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THtfBAftNWKLL PBOPI
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BARNWELL, SOUTH CAROLINA
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THURSDAY,
Coolidges, See the Constitution at Charlestown
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President and Mrn. Coolldge, toget'.ierTwlth Swretary Hixjver and others, went to the Charlestown nary yard and
visited the historic old frigate Constitution, Tlie illustnulon shows the Mayflower, fhe Presidential yacht, coming in
as.the sailors on the frigate, In the foreground, give the salute.
BROWN GIVES REASONS FOR
DEMANDING RESIGNATIONS
— — j
(CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE)
Kennedy and not to me. This was in
the beginning of 1923 that this Boar i
■was appointed, for four years, un
less removed, etc. Because the pre
vious Board had spent $25,132.87 the
year before, the Delegation appropri
ated for 1928, $25,000 for chaingang,
roads and bridges. And remember
that just at this time, we had tibnded
the county to build the Government
" road from Kline, through Barnwell to
Elko, Williston to White Pond, and
from Williston to Blackville towards
Denmark, and from Barnwell through
Blackville to Edisto riVer, towards
Cohunbia, and these roads were
take* over for construction and main
tenance by the Government and
that relieved the County Directors
from the upkeep of all the through
roads in the county, and ought to
have lessened the expenses for chain-
gang, roads and bridges. However,
in 1923, the present Directors spent
the sum of $31,695.74, or $6,596.74
more than was approprated. Mr
Matthews, the chairman of the Board,
upon going into office, immediately
took the chaingang and moved it over
beyond Blackville, n^ar- the planta
tion of himself, his father and
brothers, and kept it there, so I am
informed,, six or eight months. There
were two gangs at that time and Mr.
Matthews took the big gang over in
his community. .Mr. J. W. Fvk too/,
the little gang to Rosemary, where hn
lives, and it spent fro biggest part of
the year in that •ectioo. Mind you,
these two gangs '•ost Barnwell County
taxpayers for 1923, $31,596.75, and
worked in those two townships pri.c
tically during 1923. It ♦vmv .luring the
summer of 1923, th-t M.o conduct of
Mr. Folk became so highhanded until
at the summer, term of Court the
Grand Jury took the matter up and
made a special pr“}‘».itm .T»t on the
subject. T don’t know now who wr.S
on the Grand Jury, nor di T remem
ber who the Foreman was then,
but 1 assume that it vr.-i composed 'f
eighteen honest men of 'be County.
Read what they have to say rhout Mr.
Folk practically running off the Super
visor who had been elected by the
people, taking charge of the gang,
working roads in Aiken Oovnty for
his friends and selling the County
rotten corn which killed s'>me of the
stock. This is the Gran! Jury, two
years ago:
6. “In connection with the of-
r flee of the Board of County Com
missioners, now called Board of
“County Directors, we find and re
port a moWfeurnsatisfactory condi
tion of affairs. We find that the
new Board of County Directors
which took office in March, is not
1 complying with what we consider
the law under which they were ap
pointed. We find that the Act of
. 1922, under which they were ap
pointed, provides for the appoint
ment of five directors, shall have
a general supervision of the affairs
— of the county, and in addition to
the employment of the other coun-
■ty employees, are authorised to
’ -employ a County Supervisor to
4< manage the construction, main-
f tenanca and repairs of the roads
4 and bridges of the county”, and to
whom shall be committed adequate
atifcority and full responsibility
for the construction and mainten
ance of roads and bridges”, all
tinder the General Direction of the
./ Board. The act of the Legtsla-
ture further provides that the
-Supervisor may first be nominated
Democratic Primary. We
Mr. J. ,S. Still who has
for Barnwell
laht yttr nominated as
Barnwell County in
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ToY
that-while they
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Bakmwell. in
Supervisor
divested Mr. Still of all authority
to manage the construction, main-'
tenance and repair of the roads
and bridges of the county. We
find that the individual members
of the Board, fn violation of the
act by which they were appointed,
buying supplies for the county,
without competitive bids or adver
tising for the same, and indivi
dual members of the Board direct
ing the affairs of the chaingang,
almost to the exclusion of the
Supervisor. We further find that
the Board has endeavored to put
such conditions of service upon the
.Supervisor' as to make it impos
