Document text
Accession no.
WPA L. C. PROJECT UNIT
Form -3
1024
Date received
Consignment no.
Shipped from
,g‘laa-4
Label
Amoupt
JP
Title 71/
Collection (or Type)
Place of origin,
Project worker
Project editor
-Date /e7A"/37-
3%.1j23-3_
Edited by:
Elmer Turnage
Project 1885-1
?olklore
Spartanburg, Dist .4
Oct. 19, 1937
KU KLUX STORIEp_
4'12. tap
"In 1872 the negroes made a raid to take Union, but the
day was saved by the Ku Klux Klan.
"Out where the the Monarch Mill now stands there lived a
!bad woman'. She was the only immoral woman in Union at that time.
Mr. Moultrie Gibbs had come to town in his buggy and had started
back home. He stopped at a !blind tiger', where the Union Times
office is now located, and purchased some liquor. He then drove on
and stopped at the woman's house. He stayed so long that his horse
got tired of waiting for him and went back home, When he came out,
he saw that his horse had gone and he thought the Ku Klux had taken
it. He lived fourteen miles away and had no way to get home. He went
back to the town of Union and spent the night.
"The next day when he got home, he found that the horse had
gone safely home and. stopped the buggy under the shed where it always
stayed. His overseer thinking that he had fallen out of the buggy,
had sent out to look for him. Everything that M. Gibbs had bought
was in the buggy. Nobody knows how the horse and empty buggy escaped
being taken into custody by the Ku Klux or captured by the maurading
negroes.
"The above mentioned woman also ran a 'blind tiger' and I
suppose she was the fin:A woman in Union to ever run one, or maybe
the first woman in public business in Union.
"Anyway, the negroes thought they could overcome the white
folks b the aid of their devilish car 'et -bag and scalawag leaders.
Seventeen negroes went to Mr. John McKissickts house to rob him, or
W 10243
Ku Klux Stories Page 2
at least they had started there. They stopped at Upper Fairforest
church which was built of logs. There they decided to go and kill
one of the Belue men who lived nearer the church than Mt. McKissick.
While they were hemming and hawing about which house they should go
to first, they continued beyond the church into a thick woods.
"In the woodland, the mountain people hid liquor which had
revenue stamps on it. The liquor, of course, was brought down from
North Carolina. A one -arm man named Matt Stevens was employed to
haul the liquor into town. He used a one-horse wagon in which he
kept straw to hide the liquor. Mr. Stevens and a Mr. Robinson were
bringing in a wagon -load of liquor to Union to deliver on this oc-
casion. In these woods they met two of the seventeen negroes. They
demanded the liquor. Mt. Robinson ran but Mr. Stevens stayed in the
wagon. Seventeen shots were fired at Mr. Robinson but he got safely
behind the church, and some of the bullets sank into the logs near
him. Mr. Robinson ran on and tried to jump over a rail fence. One of
the negroes shot at him, so he pretended he had been hit and fell to
the ground.
"The negroes thinking Yr. Robinson had been killed, return-
ed to Mr. Stevens and killed him. They then killed his mule and drank
all the whiskey they wanted and bursteo the kegs. Robinson got near,
enough to the negroes after they were drunk to see who they were. He
made' his way through the woodland over the rough country to the court-
house in Union by four o'clock the next morning.
"Mr. Robinson reported the tragedy and told who the negroes
were; then went to the hotel to rest. Here, he told some members of the
Ku Klux Klan what had happened.
Ku Kltix Stories Page 3
"Phillip Dunn was the sheriff at that time and the deputy was
a brother of Matt Stevens. The officers found the negroes 1.::oking for
Robinson in the woods and they brought all of them to jail. (The jail
then was the same one which i. there now.) The courthouse was a stone
structure situated where the present one is.
