Document text
Approxi ately 4,000 words
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TITLE:
SOUTH CAROLINA WRITERS' PROJECT
hIF.2; HISTORY
A PILE OF SAnUST
Date of First Writing November 30, 1938
Name of Person Interviewed Lee Peake (white)
Fictitious Name Clem Finley
County Richland
Place Pontiac, S. C.
Occupation Tenant Farmer
:Jame of Writer John L. Dove
Name of Reviser State Office
It was a damp, chilly morning in November, 1934, at the old husser
place far out in the sandhills of Richland County, South Carolina. A
gleam of friendly lamp light came from the three-room cabin a short
distance from the old Camden road. The odor of rich pine smoke float-
ing from the mud and stick ohimney at the north end of the cabin gave
evidence of warmth within. The only noise among the remote hills was
the clear bugle -like music of a single hound holding at bay a late walk-
ing 'possum or coon or a house oat, possibly, out soldiering around across
the fog -laden creek.
2.
"Been looking for yuh, Mister," came the drawling voice of Cleat
Finley, a long, lanky, weather-beaten bacbroodsman of fifty-four years,
who stood in the doorway blowing clouds of strong smelling pip. cook*
into the pine sainted air. "Como right along to the fire. I knows yuh
must be kinder ohilly-like utter riding so fur and so soon in the morning."
Cleaves in a talkative mood, and asked question after question; to
the most of which he gave his own answers. He was that type of sandhillor
who would welcome a stranger to his door if for no other reason than to
"git the news from Colby," and especially the happening; around the court
house. Tho truth of the mutter was, he wanted to know who was being hauled
into court for selling bootleg liquor.
"Hey, Docia, here's that furnisher man yuh been expecting. Set yuh
kittle and pots off the stove and come out and let's talk 'bout some grange
mints for paying on the furnisher bill we owes in Colby." After Dooia had
complied with his request, Clan changed his mind.
"Dooia, miMhy yuhld bettor put that kittle back on the stove, sogs to
git some good hot coffee fixed up for hie. Judging as how hogs hugging the
fire here, he must be a needing a little stimulant to git his blood to flow
in' like."
He bosun to look up at the smoked mantel above the fire, where an ac-
cumulation of bottles, fruit jars, and other articles had been deposited.
And than turning with a knowing wink, he whispereds "flay, do yuh over
take a little snake bite? That mout help to thaw you out a bit.
"Shore, shore, MIster, I don't blame yuh nary a bit, for hit's a
mighty bad habit for a body to git into," Clem advised, after he discovered
the blunder he had made in his effort to be sociable.
Apparently in an effort to conceal his eMbarrassment, Clem moved his
chair over near the front window; and just as he sat dawn, the Finley
children began to gather around the roaring pine fire. Staring for a
moment at the noisy youngsters, he volunteered the remark:
"Yessuh, seven's all the kids, toopt Sol and hank. They's twins
and got Ism gals over 'bout Bull Swamp semiers."
'Uwe, yuh Glen' Git back Ig'inst that wall out of the fellah's
way, and quit stickin, yuh tongue out at him like yuh ain't had no
raisin'.
"Say, Docia, ain't that old man Musser a oominl down the road?"
"Looks like his oar, Clem."
"Shore that's Him, I kin spot his ear a mile. Mister, yuh jus'
set still a minute. Docia, yuh better it busy and have that sewin'
ready for his wife, and yuh boys be gettin' yuh axes sharp and ready to
go to splittin' them stumps. Git goin' /law!"
"Sorter portend, Yister, that yuh don't know nothinl we talked 'bout,
if he quises yuh up. Yuh see, I don't want old man Musser to know I buy
a thing, 'oept through hill."
Just as the last young towhead disappeared out of the book way, the
roar of a high-powered motor faded into a soft purr at the front of Glen's
cabin. Instantly there appeared a little waspy looking man, about seventy,
who commanded, "Come here, Clem!"
"11ornint„ Mister Musser. Light and stretch yuh walkinl stiok."
"Clem, how are 7ou and the boys getting along with the stump digging
I started vou at the other day?"
"Okay, I ri.er, :,J1ster Musser."
"Going to have that load of' kindling ready for the curb market by
tomorrow? The weathor's .4etting colder, and the folks will be calling
4.
for pine."
"ilit'll be right thar, Mister Musser. The boys are sharpenin' thur
axes now and will soon git to splittinl the stumps we's dug out. Docia's
busy on yuh wife's sewinl and will have hit ready to fetoh 'long on the
load of kindlin' to ColuMbv t'Morraw."
