Fort Mill times. (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, April 07, 1921, Image 1
N" l' $
-4
i
Established 1891.
PLAN FOB RIVER ROAD
GETS RUNNING START
County Authorities and Legislative
Delegation Agree to Help.
Public Meeting Saturday.
To the Citizens of Fort Mill
Township:
As a committee appointed Monday
morning at a meeting of
. Fort Mill township citizens to
confer with' the board of county
commissioners and the county
legislative delegation relative to
the construction of a permanent
highway between Fort Mill and
the Catawba river bridge, we feel
it our duty to call a second meeting
of the citizens of the township
to report the progress we
made in our conference with the
two bodies and to invite a general
consideration of the whole
road situation in Fort Mill township.
We are taking the lib?
erty of naming Saturday afternoon,
April 9. at 4 o'clock p. in.
as the time of the meeting and
the town hall as the place.
T B. Spratt. L. A. Harris, S. W.
Parks. J. L. Spratt, A. O. Lytic,
Committee.
Discussion of the construction
of a permanent highway between
Fort Mill and Catawba river
bridge, a distanee of about a mile
and a half, reached the public
meeting stage Monday morning
when a number of Fort Mill township
citizens and representatives
of the chamber of commerce of
Rock Ilill held a conference in
the Fort Mill town hall with
County Supervisor Brown, County
Engineer Miller and N. (1.
Walker, member of the State
highway commission. J. J. Bailes
was elected chairman of the meetinor
?O'
Following a general discussion
of the matter by Fort Mill and
Rock Hill citizens, after Mr. Miller
had given an estimate of what
\ bethought the undertaking would
cost, from $40,000 to $45,000. and
hod expressed his opinion of the
.ability of the county to help
finance it from funds now in
V hand. Supervisor Brown said the
county would agree to build a
steel bridge and abutments across
the branch near the river and
that other financial assistance
might be given by the county,
but he could not say how much.
A motion was adopted authorizing
the chairman to appoint a
committee of five Fort Mill citizens
to take up the proposition
with the county commissioners
at the mouthy meeting in York
yesterday. The committee also
was authorized to appear yesterday
before the legislative delegation
to ascertain how much
money, if any, the delegation
would agree to provide from
county fuuds at the next session
of the Legislature to aid in the
project. Col. T. B. Spratt, Capt.
S W. Parks, L. A. Harris, Dr. J.
L. Spratt and A. C. Lytic were
named as the committee. Before
the meeting adjourned Mr. Wal
Ker stated that Kort Mill township
could depend upon $10,000
federal aid to help build the road
if the highway commission were
assured that the county and township
would put up the balance
for the project.
Yesterday in York the Fort
Mill committee and a number of
Rock Hill citizens presented tlioiviews
of the necessity of the proposed
road to the county commissioners.
who agreed to furnish
$10,000 for the project, the cost
of the bridge and the abutments
to be deducted from this sum.
and to recommend to the State
highway commission that $10,000
of York county's allotment of
federal road aid be set aside for
the project. The legislative delegation
also agreed upon a resolution
to provide $20,000 of
county funds at the session of the
Legislature in 1922 upon condition
that the town of Fort Mill
build one mile of concrete street
to connect with the mile and a
half of concrete road the citizens
of Fort Mill and Rock Hill were
asking for and upon the further
condition that Fort Mill township
' agree to release the county from
any further obligation to construct
public roads*in this township
under the provisions of the
Stewart road law. The resolution
was signed by Senator Hart
and Representatives Pnrsley, Oarothers
and Mitchell. Represen*
c
i
The F
VERDICT FOR MNINCH.
Twenty Thousand for Owner of
Charlotte Brick Plant.
Saturday afternoon the Mecklenburg
county jury which for
three weeks had been hearing the
evidence in the superior court in
Charlotte in the suit of S. S. McNinch
against the American
Trus^t company of that city awarded
the plaintiff $20,000 of the
$100,000 damages he claimed was
duo him as a result of the sale by
the\ defendant company of the
Charlotte brick plant, located at
Grattan, two miles south of Fort
Mill, for much less than the actual
worth of the plant and in violation
of an agreement he had
with the company. Attorneys for
the company at once gave notice
of an appeal and Saturday after*
noon next was set by the presiding
judge as the time he will hear
their arguments.
Considerable interest attached
locally to the outcome of the suit.
