Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-03-13
A REMARKABLE MAN.

many elderly persons, noted not only Tor the
longevity they have attained, but also for re-
markable characteristics. Not the least nota
BILE of the long list we might enumerate, is
Mr.. Abraham Hardin, who lives near W'hita-
ker Station, on the Airline Railroad.
Mr. Hardin was born on. the 22nd Of June,
1889, on the line between Lincoln and Ruther-
ford counties, near Patterson's Springs, in
what is now Cleveland county, N. c.. Descend
ed from Revolutionary stock, and born soon
after the close of the war; while a youth he
was contemporaneous with many of the actors
in the struggle for American Independence,
and from their own lips heard the narrative of
the thrilling events of that memorable time.
These stories, as handed down to him by the
participants in. the events which eliminated
in giving birth to Nation, are still fresh in
his remarkably retentive memory; and his re-
cital of them are entertaining and instructive,
not only to the younger people, who are fire.
quently his delighted listeners, but alike in
teresting are they to the student of history.
His description of the manners and customs
of the people, and the prevailing fashions of
male and female attire in his youthful days,
are heard by many All incipient belle and beau
of the present time with wonder and astonish-
ment. To Mr.. Hardin, Dr. Hunter, Of Lin
coin county, n c., is indebted for much Of
the valuable information contained in his His
tory of the Heroes Of Kings Mountain. 40"
At the period Of Mr. Hardin's boyhood
days, the facilities for obtaining an education
were limited, and he derived the benefit of
only about twelve months schooling, which
he received in broken terms, in the simplest
rudimentary branches. ~
In the year 1909, having attained the age of
twenty, he entered the struggle Of life upon
his own account. First, he engaged himself
to carpenter, in whose employ he remained
for short while, and being of a quick, me-
chanical turn, he rapidly became skillful
workman in wood, in which occupation he
still takes delight, having, within the past
month, made and finished a bureau, which, in
point of workmanship, will compare favorably
with any cabinet work of the present day.
We have already alluded to his retentive MEM
ory, and in this connection it would be proper
to refer to his unimpaired eyesight.. At his
advanced age of ninety years, he works with.
out glasses, and can join woodwork almost
perfectly; while with his rifle he can draw as
fine bead on squirrel as a sportsman of
twenty.
During his apprenticeship with the carpen-
ter above referred to, Mr. Hardin unfortu-
nately fell in with the skeptics of that period,
and the popular books-such as the works of
Tom Paine and Others-with which the youth
full mind was poisoned, afforded his literary en-
tertainment, and soon he became unconscious
ly believer in the detested doctrine inculca-
ted by Paine and his colaborers To the de-
lusive and fatal teachings Of this infidel au-
thor, he was convert, until on one occasion
he heard sermon by a Christian divine ex=
posing the fallacy and speciousness, not to
say the enormity, of Paine's doctrines. The
scales fell from his eyes. He saw his error,
and within year after hearing the sermon, he
made profession of religion, connecting him
self with the Baptist Church at Buffalo, in
August, 1872.
In 1914, the Baptist Church at Antioch was
constituted on which occasion Mr.. Hardin
was chosen for one of the deacons in which
capacity he has regularly served the church
from that date to the present time-a period
OF SlXty-nVe consecutive years. ... ....
During the same year in which he was made
an officer in the church, he also received the
appointments of commissioner Of free schools
and of the poor for York county, the duties
of which positions he discharged satisfac-
torily to the people and with credit to himself.
About this time, mechanics not being album
dant in his section, and there being anecessity
~, INV, cd OFT
tion to blacksmithing. His native skill and
industry soon rendered him an expert at the
anvil, and besides the ordinary work pertain
ing to blacksmith, he also acquired the art
of making bells. From this circumstance, he
subsequently, while member of the South
Carolina Legislature, obtained the sobriquet
of the "Old Bell-maker of York"
Mr.. Hardin having been close student,
considering the opportunities afforded at the
time, and having taste for mathematics, ap-
piled himself, while yet young man, to the
study of surveying. In this, as in everything
else he undertook, he rapidly became proficient,
and it has been claimed that as surveyor
none in that profession, in this section Of the
country. have excelled him. He has surveyed
and resurveyed all the lands for miles around
him, and he can locate from memory the boun-
daries of nearly every tract he has surveyed.
He is now frequently called upon to locate old
or disputed lines, and he yet surveys when So
licited. Only few weeks ago he surprised
party Of young persons with whom he was en-
gagged in surveying body of land, by walking
the entire distance for making observations,
and showing no more signs of fatigue than
any of his companions. .-.
About the year 1920 he was appointed a
Justice of the peace; and if all accounts be
true, he was a justice in the strictest sense OF
the word. He has ever been peace-maker,
both in and out Of the church. In the official
capacity of magistrate, he regularly segEed un-
til the beginning of the late war-a period of
forty years-and during this time was instru-
mental, i'll almost numberless instances, in
amicably adjusting difficulties, disputes and
misunderstanding to the satisfaction of the
litigant parties. If his administration of JUS
tice partook more of the patriarchal than the
judicial form, it cannot be denied that it was
not without it's beneficial results in the COM
munity, summarily ending the chickering's en-
gendered by litigation beginning before JUS
tice of the peace and too frequently ending in
the State Supreme Court.
In 1886, Mr.. Hardin was elected to the Cen
eral Assembly and served as a legislator from
York for three terms, or until 1912. Straight
forward, honest and without guile, unused to
the politicians art of the present day, he was,
if not as brilliant as some of his contempora-
ries, representative South Carolina law
maker Of the old school, having at heart only