Reminiscences of Christenberry Lee, 1823-1895

              LEE.
REMINISCENCES
OF
CHRISTENBERRY LEE
1823 1895
iv
H0RTH CAROLINA STATE LIBRARY
RALEIGH
GENEALOGY VERTICAL FILE
IV
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REMINISCENCES
OF
CHRISTENBERRY LEE
1823 1895
NORTH CAROLINA STATE LIBRARY
RALEIGH
GENEALOGY VERTICAL FILE
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LUlr
mmLtary of North Carolina
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"THE REMINISCENCES OF REV. CRISTENBERRY LEE",
contained herein, were published serially in
The Forest Pity Courier. Forest City, N.O.
,
from October 6, 193& to January 19th, 1939,
inclusive.
Clarence Griffin
Forest City, N.O
NORTH CAROLINA STATE LIBRART
RALEIGH
GENEALOGY VERTICAL FILE
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013
http://archive.org/details/reminiscencesofcOOclar
COURIER TO PRINT 1895.
IATE REV. CRIS LEEi-MMZSSd copy of the manuscript has been'
The original manuscript of this I
valuable series of reminiscences iS !
Much Autobiographical Hia- I feff "" f
°7
Printing-
torical anH ^,
aPn,Cal
'. ",S
*j
T
In a foreword to the sketches, Mr. "jricai and Genealogical Lee said:
Data in Manuscript by "Some persons, doubtless, will say
Methodist Minister !
Hat * have written some things that
i
1 had better not, while others will I
.
Beginning, next week The Courier 2? ^L* Sh°ald have written some
will, over a period of about three^I
J haVe n0t But * beg
months, publish the reminiscences of ' I * may be disposed to cri«-
the late Christenberry Lee beloved u°
M lenient as Possible, re-
Methodist minister of RutSord ^"T ^ ™ a Work of this
^unty. This manuscript covers
' S° "^ persons are '
roughly the period from the year of /
ment,oned and written about, that it
the minister's birth in 1823 to the j
C °Uld hardly be expected that we
date of writing in 1895. J should say exactly what everybody Mr Lee crowded much material of .would have us »y, or that we should
The Harrill, Bedford, Durham '] W°uld suit the ta*te and please the
Haynes, Suttle and Hollifield fami-faMy
of everyone. I have not pleas-lies
are particularly well treated, ed mysejf,, for I have written some
e
m
alotes
PaCe **"*^*° th6ir^I***"
that l WOuld mucb ra^' not]
Rev. Christenberry Lee was born
j J"?.^^ 1 ^ * Wf°ld ^ m Rutherford county on March 31, ™ VleW: irst
' to eA^' second,
1823, and died on July 2, 1896, at l
t0 beneflt- Knowledge that i s not
the age of 73 years. He is buried at |
beneficial is not worth giving nor
HenriettT
Meth°diSt ChUrCh
'
nearf^™*" Therefore, whilst I have.
.This series of reminiscences were I**"
6" hiSt°ry "* """^ paSt
'
commenced in January, 1895, while j
events
'
l have a]so tried to make
he was visiting his niece, Mrs Mil- |
Se narrations in such a way that'
dred Biggerstaff, at Sunshine.' Part |
they W°Uld haV® a good moral Jnflu-
''
of the manuscript was given to The I
enCe Up°n the reader- Now I send.
Forest City Ledger shortly after- r"S f°rth
'
n0t WUh the beHef' nor
wards, and the articles met with such '
eV6n the h°pe' that everybody will
enthusiastic response he was urged to
write more. The Ledger then print-ed
a series, of articles from Mr. Lee's
pen in many of its issues throughout
be pleased, but with a conscience void
of offense toward all men, for cer-tainly
I have not intended to offend'
anyone.
From; THE FOREST CITY COURIER
SEPTEMBER 29, 1938
CHAPTER ONE
(The Lee reminiscences ap-peared
in part in The Forest
City Ledger during 1895. The,
original manuscript, from which
this series is taken, picks up
events from a former chapter
in which current news and per-sonalities
were discussed.)
j
The readers of my reminiscences
were left last week in my grand-mother
Bedford's apple - orchard
tasting the various kinds of deli-cious
fruits that grew there, but I
failed to mention one of the differ-ent
kinds of apples that was found
there, and which was, to my taste,
the nicest flavor among them all.
We had no special name for it, and
as one of the trees stood very near
the smokehouse cousin Cynthia and
myself called it the ".smokehouse
apple." It was of medium size, of
red color and in shape very much
like, the green pippen. I think its
proper name was limber-twig. It
was certainly a choice apple, hut I
will not keep you longer in the old
orchard, though I could linger here
for sometime yet and not become
tired, for I have not yet offered you
a drink of the sweet cider that was
pressed from the thoroughly mashed
apples of different kinds, for my
uncle thought the cider was better
and of a richer color when it was
made from apples of different var-ieties,
so he would gather the fruit
from several different trees and mix
them in a large trough, which had
been nicely dug from a poplar tree,
and oh, what nice cider we did have!
Just here is a part of my life I
would be willing to live over, and
have, a good, old-fashioned drink of
sweet, newly-made cider right fresh
from the trough, but I will not fur-ther
tantalize the taste and appe-tite
of the reader.s of this article by
talking about good things, such as
we had in times of yore. I am now
getting pretty close to High Shoals,
for this old orchard place is only a
half-mile up the creek from High
j Shoals was, and where Henrietta is,
and so I will necessarily have to pass
the "old High Shoals" in getting to
the ne,w place called "Henrietta,"
and while I am passing' this old his-toric
place I must stop and gaze a
little while. There is no place in
Western North Carolina more noted
for its water-power than High Shoals
in Rutherford county. Many have I
been the prediction,1
? made in regard
to the vast amount of machinery that
would be put in motion here some
day, and those ancient prophecies are
now being wonderfully fulfilled. The
command of the Bible is, "not to
despise the day of small things." The
beginning at High Shoals was small,
but it was a beginning, and from the
most reliable information that I have
been able to gather this small be-ginning
was in the year 1790, one
hundred and five years ago. And
what was it? There, was a lively con-test
for a premium consisting of a
nice body of land, offered by the
Government to the party that should
manufacture the first plough mould
for agricultural purposes in Ruther-ford
county. There were two men
that entered the field as contestants
for the prize, Isaac English at
Tumbling Shoals and Peter Fisher
at High Shoals. The struggle grew
very spirited and was the general
topic of conversation among the peo-ple.
English, who was operating at
Tumbling Shoals, saw that he was
likely to be outstripped by Fisher at
High Shoals, so he began to look for
a nigh cut, by which he might gain
the prize, and he found it, which lay
along this route—he made a pur-chase
of three pairs of the common
bellows used by the blacksmith and
by a concentration of their forces
he succeeded in getting up a heat
sufficient to melt his ores, and when
melted and run into a solid mass he
drew it from the fire, pounded it
awhile with a wooden mallet, then
placed it on hi,s anvil and with the
hammer held in his own hand, and
the aid of two others of a larger
size wielded by two athletic men,
whose arms were well practiced in
this kind of manly exercise, beat it
out into a well shaped plough mould,
which he presented to the Govern-ment
officials, and drew the, prize.
The number of acres received by
English by this crafty (and may I
not say?) fraudulent act, I cannot
.state definitely, but my opinion is
that it was five hundred and fifty
acres. Just where this land was lo-j
cated I cannot say positively, but
my impression is that it was just be-low
the High Shoals on the East side
of the river. I believe the same land
was afterward owned by John Han-
| ey, and is still known as the old
I Haney tract of land. It may be, that
I English sold to Haney, for I have
! it from tradition that English did not
j remain in the country many years
j after the occurence of the incident
I above credited. Public sentiment was
somewhat against him, as it was con-sidered
that he had obtained the
' premium fraudulently, so he aban-
Idoned his enterprise and pretty soon
| left the country.
! Peter Fisher was still driving
ahead at High Shoals, and although
he felt considerably put out by los-ing
the prize offered by the Govern-ment
yet he did not abandon his
work nor feel greatly discouraged,
but with renewed energy and in-crea.
sed determination he worked on,
feeling assured by the many advan-tages,
which he had and the pressing
demand there was for such an in-dustry
and enterprise as the one in
which he was engaged, that his labor
would not be in vain. Sometime in
the year 1791, the "big hammer" at
the High Shoals began to beat, but
from what I was an eye-witnass to
thirty years later on I feel author-ized
to say that its beats were not
only weak, but few and far between,
]
but it was a beginning. These estab-!
lishments were then called forges.
J
The number of them in the country;
were very small. I think the High
Shoals Iron Works were the fir.st of
the kind that were started in this
section of the country. In the upper
part of South Carolina in York and
Spartanburg counties (districts .as
they were then called), some manu-factories
of the same kind were, es-tablished
a few year.s later, but from
the most reliable data that I have
been able to command the old High
Shoals Forge was the. only one start-ed
as early as the eighteenth cen-tury.
In the early part of the nine-teenth
century the South Carolina
Iron Works were established, the
first of which was known as the "Old
Cowpens Furnace." Here they made
what was called "pig-iron"; they also
had a foundry and moulded a great
deal of pot-ware, supplying the sur-rounding
country with cooking ves-sels.
I well remember how my oldest
brother, James Raimond, used to
peddle on pot-ware made at the,
Cowpens furnace. He would tarry
load after load up into the moun-tains
and barter them off for moun-tain
produce, which he would carry
back to the, furnace and exchange
z ior more pot-war.', keeping what
money he might receive for his ware
in his pocket as the net profit of his
business. The South Carolina Manu-facturing
Company about the year
1815 commenced business at a place
called Hurricane Shoals on Pacolet
River, s.yen miles East of Spartan-burg
C. H. This company manufac-tured
nails, had a foundry and roll-ing
mill and dealt in iron generally,!
but I am getting too far away from
High Shoals, as that is the place I
am writing up. I have stated that
this i,s the place, where iron was
first made in this part of the coun-try,
and that the beginning was in
the last decade of the eighteenth
century. I have also stated that the
beginning was a small thing, but I
use. the adjective, or qualifying term
"small" in a comparative sense and
not in the abstract ^ense, for if the
beginning made at the High Shoals
in 1791 be abstractly considered it
could not be called small. It was a
big thing for the time and country,
and I have no doubt but the excite-ment
in the country and the interest
felt among the people in 1791 when
the Iron Works were being built at
the High Shoals were equally as
great as they were in 1887 when the
21,000 spindle cotton mill was start-ed
at Henrietta.
CHAPTER TWO
Peter Fisher has now started his
forge with two fire-places ,in which
he melted his ores. He used mostly
what was called red ore, which was
dug out of the surrounding hills
where it was found in great abund-ance.
This kind of ore was hard to
work. A very high degree of heat was
required to fuse it and much ham-mering
to get it in shape, but when
well worked it made good tough
iron, well adapted to agricultural
purposes. The first hammermen em-ployed
in this forge were by the
names of White and Bradly. These
men were employed by Fisher for a
number of years. I think they work-ed
for him as long as he continued
business at this place. About the
year 1812, while Jackson's war was
going on, Fisher failed in business
and hi s works were sold. Just at this
time the. country was passing through
a fearful financial crisis, and as
money was scarce and hard to raise
the new iron works sold very low,
bringing, as I remember to have
heard my father and mother say,
only about one-half of their actual
cost. They were bought by Reuben
Cooper, a man of very little energy
or business talent, but strictly hon-est
and high-toned. I well remember
"Uncle Reuben," as we aTl called
him, when I was a boy. He lived right
near my father's house for some
years and would often pass there in
going to his son William's. He was a
very poor man, having no home or,
personal property of any kind, and
!
I remember to have heard it said,
when his poverty would be talked |
of by the people, that he once own-ed
the High Shoals Iron Works, but
he ran them only a short time and
they were sold again. They were
bought this time by Achilles Dur-ham,
and here I reach a point in my
reminiscences and a part of my his-tory,
in which many will feel a spe-cial
interest. The man whose name I
have just mentioned was one of the
most noted characters in the coun-try.
He had studied law when a
young man, but had never gone to
the bar as a practitioner. His know-ledge
of law was said to be equal, if
not superior, to the ablest lawyers
that came to the Rutherford bar, and
I remember to have heard it said
thajt even the judges would confer
with him and seek his counsel in re-gard
to difficult points in the legal
profession. He was a man that stood
among the people as did Saul of old.
He was said to be the most popular
man in the country, and in. proof of
which I would mention one circum-stance,
which occurred, I believe, in
the year 1835. (1834—Editor). Jo-seph
Carson, a man of the first or-der
of talents and of high standing
among the people, had represented
the county in the upper house of the
Legislature for some years and had
given, so far as I remember, entire
satisfaction to his constituents, but
in some way he had given offense to
this man, Achilles Durham. Carson
was a lawyer and is the same man I
have mentioned of that name in some
of my early reminiscences. He rank-ed
with such men as Mike Hoke and
John Gray Bynum in his profession.
Durham's legal knowledge was equal,
perhaps, to that of Carson's, but
Carson had the advantage of him in
that he was a regular practitioner
at the bar, and when employed in a
case against Durham he took such
'a stand and used such language as
(highly offended him. He now be-jcame
his sworn enemy and declared
I that Joe Carson should no longer be
| Senator from Rutherford county. But
now, how is this gigantic undertaking
to be accomplished? For it certainlyi
was a big undertaking to beat old
Joe Carson, but Durham undertook
the job. He was a great organizer.j
He could take a small lorce and so
organize and place it as to bring
forth the most wonderful results. He 1
now begins to devise plans for de-feating
Carson in the next election,
but he could find no man of notor-iety
who was willing to undertake
the task and come out as his com-petitor.