"good, that's what I've come to find out. Kho's this gentleman?
"Furnisher man. I believe his 4,"
"Furniture agent, eh? Never mind his name. I supposed he was an
agent of some kind. There should be a law passed to stop these agents
from going about over the country meddling into business."
"Llhore, shore, Mister Musser, they orter be made to git up and git
and keep on a-gittin'."
"I will not stand for this sort of meddling, Clem. I want you, your
children, your wife, all, to go about the work I want done and these agents
left strIctly alone. -:;lien this one leaves, I don't want to catch another
of his kind on my land, understand?"
"Shore, shore, :lister husser, I'll make 'em git if I ketches 'em."
"I hope you got my message, too, sir, and will govern yourself ac-
cordingly. Good-dayl" The oar door slammed, and the crusty old gentle-
man rode off into the gathering fog.
"I Opose yuh saw, Mister, I was perfectly Igreeable-like with old
man Musser. Nell, I been livin' on his lam' ever since I quit sawmillin'
for him nigh on to twenty-five year ago, and I orter know by now that he's
sorter .lardbiled-like, and olose as
bark on a tree* Of cose, I ain't
sayin' a thing &gin' him, cause I ain't never .rid a powerful lot 01 money,
and he's got elent'. esides, 117e Vuc out a nuMber of times hit don't
?ay a body to talk too much )ack in these Jere hills.
5.
"Tittint back to bizness, yuh heard me tall old elan :,lisser I'd be
over to Colby t'elorraw with a load of kindlin' for the elarket. And
then I've got a little snake bite to deliver to a curtain fellah or two
over thar. So tell yuh boss at the furnisher store that drar 'round
thar scuotiew t'morraw and eake a pa:ement on the s'in' eachlne Docia
bo7ght last year.
"Yuh ask no 'bout the kindlinl bizness before old nun ieesser cone
aleng. be, suh, thar shore ain't much in the kindlin' biznoss left um
atter old man Musser 7its his grabbers on hit. The boys digs the etumps
arid splits the kindlin', aria then they ties hit into bundles like this"
Clem reached dawn and picked up eight sticks of rich pine twelve inches
long and ]eatly bound into a 'iundle by a rubber band out from a discarded
aetomobile tire inner tube. "1 deliver the kindlin' to old man Ilusser in
.";olemby, and he 'laws ee a cent a bundle. I believe he sells hit on the
curl tar':et at three for a
Aceording to A.en Finley, hle 'ether, eolomon had been a
to -ant farmer and then a miller be trade; and, for elan:, 'ears, he had
been in charge of the corn and wheat grinding at :lobkirk's mill, 1 oated
nor the eestern byandary of i;ershew 3ounty. Clem wax the youngest of his
ton ehildron, and, by the tine the lad was old enough Lo attend
sehoo-, it was found nee ssary for am to ascist his a-ed 'ether at the
mill. .;lai's ess1staloe to father at Jobk4rk's mill continued for
seeen years; then the elder Alley owlled away, leavin: with no book
learning at the ago of 'eurteen. ;lee than refused to attend the coetlunity
sceool, becaeee
to
felt flat ,c o -s of his size and a:a woad him"
n elass wite
:inners. e, therefore, i;row up to eea.nnood
hout learning to read or write, (wen his nano. The early contracts, chat
eorteaees, and ofhor 1 gal papers he has been called upon to sign bear
his eharacteristio arose mark.
For two year* after his father's death, Clem continued to live with
his mother and to help around Nolkires mill, lug:ging heavy bag* of grain,
flour, and meal. When not needed at the mill, he cultivated the gardens
around the "big house", carried kitchen slops to the pig*, run errands, and
otherwise made himself useful around the kitchen and the barnyards. In pay-
ment for his work, heves given, on sash Saturday night, such hand...outs from
the kitchen, the mill, and the plantation oamaissary as would enable him to
eke out an existmoe for himself and for his mother.
Clem and his mother had been permitted to remain an in the miller's
**bin across the mill pond through the proclaimed "liberal mindedness" of
the Rabktrks toward the 'pa white trash" of the community. No mention,
however, Val ever made of the feet that the hospitable Hobkirks required
thellidow Finley to spend ane day a week at house *leaning and floor sorub.0
bing for them in return for the lone privilege of enjoying one square meal
n week, eaten in the kitchen.
