USA > South Carolina > Spartanburg County > A history of Spartanburg county > Part 11
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2
WOFFORD COLLEGE
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THE BAPTIST CHURCH OF THE FIFTIES
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chapter in the educational history of the town. J. Wofford Tucker was the first president of the Spartanburg Female College, having been for a number of years a lawyer and associate editor of the Spartan, and a representative of the District in the State Legislature. With him were associated the Reverend Charles Taylor and Miss Phoebe Paine, who came back to Spartanburg on the invitation of the trustees of the Female College. The college was never financially successful, and suffered from many changes of teachers. Tucker removed to St. Louis, and was succeeded by the Reverend Charles Taylor, who resigned the next year, and was succeeded by Reverend Joseph Cross, D.D. Professor William K. Blake accepted the pres- idency in 1859, coming to Spartanburg from a successful career as president of Fayetteville Seminary. He conducted the college with success until war conditions forced its temporary closing during 1863.
Other Meanwhile the Spartanburg Female Seminary and the
Schools Male Academy prospered. Several other schools flour- ished in the fifties. The Odd Fellows conducted a school for some years, and then sold or leased their building for a "select school for young ladies." J. Forrest Gowan, a native son, who wrote poetry and fiction, was also a teacher, and advertised "classes on Friday evenings at seven o'clock for Young Gentlemen, in Elocu- tion, Composition, and Penmanship; and on Monday afternoons at two o'clock for Juveniles."
The Episcopalians of the vicinity manifested great vitality and educational enterprise during this period. In 1853 two of their clergymen, the Reverends John D. McCollough and T. S. Arthur, bought some property at Glenn Springs for the purpose of estab- lishing an Episcopal Female College. Apparently they abandoned this plan, for the next year the Reverend J. D. McCollough bought a tract of land in Spartanburg and erected on it what he called St. John's College. This he sold to T. S. Arthur for $5,200. Arthur and William Irwin operated it for some time at a loss. Then Arthur sold his interest to Irwin, who had been in charge of the Male Academy, and he transformed the institution into a classical, scien- tific, and military academy, under the name "St. John's High School." It occupied the present site of Converse College, and operated successfully until 1862, when it was closed, and Irwin joined the Confederate Army. Spartans boasted of the beauty of the school's grounds, the city-like air of its plant, the home-like
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tone of its life, and the excellent ratings its graduates received at the South Carolina College.
The Spartanburg Express
In the spring of 1854 the Spartan found itself with a contemporary, the Spartanburg Express, with the mottoes, "For the Encouragement of the True, the Useful, and the Beautiful," and "I was born free as Caesar; so were you ; Shakespeare." The new journal was published every Thursday, as was the Spartan; and both devoted themselves to the advertisement of the town and district. The Express presented many interesting articles on national affairs, and was especially remarkable for the care with which it reviewed Southern magazines and books.
Working on As early as 1849 it was clear that railroads were the Railroad feasible, and a charter was secured for the Spartan- burg-Union Railroad. Meetings were held, companies formed, and stock subscribed for the construction of plank roads, as well as for railroads. Politicians declaimed, editors expounded and business men organized ; but not until November, 1859, did a train pull into Spartanburg.
The ten years that elapsed between the first agitation for a rail- road to Spartanburg and its successful culmination were filled with struggle and clashes of opinion. In June, 1853, the editor of the Spartan deplored the "sleepy condition on the subject of Plank Road improvements" that existed locally and pointed out the danger that Spartanburg might lose the Rutherford trade if she did not compete against a plan on foot to build a plank road from Cleveland, N. C., to Yorkville. Spartanburg had nearly 1,000 population, but was so inactive that Laurens was about to enter into a movement to extend her railroads to Mills Gap and thereby get the trade which should be Spartanburg's. The editor warned Spartans that they might be left dependent for their transportation on teamsters who would still haul Spartanburg products to market and sleep by the roadside, while more alert towns enjoyed the services of iron horses and steel rails. Several stock companies were projected for the building of plank roads. The Spartan dwelt on the importance of developing at once a plank road to Hendersonville to connect with the proposed railroad from Union. While Hendersonville was distant forty-five miles from Spartanburg and only forty from Green- ville, yet Spartanburg was fifty miles nearer Charleston than Green- ville. Moreover, the road between Spartanburg and Hendersonville
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was a better graded one than that between Greenville and Hender- sonville.
