Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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d-uUk-:.,.. -(•J. C. .IEFPERIES,4- OREnNVIl.LE, s. c. II - Attornfy r nd Counsellor at Law. Practices in All the Courts. Collections a Specialty Will Be in Gaffney on Saturdays and Mondays. GER. To Reach Consumers in this Section Adver tise in The Ledger. • A Newspaper in all that the Word Implies and Devoted to the Best Interests of the People of Cherokee County. VOL. IV, NO. is. GAFFNEY CITY, S. C., THURSDAY, .JUNE 17, 1897. SI.00 A YEAR. FOR THE TRUTH OF HISTORY. A CAROLINA SOLDIER IN A YANKEE PRISON. y The Rev. J. B. Traywick a Confederate Soldier, Relates His Recollec tions of Prison Life at Point Lookout. [Tin' Uev. . 15. Tiny wick in tlic Press mill Reporter.! Prosperity As the question as to the compara tive treatment of prisoners in North ern and Southern prisons is up, and as you have requested me, I will give below some incidents of my ex perience at Point Lookout, Md. It will certainly show that all the sin ners were not in charge of Southern prisons. There is one fact I wish t o note, and that is the men at the front, as a rule, were kind and thoughtful of our comfort, and, on the other hand, men who had stayed all the while away from the front were, as a rule, without much sym pathy. CAPTPRED. 1 was captured at Fisher’s Gap, near Strusburg, on September “2*2, IStid. After some delay at Winches ter. Harper’s Ferry and Baltimore, I was carried by steamer to Point Lookout. Md, arriving there on Oc tober 1804. IX PRISON. On entering the prison we wore di vested of everything except personal wear and blankets. Not long after our arrival an inspection was held, and in every case where prisoners had more than one blanket, unless concealed, they were all taken ex cept one to each man, and then those who did not have any were supplied with blankets that had been taken from their fellow prisoners. Bare footed prisoners were suppled with shoes, and a scant quanity of cloth ing was given to the most destitute. LEAKING TEXTS AMI) MULE REEK. The tents were mostly bell or round shaped. They had been refused for use in the Federal army and gener ally leaked. The rat ions as to quali ty were, as a rule, good. Pork two out of three days, the third day beef, but occasionally the ribs of beef were round, which showed that it was mule beef. Hungry prisoners ate it all t lie same. The bread was served in pound loaves daily, one loaf to be divided between two prisoners—it was short weight. A pint cup of soup went with each loaf of bread. Two days’ rations were issued on Saturday, and so small was the quantity that men frequently ate all given at one time. The ration for a day was about sufficient for a well man one meal. It was said by the prison authorities to be one half ration, allowing three meals per day. I would consider it one third ration a day. The pork was very fat and always boiled. The prisoners never got tno lard that came out of the pork, and it was com monly reported that the provost mar shal and other officers there realized a vast amount from the sale of this grease to soap makers and lard re finers. The v.ater used by the pris oners was mineral, giving the sharp est of appetites with so little to eat. Our suffering from hunger was in describable. HUNGRY URIOXERS I’RAY FOR SICKNESS. I have heard men pray to be made sick that the appetite might be tak en away. The prisoners being so poorly clad and the Point so much exposed to cold it caused them great suffering. Every intensely cold night from four to seven prisoners would freeze to death. Almost no wood was furnished. About a eord of green pine to one thousand men for five days—it was a mockery. A CRUEI. AND HEARTLESS OFFICER. The post was commanded by Gen. Barns. His nephew, Capt. Barns, was assistant provost marshal. These were kind and considerate of ficers. but the former never was brought in contact with the prison ers. They were under the immediate charge of the provost marshal. Major Brady, of New York Slate. He was a shrewd man of powerful adminis trative abilities, but withal a cruel, heartless man. His whole conduct toward the prisoners impressed mo that he enjoyed two things immen sely. First, the suffering and hu miliation of the prisoners; secondly, the fact he was their despot. The prison was enclosed by a stong stockade of heavy plank four teen feet high. Four feet from thu top on the outside was a parapet ex tending all around. On this the guards walked by day and night. They were all negroes, commanded by white officers. The night police in side the prison were negroes, but their barbarity was so great that through the earnest entreaties