (There was no mention of connection with Charlotte.)
The first action of city council in 1906 was to install concrete pavements
from Main Street down Railroad Avenue (later Trade St., now Dave Lyle Boulevard)
to the train depot near the Oakland overhead bridge. Downtown had had granite
slabs serving as pavements since 1895 and a few residential areas, notably
Woodland Park (now Marion and Saluda Streets) had had paved sidewalks even
longer. The improvements must have inspired the council and private citizens.
Within a year there was a power, light and water company laying seven miles
of mains, a reservoir, a standpipe holding 150,000 gallons of water and a
200,000 gallon artesian well. No longer would Winthrop College, which had
its own deep well, have the only pure water in town. Not all citizens supported
the improvements. Backyard privies and individual wells suited some just
fine. But there was one matter that kept everyone hot under the collar. They
all agreed that Southern Rail Road's passenger service was deplorable - "utterly
inefficient and inconvenient". Freight rates for goods originating in southern
states were much higher than on goods coming to the south from northern states.
On top of that, freight always took priority over passenger service. There
were a number "swing trains." These had mixed passenger and freight cars.
Rock Hillians complained that they never knew when the swing trains would
arrive in Rock Hill or leave for Charlotte. One day there were 25 passengers
waiting to board for Charlotte. When the train arrived it uncoupled and left
for Chester with a party of tourists. The railroad replied that every train
running between Chester and Charlotte stopped in Rock Hill. There were 5
northbound and 5 southbound trains each day. However, the railroad official
said that Rock Hill simply did not have enough business to justify anything
other than mixed freight and passenger trains and freight had priority. Fifteen
years later the automobile had replaced the railroad as the number one passenger
carrier and Rock Hill had embarked on one of the most ambitious road building
campaigns in the state.
ROCK HILL'S CONFEDERATE MONUMENT
The idea of commemorating the service of Confederate soldiers dates back
to 1866 when Mary Amarintha Snowden organized the Ladies' Memorial Association
in Charleston.The idea spread over the south until almost every town had
a memorial association. Markers and plaques in public buildings and cemeteries
were the objects of money-raising drives. A subscription drive spearheaded
by Samuel E. White of Fort Mill resulted in the first Confederate monument
in this area. With proper ceremony, Fort Mill's Confederate soldier was unveiled
in 1891. Then Chester dedicated its monument in 1905; Lancaster in 1907 and
Ebenezer in 1908. Rock Hill's Anne White chapter of the United Daughters
of the Confederacy was organized in with 10 charter members: Mrs. R. H. Fewell,
Mrs. John Gelser, Mrs. James F. Reid, Mrs. B. M. Fewell, Mrs. A. R. Witherspoon,
Kate Fewell, Mary White, Mrs. Elizabeth Sherfesee, Annie Louise Sherfesee,
and Emma Roach. The Ann White Chapter grew and during the first 25 years
had as many as 60 members on the rolls. They helped organize a chapter at
Winthrop College in 1899. By 1907 the Winthrop Chapter of the U. D. C. had
over 300 members. That year both groups worked to raise money to send to
the U.D.C. building at Jamestown, Va. where the first permanent English
settlement was made 300 years before. Each May 10, the Ann White Chapter
members placed wreathes on the graves of Confederate veterans in Laurelwood
Cemetery and placed U.D.C. crosses for identification. Each January 19, Robert
E. Lee's birthday, the chapter held a dinner or reception for the area
Confederate veterans. The chapter was named for Mrs. Ann White who had two
sons, James Spratt White and Andrew Hutchison White, who served in the
Confederate army. Always, the U. D. C. looked after the welfare of the old
veterans. It was said that if one "drifted into the County Almshouse" the
group would not rest until they got him into the Confederate Home at Columbia.
Some U. D. C. records were destroyed in a fire so that it is not precisely
known when the Ann White Chapter began raising money for a Confederate soldier
monument but it is known that they worked hard and during World War I they
purchased Liberty Bonds for the purpose. The chapter received help from the
Kiwanis Club, the Rotary Club, and the Rock Chamber of Commerce who combined
to pledge $1500 for the project. The Rock Hill city manager's office helped
raised the final $4,600. Where to place the monument was another problem.
Finally, after much difference of opinion, the club members, "weary of the
long drawn out strain," allowed Charles Cobb, a prominent local banker, and
the city manager to arrange for the placement in a newly-acquired acreage
for a future town park which they decided to call Confederate Park. Academy
Street had its name changed to Confederate Street. On April 18, 1922, the
cornerstone was laid with Masonic ceremonies. On May 10, the monument was
unveiled before a large crowd who participated in "marching, singing, speaking,
and band-playing." The statue of Georgia marble was unveiled as the band
played softly, "Way Down Upon the Swanee River." Following the ceremony there
was a march to the cemetery to decorate the graves. Later, the monument was
moved from Confederate Park to Laurelwood Cemetery. It became the custom
each May 10 to have a program at Ebenezer Avenue School followed by students
marching to Laurelwood to decorate the graves.