The only hours of recreation and joy Clem Finley experienced at Nob-
kirk's mill owe on 3undays, and these he usually spent, all alone, on the
honks of the mill pond, fishing or coasting dawn the sides of a huge pile
of sawdust. Tie was sixteen years of age, yet he had never known the ocm..
panionship of youngsters of his age, neither had he experienced the friendly
hand of an adult, other than that of his motheros,against his youthful back
in an effort to push him on to groator things in life. re becan to brood
over his situation, and finally on one summer day, in 1897, he asked and
then answered his own questions "Leave the comrlunityT Leave the dern
oounty, will*"
when the lad returned with the few hand-outs in a bag on his back to
7.
the miller's cabin across the pond that Saturday night late in Augusts
1897, his mind was fully made up. Rs found his mother all &lanes as usual,
patiently w*iting. While she had never complained, Clam was old enough to
understand, and he did understand, that it had become necessary for him to
make a change for the benefit of his mother, as well as for himself.
"Tomorrow is Sunday, but not for fishini or slidin' on the sawdust
for me; for I'm goin, to start for Camden atter gittinl a bite to eat,"
Clem remarked to his mother as he sat down near the smoky lamp to eat the
corn bread and fried side meat she had prepared for him.
*YUh pint over that to see yuh two sisters, Clan? ruh know they's
been workinl now for two years in the Camden mill and otter be able to
help yUh."
wruh guessed its Maw."
When Cleft Finley, the flunky boy, failed to show WO at the big house
kitchen for his usual daily tasks on Monday mornings there wore complaints
and threats made by the powers that be on the hill. But investigation of
the miller's cabin beyond the pond, revealed that the "pc' white trash,"
like the Arabs of the desert, had buildled their few belongings and moved
on in the night in search of a new oasis.
After saying good-bye to his mother and to his two sisters in the
Camden mill village one morning in SepteMher, 1897, Clem Finley turned
his back on his native county. In addition to fifty cents in his pocket
and the suit of blue overalls, chambray shirt, and brogan shoes which he
vore, he possessed only his faith in the future. Be was now on his awn,
he know, as he slowly, but surely, made his way on foot along the old
Camden Colunbia road, deeper and deeper into the sandhills and long leaf
pine forests.
6
"Hit was late that &rani& when I heard that ohang chang °hang
noise made by the big sew at old man Musserts mill a ohawin2 her way
through a heavy pine log. She made sweet mmsio to my yurs, for I was way
out thar in the woods tired and hongry, and had no job and no pleas to
stay.
"Old man Musser did gime a job in the woods euttint logs at fifty
cents a day and my grub. He fed the fellahs on oawn bread, cowpeas, and
fat back, cooked at the mill oamp. I slap' at night in one of the mill
shanty houses 'long wid the other mill fellahs. I worked from sun till
sun, six days a week. In two years time old man Musser gime a raise to
seventy-five cents a day, and toward the last he gimmis a dollar a day."
Clam was with Musserts sawmill gang for ten years. The only shift
in the scene of his daily activity came with a moving of the mill to a
new location among the tall pines. Day after day spring, summer, fall,
and winter Clem continued to carry on, like a soldier, whore the lordly
pines stood thickest. One by one, he saw those pines come (washing to the
round before the onslaughts of the woodmen's axes. And while they fell,
he saw huge mounds of sawdust grow. As he put it, "I was raised in a pile
of sawdust, arrl I reckon I'd a been a livin in a sawdus' pile till yet if
old men !nigger oouldter fount more pines to make a sawdus' pile. Ne out
and sawed pines till thar wan't no more pines to out and saw in these hero
hills. In the winter of 1907, he shut down the sawin' bisness, look, stook,
and barrel."
Immediately after Musser's sawmill operations ceased, Clem Finley
decided that he wanted to remain in the community and try his hand at
farming cotton growing on the out -over land around the last mill site.
He, in the meantime, had made the acquaintance of Doe is. Lawhorne, the
9.
daughter of a nearby tenant farmmr 'who had, part of his time, worked at
the sawmill. Wusser, 011104r of the land, had given Clem permission to tend
as many acre' as was possible for him to tend with one of the mules formerly
used at the mill and now owned by Clew purohassi with his savings. The
bargain was for Clsa to teed the land., rent free the first year, in order
to get it under cultivation. And then oned.fourth of the cotton yield each
suooeeding year wes to go for rent. He we. also given permission to use
the sawmill shanties for a farm dwelling and barns.
With "Old Sawmill", as the mule was Galled, a few farm tools, and a
number of articles of household and kitchen furniture, Clem started to
farming in the spring of 1908. It was well for him his first year that
he possessed a slew sawmill mule and that he had access to a timber pile.
The breaking of the root -infested newground land proved no easy task.
