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N ' F*art II. Pages 9 to 16. m THE UNION TIMES M VOL. LXIV. NO. 41. UNION, S. C., FKIDAY, <KTOBEK 9, 1914. $1.00 A YEAJI. ? Hisl SKETCH OF UNi FEWi Recollections of Prominent Men , dation for Our Splendid Sch From Former Stude When hardly six years of age, I was privileged to attend the Unionville Female academy, and my teachers were Misses Sallie and Addib Ottosin. I do not remember a male prin cipal. They must have .succeeded Dr. Curtis. As I remember now, the music teacher was Miss Anna Flemming, who afterwards married Mr. James Cioss. Rev. Frank Gamewell came next. He must have taught a very short time for I remember very little about him, or who his assistants were. He was a saintly man and his wife a noble woman. She was one of his assistants. Rev. Erastus Rowley next had charge. I remember two of his children Henry and Eugenia. Mr. Rowley was stern and dignified, a fine disciplinarian. We all knew to obey, or punishment would follow. The most ludicrous was compelling an offending boy to occupy the mantel Rev. Colin A. Murchison. shelf as a chair, where all the pupils CQuld see him. , Durinpr the year 1858 or 1859 Rev. J. I). McCulloujrh was made principal and Miss Cornelia M. Reid of Charleston his assistant. I was now about twelve years of aj>;e, and can never express what their teaching meant to me. Mr. McCullough was so kind, patient and withal, so thorough* Miss Reid was careful, even to the dotting of "i's" and the crossing of "t's" and our written exercises must be neat, and free from mistakes, which if made, were corrected, handed hack to us to be re-written until no errors were made. Some thought of her as being cold and severe, but to me she was perfect and to my admiring eyes, the most beautiful woman I ever saw. O! How I loved her! The music teacher was Mrs. Von Behman, a German lady of acknowledged ability. Out next teacher was Rev. Colin Murchison, who took charge about the year 1861. I was under his instruction four years. The cruel war at this time was upon us, and my dear fa- ' ther had just passed to the great "Beyond" and in Mr. Murchison 1 found ; a true and faithful friend, I cherish his memory. He was always kind and thoughtful, especially to orphan chil- | dren. v ;is lir^t school term was taught in the old Methodist church where the , office for the Union Cotton mills was afterwards erected. Memory carries me back to the wooden church build- 1 ing where so many happy children 1 gathered for instruction. He was ably assisted by Misses Annie and Julia Gott, the music teacher being | Miss Marceline Timanus of Ellicott ' mills, near Baltimore. Her 'sister, 1 Emma, married Mr. James Keenan, 1 which perhaps accounted for her be- 1 ing in the Southland at that time. A little later the school was moved * to the Academy, and here the last < years of my school life were spent. 1 Miss Margaret Mcllwain and Miss < Medora Gibbs were now his efficient 1 assistants. Miss Margaret teaching 1 the advanced classes and Miss Medora 1 the primary. I'was dear Miss Mar- ' garet who taught us higher mathe- J matics, and to solve the most diffi- i cult problems ir. arithmetic and alge- 1 bra were to her mere play. 1 thought 1 when I became a teacher, to be able I to impart knowledge to others in the ? plain and unassuming way that she 1 did, would be an accomplishment to < be proud of. To me, she was a para- < gon of goodness, and I hope those ' who received her instructions endeav- i ored to profit by her noble Christian ! example. ' The sweet winning ways of Miss i Medora Clibbs irresistibly drew the children to her. Some how, she knew i V :orical f ONVILLE 1 ALE ACADEMY and IYomen Who Laid the Founools?Contributed Sketches nts and Residents. exactly'what to say and when to say it, and the children all recognized her ability. The music teachers were Miss Lizzie Walker and Miss Fannie Langdon, the latter afterwards married Mr. James Goss, second wife. In November 18(54 I left the dear old Academy, and "as a young school teacher, not yet 18 years of age, began life in earnest. My school days were ended, and of the teachers and happenings at the dear old Academy I could only gather from those left. And now, the old house alnl music rooms have been replaced with a commodious graded school building, but the memory of the old buildings art precious to me still. Mrs. Frankie Peek Edwards. EARLY DAYS OF UNIONVILLE TOLD BY FORMER UNION BOY Mr. F. C. Curtis, who left Union at the Age of Ten Years, Now Living in New York, Tells of Old Union. (The contributor of this article Frederick Curtis, the baby in this picture.) 