Document text
Approximately 3000 lioro.
TITLE s
SOUTH CAROL.TRA. WRITERS, PROJINCT
LIFE HISTORY
Th EXPERDEEIMS OF A FARM (MIER
Date of First Writing
Raft of person Interviewed
Fiotitious Mao
Ilsoe
Occupation
December 22, 1938
Ernest B. Boney (white)
:Tone Used.
Blythewood, S. C.
Farmer
Name of Writer John P. Farmer
Name of Reviser State Office
It was a beautiful sunthiny day when I called on Ernest Boney.
His home, about one mile north of Blythewood„ is on an unpaved road
leaving U. S. highway 421 so ne three hundred yards above the Blythe..
wood Consolidated Rehool and following the Southern Railway tracks for
nearly a half mile.
The driveway leading from the road to the house passes between two
great oaks, standing sentinel -like. The walk to the house is hedged with
stones and with flowers of sone sort that had been planted in the aunner
and died. The front yard lias swept clean, and off to the side of the
house otands two chinaberry trees, the larcest I ever saw.
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The invibltima to oome lamas immediate and cordial. The entire
feeily was gathered around the aomfortable fire 2;:a the livine; room.
The room furnishings were in tasteful order. In positions convenient
to the fire, the pieoes of a handsome living roam suite had been ar-
ranged. In one oorner stood a piano. Inquiries trought out the infor-
mation that Mrs. Honey is a musician.
Mr. Money and family at once fell in with i..hc purpose of my visit.
"The story of mv life? Sure. Around here it's a tale well known anyway."
"Tess Ives hAna hero in Blythewood. it father was a Johnal Boney
and qv mother vas Martha (Raines) Boneys both of thexa were born and
raised right hero in the county. All this part of the oatnty was in
Fairfield at the time. The old hone place is about two Miles from Blythe..
mood. When my mother and father died, the land wee divided, and my older
brother, Fletcher, lives there now.
"I vas born August 2, 1890, the seventh of thirteen children, eleven
boys and two girls, all of whom are still living, either here in Dlythewoad
or in Riehland County. I attended school in an old wooden lx:ildinc on the
same spot the large bridle school now stands. In those days we never had
any grades hidlav than the seventh, so that was as far as I could go.
After school me did what me could around home.
"After oompleting school, my father gave no a small tract of land
and started me off farming for myself. Az there was plenty of help in
those days, none of us boys had to do =oh actual plotting or cotton pick-
ing. We had Necroes livin on the place that were glad to get the work.
All the profits of the land I farmed VMA given to no for my own.
"During qv school days, I always had pigs that I raised, and usually I
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raised two or three valves for beef. All these things were a source of
profit, and this ras the way me rsot "fiat little yeah money we over had.
"4 youth was spent quite pleasantly. There wae plenty of hunting.
This part of the county had plenty of quail, and we had then on the table
all durinG the bird season. All of my Lnothere hunted* ae they still du,
and there ems always seeeral food bird dos at horny. Vie -110,Ala have rabbit
hunts, as the country abounded with them. In addition to the rebbit hunts,
all of the younger children would have rabbit bozoe ect all around the
farms, end we would usually have a rae it in the every time uy urnt to
then. If we could catch thertyour,t enoui2.111 wo would r% to tesx them.
The older ones were used for the table, or sold.2her%;rezl.c:.
cents each.
"The Greatest sport we had was fox hunt in;. cr'yhod took part in
this. I've seem the time Veen there was at least SCVW five fox hounds
at ey daddy's. DurinG the winter seazon seem' people that owned doGn
would keep the peak toGether, and, as my daddy's place wae centrally lo-
cated. they would keep them there. Ile had a liegre that didnit do owthinc
but take oars of the doss. i had to cook their food, and this was usually
done in a bigleekh pot in the yard. I remember that the doge were a cane
stant souree of arGument between ny mother end my older brothers and 0, ey.
They were alsays GettiaG into thiaL;e, and disturbinG my other's Checkens.
There was no such thing as keeping a Goat or any kind of around the
house while the doGs were there. They meuld chase then and, even in a
spirit of play, were so reu01 that they would soon_leuvee _We put up mdth
them, thouzh;people in tho.
they did a fine mule.
ou)d asiI,Leal of •-ood fox hovel. as
uI never will forget the incident that loleared up' the dog prob.-
Ism. Me older brother* Durham, had a big flook of sheep he was raising
for the market. He had gone to the trouble of fencing off a large tract
of pasture land and they were kept there. He had spent quite a bit of
money en these sheep and they were in fine shape for a nice profit. Well*
the hounds got in the habit of oomirz back by this pasture from a hunt and
terrifyiag the flodk* usually killing one or two of them. 1:huftFtm didn't
have munh to sow. He would go and fix up the place 'Ahern they rot through
the fence, and then the sane thing mould happen all over (vain. This hap.