Clem had to say "Whoa, Sawmill" many times in order to have a free hand
to rub away a stomaoh pain caused by a sudden hunch by his plow as it 0=0
in oontaot with an uninieldy root or stump. Occasionally there was a broken
plow been, and then a delay in the work until a new beam, hewn from timber
left at the sawmill, could be made and refitted in place of the broken one.
Clot vas able to do hard work, and he was not a lazy man. He kept on
the job his first year until he succeeded in getting ten acres of cotton
and five acres of corn planted and cultivated. The soil was new and fer-
tile, the season was favorable, and, since the land was free of noxious
weeds and grads**, a good yield of both cotton and corn was obtained. He
produce& eight bales of cotton, and corn suffioient for the next year's
operation. Best of all, the price received for cotton and cottonseed that
year was good, and Clem made money. With the new farmhouse he had built at
"lay -by -time" during the year, from the slabs and other rough lumber left
10
at the sawmill, he felt that he was 7.011 o, his Tray to independence.
With his farm better equipped and with money in ic possess:or to
further expand his operntions, Clot, married Docia C rinz the
Christmas holidays in 1908. And 810'1 another fiddlI-1 and a dancin'
as we had that Christman," Cie He and Doei b,t' the
chil/ron of tenant formers, they gere grandchildren of te,-o t formers,
the great-grandchildren, and or hack. But Clem had revolved to change
it or hi,eelf and Docia. "I said to ?ocia, "Dacia, ay taxes on
'"ore I die, I will. This here fi't- acre of cLt-ovcr la!' will
be cr,r'r in year or tr.°. Old nal- Itocer has rronise hit al- see/ as we
try fi,,e hundred dom. hafter quit lookin' t'ro_Lh thrt big
Roebuck Catalogue, a-:,ickin' out Irl,sc, shades, curtairr, nd otlor party
do -dads. Artd yuh'll haf',er stop lietcnin' to tllo talk of t° se here stove
aosnts enc eawiri machine u:.gente co, 3r_' ic our -iwv."
Clem -itley started hie faming eportione with renewce hopes for
the fu• are d'iring the ern g of 109. He had Docia to h1, hL te tend more
ltn6 to Lror cotter. He ex,71rLed: "I'll use Old ave- ill one 7,:ere year and
tend firteet acres of cotto, 7,he next year, I'll be :U.° o sws. Old
Saw ill nnd nay the differene on two ,00d -lee :ule. I tLe-, ork the
entire fifty acres of (:.t -over la, d. Yes, I'll work ull ,L -r, and
peels.
has 'A-orise to elv .:ith the heeit' srd the i.ckins o7 the tton."
Nell, thin s didn't pan out duriz: 1909 as -31er. had .lanre, The old
sawmill mule died duri pla, Inc seasn, a;ld he -uas co:-cl1e o go in
debt for -ule to take the -lace of Old "frimill, signing a ::rep lien
and other chattel mortgage papers on is felti earthly possess' ns as security
for payment. The season, too, ':;as not favorable for on ioct ume
end Delia picked (AL:1A bales of cotton of fiftoon acreo 'all, and the
11.
oama patohmade a few nubbins. After givie the fourth to old man
Musser for rent, thar meet enough left to finish payie on the mule
'we got at the supply store over on the railroad, near GoluOby. But
Sol and Hank, the twins, was bass* in Novenber of that year, and I felt
my lueklime still with no."
01em Finley wag far from being diseouraged, although in debt. Ho
was the proud father of two husky boys, and, in a few years, ho mould
have plenty of help to tend more land to grormore ootton, he reasoned.
Re would work all the harder during 1910, and deny himeelf and Doola all
the more in order to get ahead. But again thingl didn't pan out as Clem
had planned thew. The sprint of 1910 proved a dry season, and it was
around the middle of June before the rains (tame, and he was unable to
get his fifteen sores of ootton up and started to grawing. Then the sum-
mer was a wet season, and the weeds and arab grass grew JO profusely in the
cotton field that Clem, with the help of Docile, oould not keep it hoed out.
He lathered four bales of ootton and aa abundance of arab grass hay that
fall. One bale went for rent, and the other three bales were delivered
to the supply merohant over on the railroad, near ColumLia, for deduction
on debt. Clem was not diseouraged, however, ror Docia presented him with
smother eon, this tins as a Christmas preseni, 'Just a few ',lore years
and be able to tend mare lam' to gray more cotton,' 1 fig,-ered."
The year 1911 proved a good crop year, an:' Clem ead2 twelve 'eales
of cotton; but 'while he ens making a bir ootton crop, there was a big
orep of it made all over the country, and the price went deism that fall.
