Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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AM » THE LARGEST Circulation of Any Newspaper in the Fifth Congressional District of S. C. The Ledger. SEMI-WEEKLY-PUBLISHED TUESDAY AND FRIDAY. WE GUARANTEE The Reliability of Every Adver tiser Who Uses the Col umns of This Paper. A Newspaper in all that the Word Implies and Devoted to the Best Interests of the People of Cherokee County. ESTABLISHED FEB. 16. 1894 GAFFNEY. S. C., FRIDAY. JUNE 18. 1903. 81.00 A YEAR. LATER DETAILS OF THE FLOOD DISASTER » Estimate of Losses and the Present Outlook. MILLS TO BE REBUILT- if re-| many Summitry of the KenultH of the KIooil »8 Gathered From Report* au«l Newspaper Accounts and Latest Views on the Condi tion of the Sufferers. Clifton mills $1,800,000 Pacolet mills 92;> 000 Glendale mills 40 000 Mary Louise mills 60.000 Other mills 70,000 Total $2 895 000 Loss to Southern Railway.. 350,000 Relief fund to date (in round numbers) $17,000 The above is a summary of esti mated losses to cotton mills in Spar tanburg county. The destruction of dam , grist and saw mills, bridges and private property throughout the flood-swept district of course amounts to many more thousands of dollars; but it is a matter of impossibility ac this time to give a correct estimate of the total loss caused by the high waters. Details of smaller losses in this and other counties are coming in every day, and the destruction is al ready appalling to think of. An item from the Charlotte Observer is about as correct an estimate of the situation as can be given now : “The summary can be made in a few words. ‘The loss to the Clifton and Pacolet mills,’ said Mr. John B. Cleveland, of Spartanburg, in an in terview with me, ‘is $3,500 000 at least. That is actual loss. The pros pective loss to these mills cannot be calculated.’ The loss to the Glendale mills is $30,000. To other smaller mills, which have been mentioned many tim^s in the dispatches, the loss is greater and varjing, but it will be large enough to make the loss to mills in Spartanburg county alone over 4,000,000. This is as much a cash loss as if it had been gold that had been swept away in the tide. Between 50 and 60 people drowned —that is the death list; and the de struction of a half a hundred homes and the loss of employment of several thousand people are incidental. The loss to Spartanburg county through the indefinite stopping of the mills, through the loss of scores of bridges and through the partial de moralization of the laboring classes will be too vast to be counted in dol lars alone. And the loss to the Southern Rail way, which aifects the entire South, is almost beyond calculation. The bridges can be rebuilt and the tracks can be easily repaired, but in the blocking of traffic for a fornight over its main line the Southern, which was already congested along its en tire system, will suffer one of the greatest blows in its history. This summary, then, takes the view that the Hoods in Spartanburg county have done more damage than any disaster that has ever befallen the South except the Galveston horror.” Funds for the relief of the destitute and homeless are ooming in from all parts of the country, insurance com panies, wholesale conoern a and fra ternal orders responding by wire. President Twitchell, of Clifton, has received $3 000 from business bouses North. The grand total of contribu- tious to storm sufferers at tbeCliftou mills and the Pacolet up to 10:30 p. m., Tuesday was $10,168 24, and much more ha» been sent in since. There has been no actual suffering for want of food or clothing, and as these articles were contributed to soon after the disaster, and in such abundance, those left destitute are no longer in immediate need of help in that line. Mill No. 1 at Clifton is the least in- juted of the three plants. It will be weeks or months hence before the mill will be in operation. The plant is three stories high, with the biggest building, the carding and spinning room, close to the river’s edge. The upper edge of this structure has been battered in for a distance of Hfly feet. Below that for the entire length of the mill water ran as high as the second story and seemingly all the machinery was touched and ruined by the water. To an outsider, No. 2 with its skele ton frame is not much more valuable than the twisted machinery in the plant at Converse. Several more bodies have been re covered. Mrs. Maggie Robbs was found a'ive on an island three miles below the scene oi the disaster. With her were her two children—dead. All bad been swept down on driftwood.