The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-07-22
FROM HISTORIC GROUNDS.
AN OLD FRIEND IN A NEW TOWN.

| COunty-NOtes of the Country and
nc H.ft fcoR%rhs tc tsS.trh,sx Legacy which IS
HICKORY GROVE, S. c., July, 1891.
Editor Press and Banner:
| The probabilities are that nine-tenths
of your readers do not know where
Hickory Grove is. In fact, the prebabil-
ity is that only few persons in Abbe-
Vile county know that there is town in
the State of South Carolina which bears
the name. This is not to be wondered at.
Within the last ten years two railroads
have been built through York county,
and ut all interval of every ten miles de-
pots have been established. At every one
of these depots some enterprising young
man has opened up store in which he
keeps corn, meal, flour, bacon, lard, hay
bran and everything which either hu-
man beings or domestic animals must
eat in order to live. In addition to this
food supply, he keeps for sale every agri-
cultural Implement from an axe handle
to steam engine. The food supplies are
shipped from the northwestern States
where the people are engaged in agricul-
ture, and the implements are brought
from tho Now England States where the
people are engaged in manufacturing ev-
erything from wooden nutmeg to a
mammoth locomotive. The people in
habiting the region of country through
, which these railroads run are not particu-
, larly engaged in anything except wear
ing ont their lands in desperate effort
to make more cotton. Many Of them are
in the condition of the gambler when
luck decides against him. He becomes
desperate and bets recklessly, hoping
that luck will change. Soon the deluded
creature finds that he is pennyless and,
of course, friendless. Just so it is with
many of the cotton planters Of the South.
A few more bad crops, as they say, will
; put them and their children where pinch
ing poverty reigns with a rod of iron.
But the reader, if any person reads this,
will say what has this to do with the To-
!. cation of Hickory Grove? Nothing at
, all it is frankly replied, still Hickory
Grove is town, with mayor, town
council and marshal who is clad in a
navy blue suit, adorned with brass but
tons and, very probably murderouS
pistol in his hip pocket. This last named
officer, under the existing state of civ
ilization, is absolutely necessary to the
safety of both human life and property,
still it more than suggests morally dis
eased condition of the body polite.
There is something humiiating in the
thought that few men and women can
5 not live together in close proximity
I without being forced to hire some one
$ to watch over them and keep them from
, killing each other or destroying each 9TH
er's property. Every man ought to drop
, his head in shame when he sees town
e marshal. If intoxicating drinks could
!; only be banisbcd from the land there
would be but little need for town mar
{ shals. 1t is not an easy matter 10 get two
sober men worked up to the fighting
point, and if they do, one good fight will
satisfy them, or at least one Of them, for
the remainder of long natural life.
But again the reader says what bas this
: to do with the location of Hickory Grove.
Nothing is replied, but all the towns in
|. |. this State and in every other State are
:. just like Hickory Grove. The law abid-
j, ing citizens are liable at any time to be
e raded on by some drunken cavalcade.
, 70 protect themselves from these tenn
porary maniacs they are forced to hire,
often at high price, some person or
d persons to guard them by night and day.
Were there no drunkenness in the coun-
try there certainly would be very few
murder cases to be tried in the courts.
In nine-tenths Of the murders one or
both of the parties were drunk-most
, probably got drunk to perpetrate the
i. deed. Were there no drunkards in the
country there certainly would be less
!: stealing, because there would be less pow
erty among the masses.
Il
patient to know whore in the wide world
D., Hickory Grove is situated the fact will
, be stated. Hickory Grove is situated on
the Three C's railroad about midway be-
! tween Yorkville, the county scat OF York
i county and Blacksburg, town situated
on the Air Line railroad. Of course, ev-
!, erybody knows where Blacksburg is sit
: uated. 1t is the only town in the State Of
South Carolina which is exclusively, or
nearly so, engaged in searching for min
;. erals, and, TIC only town in The world in
which, Congressman Hemphill said, the
= inhabitants can so 'possum hunting by
r gas-light. The Three Cs or Charleston,
1 Cincinnati a. Chicago railroad runs a
, northwestern direction through York
county for Il distance of forty-nine miles.
The people of the townships through
, which this road runs taxed themselves in
/ the sum of more than one hundred thous-
and dollars. This debt many OF them
will be1ucath to their children.
, The region of country surrounding on
all sides, Hickory Grove is beyond ques-
ton one OF the finest agricultural sections
in the State. 1t is watered by several
large creeks whose banks arc lined by
extensive bottoms of ineXhaustible fer
tility and the hills are well adapted to
the production of wheat, oats and rye
bu; unfortunately since reconstruction
have been planted almost continuously
; in cotton. The result is that in many
cases all the vegetable supporting soil,
and mucl: of the clay has been washed
down into the channel OF the creeks or
. spread over the bottoms. There are bot
tom lands within circle of fifteen miles
in diameter with its centre at Hickory
Grove sufficient, if properly cultivated,
to produce corn enough to supply,
aLundunlly, the wants Of any county in
tie State.
While Hickory Grove as town has
had an existence OF less than five years,
it has been place Of note for moro than
Il century. Two or three days after the
battle of Cowpens, February 18th, l7Sl,
Lord COrnwulliS rtmped on tho ground
when in pursuit OF General Morgan;
According to y credible tradition Lord
Cornwalis'S headquarters were near the
spot where the depot is situated. Ihe
ground OH which the town is situated
was occupied on the night of the 18TH OF
February. 1881, by the British troops
commanded by Lord Cornwallis and COL
0nel Tarleton. When the name Hickory
Grove was given to the place no one GER
tainly knows 1t is very probable that
CORVALLIS named his camp Hickory
Grove and from that day to this the name
has been retained. The road near which
the first settlement in the place was made
was cut through the forest by CORVALLIS
from Winnsboro' i'm Fairfield county to
a point within what is now the State OF
North Carolina, was called, until a very
recent period, sometimes King Georges
road and ut other times simply the Kings
road n is said that when in tho winter