PINCKNEYVILLE
South Carolina's first legislature following the Revolutionary War created
counties that began operating in 1785. Each county had a courthouse but circuit
courts that would act as appeals courts were also needed. In 1791 new district
courts were established. One of the new courts was named Pinckneyville District
in honor of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a native Charlestonian who was active
in national politics. Pinckneyville tried cases from the counties of York,
Chester, Spartanburg and Union. The site was mandated as one mile from Pinckney
Ferry where Pacolet River emptied into the Broad River. Construction had
hardly begun before the river flooded the area. The town was moved to higher
ground. One mile from the town was the "Hanging Ground." At least one horse
thief was hanged there. It was intended that Pinckneyville would be the
Charleston of the upcountry. To that end, streets were named for Charleston
streets--Meeting, Broad, Water, Trade, etc. The town was designed to become
a commercial metropolis as well as "a center of social activity." Soon,
Pinckneyville had gained several stores, a tavern and inn combination, and
a post office. Alexandria College was chartered by the Rev. Joseph Alexander
but it never got off the ground. There was never a church. Church-goers attended
either Bullocks Creek or Mount Tabor, both Presbyterian churches. The jail
had walls 18 inches thick made from hand-pressed brick. It measured 14 x
20 feet and had 2 cells located between the walls and the fireplace. Each
cell was only 2 x 4 feet with no door. Prisoners were lowered from the top
of the cell which had an iron grate fastened over it. One cannot imagine
a more cruel contraption. The stage coach that carried 4 passengers with
luggage also served as a mail coach which "ran rain or shine." Drivers would
blow one long distinct blast when approaching the town from the York side
of the river. There was a short blast for each passenger so that the innkeeper
would know how many guests he would have to feed. It was said that the chickens
became so aware of the stagecoach blasts that they would "literally run for
their lives." Two of the towns best-known merchants were Daniel McMahan,
a storekeeper, and Thomas C. Taylor, the innkeeper. The two men, both natives
of Ireland, detested each other. There were frequent law suits over property
lines. One of their neighbors had 2 oxen he named McMahan and Taylor because
he said the oxen would not pull together. Before he died, Taylor requested
that his body be buried in front of McMahan's place so that Daniel McMahan
would have to look at his grave every day. Taylor died in 1832 and was buried
as he requested. McMahan lived to be a very old man, dying in 1878. In 1800
the districts were rearranged. The Pinckneyville court district was abandoned.
The town managed to hold on for a few years but was labeled a "dead town"
in 1840. By that time Daniel McMahan was living in the old courthouse which
he had turned into a residence. By 1950 the only surviving building was the
jail which today is a crumbled pile of bricks. Pinckneyville is all but forgotten
but it should be mentioned that for a time Thomas E. Suggs, a clock vender
from Waterbury Connecticut lived in Taylor's inn. He ran the Waterbury Clock
Factory at Bullocks Creek across the Broad River from Pinckneyville. Scattered
records also show that the famed clockmaker, Seth Thomas of Litchfield,
Connecticut was at Pinckneyville. It is probably correct to say that at one
time Pinckneyville was a distribution center for some of the highest quality
shelf clocks produced in America.
PHILADELPHIA METHODIST CHURCH
Many of our local churches have created the office of church historian. The
historian's duties are generally light--until a landmark date is reached.
In this area that date will likely range from the 25th anniversary of the
founding of churches into several centuries (the Old Waxhaw Presbyterian
Church in Lancaster County celebrates its 240th year of existence this year).
Many churches, as they approach an important year in their history, will
plan to publish a history. The historian, who may have a committee appointed
to help him in his task, is immediately confronted with some questions. When
was the church founded? Where was the first church located? Who were the
founders? Who were the ministers? How many church buildings have we had?
What major events have occurred in our church history? Are there records,
and, if so, where are they located? Have other churches of the same denomination
written histories? It can get complicated and the research problems will
vary from church to church. Let us use one church as an example. Philadelphia
United Methodist Church in Fort Mill township of York County demonstrates
some of the problems facing the church historian. When was Philadelphia founded?
The church 's historian, Mrs. Ruth C. Adkins, was immediately faced with
the fact that the name "Philadelphia" first appeared in Methodist records
in the First Quarterly Conference of Sugaw Creek Circuit, March 17, 1832.
It would seem that the founding date is clear, but the entry actually read,
"Philadelphia, formerly Felts". Indeed, in the previous year, 1831, there
is a reference to "Felts Meeting House." The name William Felts turns up
in Methodist records both before and after 1832. In 1819, at Harrison's Methodist
Church (in Mecklenburg County, south of Pineville), William Felts, steward
and class leader, was disciplined. It seems that Felts "...had not renewed
his license according to the Discipline . . . ." So, some time before 1819
Felts led a congregation of Methodists. Further research by Mrs. Adkins showed
that on October 25, 1816, when the Sugar Creek Circuit met at Harrison's,
the note was made that, "There is one from Thyatyrah Society, Brother William
Felts, who is not present on account of sickness." Thyatyrah Society? Indeed,
there is an account in 1815 that mentions William Felts of Thyatyrah Society.