- One little boy who was carried away from mill No. 2, floated safely twelve miles down the river over the dams at Pacolet and was drowned just as be was about to be rescued. Reports Increase tbe death list for mill No. 2, and sixty people are said to be missing. Their bodies, covered, are apt to be found miles below that place. The action of the company’s officers there and at the other mills is ad mirable. Without any time for prep aration they find themselves facing tbe most serious conditions that ever confronted managers of any industrial enterprises, but they are showing cheerful fronts and are endeavoring to maintain a semblance of order among the operatives. Many hands are at work removing the debris and this not only tends to keep their minds, to a great extent, from the awfulntss of the situation, but lends inspiration to others about the THE PALMETTO STATL MARK OF THE FLOOD IH LOWER CHEROKEE items of Interest of Passing Banks of the Pacolet Lined Events. with Debris- ALL OVER THE STATE. MANY RESCUING GOODS. an scene and gives a more cheerful air to the whole aspect. Everything of value is being saved that can be gotten out of the wreckage, and goods are being res cued from the mud and sand and water down the Pacolet river, on both sides, and dried or sold in their dam aged condition. Whatever is derived from these Jsales will of course be so much saved to the owners, though thousands of yards of cloth probably many bales of cotton never be rescued and must necessa rily remain in the mud and water and decay. Owing to the nature of the ground around some of the cotton and goods they cannot be reached by wagons, nor, in some few cases, by people even, and in all probability by the time the ground dries suffi uently to admit of the approach of wagons, the stuff will be worthless. It is said by some of the planters along the Pacolet that in some places bottom land is from ten to twenty feet higher than before the flood, and that the land will not be dry enough under a year to admit of working or replant ing. The losses to life and property grow greater as accounts come in from other districts which were swept by the flood, but at no other places were the losses so great as at Clifton and Pacolet. Some lives were lost in different parts of the surround ing country, but by far the greatest number were at Clifton. Names of the dead which were not published in last issue of The Ledger, and some of whom have been found since, are: Mrs Hinson and child. Eleven members of Lowing family. Grenoble Sims. Dock Williams Maggie Kirby. John Swearingen and wife. Thr^e unidentified bodies were also taken from the river, making an ag gregate up to Monday night of fifty- eight dead, besides ten or fifteen that could not be accounted for at that time. Later another body was fouud,that of Mrs. R A. Findlay, who with her husband, R. B. Findlay, was carried away in the wreckage of a house at Dexter. Mr. Pritchard swam ashore after floating two miles. Mr. and Mrs. Findlay drifted five miles and had come close in shore when they were covered wit£ a towering mass of debris. Findlay rose clear of the drift wood, but his wife was caught under a heavy timber and did not rise. Tuesday two more bodies were taken from the debris at Clifton No. 2. One was that of a boy apparently twelve or fifteen years of age. His face was so blackened by mud or de cay that it was impossible at the time to identify him; though it could be toid by tbe hair that the body was that of a white boy. It will no doubt tfvents that Have Taken Place from One End of the State to the Other Culled from Exchanges for (Julck Reading by Scores of Busy People. G. W. Croft, leading counsel for J. H. Tillman, stated Tuesday night that an attempt would be made to get a change of venue. Papers will be filed today (Friday) serving notice on the prosecuting attorneys. J. W. Moore, who was so seriously injured and maimed for life in the ex plosion at the Catawba dam on May 23d, and was placed in the city hos- wi U ' pital at Rock Hill for treatment, was discharged from that institution last Friday and left for bis home in Ma rietta, N. C., accompanied by his son. L. F. Martin, of Berkely county, has been acquitted of the charge of murder. He killed hie brother some time ago' because his brother had been intimate with his wife. The de fense was that the brother had been too intimate with Martin’s wife and that Martin simply rode eighteen miles to the field in which the brother was ploughing and shot him dead. The engineer of the negro excursion train which was wrecked vith loss of life near Cane Savannah below Sum ter last week, in his testimony before the coroner’s jury said that he did not stop when signalled at Cane Sa vannah because he was running under orders not to slow down for signals at any flag station ; that he observed the wash-out before he reached it and ap plied his emergency brakes, but to no avail. Waters Left a Mark L T pon the Land Which will Remain for Years—Rescuing Parties Working Hard to Save Property of All Kinds—Persnal Mention. (Correspondence of The Ledger.) Etta Jank, June 10.