Document text
Project #3613
1. V. Dixon
Tinnsboro, S. C.
JUDGE NA= p. HOLLEY
(white)
76 YEARS OLD.
.116•11D.11011
Walter L. Holley, amiable Probate Judge of Fairfield County, is 5 feet
8 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds. He has winning ways with strangers and
acquaintances and a glad hand to friends. And that hand is ever open to any
one in time of adversity and need. He, perhaps, is the best loved man in the
county.
I have never given much thought to ancestry, believing that we are all
descended from Adam and Eve. What most concerns me is right living toward our
fellow men. But I believe my ancestry is part Scotch, part English, and a
sprinkling of Dutch blood. My ancient people came to the western portion of
the present Fairfield territory before the Revolutionary War. In those old
times, a spot to be desirable to settle upon and rear a family must lie near
a river or stream. There was very little well digging, for lack of labor and
tools. So my forefathers settled near Broad River, a boundary between Fair-
field and Newberry counties today.
The first settlers, you know, were hunters and cow herders, rather than
agriculturists. They had their cowpons, fishing tackle, and long -barreled rifles.
Fish and game were plentiful in streams and forests.
Our ancient home remains in my retentive memory. It was built of logs,
but my father replaced it with a frame building in his lifetime. The old home
where I was born is about 6 miles from Jenkinsville, in view from State high-
way #215.
143r grandfather was alasier Holley; my father, Nathaniel B. Holley; and
my mother, Charlotte E. Holley. I had six brothers and two sisters.
I was born in November, 1862, on the old farm homestead between
Monticello and Jenkinsville. toy earliest recollectiongoas a tot, include
a cavalcade of Yankee soldiers galloping on the highway by our home, but, as
to specific acts and doings on these facts, I was too small to record them in
my memory.
k detachment of cavalry under Colonel Kirkpatrick were encamped in the
neighborhood for several days. They came up on the Fairfield side of 3road River,
after crossing Freshley's Ferry, ani spent several nights near Jenkinsville.
Colonel Kirkpatrick and his officers slept in the C. B. Douglas house. Later,
they moved up to Monticello and made Doctor James Davis's large residence their
headquarters. 7hen they departed, they crossed Little River at the Old arick
Church, ripping up the church floor to construct a bridge across the stream.
For days after their departure, the air was foul with the stench of dead cattle,
and the heavens were beclouded with flying turkey buzzards. Before leaving,
they, in groups, ransacked our home of blankets, feather beds, and pillows.
They killed our hogs and drove off all our mules, horses, and cows. They took
many male slaves with them to herd and drive the mules, horses, and cattle, and
some of the female slaves to act as cooks, washerMomen, and body servants. It
is a pity for the whole 5outh that they did not take all the Negroes out of the
country. 4e would have learned self-reliance and self -dependence sooner, become
inured to manual toil in the fields and not be as we are described today, "The
Nation's Economic rroblem No. 1.
There were no public schools in the early years following the Civil War,
and the private tuition schools run three months, commencing in December and
ending in narch. The first one I attended was at Jenkinsville, taught by a
Ltr. James Hutchinson. People had very little money, and the teachers boarded
around among the patrons to make the tuition fall uniformly upon their pocket.
books. Money was so scarce that few books could be used. Sometimes two or
more pupils bought text books in common, thus reducing expenses. Two causes
contributed to the short length of the school session. One was lack of money;
the other was the need of the children to scatter guano, hoe cotton, pick cotton,
pull fodder and glean corn. Children at our home learned to work.
The second teacher I went to was a liss Julia Glass, from Cokesbury,
South arolina, a very good instructress.
Later, I attended the 3road River Academy at Monticello, which was under
the charge of Captain Mayne McMeekin. It was later under Colonel Henry C. Davis,
father of R. Means Davis. He was assisted by a Mrs. Scott.
