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Accession no.
W11063
Date received
Consignment no.
Shipped from
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Amount
WPA L. C. PROJECT UNIT
Form -3
Title. ee-,-Zez-
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6‘..• F
c
Place of origh!)-',--e-c2-,-0%)---,-; Date
Project worker..key Ice/
Project editor
Remarks
Project i,1655
W. Dixon
Winnsboro, S. C.
ELLA. E. G6UDING
1 80 YEARS OLD. (ITE)
RODERT C. GOODING
-7,,11
82 YEARS OLD. (AIll«
Mr. Mrs. Robert C. Gooding are husband and wife. They live in a two-
story residence on the north side of Bratton Street, Winnsboro, S. C. On the
south side of the same street, immediately facing their residence, is the
beautiful high school building recently completed as a Public Works Adminis-
tration project, of the United States Government.
Mrs. Gooding: people are of English and Scotch descent. My grand-
father Was Clerk of Court in Fairfield County for sixteen years before the
Civil 'War. father, henry Laurens Elliott, was a large land and slave owner
and president of the Winnsboro Lank before that war. he first married IJAry
-s41,1aster. There were five children by that union. On the death of his first
wife, he married Tirzah Ketchin, my mother. this marriage there were nine
children. Do you wish me to name all of the childrAi? As many as I care to?
the five by the 1;clia.ster wife were mrs. J. P. Matthews, Mrs. LaIrr H.
a0SbOrOUgh, IrTs• A. F. Huff, Mrs. Joe Cummings and a son, John Elliott, who was
killed in the Civil War. Dy the Ketchin wife there were T. K. Elliott, Mrs. T.
K. McDonald, Mrs. J. P. Caldwell, Henry L. Elliott, Mrs. Lula Mc.qpin,
Oliver Johnson, Helen, who died in childhood, and myself.
"I was born about two miles northeast of Winnsboro, in our plantation
home on the Peay's Ferry road, February 5, 1853. I learned my A.B.C.'s, haw
to spell, and haw to read in a school of twelve pupils, taught privately in
-Winnsboro by Miss Susan A. Finney. Then my two older half sisters took me in
W11063
charge for a year. Following such preparation, I was again sent to town to
Mr. Benjamin Rhett Stuart, a teacher in a private tuition school in the old
,3eaty house. The house is next to the Carolina Theatre building on South Cong-
ress Street. ';:hen I was fourteen years old, an Episcopal rector undertook my
preparation for Woman's College, at Due West, S. C. He was a splendid teacher.
He afterward attained his 1). D. degree, and for many years was rector of St.
iaul's Episcopal Church of Charleston, S. C.
"Dr. J. I. Bonner was in charge of Woman's College when I was there in
1872 to 1876. After I was graduated, I taught in my Alma Mater one year. In
1877, I accepted a position as teaher here in Mt. Zion Insitute.
"The society girls in our set were Sallie McMaster, Hattie McMaster, Annie
'McMaster, Mettle Beaty, Lula Center, Bell Gooding, Kittie Rion, Anna Phinney,
Nary Shaw, Lill and Marion Elliott, and my sisters.
"The ba:s in our set were T. K. Elliott, T. Ii. Ketchin, H. Flenniken,
T. Crawford, J. E. McDonald, J. Elliott, J. M. 3eaty, A. Beaty, J. F.
EcMaster, McMaster, and my husband, R. C. Gooding.
"We had regular monthly dances in the Thespian Hall on Washington Street.
The music rendered was by an amateur string band. The Gordon Light Infantry, a
fine military company, was part of our social life. They took prizes in company
drills, once in Charlotte and once in Maw Orleans. They gave an annual picnic in
Fortune Park every year. This was a great event in the social life of the town.
A target practice and shooting match came off then, and speeches and prizes were
given for the best drilled man in the company and for the best marksmanship. I
remember A. Beaty was best in the manual of arms, and Mr. J. O. Hoag was the
poorest marksman. His attempts were always laughable and none enjoyed it more
than he did.
"Now I had best let my husband tell you about some things, and I'll
probably want to have the last word before you go."
Mr. Gooding: "I was born in the State of Kentucky, October 20, 1355,
but my father, A. F. Gooding, and my mother with the family, moved to Polk
County, Missouri, when I was but a child. My father joined the Confederate
Army, although we were living in a state that didn't go with the seceded
states.
"Yankees came often to our house in search for father, and they showed
mother the tree on which they proposed to hang him if he was ever caught by
them. They took off all our slaves without our leave, for which 713 never re-
ceived any compensation. Mother decided to take the family, consisting of my
two young brothers, Sterling and Charles, my sister, Hell, and myself back to
the old home in Kentucky,
"After the mar in 1869, father moved us to Winnsboro. Here my wife and
I were married. Our children were all born her, married here, and have given
us grandchildren, the joy of our old age. My son, Robert, married in irooklyn,
New York. He died early. His son, Robert, is in the freshman class at the U.
S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md. Ey daughters, Nellie, Laura, and Christine,
live here in Winnsboro.
"The military rule in Winnsboro was not oppressive; however, it was dis-
tasteful to have a Negro company of U. S. troops located here. There was no
marauding, no insolence, although they were stationed here six months on Mt.
Zion campus. They were transferred later and white soldiers sent in their stead.
Their barracks were in the Presbyterian woods in the southern part of the town.
I remember there were a good many Germans in this company who couldn't speak
iAiglish to amount to much.
