Document text
Approximately 2,600 words
SOUTII OA,T101,1"NA 7.11TIMS 7.10,71CT
717.; ::131`CPX
onc:T.Aro
Date of Axst Writing
Name of •erson Interviewed
Flotitious Name
Post Office Address
County
Occupation
January 12, 1939
nmanmal Schumpert (white)
Leightsoy
West -3oluMhia, 3. C.
Lexington
Farmer M•kt. Gardenor
Nano of 'inter John L. Dove
Name of nevicor State Office
_hlring the week before Christmas, 1936, the Coludhia, S. 0., curb
market wax thronged with shoppers who were Dalfing °hole° selections from
the limitless assortment of poultry, fresh vegetables, fruits a't other
things for holiday tablee. Under a sign markscraindnill Prohard stood Nd
Leightsey, proprietor of that stall, a stook, old gentleman of average height,
with thin gray hair. A smile lithted his wrinkled sun.tanned faces not just
a business-gotting smile but one that expressed the warmth of human kindness.
People stopping at his stall, or even looking his way, were greeted with that
snile and his best wishes for their holiday seasons
Leightsey, the ;arket 7,taster has just told me of the groat success
2.
you've made of your business on this market and said, 'See old Ed Leightsev
if you aunt a good story of a good =I and a good farmer.'
"Oh, meal," he said, laughing good-naturedly, "I'll be glad to tell you
what little there is to tell, but I don't think it excite you much."
:e turned to his wife, a small brunette of around sixty years, mho mas
listening to our conversation. "Minnie, where'd be the best place to start
telling?"
"Just anywberes but don't forgot our school days and our trip to Charles-
ton."
Valle 2,d, or "lie," as she generally oalls him, vas left to tell the sto-
ry, 71es. Leightsey served the manta of the numerous shoppers who stopped to
price the neatly arranged piles of onions, cabbage, oollards, turnips, pota-
toes, pecans, peanuts, flowers, eggs, and fruits. All of this, except the
fruits, had been produoed at Windmill Orchard, their farm in Lexington .ounty.
also had 'or sale live chickens and turkeys that had bean gratin on their
farsa•
after noddinc his head in the direction of Congaree River, begun
"7 was born just over the river a fortmiles in Lexington County on January
3, 1371. Co you sec I'm past my sixty -.seventh birthday. I went through
whet they mould call, I reckon, the seventh or eight grade at school. Any..
may, studied the old blue -back speller, the diotionary, need and "elloggAti
grammar, history, srithmotio, through stooks awl bonds, and the big geography
that had the pictures or wild animals and big snakes living among the trees
in tho jungles. quit school at twenty years of ace to take a job with the
Luriber Company at -,)Ixiana, r:ruth Garonne, at seventy-five cents a
day and ry board.
tell,4 sir, Dixie:nil is one of the few places in the world where you can
he out of sight of land and water all at the same time. It's not far
from where I was born, and I know every pig path in it. Like the cal.*
low youth I was, I took a notion that I could craw farm crops on that
land. 3o after two years at the sawmill I quit my job and used nr sem.
ins to buy a mule and a few farm tools. I pitched my tent early in
1394 on some out.over land ir that 3od—forsaken sandhi?' community and
to
star,,e fr.rming. The land around -Axiana was, and still is, so poor that
the onlr use we Loxinc:tonians can fine for it is a sort of space filler, or
just so much poor sand put there to hold the world together. That's why I
just said that Di7dana is one of the few planes where you are out of sight
of land and water all at the same time.
*4011, of course, I had no trouble in renting enough lad at 1)ixiana
for a ono.horse farm. And I cot down to work with a vim in the spring of
1694. 3oon I had the land prepared and my crops planted. The seasons were
very 7of.d that year, and my cotton and corn, my punkins and potatoes, and my
other crops bloomed on that fresh sand. But as ludic would have it, the bus.
blebees and oaterpillars found those lolly blossoms and admired them so mmeh
that they oharged upon them* searing themselves* and the crops* out against
the ground."
"Put Ur. Isightimi I have always understood that busiblobees do no harm
to orops. In facts I have been taught that busiblebees are quite helpful to
*rope, in that they assist with pollination."
"That's just it*" he agreed. "You see* we old-timers used to speak of
the poor dsarfy ootton stalks which produce no more than one or two blossoms
as buMblebee cotton. You know a btriblobee is a rather heavy insect* and, in
our inazinations, vs could see the puny little cotton bend to the ground under
the bees weight."
4.
"Oh, yes, I get the meaning now. Won't you please go on with the
story?"
"After my failure at Dixiana, my daddy, Jacob Leightoey, came to see
no and persuaded me to return home near New Brookland, now known as West
Columbia. I swallowed my pride, mounted my little mule, and returned,
like the prodigal son, to the land of my father. At the beginning of 1895,
I went to work as a one-horse sharecropper for my daddy. I slept in the
back roam of a little comnissary store, and 000ksd and at. my scant rations
in the same roam for two years. I worked hard during those two years at grow-
ing coma melons, potatoes, tomatoes, beams, turnips, and a little cotton.