After delivering three bales for rent an the nine remaining to the sup-
ply merehant over on the railroad, near ColeMbia„ he was told that he looked
one bale of having enough Gotten to pay out of debt.
12.
Aecording to den, his cotton growing business the next year, and
the next, proved as ever a hit and miss prepositions and, all the while,
he fell deeper and deeper into debt and more and more under obligation
to the supply merchant over on the railroad, near Colunbia. "Then Game
the fall of 1914, a big cotton amp, the war across the eater and no
market for ootton, excep' the buys.a-bale novement. The big shet in the
supply store over on the railroad, near Colmnby, tole me one day that
fall that he'd got to the place eller he hated the sight of a mule, a
one -hoes engin, and a dern bale of cotton."
At the beginning of 1915, Clen's old enthusiasm and pep were def-
initely on the wane.
He realised that he was deeply in debt, but last
how much he awed the supply merchant over on the railroad, near Colunbia,
he had no way of knowing. With each succeeding year thereafter, he grew
more indifferent, insofar as tending more land to grow acre cotton was
conoerned. His narrative ran as follows*
"When the year 1917 cane, the sandy len' I worked had got white on
top, and so pc' that hit 'ud hardly sprout oowpeas any moo. Hit didn't
bother me none, tho', 'cause I'd been a-growin" and a-deliverint cotton
to the supply merchant over on the railroad, near Columby, and all I'd
ever git outer hit lud be (Leduc*e for die eid deducks for dot, till, fi-
nally deduoks tud eat all my cotton up." After a long raucous laugh,
Clen then told of his experienoe during the war period.
With 1918, and the rare eame proUbition. There was a demand for
laborers, skilled and unskilled, ad prioeo skyrooketed. Clem Finley
offered his service to the Government in 1917 as a carpenter. He was
put to work as a skilled 'carpenter in the construction of Carp Jackson,
a short distance from his home on the old Camden road. HS received
13.
six dollars a day for nearZy a year. He had lots of money to spend, and
he spent it freely for every need real or imaginary. "Sol and Rankles
ten year old, and I wanted them and Docia to be happy. They got so they
expected me to fetch ten samethin' ever evening when I oeme home from wy
work. I bought len plenty little haft% and the like, to blow and make music
for their tired old daddy to hear. And 1 can hear Sol and Hank a blowin"
them little hems yet."
But not for long was the wave of prosperity to continue. There was
the signing of the armistioe in NoveMber, 1318, the return of the soldiers
in 1919, and then retrenehment in Government spending) and, finally, a re•
adjlIstment of business to a normal basis at the end of 1920. About the
only item remaining of the list of ear measures vas prohibition.
Clot, after his short period of prosperity in 1918, became connected
with a chain of pony sawmills located here and there in the sandhills.
Sawmills these were in form, and they sawed a little lunber sometimes.
But many people soon learned that the argent:4U= produoed and sold other
things, one of which den called "snake bite." At any rate, Clem said.
u7it VARA my job to git the stooks to the mills sailers in the santhills."
A000rdin to Clem, he worked with the pony sawmill organisation un-
til 1933, when the mills, like Ifusser's of -ears before, had thut down
"look, stook, and barrel." ije returned then to the sandhill farm, older
in experience as well as in yeare. His financial status, however, had not
been improved, and he was arair c. tcrumt farmer for "old man Musser." But
he had Deeta and five eons and two daughtorm with him. Sol and Hank, the
twins, had married and were living at Dull Swamp in an adjoining county.
Dooit was a Icod seamstress, and the boys cultivated the corn, potato, and
garden patches durin7 tho spring and summer Nonthe. In the fall and winter
14
months, the boys dug pine stumps and split kindling for Clem to delivor
along with "filittle snake bite to a certain follah or two over they."
During the fall of 1936, Clem Finley came to grief on the soil imp.
poverished sandhill farm on the old Lusser place. He was cau6ht !faking
a deliver I of "snake bite," his name for bootleg liquor, and rue oent up
by the courts in an adjoining county to serve a jail sentence. Desist, his
wife, and a number of their children still live on the sandhill farm. They
spend their time at trying to froduce things for sale on the Columbia curb
market, and in waiting for Cleee return.
"I e el" sighed mes, Finley, as she bit the sowing thread frost
the garrient in her lap, "we know 1em's goin" to come back. It was in
these hors san'hille he was bawn and raised. It was in these saLo hills,
too, that he's lived and worked for fifty-eight years. lie's been through
the mill darin' that tiLe, and he knows nowhar else." As she folded the
patched trousers Clem's trousers she added, nut he will come back and
try again and again."
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