Numerous Fort Mill citizzens appeared
as witnesses in the ease
A few years ago the Charlotte
brick plant was a live enterprise
and its operation brought an appreciable
volume of trade to Fort
Mill merchants. Hut the business
did not continue to prosper and
a mortgage was given upon the
property, including a valuable
tract of adjoining land, by the
owner. Mr. McNinch. to the American
Trust company. This mort}T}1
fre \\*ns fnT*<?r?lr?coil nii.1 fi?Am tli.,
sale of tlx* brick plant and land
about $25,000 was realized, barely
enough to cover tin* mortgage of
the trust company. Mr. McNineb
claimed that the property \va?
sold at a great sacrifice and contrary
to an understanding he bad
with the company as to its sale..
ITence the damage suit.
Cotton Acreage Locally.
The consensus of opinion of
farmers and others who are in
position to know what is happening
in Fort Mill township is that
the cotton acreage hereabouts
will be cut not less than 25 pel'
eon. perhaps more, this year, due
in no small measure to the fact,
that commercial fertilizer is bard
to obtain. The fertilizer companies
are requiring cash or bankable
paper before they will supply
their product to the farmers, and
as neither is plentiful at the present
time, the consequence is that
there is a decided falling off over
normal years in the use of fertili
y.or. Tilero was 11 recent slump in
flic price of fertilizer, but the decline
has sot stimulated its sale
locally. Ordinarily during; the
spring; there are more than 100
carloads of commercial fertilizer
shipped into Fort Mill for use in
the cotton crop of this section,
but not more than half a dozen
ears have been received here thus
far this season.
Preparing: for Pageant.
Wintlirop college is preparing?
a pageant of South Carolina history
which will he presented 011
the campus on the afternoon of
Mav 6. Practically the entire
student body of more than 1.000
voting women will take part in
the pageant, which will present
the history of the State in 11
dramatic episodes, portraying in
beautiful scenes important epochs
in the life and growth of South
Carolina. Indian scenes, life
among the pioneers, the iords
proprietors. Revolutionary history.
scenes from the Civil war. reconstruction
times, with the Red
Shirt riders are to he produced
with every effort after historic
accuracy.
tr.tive Bradford was not at the
delegation meeting, h;? "ider
1! 1--! ? * 11 1 1
Kuiiuiiii<r nemg inai me ueiegation
was to come to Fort Mill
township to inspect the condition
of the road the county was asked
to improve and that later in the
I day yesterday a meeting
delegation was to he held in Fort
Mill to consider the matter.
The Fort Mill committee was
not authorized to either accept or
reject the proposition of the legI
islative delegation and after reJ
turning to Fort Mill yesterday
I afternoon the members decided
1 to issue the call printed herewith
for a public meeting in the,town
| hall Saturday afternoon at 4
o'clock when the whole township
j road proposition will be eonsidt
ered.
ORTl
FORT MILL, 8. 0., THUR1
VISITS "PEONAGE FARM,"
DEATH TRAP FOR BLACKS
Former Fort Mill Mail Sees
Graves of Alleged Victims of
Big Georgia Planter.
Floyd Smythe, until a few
months ago a resident of Fort
Mill, who is now making his home
at Covington, Ga., writes his father,
Ira G. Smythe of Fort Mill,
that within the last fortnight he
has seen some of the graves of
Ihe 11 negroes .John Williams,
wealthy Georgia farmer is alleged
to have killed or had killed
on his plantation in Jasper and
Newton counties, Ga. Williams'
plantation is oniy a few miles
from Covington.
Following the peonage investi(VnllAtl
WfillintMo' n foil'
r?,,Vu vii n iiiiuuio jnavc a xtr*v
months ago by federal agents, he
and a negro, Clyde Manning, who
is said to have confessed to helping
Williams kill some of the negroes,
were arrested a few days
ago on federal warrants charging
peonage and both have since been
indicted in the State courtR for
murder.
Williams, it is charged, made
it a practice to visit the courts in
.Jasper and Newton counties and
pay the fines of negroes convicted
of crime upon the promise of the
negroes to repay him in work on
bis farm. Once they had gone to
work on the farm they were virtually
prisoners, being guarded
by armed men while at work and
locked up in a stockude at night,
according to the stories.
Clyde Manning, Williams' negro
foreman, is said to have confessed
that, under direction of
Williams, of whom he stood in
great fear, he killed four negroes
with an axe, all of whom, along
w-iin ilit* others of the 11, were
put out of the way because Williams
feared they would tell something
relative to labor conditions
on his plantation. On one occasion
a negro known as "Big .Jim"
was taken to a pasture and put
to work digging a well, according
to the story. When the well
was about six feet deep Williams
touched Manning on the elbow.