—The recent flood has left its mark and conse quences upon the land and people of this community in such a way that it will not soon be forgotten ; it will take many years to get over it. Though, with us, it is nothing compared with others. The banks of Pacolet river' are literally lined with the debris of buildings of nearly all kinds', bridges, cottora mills, dwelling bouses, with their contents smashed into splin ters, and in many cases unrecogniza ble. All kinds of housebeld furni ture, bedding, hats, bonnets, shoes, tobacco, coffee and other goods havt been taken from the wreck in one place or another. Cotton bales by the hundred are rafted along the river and many more are passing continu- all /. Bales and bolts "if factory cloth, spools, belting and all such parapher nalia have been taken out and are scattered over the country. The de struction must be seen in order to be estimated or appreciated. Rescuing parties have been at work since Sun day and much has been saved. All kinds of reports are in circulation and everybody has a tale of his own All have heard something that “they say” and one can hear anything itch ing ears are waiting for except good news, It’s a great time now for their wheat and are sowing the land ! in peas. County Superintendent of Educa tion, J. L Walker, is down looking after his farming interest. Owing to the high water Rev. Mr. White did nut fill his appointment at Salem last Sabbath. The chain at Howell’s ferry was swept down by the flood last Satur day. The water in Broad river got over the telephone wire, but no dam age was done, only cutting off commu nication for a few hours. Pastures on Thickety and Gilky creeks are submerged and will be worthless until a new growth of grass come on. Mr. Dave Fowler was caught on the Union side of Pacolet river md hadn’t got home yesterday evening Mr. Non Miller, the Union mail rider, was on this side of Pacolet when the tidal wave came and swept off the Skull Shoals bridge, and he has not gotten over yet that we know of. J L s THROUGHOUT THE TAR HEEL STATE, From the Mountains to The Sea. NORTH CAROLINA NEWS DAMAGE AT EZELL. aud . . ‘gassing” and some people never stop Wednesday morning a young ma Ji talking purchased a set of harness from Mw i E. Alverson, in Spartanburg, for $8 50. Mr. Jack Kendrick Judson Surratt have and large Hon. W. forces at a-or Mn g - Vil, ^ in -* ) u y .k iUUt 11 'to wor ^ saving cotton, and they will be $2.) (.0 signed with the name of J. 1. g eV eral days getting that now in sight Clarey.” He received the difference „„ „„ in money from Mr. Alverson and left. When the check was presented at the bank it was found that “J. P. Clarey'’ was an “unknown quantity”—and the young man had left for parts un known. Mrs. Harrell, of the Camp Ground section of Spartanburg county, who recently disappfared mysteriously from her home, has returned to the husband and three children whom she left. She had eloped with a “Holiness” preecher, J. P. Byars’ and they had gone together to Tenn essee,, where Mrs. Harrell attempted to secure a divorce. The husband of the truant wife found them there aud brought his wife home. Mrs. J. C. Boozer, who accidentally shot herself at her home in Williams- ton, last week, has been gradually sinking since Monday. The bullet which penetrated the left breast just below tbe heart has never been lo cated ; but she suffered a severe hem orrhage from the kidneys which would indicate that after penetrating the left lung the ball ranged slightly be a long time before it can be ascer-; downward and imbedded itself in one taiued to a certainty the number of lives that were lost in the flood. There are always a number of strangers, visitors, new hands and a roving population around mill villages such as were Clifton and Pacolet, and for that reason it will make the work of placing tbe identity of the dead and missing more difficult; and it is possible that there were some swept away who may never be found—whose bodies lie buried beneath tons of earth or were swept on