Next I went to work on our farm. Cotton prices ran down and got as low
as 5 cents a pound in 1883. Seeing little to induce me to become a farmer, I
went to work for the Spartanburg, Union, and Columbia Railroad, on one of its
freight trains.
About this time, the Richmond and Danville Railway Company leased a
number of lines in south Carolina, and my services beceme such that I could
be directed on any of their lines in the State. One day, 4ovember 1, 1885,
I suffered injuries at 3elton, jouth Carolina. As a result of the injuries,
my left leg had to be amputated near the ankle, and since that time, I have worn
a cloak foot, or should I say leg?
After my railroad service was ended, r went back to the old hone and
looked after the farm, as best T could, and was both rush and fortunate enough
into
to fool a good woman/Marrying me. me was Agnes ieybt of Cokesbury, Anderson
County, 3outh Carolina.
:e were married in November, 1389, forty-nine years
ago. e will eitiebrate our golden wedding anniversary next year.
OD
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Thirty -0'14A years ago (1900) we moved to Annebore, and I began work
as a clerk in tha store of 2. 'Alliford Company. I next clerked for
Hickling and Iladien. T left them to clerk one year in Chester, 3outh Carolina,
fur Joeeph !ylie el Company. I returned to '-linnsboro and Wft) with D. V. Walker
Comptny for a number of yeers; then with Ketchin Mercantile Company several
yore, to return to D. v. ealker Company, with whom I ended py life as a mer-
chandise enlesnen in 1901.
In the spring of 1908, the incumbent of the Judge of Probate's office,
'eerham lroom, died, and a primary election of the Democratic 7"arty we de,-
tereined upon by His 7xcellency, lovernor Iartin P. Ansel, to fill the lane
V expired term. I entered the race with former Judge John J. Neil, Crosby,
and Jeson Hell, r. lhen the votes were counted I lacked 97 votes of being
elected on the first ballot. In the second primary,
Neil. Jot sines that election have I had opposition
bubly, constitutes a record in length of service (30
I defeated Judge John J.
for the effice. This, pro
years) in the entire State
of South Carolina. iome may have held an office longer than I have ,but none, so
far ao 1 know, have i.o1d a state or county office so long without opposition.
"any varied, interesting, and sometimes ludicrous experiences have occured in
the adminietretion of the office. :luring the last three decades, I have joined
in holy bonds of wedlock something over 3,000 couples. I have issued many marriage
licensee, however, wherein some ministers of the -.;espel later performed the mar-
ieee ceremony. Couples from Mane to Florida have stopped by to be joined in
the peculiar louth '3w -cline indissoluble bonds, risking the hard knot for weal
or woe.
'iome of my experiences, in this line of privilege and duty, have been
highly humorous, indeed. 1 will mention two only, but, with variations, they
are typical of many cases. On one occasion, a voter declared he was going to
scratch Holley, even though he had no opposition at the next election, because
he had got him in a h--- of a marriage mess tied up forever to a nagging,
chew -the -rag kind of woman!
On another occasion. a Negro came into the office and paid no for a
marriage license, which I filled out and issued to him. He thanked me pro-
fusely, saying, I'm all heeled now for a little bit of hebben, 'loss: Ain't
it so? He returned the next 5aturday with a virile, combative looking female
and asked for the ceremony to be performed at once, that "her" was in a hurry.
asked for the license, which he produced. I proceeded. liverything went along
all right until we got down to the place in the ceremony where I asked. Do you,
lallie !!oore, take this man to be your Then 'her' raised her head and
voice, Oat ain't my name. He done got anudder gal in dat license,Judge, and
I ain't gonna stand for it, deed I ain't.
Pt wools as if Henry hGd changed his mind within the week as to the
girl he wished to marry. He declared, however, that he didn't think it made
any difference about the name on the paper, so long as he had paid for the
license. Just scratch out ',anis noore and put in Au.), Mallard, Judge, and
let's get it all over if you please, Judge, befo' let other gal gits here.'