of the prisoners Uiey were removed some time in January, 18(55. I recollect one sick man w'ho hud not been car ried to the hospital. His complaint caused him to leave his tent about o’clock A. M. While out ho was set t*n by a large negro guard who double quicked him, in his night clothes and weak condition, up and down the street between the tents for an hour. When the brute ordered the sicis man buck to his lent he made fifteen other prisoners come out in their night clothes and run up and down like a herd of cattle. IIARIIAKOI S TREATMENT OF URtSOXERS. The greatest cruelty- perpetrated while I was in prison was on thirty- two inmates of one of the cook houses. At the side of the prison, next to the gate, was located u num ber of long cook and eating houses where all the cooking except baking was done. There was only a street or roadway between those houses and the stockade where the guards walk ed continually. Between two of these houses, a little nearer one than the other, one of the negro guards fell from the parapet and was found dead. A contusion was on his head and a piece of brick near him. This discovery took place about sunset. N’o one saw him when he fell. No one saw who hit him. The following night, after taps, when every prisoner was in bed, a file of soldiers rushed into the near est cook house to the scene and hur ried the thirty-two inmates out in the night. The weather was intense ly cold—thermometer below zero. They had on nothing but shirt and drawers—two of them had on socks. They wove placed in a block house, which hud a door and a hole a few in ches wide, without food, water or tire. They were told that one of them killed the negro guard, possi bly all of them knew of it, and when the fact was so made known then all the others could go buck to their quarters, but if they did not come out and confess who killed the guard that the day following the next had been fixed as the time when all thirty-two of them would be shot. So in that bitter weather thcec in no cent, helpless men (not all men, fur two of them were boys) passed that fearful night and next day in the block building, where they were con tinually jeered at through the little window by the negro guards who were oil duty, they telling the suffering prisoners how delighted they would be to see them shot. INNOCENT FRISOXEKS TO HE EXECUTED. The awful hours rolled on, another night of indescribable suffering passed away, and the day of execution has come. To many of these men a quick death was to be preferred to the slow and cruel death they were then passing. The hour for the exe cution arrives. All the troops, mostly negroes, off guard on the Point were formed into the hollow square. The thirty-two almost naked, freezing, starving men were marched out in line into the hollow square. Major Brady, with the au dacity of the wolf before eating the lamb, proceeded to ask each man if he knew who killed the guard. As he proceeded he received a positive no from the heroic boys first and then from the brave men. He had not gone far, however, when an alarm was heard in the direction of the gate. Four or five men were seen coming on horseback at full speed and yelling at the top of their voices. It was an officer who had found a young man, a prisoner and employee in the next cook house who could tell them some thing about who killed the guard. SAVED HY A MASON. But we must go back one day in the narrative. During that day of cruel mockings there was one kind man who visited the suffering prison ers. He was a commissioned officer and a mason. Among the thirty-two prisoners there was hut one mason, and he gave a signal which will stir the deepest emotions of a brother. This office lost no time, but set to work to ferret out the cause of the death of the guard. Major Brady, unfeeling monster as lie was, attemp ted to find out the cause by tortur ing innocent men. Of course the proceedings were stayed until the young man was heard from. He was placed on a box to testify, but ho could not do this until Major Brady had indulged in some silly, irrelevant questions. He however, stated that on the even ing the guard was killed he was at the wood-pile gathering some chips for the tire when he was hit on the leg by the brick. Smarting with pain he threw the brick back and hit the guard on the head, and he fell off the parapet. Whether, said the young man, the brick or the whiskey in the guard caused the fall and death, he could not say; for, said he, the guard was drunk that after noon. Then the young man added: I am sorry I did not know that you were bestowing this cruelty on these men, for I should have come forward and made known these things. THREE I’RISOXKKS