into tbe bosom of the broad Atlantic there to remain till the tiumpet call on the resurrect ion mom shall bring them from their watery grave. ESTIMATED LOSS AT TWO PLACES. The material losses aggregate be tween $4 000,000 and $4.500,000 which includes the estimates on everything known to have felt the effects of the floods. The directors of the destroyed Clifton mills held a meeting Wednesday at which tbe question of rebuilding was discussed. It is thought that work will be begun on Clifton Mills 1 and 2, part of which are standing, at once. What will be done at No. 3 is still problematical, as the destruction is complete. DEXTER SWEPT AWAY. Dexter, tbe village that lay about Clifton Mill No. 2 was entirely swept away—the desolation is supreme. Below tbe mill there is a level stretch of land that extends back in a semi circle for a quarter of a mile. This was thickly dotted with warehouses, stores, shops of various kinds and fif teen residences. There is not a house standing on the place now and big trees have been leveled to the earth. On tbe sloping bills across the river 25 cottages were lost and tbe banks were denuded of trees and shrubbery, tbe earth being washed away to the naked rocks. Timber from the Con verse mill bad struck the Dexter plant as if burled from a catapult and of those vital organs. It was not thought at last account that Mrs Boozer could possibly last longer than a few hours. A special from Union says the re port of casualties in the accident on Broad river bridge, on the ISoutbem Railroad, three miles north of Carlisle, in Union county, was exag gerated. The combination, tbe pile- on land. It’s an endless as well as a laborious job to get the cotton bales out of toe rafts and roll them up the bluff out of the reach of high water. Oo the other side of Pacolet there are forces of the same kind at work. People have gathered from miles and miles to see this great sight; women and children are the most interested spectators, it seetns. They line the banks and watch the river like hawks. While we were there yesterday what looked like a brand new buggy floated clown mid-stream. The river is still high aud do way to cross it. The bridges are ail gone and no vessels cun be had. The iron bridge at 8kall 8noals tippled over about 2 o’clock on Sunday evening when the tidal wave struck it. It was one of the fluest bridges in our knowing, costing $5,200 when first built, i’he stone peers are intact. This bridge was built by Union county when Mr. J. B. Scott was county supervisor, and it was a monument to his executive ability. But such a deluge of water us took it off its pillars was never ex pected to come. It has stood far above tbe highest water we have had for the last ten or twenty years, if ever before. The measurement of the water at Skull Shoals placed it at 46£ feet to 52 feet. Tbe oldest people we have ever heard talking about it, and those most likely to know, says the August freshet of 1850 and 52 each, reached a height of 33 feet, and this old mark is 19^ feet below tbe high water mark of last Saturday and Sat- IHkIi VV liters Destroy Mills, I >11111* lirltlKes in Lpper Coiititry. (Correspondence of The Ledger.) EZELL, June 8—Our community was visited Friday night and Satur day morning by the heaviest rains that have ever fallea here. It is im possible to estimate the damage done to crops. All bottom lands are either washed a^vay or covered with mud so as to necessitate planting over. On our comparatively leve. laud terraces are broken and great gullies formed. Water courses were higher than ever known. It trying to cross a very small stream (uot a half mile from its rise) Mr. G. L McBee and wife nar rowly escaped drowning. The Lemons & Humphries mill-dam on Horse creek was broken; Mr. W. R Guild's mill-dam broke and mill washed away; Mrs McCraw’s mill-dam, near State Line, is broken; I’aris’ mill on Buck creek washed away; McMillin mi^i at Paris’ bridge washed away; Mr. B Y. Hicks’ ferry at Island Ford washed away—his horses w'-r-' found swimming in the stable an •••• r> s cued. Just on trie other oiue oi me river, at Island Ford, Mr. Govan Bradley lost his life in attempting to save his cows that were in a stable. A wash, or cut-through, from Fioyd’s creek surrounded it, and in trying to cross he was washed down and drowned, though he was considered one of the best swimmers in the county. Up till one o’clock Sunday his body had not been found. The Wilkins cotton mill on Island creek is badly damaged. The report of the loss of life and property at the Clif ton mills is appalling. Little Miriam, only child of Mr. | Will C. ard Mrs. Clara McKinney, died Friday and was buried at Arro- wood yesterday. Joe. FreuScholurshlps. The following scholarships are now open and will be awarded by the South Carolina Federation of Wo- * men’s Clubs: Converse College—Three scholar ships, each valued at $100 a year, for four years academic work in college. Methodist College for Women— Columbia, 8. C.