Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1861-02-02
MISCELLANY.
From the Charleston Courier.
The Old Field School


The Old Field School.
Many readers of the Courier will rccog-
nize in their own experience many points of
faithful description in the extracts we give
from the Due West Telescope
j. 5. r., who we may venture to guess
is j. S. Presley, describes "An Old Field
School as it was fifty years ago
The exercises of school opened and closed
every day by prayer, albeit, the teacher was a
plain farmer. Upon the arrival of dinner
time the following order was observed We
all took down our dinners, sat composcdly,
and asccrtained whose turn it was to ask
blessing, which was alternately performed by
the boys who were deemed 10 have attained
sufficient age. We avalcd ourselves of
form which we found in the spelling book
1t was in these words: "Sanctify we beseech
Thee, o, Lord, these creatures to our use, aud
ourselves to Thy service, for Christ's sake
Amen" 1t is scarcely necessary to add that
formancc of this duty.
The scholastic year consisted of Twelve
months. Lost time was invariably "made
up" The rates of tuition were seven shil-
lings'' per quarter, (sl,5o) of sixty-6ve
school days.
When student desired water, he had to
take in his hand small stick, previously pre-
pared and fixed at the door for the purpose,
which we called the Porter" This was to
prevent more than one going out at the same
time.
While some things then were more in uni
son with vital piety, they were not all so. We
have now more immediate reference to the
manner in which we acted the last day of the
school. The young men and boys generally,
who had reached competent age-say some
fifteen ycars-were expected to furnish bot
tie of whiskey or brandy. At the closing
scene these bottles were presented to the
scholars, (tho term, student, was one for
which we had not much use in those days.
arranged in form somewhat similar to that
of the military company portrayed in the
!" Georgia Scenes"
Then beginning at number one, the bottle
was passed round in manner previously de-
scribed, " drinking each others health -
Sometimes they disrogarded this formalty,
and drank promiscuously. 1t was not at all
uncommon. on those occasions, for some of
the Juvenile urchins, rather verdant in this
kind OF discipline, to become quite tight"
Having " wet both eyes," and taken " the
stirrup DRAM" our preceptor would call upon
Sam Porter, Esq, or some other one of the
employers" to close by prayer. This done,
after reciprocating the most cordial adicu to
our school-mates, we mutually repaired to our
respective homes. And now, what sudden
desolation of Cupid's doings were realized -
In a moment, as it were, all the chains, and
cords, and lgamcnts, which he had been du-
ring the year assduously forging, were now
discovered. To this rule however, there is
reason to conclude there are once in while
some exceptions.
a desire to know the locality of the school
we have been describing, may, perchance, be
awakened in the minds of some of our read
ers. Let them know, then, it was no semi
barbarian region, where the Sun of Science
neverrose 45 degrees above the horizon No;
it was no other than Abbeville District, the
birthplace of John G. Calhoun, John Geddes,
James l.. Pctigru, Langdon Cheves, (who in
our opinion, though we may be mistaken. was
born near to Wardlaw's Bridge, OH Little
River,) Patrick Noble, David L. Wardlaw,
Chancellor Wartllaw, Col. George Bowie,
Judge Alexander Bowie, and several minis
ters of the Gospel, some of whom are deemed
to rank above a mere mcdiocrity. To be
somewhat more specific, its locality might al
most be inferred by describing it as the place
whittier almost, if not all, the candidates for
popular favor resort, the year of the general
elections, to solicit the sufrages of the cleo
tors of the progress of the annual camp meet
mgs held there. At the time of the writer's
recollection, there was not, at that place, any
provision for public worship. In process of
time, there was small house erected, chiefly,
it is believed, through the agency of Charles
Bowie, called Bowic's Meeting House," but
for the last twenty-five or thirty years, it has
been known by the name of Smyrna"
OF the number of pupils of which this
school was composed, two of them were col
ored persons-a boy and girl, The former
was known by the appellative Dick" and
the latter by that of d" Jude" They did not
during school hours, commingIe with the
white scholars; they did, however, during
the time allotted to recreation. They had
each stool, on which they sat during study
hours. Neither of them displayed much in
tellect. It's, however, due to Dick to say
chat, in somo respects, he exhibited consid-