State

THE STATE September 7, 1935 Kilkenny, one •>< л© most iso¬ lated villages in the «tale, i* about t<* got a “break,” whether it care# for il or not. I ’ut il roe© ally this little settlement down in Tyrrell County, almost on I In* border-line of Hyde and Tyrrell, with its twenty families and a population of approximately one hundred people, had been “discovered*’ bv few outsiders. Now, however, it is connected with Co¬ lumbia and Fairfield by a road which recently has been built through that section. For many years Alligator River, on which Kilkenny is situated, was the only outlet the people of the village could use. In more recent years the natives made their way out at infrequent in¬ terval' and during dry weather over a narrow trail, barely wide enough for a horse and eart. There was only one automobile in the vi Ibgc. In Middle of a Huge Swamp Situated in the middle of a huge swamp, the spongy condition of tho land indicates that the soil has been built up from waste that drifted in from a large body of water. With two exceptions, Kilkenny is populated with descendants of the set¬ tlers of a century ago. W. T. Dodge, whose father moved to Kilkenny from Long I*land in 1S76, is the ouly resi¬ dent who wasn’t born there. When tho original Dodge family moved into the locality there were only six homes, ull built of native timber, crudely cut by hand and jointed together with wooden pegs. The present population has grown out of those six families, whoso sons and daughters have intermarried and have continued to live there in the того- or-lc'S lazy and idle fashion of their ancestors. To be i*rfeetly frank about it— per- hapi brutally frank— Kilkenny folks never have worked very much. As long as there is food in the house they are content. If the supply happens to run low they contrive in some wav or another to replenish it. There are plenty of lisli to be had with very little olTort, and the swamps and woods are full of wild life which can either be trapped or shot. Cows Roamed at Large Before passage of the stock law, wild cows roamed in great numbers. If a cow was wanted for the family milk supply all that was necessary was to go out and catch a calf, lame it and then raise it for a milk cow. A few of these wild cows si ill roam the woodlands. Superstition continues to reign to a considerable degree at Kilkenny, and the natives believe firmly in witchcraft Page Three Scene along the Inland Waterway, a short distance from Kilkenny, in Tyrrell County. Folks of Kilkenny THEY loil little, nor do lltov do Hindi spinning, lint they seem to be get¬ ting along all right de¬ spite the fact that they have been eiit off from the oiilside nor Id a long time. By I.iiln .11. H eir ★ of various kinds. Buck in earlier days, when the men made shingles from cy¬ press trees for a livelihood, il was im¬ portant the way a tree happened to fall. If it fell in the wrong direction, all work was suspended for eight days; otherwise bad luck was sure to befall the choppers. Honey was an important native product in those days and many bee-hives were maintained. But woe un¬ to the individual who dared count his hives; it was a sure omen of bad luck. No negroes are allowed at Kilkenny. The natives aren’t accustomed to them and won’t allow thorn to live there. Two Churches in the Village There are two churches in the village —Methodist and Disciple — but sen-ices are rather spasmodic. Sunday School never has been a success. Some of the natives admit that they do not always know when Sunday comes around : they lose track of the days, and one day is very much like the one which preceded or followed it. A boat ride from Gum Neck to Kil¬ kenny is an interesting experience. The Alligator River is very crooked, with swamps on either side. One can see the spongy land go up and down with tho waves made by the boat. Limbs of gum- beny tn-es on each side of the river aro broken and ragged. So are the small trees which have been broken by bears hunting for berries during the berry season. Tho Dodge estate, purchased by tho Into George Dodge, father of tho pres¬ ent owner, consists of 700 acres of wood¬ land only a few of which have been cleared. At the time of the purchase, there was little cleared land in that section and most of it was under water part of the time. But the Dodge family conceived a plan by which their land could bo drained; one of the greatest accomplishments in the way of manual labor over known in that section. Collecting old pieces of machinery, they mode a dredge and dredged a cnnnl 22 feet in width, seven feet deep and one and one-half miles long, extending (Continued on page twenty)