Mrs. Adkins comments, "We do not know where the Thyatyrah Society was located,
but we do know that Mr. Felts owned the property where the first Philadelphia
church building was located." Further research placed William Felts' property
at a spot near the present-day crossroads of Hwy 160 and 21 Bypass (close
to Springs Farms' New Peach Stand). William Felts' name as representative
of Philadelphia church appeared in the Quarterly Conference reports until
the year 1857. So, we have three names for a Methodist congregation in the
same vicinity--Thyatyrah Society, Felts' Meeting House and Philadelphia--
and dates ranging from 1815 to 1832 as candidates for the founding of
Philadelphia United Methodist Church and at least two locations. Mrs. Adkins
chose the least debatable date, 1832, as the founding date and titled her
history, 150 Years of Methodism in Fort Mill, S. C. 1832-1982. If she had
chosen 1815 as Philadelphia United Methodist's founding date she could have
claimed her church to be the oldest Methodist church in York County--older
than Yorkville's 1824 founding by Rev. William Gassaway and Rev. Joseph Holmes.
MURDER OF STEPHEN 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's 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's 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 sheriff's deputy and had been to Alabama "three or four times."
Thomas Pettus was deputized by the sheriff to carry out the court's assignment.
Having been involved in the building of "carryalls," the Southern frontier's
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 slave's defense, either. Clawson
charged Stephen Pettus's estate $50 for defending the slaves who murdered
him. Ironically, selling the murderers to "parts West" took care of the estate's
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 escaptes. There the
slaves were held until the scheduled auctions. Pettus probably received cash
for the four slaves. When he returned he charged Stephen Pettus's estate
$36 for "trip expenses."
REPRESENTATION FROM THE CATAWBA INDIAN LAND--PETTUS, SPRINGS
AND PERSON
In November 1808 William Pettus was elected to serve as a York County
representative in the S. C. House of Representatives. When he reported to
the swearing-in ceremonies on the 30th of November he was declared ineligible
to serve since he was not a freeholder. David Hutchison, like Pettus, a resident
of the Catawba Indian Land, wrote that the Indian Land settlers: " . . .
were called upon for tax, which they paid on all their taxable property.
They were called upon to do military duty; to serve as Jurors, and to perform
all the duties of citizens; but denied the privilege of representation; we
could not sit on a jury for the trial of a slave. The District elected a
Lease-holder to go to the Legislature. He was sent home, and the District
deprived of a representative that session." John Springs III, a neighbor
of Pettus, was serving as foreman of the York District Grand Jury in 1824.
Springs authored a petition to the State Assembly to permit the people of
the Indian Land to have a representative on the same basis as the rest of
York District. Springs described the 15-mile-square Catawba Indian Land as
"fertile, Populous, Wealthy and respectable." And added that perhaps the
area was "not inferior in point of intelligence and respectability," to any
part of the state "exclusive of towns and citys none of which there are on
the Indian Land." Springs' petition noted that the refusal of the Legislature
to seat Pettus "gave rise to the passage of an Act authorizing the Catawba
Indians to grant and make leases for life or lives or term of years not exceeding
Ninety Nine and, that they should be a qualification equal to a freehold,
in all cases where a freehold is not required by the constitution." Pettus
purchased a life lease in order to serve in the legislature. He was elected
in 1810 and served until his death in 1818. John Springs was an executor
of Pettus' estate and once referred to him as his mentor. In 1824 Springs
wrote that in the past 39 years only one other representative from York
District's Catawba Indian Land had been elected to the state legislature.
Springs did not identify the second representative but merely stated that
he had purchased 500 acres of poor land outside the Indian Land boundaries
in order to qualify to serve, a condition that not many men would be able
to afford. And, as Springs pointed out, few men would be willing to purchase
a lease for life when they themselves were likely to "expire in ten or twenty
years and possibly in one or two." Springs also thought that that such a
purchase of property, in order to be elected to a government post, showed
"a zeal and anxiety for representation that few Men of Virtue, talent and
modesty would like to exhibit." And, he said, that the jury wanted the General
Assembly to understand that there were men mentally qualified to serve who
didn't own 500 acres of land. Four years after the petition was presented
to the General Assembly, John Springs was elected a representative from York
District. Why, in 1828, did Springs contradict what he had written in 1824
about men of virtue? It may have been the rumor that some wealthy lowcountry
men were attempting to purchase leases that had been negotiated before the
99 year rule in 1808. The purpose, it was said, was to hold the leases until
they expired and then take possession of the land. The same fear may have
motivated Capt. Benjamin Person, who happened to be a neighbor of Springs
and a fellow officer of Flint Hill Baptist with Pettus. Person was elected
to the S. C. Senate (1830-31). Person was not able to get any legislation
passed that would have prevented speculation on the Indian leases. Person
resigned from the Senate and moved to Jackson, Tennessee where he died in
1840, the same year that the ill-fated Treaty of Nation Ford was signed
JAMES LATTA & OTHER PEDDLERS
A peddler with a pack on his back was a familiar sight to our ancestors.
