[I Wouldn't Exchange]

Document text

TI I-..OULDIOT,
Date of First Writing
lame of Person Interviewed
hddress- ?lace
Post Office Address
January 31, 1939
Mrs. Bess Long Wilburn
(white)
"Cross Keys, S. CI
Union, S. C. R.F.D. 2
Occupation Teacher
Lame of ':riter Caldwell Sims
Lame of heviser
Mrs. Wilburn wrote this article herself, at the
request of the interviewer. She is considered by the rural
Supervisor of Schools in Union County, as one of the best,
if not the best Teacher in the County.
Dirs. Wilburn has the gift of expressing
herself with a great deal of ease and fluency.
The interviewer explained the chief objective
of a life history to the Lady. She stated that her money
which she has earned in the Schoolroom has been invested
in things that go to make a more attractive schoolroom
and for the betterment of her home and community.

WOULDN'T EXCHANGE.
Chapter 1 The Lady Enters.
At the quiet hour just before dawn more than
half century ago in the little village of Jonesville,
South Carolina a group of people sat around a huge
fireplace filled with brightly burning logs.
The only sound in the room was the singing of
the tea kettle as it boiled there on the hearth and the
occasional splutter of the fire as the logs burned and
rolled together.
On the faces of the group was a look of
expectancy and of waiting. A sound came from a figure
lying on a big four poster bed in the corner of the
shadow filled room.
The old negro mammy arose from her place by
the fire and turned up the wick of the kerosene lamp.
One of the men, who was plainly the kindly
country doctor, went to the bedside while the younger
man cleared his throat nervously, threw another log on
the fire and went into an adjoining room where three
tousled headed little boys were fast asleep on a trundle
bed.
In the dim light of the night lamp his eyes
rested on te chubby faces of his three little sons and
his lips moved in silent prayer for the beloved wife in
the next room who was walking through the shadows that
another life might be.
A tiny wail, hurried movements and the voice
of the doctor saying, "Come, Gid, and see the girl who

has broken up your teem of boys".
As the father leaned down to kiss the dark haired
mother she asked "Do you mind that she isn't a boy?"
The father looked at his wee daughter and with
love filled voice replied, "I wouldn't exchange her for
the world" and that is how I, Mary Susan Elizabeth Gwynn Long
was born one January night to James Gideon Long and
;:Alsan Lourena Gwynn Long.
Chapter 2 The Lady loveri.
Men I was only a few months old my father who
had been elected Sheriff of Union County moved his family
to the town of Union in 1885 It was fitting that the
reorle of his county honor him with the office as he had
been tireless in his efforts to help his country in its
hours of need.
ais father, John D Long, a gifted and brilliant
man had been active in the building of the then younger
county.
He had led two of his young sons to the battle
fields of Va. and fought side by side with them.
Later in the same Conflict he saw another young
son Gideon, who was my father, go to war.
At that time Gideon was only fifteen years old
but he marched away with Capt. D. A. Townsend and his
company of "Sixteen Year old Boys".
After the ar Between the States closed my
fgr'or roturne0 to tl,e t-,orr of Jonesville and opened a
mercantile business. Soon after he married Lou Gwynn,

daughter of Jeptha and Susan Abell Gwynn of York.
Their young married life was spent during the
troublesome days of Renconstruction.
—hen hump', endurance had reached its limit my
fo.V-ter was one of the very first to join that mysterious
band of men known as "The Clan" Who went out to help make
the 3outh safe for its beloved women.
I have sat often at my father's knee and listened
to the Tales of the Trying Times". The lips that told me
those secrets have been sealed with the kiss of death and
so t'-ey will be safely kept locked away in the sanctuary
of my heart.
Vy mother, too, had a helping hand to lend.
She with others good and brave women endured the hardthips,
encouraged their men and sat up nights making Robes for
the "riders by Night".
These two with their four children came to live
in te union rount-7 :fail. Fere they encountered many
trying times.
I remember the awful night when my mother awoke
and heard horses hoofs beating the night air.
We heard them coming far off, then nearer,
hundreds of them and then suddenly they had quite surrounded
the jail. It was two O'clock in the morning, no one there
to defend the prisoner but a lone man, his wife an expectant
mother, and four little children,.
In those days there were no telephones in Union,
so quite *lore he stepped out on the porch and faced that
mob of five hundred angry and determined men. He had

