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11059
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WPA I* C. PROJ
Forni-3
tr,„-----Collaction (or Type)
Title..
Place of origin Date____6/40P:
Project
Project
Remarks._
Project #1655
W. W. Dixon
Winnsboro, S. C.
CHESTER COUNTY
JUDGE J. H. YARBOROUGH
(white)
82 YEARS OLD
James Henry Yarborough, Probate Judge of Chester County, South Carolina,
is serving out his second term of four years. He is a candidate for re-
election in the democratic primary this summer to begin his third term, Jan.
1, 1939. His office is in the courthouse at Chester, S. C.
Val, old fellow, if you are going to write something about me, I want
you to start off by saying that in my long life I have never been worth, in
dollars and cents, above my liabilities, as much as one hundred dollars.
"I am descended from the earliest settlers around the Jenkinsville and
Monticello sections of Fairfield County. My father was William Burns Yar-
borough, a lover of nature, stars, flowers, birds, and trees. He was full
of sentiment and high ideals, but he was not very practical in looking after
and increasing his substance of material things. My mother, before marriage,
was Elizabeth James, but I hasten to assure you that she was not related to
Jesse James, the bandit, nor his family.
"I was a tousled -head boy when the Yankees reached Jenkinsville and our
old home, after crossing at Freshley's Ferry on Broad River. The invading
army confiscated everything, such as corn, wheat, oats, peas, fodder, hay,
and all smokehouse supplies. My recollection is that they came in February,
1865. I was then a freckled -face boy nine years old, and I fought like fury
to retain about a peck of corn -on -the -cob that the Yankee's horses had left
in a trough unconeumed.
W1.1059
2.
"I remember, too, how grief stricken I was when a Yankee soldier killed
my little pet dog. He had a gun with a bayonet fixed on the muzzle. He be-
gan teasing me about the corn. The little dog ran between my legs and growled
and barked at the soldier, whereupon with an oath the soldier unfeelingly ran
the bayonet through the neck of the faithful little dog and killed him.
"When that cruel war was over, it would have been wiser had the whites
and ex -slaves been left to their own resources and inventioss,to work out
their future welfare. There was no lack of affection or loyalty on the part
of the Negro, nor was there a lack of love and an enlightened appreciation
of self-interest upon the part of the -whites. Things might have been dif-
ferent if suffrage had been granted gradually. But with immediate equal
suffrage, or the right to vote, came the carpetbagger with his preachments
of social equality and the tantalizing bag of tricks to get for every Negro
40 acres of land and a mule. The Negroes were credulous and believed all
the absurdities the knaves told them. The result was an inevitable curse
for the Negro and lots of trouble for the white people. It ended only when
Hampton was elected in 1876. Hampton is still my hero and a man of greatest
worth in the annals of South Carolina.
"I went to school at the Old Broad River Academy. At that time I was
only a boy in my teens, but I wore the red shirt in the parades of the Hamp-
ton movement.
"At this period of my life, my Jenkinsville companions and I had never
been around much. A visit to the county seat, Winnsboro, was a great event
in our lives, and we regarded a visit to Columbia and the State Fair then
just about like you or I would look upon a visit to London or Berlin now.
I remember, with intense amusement, when Alley McMeekin, Glenn W. Ragsdale,
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Henry Parr, Charley Chappell, and myself, all country bumpkins, went to the
State Fair. While on the grounds, we smoked Virginia Cheroots continuously.
We attracted attention, I tell you.' As we passed a coterie of well dressed
distinguished gentlemen, of the character of Col. Richard Singleton, we were
asked where we lived. Alley McMeekin was the most talkative one of our crowd.
He removed the cheroot from his mouth, lifted his hat, and with a low bow to
the sedate gentleman, replied, 'Sir, I live about 300 yards from Uncle Joel
McMeekin's spring.' We teased Alley about this piece of grandiloquence forty
years afterward. Poor fellow, he died last summer.
"The next place I went to school was Furman University, Greenville, S. C.
Leaving there, I talght school at Spring Hill, Lexington County; next, at St.
Johns, in Newberry County. School teaching is a more or less quiet exiutsnce,
and, to better my physical being, I went to Leona, Texas. But cow punching
was too strenuous, so I returned to Jenkinsville and accepted a clerkship
'with Jno. S. Swygert ec Co., at Dawkins, S. C. At night, while holding this
nosition, I borrowed law books from my friends, E. B. G. W. Ragsdale of the
Winnsboro bar, read law, and was admitted by the State Supreme Court to prac-
tice the profession the year of the earthquake, 1886.