paned several times. One morning be went to see about hie sheep, and he
found all the places that he had fixed broken dawn. The dof:,s had rotten
into the pasture again and killed over a dozen sheep. l'huium didn't say
a word. Every tine he had mentioned it before it was a source of fun for
the rest of the family* as they had warned him he couldn't make anything
off the sheep. He very quietly sold the rest of the flock, in additiun
to his saddle horse and everything else he had that was salable. He then
peeked his clothes and took them. to Hlythesrood and earns back homes He got
his shotgun/1'mA out in the batikyard and started shooting dogs. 4e killed
every dog he could see. He left home immediately and uut to Atlanta, where
he worked tor over a year before coming back home. After things quieted
down a bit, daddy and the rest of the boys cooled down some, but I sure hate
to think what mead have happened had they found ilrham riFht after the 'dog
killing.'
There is still plenty of fax hunting around Blythewood. time of the
boys* including my brothers, still co e-rery chance t.hey ;et. I don't co
anymore. I don't have any dogs, and I never did have the'fever' like some
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of them did.
"I do with they could kill the foxes out aratnd here* They are
one of the causes of the bird shortage. They also t lots of umell
chickens, and they've gotten so plentiful in the last few years that they
are a great nuisances
*When I was about sixteen years olds I started c1or2ingin ray brother's
store on Saturday. It was Durham's store. "lc had •-c. Ail Phillips running
the store for him. When ue. Phillips died, I started working regularly there.
Durham didn4 know anything about the stores as he had boon running the saw-
mill and gins Imes the only one that knew anything about the otook and
books. I still did my farming, using hired help. Aen I varked an Eatur-g.
day in the stores I got seventr-five oents, and whci I stnxted ruailinr, the
stores I worked for fifty dollars a months mhIch in thsel days
'big money.
*Durham had a mighty good thing of it with the store* Tiles were good,
and we sold everything imaginable* We would have to buy fertilizer and feed
by the carload. We'd take cross ties and oot'..on in as paynent on accounts,
and we had to handle all that. goat of the folks in the ilythawood section
bought everythinc they used righ.:.; there in the store. You certainly got a
varied experience in a general store like that* We limuld even have to sell
shoes to woman. Goodness knows how man: bolts of cloth we sold for drosses
and things like that. I worked for Dur:aa;a until I narried.
"I had been going with :483 3eulah evor since I was big OUATIZh
to go with girls, and in Aprils 1914s we wore married. Tvo of qy older
brothers, Durham and Brookes, had married Liss Jetlahts sisters, Aiioo and
Minnie. All three were the dan_hters of Jad.o John 'l atm. who died in 1006.
Miss Beulah and her mother had been living Trit:i ka-thEica since right after j5d6e
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Wooten's death. Our families had been knowing each other lonE before
either of us ger* born, and we all had ,;one to school to.;ether. ,)ur
courtship wax lengthy& as all courtships were. 1,e went toc, ther seven
years before we married. We would Lo on straw rides at tines. 'here was
usually entertainments& such as box suppers and thincs like that at the
Church or schools which we always attended. I had a horse and ba42,,, and
we didn't have much trouble guttini„ around. All in all, we had as ilach
fun as anyone else.
"Atter we married& we bought this place. It belonged to the widow of
4r. Bill Phillips, and it consisted of sixty acres. The saAe house was
here& along with a Negro tenant house. '..here was a barn and lot, a large
corn crib, and good stables here at the tine. e had to buy the place on
credit& and we paid fifty dollars an acre for the place. it was a bar ain
at that, the land was in good shape. 11--A that price included the house and
all the buildings. We paid for the plase in five years, right off the farm.
I paid six hundred dollars a year& besides living good and haring the expen•
ems of our children coming along all the ti. I was able to flake improves.
manta from time to times and 4. had to build a new barn to ta2:e care of w
stock. We have always had a cow since VB ut married, and when we4oved
hare I had quite a few hoEs 1 had to make MON Poi'.
In thine, 1915, our first child, Joseph, was born. ho was afflicted
with a club foot at birth. U8 didn't itow what in the world to do. Zinall:y,
Dr. Teams, our doctor, got in touch with jr. .Jud, the bone specialist in
Columbia. After making several examinations, he said he felt sure he could
correct his foot so that he would be able to wan all right. L.Luer several
visits to Columbia& Dr. 3oyd broke the foot and put it in a east. Joseph's
7.
foot stayed that may until he was about two years old. 1 never will forget
the day we took him to Columbia to have the cast taken off. We had to take
the train. Hie mother and I were so afraid sonethinc would be wrong, even
though the doctor had tried to console us by saying he thought everything
would be all right.
