The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-06-23
INTERESTING "REMINISCENCES
The SIOans Of the Fork.

Editors IntcUigcncer: I made a visit to
the old Sloan's Ferry place, on the Sene-
| ca, last week for tho first time in ten
| years. The occasion of my former visit
| was to attend the pic mic with which the
| completion of the Inflated iron bridge
! that promiseds so much for the lower Fork,
| but that was to 60 down before the mad
| dened flood within a few short weeks,
| was celebrated. That was q gala day, a
| day of gladness to many who saw in the
| finished structure a convenient outlet for
| themselves and the products of their
farms. Mr.. W. A. Brownlee, who had
| passed his three score and ten, made an
exultant talk, felicitating himself, every
body and everything, and was proud.
The crowd swarmed across the pretty
bridge that was to defy the swelling tide,
and the bellies and besus were happy In
each others smiles. But how changed
the scene to day-the bridge gone, the
ferry abandoned, the road we'll nigh i'm
passable, and that merry crowd scattered,
many to their long homes, old Mr..
Brownlee and his young son throwing
care to the winds that day in the possess
sion of his fair young bride of a week and
rejoicing as a strong man to run a race,
Miss Shirley in all the glow an6. exuber-
ance of q lovely young womanhcod, Min
ME Routh and Fannie Holland enthrcn-
ed in the affections Of husbands and chill
~dren-these and others all gone 80 soon
to the grave. But the object OF my visit
there this time was to see if by a stroll
about the premises I could pick up some
additional facts which, with my stock on
hand, would inspire an article for THE
INTELLIaENcER. To contemplate the
obliteration of old landmarks-links that
connect us with the past-to look upon
the relics of a hundred years fast falling
to decay and ruin throws one into a med
itative mood and reminds him that the
doom of ali things is decay, decrepitude
and death. There is q sort of eloquence
in all this, to be sure; but it is a sad elo-
quence, and growth always has moro of
vital interest than decline, even as we
gaze with more pleasure upon the robust
boy than the decrepit old man.
Where David Sloan and his vile, who
settled the sloan's Ferry place in 1887,
came from to South Carolina is notknown
to the public, but it appears that Mr..
Sloan was Of Irish stock and probably a
native of Ireland. Some of the older resi-
dents of the Fork, whose statements are
worthy of all credence, believe they set
tied first on the Tugaloo River above TT.
Madison, in Oconee, or on Cane Creek,
near the present town Of Seneca. They
could not have remained long at either
place, however, for according to a state
ment by Mrs. Sloan herself, made many
years a%fterward, they settled at Sloan's
Ferry, on the Seneca, at a date certainly
not later than 1857. Another reason going
to show that their stay on the Tugaloo or
on Cane Creek was brief is that they had
none Of the plainest household utensils
at q fire in the open air. When they first
when they settled on the Seneca, for Mrs.
Sloan once told her grandson, the late
Stokes Stribling, o. Oconee, that she cook
ed her corr hoe cakes OH a flat rock heated
came to the Seneca they pitched their tent
on the wooded second BOTTOM" just