The salary and fees of the office of Probate Judge for Fairfield County
were very small when I was first 8,19rn into office. It was about $600.00. Under
a wave of retrenchment in ion :allman's administration, the emolument, had been
cut. went to the 3tate senator and the three representatives from Fairfield
and complained at the meagerness of the amount allowed. he senator agreed to
raise the salary to $700.00. .1wo representatives objected and killed the bill
in the house. In the next campaim, it became a minor i sue. lie senwor and
one representative openly advocated the increase in salary; the others were
silent on the question but talked to me, in private, as if they favored it.
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The legislature came on. The bill was introduced in the senate and passed that
body. Then it reached the house, two members objected, Out they were ignorant
of the rules of the house. You, a representative from Fairfield, then inserted
the increase in the supply bill by way of an amendment and secured its passage.
After the session, the two objectors came to my office to explain why they did
not let the bill pass to increase my salary and said they would get it passed
if reelected. I drew down the Acts and Joint Resolutions and read the item
in the Supply bill of the county. They were dumfounded to discover thet, not
only the increase was there, but I had been given all the marriage license
fees thereafter issued. I don't think either ever learned how you accomplished
the effective trick amendment, but neither were returned to the house. My coml..
pensation is now about three times the amount it was when I first took office
in 1908.
If I may be allowed a voluntary remark or two, permit me to say that our
unique position in regard to divorce of husband and wife makes one scratch
his head, sometimes, to ponder whether all marriages are arranged in heaven
or if the devil doesn't have a little to do with a fractional part of them
here below. Sometimes, a very fine man or woman may have been deceived, over-
reached and allured into a matrimonial alliance. Afterward, love changes
the
into indignant disgust and repulsion on the p rt of/Ons deceived. This is con-
sidered by other States as a valid reason for divorce. 3ut there is no door of
escape for either party to the alliance in South Carolina. About the beginning
of the present century, one of our eminent men, a certain judge became so obsessed
with the idea of the perfection of our constitutional law prohibiting divorce
of husband and wife, for any cause, even the scriptial reason, that he engaged
in a controversy with an eminent churchman in the columns of a New York news-
paper on the subject. This controversy was reprinted in the News Courier of
Charleston, South Carolina, and some daily papers of this and other states.
The judge at the time was a widower.
Not long after the publication, the judge was 'roped in by a dame'
and tied to her hard and fast under the South Carolina law in marriage. Soon
the alliance became distasteful. But alas* there was no balm in Gilead, under
our laws, to give surcease to the judge's connubial sorrows and heartaches.
Since my boyhood, many changes have taken place affecting the social
relations between the husband and wife. Women had no political rights and man
was the bread winner then. The wife was little more than a slave of the husband
and bearer of his children. She was his cook, housekeeper, nurse, and sometimes
seamstress, gardener, and washerwoman. Ass* duties were performed by her grar.
tutiously free of charge. Children vivre slaves in the fields and industrial
plants and were cheated of their rights to an education. There were no compulsory
education laws then. Neither was there a child labor law on the statute books.
Thousands of country girls were born to blush unseen and to waste their sweet-
ness on the remote eroded hillsides. Other thousands of children under four-
teen years of age worked twelve hours a day in industrial plants to evolve
that quizzical biped, the *mill daddy., who sat around, whittled sticks in the
sunshine of back alleys, drank corn whiskey, told smutty jokes, and guffawed
among unsavory companions until pay day. Then he received his nits's and
children's money that they had earned by hard labor. He spent the most of it
for more liquor and cane hone in the late hours of the night, drunk, to beat
the wife and children. It has been a half century worth living in, to witness
this rise of woman from a domestic chattel and serf of the household to Welts
the civic and political equal of man. There remains nothing now to debar her
from becoming a leader in the social, cononic, and educational affairs of the
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county, state, or nation. I cite two organisations here, the Parent -Teacher's
Association and the Federation of Ion's Clubs, and two individuals, lire.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Francis Perkins, Secretary of Labor. There are many
more clubs I could mention, but what is the use? They come to your mind and
to many more individual's. Neither clubs nor individuals hide their beneficieat
is
light under a bushel. Shining through and in it allithe radiant love of child
welfare. A silent warfare where carnage and destruction of homes are unthought
of. A silent warfare for the people's welfare:
Rxcuse this digression. I will go back to our no divorce law, to tell
you what can happen under it to perplex the solicitor in the court of general
sessions and bring the law into disrespect.
