Document text
CAt.t.c t,
Accession no.
11055
Date received
Aolx afy
Consignment no.
Shipped from
Label
Amount
6-/-,
4-C-ilj-12-'AcieleI“-.1-
WPA L. C. PROJECT f UNIT
Form -3
Title
Collection (or Type)
,-----Date C/.2r4r
Place of origin
Project worker _4‹
Project editor_
Remarks
Project #1655
W. W. Dixon
Winnsboro, S. C.
F&IRFIELD COUNTY
WARREN HARVEY FLENNIKEN
(white).
89 YEARS OLD.
324r,e.6.4
Warren Flenniken is the oldest resident in the town of Winnsboro, Fair-
field County, E. C. He is the only surviving Confederate soldier in Fairfield
County. He and his wife reside in one of the fashionable homes on North Congress
Street. His son-iwslaw, Charles F. Elliott, and his family reside with him.
"I was born October 5, 1848, in the Hopewell oommuntty of Chester County,
S. C. My father was the Rev. Warren Flenniken, an Associate Reformed Presbyte-
rian minister and pastor of the Hopewell A.R.P. Church. My mother, before mar-
riage, was Jane Hearst Pressley. My brothers, Samuel Pressley, John Calvin, and
David Reid, and my sisters, Mary and Sarahoare all dead. MY father died in 1851,
when I was a boy three years old. My mother lived to be ninety-one, and passed
away to heaven June, 1903. After my father's death, my mother married Thomas
Torbit of Chester, S. C. She, upon the death of Mr. Torbit, oame and lived the
remainder of her life with me.
"The school in our neighborhood of Hopewell was taught by two sisters, the
Misses Webster. Yes, it was a school that charged tuition; each pupil paid so
much per month. The teachers boarded around with different families. I remem-
ber the old blues -back speller for beginners. A picture was in the back of the
book, showing a small boy up an apple tree being threatened with a stone in the
hand of the owner of the orchard. Again, another picture was that of a woman
going to market with a pail of milk on her head.
•.A.1.1055
2.
"Me learned the three R's, reading, 'riting and vrithmetic, and geography,
too. Every Friday, we had a spelling match from the blue -back speller. Every
pupil stood against the wall, the length of the whole roan. Words were called
by the teacher. When a pupil failed to spell a word correctly, it was passed to
the next child. Should the next spell it incorrectly, it was passed on until
correctly spelled by a pupil; and the successful one went up the line. It was a
great honor to be at the head, and a disgrace to be at the foot of the line, when
the test was concluded.
"There was not much playing in my school days. We commenced school at 8
a. m., and were instructed until 12 m. At the hour's intermission we ate our
lunches and played games. We resumed study and recitations at 1 p. in. and con-
tinued until we were dismissed at 4 p. 1104
"Father had a smell farm and about twenty slaves. After his death, mother
and my older brother managed the farm, and I worked on the farm on Saturdays.
The slaves were taken to ehurch on the Sabbath, when the roads were passable.
The road system in my boyhood days was a wretched one. The slaves sat in the
gallery of the church. Pianos and organs were regarded as sinful and sacrile-
gious in the observance of God's worship. Mi. J. W. Bigman was the 'leader' and
another member was the tlinere.outt.- lathing but psalms were permitted to be
sung in Hopewell Church. The 'liner -out' would read two lines in a loud voice.
The 'leader' would rap his tuning fork on the bench by him, hold it near his ear
and th'isti the tune. A pause took place between each two lines, until the
psalm of praise was rendered.
"Another peculiarity was the preparatory services before taking the com-
munion on the following Sabbath. These services began on Friday and were
continued, with two sermons a day, until the Sabbath. On Friday and Saturday
3.
an elder of the church stood at the door, and the departing members obtained
a metal token from him, which they had to present at the oommunion table on
the Sabbath; otherwise he or she could not participate. The tokens were col-
lected at the table and retained by the officers, until the next preparatory
services for church communion. Tess the slaves were encouraged to join in the
singing; they were given tokens, and they communed at the table following the
service to the white people.
"Mr. H. N. Brice was the pastor at Hopewell following my father. He mar-
ried a school teacher, Nies Steel, and reared a fine family of boys and girls.
He was insistent on boys and girls, white and black, learning the Shorter Cate-
chism. Card playing, dancing, shows, and theaters were preached against in
our community as works of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
"-Vie tried to make enough on the farm to feed and clothe ourselves and our
slaves. The latter ate the sane kind of food that we ate, and there was very
little distinction in every -day clothes. Their, health was of primary oonoern
to mother.