sible for him to satisfactorily
serve the county. We find in one
instance, where the chaingang is
working over near the Aiken
County line. That one of the mem
bers of the County Board, over
the protest of the Supervisor,
directed a certain road to be
worked, that the said road was not
a County Highway, but a private
road leading into Aiken County;
that the Supervisor refused to
direct said road to be worked by
the chaingang. whereupon an
order was given the Captain of the
chaingang by Mr. J. W. Folk, mem
ber of the Board, that the said
road should be worked to a point
which is generally conceded is as
much as half a mile across the
Barnwell County line into Aiken
County. The Supervisor, who has
been in charge of the roads and
bridges in Barnwell County for
many years, avers that the road in
question is not a public road be
longing to the county and that the
portion of the road in question is
in Aiken County. We further find
in connection with the activities
of Mr.'Folk, as a member of the
Board, that recently he has caused
the county to buy four hundred
(400) bushels of corn which came
from one of his brothers. It is
reported to us that the com being
defective was being offered on the
market around Williston at 60c
per bushel, but that four hundred
bushels of the corn was sold to the-
county. without competitive bids,
at $1.00 per hushbl and paid for;
that the same was never measured
or receipted for by any Officer of
the county unless by Mr. Folk. We
have inspected this lot of com
and we find it absolutely rotten;
that the feed of the same has killed
one of the county’s best mules and
made another ill. and the county
has been forced to discontinue
feeding said corn.
“7. In connection with the ac
tivities of the new Board of County
Directors we beg further to report
that while there has been sufficient
“* appvopriattofTS by tht County Dele
gation for the maintenance of the
chaingang for the construction of
roads and bridges for the present
year, fhore having been appro
priated this year than in recent
years, the Board of County Direc
tors is requesting additional heavy
appropriations from the County
Delegation and to be allowed to
overdraw the road and bridge ac
count for-the present year. We
recommend and request that the
County Delegation be most care
ful in their pledge to provide ad
ditional funds for expenditure by
' the present Board.
“8. We find that certain govern
ment roads have been built through
the county, and others are being
bujlt under provisions made bv the
delegation and that these roads are
fine and satisfactory to the county
and should in some measure re
lieve the necessity for heavy ap
propriations for chaingang roads.
“9. Further in connection with
the activities of the Board and es-
necially with reference to Mr. Folk,
in view of the many complaints
that have been made to us and the
witnesses whom we have heard
''j with reference to- his activities in
requiring the working of a private
road leading into another countv.
and causing the sal?,, above the
market price, of the rotten com to
the county, causing death to its
stock; that Mr. Folk is an improper
and unfit person to be upon the
Board of County Directors and we
recommend that he be requested
to hand in his resignation to the
Governor." JU’wJ..'
* 1 Uon’t say or charge that M
Folk had usurped all the power of
half a mile :tit > Aiken Cjunty -owards
a swimming pool (hat s mt jiecplo up
I
there uantnl to go to. etc., and for
all these vc» '•n* Air Folk vr« ufi
fit to be • n ‘hi Bo; ro and demanded
his resign:*ti m. That wa« the Grand
Jury ta!k ; n». I tiled to get along
with the BonH.
aesfeml months, fh the meantime,
aind before this agreement, the
had sighed s written
Capt. Black and uthOrs/lu
to hufid the road from Williston to
Edisto Rivsr, towards- Springfield, a
road that Is almost impasable, and
'the only way the people of Willis ton
have directly to get out towards Col
umbia. Notwithstanding this, .the
gang* was fly Turney. Folk and Mat>
thews, voted to g<> to FolkVhome .com
munity. At the Board meeting in
August, Capt. B\ack, Mr. Kennedy,
Mr. R. J. Rountree, Mr. Prothro and
others appeared before the Board to
insist upon their carrying out the
contract to build the WflHston-EdisV*
river road. A very large Delegation
also came from Georges Creek to
tell the Board that they could not get
over their roads t«| haul cotton # t6 the
gin and to town, unless they got help.
Mr. Matthews, Mr. Folk and Mr. Tnr
ner, over the objection of Mr, Morris
and Mr. Baxley, I am informed, would
not agree for the gang to go to either
place where they Jiad promised that
it should go and the meeting adjourn
ed without action.
The next morning, I am informed,
Mr. Mathews personally went to the
gang and had it moved—where to?