The people of Spartanburg were much concerned with making it possible to import more economically through Charleston; but the Spartan editor contended that it was even more important that they should plan to build up an export trade. The rich mineral re- sources of the Piedmont ought to be manufactured and sent over the world from the port city of Charleston. The railroads should be extended through Tennessee to bring in coal. Spartan manufac- turers, through wasteful mismanagement, he declared, had almost exhausted their forests. The "Old Iron District" would soon have to import fuel for smelting ore; Tennessee could supply it. The Spartanburg Express, in 1857, boasted that its editor, John H. Evins, was in Columbia watching out for the interests of the proposed Spartanburg and Union Railroad.
Many difficulties attended the building of the Spartanburg-Union Railroad. The selection of the route was not made without arousing bitter feelings among the residents of sections which could not be included. The road cost more than was expected; and even after construction was well along, the directors were pleading with the public to subscribe for additional stock to the amount of $50,000 to insure its completion. The Asheville, N. C., News advocated a railway between Asheville and Spartanburg to connect with the Spartanburg-Union road, and urged Spartans to see to it that the road under construction be well built. The News remarked that nearly every rain "washed out" the Greenville-Columbia road at some points.
It frequently happened that a day would pass when the mails were not brought through, because every available train had to be used to haul rails and cross ties. In anticipation of ultimate benefits, the public was willing to exercise patience on those occasions when the railroad authorities published a card stating that the public must expect the passenger train from Columbia to Union to run as much as three hours late "because of necessary hauling of construction materials."
The Railroad Eventually the road neared completion, and it was Barbecue possible to set a date for welcoming the first train into Spartanburg. Committees which included all of the outstand- ing citizens of the district were appointed-one on general arrange-
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ments, one for subscriptions and provisions, and one on invitations. A "Railroad Barbecue," to be held November 25, 1859, was planned. Papers in Spartanburg, Union, Rutherfordton, Asheville, and Hen- dersonvile were requested to publish a general invitation. The edi- tor of the Carolina Spartan wrote: "We want a rousification - a big-gun affair, and you must help with the explosion."
The appointed day was pleasant, and the festival brought to little Spartanburg, then a village of about twelve hundred population, throngs estimated at from eight to fifteen thousand. They arrived in every sort of vehicle over all roads-from North Carolina and Tennessee, from Columbia and Charleston.
Plans had been based on the anticipated arrival of the train at eleven o'clock. It arrived at one, the delay having been occasioned by the necessity for making a second section. It brought the speak- ers and dignitaries, and a band from Unionville. Alongside the railroad station, in long trenches, eight thousand pounds of meat had been barbecued. There were speeches, greetings, congratula- tions, admonitions : Spartanburg was no longer isolated; she must, therefore, open up her mines, invite in new enterprises. She was already in the lead in the State in educational institutions, mines, mineral springs, and water power, which were now for the first time made easily accessible. All the speakers agreed that she must now develop these valuable resources.
As soon as the Spartanburg-Union Railroad was
The Railroad Convention completed-in fact, on November 26, 1859, the day following its opening-Spartanburg was the scene of a "Railroad Convention" attended by directors of three roads; the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap, and Charleston Railroad; the Greenville (Tenn.) and French Broad Railroad; and the Spartanburg-Union Railroad. The object in view was to consolidate the three companies. This step was of vital importance in the development of Spartanburg.
To the rank and file of citizens, the daily departure at 4 a. m. of a train bound for Columbia, the patronage in summer of boarders from the Low Country, and the possibility of freighting cotton and machinery by rail instead of laboriously hauling them to or from market, these benefits were enough. But to the builders of Spartan- burg this first railroad was but a step in the transformation of their town into a great center.