He finally however, succeed-ed
in persuading Berryman Dur-ham,
whom I think was his youngtst
brother, to become a candidate. This
young man was entirely unknown by
the people, having just grown up,
and had not been before them for
any office. He was looked upon and
regarded by the people as an ordi-nary
young man, not rating above
mediocrity in point of natural en-dowments.
There was nothing, so far
as the people could see, to make his
election at all probable, but he was|
elected by a very handsome majority,
and it was his. brother's influence
coupled with his powers for organ-izing,
that secured his election. Ach-illes
knew all the prominent and
most influential men in the country
and he either went to see or wrote
to them and got them well organized
into an electioneering body, and by
this strategy he accomplished the big
job he had undertaken and beat old
Joe Carson.
Some years before his purchase of
the iron works he had bought a body
of land on the West side of the
river right opposite the shoals. The
forge, when he bought it, had but two
fireplaces, but he soon added the
third one and the building of thi.s
third fireplace was the cause of a
suit in court that lasted about fifty
years. A man by the name of
Ross owned the land on the river be-low
the iron works and he claimed
that his line ran through the forge,
and cornered on a little island outj
in the shoals and that this third fire-place
was on his side of the line. He
commenced suit, which was not clos-ed
'till the place was bought by John
and George Baxter about a half cen-tury
later. My personal knowledge
of the High Shoals Iron Works com-menced
three score years ago. It was
then owned by Achilles Durham and
had been run by him for a num-ber
of years. At the time of which
I now speak there were three fire-places
in full blast. Five men, as well
as I remember, were all that were
employed to run these three fire-
places. Three hammermen, one coal-bearer
and one to attend to the ore
beater, which consisted of a small
iron pestle making about three beats
a minute. The first hammermen have
now given place to their sons, George
White, Jr., and Tarn Bradly, Jr. Dur-ham
was the owner of a good many
slaves for that time and part of the
country, among them were two very
stout men, Jubilee (Jube) and Coon.
Jube wag the ore-master and Coon
the coal-bearer. The third hammer-man
was Henry (Hal) Bradly. He
was a brother of Tom's. The nation-ality
of the Bradly family was not
fully defined. It was well understood
that they did not belong to the An-glo-
Saxon race. The ancestors of the
family claimed to be full-blooded In-dians.
The first one of the family,
of whom I have any recollection, was
old Aunt Winney, who had in her
features some very striking marks
of the Indian, race. She lived to be
very old and finally committed sui-
1
cide by hanging herself in the chim-ney
corner, by fastening a hank of
thread around the pole, to which the
pot-rack hung. This pole was several
feet up the chimney, but there wer.e
some projecting rocks, upon which
she could place her feet and reach
it. It was supposed that she first tied
the hank of thread around her neek,
and then placed her feet upon these
projecting rocks, climbed up the
chimney till she could reach the pot-rack
pole, around which she. fasten-ed
the hank of thread and then
swung off. This took place in the
darkness of the night when the fam-ily
were asleep. The old home in
which this tragedy occurred, stood
on the hill just a little piece from
the big spring between Henrietta
No. 1 and No. 2. The house in which
Craig Lovelace now lives stands very
near the spot on which this old house
stood. Well do I remember how we
children used to dread passing this
place on our way to school. In tak-ing
a little stroll the other morning
with Squire James Simmons, I pass-ed
by this tragic place. I could linger
for awhile, and take a retrospective
view. What a wonderful faculty of
'the mind is memory. How quickly it
j carries us over space and time and
permits us to look upon scenes that
transpired in our early childhood
!
Nothing has escaped that was ever
planted in the mind, and how easy it
is for us to think of events and for
things to come vividly before the
mind that took place in the "long
ago!" What force is in the word
"remember!" Its power is two-fold
in its results. It sometimes and in
some cases brings great joy and
peace, while at other times and in
other cases it brings bitter remorse
and profound sorrow of mind and
soul. With what awful force did it
fall upon the care of the rich man,
of whom we have an account in ths
Gospel, when Abraham said to him,
"Son, remember that thou in thy
lifetime hadst good things and
Lazarus his evil things, but now he
is comforted and thou art torment-ed!"
This great attribute of the hu-man
mind is not lost at death, but is
carried with us into the future world,
for it is evident that the rich man,
by the exercise of this wonderful
faculty, could think of and look at
what had taken place in this world, 1
and I am ready to conclude that this
will be the greatest source of an-guish
and remorse in the world of
lost spirits. When neglected oppor-tunities,
slighted mercies, despised
privileges and unimproved advan-tages
all pass with panoramic review
before the mind of those, who have
been eternally doomed to the fires
ofj destruction, oh, how greatly will
their mf§6ry and sufferings be aug-mented!
Memory, oh, thou eternal
attribute of man's immortal nature,
how often has it been wished that
thou couldst be forever obliterated i
and eternally blotted out.
CHAPTER THREE
the same power" and turning out its
forty thousand yards of nice smooth
cloth dally. If I had the talefit or
gift for contrasting I would like to
exercise it just here a little while.
Contrast means an examination of
differences. Contrast High Shoals
with Henrietta. Show the difference
between the old forge and the Hen-rietta
Cotton Mills. I have already
stated that five hands worked in the
forge. I think the outside hands num-bered
about fifteen, all told, includ-ing
wood-cutters, wood-haulers, col-liers
and coal-haulers. I was told some
'time ago by S. B. Tanner, who is
secretary and treasurer of the com-pany,
that they had seven hundred
hands employed. The difference in
the value of the products of the two
places and the amount paid the. lab-orer
is altogether as great as it is
in the number of operatives employ-ed.
I am trying to contrast the place
;as it was three-score years ago with
what it is now. How wonderful are
the changes and how different is the
appearance! The venerable David
Beam, who did business there in
1842, said to me the other day, "I
visited the place sometime ago -and
tried to know it, but could not make
it out." I have been told that the
late Dr. Columbus Durham, who was
born and raised on the High Shoals
Hill, said white visiting there some
two years ago, "If I had been
j brought here blindfolded and sat
Coon, the colored man before men- down on these hills and had my eyes
tioned, though a slave and as black opened upon the place that was once
as Egypt, seemed to have some as-piration
about him. He kept a spell-ing
book with him all the time, and
so familiar to me I would not have
known where I was." I think I would
have enjoyed the old place as it was
when I remember to have gone there
teach him when I went to mill and
how very anxious he was «to learn.
I remember how he would ask me to as a m;]i D oy, but am more delighted
with the new place as it is. Progres-sion
is the order of nature. God made
His book was all covered with smut nothing to stand still or be inactive.
and dust from the coal which he Tnertia clogs the wheels of progress,
handled. There was a grist mill in an(j jf universal would bring about a
close proximity with the forge. At
this mill they ground both wheat and
corn. Wheat mills in the country
were then scarce. For some miles
around the people would bring their
state of general stagnation. Let us
go forward in the best and most sen-sible
acceptation of the word, which
is to advance in whatever may con-duce
to the glory of God and tend
grain to have it ground. I was now 1
lo the prosperity and general good
large, enough to be trusted with a
horse and sack of grain and go to
mill. These mill occasions I enjoyed
hugely. While my grist was being
ground I would go down into the
forge and stand around the blazing
fires, which if the weather was real
cold, was a pleasant thing to do.
Here I have stood for hours at a time
and looked upon the irgn making
process with as much interest and
delight as I now gaze upon the vast
amount of buzzing machinery, which
is being run upon the same spot by
of our common humanity. The mar-velous
progression at High Shoals
has been conductive both to God's
glory and the general good and pros-perity
of the people. There is no sec-tion
of the • country, which has de-veloped
better or more rapidly than
this. The secular prosperity among
the people is very largely owing to
the erection of the Henrietta Cotton
Mills. Here is a market for all the
products of the farm, the garden and
— H
dairy. I have heard of one man liv-ing
near Ellenboro that sold in one
season cabbage to the. amount of one .
hundred dollars. It is a good wood
j
market. At least ten thousand cords
of wood are sold in this market an-nually.
This puts into circulation
among the people close around about
thirteen thousand dollars every year
and when the amount, for which
other commodities are sold, is added
to this, the sum will be fully doub
led. All this is in reference to Hen-rietta
No. 1. If we consider No. 2.
which is drawing rapidly to comple-tion,
every statement may be a little
more than doubled. And just here the
interrogative forces itself upon me,
and I feel constrained to ask, "Who
has done all this?" And the question
at once brings into lively exercise
that extraordinary faculty of the
mind—Memory. It instantly carries
me back over space and through time
and sits me down in an humble rural
home. This home I cannot forget. I
was impressed with its neatness and
quietness, quiet, though there was al
baby in the home. The young mother
'had just a few months before looked
upon the face of her first born, and
was now happy and rejoicing in a|
well-developed, fast-growing boy. Of
' course the baby was brought out and
commented on, while some prophe-
,cies were made in regard to his fu-ture
greatness cannot call definitely;
to mind to what height the baby boy
,
jwas elevated in those random pre-
1 dictions, but feel perfectly safe in.
I classing them among the fulfilled
prophecies..
My readers are next invited to
jlook upon the seven-year old boy. of
'thin visage and pale face, but keen
eye, with books in hand on his way to
school. His school days were not
manv, but well improved. As soon as
he was large enough for work he
went at it with vim. When able to
manage a team and handle wood, he
engaged in wood-hauling. As wood
was rather cheap and shoes high, he
j had to deliver three loads of wood
I to get him a pair of shoes. This he
I did with willing hands and a cheer-ful
mind, but he is very soon think-ing
about business and looking out
for a situation. It was already ob-served
that he had talent for busi-ness,
a cast of mind for governing
and the faculty to control. He enters
a large retail house without the
promise of pay. Here he did faithful
and satisfactory work until he is em-ployed
by a large wholesale house as
a traveling salesman. In this position
he continued for several years, and wish to do, as did the Gaderene, take
I hesitate not to say that the drum- up our abode among the tombs, and
yet occasional visits to the place
where our dead are buried may do
us good and excite within us greater
desire for usefulness, and "teach us
so to number our days that we may
j
apply our hearts unto wisdom." We
'
have no inclination or desire, as
some people seem to have, to live in
the past, but at the same time we
find it pleasant, interesting, edifying
and stimulating to take retrospective
views, to look at and think about" the.
past. According to the common say-jing
there is only one class of peop
jwho live in and enjoy the present.
!The young, it is said, live in the fu-
' tare, the old in the past and only
ithe. middle-aged in the present. I
think we lose much by not taking
hold of the present. The past is gone,
.the future is uncertain and we can
only claim the present as ours.
CHAPTER FOUR
I would like to trace the analogy
between the improvements of the
world and the advance of the church,
between the secular and moral pros-perity
of this section of the coun-try.
Sixty years ago there were but
few churches in the country. High
Shoals was the largest and most
noted Baptist church: in fact, it was
the only one in the vicinity for some
miles around. The house was made
of pine logs of medium size, rather
mer's calling was never more honor-ed
and dignified than by the manly
bearing and fair dealing of this
young man, but he now takes anoth-er
step forward—becomes a large
stockholder in a company organized
for the purpose of building a large j
! cotton mill. The company elected him !|
| to the responsible offices of secre-tary
and treasurer, and sent him out
Uo begin work. The work was begun
and rapidly driven to completion.
The energy, with which this enter-i
prise was pushed forward, broke the
record for quick building of cotton
mills, and now I am ready to answer
the question, "Who hath done all
this?" My readers will behold the'
man when they look upon the person
of S. B. Tanner, secretary and treas-urer
of the Henrietta Cotton Mills.
The wonderful changes tha.t have
taken place, at High Shoals are now
before my readers. There is now
another question forcing itself upon
me. Has the church kept pace with
| the world? Have the changes and the
improvements in the church in spirit-ual
conditions of the world been as
great as the secular improvements
j have been, or have, we to make the
1 same lament as 'did the Saviour, and
'with him to say, "The children of
i this world are wiser in their gener-ation
than are the children of light."
We sometimes hear it said, even by
|
.
ministers of the gospel, that the roughly hewn with the broad axe
•world is getting worse instead of The logs were not closely notched
better, that the ministry is losing its an d the cracks were very large,
power and the church its spiritual-j
Those who sat against the wall could
ity If I were gifted with analogical ji find a place to rest their arms by
powers, would be glad to use them
j putting them in the crack between
just here a little while. Christianity I the logs, and a row of arms could
is on the advance. Its progress may
j be seen hanging out by the church
| apparently be slow and seemingly it
| wall all along its length. Boys on
'may not, to the casual and superfi- \ the outside, who were inclined u>
| cial observer, be fully abreast with
the world, but when a full survey is
taken by the mind that is unpreju-
; diced and by those, who are not nat-
' urally inclined to be pessimistic, it
' will be evident that the "Kingdom of
God" is coming, and though it may
be with slow steps yet its treaa is
certain. There are a great many, and
especially among the older people
who think that the old times were
better in every respect than the pres-ent.
We are free to say that there
was much in the good old times to
be remembered, admired and emu-lated,
but with all of our admiration
and love for the past and as much
as we enjoy making occasional visits
into the "long ago," yet we cannot
regard them as being better, or even
mischief and loved fun, would stick
the out-hanging hands with pins to
see them jump. The original build-ing
was made longer at both ends
by the addition cf twelve or fifteen
feet, made of logs very similar to
those of the old part of the house,
only not quite so large, and I think
were made of old field pine. The
seats were without backs and made
of slabs or thick heavy plank, with
holes in them, bored with a two-inch,
auger, for legs at each end, and one
in the middle to make them solid.
