The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1897-06-12
WRITES OF CAROLINA.
Bill Arp Returns from Visit to
the Palmetto State.
sees Much TO Please Him Towns
Show n Wonderful Improvement
and the People Appear
Prosperous.
''tsest on, embalmed and sainted dead.


No impious footsteps here shall tread.
The heritage OF your grave"
This is one of the verses on beauti-
fui monument looked upon with tear
full reverence while walking through
Rosemont cemetery at Newberry.
Calvin Crozier was Texas confed-
crate soldier. who, shortly after the
close of the war, was going home and
had some ladies in his charge. When
the train arrived at Newberry some
lawless negro soldiers who were in
camp near by went into the car and
grossly insulted the ladies. Crozier
and some others defended the ladies',
and in the melee one of the negroes was
slightly wounded. Before the train
left Col. Trowbridge sent some of the
negroes to arrest the man who did it.
They made a mistake and seized Mr..
Jacob Bowers, a railroad employee, and
hurried him away to the colonefs quar-
tiers. Without trial he was summarily
ordered to be shot. 1t was near mid
night when Crozier was told of Bowers
arrest and condemnation; he promptly
went forward and declared that he him
self was the man who wounded the
negro. Bowers was released and at
sunrise next morning Crozier was shot
to death, notwithstanding his demand
for trial and protest Of Prince Rivers,
an officer in Trowbridge's command.
The negro soldiers danced with fiendish
delight upon and around the shallow
grave where they had laid him. Long
after the war his bones were removed
and this monument was erected by the
good people of Newberry to his mem
DRY.
Does history record any nobler sacri-
fee?
Damon was the friend Of Ply .hias, but
this man Bowers was n stranger to Gro
zier.
Much more of this pathetic story is
recorded in the ANNALS of Newberry,"
an interesting volume written by John
Bolton O'Neall, LID.
l was pleased to learn that other
counties in Carolina were having their
annals written and published in book
form. How else can we hand down to
posterity the good deeds of our an
cestors? State histories cannot do it,
for it would make many ponderous vol
umes, but even now it is not too late
for some one of literary taste and fidel-
ity in every county to confer with the
old men and compile such a history.
Such publications could be cheaply
done and would be of inestima Bile value
to the citizens. Mr.. Chapman, a we'll
preserved veteran, cultured scholar,
a gentleman of the olden times, is now
writing the annals of Edgefeld. / was
Informed on good authority that this
Mr.. Chapman was the real author of the
school history of the United States that
was published in Columbia, S. c., as the
work of Alexander II. Stephens. Mr.
Chapman submitted his manuscript to
Mr.. Stephens, and for the use and pres
tige of his name gave him an interest
in the royalty. There was scarcely a
change made in it from beginning to
end.
Newberry is a gem of city, and it's
population is perhaps more cultured
and refined than any city of South Car
olina. The professors of her college
and high school, her lawyers and doc
tors and preachers and editors are all
gentlemen, not only in manners, but at
heart. The standard of good citizen
ship is high and the influence of her
leading men pervades the entire COM
munity. Mr.. Aull, tbe editor of the
News-Herald, is perhaps the best all
round man for his work to be found,
for he is not only a man of high cul-
ture, but is eminently practical news
paper man and is devoted to his call
ing. He has written the history of the
state, and it is the standard in the
schools. Two of his boys, aged ten and
twelve, are at work in the printing
room and do good service. Mr.. Aull is
not at all reconciled to the modern
system Of grading the schools so that
it takes eight years to go through their
courses. If four years more are added
for college course there is no time
left for a boy to acquire q knowledge of
work or habits of work. From eight to
twenty he is nonproducer, and when
he graduates is fit only for the learned
professions, if fit for anything. But
his boys have to mingle study with la
Dor and alternate the years of each.
Mr.. Aull is the president of the State
Press association.
OF course, Newberry has large cot
ton mill. Almost every Carolina town
has one or more. AS you travel from
place to place they are in sight, and
give employment to the poor. Five
years ago Union had only 1900 inhab-
itants, but during all these distressing
years has continued to grow and pros
per, until now there are 5000. One
little mill, as they call il, started the
boom and encouraged them to build
another-a very large one, whose four
floors cover space equal to six acres.
Next came an oil mill and a knitting
mill and other industries, and now they
are boring for artesisn water TO sup
ply system of waterworks. Neither in
the city nor near il are any people beg
ging for work, for employment is at
hand.
Then go TO Spartansburg snd be
amazed. When | was there a few years
ago there was nothing to make note
of save college, but now there are cot
ton mills near by that manufacture
100000 bales annually, and it is claimed
that no one county in the United States
consumes as much. Not an acre of
suburban land can be bought for less
than $50. Everything prospers and
everybody seems happy. The taxable