only his gun so he spoke out to them, "I know many of you
and know you as my friends but the first one of you to
set foot across those stone steps MA shoot down".
Away out in the crowd a man called out, "Come on
back boys, lets go. Gid will do just what he says. So
they went away and my father had saved a man from being
lynched.
Inter when tIle negro was given a trial he was
proven inocent of the crime but he left here and went out
Test as there still was a feeling of prejudice against him.
Uany years later when my father was involved in
a trouble not of his making, neither a reflection on his
honor he was sitting alone in his office. He had been
unable to sleep and had gone there to read.
It was half past two in the morning so my father
was very much suprised when someone tapped gently on the
office door. Heothinking my mother had come for him said
"Come in". The door opened slowly and a negro stepped in.
Ly father recognized the man he had saved from
the angry mob and said, "1 told you to never come back,
why have you?" The negro told my father that he lived
in Texas, had worlred hard and saved over three hundred
dollars and hearing throl some of his kin back here of
the trouble had come back to offer all he had in gratitude
to the man who had saved his life.
137- father explained that it was not a question
of money but somethint that happened in the line of duty
which he thought would come out all right.
He sent the negro with his gift back to Texas on

an early morning train. hone over knew of this incident
except my mother until the day my beloved father lay dying.
A letter came and my mother opened it. It was
from the man in Texas and he just wrote to wish him well
as he had not been able to keep his mind off the great
favor my father had done him.
read that letter to my mother and the closing
line said "'may the best that can come to you, came".
walked back and stood by my father's bedside.
The setting sun sent its rays all around him and touched
everything with its gold and as life ebbed away I thought
rn7be best tIlat car come to man is when he has lived
worthily and can go out to meet the great Adventure unafraid.
The rorning after the mob had been dispersed my
father was unable to find the jail keys. This was a serious
state of affairs as they had to have food.
ny mother thinking my father might be overporered
by the mob had hid them, but was unable to recall the place
as she had been so excited.
Two days later she suddenly remembered where.
lad_ torn open one of t7:le mattresses on the company bed
and put then in it. Those keys were well hidden for there
were two huge feather beds on top of the mattresses.
have tried to blot from my memory the hangings
that took place. As nearly as she could my mother sheilded
us frorl nry krorledpe of tl,.en but we could see tbe hangman's
rope being stretched out under the old wagon shed, the
special meals of fried chicken and other good things my kind
mother would have sent up to the condoned man.

The visits of the kin folks, the preacher coming
and father had a pool built upstairs in the prison
to baptize a man who was going to be hanged.
Yany of my childhood memories are harrowing but
I wouldn't exchange them.
Chapter 3. The Lady Learns
Another girl had come to our house to stay.
Then
hy sister Sarah Louise Long./ Where were five of us.
.,z! brothers, James Gideon Long Jr. Abel Gwynn Long and
john Paithur Long were old enough to go to school.
In those days the public schools were unsatisfactory
so lay brothers were sent to a private school known as The
::ale Academy. There was also a good private school for
qirls, Clifford Female Seminary.
When I was old enough to attend school I went
to it.
In those days Lain street in Union was knee
deep in mud. its I lived more than a mile from school I
had to ride. It seems T. went in state as I had an old
fashioned phaeton, a gentle horse and an old negro driver
at my disposal.
It mattered not to me that my driver was a
United 3tates prisoner serving a long prison term. In
those days there were no chain gangs and often prisoners
were sentenced to the county jail to work.
"Clifford seminary". The name has a real charm
for :ae. It was truly a place in which to live and love
and learn. !ot a school in terms of laborious lessons,
tiresome tasks and long hard hours. It was a real tichool

home to be happy ir, learning r%bout beautiful and
interesting things. Here I learned about art and music
and books. Under the cuidance of my beloved teachers,
Dr. and Frs. B. G. Clifilord and Visa Susie Scofield many
1,n1)77 days of my childhood were spent, studying in the
clRns rooms, pnintine in the studio, rending in the
library, helping Miss Susie tend to the canary birds and
squirrels or lust playing under the Rose arbor and in the
beautiful flower gardens,
?n.d now nearly fifty years since I am told that
the some method of learning I knew then is newt
Only this past mummer I had the pleasure of
observing in the schools of the Parker District in Greenville,
C. where the learn by doing method is used, and WI I
watched the happy children living and loving nnd learning
eye grew misty with my own Childhood memories that
I wouldn't exchange.
Chapter 4. The Lady Loves.
Ter before I knew it I was grown unt
Graduation Day came. Flowers and friends and finery.
Commencement at my school was a Gala affair.
There were plans and parties and dresses to be
fitted. One for t7le Baccalaureate sermon, one for the
concort, one for the Leception and one for Graduation.
That had to be the loveliest of all with laoey ruffles
and satiny streamers.
It was almost like getting your trousseau ready
and the dress makers in town were kept busy.