"We had lost our second baby just a short time before, and I was so
afraid the grief of this, added to something going wrong with Joseph's foot,
would be more than his mother could stand.
"We arrived at Dr. noyd's office &onetime around noon. lie saw us
immediately. After some examination he took Joseph in and removed the
cast. Be said his foot was gong to be all richt, bit it looked so bad
after being in a oast so long we could hardly believe him. There was such
a lone time before we oould be sure. Tie had to naoske3 his foot and legs
for menthe, all the time wondering if he was over going to be able to walk.
Our joy was unbounded when he finally took his first step. We still had to
bandage his foot, and he was very slow in learning to walk. There NW a
long time before his foot was right. He had to wear a special built high
shoe until he was quite a big boy, but new there is no difference in his
feet* 114 have always looked Ton Dr. eoyd as a worker of miracles.
"All of this was a big expense to me; and then in 1913, Ernest Jr*,
was born. Then came Ben, all of whom have finished high school.
"Our next child died at birth, and in 1923, our first girl, Mildred
Ann was born* She is in high school new. Next cane Layda, then Bobby,
the baby. Both are in school. We have six living children, and thank
God, they are all well and healthy.
"In 1922, I went into the general merchandise business in nythowood.
a.
Durham had closed his store right after I left him, due to other inter.
efts. I did right well for two years. In 1924, I lost everything I had
in the store, fire. There was no insurance. Rates were so high out
here in the owwWW1rwithout say fire proteotion that I had never taken
out any. I had gane in debt right deep to get the store started, and it
took several years to get over the loss. I have never completely reoov.
eased from it.
have always been able to keep from mortF;acing my home. As long as
I oan do this, I feel like I can feed and clothe my ani1y. here has been
plenty of times ehen we thought we just couldn't keep from it. oust this
past fall, my third son, Sen, entered Clemson. He knew I couldn't help him
out am*, so he had been marking for the past two summers, saving his money
so he could enter. Be just couldn't seem to get enough to got by the first
year. Finally, he Lot some help from the National Youth AdDidnietration.
But the expense of the freshmen year is so large he had to borrow some ex.
tra money to carry him an through. He certainly has his mind set on fin.
ishing college. He is taking agrioulture, and he wants to teach ehen he
finishes. I wish I mere able to send all my children on through college,
but it is impossible. I have been able to let them finish high school
and I am very thankful for that.
"I had a bad crop this year. I planted my entire cotton alio
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and in August, it looked like I was celiac to have a bale to the acre. It
rained a good deal and the boll weevil ruined me. it's gotten to the place
where it looks like it's impossible to kill the weevil. 1 sprayed ny cot-
ton as often as possible, but it still didn't do any good. I would have
been better off if I hadn't planted a row. 1 avoraged 236 pounds od seed
0.
ootton to the acre, when I should have gotten a bale of ginried cotton.
Oh, well& I reckon everything is for the best. I hear the government
has more oottan au hand than they Jaunt what to do with. If ovevybody had
made a big crop this year, the priest would o down, and cotton is sure
cheap enough as it is. I made more cash money on what I didn't plant than
got out of what I did plant.
yes airt I oertainly in in favor of ,icrrornment :;omtrol. I'll
tell you, we would be in a bad fix by now if we didn't have a control of
some sort. The trouble is, people won't TIve it a trial. They just sit
down and start kicking, just to have somethin to kick about. It rxtLela it
hard an people who are trying to abide by the rules. it's just like the
relief in Blythewood. It's a fine thing for them that actually need it.
What ruins it is that so many people who don't heed i abllso it. ;:or a
time last suer, you couldn't get a Negro to vpIrk on the farm. whey viould
get two or three days irmek an the W.P.A., and this was all they needed.
It isn't just the niggere either. There are lots of white people around
here who have farms but won't work then. With all the land o.roqnd A.zithe.
wood that's lying idle, there could be plenty for all, btit they won't work
them as long as tie}, can ret work on the U.P.A. They won t even raise a
garden at home.
"Yes, we have plenty of ohurches around hare. 4 ontire family are
menbers of old Sandy -Level Baptist Church, the olvirch we have attended all
our lives. My wife's parents and my parents are buried there. All rr fa-
ly,are regular church members. There are several churches in the comminity.
Old Asbury Uethodist Church has been here as long as I can remember.
People
don't seem to go to church nowadays like they use to. Whan I uus a boy, it
10.
seemed that everybody wt to Church on Sunday. Everythik: see= to have
Changed sinoe then.
*NV life has been one of hard work. I have alwayo been able to get
enough to keep my family reasonably comfortaLlle. If I ean hoop ny health,
I know I can provide for them in the fashion me have always lived. I mant
them to get all the education possible. They are all vood, honest, and
hardworkinc. And as lone as they stay that way, I won't think our hard-
ships have been in vain."