Storehouses were few and far between. Roads were rough. The peddler with
his needles, thread, combs, quills and other sundry items was made welcome.
When James Latta, an Irish immigrant, brought such items into Yorkville following
the Revolutionary War he had no competition. There was not a single store
in town. He spread his wares on planks under the trees in front of the
courthouse. Latta made a quick ascent from rags to riches. By 1799 he had
accumulated enough money to build a combination store-home opposite the
courthouse. The imposing brick structure remained in the family until 1931
and still stands. Latta prospered and his son, Robert Latta, became a
"merchant-prince" with additional stores in Camden and Columbia. With time
there were variations in the peddling routine. While many peddlers remained
independent of stores or financial backing, others were employed to sell
goods on commission. In Yorkville during the 1840s there was a firm doing
business as a copartnership under the name of McElwee and Sutton. Jonathan
McElwee and Alexander C. Sutton employed at least a half dozen men to work
at the combination trading of clocks, carryalls and slaves. Covering a
geographical area that extended from North Carolina to Alabama, the "peddlers"
roamed the countryside to show their wares. The carryall was a covered wagon
which, in many ways, resembled a small Conestoga wagon. Inside the wagon
were shelves with planking placed as a restraining device to keep the goods
from sliding out when traveling over rutted roads. The carryalls were
manufactured locally. Joseph Herndon, a Virginia native, born in 1806, moved
to Cleveland County, NC and started his business career as a peddler on horseback
who then graduated to doing business out of a carryall. In 1847 when he had
enough money he moved to Chester, SC and became a partner of W. Dixon Henry.
In 1854 he moved to Yorkville and set up two businesses, a tannery and a
grocery store. Herndon not only became successful he was noted for his generosity
in helping other aspiring young man rise in business. In the 1880s Leroy
Springs of Fort Mill, who had just dropped out of the University of North
Carolina as a sophomore, took a job with Burwell and Springs, a wholesale
grocery firm in Charlotte, as a "drummer." He took a wagonload of groceries
through the countryside, sleeping in barn lofts at night, and when he had
sold the goods he returned to Charlotte for another load. Like Latta and
Herndon, Leroy Springs prospered and moved into merchandising. In 1895 he
took the profits from his mercantile company (the largest store between Charlotte
and Atlanta) and built the Lancaster Cotton Mills. Springs eventually controlled
mills in Fort Mill, Chester and Kershaw as well as Lancaster. He is another
example of a shrewd, ambitious young man who started as a peddler and became
wealthy. Over time, country stores dotted the countryside. Gradually,
opportunities for peddlers diminished but they did not completely disappear
until sometime in the first quarter of this century. Bessie Rodgers Pettus,
91, of Indian Land in upper Lancaster County, remembers that when she was
a small girl, "Mr. Jack Ashley had a wagon with shelves built around the
sides and a top on the wagon. It was pulled by one mule. Built in the outside
were chicken coops ready for the chickens he traded. He also traded cloth,
needles, pins, buttons and thread for eggs. Mr. Jack lifted me up so that
I could see the cloth. I picked out white eyelet.
YORK COUNTY PEACHES AND GRAPES
York County has always been "good country" for the growing of peaches and
grapes. The first settlers reported that the Indians served them stewed peaches
and old plats and deeds occasionally show an area marked "orchard". The Catawba
grape, found growing wild in this area, was of such high quality that migrating
pioneers carried root stock with them and propagated the choice purple grape
all across the eastern United States. By the early 1800s many of the plantation
owners had well-established orchards of a wide variety of fruit trees and
grape vines. Before cold storage and canneries, the farmer either grew his
own or did without. Over time, the growers discovered from experience which
were the best varieties, the best types of soil, and how to make their orchards
most productive. By 1858, the Southern Pomological Society had been formed
by leading growers. This society was an outgrowth of York District's Indian
Land Society, an agricultural society, whose major officers were Andrew B.
Springs, D. D. Moore and S. S. Elam. The Southern Pomological Society met
in Charlotte, N. C. on November 4, 1858. The convention was chaired by Maj.
A. B. Springs of Fort Mill District. Permanent officers elected were: Dr.
W. R. Wylie of Chester District, president; Richard Austin Springs, who lived
on Springsteen plantation near Rock Hill, vice president; with A. B. Springs
a member of the executive committee. The Yorkville Enquirer in 1858 wrote
about A. B. Springs: "Major Springs is the most assiduous cultivator of fine
fruit in the whole country, and can boast of an orchard of the rarest and
most delicious fruits. His selections of stock are from the nurseries of
the South, and constitute much of the variety that produce through the entire
fruit season." The newspaper article concluded that Andrew Springs' fruit
cultivation had two major benefits.beyond the enjoyment of eating the fruit.