There were Eirl friends to be invited for
Commencement week. Your favorite aunt for whom you were
named came, boy cousins to keep your girl friends
entertained and if :jou were fortunate enough to have a
gran6 mother she came too. Such a mood time everybody had
flirtine and frolicing.
The night of my Graduation came. There were three
of us who had started to school together and grown up
toveter. I thought we looked very lovely. Our dresses
-nrtls nr0 -arida or mist7 white organdie, sewed all
over with dainty laces and white satin ribbons.
I think ramie's sash was wider than mine but my
pompadour was higher than anybody else's.
It was the day of the pompadour and to be stylish
one :lad to pile and pile your hair in a towering mass on
top, of your head.
I remember what my favorite uncle said to me when
he came up to congratulate me. "Best:10X you have half as
much on the inside of --our head as 7rou have on the outside
you'll surely rink° 7rour r.irk in the world". I almost
wished it had been ray favorite aunt who had come she wouldn't
have said that.
-rter Eraduation t7 -.ere was a summer of fun.
T!le or17 serlmus rOrlort T. remember was when we were requested
1./-s. Clifford to tike the teachers examination being
given that surimer.
he throe of us received first grade certificates.
diC. not know that mine would be put to use so soon.
About this time my father suffered financial losses.

ky sister younger than I needed to complete her education
so T asked my parents to let me teach. In those days
that was the only work a young lady could do outside her
home.
I want to be perfeotly honest about entering the
teaching profession. I can not say that I was fired with
the desire to help the young build character. Prankly,
didn't know what it was all about. I just wanted to
1,elp my beloved mother and father When they needed it.
The first school offered Mil WAS not far from the
home of a school mate of mine. It was in an isolated
district and I had to walk two and one half miles to school
and alone as nearly all the patrons lived on the other
side of the school
There were about ten or twelve almost grown girls
and boys and about the same number of small children.
The school house was a very old log house with
cracks in it a rabbit could squeeze through. Sometimes
when the door was shut a ehild's little dog would come
whining through. There were two windows with wooden
shutters and at one end a big fireplace made of mud and
atones. we did not bother to out wood we just threw on
a whole stick.
didn't like that school. I had never seen a
place like it and I was afraid of the big boys and girls.
They knew so much more than I. They could work the most
marvelous sums all over the front and back of their slates.
I never liked arithmetic arrmsy.
But I loved those little children and we had good

times together when we could slip off to one side of the
school yard away from the big boys and girls.
There was something else I liked at Piney Grove.
walk to school went through a forest of magnificent
pine trees. I would almost run to get to them. They stood
so tall and still and as T walked on the thick brown carnet
of fallen needles and looked up through the columns with
the rays of the morning sun slanting through them, listened
to the murmur of the wind in their branches I felt as if I
wero in a great cathedral and my heart would sing a morning
hynn tc tile Giver of all good gifts. I believe Ian a
better woman for having known those trees.
Then I would pass on out the woods with a song
in my heart. I bad a gun in my pocket which my father
insisted I carry in case I met a mad dog. I was lust about
as afraid of the pistol as I would have been of the dog.
I stayed two sessions. The salary was small.
Twerty fire dollars s north. TIonrd costa twelve and one
half Collars a month. L don't know what I did for those
children but I know whet tr:,e7T did for me. There and then
1 resolved t',74it if tryin6 to 06 a good teacher and really
beinc one could help people like those I had known there
I would dedicate myself to the profession.
friend who was teaching at Cross Keys gave
up the position to move with her family to a distant state.
Before leaving she had recommended ma to the Trustees.
The school was offered to me and I accepted. That was
thirty three years ago.
?he roaci to Cross Keys was a long winding one

and laud was up to ;be hub of the carriage wheels.
The journey lasted from early morning until the setting
of the sun.
iveitirE. me hcre was love and life and
I wouldn't exchange.
Chapter 5. The Tady Lives.
One January morning long ago I stood on the
Vnoll in front of the is.y ::OWO and looked down the long
drive way with its great gnarled walnut trees flanking
each side. The
sun dancing and
i;1e night.
whole world was aglisten with the morning
shining on the frost that had fallen in
I walked down the Walnut Lane past a friendly
country store, followed a zizzag rail fence that seemed
to be uncertain as to shore it should end. I came to a
little white school house that opened its arms and took
me in. It has held me ever since.
recall the first day in my new school.
the envirament was better than in my former position.
-o was salary Tehicin. wao thirt7 five dollars a month
with ten dollars a month bonrd.
'A‘) rertrfltiO1 for m7 board was out of keeping
with the laden table I sat down to.
Hors
It was a large old
fashioned double deck table. The part of the table that
bold the service ras of course stationary while the part
that held the food would spin around in a most convonient
wri for serving.
while the Cross "Keys school was only a one
roam school it was the oust= of those in charge to provide

