Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-09-12
For the Yorkville Enquirer.
"REMINISCENCES OF WESTERN YORK.

For the Yorkville Enquirer
"REMINISCENCES OF WESTERN YORK.
Our last chapter closed with A. r..
Smiths hegira. Of him we shall speak
hereafter, especially at the breaking out Of
! the war. Until then we will let him rest.
Uncle "Bily" Strain, as we have already
said, was q son of the "Emerald Isle"
Many things are tol upon the Irish that
we are not disposed to believe, especially
when they involve questions of wit and
quick sense; but many are true. For in
stance, Uncle Billy built comfortable log
cabin on Guion Moore creek, north Of the
Smiths Ford road. Across the house, on
top of the wall plates, was pinned some
pine pole girders. When first occupied,
the space between the floor and the girders
was Just sufficient to give room for his
cupboard: AS usual, in process of time,
the house began to settle down, and grid
er pressed on the top of the cupboard so
much that the doors were hard to open and
shut. One of his boys suggested that the
corner of the house be pried up and a
wedge be put in between the logs, so as to
relieve the cupboard. Accordingly the
necessary pile and fulcrum were prepared
and broug 1T to the place and arrangements
were made to carry out the plan OF the
boy. The old man, without understand
ing the proposition of his son, placed the
pole under the sill of the house and began
to prize it up. When asked what he was
doing, he said he wanted to pry the house
off the cupboard. "HoW high will you
have to pry it?" asked the boy. High
enough to get it off the cupboard" was his
reply. ,.
Mr.. Joe Logan, the reader knows what
kind of a man he was. On one occasion
he got pretty "tight" and dropped himself
on the side of the road. Chess Mckinney,
passing, said to him "Uncle Joe, some
fool will come along and ride over you"
Uncle Joe replied: "Mishter Chesh Nc
Kinney, you shee, shir, you are the first
fool that come along and you haven't done
it,"
Uncle Joe used to say that lone good
swallow was worth two sets of teeth" and
he proved it in many instances. AS al
ready intimated, when he got a dram
ahead it was: "Old Joe Logan is schmart
old animal, but nobody knows it: Judge
O'Neall was the smartest man IN South
Carolina; Tom Dawkins next; Joe Logan
next, and George Williams (of the York
Vile barr was next" He was great
mathematician, in his own estimation.
Standard authors were mere ch!ldren TO
him. On one occasion Sam Strain ASKED
him: "How many times wheel l6 feet
6 inches in circumference would turn round
in going 81 miles," His reply was: "Sham
Schtrain, that's not dollars and schents."
Another of Western York's central tg-
ures in ante-bellum times was our old
friend "Turk" Turner. How he came in
possession of this delectable misnomer
can't tell. He is still alive and perhaps
of age, and the reader will have to ask him
for Information on that point. Il think it
very likely that he came in possession OF
it during the time Uncle Jackey Hemphlll
was giving out nicknames to almost every
man he knew in Western York, and any
where else.)
Anyway, he was known by that name
from our earliest recollection, and, per-
haps, long before. About the year lo5O or
'51, he moved on Bullock's creek, to big"
Bill Wilson's, who, by the way, was
another Jackey Hemphill for nicknaming
people. He called him "Redrust" but
that sobriquet didn't last. many years.
Uncle "Turk," as 1 always called him,
was, and still is, man considerably under
the average size. / don't think he ever
weighed over 100 pounds in his life. He
was always a hard working man and quiet
citizen q professional bee hunter, weather
prophet, cross roads politician and fire,side
lawyer. He is at present one of the oldest
original citizens we know of IN that sec
ton. He is an uneducated man, yet his
knowledge of men and measures goes back
for more than three quarters OF century,
and he can tell many incidents connected
with the history of Western York.
The last quarter ola century has wrought
a great change in the list Of the people IN
Western York. Those who were mere
children at the close of the war are now
grown men and women, and society. is
much improved in different respects. AT
no time, perhaps, since the settlement OF
the country has it had more thrifty ana
well-to-do generation than at present, with
churches, schools and other evidences or
progress and civilization taking the place
of the haunts of vice and immoral practices
for which certain sections of this country
were proverbial during our earliest recol-
lection. Society has been remodeled.
give these "Reminiscences" in chronology
ical order. Nor shall we yet do so. In
order that those living at the time may
have the benefit of our recollections OF the
war, and the stirring scenes connected
with it, we will soon give chapter on
that eventful struggle and tell what sacrl-
fees were made by the patriotic and noble
women whose means enabled them to
provide for the comfort of their less for.
tunate neighbors, whose fathers, sons and
husbands represented them on their coun-
try's battlefields; while the arrival OF al
most every train brought the intelligence
of murderous battle fought, other wives
made widows and other children father
less. 1t will also be pleasure for US to
speak of the fidelity of the slaves to their
masters during this notable epoch in
American history. They were well aware
that their freedom was the grand centre
around which nearly million of native
born American soldier revolved in mortal
combat, to say nothing of the legiionss OF sol,
diers collected from the countries beyond
the sea thrown in to tip the scale OF fate in
their favor. Yet they were comparatively
faithful to the last, for which they should
be held in grateful remembrance by an
overpowered but unconquered people.
j. l.. S.
4 NEEDED REFORM.
The letter of Bishop Stevens, asking the
s.L1