Manning knew what that meant.
He grabbed an axe and struck
"Big Jim" a terrific blow 011 the
head as he was standing up in
the well. "Big Jim" crumpled up
at the bottom of the well and
his body was found in that position
when Manning showed the
officers where they would find his
grave.
Williams tlml Manning are now
being tried at Covington for the
murder of one of the 11 negroes
they are charged with having
disposed of.
BURIED AT DT D ttomtk
?? vai*/ MV1UXJ.
Walter 0. Leazer, World War
Victim, at. Rest in Fort Mill.
In the presence .of perhaps as
many as a thousand people, funeral
services were held at Confederate
park. Fort Mill. Sunday
afternoon at II o'clock for First
Class Private Walter (). Leazer.
World war victim, whose body
arrived Saturday afternoon from
Camp Jackson. Columbia, where
il had been taken from Iloboken,
N. J., after deing disinterred in
France and brought home for
filial burial. The funeral services
began with a song by a select
el oir, which was followed by
prayer by the Rev. *J. B. Black.
Willie II. Nims then deliever an
address in which he praised the
gallantry of the young soldier
w hose memory was being honored
and tlin Iiokawi 41*" ' """
v. ...? nvi uiu n wi r\ ui lilt' tUllf
round to which he belonged. Company
G, 118th infantry, ..10th division.
Following the services in Confederate
park, the body was taken
to New Unity cemetery and
interred beside those of his comrades.
Sergt. Tom Hall and Sergt.
Fli Hailes, in the plot of the Fort
Mill post. American Ijegion. The
services at both the park and the
grave were under the auspices
of the Fort Mill legion post.
Walter O. Leaser, son of Mr.
and Mrs. I). A. Leaser of Fort
Mill, lost his life in action in
France on October q 1918. He
was a model soldier, for whose
record his comrades have onlv
praise. He volunteered for service
overseas with the Fort Mill
company at the outbreak of hostilities
with Germany and was the
youngest of the Fort Mill boys
who lost their lives in the conflict.
)ft%. ... - .
HILL '
SPAY, APRIL 7, 1921.
ARKANSAS PEOPLE SUFFER
FROM GOOD ROADS LAW
State in Bad Shape as .Result of
Heavy Taxation for Highway
Improvement.
Many South Carolinians have
complained of the inefficiency of
the State highway act passed at
the 1920 session of the Legislature,
and much of the complaint
appears to be justified by the failure
of the act to produce the improved
highways needed through,
out the State; but whatever the
shortcomings of the South Carolina
highway act, it has had no
such effect as the socalled goo<l
roads law passed a few years ago
ir ArkllTlHSIU whiipn " OA*i.ncr>n?i
? ? ?< i*Vt \Jy (( VVI ? iOJJV/ir
dent of the New York Times reports,
that "thousands of Arkansas
land owners are today facing
financial ruin as the result of the
enactment of socalled good roads
laws." He quotes Governor McRae.
the new executive, as declaring
that "this road business has
turned out to be the greatest disaster
that has ever befallen the
people of Arkansas."
The ambitious good roads law
enacted in Arkansas was given
wida and generally favorable
publicity on its initiation under
an earlier State administration.
The New York Times was prompted
to investigate its present condition
by reports reuehing Washington
to the effect that Arkansas
land owners were in many instances
being taxed "in the name
of fTOOll pnndu nltnnut ? ?..J., t
^ ? m WM?|? |4Mllunt I \M 1 lie JIUHll
where the levies amounted to
practical contiKoution of the properties."
It was wUlori that the
federal highway bureau had
withheld a large part of the allotment
of good roads money to Arkansas
pending revision of the
State road laws.
After vifiitiug counties in eastern,
central and western Arkansas,
The Times correspondent reports
that "evidence of the truth
of the reports that came to Washington
was everywhere easy to
obtain. Mortgages were executed
which were filed within the
last ten-days?mortgages given as
security for money to pay road
taxes that in some instances
amounted to approximately 10 per
cent of the total value of little
farms and homes worth less than
$1,000." lie cites, among other
specimens, the case of "a widow
whose total gross income was less
than $4,000. and whose road tax.
due the 10th of April, is $2,800.