KILLED. The thirty-two were immediately sent back to their quarters, where they were clothed and fed, but three of them died soon after from this ex posure, and most of them had im paired health. As for the young man. he was never punished for what he did. but in a few weeks he was act ing courier for Major Brady in the prison. While I was not one of the suffer ers, I was in the prison at the time, and much of it was related to mo by a Mr. Jones, of Georgia, who oc cupied the same tent with me and who worked outside daily on detail: I also, Mr. f^am Puckett, of Laurens County. S. C., who was one of those who underwenc that terrible ordeal of suffering, has a number of times related to me the whole story. He is a man of character and influence in his community. If any doubt this story- of reckless cruelty let them write to Mr. Sam Puckett, Waterloo, S. C., who will endorse all 1 have written, and who has several times asked me to write it out for the papers. I was paroled and left Point Lookout February IS, 18(55. While free from any special sickness. I was reduced 65 pounds in weight purely for want of sufficient fool. What I have written is in no spirit of vindictiveness, but merly to pre sent the facts of history. — — — Mr. Biackwood Explains. Star Farm, June 14.—I noticed in your last issue in publishing the court proceedings you sa.id ‘’James Blackwood for entering a house with intent of larceny, nol pressed.” Well now Mr. Editor of course this is a small matter to reply to, hut I don’t want the impression to go out through your columns that I have over had any such intent and I am sure you did not aim to do me the injustice to publish such ns that and I think if you will search the indict ments you will find it quite different. 1 was prosecuted for going into the house of a negro by the name of J. S. Hemphill, who had been hired to me and had run off. fled from justice, and refusing to give up my house, which justly and honestly belonged to me, so that I could put another family in it in order that they might fill his place. So I at once went in and took possession of it without breaking down any doors or breaking any locks or damaging anything in any way, shape or form, and ho pros ecuted me for violating Section 155. That is what the indictment says. It don’t say anything about intent of larceny. In other words the negro did not have anything Chut anybody else would have except himself, and he would not have owned them if he could have gotten anybody else to own them. I only do this Mr. Editor to set things straight before our new county and her neighbors, and I shall feel that you have done me un injustice if you don’t publish this in reply to what appeared in your last week’s issue. I simply ask the publication of this that such an impression may not go abroad. I took possession of the house and sent the negro to tno chain gang to help make Cherokee county good roads. That is just where all such ought to be. Hoping you will publish this and correct the matter, I remain, yours respectfully James R. Blackwood. COWPENS NATIONAL PARK. THE “KERNEL” WANTS $25,000 TO IMPROVE IT. He Gives the News of His Section in His Uriual Interesting and In imitable Style—Neigh borhood News. [It is with a feeling of pride we pub- iisli Mr. Blackwood’s letter. We got the news item from the books of the Clerk of Court, and the words used were found on the clerk’s hook of records. At the time we paid little or no particular attention to it. not thinking it was our friend from Star Farm and not being acquainted with the case we gave it little or no thought. The Ledger is at all times ready and willing to correct any mis take it may make. Not only would it do so for Mr. Blackwood or any other gentleman of standing in the community, but for the humblest man in the county. We thank Mr. Blackwood for the correction.—Ed.] Rough on the Pigmy. [Yorkvilli* Yoeuiiin.l The Greenville Mountaineer thinks that Watts ought to resign after the South (Carolina college grounds inci dent—the climax of many disgrace ful incidents in his career as adju tant and inspectorgeneral. Probably he ought, but in our opinion, a man who has had the career this official has, has not the grace to resign. Force and violence or compulsion are the only kinds of suasion laid down in his category. •— A NOTED ATLANTA CASE. For four years I have been afflicted with a very troublesome nasal catarrh.* So terrible iias its nature been that when I blew my nose small pieces of bone would frequently come out of my mouth and nose. The discharge was copious, and at times very offen sive. My blood became so impure that my general health was greatly impaired, with poor appetite and worse digestion. Numerous medi cines were used'without relief, until I began the use of Botanic Blood Balm—B. B. B.