His orchard was also an "agreeable pastime" and his neighbors gave him their
"kind gratulations" for his generosity in sharing his fruits. The York Enquirer,
August 18, 1859, reported that Capt. Simril of York had a "grapery more
luxuriantly and practically beautiful than a dozen flower-gardens". The newspaper
pronounced York District's climate as nearly perfect for the growing of the
vine. The Enquirer also noted that the district was a strong temperance area
with a thriving "cold-water army." The paper suggested that: "By way of
encouragement, suppose our Temperance friends (who rule the ranche) incorporate
into their pledge a special exemption to those who get drunk on wine of their
own manufacture." During the Civil War, Jonathan L. Sutton, who lived on
Turkey Creek, regularly advertised his distillery. Under the headline, "GRAPES,
GRAPES", Sutton instructed, "Gather all you can and bring them to me, and
I will distill them for one third of the spirits....I will give $1 per bushel
for persimmons--to 500 bushels to be delivered to the distillery." Sutton
later stated that the persimmons ran 12 bushels to the barrel. Presumably
Sutton was manufacturing for a local supply but some of his persimmon and
peach brandy may have made its way to the soldiers in Virginia. Letters home
often thanked parents and friends for the "fruit of the vine" and doctors
often prescribed any type of alcohol as a pain-killer. During the Civil War
many of the orchards and vineyards were neglected. They had been luxuries
prior to the war but afterwards there was little spare cash to spend in restoring
them. In the 1920s there was a revival of interest in peach growing. The
prices paid by Northern markets were tempting. Elliott White Springs, grandson
of Maj. Andrew Baxter Springs, after being fired from his cotton mill job
by his father, decided to combine a writing career and farming. One of his
efforts was directed at establishing commercial peach orchards. By the 1950s
Elliott Springs was selling 25 varieties of peaches and nectarines to New
York markets and getting top prices. The Springs peach orchards are still
flourishing and so are a lot of other good orchards across the county. Going
out to the orchards and picking your own fresh fruit or stopping at a
neighborhood peach stand is a York County tradition of long standing. May
it continue.
OLD TURNER HOMESTEAD
About the year 1930, a York County pre-Revolutionary War log house in the
Bethel section was turned into a "Memorial Room" to display items and tools
used by pioneer settlers of the area. People from all over North and South
Carolina came to see the relics. Among the items on display were a corn-sheller,
spinning wheel and yarn reel and several guns, all homemade. The builder
of the cabin back in 1776, Robert Turner, was a blacksmith who also made
all of the hasps, nails and hinges for the house. Turner's "tooth-puller"
was on display. Actually, the dental appliance was no more than a gimlet
with a hook branching off to one side. After the hook was placed around the
tooth, the handle was turned. This instrument was used locally until after
the Civil War. There were spools beds, a trundle bed and a set of 150-year-old
dishes. Candle molds, snuffers, a wheat sieve and long-handled waffle irons
testified to a way of life that was long past. Other items put out for display
were old letters, tax receipts, doctor bills, an 1800 blacksmith bill, and
an 1842 account of three bales of cotton taken to Charleston where they were
sold for 8 and 3/8 cents a pound. There was a "doctor book" used by several
ladies of the household who prescribed not only for themselves but for the
neighborhood. The opium box of one of the ladies was a reminder of the days
when opium poppies were grown locally. The house itself was so interesting
that James Stanhope Love, a newspaper columnist from Clover who was known
as "Ben Hope," wrote a small 25 cent book to describe it. The log house was
a story and a half with the second floor used only as one huge storage area.
Originally there were three rooms downstairs but sometime before the Civil
War the cabin was enlarged by the additon of two rooms in back and a piazza
was built on the front. The square notched logs were chinked with a mortar
made of water, lime and "finely sifted wheat straw." The original mortar
was still intact. In 1932 the heart of pine floors and doors were still in
excellent condition. The roof, always of hand split oaken shingles, had been
replaced a number of times. The huge rock fireplace was the major attraction.
Love described the fireplace as so wide that two people could place their
chairs on each side and lean back against the rock sides to enjoy the fire.