"The Ku Klux Klan was a necessary organization and did much to discharge
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weak white men and ignorant Negroes from lowliness. '4hen the Ku Klux Klan
wished to get rid of an undesirable white man or Negro, they would put an emp-
ty coffin at the undesirable person's front door. It usually caused the warned
one to disappear. ilathough not a Ku Klux, one night I witnessed a parade of
white -sheeted riders and recognized my own horse in the parade. In the morning
my horse was in his stable, as usual. I asked no questions about the occurrence
until years afterward.
"I have never cared for any other occupation than that of farming, nor any
other method of locomotion than that of horseback riding and buggy riding. I
bought an automobile once, but I soon returned to the use of my horse and buggy,
w'nich I use every day.
".:;hat is the cause of so much soil erosion ell, it had its origin in slay
cry time.
The land owner had plenty of land and plenty of slave labor, but he
didn't have fertilizer and a scientific knowledge of agriculture.
"In the days of Abraham, people lived in tents with their herds around them.
When the grazin at that spot was exhausted, they moved to another spot. Like-
wise,Ln slavery time, when a field ceased to be profitable it was abandoned and
woods were cleared off to make new ground for tillage, and no care was taken of
the old lands, which rapidly washed into gullies.
"After the Civil dar, our people had no money. he became a one -crop people.
Cotton was ready money. Northern manufacturers and westerafarmers encouraged
this, and we were without scientific knowledge. Speculators manipulated all the
profit out of cotton by a system of exchanges, grades, and quotations. system
of credit was inaugurated by the state Lien Law. y this system the farmer paid
tribute to the local Caesar, twenty-five to fifty times the price for plantation
supplies.
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"The farmer, like the fabled cat, fell year by year further behind and
finally was brought to mortgage his lands outright for the year's advances and
to secure the old extortionate debt. More cotton was to be planted than ever
before,'6o keep up the interest, compounded in many instances. 2oreclosure came
on slowly but surely. The lands were usually bought in by the supply merchant,
who cared very little about the land but a great deal about the goods on the
shelves. The supply merchant usually put Negroes on the acquired lands rather
than white people. .de sold each one a mule and a wagon, not forgetting the
usual 25/, time price, and thus calculated haw much merchrindise he could put out
for the oncoming years. he rarely, if ever, visited the land,except in the grow-
ing season, to calculate the value of the cotton in prospect and the safety to
himself of future advances that crop year to the particular man that land was
rented to.
"The saddest picture of slavery is the aftermath. Our country is riven with
gullies and the old aristocratic colonaded homes are in dilapidation and occupied
by Negroes."
hrs. Gooding: "hy family were members of the Associate deformed Presbyterian
Church. In the early days we used metal tokens in taking communion. We have never
relinquished our ideas about singing psalms on the Sabbath.
"-When I arrived to the years of womanhood, the hoop skirt was passing out of
style, and the bustle and tight long shirts were the vogue. The style lacked
comfort, and the corsets were cruel and suffocating and actually injurious to the
spirit and health of women and girls.
"The women arranged their hair with a chignon and looped it upon the top of
the head. Young girls arranged their hair in 'pig tails' dawn the back and wore
bangs over the forehead. The longer a woman's hair, the more she had to be con-
ceited about. The ladies often bought 'switches,' hair corresponding with her
own, in which she used the switch' in connection with the chig,non arrange-
ment. Is chignons synonymous with rats? I can't say postively, but I am in-
clined to think so.
"When I was young, every woman and girl had a sunbonnet. The women wore
them about the yard and :;s.rden, and the girls wore them to school. They did
this to avoid sunburn and freckles. Freckles still remain the terror of woman-
hood, but lotions and cosmetics have put the sunbonnet into the discard or
attic.
"Every girl had a sidesaddle, a riding habit, and a crop. In front of the
home was the riding block where she mounted and dismounted her pony. Some of
these old blocks and hitching posts may yet be seen about the county. The
elderly ladies of the family had beaded handbags.
They would fill these with
tea cakes when they went to church, so they could keep the small children quiet
during a long sermon by giving them one occasionally.
"Vie had portrait painters in my youth but no photographers. The daguerreotype
was used to a limited extent. Some of these were exquisite but were exposed to
and they soon faded and were useless.
"Visiting in my girlhood among neighbors was frequent and more cordial and
enjoyable than now. e would go in the morning about ten o'clock, have dinner,
and remain until after tea before leaving.
"How do I account for the decline of neighborly visiting? I think, in a great
measure, the decline has been due to the multiplication of church circles, social
clubs, and automobile rides. Lach church denomination has four or five circles
that meet once a week. Literary and music clubs and card parties have their
meetings,and automobile rides are taken to surrounding towns, which may be reach-
ed by good roads. Then, too, the fixed changes of a household have to be taken
into consideration, such as electricity, automobile upkeep, and gas. All this
precludes the thought of frequent lavish entertainment.
"une of the regrettable changes, I observe, is the seeming laok of respect
and consideration shown by young people toward their parents and old people.
Boys and men do not exercise the same courtly manner toward girls and women as
they formerly did. Just one incident to explain myself: Young men drive up to
a young lady's home in an automobile, honk the horn, and sit until the young lady
comes dawn to the automobile door. Men do not even observe the courtesy to get
out of the car and help the girl inside. In my youth, such an engagement would
be made first by a written note. If accepted, the man would go to the home, get
out, walk to the door, ring the bell, and accompany the young lady down the walk
to the automobile, open the door, and assist her inside and see that she was
comfortably seated.
"Lipstick and rouge would have scandalized a girl in my young days. The only
vanity and affectation allowed was a cutglass bottle with a silver top. They
called it the salts bottle, but I never heard of it containing anything other
than hartshorn or spirits of ammonia."