There was nothing overhead in the
way of ceiling, not even loose, plank
were laid down, no sounding board
until the roof was reached, which
was fastened on with wooden pegs
driven through holes made in the
oeing oeiiei, ui "»' ar.iv en ™»»6"
so good, as the present We do not! shingles and then hung over a narrow
|
strip split from a pine tree and nail-ed
to the rafters, with nails made in]
the blacksmith's shop, but nails were
hardly known in the country then.
Wrought nails were only used when
wooden pegs could not be made ho
answer the purpose. This primitive
church was very uncouth in its ap-pearance.
The old part being con-siderably
lower than the ends made
it have a very unsightly aspect.
This old open log-church was honor-ed
with the ministry of such men
as Drury Dobbins and James Webb.
Drury Dobbins was a little advanced
in age as far back as I can remem-ber.
He stood among his peers as did
Saul among the people, "from the
shoulders and upward higher than
any of them." I have no definite rec-ollection
of his preaching—do not
remember to have heard him preach
only a few times. So far as I can
call him to mind now, he was com-manding
in person, dignified in ad-dress
and attractive in speech. He
would hold his congregation spell-bound
for an hour and a half and
on extra occasions for a much long-er
time. The church has shown her
appreciation of his ability and of his
Christian character by erecting to
his memory a marble monument cos; -
ing three hundred dollars.
The other man, whose name I have I
mentioned as being a leader of the I
hosts of Israel, I regard as having
been intellectually superior to Dob-bins.
James Webb was the son of
Daniel and Selah Webb and was born
about two miles below the High
Shoals in the last decade of the
eighteenth century. He was a young-man
of fragile body, delicate in ap-pearance,
tall and slender in form.
He was unique in his physical make-up.
He rode mostly on horseback- -
do not ever remember to have seen
him on wheels, though he may have
used a buggy in his old age. He was
pastor of the High Shoals church for
fourteen years in succession. During
these years, while I was yet in my
boyhood and early manhood, I at
tended frequently upon his ministry
—was deeply impressed by the ear-nest
appeals to the uncove.rted. His
preaching was largely of the horta-tory
character, but like John the
Baptist he "preached many things
in his extortations." The first men-tion
that I remember to have, heard
made of him as a preacher was by
my eldest brother, when I was about
eight years old. On Christmas day
my grandmother Bedford was cele-brating
the occasion with us at my
father's house.. My brother James
went to the High Shoals church. On
his return he spoke of the sermon
in the most complimentary terms,
saying it was the best sermon he
,
had ever heard. My grandmother!
asked who was the preacher; he an-j
swered "Jim Webb." The old lady's!
countenance brightened up and the. 1
smiles covered over her wrinkled
face as she said, "Well, Hock and
Jim will be somebody yet." Hawkins
:
was the name of her "baby boy." '
James Webb and Hawkin« Bedford
were young men considerably above
the mediocrity in point of natural
endowments. They were about the
same, age, raised in the same neigh-borhood
and went to the same
schools. Their mothers were close
friends and neighbors for many
years, and it is not to be wondered
at, or thought strange of, that they
should feel a mutual interest in, and
desire for, the well doing of each
other's boy, and hence the brighten-ing
up of the countenance and the
covering over the face with smiles
of my dear old grandmother when
she heard that the schoolmate and
chum of her "last born boy" was a
"big preacher." Both of them had
managed to get a fair education for
the time in which they lived. My
"Uncle Hock,"—that was the name
by which we all called him—wa«
spoken of as the best school teacher
in all the country around. His pen-manship
was unequalled. The copies
that he would write for his scholars
to imitate were so smooth and th"
letters so uniform in size and shaoe
a;-' very much to resemble those made
by the regular stereotyped plate. He
made his own pens of the common
goose-quill, and was considered quite
an expert in the art. His schools
were generally large, and as a great
many of his pupils were learning to
write he was kept right busy mak-ing
and mending pens. His physiogno-my
was very different from that of
bis friend Webb. He was very ro-bust
in body, having a deep, broad
chest with long sinewy arms swing-ing
to shoulders whose muscular
powers were acknowledged to be un-surpassed.
I remember once to have
heard George McDaniel, a good
friend of his, say, "Major," this was
a military title that he bore, "1
would hate for you to strike me with
all your might." lie was a Saul
among the people both physically
and intellectually, and in this con-nection
I may also say "morally."
He was a good man—had license as
an exhorter in the Methodist Epis-copal
church—was always faithful
and zealous in his work. He was of
a very emotional temperament, and
very much in the habit of giving
full vent to the emotions of his na-tural
disposition. The demonstrations
made were always in perfect harm-ony
with the occasions. If he were
in front of a pulpit exhorting sin-ners
to "flee the wrath to com*,"
he would cry, but if on the stump
making a political speech to his fellow
citizens he would laugh. He repre-sented
this county for three terms
in the State Legislature; was very
popular with his constituents and also
with his fellow representatives. His
house was a home for the preachers
; for many years. It was here I often
j met them and learned to love them.
! He was the leading spirit at old
I Providence. This was: the oldest
I Methodist church in the country. It
(was organized about the year 1792.
Jesse Richardson was at that time
the ruling genius in the ministry of
the Methodist church, and I think
Providence was organized by him.
He lived very near the church. The
house, in which he lived, stood just
about where the house in which Mil-lard
Hopper now lives, stands. It was
a two story house and looked very
old as far back as I can remember.
He also established a camp-ground,
which, I think, was the first estab-lished
in this part of the country.
It was between the old Providence
church and the branch running
South of the church. The camp-meet-ings
here were attended by the pion-eer
Methodist preachers of this coun-try,
by such men as Jesse Richard-son,
Joseph Moore, Daniel F. Chris-tenberry,
and I believe, James Ar-thur.
These were all men of the first
order of talents and were a great
power for good in the church of God
in those early days of Methodist. I
have no recollection of ever seeing
any of them but the last one named,
though I was baptized by Daniel F.
Christenberry when I was quit?, an
infant. His family, or surname, was
given to me as a Christian name. '
James Arthur I well remember, but
he was old and frail when I first saw
him.
The country at the time of which
we now write was new and very
sparsely settled. Just a few families
were them to be found for miles
around. I am now tracing- the an-alogy
between the conditions of the
country as it was then and as it now
is, both in a secular air! religious
sense. How marvelous are the changes
and how wonderful are the improve-ments,
which are made in one cen-tury,
in a country where the people
are intelligent, fairly educated,
though I do not use the word educat-ed
in the broad and comprehensive
sense, in which it is now used in
common parlance, to imply a colle-giate
course, but I use it in its more
natural and appropriate sense vo
mean instructed and brought up, and
when taken in this acceptation it
may very justly be applied to the
early and original settle'rs of this
country by the Anglo-Saxon race,
and in addition to the intelligence
and culture of this people they had
great enterprise, and determination.
So great were their industry and
economy that some of them accu-mulated
considerable fortunes and
amassed great riches even before the
Revolutionary War had closed, and
the more miserly ones among them
would sometimes bury their gold and
silver for safe keeping.
CHAPTER FIVE
Just at this time—the 12th of
March, 1896—there is some excite-ment
and a great deal of talk about
a hid treasure being found and bur-ied
money being dug up. Three days
ago I saw the cavern that had been
made in search for the long hidden
treasure and from which, as some
think, a large sum of money was
taken. The story, as told, runs
on this way: About the close of the
War Between the American Colonies
and Great Britain a certain man,
name not given, buried a large
amount of money—some fixed the
amount at thirty thousand dollars,
close by a church called Holly Springs.
The church has long since been torn
down, but the spring and holly bushes
are still there. It is the place where
my uncle Larkin Lee lived and died.
He died, I think, in the year 1820.
I can't get it very definitely fixed in
[my mind, but it is before me as a
kind of dream, that I used to hear
1 my father talk about the money that
was said to have been hidden on the
place where. Uncle Larkin lived and
was buried. James McMahan married
my uncle's widow, and lived on the
place for many years.
The stcry goes, that years ago a
company of men came in there, no
one knew where from, and camped
on the place for several days, mak-ing
diligent search for the hid treas-ure,
but found it not. The man, by
whom the money was buried, as the|
story goes, left his home to be. gone
for a time, and while away was
taken sick and died, but while on his
death-bed he told a man, by the name
of Boyd, where he had buried his
money, giving him the direction and
number of steps it was from the
spring and holly bushes, but no
search has been made, so far as any
one in the neighborhood knows, un-til
one night last week some persons
came—no one knows where from,
or how many there were—and prob-ed
the ground in a good man> ''•ees
around with an iron rod of gooi.
as was proven by the diametei
the opening it made in the grouna.
These probed places are to be seen
all around the hole that is dug out.
It seems that they were feeling for
a rock and kept driving the probe
down until it touched what they were
hunting for. This is proven, I think
by the fact that there are eight or
ten flat rocks close by that evidently
had been taken from under the
ground. One side of two of these
rocks is perfectly clean, having no
sign of dirt at all. They look as
though they had been placed over
something that prevented them from
to the moral and spiritual progress
of the district of county we are
writing up. High Shoals and Provi-dence
were the two principal churches
in this section. I cannot give the
precise number of members at either
place, but do not think that both
together would aggregate more than
one hundred and fifty members, and
when we come to speak of finances
we touch upon "the day of small
things." I have been told that the
pastor of the High Shoals church re-ceived
twelve dollars as his salary
for one year's service. The amount
paid at Providence was not much
greater than this. I have been taking
j
a survey of the territory, which was
represented by the membership of the \
two churches above mentioned, and
touching the dirt on one side. The' by this survey I find that the same
inference is that there were two territory, or district of country, now
pots or vessels of some kind, in which has a representation in the severa
the gold and silver were put, and, churches organized within
they were then covered over with c incts of about seventeen
these two flat rocks, but it is not
certainly known that anything
>
was
found, as all the evidence is only
circumstantial. It is, howe.ver, cer-tainly
known that many persons did
bury their money during the old war
and about its close, as did some about
the winding up of the late Civil War
when the Federal soldiers were pass-j
very closely twenty-five hundred dol-!
its pre
hundred
members, and if we turn away from
statistical reports of the, church and
look at her financial reports we shall
J
find that even greater progress has
been made along this line.
The salaries paid their pastors by |
the several churches in the bounds]
Defore mentioned will approximate
|
ing through the country and pilfer-ing
by the wholesale. They not only
tied out their horses, hid their jewels
and silverware, but buried their mon-ey.
A lady, Mrs. J. W. McDaniel, has
just said to me, that she remember-ed
seeing her father and uncle fix
up their money in a wooden box and
bury it. A company of marauders
about the close of the Civil War
came to her father's house and de-manded
his money. All his gold and
silver had been buried and was out
of their reach, but her mother had
seven dollars in silver in a pocket-book,
which they found and took.
They then went to the house of her
uncle, Joe Biggerstaff, and made the
same demand of him. He had some
money yet in the house, which they
found, and while counting it out
around the table he made a deadly
assault upon them with his axe, kill-ing
one and wounding two others;
the fourth one, starting to run he
pursued for a distance, but failing
to overtake him he returned, and as
he, was entering the house he was
fired on by the two wounded men,
lars. Bear it in mind that I am now
taking an analogical view of the
church and the world, endeavoring
to find out whether the "children of
light" have been as wise in their gen-eration
as the "children of the
world." Is the church lagging? Are
her members slothful? Have her
ministers lost their zeal and spirit-uality?
Has the gospel failed to be
the "power of God unto salvation?"
These are questions we are trying
to answer and the problem I would
like to solve, but I am not ignorant
of the formidable, difficulties that
confront us in such an undertaking.
There are two standpoints from
which we may look when we come
to solve these problems, and the ans-wer
we give will depend upon the
point of observation we occupy, and
so I conclude we are warranted in
giving both a negative and a posi-tive
answer, in saying no and iii
saying yes, but in order to keep this
opinion from appearing somewhat
paradoxical I must explain a little.
If we look solely from the standpoint
furnished by the spiritual state of
who had somewhat recovered their 'the church and look only at the
strength, and was literally shot to spiritual force and influence of the
pieces, being penetrated by seven cllurch, and when we hear the gos-balls.
jpel preached in its purity and with
But perhaps the digression from its "heart-searching" and "soul-stir-the
main subject is getting a little ring" qualities and see the people
too great, so I must return. I call unmoved and congregations untouch-the
attention of my readers again ed, then we feel justified in giving
positive answer, but when we change
the point of observation and look
from the one offered by the enter-prise
and energy of the church
members, we fee.l also authorized in
answering negatively, and when the
entire situation is fully taken in mind
that have sufficient capacity for
admitting such an observation, the
concession will be made, wither vol-untarily
or forcibly by testimony that
cannot be controverted, that the great
wave of moral power and spiritual
influence is now beating upon the
shores and passing over the. interior
of heathen lands with greater force
than has ever been witnessed in any
former generation. The large in-crease,
in church machinery and the
notable improvements in moral
mechanism generally are indubitable
evidence to my mind that Christiani-ty
is more, progressive in spirit and
practice than in any past age of the
world.
I spoke of Achilles Durham only as
a man of wealth and affluence and
high standing, and would be glad to
leave him before my readers in this
character, but after mature thought
and deliberation I have, reached the
conclusion that it would not be ex-actly
just to my readers to leave
!him, and it can certainly do him .10
injustice to state facts as they were
developed. Every man makes his own
history, and the. same may be said
of nations.