Millions of dollars." he adds,
"have been expended on roads
tllfit In flio
... juiuuiuiiy expressed
opinion of Assistnni Justice Hart
of the State supreme Ibourt, hepin
nowhere and end nowhere."
Governor McRae was elected
011 a platform pledpinp reform of
the road laws, but charges that
his efforts to secure remedial legislation
have been blocked by the
opposition of the State senate,
containing many holdover members.
Mecklenburg Bond Eelection.
Some interest is felt in Fort
Mill in the election to be held in
Mecklenburg county, N. ('., on
April 19 to pass upon the proposed
*2,000,000 road bond issue
for that county. The act providing
for the election was passed at
the session of the North Carolina
Legislature last February. There
steins to have been little demand
for such an election, judping from
| statements made at the recent I
anti-band meeting held in Charlotte.
The aet also provided that
supervision of the county roads
should pass from the board of
county commissioners to a county
road commission, the personnel
of which was named in the
aet. The Mecklenburg members j
of the Legislature have been severely
criticised for what oppo- ;
nents of the bond issue declare I
was high-handed legislation for .
which they are responsible.
Engagement Announced.
Mr. and Mrs. ,1. B. Mills have J
issued invitations to the marriage
at their home in Fort Mill on j
Wednesday afternoon, April 20, j
c* their niece, Miss Frances Jo- <
sephine Smith, to Avery Clarence |
Cray ton. Miss Smith is a former
t<acher in the Fort Mill graded
school and is popular with a wide
circle of friends in Fort Mill.
'For some time she has made her
home in Charlotte. Mr. Craven is
a business man of Charlotte.
Timej
NEWS
OF YORK COUNTY.
Current Items of Interest Found
in the Yorkville Enquirer.
T. O. Purvis, white man of
Rock Hill, committed to jail several
days ago ou a warrant charging
him with malicious mischief
in that he did damage to a freight
cab in the yards at Rock Hill,
while in an intoxicated condition,
has been released on bond
in the sum of $500.
T. B. Glenn, manager of the
Tirzah ginnery and magistrate
for Ebenezer township, was painfully
hurt when an oil cup which
he held in his hand came in eontact
with the engine wliool th??
cup striking him on the heand and
knocking him over. His injuries,
while painful, are not serious.
MeConnelssville people who
were in Yorkville Monday morning
said that Stewart & Jones,
road contractors, were making
fair progress in the wark of repairing
the South road between
the Chester line and Yorkville.
Considerable difficulty is being
met with in the matter of getting
sand, long hauls being necessary.
Hock Hill printing houses have
given notice of a cut in wages to
employees, it was learned Tuesday
morning. The cnt is effective
next week and is made necessary
by the general business decline.
There has been no kick on the
part of the employees, it is said,
who realize that a wag" cut is
necessary in the general effort to
reduce operating expenses.
Sheriff Fred Quinn has found
an entirely new use for copper
and galvanized iron stills v hich
l.e and other officers capture from
mnonsliiimrc Tl.*... 1 -
> in^t (iit vrrv desirable
as chicken coops, according
to the sheriff, who has ? number
in service in his yard at the
jail for that purpose. The sheriff
has the largest and most varied
assortment of stills to be found
anywhere?the collection totaling
between 40 and HO.
Announcement is made of marked
reductions in the prices of fertilizers
following conferences
among representatives of the
leading manufacturers of the
country. On February lf> the
port price on 10 per cent acid
was $29.50 a ton. The price has
dropped to $12 a ton. and the
price of standard 8-3-3 fertilizer
bus dropped to $20.08 from $47.50
in January. The fertilizer people
explain that the drop has come
about largely through the repeal
of the Lever act, but just bow is
not fully explained.
Fire last Tuesday morning destroyed
the residence of W. A.
If-ir? -- -
iwA'iYinney on York No. 2. together
with all the furniture and
household effects. The fire is
thought to have originated from
a small blaze which was left in
the fireplace, no one being at
home when the fire was discovered.
D. B. McKinney suffered a
laceration to his leg while breakirg
out a window sash in an effort
to save some furniture. The
loss was only partially covered
by .insurance. The fire marked
the third dwelling that Mr. McKinney
has lost by fire in 27
years.