A man could stand upright in the fireplace; only if very tall would he need
to bend his head. There was a little recess in the rock wall that measured
8 by 10 inches which was intended to hold tobacco and pipes. An iron rod
for iron kettles and pots crossed the chimney. Several iron hooks, stout
enough to support a roasting deer, were anchored in the rock. The rock of
the fireplace was supported by a mantel or "fireboard" that was cut 16 inches
square from a huge oak. The chimney itself was so wide that people could
sit below and see the stars. In fact, said Love, the seats beside the fire
were good places to read and sew during the summer. More light came in the
chimney than in the small hand-made panes of glass in the windows. Typical
of pioneer days, there was not likely to be a living room or formal "sitting
room." The huge room of the Turner house that contained the fireplace was
where most of the family activities took place. While food cooked in the
kettles or baked on slabs of wood near the fire, the women might be weaving
or quilting by the light from the fireplace. The Turner house also displayed
a quilting frame annd flax hackles. The hackles were boards studded with
sharp spikes with which to break up the tough reeds that were the source
of linen cloth. While potatoes roasted and corn cakes baked on wooden planks,
the children played or recited their lessons. In the Turner case, a schoolmaster
was boarded in the household. The last people to live in the "Memorial Room"
were J. G. A. Turner, his wife, son and nephew. When Turner build a more
modern home for himself, he decided to share his family treasures with the
world.
OGDEN JINGLES
Ogden, a rural community south of Rock Hill, was the home of A. L. Neely
in the early part of this century. Neely wrote folksy poetry about his home,
school, church, family and, more than anything, about farm life. In 1925
the State Publishing Company published Neely's writings in a slim book titled,
"Ogden Jingles." Neely made no attempt to disguise Ogden or its people. One
of his poems was called, "Ogden Crop News." It was written one especially
wet spring when it rained so much that the farmers' fields were soggy and
grassy. Part of the poem went this way: "Pearson's grass grows long and green
Betchler's grows cockleburs, Garrison, and Sims grass have met And crawled
across the rows. ....Strait and Nuson, Smith, and Kidd, Are soldiers brave
and true. They face grass with dauntless grit, Like heroes always do." Neely
recalled Ogden's first school, called Mineral Spring School, a one room log
affair that had vanished by 1925 but was remembered as sitting in a field
covered with cowslips and daisies. The children of Mineral Spring School
delighted in playing Goosy Goosy Gander, Ring Around the Rosy and other such
group play. He recounted their names as McFadden, Kidd, Byres, Dunlap, Isom,
McKants, Bookout, Percival, Parish, Evans, Moore, Strait, Duncan, Bates and
Neely. "Our teachers teach, our preachers preach Where once the savage stood
Through thick and thin they're fighting sin And they are doing good." A rare
bit of history was recorded by Neely in a short essay in which he gives the
history of Antioch Methodist Church. The account was pieced together from
"scraps of pages from the original church register over forty years ago.
These records fell into the hands of the writer about 1910...." Antioch Methodist
Church was founded by Rev. J. Marion Boyd, who served the Rock Hill circuit.
In 1878 he set up the church because there was no Methodist church near.
"He saw in this Black Jack Valley what appeared to be almost a wilderness
with a family living here and there in log dwellings, and it was in these
log houses that Rev. Boyd started a work that resulted in building Antioch."
The private homes used for the first services were those of Thadeus K. Bates
and James H. Kidd during the months of March, April and May, 1878. In June
the Methodists built a brush arbor. In August, 18 men brought their axes
and began chopping down trees for the first church building. Not much had
to be bought. Even the roof covering was oak split on the grounds. The total
cash expense of building the church was $255.10. The records showed that
51 people contributed money but that 3 men contributed most of the money:
Ferguson H. Barber, Arnold Friedheim of Rock Hill, and W. B. Byers. The church
was completed and dedicated by Reverend Boyd September 29, 1878. Neely said
it would be "hard indeed to estimate the good socially and morally that has
resulting from the building of Antioch." Neely's poems were printed in the
Weekly Newsletter of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, in the Woodman's
maagine, "Sovereign Visitor," and in the Weekly Fairfax Enterprise. One of
the most amusing poems was titled "Tax Returning Time" which ends this way:
"His fertile soil is very deep Many feet to the clay He never said his land
was cheap Until returning day."
OAK RIDGE SCHOOL & WINTHROP
Early one Saturday morning in October 1915, a dozen farmers were hard at
work on the grounds around a small rural schoolhouse. They mowed, sodded
bluegrass, cleared underbrush, cut out trees and stacked the wood in a neat
pile. Inside the school, farm wives scrubbed and polished every inch of the
building. While the work went on, a big pot of soup bubbled on the stove.
All the women had brought something for the soup they would serve at noon
to all those who had worked to beautify the building and its grounds. The
work was part of a project taken on by the Oak Ridge Community, a few miles
outside Rock Hill on the Chester highway. Family names included Steele, Faires
and Patterson. In the afternoon, their children and others held meetings
of their clubs. The older girls and some of the women were members of the
Bread Club. The younger girls belonged to a Tomato Club and the boys had
their choice of belonging to either the Corn Club or Pig Club. These activities
stemmed from a school improvement movement that originated in Maine in 1898
and spread from there to different sections of the country. The first school
improvement association in the South was begun in Richmond by a woman's club.
