Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-02-14
straps IT gutal Aisturp
"REMINISCENCES. OF YORK
BY DIR. MAURICE A. MOORE.
From the Yorkville Enquirer, 1870.

BY DIR. MAURICE A. MOORE.
From the Yorkville Enquirer, 1870.
Institutions of education grew up with
such rapidity in our State during the fifteen
or twenty wears prior to our late civil war,
that we almost felt as if the power of Alad-
din's lamp had been elected to rear the
piles. whose halls are those of learning.
With such facilities for the requirement OF
knowledge and accomplishments on every
hand, it is very hard to realize the difficult
ties which lay in the way of obtaining even
common-school course, at the close. of the
last century.
The latent ferocity of the animal man
seems never, except in civil war, to culmi-
nate in its cruelty. We read the record OF
his crimes in history, and shudder to know
our natures may be so abused. The Tories
of the Revolutionary.war with q sense OF
hatred ever sharpening their thirst for every
petty injury possibi&fso visit on the patrl-
OTIS, destroyed books wherever they found
them, full well knowing how irreparable
was the loss to their possessors. Even
when by some unWonted pity they spared
the home-roof, the precious feather-bed was
ripped up, and its contents scattered by
the four winds of heaven; other articles OF
household comfort and all provisions, print
ed volumes and papers, were committed to
the flames. No matter if it were the
"Book of Books" still more refined was the
cruelty. No pleading of the helpless Wo-
man would avail to save the volume, whose
inspired word taught her to "sing songs in
the night"
BOYS who were not able to bear the hard
ships of camp-life and the burden of days
march with the clumsy musket sustained
part little less severe at home. Striving,
with earnest effort, to fill the absent fathers
place, they helped their mothers till the soil
as best they might, with the rude imple;;
ments of husbandry they could procure and
devise. In spite of these difficulties, the
virgin soil yielded a subsistence for them
selves and the younger children, with spare
morsel, now and then, to share with those
on whom harder lot might fall. The de:
voted women of those times were compelled
to plough and spin, brew and bake, and no
bly, did they perform their mission. But
work done, there was no spare hour Tor I'M
parting the little book-knowledge they
might have to the children, who were Wea-
ried, too, i'm their round Of allotted tasks.
1t required incessant toll for daily bread and
garb to cheat cold wind. Twas wisely SO
ordained for this ordering of Providence
kept them alive to the powers that were IN
them, and sustained them whereas, II they
had indulged in one moments idleness, they
would have faltered and fallen.
Thus, when the struggle ended, the victo-
rious backWOodsmen, worn, though they
were, with the weary strife, were buoyed up
by the thought of their glorious success, and
were urged on by that proud remembrance,
to build up fortunes in the land they had
freed from foreign masters, and stimulated
to rear sons for place in the councils OF a
country, where mind and merit-not rank
and wealth-gave the pre-eminence. Nat
urally they began to bethink them ofschools
and scholars.
Out of some well-secreted horde, here and
there, book crept to light; ); but alas where
were the teachers? Most of those who had
received such opportunities ofinstruction as
our infant settlements possessed, had !ald
their lives on Freedoms affairs, and "the
places which llnewrs sffem, knew them no
more" The ministers of the gospel were
the usual resource and, generally, the spir-
itual teacher became the daily instructor.
| These were PresbyterianS in all the upper
districts, as the descendants of the first set
tiers still adhered to the faith of their faith
ers. The preachers of this denomination,
| then as now, were all able diVines md
learned men. Many youths who were af-
forwards eminent as Statesmen, Iheologl-
ans, Doctors and Lawyers, were indebted to
them for their induction into the paths OF
| literature and science. Although prevent
| ed by their ordination from being men OF
! blood, yet by words Of encouragement, acts
of endurance and well quoted promises OF
divine help and strength, they melted the
patriots and their families, in hours OF dark
ness to endure to the end. The tory raider
and British invader visited them in their
day of visitation; and they, like their f1ocks,
were plundered, burnt out, and some, for
| time, had to flee their homes. Endeared by
their common suffering, revered for their
sacred office and superior attainments,, per-
haps no more happy selection could nave
| been made, had every college OF the mother
country offered candidates for the peda-
gogue's chair.
TO show the scarcity of books, / remem-
ber being told by Mrs. Judge Mott that she
| learned her letters, and to read and spell,
| in ''Locke's Essay on the Human Under
standing" and was proud to be possessor OF
volume Of her own, as many OF the chill
dren in school had to borrow from their
more fortunate mates, Il book from which
to learn their lessons, as they were not able
to procure one Of their own. The same
lady told me the mode of instruction to her
in writing was, the master, with pointed
stick, wrote a copy on an even spot OF earth
below which, she, with like instrument,
initiated him as best she could.
The earliest of the Academies of learning
in the up-country, was that Of the Rev. DIR.
Joreph Alexander, of York, the pastor OF
school was founded a few years after the
close of the Revolutionary war, and it, with
one other, CDR. Abner Pyles' Grammar
School in Laurens) were for some time the
only grammar schools in the upper portion
of the State. It stood, for years foremost
among the classical institutions of the day,
and many men, afterward distinguished
knew no other Lima iNuter. The course
was mainly confined to the Greek and Latin
languages, Moral Philosophy and Geogra-
ply and we mdy Judge by the position
attained in the world by some OF his pupils,
he was an instructor worthy the reputation
he enjoyed. Here did Andrew Jackson
taste ''the Pierian Spring." and Judge
Smith
Lay foundation for renown,
And all the honors of the gown
William H. Crawford, Gov. David john
son. Rev. MIR. Walker, Col. Thomas Taylor,
Isaac Sadler, (the poet and innumerable
others, who have played their parts in life's
drama, and played them well-e.re,Wt
onanes! know not that one survives, who
studied at the feet Of this Gamaliel.
DR.. Alexander was q Scotchman by birth,
and staunch Whig, from the beginning of
the contest. All through the struggle, he
was prominent in his section for his efforts
in the cause. When the Rev. Mr.. Tennent
was sent on his tour through the upper
country in IT'S, DR.. Alexander was one of
his active assistants by calling his congre-
CATION together for him to address. He
rested night at DR.. AS residence and the
men of the vicinity listened to
-sthe sense
Bettercd bv the speakers eloqucncc.'