"I am now six feet and one inch in height. I was a tall boy of sixteen
years when I went to the Civil War. I left my mother at the gate of the home,
weeping. I was in Captain Jiles J. Patterson's company, 3rd S. C. State Troops.
Col. Gooding was the Regimental Commander. MC were taken first to Camden, a
small place near Augusta, Ga., and thereafter to James Island near Charleston,
S. C. NV service was not long. I enlisted in November 1864, and the war ended
in April 1866, but I learned that war is hell. I au the only living Confeder-
ate soldier in Fairfield County.
4.
"I married Carrie Bradley of Abbeville. S. C. November 10, 1869. She lived
only four months thereafter. I then came to Winnsboro and clerked for my brother,
David R. Flenniken, who was in the mercantile business. Shortly after moving there,
I married my present wife, Kate, who was a daughter of Col. A. K. Patton of Abbe-
ville, a brother of the late Prof. E. L. Patton of the South Carolina College.
Our marriage took place in Abbeville in 1881. She will have attained her eighty-
first birthday if she lives until the 10th of next august. Perhaps you had better
interview her separately, for I assure you it will be a longer and more informative
interview of old time dresses and social customs than I can give.
"There was a deep abiding affection existing between the slave owners and the
slaves. It was manifested all through the war and for a while after the mar ended.
I don't think there would have been any trouble had it not been for the adventurer
and carpetbagger, who seized upon the opportunity to inflame the Negro's passionate
desire for social equality and the race's power of equal suffrage at the ballot box.
"The military rule was not as oppressive as the carpetbag, scalawag govern-
ment's misrule. What the Ku Klux Klan failed to do by illegal violence, the Red
shirt movement later acoomplished by awe and persuasion.
"At this junction I think I'll tell you of a sensational killing that took
place in Winnsboro and the subsequent trial in the courthouse that grew out of it.
A writer of those times says:
"In those troublous times, the Republican county treasurer, Clark\ wss killed
by a prominent citizen, William D. Aiken, in an altercation about certain taxes
claimed to have been paid by Sam DuBose, a cousin of Aiken. Mi. Aiken interferred
in behalf of his friend and cousin, who was small and frail of stature. Clark was
a larger and much more powerful man in physique and strength. In the struggle that
6.
ensued, the county treasurer was killed. The ease oame up in the oourthouse at
hinnsboro before Judge Rutland, a renegade Judge, and a mixed jury of Republicans
and Democrats. It was and still is regarded as the most celebrated ease ever
tried in Fairfield County. With the Solicitor, for the prosecution, appeared
Daniel H. Chamberlain and Zeb Vance, afterward governors of South Carolina and
North Carolina respectively. For the defense were Col. James H. Rion, JaMOS B.
NoCants and General N. C. Butler. In later years Butler was a United States Sena-
tor. Chamberlain made one of the greatest speeches of his brilliant career. As a
legal argument it could not have been surpassed. In persuasive tone it was imam
parable. He said in one of his flights of eloquence, which I try to paraphrases
'On the continent of our finest civilization, a range of
mountains draws its lengthy chain of peaks in grandeur
and beauty. It is the frequented spot of all native
lovers. One of its grandest peaks is that of Mont Blanc
in Switzerland. As the rains come from heaven above, the
drops falling on ens side trickle their way down, forming
rills and streamlets that roach the beautiful valleys.
These are dotted with the homes of a happy and prosperous
people. Here is peacet Homes with innocent, laughing
children. Here man loves his fellow men. Justice rules.
Nothing is feared but God above. On the other side of the
Alps, the raindrops meet the bitter, freezing, eastern winds.
They precipitate into icy pellets. They collect to form the
dreadful avalanche. In time, the force of gravity causes it
to rush down the mountain side, carrying death and destrucy
tion to all in its pathway. On that side, life and habita-
tion are impossible. The verdict of this jury will decide
on which side our civilization will fall law or anarehyll
P
'Chamberlain contined the simile, but in spite of his able and eloquent ad-
vocaoy and the aid of his resourceful conferees, the inscrutable design of
Providence ruled that it was better for the progress of both races that the
defense should come out victor in the trial.
"I shall be very glad for you to come again next week and interview Mrs.
Flenniken. I am sure you will find it worthwhile, and we will be glad to see
you."