\ To Georges Creek to fix the roads for
those country people to haul their
cotton to the grin, or on the Williston-
Edisto River road^as they had agr<»ed
in writing they wouTcTdo ? No, back
over to near Mr. Matthew’s brother’s
place, near Healing Springs, or Wal
ker station, in the same community
in which the big gang had been kept
for nearly a year—a little over a year
ago.
Then about ten days ago the Treas
urer advised me that at this Boird
meeting the money for chaingang,
roads and bridges would be exhausted,
and probably overdrawn. Spent
$30,000 and over the first eight
months of the year! I immediately
got in touch with Dr. Patterson, laid
the situation before him, and calcu
lated the rate at which the Board had
been spending the firpt eight months
we figured that they v.-ould spend $16,-
000 or $20,000 more during the re
mainder of the year, if it he given
them, making a total of forty five
thousand dollars fof the maintenance
of a chaingang averaging about twen
ty negroes, for a year. How about
that for going some? I knew that
on the Sept. Board day, which was
for mor*
the
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4to the great
and wrote
At the end of 1923, Mr. Mathews,
Mr. Folk and Mr. Turner combined the
two chaingangs and gave them to Mr.
Turner up in Four Mile, where it
stayed for about n yetir, built all
the roads in, to and around Mr. Tur
ner's place and a few of hb friends
and among other things used the
gang about four months in ""Building
a road from the Town ‘of EUenton,
which is in Aiken County, Lut right
on the line, down to Cashel’s Mill,
where he has a friend who owns a
big plantation. There is not, I am
informed, a white man living on that
road, and it cost Barnwell County at
least $10,000 to build it. During the
year that Mr. Turner kept the gang
up there, it might be interesting to
the tax payers of the county to know
he (being in charge of the gang and
given the power to buy the supplies),
would direct the county trucks every
Saturday morning to drive from the , . „ ., .
Court House in Barnwell, and from i„j T,1 “ d * )r ’ the Bo * rd woold ^ * skin *
front of the stores of the Barnwell
•p»nt, and the lack of co-operation be
tween them and the Delegation and
among themselves, that we were un
willing to let them handle any more
Of the county’s money (see letter
published elsewhere) and suggested
that tjley resign and allow us to ap
point a more economicaf Board, etc.,
and failing in that, that we would re-
fbse "to 4 appropriate further money for
tnem and demand that the gang be
turned over to the penitentiary and
that we would make other arrange
ments at the next Legislature to have
the roads of the county worked.
Their reply to this letter was a de
mand on Tuesday for an additional
$15,000. We refused and the Delega
tion passed a Resolution (printed
elsewhere) again calling for their
resignations, that we might appoint
men in whose ability a'hd integrity we
had confidence to handle the ^county’s
affairs, and if they again refused, di
rected them to commit the gang to the
penitentiary, sell the equipment and
deposit the funds with Capt. Arm
strong for disposition by us at the
next session of the Legislature in
January.
I knew that this apparently wilful
squandering of the county’s money
was being done by these three men,
with two purposes in view: First—
To get roads worked in their immed
iate section. Second—To spend all
fhe mpney th$y could, make the dele
gation appropriate it and let ihe peo
ple of the county “cuss” Edgar Brown
for high taxes. But they have got
another guess coming to them. That
crowd of tumble-bug politicians, look
ing one way and working the other,
won’t ever livelong enough to work
me into that sort of hole in Barnwell
County politics. I may got ‘'cussed”
about a lot of things, but l have never
been accused of being partisan or in
terested in one section or one people
against the other, and I never will be.
And they will all admit that through
my efforts Barnwell County has re
ceived special consideration at the
hands of the Highway Department
and the government, and some won
derful government roads, among the
best in the State, eriss-o'ngg this
county, but they^were not built by,
through or with the assistance of the
above named gentlemen, who, during
all this time, have squandered the
by | county's money and
about three or four out of the
township* In £hf 7 county, while —
fS&ftle suffered and paid. They tour*
resigh or not resign, as they
It matters little to me, They
spent 4 money and contracted the
ty’s credit to the extent of fS2,019.
or $2,019.10 more than allowed by
in three-fourths of the year and de-
many $15,000 more. At the proper
time they Will be called upon to ex
plain why.
EDGAR A. BROWN.
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Miss; Mary Roberts, of Columbia,
spent the week-end in the city with
friends.