Luck was with no too, and I was able to produce a lot of stuff to sell in Co-
luMbia. After giving my daddy one-fourth of the receipts for rent, I had
4800.00 eared at the beginning of 1897.
At this point in his narrative, the old gentleman paused for a moment
as if he was trying to refresh his memory pertaining to some particular
event in his younger days. Be then said: "When 1897 same, I did a very
wise thing I bought, mainly on credit, twenty acres of my daddy's land
and built thereon a four -roam cottage. He paused again just lone, enough
to walk around to the opposite side of the counter from where Mrs. Leightsey
was standing. 0quinting in the direction of "the old woman," as he sometimes
refers to her, he remarked, "I then did a foolish thing I bought a butIr."
Ito winked an eye in the direction of the writer, and then "the old wromme
turned her head in time to see T -?.d shaking his big left fist in her face, and
to hear the following remarks
"In the fall of 1097, I married that old battle-axe standing over there,
and then my troubles really began. I once thought she was pretty Minnie Ber-
ry. Hyl haw she oould always manage to find a seat by the side of no when we
were in school and sat on the slab benches placed around the fireplace in
the old sehoolhouse."
Ile backed avow just in time to prevent a lick from a threatening piece
of packing ease held by the belligerent appearing Minnie. All of this was,
of course, a demonstration of good...humored badinage frequently =hanged be-
tween Ed and Annie*
Apoording to Minnie, who by this time had joined Ed in the discussion,
the years 1398 to 1903 were oritioal and eventful. While Ed °continued to
"pull the bell -cord over his mule," Minnie cooked and washed and "nursed Ed
and the children*" Ue explained how he had developed his land to a high state
of cultivation by a judicious combination of crop rotations, home -4e ferti-
liser, and liberal plantings of ompoke, vetches, and other legumes*
"And just as fast as we could produce fruits and vegetables, eggs and
chickens, and other things suffioient to pay the cost, ten dollars per sore,
of one block or twenty sores of my daddy's fern, we obligated ourselves to
buy an adjointng twenty acres or the old farm. I found, all the while, a
ready market for our product(' among the people living in the city across the
Congaree River, six miles awa7.
"Yes, 'Jinni° and I worked hard during those years, and luck:was with
us. Our acres increased rapidly, as did our family until we had eleven
ohildren* After ten years of work and 'penervinching,' we managed to save
',)1,350.00 from our earnings, which enabled us to buy my daddy's satire farm
of 133 acres. During this time I did not buy a single bale of hey or bushel
of corn with which to feed my mules and cows.
we had finished paying for the farm in 1903, Minnie and I agreed
that the time had come for um to take our long delayed honeymoon vacation,
tho trip to 04Rrleston she mentioned at the beginning of our conversation*"
G.
lie took a deep breath of air, and said, 73ut, maybe I'd better let her
tell about that, for I believe she got more out of the trip than I did."
"You see, it's like this," /1111. Lai htsey began. "Ed has never wanted
much said about that Charleston trip. Well, I finally persuaded him that
he needed to get away from the farm for a few days. So during the winter
of 1908, he agreed that we should go to Charleston, and to Charleston we
went. Everything went lovely until we reached the city by the 8041 then
trouble, as well as fun, began for MA4 Neither of us had before seen the
ocean, and, of course, we were not familiar with boats and boating on the
seashore. What we looked out upon those rolling eaves of water, I decided
it mould be nice for us to take a boat ride around the bey. I vented to
get a close view of Fort 3umter and other places we had read about. put
when I told Ed of my desire, he bucked like a stubborn old mule and said:
riT4y, Minnie, the very ideal I have always felt there was just as much water
in Congaree River as I would oare to undertake to pun you out of in ease of
an accident to you in crossing. I just malt risk your life out there in that
pond.' So we didn't go."
The short vacation over, larrlie and :;44 returned home. The old ancestral
farm and home had been paid for and was their property. Ed Leightsey and his
better half went about making improvements. flew barns were built for the
livestodk and poultry in accordance with plans furnished by the Clemson Col-
lege Extension Division. Improved breeds of hogs, cows, and poultry wore
installed in place of the scrub and mixed breeds formerly kept. A new peach
orchard, a grape vineyard, and a flower garden were planted. Later, the pas-
ture* were newly fenced and sodded to adapted clovers and grasses. And, fi-
nally, the old log residence was remodeled and painted, and a mindmill,mith
which to pump eater into the home and to the barn, was irmtalled. Thus it
7.
was the farm beoame known as ..AndriAll Orchard..
It is said that Ld Leightsey never lets up in his search for ways and
means or incextng Improvements at Windmill Orchard. And his marketing methods
are much superior to the average method on the curb markot. :is description
of his production and marketing experience was as follows:
"When the time oomes for .,40 to be at haae to look after the planting,
oultivating, harvesting, and peaking of my products, Urs. Leightsoy comes
to the :larket and looks after our intorost here: I know about when my
various orore planted will be ready for the *rot. I try not to ham too
much of any one crop ready for the market at one time. I make plantings
thrmOlouttimo year as the seasons permit. This curb system of soiling home
raised produce fits into mv scheme perfectly. It is a groat improvement over
the old street peddling syetera ze onoe had in ',;olutibia. When necessary, I
can 1)0 at home looking after crop production, whiln Llinnle does the sell-
i.ng•
"I sort (grade) every pound :f my produoo; then put it up in even
WV14Sat bOXAS or bags or baskets bofore offering it for alo. Thoro are no
little potatoes at the 1:otton of tho basket and big potatoes at the top.