—and three bottles acted almost like magic. Since its use, over a year, not a svmpton has returned, and I feel in every way quite restored to health. I am an old citizen of Atlanta, and refer to almost any one living on Butler street, and more particularly to Dr. L. M. Gillum, who knows my case. Mrs. Eli/.abth Knott, Atlanta, Ga. Don’t buy substiutes, said to bo “just as good” but buy the old relia ble and standard Blood Purifier of the age, B. B. B. if 1.00 per large bot tle. For sale by Cherokee Drug Co. (Correspondence ot The Ledger.) Etta Jane. June 14.—Perseverance is one of the virtues that cannot be imitated.* It will either succeed or cease-to act. This is the experience of every one who attempts to supply his county newspaper with the cur rent news of his section. Sometimes the job is a hard one, but after due diligence he will succeed in other's estimation when he fails in his own. Rev. Mr. Ison preached at Messo- potamia yesterday. I am glad to meet Dr. S. G. Sarratt now since he is fully prepared to treat the ills to which th<» human flesh is heir. “Sid” is a good steady boy and one who will beyond doubt take a high rank in his chosen pro- fersion. He lias good blood in his veins besides ins maternal grand father was one of the most prominent physicians in the State. The most contcmptuble sight seen these days is the sillv little flirts frisking about trying to get the boys to notice them. If their mammas could only see them as other people do, a general spunking and ear pulling would surely be the result. While Col. Wm. Munro is one among the best lawyers in the State yet he met his match in an ebony colored witness he had before the court of general sessions of Cherokee county week before last. No one enjoyed it more than ho did. 1 expect sometime this summer at the solicitation of friends to spend a few days in the Cowpens battle 1 ground seetionof ourcountry in during which time J want toget all the infor mation obtainable for the use and benefit of the government in creating a national park there. We don’t want our national legislators to go into this blindfolded, neither do we expect them to fall behind their duties in giving this spot that recog nition its importance demands. Our representatives are at work and the matter has already received high official sanction. We don’t want a shoddy affair, but one that will re flect credit upon the American na tion. To this end all our efforts will be directed. Dr. Strait says he don't think that a sufficient appropriation can be raised before next winter. In this we will have plenty of time to acquaint our representatives with all the surroundings and they can act the more intelligently. We ought not to think of asking for less than $25,000 to purchase, improve and beautify these grounds. With a proper presentation of the case we are more likely to get that amount than the parsimonious sum of a few hundred dollars. In this matter I have no axe to grind nor ambition to gratify save and except county, State and National pride. I am glad to know that J. C. Jeff eries. Esq., has east his lot with the people of Chi*rokee county. As they are all comparatively young men I see no reason why Cherokee county at no very distant day should not have one of the strongest bars in the State. It certainly has ns many gentlemen connected with it. The farmers are having their hands fall of work now since the ruin of last week. T. Jeff Hughes, of Gowdeysville. paid us a pleasant call one day last week. He is our efficient represen tative on the Board of Registration. Some of our neighbors are having plenty of beans, potatoes, etc., now. The water of Thickety creek sub merged our pasture lands last week and rendered the grass unfit for use until it grows out again. A very intelligent and good looking lady of this section saw a letter last week in The Ledger from Texas which she recognized. It convinced her that The Ledger is one of the most extensively circulated papers in the State, and she ^thinks to hear from friends, it beats writing letters all to.pieces. Now that the vacation season is on we hope to meet all our county boys and girls and see them enjoy them selves. W. T. Osment is now a full fledged veterinary county surgeon. He is called far and near to look after the ills of the cattle and horses. Last weak he raised a hopeless case for my friend J. H. Fowler. It won’t be long until we can get an abundance of blackberries and some other fruits and then we will have a happy time. Uncle Tommie Mosely, of Gaffney, came down to see us last Wednesday. He is a