Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-05-01
THE PRESTONS AND HAMP-
TONS,
Interesting FamiIy Romiaisccpoe,


there, surrounded on three sides by high
brick wall, and in front by an ornaments
iron fence with marble pillars at each
corner9n l inquired of citizen.
cob, that's old General Prestons and
is said TO be the finest laid off grounds in
the South. There's whole square or
four acres of it and all inside is every
kind of shrubbery that you could think of
with gravel and shell walks running all
among it."
'Does Preston live there HIMSELF"
eyes, considerably, but l believe he
spends most of his time in Europe. Has
got considerable money invested there in
one way and another. He prophesied
that the war would come up long time
before it did, and SO TO be on the safe side
he sold most of his niggers, and invested
his money in Europe
What relation is he TO the Hamptons9"
"Why, you see, he married daughter
of old Col. Wade Hampton, who was the
father of the present Wade Hampton,
and his father-in-law being very rich, gave
him this fine property that we've been
speaking of.
60 The old original Preston of all Of
them came here years and years ago.
He was from Virginia, and was on his
way to Florida TO get cured of the con-
sumption. He was a young man then
about twenty years old, and travelling
along towards Florida, he passed through
here, and concluded to stop, as he liked
the climate. He went 20 school here
awhile, married and settled down. About
that time old General Wade Hampton,
who had been Colonel in the Revolu-
tiOnay War, settled here, raised a large
family, and got rich. Preston also gotrich,
and the families afterwards became con-
nectad by marriage. They owned great
many plantations, and kept getting richer
andricher until the war come up. Ofcourse
they all went with the South, and many
of them lost nearly all of their property.
General Wade Hampton owned a very
costly residence just out of town, which
the Yankees burned up. Ornamenting
the grounds around his house alone cost
him sixty thousand dollars. Now, all
his fine shrubbery are turned out and the
ruins look bad enough. On top of the
war come lot of security debts, and the
General had to take the benefit of the
bankrupt law. They say he Is now get
ting started again in Mississippi, and will |
come out right side up.
"The Hamptons and Wades are great |
workers. You may make them poor,
but they won't stay poor. Wade has one
brother in Mississippi, believe, who is
very rich. Besides being rich, they are
all popular meu, and if it hadn't been for
the war, there's no telling what the two
families would have come to. They
would have owned the State after awhile.
But they were very much set back during
the war, and some of them killed. ThOs.
Hampton, son of the present Wade
Hampton, was killed in Virginia when he
was only twenty-one years old. His re-
mains were brought home, and passed
right along the street, followed by over a
hundred of his negroes, most of them
CRYING, for they loved their young mas
ter. This was in the fall of-i664. The
following February here come Sherman
with fire aud sword, and destroyed a
great deal of property belonging to the
two families, so that they were crushed
by all kinds of misfortunes. 1t was all
that could be done to keep the army from
burning that fine house that we were
speaking of. But they left it, and that's
about all they did leave"
There are several graveyards in and
about Columbia, belonging TO different
churches, and in one of them are the
graves of the Hampton and Preston fam
lilies all in one corner, and partially to
themselves. Finely wrought marble slabs
are over them all, upon which is engraved
the name and date of death. The insa-
tate Reaper has been at work among
these great families, for side by side re-
pose the ashes of some twenty-five or
thirty of them.
They are fighting stock, for one of the
oldest tombstones bears this inscription:
''Gen. Wade Hampton, Colonel in the
Revolutionary War, and Major General
in the war of 1912. Died in Columbia,
Feb. 4, 1885, aged eighty-three years.
Another, but recently erected, has this
inscription:
Lieutenant Thomas Preston Hampton,
son of Gen. Wade and Margaret Hamp-
ton, born Nov. 90, 1S43, killed in battle,
near Petersburg, Va, Oct q, 1864"
Upon this tomb was lying large wreath
of flowers, but the warm April sun had
partially faded them, and they were fast
dying. Like the body under the slab,
they had been cut down in the spring
time of life, just as they were blooming
into fragrance and beauty. Young Hamp-
ton fell when he lacked but few days of
reaching mans estate, which makes his
death all the more sad. Death is cruel
monster, any time; but when be cuts down
tke young, buOyant and hopeful, be seems
doubly so.
The Hamptons and Prestons all es-
housed the cause of the South when the
struggle began, and considering their loca-
ton and interests, il is but justice TO say
that such course upon their part was
natural. That they were in earnest, and
not adjusted by selfish motives, let their
deeds testify; when the die was cast and
the battle came, they were not found
Sinking.
The families are both very popular
with the negroes; their old servants will
not leave them, but remain as faithful to
their interests as before the war. Wade
Hampton is as staunch a friend to the
negro as lie can be, and remains in the
Democratic party, and he always be
friends them, both in pIblic and private,
when occasion demands. The negroes
appreciate his noble stand in their behalf,
and am not sure but that he would
make melancholy inroads into the ranks
of the Loyal League, if he should rue for
an Office. There is no danger of that,
however, as he is too busily engaged in
irving to build up his shattered fortunes,
10 go into politics. Nevertheless, as loudly
as we may shrek "Rebel " and lash our
selves into fury over the misdeeds of the
great families of the South, on sober,
second thought, it is evident that it would
he better for the colored people, better
for the State and better for the nation, to
have Wade Hampton in Congress rather
than Cadet Whittemore; at ell events il
would save the Republican party some
disgrace, which is desirable. When 4
comes TO such men as Whittemore, the
party might cry out with one of Old
"Oh, deliver me from my friends J"
AVERY.
SEVERAL thousand persons were presen