the school with cultured and capable teachers. Here I found
anbitious children whose parents encouraged then to become
fitted for High School in nearby towns. Nearly all the
children in the school had older brothers and sisters away
in college.
Most of the families owned their awn homes
nnc-. lived well and corri_fortably which made for a pleasant
social atmosphere.
1441ny of the social activities centered around
old dcwtts Creek Church net hed been sheltering and
toning the people 'or one hundred and fifty years.
Its (luiet c}lurchyard. was the resting niece of
the forbears of these kindly people who met each Sunday
to worshir under the guidance of their old pastor who had
led them for over forty ::ears. After services there would
be a period of visiting together there in the Church and
on the grounds.
Friends and kinfolks asking about each others
Ilenith act. Then you were invited to go hone with none one
for dinner. It was very nice and friendly.
On Sunday afternoons tIle beaus of the place
would take the young ladies to drive, it was before the
day of the automobile so every young man tried to have a
stylish turnout consisting of a high narrow buggy and
fast steppina horse.
first Sunday afternoon in Cross eys was
cl:Amod by the 7etule son in the home where I was boarding.
As we drove over the pretty country roads and lanes the
young man pointed out the Key House, his mother's old home

and asked me how I would like to live there. It was lovely
so said, why anyone would like that lovely old place".
r.0 said, I'm glad to hear that because I expect you'll live
there". It struck me that young men in the country lost no
time but I accepted the remark as a joke but it turned out
to be a prophesy, for thirty three years later I'm still
here in the old Fey House made dear to me with its rich
memories of other days and ef m7 own memories.
n+1-ier aetivIties in a social way my first winter
in Cross 14ys were Tuesday night Choir practice, Wednesday
night prayer meeting and the gay parties the young folks
had on Saturday night. Sometimes the party would be a
square dame, sometimes a pound party or a candy pulling.
In summer we enjoyed pienies„ strawrides or
water melon slicing, All of it good wholesome fun.
The ,eople of Cross Faye have always taken their
politics seriously so much ado is made over their campaign
meetings and barbecues.
Ay first winter in Cross *treys passed very
pleasantly. had been busy and happy in my sohool duties
and had been asked to accept the school again.
In the spring I was married to William Claude Wilburn,
son of lerney erd way, whitmire 1Ilburn.
The people whom I had 001116 among and grown to
love had in return loved me so they seemed glad that "Miss Bess"
was really one of them and would stay on with them.
We lived with my husband's parents. He was the
overseer of his father's plantation which worked a large
force of negro hands. I stayed busy with my school duties

then in the srring of 1907 I went home to await the coming
of our son.
Wm. Claude Wilburn Jr was born on taster 6unday
morning.
7e started housekeeping at the old Gregory place.
A leverl it there, the wird swept hill, the friendly old
house with its big open fireplaces, the old apple trees
sifting their snowy retals dowr or the tender green grass,
old ut:unt" TISS9 at the wash plaes under tbe cedars with
her white clothes flapping on the line. Claude out in
the freshly plowed fields Pnd our little son playing under
the hip: oak tree with his dot" and white rabbits. The white
nr-oors firi rourd the lote with wtr s glistening in
the SUL like streaks of silver. I was happy on the hill
baking and brewing and making a home.
her my son was four or five years of age I
rent back to tbe school room and he with me. From this
point Y really date my teaching career. Heretofore teaching
was erely a mechanical process but now it was quite different.
7 net only tau7ht with heart ard mind but I think 17 put
some of ry soul in it.
"ach dry WRS a rer day ,o do something fine in,
something different in, something to 7 -eke ft child happy.
That was a lonc tinie ago. The little boy who
trotted along by my side is a man grown, doing a manta work
but his mother still walks tat roe facing each day with
hl.rb resolve to lielr Flora child find its "lace.
Two other little sets of fingers have held on
to mine down that road, the two little girls whose mothers