17 Washington Ave. Albany, N. Y. April 17, 1914. Dear Mrs. Clifford?I fear that I have delayed writing what you asked me to so long as to embarass you or perhaps to make it useless. And I have finally written that which may seem more biographical than historical. But I have been so filled with the story told with a wealth of detail by my mother in her delightful letters and have so newly acquainted with this very dear lady who passed away when I Was but five years of age that it has been only by taking thought that I have restrained myself to the simpler task you set for mo. Many an hour have I sat with my father and gone over tfyese years and scenes with him, the best and most prized companion of my life. 1 know Union which I left at the age of 10 years, and those good people of sixty years ago as if or better than- if I had always lived there. From our home, the old Arthur home, which then filled \vith its grounds from what then was the home of the Misses McIIwain to the corner, and opposite the Brandon house and the Academy which I can still see from it near Col. Dawkin's; there was first an open common whore traveling circus shows were held; then Captain Joiner's up the side street a short distance the home for a time of my parents; opposite was Dr. Gage's office where was a skeleton in a closet, as I recall still with dread; further down the street was Goss" hotel which rang wiy insisieniiy, a sort ot school hell at meal time, and across the way was the Greek temple of a courthouse from which one day as I was passing a man came and led me as I thought my doom, but only to draw names out of a hat for which I was paid ten cents; somewhere near the hotel was the postoffice; further (town near the courthouse was the residence of Judge Wallace, then those of Mrs. I Goudelock, Dr. Dogan, Col. Clowney, Mr. Pratt, and there was as I recall it, a ravine to one side of the street and the limit of my wanderings, so Jeep that a china tree growing in it barely protruded. Down the side street from near the postoffice was the cermetery still there* and the white church. itev. I,upton Warner Curtis was a native of Stockbridge, Mass.. where and whereabouts lived for generations the numerous descendants of Henry Curtis, their progenitor, who came from England to New England in 1643. His name is associated with the nearhy town of Canann, N. Y.. where his boyhood was spent and all the later years after leaving South Carolina. He prepared for college there under the tuition of a retired >fficer of West Point, training and entered Williams College. The fortune >f broken health drove him south soon ifter and determined the momentous part of his life for him. On the long ? i... ?si:? " ruj?Kc ?) nauiiiK vessel 10 savannah le found a family whose memory for ;heir kindness and Southern hospitalty he always cherished; they took lim home with them to their plantation near Savannah and employed lim as tutor for their children, and jndcr their favoring care his health vas so restored that he returned. ?"'l ompletcd his college course at Union :ollege, graduating in 1836. His leart was set on the South with its >almy air, and he took his further <tudy in the Columbia Theological Seminary where he graduated in 1880 it the age of 26. Elizabeth Colton was of the I.ongueadow, Massachusetts, family of and Ed ' iSflBI SyBM < > JBy?- jflSffi Rev. L. W. Curtis And Son, Frederick, 1841. that name, herself a native of Lenox, Mass., horn 1814. They were married in 1840 and went directly to South Carolina. She had carried on for a few years a private school in Lenox, in whose Academy she has been educated, and it was their evident purpose that she should continue teaching, whilst he had little thought save for religious work and preaching. So at the outset, she took a place as teacher in Mr. Chaplin' school at Newberry; not for long however?a vacancy occurred in the school at Union and through her cousin, William The Old Arthur House, form < Colton, then in business there, father | of the late Mr. J. E. Colton, they were j both engaged to take charge of it, he | continuing to some extent a colport- j erage work which took him to all I parts of the State and through which he made the widest act|uaintance. (These notes are taken by her first born son from piously preserved letters which she wrote to her mother 1 and sisters over the whole period of j her South Carolina life and are full i of local incident and impression as j well as being a mirror of her charming character. She describes from i first sight the academy as it was then ' and as she saw it): It is the most attractive I have ' seen, a beautiful cottage-like build- i ing, painted white with green blinds j and a piazza in front, and situated in { the midst of a grove, back and away ] from the street, with one large airy i room." There was a French and wnisii- 1 teacher, Miss Temple; otherwise they did the teaching and chiefly at the outset and even later its responsibil- 1 ity devolved on Mrs. Curtis, start- I injr with :?5 pupils in January, 1H11.I There appears to have been at the same time in Unionville a school lot boys of which Mr. Isham was principal. She says: You should see my THE OLD BRICK ! (This