I issue a limense to James Jones to marry Janie Tiromn and perform the
ceremony. They live together six months, then separate. James Jones goes to
Chester, secures a license from Probate Judge Yarborough to marry Sallie Smith,
He performs the ceremony. James brings Sallie back to Winnsboro and sets up
housekeeping two doors from where Janie resides with her parents, the aromns.
Everything goes along as merry as a narriage bell in a Turkish harem until Sallie
makes some disparaging remarks about the Cara Nome perfume Janie is using. Janie
loses self-control, rushes to the magistrate and swears out a warrant agsinst
but,
James and Sallie for bigamy. They are arrested, /hey give bond for appearance
at court. The grand jury returns a true bill on the back of the indictment. The
case comes on to trial. The solicitor introduces the marriage records of Janie
and Sallie. The courthouse spectators begin to mot eyes of pity upon poor
pretty Sallie, wife number two. The solicitor looks with triumph at the judge
and announces: 'That's our case, Your Honor. The State rests.'
The judge, the jury, and the spectators believe it an unbreakable,
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impregnable case, technically made out for the State. Wonder e#y they
didn't plead guilty mad ask for mercy, is whispered. Janes' lawyer rises,
opens his brief case and pulls out a stamped paper issued by the Probate Court
of Charleston County, South Carolina. It is a liens.. issued to James to
marry Daisy Ledbetter and a record of a marriage antedating the marriages to
Janie and Sallie. The records are introduced in evidence. The judge remarks
to the solicitors. 'These marriages to Miss Janie and Miss Sallie are null
and void. The facts submitted do not sustain the allegations of the indictment.
To convict the defendants you must first prove the validity of the marriage of
James Jones to Janis Brown. You allege the validity of the marriage of Janes
Jones to Janie Brown. It is disproven, because at that time he had a wife. To
explain this, which might be a little mystifying to anyone other than a lawyer,
we will suppose:
1. James Jones first married Daisy Ledbetter in Charleston County, South Caro-
lina.
2. He gets a divorce in Fulton County, Georgia.
3. He then marries Janie Brown in Fairfield County and leaves her.
4. He next goes to Chester and marries Sallie Smith.
If Janie indicts him for bigamous marriage with Sallie, he can plead the mar-
riage to Daisy, and the case is thrown out of court.
If a prosecution gets behind him, later, for bigamy or adultery based
on the Charleston marriage to aaisy, he just takes the bus with Sallie and rides
to Hogansville, Georgia, or Gastonia, North Carolina.
It's a little confusing, a bit tragic, mid very curiously amusing. Again,
in every county in South Carolina I venture to say there are numbers of pro-
fessional and wealthy men who were first married under South Carolina laws;
later obtained a divorce in some other State and came back hers and married
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some good women end, according to our oustomsgare peacefully living in their
homes. Some of these nen mmy occupy prominent positions in society; may be
elected elders or deacons in our churches, Wthere there is a requirement that
a deacon must be the husband of one wife. Again, he may be elected a circuit
judge or foremen of jury, Who may be called upon to take pert in determining
the social status of one of these fly by nights, black or white citizens.
You will find lots of them talking about the sanctity of the United States
Constitution and the State constitution. But, like the old fable in the blue.'
backed speller about the Partial Judge, 'It depends on *hose ox is gored.'"