God called home have shared my heart and homes I pray God
that I have not been found wanting.
If I have some measure of success in my profession
not all the credit is duo me. I have tried to be the best
teacher I could be, I've kept abreast of the times, I've
read good books, I've traveled some, bought professional
books and had professional training when I could get it.
"The best gift is part of the giver". If that be true
I have made my people here in Grose Meys a true gift
because part of myself is truly given to my work.
In return they have given me love and confidence
and without either T could not have gone on and on with
high courage and brave heart They have made it easy for me.
Through the years I have shared with them, their
joys and their sorrows. I have taught children of the
children I taught. This year I am teaching the lovely
little prendauqhter of a former pupil, and when she slips
her little arms around my neck to kiss me goodby I think
how good God has been, Three generations kissing ma goodbye
in the same school roam. Yes, I have been a most fortunate
woman.
Together we have had sorrowful days. When
Sarah Ella 'Stevens tried to make her little death chilled
fingers write her name as she lay gasping for breath.
Tha day Ray Stevens who had gone so far(into that Happy
Land) called back, "7(iiss Bess, I see Grandma. I'll tell
her I made my grade". P's V113 tired little heart stopped
I looked down at the grief stricken father kneeling by
his oldest son's death bed and thought of the mother lying

so desperately ill back at home. X had been the father's
teacher, the son's teacher so who else could %ewe share
teir grief so fittingly? Sometimes T'm called upon to
share their troubles too.
There was the time I went to the Death house
end saved poor under priviledged Roy from electrocution.
The kind and good man who was the Governor listened to my
rlon nrd srered his life. Today Roy walks among his friends
a free man.
The path we trod together isn't always rough.
It rune through pleasant places often. aometimes its a
young friend who is going to be married and needs helpful
advice or a young man who is going out to seek his fortune,
a little old lady who needs a steady hand to guide her
faltering steps, a young mother who wants a glad weloome
for the new baby or a little child that needs to be led.
Or just a companion who needs a word of encouragement.
Always I give of myself and so
A star has risen in my heart
To light a path to God.
It is of His being a part,
o mulde VI() WR7 Where saints have trod.
It rays shine out and all about
On footsteps weary and slow
On happy feet of children sweet
As aeavenly the onward go.
Dear God may my star shine on,
Showing me the way afar,

Till at last I ease with tasks well done
To His gates standing ajar.
I have seen the Cross Keys sehool grow from
a one teacher sehool to three. The salaries of the
teachers increased from thirty five to one hundred
dollnrs. our building had been added on to but was old
ar inadequate. I have never allowed the condition of
the building or the mall salaries to effect my teaching
or interest. I tried harder to make the place more
attractive and comfortable.
Tnst wear the Trustees, the Supt. of Ed. and
the Goverment planned a new building for the Cross Keys
sehool. T watched the tearing down of the old school
house with mixed emotions. It held many memories for me
as a young girl young wife and mother, teacher and friend.
with my people we had loved and learned and lived in it.
While the new building was under eonstruotion
we went up on the wind swept hill where I first kept house
and as I watched the children running in and out of my
old home my thoughts went back to the days when my little
son played there with his dogs and white rabbits.
Sometimes I'd see a flash of silver streak aeross the sky
and I would think it was the flash of one of the pigeons
wings but the pigeons are long since gone and the streak
of sliver I snw was onl sunitaht on the wings of an
airplane high up over my old home.
me have moved into our new school house.
It is a modern brick building, warm and comfortable,

equipped with modern fixtures. In the basement there is
eniztif1)1 dtrinp room where hot lunch is served each
day. A school bus transports the pupils to and from school.
see Akpry children filling the halls and passing on
into the beautif01 school roams where everything is done
to make them happy and useful.
I sea an efficient and helpful Supervisor
coming in to bring us new ideas and to encourage us.
I see happy children with their teachers go down to dinner,
ten on out to a modern play ground, and then I think, at
last, I have reached my goal.
nut have I? T think not.
Tomorrow when I walk out the door of the old Key Rouse,
rhich is now my well loved home, stand on the knoll and
look up the road through the old 7alnut lane, there
see ner7 Or17 ti-ree or four of the old trees are
left. They had to give way for the fine new highway.
The old chestnut rail fence lust wandered off long ago,
the country store has had its face lifted and is trimmed
all over with electric gee dnds and is now a modern hussy
with painted face.
The little white school house is gone and a
beautiful new brick building stands with proud insolence
lust as if it had always been there, but I know better.
I remember the little white ore that opened
its arms to a young girl thirty three years a7o and
took her to its heart so tomorrow I shall walk up the road
open ny arms to that new school house 80 young and
inexperienced, take it to my heart and help make it the

hest plaee in the worAl,in which to live nrrl love and
learn.
AndI wouldnizehange.