very old man but well pre served in both body and mind. Joe Estee is in the dairy business. He asks a kicking cow no odds and is letting out some fine milkers from his farm on reasonable terms. Some go merely for the breaking. Everybody who is anybody likes to have neighbors provided they urejofthe right kind. ' I know a lady who says <he loaned a cup of coffee to a neigh bor who brought it hack promptly. She set it away thinking she would fill the next requisition with it and so it was not long until the same lady wanted to borrow again. She let her have the same one she brought Dome and so the borrowing and loaning process went on with the same cup of coffee until it all disap peared. It grew less and less each time. We were glad to meet Hon. D. E. Finley, of Yorkville, at Gaffney dur ing court week. He has a host of friends in Cherokee county who are always glad to see him. He will go down in history as the first lawyer to win a murder case in the Cherokee county court. For the benefit dTThe legal frater nity and the protection of the courts it has been suggested that we get up a reading and writing school. I think it eminently proper to add orthogra phy to the other studies. What say you brethren? It is a remarkable fact that those who desire to do their fellow men harm always miss their aim and do them good. Its much better to have some people’s opposition than their endorsement. I refer to the con temptible small fry. I was glad to meet my dear old friend Mr. John Ross at Gaffney, court week. He, as one of the old landmarks, saw the new county in its incipiency forty years ago and we are glad to know that he has his long cherished wishes materialized. W. H. Mercer, of Blacksburg, was in Gaffney last week. No man in Cherokee county has done more to develop its resources than Mr. Mercer has. On last Tuesday 8th inst. Pacolet river was higher at Skull Shoals than it has been for many years. Most of our people have succeeded in getting their potato plants set out early this season. Often it *is the case that they don’t finish until July. Last week as soon the ground got in order everything that could wield a hoe went at it, and by the time the ground got dry enough the plows started, and as a result the time lost by rain has been caught up with. Worms have attacked our gardens. They are at work on the cabbage, dping considerabie damage. Dr. Sam Foster is now under treat ment of Dr. Morton, the Indian doc tor. “Physician heal thyself.” The accounts of the State Press Association trip to Nashville, Tenn.. as given by the editors of The Led ger and Union Times are very inter esting. No doubt they had a good time, and well you deserve it boys. We have heard of a man who was too stingy to pay $1.00 for his county paper sending that amount to a Chi cago firm for a patent fire escape it advertised. He received in return a copy of the New Testament. That’s good for Jiim and the investment will prove effectual if he will use it ac cording to direction. For more than a whole week your correspondent has been afflicted with a severe cold which is near akin to lagrippe. The woman who looks good has a better chance of being happy in this and the world to came than one who* is good looking. John Whitlock is afflicted with a strange kind of insomania. He can’t sleep in a house where there is plate of good cold beans in the cupboard. The deaths of Gen. B. B. Foster and Ex Sheriff Phillip Dunn, of Un ion, were both announced in the Union Times of last week. They were perhaps two of the oldest white men in the county. In this day of “original package” it is hard for a country correspon dent to find anything to write about. Rev. W. Peyton Hemphill, of Grif fin, Ga., who is on a visit to this county, called on me last Saturday. He and 1 learned our letters in the same school, at the same time. We grew up together to manhood and the war came on and seperated us. He went west and joined the Second Mississippi cavalry and was in all the principle engagements of that army from Shiloh and Corinth to Johnson’s surrender at Hillsborough, N. 0., April 26, 1865. We had never met since we parted at the Hickory Grove Academy to join the army in 1861. Truly the poet expresses it when he says: 1'rli‘iiils, they are scattered LiKe roses in Gloom; Some hy the Grhlle Ami some by the tomb. We thank the editor for his intel ligent account of the Nashville trip and other matters pertaining to the State Press Association. Long may he live to see and write up many such pleasing incidents. j. i.. s. •■■■ —- — Hundreds of thousands have been induced to try Chamberlain’s Cougli Remedy, by reading what it has done for others, and having tested its mer its for