It is not the prerogative of the
historian to make history, but simply
to record it as it may be furnished
by men and nations. Mr. Webster
defines history to be "a systematic
relation of facts and events." History
relates facts and events, and of course
the faithful and true historian must
give a replete account of facts as
they stand connected with whatever-subject
he may take, in hand. Every
phase should be presented so that a
correct understanding may be had.
and if, while relating such facts, in
order that a proper conclusion may
be reached, a word of warning can
be given in a way, so as to turn the
whole incident to good accounts, then
more than the ordinary object of
history is accomplished. Fain would
I omit this part of biography. His
latter days were full of sorrow and
bereavement. Never did a man end
his earthly career in greater sadness
and affliction. How can such an
event, so full of disgrace and igno-miny,
be so manipulated as for any-body
to receive the least possible
good in any possible way? There can-not
be even a gleam of hope, only
in one direction. Can I persuade my
readers to take a look with me in
that direction just for a little while?
That effect should follow cause is the
great law and the eternal principal
of nature. It is at this principle that
we ask our readers to look and it is
this law that we wish them to study.
Consider them in reference to their
bearing on the case now in hand. If
we can induce to due and timely
reflection, then would appear a gleam
of hope for good results. The young
men of the country compose the
class, in which we feel the deepest
interest and for whom our sympa-thies
are most profoundly excited,
and it is to this class that our note
of warning is now given. It is before
your eyes I wish to hold up the sad
picture that you may look upon it and
see in it the danger signal. Here is
a young man of commanding ap-pearance,
of polite manners and very
affable in disposition. He is wealthy,
intelligent and educated, "but he
drinks" Naaman was a great man
with hi i master and in the King-dom,
"but he was a leper." One bad
quality will more than counterbal-ance,
many good ones. The "drink-habit"
very soon get the tipper hand
of him and brought him into a state
of complete subordination, and now
his hands are ready for crimes of
deepest dye.
- 7^
CHAPTER SIX
Satan, finding him such a willing
j
subject, gave him something to do !
at once, for he had been leading himjj
en from one degree of crime and-wickedness
to another still greater
j
until the climax in crime is finally
leached, and his hands, while in a
? :.ate of intoxication, are imbrued
in the hearts blood of his helpless
and innocent wife. He drew her from
her bed of sickness and literally
stamped the life from her body.
There was a post-mortem examina-tion
made and it was evident that
injuries received from abuse was
the cause, of her death. He was ar-reted
and imprisoned, and as no;
I one would go on his bond he had to
! lie in jail for a long time. His trial
' was finally moved from Rutherford-ton
to Hendersonville. Here he was
tried and condemned. The sentence
was branding and imprisonment. John
land George Baxter, whom I have
written about in some of my reminis-cences,
were his lawyers. They had
known him all their lives and
course sympathized with him very
greatly. When the branding iron was
just touching the hand George, who
was to speak in the State's defense,
knocked it off, but went on with the
words that the law required and re-peated
"God save the State" three
times. I beg the young man who may
chance to read these lines, to bear
it in mind that I am now writing
about the great principle of "cause
and effect."
He had lain in jail until his body
had become almost a solid mass of
putrefaction. Having no one to care
for him or attend to him and he not
being able to keep away the flies,
they deposited their eggs in the
putrid part of his flesh and he was
literally eaten of the. worms while he
was yet alive. In this deplorable and
very pitiable condition he would
doubtless have died had he not beon
visited by Col. John Baxter, who at
! once had him cared for and attend-ed
to. About this time Gov. Reid,
who was canvassing the state for
re-election, came to High Shoals, and
being told of Durham's condition said
"I will reprieve him." Two of his
brothers, Cage and Crawford Dur
j
ham, went to Hendersonville and
brought him home. He lived only
about two months. 1
There are two families in this
j country, the origin of which, I pre-
! sume, is known but by few. I refer
j to the Blanton and Womack fami-.
! lies. They were in the country as
; far back as I can go in my memory.
! Thomas Womack and Nancy Blan-
1 ton came from England to America
I about the year 1760. They had two
! children before leaving England, but
had not been married. Their child-ren's
names were Thomas and Archie.
Shortly after coming to America,
they decided to marry. Thomas took
the' name of his father and Archie
the name of his mother, and so in
process of time there were two fam-ilies,
one headed by Thomas Womack
and the other by Archie Blanton. In
the year 1779 these two families
moved to Rutherford county. N. C.
,
Archie Blanton was the father of our
own "Uncle Jerry Blanton," of such
precious memory. This good old man
lived right near what is now called
Oak Grove church. Fifty-five years
ago I think it was called Blanton's
church. Uncle Jerry and Aunt Sallie
were noted characters. They were
proverbial for piety and exemplary
living. Aunt Sallie was the daughter]
of Thomas Womack. Archie Blanton
and Thomas Womack were full broth-
|
ers, having the same father and
|
mother. A very novel case it was. I
And so Uncle Jerry and Aunt Sallie'
were first cousins, lived together for
many years and raised a large fam-ily
of children. I remember being at
their house in the year 1842. Church-well
A. Crowell was then the Metho-
| dist preacher on the circuit and I
' had gone with him to Blanton's
church and to Uncle Jerry's for din-ner.
This was the only time that I
remember to have been at their
house, for I left the country the fol-lowing
year and went out west, but
"^" Q '
th old |! ried Louranie. We all called them find out, and he is known as "Big
j
j. remember to have seen™ l Edmond and Aunt Lou. They Dave" of Ellenboro. Drury had two I
people often at church and to have
, ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^^ my faffi_ ^ ^.^ and John. William
heard Aunt Salhe talk and Pf** ^ j er?s house and T very often saw , ives at the Suttle's old place near
praise, for she was. a great
le of Aunt Lou'
s Henrietta No. 2, and is shout about and rejoice in church.
She was faithful in obeying the com-mand,
"Pray to thy father who is
in secret," and the promise follow-in-
the command. "Thy Father, who
seeth in secret, shall reward the-?
openly" was always fulfilled. Shej
would clasp her hands and bless the
|
Lord. Many a one has been deeply,
impressed with the earnestness, with,
which she would engage in the holy
j
exercises of sanctuary. Even the
ei nouse miu a >v»j —
—
nvco **n w*«- ^«..**.- ~ ~-- t
them. The style Lou's rid- known as
ing was rather novel, and to some, «xalking Billy." John lives in Char-who
were a little inclined to fun,
lotte He marr; ed Miss Sallie Suttle,
amusing, for she rode not as was the
the youngest daughter of B. F. Sut-manner
of Women, but otherwise.
t]e _ "vVilliam Harrill, who married
Lewis Womack lived only a few years
Ester guttles, was the son of Housen
after his marriage and died, leaving
jjarr;n_ To them were born nine sons
two children, Isham and Leah. These
two persons are the first of the Wom-ack
family, of whom I have any
recollection. Leah married Samson
and two daughters. The names of
the sons were David, Housen, James,
Pleasant, Dobbins, Baxter, Bateman,
recoliecuon. ucou mc*-.*..- - ~- Samuel aannad Hnoommeerr.. Jjamces aindm Huoumm-
McDaniel, who was the father of our
gr are dgad g^ug^ the son of Rich
ard, married a Miss Hamrick. The 01 »»«"»»')• i
very covering of her hands seemed ; present honored citizen, Guilfon.
to be impressive by the way they were
j
McDaniel, Esq. Isham Womack mar-ed
Just the other day while talk- ried Betty Baily, to whom were born
ing about the old people with the sons and daughters, who are yet
wife of Franklin Blanton, who is a among us. I
grandson of Aunt Sallie, she told me. CHAPTER SEVEN
what a lady once said to her while ^ ^^ Fam;,y
she. held one of the old lady s half-material
to work
handed cloth gloves in her hands, There is more ǣǣ ^
which she had chanced to come across up when we come to ^
and
seemed almost to regard as be- family in the way of giving its h
fj perhaps can be found m
i
n
se
S
en
Cr
tht oS Sve sfap 'glory' to pother family the whole
,
eoun-
CnT" and she was keeping it as a try around. I have made some le
« giorrelic slething
P
that would Jrcn in trying to find out the num
bring up pleasant associations in the ber of families bearing this
-
mind of a religious nature, and noth-fruits
of this marriage were eleven
children, six sons and five daughters, j
The names of the boys were Housen,
' James, William, John, Samuel and
| Amos. The names of the girls were
j
Rebecca, Prissa, Cynthia, Frankie ;
and Susan. Rebecca, whom I think]
was the oldest child, married Mar--
tin Beam. I, remember seeing her in.
j
| 1838 while I was staying in Ruther-
|
ing would more certainly bring abou.
| such associations in the mind of this
woman than "Aunt Sallies glove.'
The two old people have long since
passed away and gone to reap their
reward for faithfulness in the Mas-ter's
vineyard. They had nine child-ren,
all of whom grew to manhood
and womanhood Riley, Jesse, Josiah,
Ransom, Jackson, Steven and Elijah
were the names of the sons. Tempa
and Sarah Ann were the names of
the daughters. I believe that they all
had families and raised a good many
children
any other in tne wu ^^^^
I ^ ^ ^ ^^ gQods ^ Ruth.
erfordton. Prissa, whom I think was
the second child, was born in the
year 1800, and I am indebted to John
Hamrick of Henrietta, for the. follow-ing
incident as given to him by
"Uncle Sammie."
He was rather expecting to bo
called up at an untimely hour from
the signs of the time around and
was trying to prepare himself for the
worst as it might come, but when
the Crisis came it very far surpass-ed
all the calculations and prepara-tions
that he had made, and now how
to meet the emergency was a per-plexing
problem to solve. New plans
had to be devised and different ar-rangements
must be executed, for
now th^ snow is fully forty inches
deep, and though the distance to the
house of the midwife was only
living in an area of ten miles square,
and from my investigation I feel safe
in putting the number at one hun-dred
families.* The first man by this
name that came into Rutherford
ccunty, so far as I have been able
to find out, came from Virginia
about the year 1780. His name was
Housen, and this name has been well
preserved in the Harrill family and
handed down from one generation to
another until it may now be said,
the name is "legion." Housen Har-with
rill came to this country with a
small family. His wife's maiden name
ildren.
| was Street and her given name, was
The other branch of the family was ^^ and thig was the origin of
'
" ' ' '"" :U " f
the name 'Street' in the Harrill fam-ily
They only had one or two child-ren
when they came from Virginia.
not so prolific. They did not multiply
and replenish so numerously. Thom-as
Womack had a son Lewis. If he vlrguua. rluu * c „, ....-
undertak
had other sons I have not been able -« wh ^ ^ ^ ^^,^ fearf»l ™derta
_
to get their names. Mrs. Louisa They ^ John jng
„T had as fine a horse
Smart, who is about sixty-five years Gilbert, b^^^ ^.^ ^ ^ ^^ „„ could old, tells me that when she was a
daughter of Rev. Drury Dob
man by the cniy *
Artie sh
name of Willis Womack and that his b
fathers name was
the best data I can get
She was
said
j
. , n "as be
found|
in the country anywhere, but I was
afraid to risk him under exisit.ng
,
. !llle Anderson and from fun^**j£ 4unt for the snow was well up to his sid^s
I conclude peop e all through t ^ & i ^^& caref f „y
that Anderson Womack was the son Artie.. They ha
Samuel, horse a.s I was anxious about rny
of Thomas Womack, who came to sons, Drury, John,
had Life, but there, was no time for pai-
North Carolina from Virginia in the Jame.s and Dav d. T y I ^ , hastily saddled and
,
year 1779. and that Willis Womack several daughter^
^ ^^ ^ bu ew
was a brother of Lewis Womack, who ried a man by ttie ^ P
had T confr0nted such for-to
j the place of destination is reached
field The Hollifield s and Padgetts in-termarried
a good deal along about
that time. Uncle John, Uncle Billy
j and Uncle Edmond Padgett were all
! brothers, and they married three
: Hollifield sisters. Uncle Edmond mar-
There .= ""- -
ing, so far as I have been able
( - ?=
and the errand is made known, but
now comes the real "tug of war."
By what means can the "old lady"
find transportation? It required a
strong horse to breast the snow and
a brave woman to start out at such
a time, but as "the King's business!
required haste," so do some other
'occasions!' and now no time is toj
be lost, so the old lady mounted the
already well tried and practiced
steed, behind the present rider, and
was carried slowly but safely
through. When the time was observ-ed
it was found that it had taken
four hours to make the trip."
This was the deepest snow that
has ever fallen in this country. I
remember very well to have heard
my father and mother speak about
the "big snow" that fell in the year
1800. It was up /o a man's wnjst.
The little girl, who was born at this
memorable time, grew up to beauti-ful
womanhood and married George
Blanton. He was a country merchant
and s°ld goods on the old Lincolnton
road leading from Rutherfordton, on
the east side of Second Broad river.
As far back as I can remember he
was doing business at this old stand,
but he very soon fell a victim of
"strong drink" and died ....
George Blanton had a son by the
name of Bate, who followed in his
father's footsteps and filled an un-timely
grave. He had two other boys,
Hill and Guilford, who left this coun-try
when they were comparatively
young men. Do not know what their
life has been or whether it has ended
or not, but hope that the end, if yet
to come, may not be so sad as the
one to which their father and broth-er
came. There were two girls in the
family, Susan and Margaret, whom
I remember often to have seen in
their early womanhood. Susan mar-ried
James Young and is the mother
of Dr. Guilford Young, of Forest
City. Margaret married Alex Wray
of Shelby, and is the mother of my
good friend, Arthur Wray, of Knox-ville,
Tenn.
Amos Harrill married Betsey Bax-ter.