"After the negroes were brought to jail, the Ku Klux went
and asked ior the keys. The sheriff and deputy went away leaving the
keys behind. Of course, the Klansmen got the keys and went to wthere
the negroes were and got them. They carried the keys back and placed
them on the nail from which they had been taken. The negroes were
carried to the hanging ground and hung to a big old hickory tree.
"Dr. Wallace Thompson pleaded for the life of one of the
negroes, Jim hardy, and he was not hung. He told of plans to kill
every old and young white man and all the old white women in both
Union and Chester Counties. They were going to capture the young
white women. Jim was never killed an he stuck to the good white
people until his death. A biggety negro in the bunch was buried alive
at the hanging ground, and then his body was taken up and allowed to
freeze on top of the ground. so many bullets were fireu into the big
hickory that it soon died.
"After Jim told his story, the Ku Klux went from Union to
join those in Chester. On this trip they did not go disguised. Robert
'LlcCreight, a brother of mine, guarded Turkey Creek Bridge between
Chester and Union until they got back.
"Mien the Ku Klux from both counties got to that bridge,
they got all °I the negroes they could from both sides and killed
them and dammed up the stream with their bodies. Getts Jeter, a cruel
blacksmith, was killed at this bridge. A placard with the following
Ku Klux stories Page 4
words was tied on his chest and he was left lying on top of a pile
of the dead for everybody to read it: tAs a rule, big rails lie on
the bottom; now, big rail lie's on top'. Later, his body was put up
on a rail fence where all could see it.
"MY brother told of a Chester boy who had a 'Winchester
rifle and helped in the search for the negroes. Every time that boy
shot, he killed a negro. The Ku klux set fire to a house where some
negroes were taking refuge. Every time a negro ran out of the house,
he was shot. Some of them were burned alive. Some of the older fellows
wanted to borrow that boy's Winchester, but he Would not give it up.
All the others had old breech -loaders and muzzle guns.
"Some of the Ku Klux in Union were cleaning up the negroes
here. When this trouble was over, there was no more trouble with the
negroes in Union and Cheater. When my brother got back to Turkey
Creek he pitched his gun into the creek and went on to his home near-
by. He said that he haa no more use for tnat 8un.
"The Yankees who had the 3t,,te government in charge tried
to give trouble. ,y brother came back to Union and went out to Sardis
where he stayed with mother and kept himself in seclusion. 'other and
I lived together and I had an older brother who lived in York County.
Le was wounded in the Confederate army. He did not belong to the Ku
Klux. About this time he came to see mother and he wanted to take me•
back home with him. The Yankees thought he was my older brother,
Robert, and ,.ot after him. He then joined the Lu Klux and went to the
Blue 2idge 1.ountains, after he had killed a Yankee and a carpetbagger
or two. In the mountains he sold his two horses. He kept )25 and sent
the balance of the money back to his cousin in York by a trusty negro.
The negro delivered the money and the Yankees never knew about it.
Ku Klux Stories Page 5
He wrote to mother, but he did not sign his name. A long time passed,
and after the State was out of the carpetbag rule, he wrote us that
he was living in Mississippi and dping web.. he told us that he had
redeemed land owned by our cousin, Sam LcCreight, Jr. He married a
Mississippi lady. In la7 he came back to Union County and bought
ind at Sardis.. A,fter a few years, Lis wife and children became ill
and wanted to go back to their native state. He carried them back to
Mississippi where they are buried.
"I live with my brother's son, Sam, who was named for my
brother in Mississippi. A cotton mill marks the site on Sandy River
in Chester County where the Klan used to meet in an old house hidden
by vegetation. Jails were filled with fine white men whom the Yankees
thought were members of the Ku Klux Klan. Of course, the Ku Klux
turned them out and the Yankees quieted down and went back to where
they came from when they saw they could not down us. No, the Yankees
never did conuer us and they never will. We are victorious."
Source: Hr. David A. McCreight (79, Ninety -Six, S.C.
Interviewer: Caldwell Sims, Union, S.C. (9/20/37)