Winthrop College's first president and a former school superintendent, David
Bancroft Johnson, heard about the Richmond work and investigated. He was
impressed by it and the work of the North Carolina Betterment Association.
In 1902, Johnson organized the South Carolina Association for the Improvement
of Schools. Members of Winthrop's senior class were the first members. They
met as study groups to address the particular problems of rural schools.
With an almost missionary fervor, the girls pledged to seek positions in
communities that needed the leadership skills they had learned as a part
of their teacher training. In 1904 the organization adopted a new name, The
South Carolina School Improvement Association. It was composed of Winthrop
faculty and the college's graduating classes of 1903 and 1904. Any white
woman who wished to join was eligible. By 1910 the membership was more than
10,000 statewide with clubs in every county. There were no club dues; only
service was required. Each woman was required to do one thing during the
year that improved a school district. At this time four out of five South
Carolina schools were rural. The association issued pamphlets and made
suggestions for improvement.The Oak Ridge group clearing the grounds and
scrubbing the building were following one of the major lines of improvement.
The corn, tomato and bread clubs were another type of improvement. The
association also stressed better pupil attendance, building up school libraries,
consolidating schools, and initiating local taxation to provide a sound financial
base. The clubs were expected to make the schools the intellectual center
of the community, but they did not forget recreation. At Oak Ridge every
Friday evening the whole family would gather with their neighbors to hear
a talk that was intended to improve the quality of life and then would play
games, sing and dance. The enthusiasm of the Oak Ridge community for school
improvement ran high. Farmers plowed and manured a large acreage for the
school garden that Winthrop recommended as essential to a good rural school
curriculum. The community had bazaars and box suppers to raise money to equip
a modern kitchen for the school. Oak Ridge School added rooms and space enough
for two Winthrop College student teachers and for their supervising teacher
when she visited. The famed Hetty Browne, considered by the U. S. Department
of Education to be the nation's leading authority on rural education, was
the Winthrop supervisor and Oak Ridge became one of her "model schools" in
1915. Educators from all over the United States came to see Mrs. Browne's
Farm School (on Winthrop's back campus) and some of them took the trouble
to ride one of the farm wagons out to the Oak Ridge School or a companion
school, the India Hook School at the junction of Mount Gallant and India
Hook Roads.
SALLY NEW RIVER
Witty and shrewd, she had the ability to gain the admiration of an assortment
of people including her fellow Indians, an eminent architect, a college
professor, and the Scotch-Irish settlers of her neighborhood. Known as Sally,
or "Aunt Sally" in her old age, she was born near the Horseshoe Bend of Sugar
Creek, a tributary of the Catawba River, sometime around the year 1745. Her
mother was most likely the daughter of the famed King Haigler, best known
of all the Catawba chiefs. Her father was Matthew Toole, a white man of
considerable skills who was a representative of the South Carolina Council,
trader, soldier, and interpreter (or "linguister"). Tools Fork, a York County
stream was named for him. Not much is known of Sally's youth. She managed
to survive the severe smallpox epidemic of 1759, probably unscathed, since
she was described as "beautiful" in youth. She was a spectator, in 1760,
when the British red coats built the North Carolina fort at present-day Fort
Mill. She learned to speak English "pretty well." In 1763, with the Treaty
of Augusta, the Catawbas signed a treaty guaranteeing them 144,000 acres,
an area 15 miles square, in what is now portions of York, Lancaster and Chester
counties. Sally married Gen. New River whose real name he refused to divulge
preferring to be called "New River" for a West Virginia battle in which he
gained distinction by killing the chief of the Shawnee tribe. In the American
Revolution, New River, recently made chief of the Catawbas, and already an
old man, served with 40 other Catawba warriors under Gen. William R. Davie
of Thomas Sumter's forces. In 1780 the feared British Gen. Lord Cornwallis'
forces threatened the Catawba reservation after the defeat of Gates of Camden.
New River led the Catawba women and children, a group that undoubtedly included
Sally, to Virginia to stay with a friendly tribe. When the Catawbas returned
from their exile they found their villages destroyed and livestock vanished.
New towns were built further up the river. Apparently New River and Sally
lived at a town called Turkey Head in Lancaster County. Sally New River,
as queen, was entitled to wear a distinctive silver eagle ornament around
her neck. Like most Catawbas, she probably also wore a silver nose ring.
A favorite frontier story involved Sally and a newly arrived Irishman who
feared snakes above all else. According to the story, on a cold, snowy night
in a frontier tavern, Sally shared an Indian "secret" for subduing snakes.