She was a first cousin of mine
and a full sister of Judge John Bax-ter
of East Tennessae. She was the
mother of four sons, Lawson, John,
Calvin and Samuel. Lawson is a doc-tor
and lives in Statesville, N. C. John
was also a physician, but died in El-lenboro
a few years ago. Old cousin
Amos died about ten days ago after
living four score and four years. I
called to see him some sixteen months
ago and found him in bad condition,
both physically and spiritually. His
body disease was of a chronic nature
and it was with great effort that he
I could walk at all. It was finally the
cause of his death
William Harrill, another son of
Samuel Harrill, was for many years
a prominent man in the ministry of
the Baptist church. He was a good
j
preacher and a very exemplary
j Christian man. He had the misfor-tune
to lose one of his eyes when he
tracts of land in different parts of
j
the county, and as their children
would marry off they would settle
them on these lands, generally mak-ing
them a title to several hundred
acres. When Seth, their youngest
son, married which I think was in
the year 1792, they settled him on
the Piney Mountain tract of land
was a boy. I have been told that L, what
*was called The Sweezy
while adjusting some bows to a wag'
on-bed, in drawing one out to trim
it still more, it slipped and having
neighborhood. He married Miss Mary
Francis. She became the mother of
eight children, six sons and two
his open knife in hand the point be- daughters. The names of the sons
ing upward, pierced his eye-ball and)
i
destroyed the sight. I remember go-ing
to one of his appointments in
1852 at a church called Mt. Pleasant.
He was remarkably kind and court-eous
to me on the occasion and would
have me to preach for him. I took
for my text, "We preach Christ
crucified," which led me to speak of
the great doctrine of the Atonement.
My friend and relative, Barney King,
who I believe was present at the
time, told me some days after that
he asked "Uncle Billy" (for he was
known among the people by that
name) how he liked the sermon. He
answered by saying: ."When I hear
were Steven, Edwards, Joseph, Jonas,
Peter and James; the names of the
daughters, Eunice and Massa. Steven,
the oldest son, married a Miss Blan-kenship.
They had three children,
two daughters and one son. The
names of the girls were Mary and
Susan; the son's name Was Seth. Su-san
married Phillip Owens and Mary
married a man by the name of Farm-er.
Seth went to Louisiana, and Dr.
Palmer tells me that he saw him in
the late Civil War, that he was un-married,
but had heard nothing from
him since. Joseph married first a Miss
Elliott and then a Miss Bridges. His
first wife bore to him three daugh-ters.
Their names were Mary, Nancy
and Sallie. Mary married Dr. V. J.
preaching I give close attention and Palmer, Nancy never married, bui
the part that suits me I -'hold fast,
but the part that don't suit me I
throw away, but in that sermon I
found nothing to throw away." He
was a true and devoted servant of
God, and after serving his genera-tion
for half a century, fell to sleep
and was received into the home pre-pared
for the good and faithful ones
on earth.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Seth Branch of the Bedford
Family.
Seth Bedford was the third son
of Jonas and Massa Bedford. They
were my great grandparents on my
mother's side, of whom I made men-tion
in my early reminiscences. They
were both from England and I gave
it my opinion that "Granny Massa"
came over in 1756 on the same ves-sel
with William Baxter, Joseph
Roach, Samuel Miller and Katy More-land.
Grandsire Jonas came over a few
years later. They were married as
early as 1760, if not a little earlier.
So far as I have been able to learn,
they had only four children; three
sons and one daughter. Raimond,
Jonas, and Seth were the names of
the boys and Eunice the name of the
girl. I stated in some of my first
writings that they had bought from
the Government some several large
lived to be fifty years old. She made
her home at Dr. Palmer's with her
sister Mary. She died eight years ago.
I would have been glad to have seen
her, as she had the full name of my
sainted mother, Nancy Bedford.
This writing is done in the hospi-table
mansion of Dr. Palmer in the
upper part of Cleveland county, N. C.
I take from the family Bible, as I
find them there recorded, the, names
of the eleven children that were born
to him by his loving, devoted wife,
Nancy Catherine, Margaret Bedford,
William Butt, Joseph Bedford, Thom-as
Rowell, Valentine Jackson, Jonas
James, John Daniel, Mary Susan.
Benjamin Hazard and Loamma_
Charles. Eight of these are now liv-ing
but the other three, together,
with the mother, are gone to com-j
pose a branch of the same family in I
Heaven. How wonderfully grand is
the expression of St. Paul when he
speaks of "the whole family in heav-en
and on earth," by whi«h exnrts-j
sion he conveys the idea or unity
and at the same time .the' thought of
separation. It is only one family, but
it is separated. A part is in heaven
and a part is on earth, yet it is the
same family. Separation, but one-ness.
I am now at the house of Malinda
Stroud, the widow of the late Thorn-
as Stroud and daughter of Peter;
Bedford by his second wife. I have
just gotten in from a visit to the "old
family graveyard" made in company
.
with Mrs. Stroud and her son Matt.
I find in this old burying-ground
about fifty-five graves.The oldest ones l
in appearance, so far as I could
j
judge, were those of old Uncle Seth
Bedford and his wife, though there
were several othei-s, which had visi-j
; ble marks of great antiquity. There
was an old chestnut stump, which
tradition said, stood right on one
of the oldest graves, and if that be
true the grave must have been made
at least one hundred and fifty years
ago. I judge, that the first persons
that died in this vicinity were buried
there. These oldest graves have no
tombstones, giving the names of those
whose dust they enclose. In this an-cient
cemetery there is a short grave
known as "little Jimmies gi'ave."
Little Jimmie, I think from what Mrs.
Stroud tells me, was the first born
of Peter Bedford. He was a very
sweet, sprightly little boy of six
] or seven summers. He as most little
, boys do, loved to go with his Pa
about the yard and lot and even out
into the fields, and it was said to
me that little Jimmie's tracks were
seen in the soft places in the fields
where he had played around where
his father was at work, for sometime
after he was laid in the grave. Little
the name of '"Duck" (a nickname
given to him on account of his great
propensity for paddling in the wat-er)
is now living in Texas.. He, owns
in this neighborhood one of the best
farms in aH the country around, and
it- is said that he has made quite, a
handsome fortune since going to
Texas. He married a Miss Lattimore,
the daughter of Joseph Lattimore
near Polkville in Cleveland county.
Sarah, the other daughter of Peter
Bedford, married a man by the name
of Gettys and moved to Texas when
hex brother Jonas went, and is now
living there. Peter Bedford married
a second wife by the name of Blan-ton.
She bore to him one daughter,
who is the present Mrs. Stroud of
whom I have aheady made, mention
in this chapter. She is the mother of
seven children, five sons and two
daughters. Her baby girl passed away
two years ago and is now with her
father and members of the same, fam-ily,
but on the ether side of the
River. Her other daughter married
a Mr. Gettys and lives in this com-munity.
The five sons are all at home
with their mother, and they seem to
be viemg with each other in kind-ness,
courtesy and obedience to he
Seth married Margaret Sweezy,
lived and died in this neighborhood.
He was born in 1804 and died in
I
1869, aged 65 years.
j Peter Raimond Bedford was born
footprints sometimes make deep and m7 and died 1855, aged 38 years
lasting impressions on the minds and
hearts of the living, and perhaps a
wise and loving Providence may, in
: some instances, cause these little
tracks to be made and preserved that
The
some of his great purpose may be
accomplished thereby. The father of
little Jimmie was heard to say that
it, "almost killed him" when he saw
his little tracks in the mud, and who
can say but that impressions were
then made upon the feelings and
conscience of that father that cul-minated
finally in some great good?
"God moves," says Cooper, "In a
mysterious way, His wonders to per-form."
Peter Raimond Bedford first mar-ried
a Miss Sweezy, who bore to him
5 children, three sons and two daugh-ters.
The first (little Jimmie) I have
already mentioned, John and Jonas
were, the names of the other two sons.
Mary and Sarah were the names of
the girls. John died in the Confeder-ate
Army during the iate Civil War
at a place called High Point. His
body was brought home and buried
in the old family burying-ground. I
5tood by his grave today. Mary died
while she was yet a young woman and
was buried- just at the head of her
brother John's grave. Jonas w"ho is
known all through this country by
CHAPTER NINE
Raimond Branch" of the
Bedford Family.
Raimond Bedford was the second
son of Jonas Bedford. He was myi
grandfather, and was born in the
year 1768. I think his birthplace was
a few miles south of where Forest
j
City now is, and I have been told
tnat some of the timbers out of
which the house, in which he was
horn, was built, are yet sound, and
have been used in erecting another
building. The joists are said to be
perfectly sound and are still used
for the purpose for which they were
originally designed. That house must
have been built as early as 1760,
for I have stated in my history of
the "Seth branch" of the Bedford
family that my great-grandparents,
Jonas and Mas.sa Bedford, were mar-ried
as early as 1760, if not a lit-tle
earlier, and I am supposing this
house to be the one in which they
first lived after their marriage. Some
people were very careful in those
early days in selecting their building
material. They would only take the
very best, .such as was all heart with-out
any sap being attached. A house
built of all heart lumber would not
soon decay, and I judge from some
facts, which I have connected with
their history, that these two old an-cestors
of mine were "wise in their
generation" in that they provided
well for the future and laid up a
good foundation against the time to
come. I called into the Register's of-fice
the other day and examined some
old records, and in these old books
I found as many as eleven grants to
land made by the State government
to Jonas Bedford in 1782. Alexander
Martin was then Governor and F.
Glasgow, secretary of the State of
North Carolina. These old grants
conveyed land to the amount of
fourteen hundred and ninety-nine
acres. These lands were located in
different parts of the county. I have
already spoken of the Piney Moun-tain
tract, which was situated on
Duncan's Creek, and deeded to my
great-uncle, Seth Bedford.
I now come to speak of thevHigh
I Shoals tract, which lay upon the
waters of Second Broad river. This
wa,s a large body of land, a part of
which was given to my grandfather
and a part to David Liles. Liles had
married the only daughter of my
great-grandfather; her name was
Eunice. I have often heard my moth-er
speak of Aunt Eunice Liles. She
was regarded and spoken of as a
woman of superior qualities, both of
heart and mind, and was said to have
been very handsome. Liles sold his
part of the land to Achillis Durham.
Durham sold it to Thomas Baxter,
Baxter sold it to Thomas Wilkins,
and it is now known as the Wilkins'
l
j
land.
Raimond Bedford married Patsy
Hawkins in the year 1781 or 1782.
(I may not be exactly correct in
j
dates every time, but feel quite sure
that I will approximate it very close-ly.)
They settled on this High
Shoals tract of land, and raised a
family of six children, four sons and
two daughters. The names of the
sons were James, Jonas, Peter, and
i Hawkin,s, the names of the daugh-
I
ters were Nancy and Massa. James,
I the oldest son married Anne Poole.
They had born to them eight chil-dren,
six sons and two daughters
George Lawson, Peter, James, Jonas
and William were the names of the
sons; the girls were named Patsy and
Petay. Uncle Jim, that was what we
called him, was a very poor man for
many years after his marriage, but
later on he became a man of con-siderable
wealth. He struck a lucky
streak by finding a rich gold mine
on his land. He then lived, I believe
in the upper part of Rutherford, or
lower part of Burke county, near
the place known as Brindletown. Hvs
mine proved to be exceedingly rich,
and after taking out a large fortune
of the "precious metal" he sold his
land for ten thousand dollars. I re-member
very well, though I was only
a small boy at the time, when he
passed through our neighborhood as
he was moving to Georgia. There
was a large company of them. H s
children were, all along; some of them
were married and had their families
with them. He had a good many
slaves. All told there were some
thirty-five or forty persons in the
crowd, and when they pitched their
tents and kindled their fires it made
altogether an imposing appearance.
It would remind one of some great
"caravan" as it parsed through the
country loaded with its merchandise
and gold. They tarried on the road,
just about where Butler Postoffice
is, for several days, so as to give all
the relatives around time to call and
see them. He moved to Dahlonega
Georgia, and ran a hotel for man
years. He has been dead a long time.
Jonas Bedford, the second son of
Raimond Bedford, married a Miss
Suttle. They didn't get along so well
as man and wife, and only lived to-gether
a few years and separated
without having any children. He mar-ried
the second time very much
against the wish of hip mother and
relatives, for he married a woman
of low standing and not pleasant in
her ways. He went out to Georgia,
and the last account I had of him
he was working in the mines, but
had never done any good.
PeW Bedford, the third son, was
regarded as the flower of the flock
From the way I have often heard
him spoken of he must have been a
^very superior man. His name was
I called with reverence and his mem-ory
was almost cherished with a-sacredness
that amounted to idolatry.
With the ear of imagination I can
now hear my mother and grandmoth
er and Aunt Massa Doggett saying
there was a clear demonstration of
the truth of the old maxim; "death
loves a shining mark." He was 'cut
down' while in the very prime of his
early manhood. His reputation and
standing as a school teacher were not
equalled by any person in the coun-try,
and hi,? services as a teacher
were soufeht by many neighborhoods.
Even from Georgia he received a
letter, begging him to come out and
teach school for them. The man
Fisher, elsewhere spoken of in these
writings, had moved to Georgia; and
as he was well acquainted with Uncle
Peter and knew his qualifications and
adaptability for teaching he wrote
him a very pressing letter, urging
promise of
Levi Burrow, Christenberry and Her-bert
DeLafayette; the names of the
girls were, Martha, Mary Chisolm,
Massa Travis and Sara Casander. i
These ten children all grew to man-hood"
and womanhood. The first per-son
who died in my father's house
of his own family, was my mother,
after they had lived together as man
j and wife for sixty-six years. I doubt
if .such another record can be found
in the annals of our country. Some
of the children died before my moth-er
did, but they had married off and
had homes and families, except broth-er
John who died when he was a
young man. My oldest sister married
|
Reuben McDaniel, the second mar-him
to come, with the
better days, so he arranged and went.
which I became so familiar in after
years—the day when this young man
(dressed in his new well-fitting cos-
, tumes, with his broad-brimmed white
*'
I hat the passing breeze might fondle)
5
'mounted his noble steed. I have it
from one, who was an eye witness on
the occasion, and who well remem-bers
his stately appearance as he
rode through the draw bars, which
had been lowered by her tiny but
willing hands to give him passage,
and not only is the color of his horse
land the looks of himself remember-ed,
but also his words which were
spoken as his horse was stepping over
j
the bars: "Be a good girl until I
come back." These words and those
things are still fresh in the memory
of old cousin Susan King, who is now
eighty-five years old. She is the old-est
relative I have living, so far as
I know. My very aged nurse, Mrs.