There are a total of 2M1 applications
for Confederate pensions
for 1921, according to information
brought before the York
county pension commission at a
meeting of the commission held
here last Tuesday. The commission
does not as yet know how
much monev will he Mvnilnhle fr?r
distribution nninn<r Confederate
veterans and wives of veterans
in York county this year, but this
information is expected at an
early date. The pensioners this
y^ar will be divided into two
classes. A and B. (Mass A will
include those veterans and wives
of veterans who are in bad condition
physically and practically
destitute, while all others will be
included in (Mass B. The pension
commissioners for York county
are W. S. Wilkorson of Hickory
Grove, .T. J. Hagins of Rock
Ilill and S. II. Epps of Fort Mill.
York *Jaif Full.
Thirty-three * prisoners are in
the York comity jail awaiting
trial at the April term of court,
which convenes on the 188th instant.
This is said to be the largest
number of prisoners in the
York jail in nearly a score of
years. 1
> . r
* -V.:- ;
' ' St' ' '" )
$1.60 Per Year.
SHORT NEWS STORIES
FROM MANY SOURCES
Current Events Gathered Here
and There and Boiled Down
For Times Readers.
Hale and hearty, John Thomas.
Confederate veteran, 10J years
old, of Newport News, Va<, fell
in a well near his home and was
drowned.
Federal prohibition agents who
>irroMt...l tjw. vv:ik *
.v.. ,.iv mi, n 111 lit 111 milHTson,
a negro preacher of Mr Kinley
Heights, Ohio, say they found
two stills in the cellar of his
home.
Lucking but three years of the
century mark, William .1, Crane
of China, Me., is teething for the
third time. ?A full set of healthy
white teetli are gradually working
their way through the gums.
The British government, shocked
b;> the 1921 models of bathing
suits for women, has decided upon
government control of women's
bathing costumes and has appointed
a bathing costume controller.
Women employed in State depart
ments now housed in the temporary
capitol in Charleston. W.
Va.. must lay aside cigarettes.
The State auditor says the women
1! II11 .rl.-l ' ?
...... r-' ? ninilUtVlTS I1I1VC lll'CU
smoking* as freely while :it work
lUS tllO MH'II.
After selling; a feather bed for
$10 to huv food for her husband
|and 11 ehiUlreu, a Buffalo. N. V..
woman broke into the home of
the purchaser at nigrht and stole
I it back. The judg;o permitted
| her to retain the bed on condition
that she repay the $10.
j Immediate steps are to hi* taken
| for the relief of disabled veterans
of the World war. This decision
was rear lied at the White House
when President Harding; went
over the whole situation with t'ol.
F. W. (lalbraith. national eoininaiuler
of the* American Bejjion.
A new world's record for a
parachute leap was made when
Lieut. Arthur (3. Hamilton dropped
24.000 feet, more than four
and three-fifths miles, from an aeroplane
at t'hannte Held, Cluimprigrn.
11). Me slept during the
hour and 2(> minutes recpiired to
make the ascent, nut kept nuieli
awake during; the drop.
No more eracked dishes are to
he allowed in restaurants in Texas
under the provisions of a law
approved by (lovernor Neff. The
law also provides that all restaurant
and hotel dishes must be
sterilized after use and prohibits
the employment of persons with
nneciious or contagious diseases
ir. dairies, restaurants, hotels or
meat markets.
If it is humanly or physically
possible, (Jrover Bcrgdoll. millionaire
draft dodder of Philadelphia.
who escaped a military prison
in the United States ami is
mow at large in (lermany. will be
nought back to this country to
serve out the five year sentence
imposed upon him by a military
court martial. Secretary of War
Weeks summed up the attitude of
the government when, in response
to questions, he tersely stated:
'We are going to gel Bcrgdoll."
flames S. Kslinger. f>l years old.
who has been asleep for nearly
three years, awoke the other day
in the county hospital at Fort
Smith. Ark., yawned, and then
went back to sleep, according to
the nurse attending him. Kslinger
entered the hospital in 11)14,
a sufferer from nellatrra. In An
gust, 1918. lie fell into the sleep
which has just hern broken for
the first time. He has been foil
through a tube since his lengthy
sleep began ami has not lost in
weight.
Dorothy Miller. lf> years old. of
Trenton, N. J., who offered to
marry in two years any white
man who met her requirements
as to refinement .and education
and who would give her $1,000
to permit her mother to have a
vitally needed operation performed.
has been informed that a
wealthy man in St. Paul. Minn.,
who refuses to disclose his identity.
has mailed her a certified
check for $1,000 and that the
girl would not have to marry him
to cash it. The unknown benefactor.
it was stated, declared the
girl's readiness to sacrifice herself
to save her mother made a
..trong appeal to him.
. ' m