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GIA,Lek
Masao* no.
V
W11060
Date received
/61/ o /4' 0
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Shipped from
Label
Amount
WPA L. C. PROJECT UNIT
Form -3
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Title. 2,1--%
0-t_ce
Place of origin la' Date
Project
Project editor..
Remarks
Project d1655
W. W. Dixon
'Winnsboro, S. C.
DR. SAMUEL B. LA.THA.N.
96 YEARS OLD. (WHITE)
Dr. Samuel Boston Lathan is the oldest white citizen of Chester County,
South Carolina. He lives with an unmarried daughter, Miss Susio Lathan, in a
handsome two-story residence on Saluda Street, near the U. S. Post Office in
the town of Chester, S. C. He owns the place and is one of the outstanding
citizens of the community.
By reason of strength, he has attained the biblical
allotment of four score years and ten and exceeded it by sixteen years; yet,
from the erectness of his carriage, the texture of his skin, and the timbre of
his voice, one would never think that he was a man of that age.
'Well, it will give me pleasure to talk to you of what I remember of
life from 1848 to 1938. You know I can't remember when I was born, but that
event was recorded by my mother as having taken place on the 2d day of Eay, 1342,
about three miles southeast of Dlackstock, S. C., in Fairfield County. My father
was a farmer, Samuel M. Lathan. NV mother before marriage was Martha Patterson.
The result of this marriage was five boys and six girls. I suppose the most dis-
tinguished one of the family was my older brother, Robert, born in 1829. He re-
ceived his education at Erskine College, became a teacher, a school commissioner
of York County, and a minister of the Gospel in the Associate Reformed Presby-
terian Church. His son, Robert, was editor of the Charleston News Courier and,
later, of the Asheville Citizen.
"I began my education in an old field school near our home, taught by Jr.
".11iliam Douglass. I was six years old then. All small children commenced in the
old blue -backed speller.
ginners paid ten dollars per scholastic year of eight
11060
-2
months. 'Jhen we reached the grammar grades, the tuition was fifteen dollars,
In the advanced grades, including Latin and Greek, the tuition was twenty-five
dollars. The school hours were from 8 a. in. until S p. in. There Was an inter-
mission of one hour for dinner and recreation. 'Je carried water from a nearby
spring. On a shelf in the schoolroom was a wooden bucket containing drinking
water. A drinking gourd hung on a nail above the bucket. It was quite a priv-
ilege to get permission to go the spring for a bucket of fresh water during
school hours. Our teacher was a Presbyterian and believed in the proverb,
'Spare the rod and spoil the child,' The people of the community had great
confidence in his learning, probity, and executive ability. Usually a whipping
at school was followed by a sound thrashing at home, for good measure.
"At recess the large boys played catball,and the younger boys and girls
played antony-over, marbles, and rally -holey. April the 1st was dreaded by most
rural school teachers. The pupils would get inside and bar the teacher out. The
teacher, who didn't act on the principle that discretion is the better part of
valor, generally got the worst of it. Mr. Douglass soon learned this, and, on
April Fool's Day, he would walk to the school, perceive the situation, laughingly
announce there would be no school until the morrow, and leave. our teacher re-
quired all pupils to study out loud. There was a pandemonium of spoken words
going on all day in the school. Why did he require this? Jell, it was to as-
sure himself that no student was listlessly looking on his or her book and that
everyone was busy.
Every Friday afternoon we had a trapping spelling bee from
the blue -backed speller. In this school we studied Smith's Grammar, Goff's
Arithmetic, Morseeography, and Peter Parley's History. On the first Saturday
in May, the school children -went, in wagons, to Great Falls to a picnic and seined
for shad. The Catawba River teemed with shad in those days.
"The Fourth of July was observed at Caldwell Cross Roads. The military
companies of infantry would assembly here from the surrounding counties making
up a brigade. A drill and inspection were had, and a dress parade followed.
There was an old cannon mounted on the field. The honor of firing it was as-
signed to Hugh heed, who had been in the artillery of Napoleon's army at dater
loo and afterward emi-rated to South Carolina.
great barbecue and picnic dinner would be served; candidates for mil-
itary, state, and national offices would speak; hard liquor mould flow; and each
section would present its 'bully of the woods' in a contest for champion in a
fist and skull fight. Jutting,biting, eye gouging, kicking, and blows below
the belt were barred. It was primitive prize fighting. I recall that a man
named McGill won the belt. He was beaten the following year by smith harden.
"After crops were laid by, a great deal of visiting took place among
neighbors. The men inspected each other's crops and sumptuous dinners and water-
melon feasts were exchanged. There was more neighborliness in the country then
than now. Everybody went to church on the Sabbath, and children knew by rote
the Shorter Catechism. Nearly ever;, home in our community had family worship
night and morning.