—One scholarship for four years academic work in college driver, locomotive engine and one flat urday night. Garner’s mill-house, [continued on pack five,] car, went into the river by the trestle giving way, when the pile-driver at tempted to go out on it to drive a pile, where about 400 feet of the tres tle on that side leading to the bridge bad been washed away. It was thought that the three or four bents standing wore safe, but they had been undermined. The three men who were on the pile driver went down with it, but no one was killed. A freight train going north oa tbe Southern and the fast mail • ox New Orleans collided at a point d Kile and a half north of Fort MiU^jKonday night. The engines wfi^erlfompletely wrecked, as was thtf'tfrst mail car on tbe fast train, while several cars on the freight were smashed. Wrecking tr line were dispatched to tbe scene and by 4 o’clock the next morning the track was clear and in such repair as to permit of the passage of trains. Engineer W. A. Wilson, of Columbia, who was running the freight train, broke an ankle when he jumped. En gineer D. A. Vaughan, of tbe fast mail, escaped unhart by jumping, as did the firemen on both trains. Some of the train crew were Injured. Driven to Desperation. Living at an out of the way place, remote from civilization, a family is often driven to desperation in case of accident, resulting In Barns, Cats, Wounds, Ulcers, etc. Lay in a sup ply of Bucklen’s Arnica Salve. It’s the best on earth. 25o, at Cherokee Drag Co. at Skull Shoals, Is gene and the water was half way up the side ofjthe gin- house on the hill. Those of efur read ers who are familiar with tbe ground can form an estimate of the height of the water. It was backed up she ravine between the Er n Wood house and Skull Shoals meeting-house. Immense trees along the banks of the river were flattened to the earth by the weight of tbe rafts or the force of the water, and great boles are washed out in the bottom lands in some places, while immente sand banks aie made in others. So it will be years and years before this land can be of any use for farming purp ses. Hundreds of trophies were gathered from tbe wreck by visitors, mostly some part of broken machinery or furniture, articles of wear, etc. Your correspondent got from the wreck a child’s bat, which he may, perhaps, bang up in The Ledger office, where the owner, if alive, or some friend may see and recognize it. It’s impossible for us to say all we might say upon tbe disaster—this visitation of Providence. No one of sense can look upon it without feel ing solemn. It’s a sickening sight to any not lost to human sympathy. Prof. J. Thomas Moore will, we learn, build oo hie farm near Owens’ ford, and move Into our community to live soou. We are glad to think there is a ohauOe of gettlog^good neigh bors to move amoug us aud help build up our waste nlaoes. Our people have finished cutting Greenville College for Women—One scholarship of free tuition. Tbe Southern Kindergarten Train ing and Normal Institue—Charles ton, S. C—One scholarship of free tuition for each county in the State. The South Carolina Kindergarten Association rrainingSchool—Charles ton, 8. C.—One scholarship of free tuition. Mrs. I. A. Smith’s School for Young Ladies—Charleston, S. C.—0 n e scholarship of free tuition. Alumnae Club School of Domestic Science—Louisville, Ky.—One schol arship of free tuition. Clifford Seminary—Union, S. C.— One scholarship of free tuition. The examinations for these scholar ships will be held in each county, July 10th. All applicants must file their names before July 1st with Miss Louisa B. Poppekheim, Chairman Educational Dept. S. C. Federation of Women’s Clubs, 31 Meeting St.. Charleston, 8. C. “I have been troubled for some time with indigestion and sour stom ach,” says Mrs. Sarah W. Curtis, of Lee, Mass., “and have been taking Chamberlain’s Stomach and Liver Tablets which have helped me very much so that now I can eat many things that before I could not.” If you have any trouble with your stom ach why not take these Tablets and get well? For sale bv Cherokee Drug Co.; L. D. Allison, Cownens. A woman spiritualist in New York has said that men who