Picture Was Made When 1). ucatio] i pm ** .1 w ' < > . ixit i llcv. I,. W. Curtis?in later years. clas of little girls; I have a dozen uj bright little things as you ever saw studying geography, reading am spelling. They were a little too play ful at first; I kept them after sehoo one day and scared them into sue! implicit obedience as perfectly aston ished nie. Indeed there could not l? a better set than my whole school, re sportful, affectionate and obedient; nor a happier teacher than I. Then are classes in rhetoric, philosophy history and chemistry, and everj fortnight they write compositions. At another time she says: There is i i-rly Occupied by !)r. Curtis. handsome, mischievous little pair of twins, twelve years old that look so much alike that 1 hardly know them apart and can hardly ever detec t the 11 at their tricks. So I scold them at random; but they hardly ever conic to school without bringing; me flowers or an apple and never will go away without a kiss. (These twins wen Carrie and Addie l)ogan, in later years Mrs. Jas. I>. Steedman and Mrs, Sraife.) There is frequent reference to their mutual regard toward tin pupils and their demonstration of affection. She says: There is less of reserve and more of primitive simplicity in this interior up-country than you find at the north, and amonp other things more 1 believe of primitive obedience anions children and awe of their elders. As to their attainments she says in H42 of her early pupils. "The older girls knew almost nothing of arithmetic when we came; Mr. Curtis has carried them through a thorough course of that and they aie now commencing geometry. Such a course of education has been almost unknown in this country. Another season they will take up algebra; there is also a line class in Latin. I am bringing the younger ones along the same way. (Continued on page 12) SCHOOL HOUSE. A. Townsond Was Principal). rial Edit 'EARLY RECOLLE UNIONVILLE M; Interesting Pen Picture of Early i Boys of Union?Preminent Ei This Worthy Enterprii I'nion Male Academy. of Founded in 1S55"> or One board of trustees acted for the two aeade- c' mios, formed a joint stock company, *c and by their enerpy and enterprise 1 i secured the sites and erected the buildings. Xo record has been found j" of tlie work done in the Male Aeademy and it is only incidentally that we a! have gotten what we give below: First teacher unknown. 11 IS 11?Mr. Isham, mentioned in 111 diary of Mr. I.. W. Curtis. 18455?Mr. Hawes, mentioned in jc" diary of Rev. 1.. VV. Curtis. 1K~>2 to lS.lT?Rev. Mr. Enloe, Rev. >0, ; Jas. H. I.aye, assisted by A. A. .James ot j during two summers of his vacation ' wnne studying at the Theological '! ' Seminary in Columbia. * ? ' 1858 to 18(54?-Jas. B. Steedman, . ' Chas. VV. Boyd, George Cofield, E. M. 10 Miller. * 1K ; 18(54, January to November?Dan- ur iel Townsend. 18(5.") to 1872?Maj. 1 >. A. Town' send, assisted by Capt. F. M. Fare, Benj. F. Bailev. r 1874-1877?Rev. P?. (I. Clifford, ast sistants, sevring at different tines: 1 Thomas C. James, Georjie E. Prince, Rev. J. T. Bailey of the Presbyterian ministry, Rev. A. 11. Lester, pastor of M. E. church were always ready to help in time of need. 1878?Fainbrough. 1879-1880?Maj. D. A. Townsend. In January of 1881 the Unionville Male Academy passed into the hands of the public school board of District No. 11. The brick schoolhouse that stood on the sites now occupied by the residences of Mrs. N. B. Morjjan and Mr. J. M. Greer, was soon sold and the building torn down. The old academy passed away and left no successor. The boys entered the public school which was taught for several j years in the old P?esbyterian church, situated in the southwest corner of the "village cemetery." That wooden building erected about 181(5, had stood for nearly three-quarters of a century as# an important landmark in the history of Union. J)( Public examinations of the Unionville ; ?t academy girls had been conducted,'11 ! there, great speeches had been deliv- -s ered there, and many of Union's sainted dead had lain in flower-crowned ?f caskets before its simple altar. ?>' When the Central school building 1,1 was erected in 1891, the old wooden i church was sold to the negroes and hi : moved away. en i "Sic transit Gloria Mundi." co th Maj. I). A. Townsend. ()1 In the history of Union no one man | has done more to train the men who j ( have maintained the honor of its man- | hood and built up its interest than', Maj. 1). A. Townsend. He was a mar | st . of unusual ability and fine training. I j1(l In 1855 he entered Davidson College, ' Mecklenburg County. X. ('., and graduated with first honor on Julv 1 . , 1858. He also won the pri/.e offered for highest standing in Mineralogy ,,, and Geology. Mrs. Clifford, then vj Mary Scofield. a school girl from Columbia, S. ('., was present at his ,u, graduation and heard him deliver the \y valedictory address. .... After his graduation