CHAPTER ELEVEN Social Life in the Old Days
Spartan Rigor and Compensation
The name Spartan was well chosen for a region where the earliest social centers were block- houses and forts. Pushing toward the Cherokee frontier as they did, the first settlers paid the penalty of their daring by having to live for nearly a score of years under the menace of Cherokee ven- geance. Tradition says they devised signals and, when Indians were reported to be on the warpath, bells were rung or cow-horns blown, and the settlers, driving their household animals before them, made for. the forts. Sometimes a scalped woman was brought in and nursed to recovery. Sometimes part of a family would arrive in anguish, having seen their dearest ones scalped or dragged away into captivity. At such times the men organized expeditions into the Indian country to attempt recapture or reprisal, leaving their women and children at some fort.
Yet, even in such circumstances, life was not without its joys. Courtships went along famously. Broken hearts found balm. For example, the widow of John Miller, killed by Indians, was a refugee for a time at Fort Prince, and married James Jordan, the com- missary in charge. He bought an ivory comb and some sugar and rice for her on one of his trading trips. There is a story that a daughter of the Bishop family got back home after seven years of captivity among the Indians, and that she reared a large family. Tradition runs that while the men of Nazareth neighborhood were at Cowpens, their womenfolk were gathered at the Steadman home waiting for Kate Barry to bring them news, and that they made the occasion into a quilting party.
Quilting parties and cotton-pickings were frequent social
Work Frolics diversions of pioneer women, in the days before Eli Whit- ney's gin had relieved them of the drudgery of picking the seed out of the cotton by hand. Especially pleasant were those quilting parties designed to honor prospective or actual brides.
Sometimes log-rollings were combined with quilting parties. A farmer desiring new land cleared, prepared in advance for the occasion by topping the trees in a selected tract and piling the tops in heaps. The neighbors invited to help divided themselves into gangs. The first gang proceeded to fell the trees. The choppers followed, whacking off the limbs, cutting the logs into convenient lengths, and placing them in piles. The next gang added the limbs
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to the piles of dried tops already on the spot. Other gangs followed, arranging the logs on the heaped-up piles of brush. Finally each pile was set on fire and burnt to ashes. Care had to be taken that the sparks did not fly too far, and that the fires were put entirely out before the party broke up. A log-rolling at its best was com- bined with a house-raising. Then the choice logs were reserved and used in the construction of a new house. In the earliest days, the logs were left round and notched to fit, clay being used to chink the crevices.
Corn-shuckings were jolly occasions. They occurred in the fall, and, as a rule, were free of any commercialism. The farmer issued a general invitation for such a festivity, and his neighbors came, bringing slaves and families. The housewives sometimes brought along special preserves or cakes for which they were fa- mous, and all the women busied themselves with their quilting or cotton-carding, or with preparing the feast which was to crown the men's labors. The best was none too good for such an occasion. Loaded tables were spread on porches and in the yards as well as in the dining room.
Often a jug of liquor was buried in the center of each pile of corn and could be passed from hand to hand only when the last ear was shucked. Usually a song-leader mounted the pile of corn and kept the shuckers busy, hand and tongue. Various quaint customs grew up in connection with corn-shuckings. On some plantations, when the last ear of corn had been tossed on the pile, the master of the plantation must run from the place and all the men must chase him. When he was caught, he was placed on the shoulders of two men and carried around and around the house, followed by the whole crowd, laughing and singing and having a good time. Then he was carried into his house. His hat was pulled off and thrown into the fire, for he must not try to raise a second crop under an old hat. Then his hair was combed, his knees crossed, and he must sit in state until all had "washed up" and were ready to eat. No sooner was the feast ended than the tables were put out of the way, fiddlers tuned up, and dancing, games, or singing began.
Ante-Bellum As times grew more settled, saw-mills were set up,
Houses and time and labor were available for house build- ing. Then log cabins were replaced by sturdy-and sometimes even stately-framed houses built of hewn logs, of sawed hardwood or heart pine, and hand-dressed lumber. Houses were usually weather-
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boarded. Before 1800, bricks were being made on some plantations and brick chimneys were being put up, or brick was combined with stone. Plaster was early made of the white sand and clay found in many parts of the county. So far as is known, few stone houses were built in early times in what is now Spartanburg County, al- though there were some in Cherokee, Union, and Oconee counties.