"There's something I now call to mind as strange. Funerals were never
conducted inside of the churches. The ceremonial rites took place at the grave*
Yes, I am a surviving Confederate soldier. I was a member of Capt. W. C. Beaty's
wmpany, in Governor John Hugh Means' regiment. I was wounded in the battle of
South Mountain (Antietam). I was carried a prisoner of war to i3altimore. That
Was the conclusiion of so much that was important in my military career.
"When I was a boy, my home town was Blackstock, named for its first
postmaster, Edward Blackstock. The boundary line separating Chester and Fair-
field Counties runs through the center of the town. Sometimes the post office
is in Fairfield and sometimes in Chester. Now the line runs right through the
post office, Kennedy's store. I have lived through the following wars in which
rlw country has been enaged: The Mexican War, the ITer Between the States, the
Spanish-American War, and the World Ilan, I have been a constituent of the fol-
lowing Congressman: W. W. Boyce, W. H. Perry, A. S. Wallace, John H. Evins,
J. J. Hemphill, T. F. Strait, D. E. Finley, Stanyarne Wilson, Joseph Johnson,
Stevenson, Gen. John -ratton, Paul LcCorkle, and the present one, J. P.
Richards.
"I do not consider the military occupation and rule of South Carolina,
just after the Civil War, unwise or oppressive. The country was demoralized.
Disbanded soldiers, Confederates and Federals, passing through the State would
have raided the homes of the residents and taken off every mule, horse, and ox,
and left them without means of tilling the soil. The provost martial of this
district was Capt. Livingston. I never joined the Ku Klux. Yes, there were
shortages of food and clothing during the war. Molasses was a substitute for
sugar; parched meal and parched ground okra seed were used for coffee; and
sassafras roots were used to make tea. Flour and meal sacks were made into
men's, women's and children's clothing.
"The radical, carpetbag, scalawag government was inconceivably rotten and
corrupt. An executive pardon could be bought; and stealings were put through the
legislature by appropriations and issuance of fradulent bonds. Under the Con-
stitution of 1865, judges were allowed to state and comment upon the facts and
to disclose their crAnion of what the verdict of a jury should be. This opinion
could be and often was bought with money or its equivalent. A wealthy litigant
had three chances, a bribed jury, a bribed circuit judge, and a bribed Supreme
Court. A criminal had four chances, the ones I've just mentioned and a bribed
governor, who could give him a pardon.
"One of the most interesting political characters evolved in this cess-
pool of iniquitous politics Was Judre T. J. Mackey. Born in Lancaster County,
of poor parents, he went with them at an early age to Charleston, S. C.
native ability, he won a beneficiary scholarship to the Citadel, the military
college of South Carolina. He was a member of the Palmetto Regiment, and he
fought through the hexican iar.
In the War 6etween the States, he was an of-
ficer on the Staff of General terling Price at the close of the war. ,then the
carpetbaggers and Negroes got possession of the ;:itate government, he became a
scalawag. Bright, witty, forceful, and with a veneer of good breeding, he was
rewarded with the position of Judge of the 6th Circuit, and he resided right
here in Chester. He was a conspicuous figure on our streets for years. Solomon
in all his glory was no better arrayed. He wore broadcloth,Prince Albert coats,
silk vests, checked trousers, and tall, silk, top hats, and carried gold -headed
canes. 'curing court week, he would have the sheriffs attend him with cocked hat
and drawn sword, preceeded by the bailiffs crying stentoriously, 'Give wayl Give
wayl The Honorable Court is approachingI'
he conducted the court proceedings
with great pomp, magnificence, and dignity. The suspense of all this dignity was
sometimes relieved by his wit and hUmor from the bench. In his inimitable manner
he once addressed the grand jury of Fairfield County at Winnsboro in these words:
Foreman and gentlemen of the grand inquest of the county: In addition to
what I have already charged, you might extend your investigations into the hotels
and boarding houses of Winnsboro and observe the martyrs at their 'steaks,' and
also ascertain whether or not certain domestic animals, better known as bed-
bugs, are entitled to draw pensions from the U. S. Government on account of
having drawn blood from British soldiers while they were quartered here in
the war of the Revolution.'
"On one occasion hr. Lindsay, a reputable citizen of Chester, knocked
a drunken Negro politician down and was prosecuted in the court for assault
and battery with intent to kill. Kr. Lindsay's attorney approached the judge
with an idea of finding out what the sentence would be, provided the defendant
would plead guilty. Mackey replied, 'You can safely leave the matter to me,
sir.'
"When the plea was accepted by the solicitor and read by the clerk, all
eves and ears of the expectant court room were turned on the judge. lie said:
'Let the defendant, Lindsay, stand up. You have been charged in this indict-
ment with an attempt to kill your fellow man. Its not your mercy that the
prosecutor is not lying somewhere today in some silent graveyard. I could im-
pose on you the maximum sentence of fifteen years at hard labor in the State
penitentiary, but, as you have saved the State Some expense by your plea of
guilty, the sentence of this august court is that you, William Lindsay, be con-
fined in the State penitentiary at hard labor for a period of ten years (dramatic
pause) or pay a fine of one dollar."