Nancy Hollifield, is yet living, and
from the best data that I have been
able to gather, from which to make
calculations, she is now one hundred
and fifteen years old. Uncle Peter
never returned from Georgia, but
died very soon after going out.
Of Hawkins Bedford, I have al-
"vour Uncle Peter." These words ready spoken in these writings, so
^orallv sr-oken when the eyes I will pass on to the daughters of
;:r:rffu
r
sd
y ;S tears and when
|j
Raimond and Patsy Bedford. And
TZ mind had vividly before it the now I begin to tread on holy ground,
ImaJof one'wnosememorywassol.nd fee. like doing as Moses was
precious and which would come up
before them a,? the sweet smelling
incense fresh from the "altar of sac-rifice
" I have often wished that I
could have seen Uncle Peter, and
even now while I write, about him,
and have before me his manly form,
and the many noble qualities of his
mine*, with the potency of his intel-lect,
there springs up an inward
centiment, which hankers for a real
personal interview and conversation
With "Uncle Peter," but in his case
commanded to do as he approached
the. burning bush in the wilderness,
ried Jonathan Carpenter and the'
fourth married Hilliard Haynes. My
oldest brother married Priscilla Flin,
the next one married Elizabeth Ho-ward,
brother Burrow married Mary
Wade, I married Lou Waters and
brother Herbert married Sallie Dam-ron.
Only three of us are now living. 1
Massa, the second daughter of
Raimond and Patsy Bedford, mar-ried
William Doggett. To them were
born eight children, four sons and
four daughters. The sons were nam-ed
George, Peter, Lewis and John;
the girls were named Susan, Nancy,
Patsy and Betsy. George married
first a Miss Watkins and afterwards
a Mrs. McDaniel, Susan married Bar-ney
King, to them were born son3
and daughters. Nancy married Ed
j mond Durham. Peter married a lady
I
in East Tennessee, name unknown.
Patsy married George Byers. Betsy
r.ever married. Lewis married a Miss
Tanner. John married a Miss Harris.
Four of this family are yet living.
CHAPTER TEN
A Short History of R. R. Hayne*
"Honor to whom honor is due"
is a maxim based upon the princi-ple
of equity and justice. Give every
man his due. Let everyone have all
that is merited. This is just and right.
These thoughts were suggested by
some facts being made known to
me, of which I was previously ig-norant.
And I come now to place
upon the "roll of honor" the name
uje. UUIU111& l.w^.» ... — — --«--
and take the shoes from off my feet, ' of one who has been a very impor-for
I now come to speak of my own
dear sainted mother. , I have always
felt like writing mother with a capi-tal
M. Nancy Bedford was the oldest
tant and active factor in promoting
the prosperity and the building up
of this section of the country.
I doubt whether the man can be |
daughgter of Raimond and Patsy Bed-j
found in this, or any other part of
ford. In 1802 she married William
Lee. To them were born ten children,
six sons and four daughters. The
names of the sons were, James Rai
the country, whose success in busi
ness has been greater or even equal,
to that of R. R. Haynes. He was left
while yet in his early boyhood with- oa uie bu»o »,v.iv-, ««...-- — - ,,-- --- ---- *
mond, Felix Walker, John Green, cut a father, and he, being the. old-
, IO ==:
est of the Boys, had to take the lead
in farm work and in business gen-erally,
and never was there a youth
whose natural endowments better
qualified for a position so responsi-ble
than did his. It was here where
he took his first lessons in the man
the shadow of a title against it, and
from them they secured a title to
all the interest that they claimed
to have in it. And now when they
get a deed from Achillis Durham,
who has the land in possession and
who is the last one holding even the
dement" of "business, "in which he, shadow of a title to it, of course
has become, such an expert in these , there can be no question about the
latter years. Responsibility, when
fully realized, i s often sanctified so
as to result in great good to those
on whom it rests. And even a bur-den
when not viewed in the sense,
of responsibility, may be very bene-ficial
to the one on whom it is laid.
And hence it is said by Solomon,
"It is good for a man that he bear!
is thus reported he. is also current-ly
spoken of as a man of fair dealings
and honest purpose. I have yet to
hear the first one speak of him only
as a high toned gentleman and as a
general benefactor among the peo-ple.
I do not undertake to estimate
his actual worth in a secular sense
for fear his modesty might be of
Llieie uc "^ *i— w~w-— — ---
legality of such a title; and holding I fended, which can only be surpassed
such a title, it is equally evident that ; by his skill as a financier. Yet, I do
they could make one of like charac-ter,
which they did, to their sister,
Mrs. Micajah Durham, and it was
from the heirs of this lady through
a commissioner, that R. R. Haynes
bought the land.
But he, being such a careful and
the yoke in his youth." prudent business man, looking into
In early manhood the subject of everything closely and investigating
this short history manifested a busi- every matter tShor.ougihly, had the
ness talent and a great tact in trad- cnain of titles to this land examined
ing. He went down into the lower by the Hon. Mike Justice, who pro-part
of Union county, S. C, and moUnced it perfect and without any
ran a cotton farm for three years. missing links, and when he was ne-
During these years he made the dis-j
gotiating with the Charter members
f the Henrietta Cotton Mills Com-pany
about the sale of the shoals
and this land, he had lawyer Justice
not hestitate to place him among th
very foremost of the rich men of our
country and to speak of him as oc-cupying
a most enviable position, one '
to be greatly coveted. Not that 1
1
would unduly stress riches, or place
j
too high an estimate, on wealth, but
when I see a rich man, whose wealth
has been honestly acquired and fully
consecrated to God, I feel that such
a one is blessed above the ordinary
I walks of men.
For when we turn our attention
to the other side of his character
?nd view him as a moralist and a
Christian we find him to be even as
Caesar's wife: "above suspicion." He
professed faith in Christ and joined
to make this statement before them ' the church in his early manhood arid
his first interview with them in has lived an exemplary Christian life,
in his nrst inteivic ,
i — ,,„„;„+,„ tlie irnunctions:
the. town of Shelby. Lnd now the
foundation is beginning to be laid,
upon which the cotton mill is to be
erected, and this man about whom
we now write, took a very active
obeying stirictly the injunctions;
"Not slothful in business, fever ent
in spirit, serving the Lord.'
Biography of Nancy Hollifield
About two years ago I saw in-stated
in a North Carolina paper
iw tuuft t* » - - .f j . ,
both in laving the roundation that a colored woman had just die,,
botn laying, , v^ctm-n /.mintips. ae-ed
covery that cotton could be grown
in Rutherford county, N. C. to about
the same advantage that it could
be grown in Union county, S. C;
so he returned to his native home
and commenced the. cultivation of
cotton. He also engaged in the mer-cantile
business in co-partnership
with his uncle, William Walker. They
were equal partners, each one put-ting
in stock to the amount of two
hundred dollars. He had the man-
^ ^ , jy!|ur ,,„. ,
..
„,..,,„.„ , ltil ..,!
agement of the business and made i
J
'
erecti tne Duilding. He was in one of the Eastern counties age
a very decided success in it. In a ° n* ^\ safe counsellor in de- , one hundred and fourteen years, it
few /ears he bought out his uncle's < »J™
» ,„ their plan, ™^~^*-£* ££
He sold the company one hundred
acres of land contiguous to the shoals.
This gave him stock to the amount
of twenty-five hundred dollars, to
which he added twenty-five hundred
more, giving him stock to the amount
of five thousand dollars. He still has
left, after selling the company one
hundred and sixty acres on the east
side of the river, which are now well
dotted with tenement houses that
are rented at prices, which, when ag-gregated,
amount to quite a hand-some
income. On the. west side ot
the river, joining tfce company's
land, he has a large body of land,
on a part of which he also has many
houses to rent. His wonderful in-
, sight into business is marvellous. It
chase was made by the Baxter boys, , geems ag if he knew what was going
to be developed or what was going
to take place or turn up before it
comes to a pass.
There is no one in this section of
the country who has been so suc-cessful
in business, or who has accu-mulated
property and increased in
riches as has he. He is proverbial
among the people as a man of busi-ness
talents and as one of extraor-i
dinary good fortune, and while he
interest and became the sole pro
prietor. He now begins to enlarge
his business, and to reach out in]
different directions for something
|
new and lucrative. And it may be
truthfully said of him, as it has been
said of some others that, "whatever
he touched turned to gold," and just
about this time he "touched' some-thing
that was turned into a "big
lump.'
He made a purchase of the High
Shoals tract of land on the East side
of the River. This was the land that
wa* in litigation for so many years,
about which I have had something
to say in some of my former writ-ings.
There was no dispute about
^
the titles of this land after the pur-j
which I think was in the year 1850.
They were both good lawyers, well
,
posted in all legal points; and es-j
pecially were they experts in trac-ing
the chain of titles, which was I
necessary to make an undisputed title
to a tract of land. Before talcing a
deed from Achillis Durham, who had
the land in possession, and from
whom they bought it, they were
careful to see every person holding
time of her death, the oldest person
in the state. The name of this very
aged person, so far as I remember,
was not given. It is very unusual for |
such an advanced age to be reached. I
It is only now and then that we hear
of any person passing, or even reach-ing,
one. hundred years of age. Some
few years ago I remember to have
heard it said that Aunt Anne Car-penter
was one hundred and five
years old when she died. I am in-vited
to be. present at a birthday din-ner
on the twenty-sixth of this month
(June), which is given in celebration
of the ninety-ninth anniversary of
Mrs. Deidamia Henson, but such oc-casions
are certainly like angel visits,
"few and far between." But it is
left to me to chronicle a case, which
breaks the record for longevity since
the days of Moses. "Moses died when
he was a hundred and twenty years
old; his eye was not dim, nor his
natural force abated." I furnish a
brief biography of my old nurse,
Mrs. Nancy Hollifield, who i s now
just about one hundred and fifteen
years old. I have no doubt but that
she is the oldest person now living
in North Carolina, and perhaps the
oldest in the United States. I stated
in some of my early reminiscenses
that Katy Moreland came to this
country from Ireland in the year
1756. ShV'was the daughter of John
and Betsy Moreland. This family,
settled in Columbia, South Carolina.
Their daughter Katy married a man
by the name of John Leake.
He was raised in the mountains
of Western North Carolina, and
I
-while wagoning to Columbia he met
I Miss Moreland, wooed and married
! her. To them were born saveral chil-dren.
One of them was named
Nancy, and the other is ,the heroine,
of whom we now write, and she is
certainly worthy of the title, which
we have given to her. She is certain-ly
a worthy specimen of our com-mon
humanity. I have tried to philo-sophize
a little on her case, and to
see if certain facts could be recon-ciled
to, or made to harmonize with,
| what seems to be some of the es-;
tablished laws of nature. We doubt
|
not for a moment but what the great
Author of nature's laws has the
power and prerogative either to
change or suspend those laws at will.
;
There is nothing connected with na-ture,
things which are made which
may not be modified, without in-fringing
any moral law or in any
sense impeaching the divine' charac-ter.
This old lady has been marvel-lously
endowed with vitality and nat-ural
force. There are two facts that
may be. stated in proof of this last
insertion. First it may be stated with
perfect assurance and' without fear
of contradiction, that she has done
more hard work, real drtfdgery than
any one woman—I am almost ready
to say two women—in all the coun-try
around. While I am writing her
daughter, Mrs. Smart has just said
to me. "Why mama, when she, was
sixty years old, could bind wheat
after two cradles, and when she was
sixty-five could do more hard work
than any of the girls can do now.'
Second, the fact that she gave birth
to a child when she was full three
score years old is proof not to be
controverted that the vigor of her
body was unequaled. amounting to a
phenomenon. When she was quite a
little girl, her mother gave her to
Jonas Liles, who live.d near High
Shoals. He raised her until she was
nineteen years old. She then lived
about with different families for a
long time, probably twenty years.
During all this time she was doing
hard work and much drudgery. Her
hands were always willing and her
feet nimble, and wherever she went
it seemed to be understood that she
was to take the formost row. Abo^it
this time (1821) she went to live
with the family of my father. Here
she remained about eleven years. It
was in second year after she
^ 13=-
ing and tears, aid when they had
pushed their research still further
they found that ffe was little Namjy
Leake, who had gone there to weep
over the gTave of her dead brother.
the secono y-r^- «~ ^ _= ^ must have oc
came into my father's family ^at
nine or
I was born. She was kind to my moth- currea w. ^ f ^ ^ ^ a. woo nv.*...
er, giving her all the attention needed
during her confinement, while she
was tender and attentive to the baby,
and when I think of those days of
watchfulness and tender nursing
I there springs up a feeling and emo-tion
very close kin to those possess-ing
the heart of a child toward the
I mother. And when the many kind-
Inesses, which were done in after life
[to my mother and her children and
especially the faithful nursing given
to my mother while on her last bed
of sickness (for she was untiring in
her atlention to the last), are re-membered,
they produce the pro-foundest
sense of obligation and
gratitude.
