The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-10-03
What q POcket-Knife Did.


Mr.. Editor: It has been. long
time since you have had a communi-
cation from your Cuban correspondent.
Just before leaving Charleston for my
Nacoochee home in Georgia, received
the following letter from F. B. Hodges
Esq, of Hartwell, Ga:
Hartwell, Ga, May 81, 1888.
George ". Willia'ns, Esq: Dear Sir
You will likely be surprised in re-
ceiving this note, as suppose you do
not remember me. -.
I have been connected with the
Methodist Sdnday.schooi here for thir-
ty-three years, either as student,
teacher or superintendent, and I often
refer to my first knowledge of, and
connection with Sunday-schools,
when a boy eleven years old, and the
impressive truths then received, and
how my memory has retained them, all
the way through life down-now sixty
years of age. You will please pardon
when I give you the praise of being
the instrument in leading me to the
Sunday-school, and am prompted to
write this, as the whole matter may
have passed out of your mind, and we
may never meet again in this life.
The incident is this: The summer
before you went to Augusta | was at
your brothers store in Nacoochee Val
ley. You asked me if ever attended
the Sunday-School. 1 answered in the
negative. You then offered to give me
q pocket-knfe if would attend six
Sundays. I promised to do so, if 1
could get a horse from Uncle Jesse
Moore, with whom I was then living.
He kindly consented, and I attended
the six Sundays and received the knife,
and learned many valuable Scriptures
and lessons which have been of great
comfort and blessings tome all through
life. This, if I remember correctly,
was the first and only Sunday-school
then in that section of the country.
I believe up to that time our confer
ference had but little to do with Sun
day-schools. May the good Lord bless
you, and make your last days upon
earth the most useful and the hap
piest. Yours fraternally,
F. B. HODGES.
Mr.. Hodges letter went deep down
into my heart as it carried me back
fifty-odd years to my fresh, innocent,
boyhood days, and to the old camp
meeting grounds of Sognee and Messy
Creek, and to the glorious meetings we
had there when some of us got happy,
and wondered why every body else
should not be just as happy as we
were, when that happiness was to be
had without money add without price,
only to be earnestly and prayerfully
asked for. 1t was at one of those old
fasioned, soul-reviving camp-meetings
just fifty-five years ago that five men,
bers of my fathers family, three broth
ers and two sisters, joined the NJ. +.
Church. We returned home full of
missionary and Sunday-school zeal.
We cleaned up the barn, invited some
neighbors and had a happy prayer
meeting.
To enable lis to carry Oh the good
work begun in our hearts, we resolved
to have Il Sunday-school, Il novel un-
dertaking in that day. A number of
us met ut the old Nacoochce Methodist
church. We established the first Sun
day-school ever known in Nacoochee
Valley, or in all upper Georgia. Well,
Il Sulihay-sc without scholars was
q poor institution. You know it has
ever been my motto: "Where there
is a will, there is way" Ipersuaded
all the boys I could to come to our
Sunday-school. To many of them it
looked like confinement and work.
They preferred fishing and hunting
to going to Sunday-school. TO show
my faith, I was willing to invest q
tenth Of my fortune in q bright, bare
footed boy. I promised him if he
would attend six consecutive Sundays
/ would give him q pocket-knife.
There was business calculation for
you. | knew almost any boy would
60 one or two Sabhaths to a Sunday
school for knife. 1 felt sure if L
could get him to attend six Sabbaths,
he would gladly come after that with
out pay. That boy was F. B. Hodges,
a good citizen and prominent lawyer
of Hartwell, Ga, So you see what
pockct-knife did. The circumstance
of the knife having occurred more
than half century ago, had passed
from my memory. The reading OF
MI. Hodges impromptu letter brought
up hallOwed associations connected with
nv Nacoochee home and the old
Methodist church. I was there when
a mere boy 7 listened to the foremost
preachers in America-Olin, Askew,
Andrews, Richardson, Glenn, Phil
ips, Parks, Lovic and George Pierce,
and other sainted ministers, who
preached there in the prime of their
manhood.
1t was in this modest Methodist
church that I first heard one of the
grandest preachers this country ever
produced. They were holding quar-
terly meeting at Nacoochee. An awk,