smoke in this world will smoke In the next. This is putting it delicately, to say tbe least. Oh, Yes I You wish you bad ordered Brans- ford’s “Clifton” flour for to-day, but you didn’t. It isn’t our fault; we bad plenty of it ready to deliver at your order. Don’t get caught napping next time. W. J. Wilkins <fc Co. Interesting Items Concerning Our Neigh bors Beyond the Line Which May Prove Entertaining Reading^ for Hundreds of Ledger Readers The number of convicts now in the penitentiary proper is only 115, a gang of 92 having been sent to work on the State farm on the Roanoke river. The news which comes from this farm is all of the most satisfac tory character. T. P. Jenks, a white man from Lin- colnton, was arrested in Charlotte Tuesday night on a warrant issued by the sheriff of Lincoln county, charging him with the crime of in cest. An officer carried the prisoner to Linculnton Wednesday. After committing the crime, Jenks ran away and went to Texas. Mattie Benfield, a girl 14 years old, with darn hair, blue eyes and a very frtir complexion, delicate and sad- looking, left Salisbury Friday last at 9 n. tn., to reach Pinner’s Point, or Norfolk, Saturday morning, but has not been since seen or heard from. Any one finding her is requested to report to the Norfolk police station. Buck Hunter, an 18-year-old color ed boy, living on Mr. W. O. Coch rane’s farm, four miles south of Char lotte. died Sunday afternoon at 4 o’clock from the effects of a wound received from a pistol ball. He was cleaning an old revolver Sunday morning, when the weapon was fired, the ball taking effect in the boy’s left eye and going through his head. In the Superior Court in Charlotte Wednesdny judgment was signed for $700 in favor of W. C. Nolan, ad ministrator of EdOh Y ’■ 11 v*. Char lotte E Railway L " Power Co. The suit was for $2,UOU brought for the killing of Edith Nolan, the five- year-old daughter of W. C. Nolan about 6:80 o’clock on March 23,1902. on West 8th street in that city, John Cockman and Mollie Jackson were arrested at Fayetteville by the police Wednesday. They are wanted as principal and accomplice in the murder of Mack Johnston near Dil lon, S. C., lait Saturday. All the parties are white. Cockman and the Jackson woman returned to South Carolina without requisition papers with the South Carolina officers, Bessemer City is to have a new cot ton mill. The company has just been organized and the name given the new plant is the Wetstone Mill. The capital stock is $45,000. It will be a weave mill and will operate looms only. Mr. S. J. Durham is president of the company and Mr. L. W. Buck is superintendent. The machinery has been purchased. Brick-laying will begin next week. The Supreme Court affirms the judgment of the lowtr court in the important case of H. F. Seawell, of Moore county, who was rotten-egged at tbe Seaboard Air Line Railway station at Shelby, while a populist candidate for an important office and who was awarded $4,500 damages. The court finds that the railway’s agent was in the party which made this as sault on Seawell and that he failed to give him the proper protection. Mr. J. P. Rosseau, a prominent citizen and business man of North Wilkesboro, and other heirs have in stituted suit to contest the will of Mrs. Davis, who died in Salisbury two weeks ago, and whose remains were sent to Jefferson for interment. Mrs. Davis left a large estate, which includes about thirty or forty thous and acres of land in Ashe and Alle ghany counties, and bonds to the amount of $25,000 or more. Mr. Ros- seau was named as executor, but he refused to qualify so he could bring suit. Engineer Cooper, who was shot in Winston two weeks ago by Mrs. Wil son, discovered a ball in tbe ring of the leather belt which be had on when the shooting occurred. After the trouble, it was thought that Mr. Cooper was shot in tbe right side. A badly bruised place was found, but the engineer was unable to explain what caused it and It remained a mystery until the ball was found in the ring, which was on the right side when the ball struck it. Mr. Cooper was unable to pull the bullet out of the ring with his fingers. The ring no doubt saved tbe engineer’s life, as the bullet, which was a 38-calibre, would doubtless have produced a fatal wound. Chamberlain’s Stomach and Liver Tablets are just what you need when you have no appetite, feel dull after eating and wake up with a bad taste in your mouth. They will Improve yout appetite, cleanse and Invigorate your stomach aud give you a relish for your food. For sale by Cherokee Drug Co.; L. D. Allison, Cowpsns.