They are all alike in size, color, ai T.iality in the pack. I've been in
this bUilliA084 1,-.:ng enough to Inlaw that I must give my ousters what they
want id that which they fool they hale bought. ';:hen I once sell a customer,
ho stool sold. cue satisfied oustomer, know, =keel other cuetanors for my
stand :lore. My gross sales from this ourb stand amo-mts to around -38D00 a
your. ,;oao out to "D farm and soo things for yourself," he insisted.
was during tho spring of in7 that the writer had an opportunity to
visit the uightsey farm. :Indaill orchard was four', in truth, a well kept
farm. :t is located on a county road, six miles wee: of tho Congaree aivor
8.
bridge the concrete span that separates the city of Columbia from the town
of "eat Columbia and contains the 135 acres which TS and ilnnie bought in
the early years of their married life. -orile of the land is on the streams,
where there is the choicest of grazing for cattle, sheep, and hogs; other
portions of the farm contain forests of the lordly long leaf pine; and others
again are the well -cultivated fields, orchards, and vineyards. In close prox-
imity to the modern livestock and poultry is an old well-preserved two-story
resience, built of logs hewn from rich yellow pines timber known through
the ages for its ability to withstand the storms and ravages of
time. There,
too, a windmill slowly turned in the morning breeze at its task of raising
and lowering the long pump shaft over the well.
In a dition to the flock of purebred poultry cackling in the Jarnyard,
tY,e place was alive with the birds of the air, including the rat -a -tat -tat
of a woodpecker, tearing at the bark of a nearby pine in machine -gun -like
precision. The rattle of cow bells, the grunt of pigs, and the hum of bees
were heard. The odor of violtts and other spring flowers filled the air.
Joy, too, was abroad in the lands for, in the mulberry tree near the pig lot,
a number of happy greasy -faced pickaninnies were heard to yodle, 'hi-le-i-la-
he-hoo.'
Ed Leightsey, progressive in his farm management methods and of a prac-
tical turn of mind, has no particular interest in legislation or politics.
"Farm legislation can have but little meaning to me," he said. "I have always
lived and boarded at the same place."
By that, he means that he produces his fruits and vegetables, acon and
hominy, milk and honey, and, in short, his entire living at Windmill Orchard.
LeL::htsey claims that he has crossed and re -crossed Ccni;aree iver
9.
for forty-one years, with loads of produce for the Columbia Market. Ha
now makes weekly, often semigoweekly, and sometimes daily deliveries of
produoe to this stand on the curb market. Long before the newsboys begin
their chant, "Morning State," on the streets of the city, Ed and Minnie
drive up Gervais Street in their flivrer, loaded to its gunwales with po-
tatoes, turnips, chickens, melons, peaohes, grapes, and other things in
season all ready for sale when the market opens at an early morning hour.
"I never let the grass grow under my feet," is one of Yr. Leightsey's mays
of expressing his stirring habits. Ed, they say, never walks to his work,
he runs.
"MY,. Lei htsey, I understand you Dutch farmers of Lexington County have
fed the people of ColuMbia since the War Between the States. Is that core'
root?'
"You bet I have furnished my share of the eats," was his answer. He
then explained haw his ancestors, and the grandparents of other Lexington
farmers, had been pushed back into the poorer sandhills by the' old landed
aristocracy in the early days of the State. With the old smile, which seldom
leaves his face, he concluded with the remarks "Well, I guess 'Amery dog has
his day.' I'm having very good luck with my sales of produce Among many of
the descendants of those splendid old aristocrats."
While Ed Leightsey says you can bet on his having helped feed the people
of Columbia, you can bet your "bottom dollar," with safety, that he has fed
those eleven children of his at the fountainhead. Judging from the hale and
hearty appearance of them, they must have been "buttermilk fed chickens."
Yes, Ed Leightsey claims that he and Minnie have reared eleven children
six sons and five daughters at Windmill Orchard, and that each has been
given a high school education.
"They are all married and gone now," he said,
10.
apparently with a feeling of regret. Ira is a building contraotor; Vernon,
a lumber dealer; John runs a garage; Arney is a textile worker; and Charles
is a farmer. The girls are now Mesdanes Stuokey, Williannon, Jeffooat, Senn,
and Sharp. "A000rding to the last clounts we have thirty-one grandchildren,"
said Ed with an amused grin.
Even though the songs and ones of the Leightsey children are heard no
more around the old homes Ed and Minnie have no desire to "let up" in their
work of gardening and marketing. They oontinue to *roes and rem.oross Conga-
ree Elver saoh day, eXoept Sundays on their way to and from their produce
stand on the ColuMbia Curb Market. And there, under the sign Mindmill Or-
chard, they carry on, side by sides as was their wont in their childhood
days at the old baokwoods school."