themselves are to-day its warm est friends. For sale by DuPre Drug Co. JOHN PAGE CONFESSES. Admits That He Helped Green and Mrs. Carson Kill Van Carson. Columbia. S. C.. June 14—The Re cord this afternoon publishes the fol lowing confession : “I John L. Page, now in South Carolina penitentiary’ do hereby make a confession of the killing of J. C. Carson. (Question : Did you help kill Car- son? Answer: Yes, Green and I killed him. When we first entered the room, Green grabbed Carson while lie was asleep and struck at him with a razor and missed him, and cut the pillow. He started to rise when I struck him three times with an axe handle. That stunned him and Green cut his throat he fell back on the bed, and Green said, “blow out tiie light and we will put-up the bed,”, but decided not to do it. In the scuffle Green cut himself on the side. We then started for Green’s house. I pulled off my socks and threw them In the river as we crossed, but Green kept his on. It was Green’s hand prints on the lied sheet and my foot prints on the floor. When we get to Green’s house, I was too drunk to remember' much more, but remembered Green taking mine and his bloody clothes and go ing towards the spring to hide them. He threw the broken razor in the river, but hid the clothes near the spring. I had on a suit of Green’s clothes, and the axe handle was also tnrown into the river. Green was to pay me $100 for helping him, but did not do "so. Mrs. Carson told the truth in her confession and I <*orrob- erate every word she says. It has heavily weighed on my mind ever since and I now feel a burden off my mind. Ho and Mrs. Carson persud- ed me a long time before I consented. I went back and looked for the clothes that Green had hid, but could not find them. J was led into the matter under the influence of liquor, and sorely repent the same. But I am thankful to the jury who tried me, and my lawyers who worked so faithfully for me, for recommending me to the mercy of the courts, for ic was an awful crime, but now that I have told it, I feel free. So hy say ing good bye to the people of Spar tanburg county, I am respectfully, John L. Page.” Witness W. A. Neal. —— - — - - - • — Ezell Dots. (Correspondence of The Ledger.) Ezell, June 11.—The recent rain fall did great damage to growing crops. Old people who live here say it was the heaviest rain fall since the noted rain away back in the fif ties called the August freshet. Is land creek was a whizzer. She swept away one of her main bridges, Ezell, on the Cowpens and Henrietta road. T. H. Harrell will soon have the bridge in place that spans Island creek. Wheat cutting is progressing finely at this writing. Cherokee county owns some more bottom land, for nearly all the top was washed off here Monday. Report says Spartanburg county , lias hud a great loss’ in bridges as a result of Monday’s rain. Farmers will soon hear the whis tle of the traveling t.hrashers and then li,ttle chickens and blackberry pie may look wilef. The old Cowpens Battle Ground, that is where the old monument now stands, is beautifully situated on the head waters of three or four noted creeks, viz: Island creek heads* in about five hundred yards south east of the monument, Suck creek in about three hundred yards of the mon ument and Horse creek in about five or six hundred yards nearly due west. There is one peculiarity about the place that everybody should know, and that is that you can go to the monument without crossing any water, visible, for a distance of two miles on any of the public roads. On the Cowpens road you cross Island creek at the foot of a noted hill, Ezekiel by name. Blue Hawk. The Spartanburg (5. C.) Knitting Mill lias just placed an order for 18 new knitting machines, specially de signed for knitting children’s and misses’ fine ribbed hose. This mill’s goods have met with most favorable success in the qrarket. Mr. Isaac Horner, proprietor of the Burton House, Burton, W. Va.. and one of the yiost widely known men in tiie state was cured of rheumatism after three years of suffering. He says: “I Dave not sufficient command of language to convey any idea of what I suffered; my physician told me that nothing could be done for me: and my friends were fully con vinced that nothing but death would relieve me of my suffering. In June, 1864. Mr. Evans, then salesman for the Wheeling Drug Co., reccommen- ded Chamberlain's Pain Balm. At this lime my foot and limb were swol len to more than double their cotmal size and it Reamed to me my leg would burst, hut soon after I began using tiie Pain Balm, the swelling begr.n to decrease, the pain to leave, and now I consider that I am entirely cured. For sale by DuPre Drug Co.