Log houses of the type built by the pioneers continued to be the typical dwellings of Negroes and very poor white people, even into the eighties. How cheaply such a house could be built was set forth by Hammond, who estimated that the cost for work and material varied throughout the State, according to locality, from $30 to $50. This estimate was made for a log cabin twenty feet square, with a wooden floor a foot or more above the ground, ten feet between joints, plastered outside with clay and ceiled inside with pine boards, with a chimney and board roof. A house like this "furnished com- plete protection against the vicissitudes of the seasons."
Many of the oldest dwellings, built of hewn logs, stand to this day-remodeled and enlarged. Owners of such homes delight to show visitors the sturdy workmanship of their ancestors-the hand- dressed timbers and wooden pins and pegs. Whether in town or country, and whether simple or stately, ante-bellum homes followed a somewhat definite pattern. They were spacious and were sur- rounded by extensive grounds. The "big house" was the dwelling of the owner, and about it were grouped other buildings necessary to the operation of the place. Usually an avenue, often curved, and planted on each side with trees, led from the "big road" to the "big house." These terms were universally used in rural areas. The distance between house and road was sometimes considerable, and the avenue wound through a beautiful grove. If the distance from road to house was short, a "walk" led to the front door, and it was usually bordered with box-wood hedges or flowers. Some- times there was, in front of the house, a formal flower garden. More usually the flower garden was fenced in, and located on one side of the house. Grass lawns were exceptional, the walks and space beneath the trees being bare ground.
Behind the big house was always an extensive back yard, in which stood a wood house, a wash-place, a smoke-house, and one or two cabins. A planter, doctor, or lawyer always had an office- a small building containing one or two rooms, set at some convenient spot near the house. There was always a stable with its lot. People
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of moderate means combined carriage-house, stable, and barn in one building; but the well-to-do had each separate, and of a size proportionate to their needs. It was possible in a few households to offer a guest his choice of a dozen or more blooded saddle horses.
On farms and big plantations the cabins of the slaves were built near each other, their community being known as the "Quarter" --- and sometimes the "Quarters." On the more prosperous plantations the slave quarter was as picturesque as the village attached to an English manor, each cabin having its flower beds and vegetable "patches," and maybe a cow or goat.
From the pioneer days until the present, schools fur-
School Festivities nished neighborhood entertainment. Spelling-bees, clos- ing exhibitions, picnics, public examinations, May-day exercises, com- mencements, concerts, tableaux, and pantomimes - from miles in every direction people flocked to attend them. May-day parties were elaborate in some of the female schools-with mythological pageantry, music, stilted speeches, and elegant refreshments.
Commencements brought throngs of visitors to all the college and academy communities. In July 1858, the town of Spartanburg was so over-run with visitors for the Spartanburg Female College commencement that a local editor protested that the congestion re- minded him of New York. At the Palmetto House more than fifty ladies were guests, and no telling-according to the newspaper-how many men. All private homes were filled, and carriages and other vehicles crowded each other on the roads. These visitors came to hear eighteen young ladies read compositions on such subjects as "The Wanderer's Dream," "Life As It Appears to the Young," and "The Toilet." There was, as always, a concert in the evening, fol- lowed by a "handsome collation."
The commencement at Wofford, ten days later, gave the audience sterner stuff. The salutatorian addressed them in Latin. President Wightman delivered the diplomas, with a Latin address by way of preface. The eleven young men spoke on such subjects as "Con- science," "If the Sons of Priam Slumber, Troy Must Fall," "Conse- quences of Marathon," "Crusades," "Progress of Opinion," "The Paths of Glory Lead But to the Grave," "The Bible, a Crystal Palace For All Nations," "Our Obligations to Our Predecessors and Debt to Posterity," "Remember That Brave Resolution," "Distinctions of Authorship." The address of the valedictorian, said the Spartan's
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reporter, brought from the audience tears "in pearly strings." The Spartan's representative did not attend the commencement party, because he was "not fortunate enough to get a ticket except under circumstances rendering its use incompatible with self-respect."
Military The militia system provided for the men a social life Celebrations and Musters of their own. All men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five were liable for militia duty and were required to equip themselves and muster four times a year in companies, and once a year in battalion and regimental musters.
·In periods of peace these organizations became farcical, being held together chiefly by men of political aspirations who found them con- venient machines. But the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and again the shadow of the approaching Civil War gave them added im- portance. The sites of many of the old muster grounds are yet pointed out in the older communities.