he taught \j school in Marlboro County and in cn Fayetteville, X. C. In 18(52 he enlist- m ed in the army of the Confederate k States of America. He was stationed s'a on James Island, and cotitracted ma- (|(. laria so that his health failed. In his w. distress over the condition of this, his 0f only son, his father brought hint home and hired a substitute for him. In ^ January of lfWVI he came to Union- ^ ville, hoping to regain Ids strength in the upcountry, and was made principal of the Unionville Male academy. | '() On November 3, lHt>4 he was married i , to Miss Sallie Belle Douglass, daugh- | V| ter of Dr. George Douglass of Fishdam, and sister of Capt. Jas. T. Doug-1 lass. Almost immediately after his |'^.j marriage he went into the service <?f the State as Captain of Co. B. 1th j Beg. State troops. This company 1 was formed of the ltl-year-old hoys I"1 of the Unionville Male academy ami ' 11 the village and county of Union. 1111 When on the way to the sea coast J where the company was to enter ac-1 tivo service, Cant. Townsend narrow-1 *? ly escaped a tragic death. The trestle at Alston pave way and the train th went down what seemed to utter do- lat struetion. "Bud" Crawford, one of nu the soldier lads was standing on the oo platform between two cars and was bu instantly crushed to diiith. iCapt. th Townsend who stood in the door just A1 behind "Bud" was thrown back into loi the car, and was not hurt. Some 10 bu or 15 of the boys were bruised up thi very badly. This company did pood lb work, obeying orders and going where tu they were sent, until after Lee's sur- of render when they were mustered out vil # ion *?i CTIONS OF ALE ACADEMY fevelopmenl of School Life of ducators Who Figured in >e of Early Days. service and came home. Maj. Townsend then again took large of the Male Academy. It ems that Uev. Mr. Murcheson went ick into the ministry in 1 St if. ami at at time Maj. Townsend was made incipal of the two schools, employer assistant teachers for etich one id giving his services a.^ the occas?n demanded. In this way he cared on the schools very successfully iti! 1ST.'! when he had. perhaps, hemic weary of school teaching or inrested in the study of law which h> id taken up in his leisure hours, lie rved several terms as "Intendant" the town of Union, and several rms as school commissioner of the unty. In 188'2 he was admitted to e bar and devoted the remainder ot s life to the practice of law in Unit. In November of 181)0 he was ap inted assistant Attorney General ider Attorney General Pope, and in s 1). A. Tow nscnd. ueentber of 1SHJ was elected Jubui' the Seventh Judicial I ircuit. When died at his home in Union on the 1th of June, liUl, in- hail nearly ached liis 7 1th birthday. Fifty-four . i? ? > > " mu.M- v?irs na<i neen mum aland eheerfully devoted to the bus;, torests of his adopted home. Ilis influence in the schoolroom '.ill character, the nohlest and most iduring work man's hand can acmplish. It has heen said of him at he lead his hoy- "to higher ideals integrity, truth and honor." His success in public odices licfon e liar, and upon the bench are mat rs of pride to his fellow citizens, it in the depths of their hearts, the;, vera above ,'tl! others the man who retches out his hand and lifts their ys to a purer and nobler manhood. "The Hit? (dully. "In ve olden time" one of the most -eminent natural features of I'l-ion llagc was the "big jjully." And it rtainly was a big one. Heading ar the front Kate of Miss Amanda bitlock's residence it extended to 'osch's branch" which crosses the uin road. The depth at the lvnst d was so great that tall trees grew it whose topmost branches scareelifteil above the road way. It was id that many a dark secret was hidn in its depths, but the "biu gully" us not addicted to "tolling tales out school." Once in its history the neighbors lew of a brave boy who, pursued in e darkness of the night by a drunkfather, leaped right into its deepl depths. Strange to say he was t hurt either by the leap in the rk or the heavy fence rail that his furiated father hurled after him. nit hoy lived to be a good man and distinguished citizen of his native lape. There were pleasant things, hower, connected with the history of is bij; trully. Flowers, beautiful wers, old ladies have told us, grew its cool recesses, and mocking birds ayed upon the topmost branches of ose tall trees, twitted and warbled the rising suns and summer moons. And then there we're other birds in at neighborhood, that chattered and jghed and sang-?winter and sum r, throughout many years. Their sy white nests were in a two-story ildinvr across the narrow roadway at looked down into the tree tops. 1 the nee hoys admired them and ,*ed to call them the "gully birds," t old folks knew and loved them as p five pretty daughters of good old . Pogan. Three of them were in rn "Queens o' the May" and each theni sleep peacefully in the "old lage cemetery."