She advised that a long limber pole be cut and carried and, if a snake should
pop out, he would be so frightened he would pop back in his hole. One can
imagine the glee with which the frontier people circulated the story about
the Irishman, at the instigation of Sally New River, carrying a long pole
through the blizzard. Sally New River's shrewdness is evidenced in several
ways. As Professor Blackburn of South Carolina College told the story, Sally
with other Catawbas, was shown a magnetic compass. The professor played a
trick on the Indians by also having a small penknife in his hand, thus moving
the needle. When the professor challenged his audience to do the same, Sally
first attempted to move the needle with a stick and then, spying the professor's
knife, brought out her flint and showed the professor she could not be easily
misled. More significant than the incident with the compass was Sally's foresight
in reserving an area of about 550 acres of prime river land in Lancaster
County still known as King's Bottoms. She reserved the area for "Sally New
River her with other women of the Ntion themselves their heirs successors,
or assigns forever . . . " She had the document signed by Gen. New River,
other head men of the tribe, and by four of the state-appointed land
commissioners in the year 1796. The deed was recorded in the Lancaster Court
House in 1808, four years after the death of Gen. New River. A child of two
very different cultures, this "remarkable personage," as Robert Mills described
her, died in the winter of 1818-19 in her primitive cabin at Turkey Head
on the banks of the Catawba River in present-day Indian Land township.
NATION FORD TREATY OF 1840
The South Carolina legislature passed a bill in 1993, signed by Governor
Carl Campbell, that, in effect, revoked the Nation Ford Treaty of 1840 made
between Catawba Indians and leaseholders. In her book, The Catawba Indians
- The People of the River, which was published in 1966, Douglas Summers Brown
titled a chapter "The Last Treaty - 1840." Mrs. Brown fixed the site of the
Nation Ford Treaty as on the west side of the Catawba River in York County
at a place generally known as the Cross Roads, about one mile above the ford.
It was close to the spot where many years later Hamiliton Carhartt would
construct a textile village known as Red River. In that area in earlier days
were an inn and a few houses. Until the railroad was constructed, the Cross
Roads was the spot for people to wait until flood waters subsided and allowed
them to cross the river. It was at the Cross Roads on March 13, 1840 that
the Catawba Indians, represented by their chief, Gen. James Kegg, and other
"head men" of the tribe, Col. David Harris, Maj. John Joe, Capt William "Billy"
George, and Capt. Philip Kegg placed their marks on the treaty. J. D. P.
Currence signed for Col. Samuel Scott, and H. T. Massey signed for Lt. Allen
Harris. A number of leaseholders were present and were represented by five
commissioners appointed by the South Carolina governor, Patrick Noble. The
five men, all found to be acceptable to the Indians, each held leases on
more than a thousand acres of Catawba land. The five commissioners were John
Springs (1782-1853), David Hutchison (1767-1845), Edward Avery (1792-1863)
, Benjamin S. Massey (1785-1854), and Allen Morrow (1799-1883). Three of
the commisioners were from York District - John Springs of the Fort Mill
area, David Hutchison, who lived close to the Cross Roads, and Edward Avery
of the village of Ebenezer. Benjamin S. Massey and Allen Morrow both had
land on Twelve Mile Creek in Lancaster District's Indian Land. Only the youngest,
Allen Morrow, had been born in the Catawba Indian Land. John Springs was
born in the Providence community of Mecklenburg County, N. C. David Hutchison
was born in County Antrim, Ireland and came to the Waxhaws in 1773, moving
with his widowed mother to York sometime after the Revolutionary War. Col.
Edward Avery was born in Virginia. Benjamin Sykes Massey was born in the
Waxhaws, just below the Catawba Indian boundary. Gen. James Kegg, chief of
the Catawbas, was a full-blooded Indian and nephew of the famed Catawba queen,
Sally New River. He asked the commissioners to give him the money to buy
the land promised in the treaty and the title in his name but neither the
commissioners nor the other Indians were willing. However, Kegg was willing
to be taxed by the state and to be subject to the state laws and "entitled
to the privileges and immunities of citizens." Kegg died in 1853, about 68
years of age. In July 1840, four months after the signing of the Nation Ford
Treaty, citizens of the Indian Land met again and sent a "Memorial" to the
state legislature urging the acceptance of the treaty. The committee that
wrote the memorial were Rev. Archibald Whyte, who lived at the Cross Roads,
J. S. Sitgraves, Richard Austin Springs, A. S. Starr and James Moore. They
included a report of the Indian commissioners on the current status of the
Catawbas, then 88 in number. The state legislature agreed to the terms of
the treaty in December 1840. The treaty set aside the Treaty of Augusta of
1763 which had determined the boundary lines of 15 miles square, promised
the Indians a tract of land in Haywood County, N. C. valued at $5,000, and
a sum of $2,500 when they moved to North Carolina, plus $1,500 each year
for 9 years. There were 508 land surveys following the treaty which were
necessary for the former leaseholders to get state grants of the land. It
took 17 years, at the rate of one-half cent per acre tax, for the former
leaseholders to pay off the $2500, plus interest, promised to the Indians
by the state. The leaseholders kept their part of the bargain but the State
of South Carolina was not able to get the North Carolina land as promised
the Catawbas. Worse, the state never attempted to renegotiate a treaty that
could be sent to the U. S. Congress for ratification as required by law.
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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