Musters sometimes became demoralizing because of the drinking, horse racing, gander-pullings, wrestling bouts, and so on, which fol- lowed those formal parades which served only as excuses for the gatherings. Barbecued meat and barrels of free liquor were often provided by the candidates for office, who made speeches and built up their political fences at the musters. "Gingerbread wagons" were always at hand, with other refreshments besides gingerbread.
A Spartanburg citizen wrote a spirited letter to the Spartan, September 22, 1853, demanding a reform of the militia system because of the shameful conditions attendant on musters, which he charac- terized as farces; not even the officers knew the manoeuvers and evolutions ; brawling, drunkenness, card playing, horse racing, made the musters demoralizing ; and they were money-wasting.
Not always was attendance at musters confined to the men. Often, especially at the closing day of regimental or battalion mus- ters, ladies were guests, and there were tournaments, accompanied by the crowning of a queen of love and beauty, and followed by a ball in honor of her and her court. After the militia system was stopped during Reconstruction, tournaments continued to enjoy popularity.
For a half-century before the outbreak of the Civil War, an "Old Artillery Company," under Captain James Brannon, who served in the War of 1812, paraded at Timmons Old Field. Cap- tain John H. Montgomery was, as a young man, its orderly ser-
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geant. The old Glenn Springs Cavalry Troop was famous for its dashing appearance and for the distinguished companies that at- tended its parades, picnics, and tournaments-neighboring troops, generals, brass bands, governors, and fair ladies.
Horses in Some of the early settlers from Virginia and Penn- Old Times sylvania brought along with them famous "horse- flesh." The type of man who today flies his own plane had his prototype in the horse-racing enthusiast. The Moores had a track on their plantation, Fredonia. There was also a "path" on the Vernon place near Wellford. The names of Sims, Gist, Beaty, Lip- scomb, and Gaffney are especially connected with fancy breeding and racing. Enthusiasts flocked to the Limestone Springs Course, near Gaffney's, where Wyatt Lipscomb's two famous stallions, Monarch and Thicketty, proved themselves, according to a newspaper account of 1857, "the cracks of our up-country." At a race in November, 1857, Thicketty won over Traveler a purse of $3,400. The races at Gaffney's course and on Sims' path were famous throughout the fifties. Both of these tracks were in Union and Cherokee bounds, but drew a large following from Spartanburg. Wade Hampton raced horses on the Jockey Club turf in Charleston, which were trained by Spartan District jockeys.
A typical well-to-do Spartan family on its way to church, in the fifties, made a pretty pageant. A stately, high-swung carriage, with its black driver, a small darkey on the "dickey seat," and its let- down steps, drawn by a handsome pair of matched horses, conveyed the elders and the youngest children. Possibly a buggy or two, or a rockaway or a phaeton, provided for others, older or more careful of their clothes. Some of the girls and all of the young men were likely to go horse-back. Far in advance of the cavalcade would be a wagon filled with colored worshipers, who were to sit in the gal- lery and share with their masters in the worship. From a big plan- tation, another wagon usually went, filled with provisions for dinner on the grounds. People of moderate means packed baskets of food into the vehicles in which they rode. Plain people clung to primi- tive customs, and walked or rode horse-back, often a wife on a pillion behind her husband, maybe with one or two children tucked in somehow. Similar processions filled the roads on muster days or occasions of civic celebration-especially the Fourth of July.
Gatherings Sunday School Conventions, Temperance Conventions,
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Bible Society Conventions, annual target practices were occasions for parades and pageantry, speeches, brass bands, and sumptuous eating and drinking. The circus was a great annual event. On May 15, 1858, "in the beautiful grounds of St. John's Classical and Military School," the Morgan Rifles held a target practice. General States Rights Gist presented as first prize a silver medal. Major Govan Mills, whose plantation included that section of the city of Spartanburg known today as Converse Heights, presented as second prize a silver medal. The third prize, three ostrich plumes, was a gift of Captain G. W. H. Legg. The ladies present spread a "boun- tiful repast." This was on the part of Converse College campus known as "The Forest of Arden."
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