The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-10-10
After an Absence of Forty Years.
PENDIEroN, s. O., Oct. 8, 1894.

Editors IntelIigencer Forty years is
good long period in ones life, and yet it
has been just that long since I, young
man, swung loose from kindred and the
friends of my youth in the Fork of An.
derson County and took up my abode in
Alabama, then regarded as pretty far
sout West"
Scarcely was I settled In my new home
when the tccsin of war was sounded and
responded to the call to arms, and for
four years followed the fortunes of the
Southern Confederacy, doing duty In the
cavalry service in Alabama, Mississippi,
Tennessee. Kentucky, Georgia, South Car
olina and North Carolina, until with the
remnant of my command was captured
at the close of the war near Selma, Ala.
bama. Once during the war l passed
within twenty miles Of my old home,
crossing the Savannah. al Harper's Ferry,
but the exactions Of military duty forbade
my visiting my mother and sisters at the
old homestead.
I came hack here recently to visit rela.
tiyes and friends and the scenes of 10Y
boyhood and the changes that meet my
eyes are both striking and sad. I find
what, of course, ia general way expect
ed to see that Anderson County has made
great strides in all matters Of material de-
yelopment. This is attested by vastly
improved farming methods, by the build.
ing up of her waste places, necesssitated
by a largely increased population; by
comely farm houses on every side, the in.
eyitable result of we'll kept farms and by
the steady and therefore permanent
growth of her towns and villages. In no
place is this fact Of material evolution
more conspicuously illustrated than in the
changes wrought in the old County town,
which four decades ago primitive village,
30 to speak, of q few hundred people, is
now busy, bustling city Of Eve thousand
population. Space torbids more than a
passing allusion to Anderson's advanced
ing County, to her superior educational
facilities and to the exalted Christian
spirit that seems TO pervade every phase
of her busy life. All this is gratifying,
not only to those who live within her bor-
ders and are, therefore, part and parcel OF
it, but also to those who, erstwhile citl-
zens, have returned after a long stretch of
years to be greeted With these evidences OF
her beauty and her thrift.
Father Time has been busy with my
old home neighborhood, the Fork. What
with cutting down the original forest
perhaps wanton-and ridding the laud-
scapes of the unsightly growth OF old
field pine. with the substitution of at.
tractiyfe farm houses for the old ones, and
with the displacement of all the old
Churches by larger and better buildings,
the aspect is radically changed. In all
| this, change is not more apparent than
among the people. find but two men,
| jonathan Pickerell, Esq, at 96 and Capt.
Dickson at 80, who had reached mature
manhood when went away. The others
whom I hastily recall, Henry White,
William Palmer, John Bruce, Thomas
Bruce, Moses Reed Turner Osborne,
John Coates, Abram Meredith, Abraham
CofiD, William King, Anderson King,
William Wright Richardson Tribble
Salathial Bradberry, Thomas Wells, Al
len Bailey, Andy Graham, Jordan Burns
Samuel Brown, John Grubbs, David Sim
mons, James FAINT and the Cromers, Eli,
jah, Jacob and Lewis are all gone-all
dead.
Some days ago in company with my
brother, James A. CAN'T, Of Townville,
went to visit my birth place and the scenes
of my boyhood, on Little River, in Abbe
Vile and the lower edge of Anderson: Or
land now owned by Mr.. Bowen, In Ahbe
VILE, found the grave Of my great-grand
father, Addison CAN'T, who came theS'