"I soon lost interest in law and tired of trying to save the hides of
criminals and of acquiring dubious settlements in civil cases for more or
less selfish litigants. I felt a call to the ministry and went to the
Theological Seminary at Louisville, Ky. Having attained my degree in theol-
ogy there, I received a call at once to the Little River Baptist Church in
Fairfield County.
"One of the most beautiful spots in my memory is the ten spot with a
golden background that Mr. iilliam D. Stanton gave me after I preached my
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first sermon. I labored in the ministry forty-five years and found it rich
in spiritual compensations.
"I married Lily Inez Harden. Our children are Mrs. J. A. Riley, whose
husband is head of the Sand Hill Experiment Station; Mrs. E. H. Pressley,
whose husband is associate professor of astronomy in the University of Ari-
zona; Dr. James H. Yarborough, Jr., veterinarian, in Miami, Florida; Mrs.
D. J. Leslie, Rock Hill, S. C.; W. G. Yarborough, Assistant County Agent at
Edgefield, S. C.; and Mrs. S. H. Harden, Jr.
"Our neighbors, before and immediately after the Jar Between the States,
were the Stantons, the Rabbe, the Alstons, the Piersons, the Glenna, and the
Ragsdales. There was a great deal more visiting among country folks then than
there is nowadays. And visiting then meant an all day of it. Amen would have
his carriage and take his whole family to visit a neighbor. You asked me about
the children? Oh, you see there was no public school. Usually rich folks
had tutors in their homes. The tutor was left in custody of the home, but the
children were usually taken on the visit. On arrival, the ladies and children
were conducted to the parlor and the men into the dining or sitting room. dine
and cake were served in the parlor, and a decanter of brandies was passed around
in the dining room.
"After such reception, the men mounted horseback and rode over the planta-
tion on an inspection of the crops and methods of cultivation. The guest was
supposed to observe and make suggestions of improvement and tell of the methods
he had tried and found successful on different kinds of soils. while the host
and his male guest were thus occupied, chickens were being slain never less
than six in the kitchen. Suspended in the wide fireplace in the kitchen was
a large iron pot in which was boiled a sizable, well -cured, country ham. This
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was the prerequisite of a sumptuous plantation dinner.
"On the dinner table, one could always expect a ham, two plates of fried
chicken, a large chicken pie, vegetables of the season, a pan of candied sweet
potatoes, rice, and several different kinds of pies and custards. The des-
sert most likely served was boiled custard and pound cake. Layer cake, I
don't remember. I think it came into vogue after the war.
"Yes, sir, great changes have taken place in family life since my youth-
ful days. Parents were more revered then, and they also exercised more au-
thority. Women occupied a more elevated sphere. A boy had to get permission
from the parent before he could pay his addresses to a girl. This would give
the father a chance to inquire about the fitness of the young man who was
aspiring to be his son-in-law.
"Our slave quarters were substantial log houses. They had two rooms,
with a chimney in the middle, and two windows that were closed against rain
or wind by wooden shutters on hinges. Slaves were humanely treated and well
fed and clothed. They received the same medical treatment as our family and
by the same physician, Dr. David Glenn.
"By the way, Dr. Glenn was a noble man. He was married three times.
In those days married women had very little rights in regard to property.
When a woman of property married, the property became the husbands. Dr.
Glenn married Miss Sarah F. Mobley, a daughter of a rich planter, John Mob-
ley. When she died, Dr. Glenn returned the property to her father, even to
the jewelry and trinkets.
"Churches were the centers of social influence and the standard of moral
excellence and good citizenship in my youth. Roads? 41 rainy weather they
were impassable. In dry weather every traveler had a linen duster to slip
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on over his or her clothes to keep off the dust of the highways.
"rhe great men of my youth were Dr. J. C. Furman, Dr. James H. Carlisle,
Dr. Mbffatt arier, and Prof. Means Davis, all leaders in education; General
John Bratton as a soldier and private citizen; and General Wade Hampton as
the State's political redeemer.
"I can't tell you about how ladies dressed in those days. It was a
question then and a mystery now, how they got about in any comfort or pleas-
ure. A young man in those days, to be in the swim, must have a horse and
buggy, a long-tailed broadcloth coat a white or buff vest, a pair of French
calfskin boots, costing not less than $16.00, and a pair of kid gloves. To
be real swell, all this was topped by a tall, shiny, beaver hat.
"I conclude by saying it was a shame in those days for a man to part
his hair in the middle or shovel food in his mouth on the end of his knife
blade."