VALUABLE SMALL FARMS
i FOR SALE.
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The undersigned hold for sale some
very valuable town and farm proper
ty just east of Bafnwell, on both sides
of the Coast Line Railroad, and West
of Jordan Branch, being part of the'
lands formerly owned by P. Butler
Hagood. This land has been cut up
into small tracts and a plat thereof
can be seen at the office of Mr.
Simms in Barnwell. You are invited
to look at the plat, look over the lands
and see us about buying any pap or
all of this land. If necessary, we will
try to assist in raising as much as
one-half of the purchase price.
R. C. HDLMAN,
•—r- Assignee, ^
. 4:HAS. CARROLL SIMMS,
" Agent.
k
“Your remedies are
all that you claim for
them and worth many
times the price.”
James Pearson,
Box 192. Drumipond, Wis.
PE-RU-NA
Has Been Meeting the
Emergencies of Every Day
for Over Fifty Years.
Coughs, Colds, Catarrh,
Stomach and Bowel Disor
ders and all other Catarrhal
conditions.
Sold Everywhere.
Tablet and Liquid.
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hail ^eer. elected
aud had had rotten
to other people
bushel sold to the
and that i* killed the
stock, and that heqqjktd Ms friends*
road* across the line, at oae place
the Supervi
by the
corn that
for sixty
county at $1
cel
merchants and go to Ellenton, in
Aieken County, and there buy all the
chaingang supplies, which amounted
to several hundred dollars each week.
The merchants at the Court House
had no opportunity to even bid on
these goods. At the beginning of
1924. having appropriated $25,000
in 1923 and the Board having spent
331.596.75, and claiming that they
-ould not' get along on less, we ap-
oronriated $.30,000 for chaingang,
roads and bridges and warned the
Board that they must stay within
the appropriation, tnat we had pass
ed a law making it a crime for a
County Board to spend more money
than appropriated, or pledge the
credit of the'county in excess of the
amount appropriated. At the end of
the year they had spent $32,545.24,
snd we again warned them and at
the beginning of this year put the
..Board on specific nftHrerthatWte would
not stand for their exceeding the
appropriation. We made up. the
deficit last year, as in the past.
This year we appropriated $30,000,
and I personally told members of the
Board that they would be given no
more. $.30,000 is over six mills on all
the real estate of the county, and it
is levied and collected on a man’s
farm, whether his children ever see
a chaingang o^ not. He has no say
so, once a Board is in and the money
is given them, they can keep the gang
in one township a whole year, work
roads around their farms arid those
of a few friends, and the balance of
the county pays for it. At the be
ginning of this year, I am informed,
after Mr. Tuhier turned the gang
loose from Four Mile, he and Mr
Matthews gave it to Folk to go to
Rosemary. In the meantime ami be
fore the gang moved to Rosemary
near Mr. Folk's place the Board in
meeting assembled, during the spring
of the year, passql n solemn Resolu
tion stating that when the gang left
Mr. Turner’s place it should be sent
to Georges Creek to repair some of
the roads so that the farmers might
haul fertilizers out and thoir cotton
in this tall. The roads ir Georges
Creek and Great Cypress during all
this time, without attention, have
become impassable,- and there are
children down there big enough to go
to school who have n$ver seen a
chaingang. Treating th;s agreement
m a scrap, of rnper, and notwith
standing Mr. /oik had kept a gang
for a year in Roaemary, just a tow
months previously, the whole gang
waa moied flack near Mr. Folk’s place
an* hat been in and around then
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After Yout Have Bought Your Car
And Have Some Money to Spare—
1 We Have to Offer You
Furniture and Household Goods
a ^
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at Factory Prices
The reason that we are in a position to
offer you goods at factory prices, we have
stock in several furniture and mattress fac
tories, and have been advised by them to
put these goods on our floors and let them
go at their prices. Our stock will be com
plete in a few days. We have at present to
offer you Ladies’ Hatboxes at $3.50—regu
lar-price $5.00.
$
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SPECIAL: Oak Dressers at $12.50. They won’t
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last long at this price.
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We also have 2-incfi Iron Beds to; offer
you at $8.50 and 50-pound Cotton Mat-
tresses at $8.75. 1 "
WE WILL BE GLAD TO HAVE YOU
SEE OUR STOCK BEFORE MAKING
YOUR PURCHASES ELSEWHERE.
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