Document text
A
WPA L. C. PROJECT UNIT
Form -3
W11048
Date received
/o// o e"
Consignment no.
Shipped from
AVase-d.
Label
Amount
Place of on
Project worker
Project
Remarks
Collection (or Type)
Project 1885-1
Folklore
Spartanburg, Dist .4
Jan. 12, 1938
314M
REMINISCENCES
Edited by:
Elmer Turnage
"At Christmas times during the Civil War, people in Union did
not have luxuries, at all. Union was only a vi lage, and the stores
did not carry much at bst. Charleston was blocked, and even Spartan-
burg which was not much larger than Union at that time did not carry
luxuries in her stores, either in food or wearing apparel.
"Those who had money could not buy, for(itivas not to be had.
Everybody had to use parched wheat, parched okra seed or parched raw
sweet potato chips for coffee. .Not even tea came in. We used sassa-
fras aria other native herb teas both daily and at parties when the
herb teas were in season. Some were good, but the substitute coffee
was not. The darlies cut the potatoes up into small squares and
parched them in the coffeeparcher. This coffee needed no sugar, out
for other things we used sorghum for sugar and it was a poor substi-
tute. I liked the okra seed better than any of the coffee substitutes.
"Women of the South think that the cereal companies got their
idea from them for making the many cereals which are on the market.
Before the war, cereals like grapenuts and wheat flakes were unknown.
"We had plenty of food during the war. The woods were dense and
they were full of wild animal life, and the streams were full of fish.
On Christmas the dinner tables were weighted down with turkey and
other wild fouls and many delicacies from the garden, field or stream.
No one ever thought of not enjoying the cof ee and tea. If sugar was
missed it was never mentioned. Even the darkies boasted of the fine
coffee and tea b.rewn,rom the .herbs and wheat.
"Beautiful clothes were rare during the war. Most folks had to
go back to the loom and spinning wheel of Revolutionary times.
W11048
Reminiscences 2
Saab
Of course the age of 1800 ushered in a new era in dress, and by
the time the Confederate war came along, women wore gorgeous silks
and satins, and in those days it took many yards of cloth for a dress.
"However, during the war we my sister ant I did not have
to resort to coarse homespun cloth for our clothes. A man, Mr.
William Keenan, who built the house where Mrs. T.C. Duncan now lives,
was a merchant. He went out of business and my mother bought four
trunks full of silks, satins, brocades and linens from him about this
time, which was at the outbreak of the war. Mother had thews trunks
stored in our attic in the house where Mrs. J. Clough Wallace now
lives. That is the Meng house. Little girls could sewldaintly, at
the age of twelve in those days. They thought nothing of doing a
tedious piece of needle work or hand embrodiery at that age. Believer,
Union had a dress maker at that time, a Mrs. Prasier.
'Mother, my sister and I made our clothes from the things in
those trunks. We only made new clothes at Christmas time during the
war, and the materials in the trunk lasted. One thing that I had to
do when I was twelve years old was to wear wool stockings. One warm
Sunday I was walking to church and my stockings scratched my legs.
I stopped and pulled them down below my knees. My sister told mother
what I Stopped for. Mother made me pull them up again and scolded me
severely. Ske thought that I had stopped to tie the lace of my boots.
My dresses came way down below my boot tops and I wore my hair be-
low my waist. In those days people weighted themselves down with a
lot of clothes.
"Two families in Union had beautiful thihgs until near the
close of the war and they were the St. Ammid and John Rogers family.
Both Mt. Rogers and Mt. St. Amend were bloigo runners. Mr. St.
Amand used to bring his little daughter, Georgianna, gingham that 1
2
Reminiscences
3
cost $60 a yard. Mrs. Frasier would make her dresses for her. Mr.
John Rogers brought his wife a pair of boots from Charleston that
he gals $58 for.
Itmrs. Frasier also sewed for the Rogers. Once she, Mrs. irasier,
had a dress of MagLish homespun with the most beautiful stripes that
I ever saw. Mr. Rogers brought the material to her the third Christ-
mas of the war. Eleven years later when I was a bride I was in Phil-
adelphia and I went in Wannamaker's and was looking at some home-
spun and saw a piece exactly like that that Mrs. Frasier had had ih
Union during the Confederate War. I have never seen a piece of
homespun so beautiful since.
*During the war Union was as gay on the sumface as ever. When
the soldiers came home on furlough, wounded, maimed and filthy, the
women took them and cleaned them up, patched their ragged clothes
and had parties and dances for them. The women of Union could and
did dance and sing and make merry with aching and bleeding hearts
to keep up the spirits and courage of their men folks who came home
so discouraged and blue in the face of defeat. The Union soldiers
outnumbered ours four to one toward the last. Women in Union did
everything. They never gave up and they never stopped making much
with nothing.
*During the time that Sherman was on his famous march through
the Carolinas, the train often went no farther down than Alston. The
train's return to Union from Alston was an event when everybody in
the town went to the station to hear the news. Our gate was a triple
gate. There was a large gate for the carriages to go through and a
pedestrain gate on each side of the carriage gate. Mother went to
the gate when the train stopped. The gate was only about 50 yards
from the tback where the Irain stopped. The train still stops that
near the drive entrance. The soldiers or the train crew would always
Reminiscences _... 4
tell mother the news while the
much longer than it takes now.
*The day that Fort Sumter
and back. Mother went down to
heard the news and cane in the
body went to the Hix house for
engine was being refueled, which took
surrendered the train went to Alston
the gate as the train pulled in. She
house rejoicing. That night every
a dance. Mother shouted with joy
when she came from the train and went into her house."
Source: Mrs. Ida Baker, E. Main St., Union, S.C.
Interviewer: Caldwell Sias, Union, S.C. (11/10/37)