, ten years old, is proof of the real
j
tenderness and sympathetic nature:
of her disposition, and though herj
long life of hard work and drudgery
j
she has fully unmistakably testified,
to this redeeming and very praise-j
worthy trait of character by her
|
many and persistent acts of kindness i
and true devotion. .And while she
may have been regarded by some,
who were only partially acquainted
with her and- Knew but little of her
inner feeling, as being stem and
austure, yet those who have kno^n
her best could see an undercurrent
of tenderness and love as it flowed
silently and almost imperceptibly,
a * T^nh Wnlti sometimes being ojrite covered, over
She was married to Jacob Hoih- som
ds and sarcasttc ex.-
field when she was well advanced
"'.Jg^JJS which were not understood
life, by whom she had two children, pre. •• •-
_ v _,,
but they are both dead. She has made
her home with tier only living child,
Mrs. Smart, near Ellenboro, for some
years past where she is well cared
for and treated with great kindness
only by those who knew her well.
This old "lady has lived far beyond
the expectations of her friends or
physicians, and from her I have, been
able to learn many things that have
6
tJ interested me and which I may tell
Last January three years ago ,1 • Jg^gj on. she ig now awaiting-fell
from the door steps and dislo- other Jatex ^ ^
cated her hip Joint, from which time | theJ ™ o » ^^ she
.she has not been able to walk, but t,enc* *"a
„xt)reS8es a desire for
her mind is vigorous and her«JWgV ffESJ!
lory good. In regard to events of an-|™e aay w_ _
! cient date her memory is marvelous. I CHAPTER ELEVEN :
I
She can state with perfect clearness
,
Autobiography. .
j
incidents, which I am sure occurred]
r wag born the 31gt of ^^1
10ne hundred and five years ago. She
Rutherford County, N. C.\
remembered distinctly when the first . *° »•
crave was dug in the graveyard at
| My father and my mother were both
eld Providence church. From the natives of this county. My fathers!
name was William; my mother's
name was Nancy. Neither of them
had a double name. My mother's
best information that I can get this
church was organized in 1790. She
says the first person . buried there
was a woman by the name of Good-jwin.
The second person buried there
she remembers to have been her;
brother, Henry Leake.
ft Tradition tells a very pathetic
story ' connected with this second
graveyard There were a com
maiden name was Bedford. She was
the daughter- of Raimond and Mar-tha
Bedford. My father was the son
of James Lee, He was a native of
Virginia and came to North Caro-lina
about the year 1774. His first
settlement in this state was about
grave. Ihere c
rf ^ pany of lad.es going to church t»ere
!^ & m* back of the place where
shortly after fKls second grave had
j Jesa6 Webb now lives. The old wal
been opened, and when near the
church they heard an unusual noise
in the graveyard, which so alarmed
them that the most of them were
afraid to go any nearer, but one
of them said she must know what H
was. for it seemed to be a person in
great distress, and when near enough
j
to see they saw a person prostrate on
the newly made grave, moaning and
making lamentations with strong cry-nut
tree that stood near the house,
in which my father was born, andj
the. rock-walled spring, from which
he drank and carried water in hisj
childhood, are stall there.
— In company with Joe Webb I walk-ed
over the grounds and drank wat-er
from the spring, which are made
sacred by the power and influence
of association. When I bring into
close proximity in my mind the place
and the events that have taken place
If
thereon, I am made to feel as though
|
I should take, off my "shoes" be-cause
"the ground whereon I stand
is holy." Here my father was born
and lived til hi* marriage, which
took place in 1799. He first settled
after his marriage out on what was
then, and is yet, called the Island-
Ford road. The, place was known^ for
many years by the name of "the
Baxter old place." It is now owned
and lived on by Mrs. Hamrick. Here
j
he lived until three children were
born in the family; Patsy, Polly and
James. He then moved to my grand-father
Bedford's place, which was
just one-half mile above High Shoals.
Here he lived for two or or three
vears.
He then bought a tract of land on
Second Broad River, one mile above
High Shoals. Here he built a rough
primitive house with pine logs neith-
1
er hewn nor scalped. It was in this;
rude tenement that I first opened;
my eyes upon the light of heaven
and the objects of earth. I remember
the old building, though it was torn
away when I was only six years old.
j
Just a little while before I was
twelve, years old I went to live with
: my grandmother Bedford. She was
•an old woman of four-score years
land was very frail. I gave her all
i the help I could, brought all the
water, cut and carried in the wood
and made her fires. Very soon I was
milking her cows, doing her churn-ing
and helping her in various ways
about the house. She was fond ° f
cheese-making and in this branch of
industry I soon became quite an ex-pert.
I had a fondness for the busi-ness
as well as for the cheese itself.
Many a one did I make and assist
in making, but my dear old grand-mother
soon passed away. In pass-ing
out at the door she fell, sprain-ed
her hip and never walked any
more. She lived only about one year
after this, and like, a ripe shock of
grain was gathered into the "garner!
of- the Lord." How lonely was the
j
night that she died: I went by my-self
to tell mother that she was dead,
j
And O, how desolate I did feel; I
could scarcely deliver my message
when I got there. Oh, I felt so sorry
j
that grandma was dead, and I cried .
and sobbed. Mother spoke words of
comfort and condolence. She said, I
"Oh, my son we ought not to grieve
after your grandma, the good Lord
has spared her to us so long, and
she was so old, had suffered so much
and was so well prepared to go, I
don't think we ought to grieve for
her or wish her back," and so I was
able to dry up my tears, but could
not help thinking how lonely we
would be without old grandma.
I remained with my uncle a year
or to after the death of my grand-mother,
and then went to Ruther-fordton
and commenced with Wright
Wilson and Ancil Harden to learn
the wagon and carriage making busi-ness,
but not being so well pleased
with my surroundings and comrades
I only stayed about two months.
During this time I made some very
pleasant acquaintances; among them
was David Beam. He was several
years older than I was, but we were
together several times during my
stay in Rutherfordton. He was then
a right young man and was doing
business for his brother, Martin
; Beam. He was a young man of good
moral character and fine business
talents. Again in 1842 I had the
pleasure of meeting him at High
Shoals while he was doing business-;
there for an iron manufacturing!
company of South Carolina. I had
the pleasure of meeting him a few
weeks ago and find him to be the
same high-toned gentleman and en-ergetic
business man that he was in
1838 and 1842. I made also the ac-quaintance
of the two TwKty boys,
Decatur and Lafayette. They were
fine looking and brilliant young men,
fine specimens of our common human-ity.
In after years they went to
• Spartanburg, S. C, and carried on
I a large dry goods business for some
years. They were both good business
men, but traded too largely on the .
credit system, which made it against
]
them in the winding up. They both!
died in Spartanburg some years ago.
There was another man, whose 1
acquaintance I made the short, time
(
I spent in Rutherfordton, the Rev.
Abel Hoyle. He was the preacher in
charge of the Rutherfordton circuit.
j He was a young man of small sta-
; tue, broad chest, but rather delicate
i in appearance. He was a good preach-
I er, and so far as I remember, was
in good favor with his people. Wil-
; son, the man with whom I boarded,
was a Methodist and his house, was a
|
home for preachers, so I had a good
chance to get acquainted with the
"circuit rider." He had heard that
j, I was a member of the church and
was very kind and attentive to me. I
became very much attached to him
and l°ved to be in hi-, company, al-ways
feeling that I was edified and
built up by his spiritual talks and
Godly admonitions, but at the close
of this conference year he was sent
to another field of labor and I saw;
him no more. He has long since gone
to reap his reward for faithfulness,
in the Master's service.
j
I was engaged with Thomas Bax-
1
ter, who was a thrifty farmer in the
j
neighborhood, and went to farm,
work again. The wages that I was to
receive, as agreed upon, were five
dollars per month, which was con-sidered
at that time to be a fail-remuneration
for the labor of a
sixteen year old boy, and so I was
"sent into the fields," not to "feed
swine" but to plough and hoe and
kill grass, and this was the. work, in
which my hands were employed for
several years. Sowing and reaping.
While with this man I did some hard,
rough and even perplexing work. It
was during my stay with him that
those bottoms now owned by the
Welkins' heirs and are in such fine
state of cultivation, were cleared up
and ditched off and prepared for the
plough. Ditching is hard work; cov-j
ering them over, after making a
small rock culvert at the bottom as
a drainage for the water, is rough
work, but what shall we say when it
comes to ploughing among the tu"-
sicks of an old mill-pond place where
there is no solid ground upon which
your horse can place his feet, but
all is mire and softness for some dis-tance
around. The plough hangs un-der
one of these tussicks, the many
little fibrous roots holding it down
being more than equal to the strength
of the animal; there is a perfect
hitch. Sunk into the mire half way
to the knees he cannot give back;
the strength of the youthful plough-man
not being sufficient to handle
the plough the hitch continues until
it becomes very analogous to the
dead-locks, which sometimes hold
fast our legislative bodies.
I have said that I did not only
hard and rough work but also vex-ing
or perplexing work, and now I
leave it for my readers' to say wheth
er I have used a misnomer, or a word
inappropriately. If the wickedness of
the Sodomites vexed the, righteous
soul of Lot from day to day, I think
surely it would not have been less
j
vexed had he have ploughed among
turfs and tussicks of a mill-pond
place, but not only did I do hard
i work while I stayed with Baxter,
but other cares ware upon me. A
] part of the time I had to look after
and take care of a lunatic. Alfred Mc-
Kinney, a very noted character in
the country, had become insane. He
wa,s the only child of his father. His
father was a rich man for that day,
having some fifteen or twenty like-ly
slaves and a large quantity of land.
He was regarded as one of the weal-thiest
men in the country. Alfred
being the only child, of course, he
was looked upon and spoken of as a
rich man, but his riches proved to
be a curse rather than blessing. He
married a Miss Moreland when he
was quite a young man. His father
gave him money to buy a nice, stock
of goods and he commenced mer-
chandising on the south side of Main
Broad River at the Island-Ford. He
opened a large stock of goods and
drew customer/? for many miles
around. There was no country store
.
in the country that could compete
with McKinney's. It was said that he
sold more goods than any one house
in town, but he soon began to tem-per
with the "fire water of hell." He
became a drunkard, lost his mind,
squandered a great deal of his prop-
. y, mistreat jd his wife, abused his
children, annoyed his neighbors and
was finally taken and lodged in the
county jail.
Here he was kept some weeks, i
but my ucle Hawkins Bedford, who
had been a schoolmaster of his in
their boyhood and having such a
profound sympathy for him, went
and arranged to take him out of jail
and engaged to keep him at his own
house and take care of him as best
he could. This was before the luna-.
tic asylum "was established in North |
Carolina. But he found him very
troublesome and hard to manage. He
would get up out of bed in the night
and wander off in the darkness, and
in this way. gave my uncle a great
deal of trouble. He got very tired and
worn out with him and got Thomas
Baxter to take him off his hands.
Baxter's wife was very much against
the arrangement, as she could not
baar the thought of having a crazy
j
man about the house, but her oppo-sition
was disregarded and the crazy
man was taken into the family, and
now the unpleasant task of taking
charge of him and looking after him
devolved on me. I had to- follow him
in his, rambles by day and by night.
I could stand the day rambles very
well, but the night rambles got,
away with me, and in order to pro-'
vide against them I suggested to
Baxter that we devise some means,
by which he could be confined in bed
and stop his rambling at night; and
so acting upon my suggestion we
I fastened a chain to the wall at the
: head of the bed, in which he and 1
1
I
slept, by taking an iron staple and
| putting it through the last link of
: the chain and driving it into the log,
so as to allow the chain to hang
down between the wall of the house
and head of the bed, but little did I
think when we were thu,s arranging
that I was doing as did Haman when
he erected the gallows upon which he
intended to hang Mordecai. I did
not dream that even an attempt would
be made to fasten me with the chain,
which I had prepared to bind another.
He was very quiet at night for some-time,
making no- attempt to leave
I the bed. I suppose he saw the chain
land knew its object. Everything pass-ed
on quietly for sometime. My place
his trying to fasten the chain around
my neck. He had reached down and
in the bed was on the front side, so
j home three likely negroes at one
that he could not get out and not time that belonged to the estate of
wake me up, but I was awakened one , old James McKinney, and it was said
night, not by his trying to get out j that he got them all for taking care
of bed as I had often been, but by of Alfred and looking after his busi-ness,
but he recovered pretty well
from his insanity, gathered up the
drawn it up from where it hung at-* * f
n
_J
thafc he had left and mov-the
head of the bed and had passed ° W*?t-
t
it under my neck—I was lying upon' n * r<5m«nber b«n& at his house a
my back—and when I awoke he waslj
D
f
B°to
r
g<>unty
' North Mississippi,
trying (as it seemed to me, for I
*We
.
|
1
.
W"j!?Te
li
n* the OwUhM*
did not move for a few moments
Clrcujt/n 186 »- He was then lhria,
on a farm and seemed to be doing
right' well. His wife told me he ww
not drinking any and was agreeaU*
to his family. He might have bee*
one of the richest men in the coun-try
had it not been for strong drink.
It ruined him and brought his fam-ily
into very destitute circumstance*
and as it did for him, and brougkl
his family to degredation and wa»i.
so did it do for many others of hm
day and so is it doing for many •#
it he would renew thTattempt. After
the Pr<*ent *» and generation. II
he had waited sufficiently long, Jfi
Slay'"g ltS thousand3 »*"»"»•
he thought, for me to get fa,st asleep] CHAPTER TWELVE
again he reached softly over, took! ^ fc
. year 184Q j am now
hold of the chain, drew it up and
was again trying to fasten the linksi™ ^ seventeenth year, a member
together. What object he had in view **" <*«ch but not • professor of
I did not know; neither have I been
Peh«lon- * had been "hgiously tram-able
since, in thinking about it, to
*d
:_
f™m 2Z£**S2t2£ "?**'
'decide in my own mind what he in-after
waking, waiting to find out
what he intended) to pass one link
through another, but it is not a time
for long waiting when a crazy man
is trying to fasten a chain around
one's neck. He had reached out and
drawn it up from where it hung at
the head of the bed and passed ife
under my neck, as I have stated be^
fore, so I turned over on my right
side, the chain falling in front of
me, and I lay quiet for awhile to see
tended to do, or whether he had any
evil purpose or not. Probably his ob-ject
was only to frighten me a lit-tle,
or it may have been that he
thought of getting the chain so fas-tened
around my neck that he could
hold me down and give me a sound
beating, or it may have been that he
thought of choking the life out
of me right there and then. We
can't define the thoughts of crazy
man, but at this juncture I rose on
him and asked what he was doing.
He gave me no definite answer, but
seemed to be greatly confused, jump-ed
out of bed saying he was hun-gry
and would have something to
eat. We both dressed and started for
the kitchen, and there chanced to
be a good good supply of eatables on
hand, as it was hog-killing time, and
quite a good quantity had been cook-ed
up and was ready for the emer-gency.
I spread it all out and told
him to help himself, and he pitched
in without using either knife or fork,
and though part of the supply had
been finely hashed, he would 1 use his
fingers and while his head was
thrown back he would cram hU
being a devoted Christian woman,
feeling the responsibility that was
upon her as a parent and especially
as a mother, dedicated me to God in
Christian baptism. I say Christian
Baptism, because all the elements
essential to constitute Christian bap
tism fully met in my case. I was
baptised in the name of the Holy
Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
I was baptised by a legal and consti-tutional
administrator; the Scriptural
element-water-was used, and I being
a fit Bible subject for baptism there
was nothing lacking to constitute
what we consider, and recognize, to
be "Christian baptism" but I had
not carried out practically the work
my good mother had begun for me.
I had not up to this time given my-self
wholly to God. I had not fully
consecrated my heart and life to Him
and His services. True, I had exper-ienced
some very pleasant sensations
and felt my emotional nature stirred
within me as I had listened to the
recital of personal Christian exper-ience.
Soma .such occasions come vividly
into my mind as I write these lines.
There was a prophet of the Lord, a
mouth full of the hashed meat; after
h -^ of Godi that made his an_
this operation had gone on for some-nua]
vigits to Qur neighborhood. He|
time he said to me, "I am not eat-wag
as certain in hig calls as the
ing this, because I want it, but just
E]igha wag fa hi, visitg to
to show you that it won't hurt me,
shunanlt «where was a great wo-j
We had a sight of trouble with him, man „
j suppose that Elisha went!
but I suppose Baxter was well paid down ^ shunam to preach. Tnis was
| for it all. I remember that he brought
the ob^ct of the prophet, of whom
we now speak, in coming to our com-munity.
He came to preach His name
was John Godfrey, but all the people
had a pet name for him and wou d
call him "Uncle Jackie." He would
spend several days among us and
visit from house to house. He was
spending a night with Thomas Bax-ter
I was there. He related an inci-dent
that had occured in his past
experience, which fully established
the fact that the mind could be so
j completely absorbed by devine medi-i
tation as to make it unconscious or
|
insensible of the manner or way that
'the body is exercised. He said, 1
was preparing a piece, of new ground
for a turnip patch. It was very rough
and full of roots, but I finally got it
ready for the plough, and now comes,
I said to myself," 'the tug of war.
How can I get it ploughed? I had no
well-trained, patient horse, nothing
but a young fractious, half-trained
filley What shall I do? I got my gears
and plough in readiness, but dreaded
Jhe undertaking. How can I plough
such ground with a fretful colt? I be-
1
gan to feel that I needed help, biul
there was no one to help me, no one
to lend the colt or hold the plough.
T began to think up some Bible prom-ise
that I could claim and plead in
this emergency, and one came instant-ly
into my mind, 'Call upon me in
the day of trouble and I will deliver
thee " I said, yes, that suits my case,
pxaetly. I'm m trouble. I don't know ,
how I am going to get through with
j
this job, but the way was made plain
to me in the promise; so I went ngnt
off and hitched up the colt, meditat-
I ing at the same time upon the prom-
I ise, thinking about the condition and
fyia" to fulfill it, and by the time
I was ready to begin ploughing I was
considerably drawn out in prayer and
meditation. I began my work and
continued to call upon God, keeping
it in mind all the time that this was'
the condition to be met, and when
fully met deliverance would be giv-en.
I never prayed more ardently and
'never had a more complete deliver-ance.
The ploughing was . done, but i
knew not how. Whether the colt had
fretted or been quiet I could not tell.
The first thing that I was perfectly
conscious of I was standing at one
corner of the patch looking how 1
could plough it the second time, and
; if I had been asked how the filley had
I done I could not have told. 'It seem-ed
to me' said the old man, 'that the
' Holy Ghost came upon me and upon
'the colt and we worked in perfect
harmony with each other, both be
ing under Divine influence and con-trol."
I have often spoken of this
circumstance, because of its effect
upon me. My tears flowed profusely.
My emotional nature was touched
and moved to its very center. I was
convicted and almost converted, and
if "Uncle Jackie" ha£ called for!
mourners I would have gone up. If 1
I had known the real, true nature of
"the kingdom of God," if I had un-derstood
that it were as a grain of
mustard seed, small in the beginning
but grew to be something great and
glorious; had I understood all this
at that time and have given the "lit-tle
seed" proper culture I might have
been saved some trouble and anx-iety
of heart later on. On another
occasion, 'some three years before
the one just recited, I felt my heart
"strangely warmed."
I was yet living with my uncle,
but had ploughed a day for Thomas
Baxter. The field in which I plough-ed
was between the road, on which
Geo. Hawkins now lives, and the
creek. I think the road then was just
about where it is now. The field was
a large one, and the rowfi were, long,
reaching the whole length of the
field and from the road down to the
edge of the bottom (the bottom was
not yet cleared up). After having
worked with Baxter through the day,
making as many furrows and plough-
I ing as many rows as he, did, I was
leaving for home; had gotten over
the fence; was taking a few words,
when he said to me, "Well, Christen-
1
berry, we have been working togeth-er
today in the cornfield; now let us
work together in the field of the
' Lord, God has a great field to be cul-tivated,
and we are the laborers
that he employs for its cultivation.
Every human heart is one of God's
fields, and oh, how much it needs
cultivating. The soil is fertile and
whatever grows there is luxuriant.
If it be uncultivated and the seeds
of sin allowed to grow therein, how
fearful be the result." As he talked
along after this strain I felt a mov-ing
sensation within, which caused
tears to flow from my eyes, and Bax-ter
seeing 'that my feelings were
touched reached his hand through the
crack of the fence, took hold <"
of light and glory was poured into
my soul as though it came right down
from the regions above. I saw it be-fore
it reached me. It had the ap-pearance
of an electric flash as it;
darts across the bosom of the threat- 1
ning cloud. It seemed as if it came
right into my heart, and just then
the burden was lifted and an uplift-:
ing influence came upon me and an:
elevating power seemed to take hold:
upon me. I arose from my knees,;
sat upon the bench and asked myj
brother John, who sat close by, to,
sing. I wanted to hear music, for now
j
the sweet music of heaven was ring-ing
in my head and was responsive
to the sweet music of earth.
Soon after this the Rev. C. A.
Crowell, who was then preacher in
charge of the Rutherfordton Circuit,
appointed me class leader at Provi-dence
Church, which office I held as
long as I remained in the country-
In the year 1843 I went out with
my brother, Felix Walker, into the
western district of Tennessee. He had
lived here seven years, having gone
out in the year 1837. The first year
after I went out there was spent in
going to school, preparatory to the
work to which I then felt I was call-ed.
In the early spring of 1844 I
was licensed to preach by the Quar-terly
Conference of the Lagrange
Circuit, which met in the town of
Lagrange, G. W. D. Harris was pre-siding
elder, Wilson L. McAlister
preacher in charge and Lewis L.
Davis junior preacher. As soon as I
received my license I went directly
to the Oxford circuit in Mississippi.
It had been previously arranged that
I should travel the balance of the
Conference year with William R.
Morgan, who' had lived in the pre-vious
year in Lagrange and with
whom I had become well acquainted.
He was a good man and a faithful,
worker. The Memphis Annual Con-ference
met that fall in the town
of Sommerville, Tenn. The quarter-j
ly conference of the Oxford circuit;
I gave me a recommendation to this
, conference for admission into the
oi wc icuv*-, «-~— ( tujuc-i^"^1- ~«~
mine and we had quite a good little traveling connection. I attended the
hand-shaking. It may have been that
the mustard seed was at that time
cast into the soil and all it needed
I was proper culture.
^CHAPTER THIRTEEN
In the year 1840 I attended the
conference and was received on trial.
This was the first conference after
the division of the Methodist church.
It was presided over by Bishop
James. He was a Northern man and
la new Bishop, having been elected
I, *o-« . - .'• at the late General Conference,
meeting at Camp's camp-ground °n|j
whicli was heid in New York in tl
o-._4.u „;,i„ n f Main Broad river,;. . ,» ti„ was a e0CK
the. South side of ^ver.U ^.^ May. He good little
about two miles neTow Island Ford. [^^ wn<, we]1 received by con-
It was at this meeting that I made
for the first time an open profession
of religion. I don't remember that
oi religion- * «— -
I went to the altar very often. Don t
think I did, but while there a stream
! man was well the con-ference
and presided to the entire
satisfaction of the conference. He
preached an able sermon on Sunday
from the text, "God forbid that 1
.should glory save in the cross of our
<VM*9V ITiifV iTir t "*?* ~ v*.v«.%.wai- -«j-**»T±f*e*v
Lord Jesus Christ." He held on to
the North and was never at another
Southern Conference. My first ap-pointment
the Ripley circuit. It lay
mostly in. Tippah county, North Miss-issippi.
My colleague William S.
Jones. He was a good man, but not
a very strong preacher. William M.
McFerrin was my presiding elder.
He was the brother of John B. Mc-
Ferrin, the editor of the Nashville
Christian Advocate; a good preacher,
but not so able a man as his brother.
It was a very pleasant year with me,
though something occurred to bring
sorrows to my hear. It wag this year;
that my brother John died. He had
gone out West about one year be-fore
he died. I had seen him only
twice after he went out. He died at
the house of a Mrs. Johnson seven
miles from Lagrange. The disease!
with which he died, I believe, was!
typhoid fever. I was holding a meet--
ing at a church called Hickory Flat?
The news that my brother was dead
came to the church on Saturday, but
the brethern thought best, as I was
alone in the meeting and had all the,
preaching to do, not to tell me until
the meeting was over. We closed on
Sunday in the afternoon. I went
home with a brother Moorman, and
they then told me of the death of
my brother. That; afternoon an in-cident
occurred, which greatly im-pressed
me and of which I have of-ten
spoken.
Of course we talked about things
that were solemn and impressive af-ter
having received such sad news.
Our conversation was about death
and the necessity of being prepared
for it at any time. There were two
children present listening to the talk,
one the son and the other the grand-daughter
of brother Moorman. They
were about the same age, eight years
old. These, children, it seems, were
impressed' by hearing us talk and
made to feel the importance of being
ready to. die. After while the chil-dren
were missed. Search was made
for them, but it was sometime be-fore
they could be found, as they
had gone some distance from the
house down a little branch through
the thick woods, looking, as it seems,
for a very private and secluded place
where they could be all alone. We
had all gone out in .search of them,
and after a half-hour of anxious look-ing
they were found kneeling by an
old log, apparently in great agony,
for they were both crying and pray-ing
with much earnestness of mind
and spirit. Never before had I seen
anyone in greater distress on account
of a sense of sins unfo-rgiven than
were these two children, and ,so they
continued for sometime after we
found therm, crying out and saying,
I am not prepared to die, I am not
prepared to die, but after talking to
them for awhile and giving them all
the instruction and encouragement
we could, they were relieved. The
mighty burden, which had weighed
so heavily upon them, was lifted;
their troubled passed away, their cry-ing
ceased, their countenances were,
changed, and I have never before nori
since witnessed brighter or happier
conversions than were theirs. The
little boys' especially was wonderful
and to his mother it became alarm-ing,
for the little fellow expressed
himself as wishing right then to go ,
to Heaven. His mother said to me,
"I believe the Lord is going to take my boy right now." My reply was
"Let Him do whatsoever seemeth
it good. If the Lord thinks best to
take your child now," said I, "it will
be all right." He was not taken then,
His father was a nice old man and
j
stood high en the community. W. M.
I McFerrin was still my presiding
elder. My work was in his district
four years.
My fifth appointment was the
Grenada circuit in the most southern
part of our conference. Robert L.
Andrews was my presiding elder. He
was transferred from the Tennessee
to the Memphis Conference, and I
believe the Grenada District was his
first appoint in our conference. He
was a good preacher and very soon
became quite a favorite with all
the people. I was again this year
{hrown a great deal in company with
Lewis H. Davis, the. blind preacher
that I have before mentioned. He was
stationed in Grenada and boarded
with a brother Sims. He had at the
same house every conference that
I had attended. He was a very pleas-ant
Knt i;„D^ * u companion and always
seemed , . — ' u '"'"Pai'on ana ing ght °' tl
E
l
UTTe a
T
d ShIa- elEd t0 haVe me With Wm. I would
world The last ac^rT^ ^ ^ MBd f°r Mm and then ™ ™.ld talk
liWren th y were ti. * ^I ^^ the leSS°n read
" He was a *»°d
for Christ
-witnessing expositor of the Bible. I have listen
'
j
ed to his exposition with much
CHAPTER FOURTEEN terest and profit. He lost his
My next work was the Itawambia
Circuit. Here I was in charge, hav-ing
Robert Martin for a colleague.
,
He was several years older than I,
j
bqth in age and in ministry, and I
thought at the time snould have
been the