The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-06-02
Early Settlers OF the Fork.

1t is very probable that at the close O1
the Revolutionary war few if any white
people were livingin the Fork section OF
Anderson County. There were several
reasons for this, but one, which would
seem to have been altogether sufficient,
was that the adventurous homo seeker
was in danger of being promptly scalped
by the Indians for his %rashness. 1t is
true that the Indians who had gone on
the war path at the instigation Of British
emissaries, many OF whom no doubt were
tories, had been whipped into submission
some years before the close of the war by
General Pickens, and others and had
agreed to retire beyond tho mountains;
but still the attempt TO settle here was,
for a time hazardous. It is reasonable to
suppose tina. when The weary struggle
did end our people, who had for so many
years been fighting the tories, the British,
the Indians and want, spent a year or so
as a sort of breathing spell before setting
out to carve from the "back country" es-
tates for themselves and their posterity.
We may fairly assume therefore that
there was but a sprinklinG of white peo-
pie here when the century opened. Just
who most of these were, however, is o
question that in all probability will never
be answered.. We know, Of course, that
the Sleans, the Earles and a few other
prominent families were here during that
period, but our knowledge of them is
chiefly due to the impressions they left
or to those made by some of their de-
%scendants. Our reference is to that class
Of society who, making no noise in
the world, are, nevertheless, the bone and
sinew of the country, the salt ofthe earth.
WHO that cares for such things, aud in
difference to the preservation of local
history, is the parent of the too prevalent
ignorance of such matters, would not
give much to know who was the first &C.
tual settler in the Fork, where he came
from'and just where he built his log cabin
and began to cut down the virgin forest?
Nobody knows, and yet thatspoti is some
where here in the Fork and has been seen
by some OF US a hundred times! 1t is la
inevitable how little far too many Of US
know of our %genealogy, to say nothing of
our knowledge of early local history. A
great many of us are stopped short at our
great grandfathers, especially if these
came from beyond the sea and some seem
content, even grati1ied, ifthey can get the
UdCh ItdCh USSOuu l1Sll OWu udOu1OSs IL
their minds the biggest thing between
them and the dim, meaningless past is
Pap" In this connection and to illus
trate the other extreme, I am reminded
of the man who, eonjuring the fancy that
q great deal of blue blood coursed his
veins, set to work to trace his ancestry.
No doubt he was sure Of the existence
of the fountain from which all that good
blood flowed, but he had not gone far
back on the trail before be treeo one Of
the clan in the State prison, and quit.
Impelled by these considerations main.
ly but to some extent also by a fondness
for such work, I propose to give to the
readers of the 1NT~ELL1GENCER from time
to time short sketches of such of the
early settlers of the Fork as I can obtain
authentic accounts OF.
! shall pick them out with no reference
to the order of their coming, and it might
be well to include the whole period prior
to the Civil war. The Initial number is
devoted to
WILLIAM WHITE.
For six months past / have had it in
mind to write of this man and his de-
scendants, which will explain why he
was put first in the series. Mr.. White
was q native of Union County, and
from the best information l can obtain
came here about the year 1900. His chill
dren were al grown or nearly so, and one
of them, Thomas, father of the late Henry
n. White, lad married a Miss Mayberry
before leaving Union.
William Mite settled on the rugged
hills that verlook Portman Shoals on
Seneca River, INC remained there till his
death. Why he should nave selected
that location, whore there was scarcely n
foot of bottom land, is not explained, but
that seemed to be the rule in that early
day. Whether he was in the Revolutionary
army or not I have no definite Information,
but since he was of fighting age and Of
heroic mould, we may we'll suppose he
was. He was a man of large build. uu-
usually so, and had p%rodigious strength.
It is said he scorned the use of a line to
to guide his horse as heplowed, and when
the animal did not move along to suit
him he would improve it's speed with a
jab of the pillow stock, lifted clear from the
ground by the handles rs he moved
along. When the weather got hot he
would shed his clothes down to his shirt
and pillow on, and it was a familiar sight
to see him passing to and fro over those
river hills with "his yaller legs a.shin-
in" to use the words of one Of his sons.
But notwithstanding his easy ability to
wallop his fellow-man by reason of his
grit and strength, he cultivated peace and
lived on friendly terms with all men.
He was endowed with great industry,
and worked steadily on his farm till She
decrepitude of age laid him aside. He
had the talent of property getting 10 a
considerable degree, and owned mum
Der Of slaves. His sons without excep-
ton, so far as I am advised inherited this
trait and one of his sons, Elijah, who did
not come with the rest of the family from
Union and who went west eventually,
acquired. it seems, considerably moro OF
the polish of education and manner as
we'll as property than did the others.
Mr.. White was oca decidedly religious
bent and he and all his family were
Methodists. He was one of the first to
espouse Methodism when it began TO
overspread South Carolina about the close
of the last century. When he came here
he established a preaching place where
Cedar Grove Church now is, and it was
for a long time known as Whites Church.
But after the lapse OF years Whites
Church, a log house, fell into decay and
disuse and became the middle Of q eulti-
waited field. When in after years-1S76--
a new church was erected on the same
spot, amidst a dense growth CT pines and
cedars, it should haze been called
Whites, in honor of the man to whom
was probably due the distinction of being
the founder of Methodlsm in the Fork.
His body and those of some of his de-
scendants are buried there. I should not
forget to say that Mr.. White was a man
of the strictest business integrity, and
maintained th oughout life a s%traightfor-
ward course among his fellow-men. lie
outlived his second wife and spent his
last days in the family of his son, Newt
on White. in the identical house now
owned by John Shaw, the premises being
a part of the original tract of William
White. 1t had to be something out Of
the ordinary that kept the old man from
observing family prayers, even in ex-
treme age. One night his son Newton,
with a friend, stayed rather late at the
river, seining. The old man waited. By
and-by the fishing party returned, and
he called them to their knees. Under the
combined sleep-producing effects of the
long-drawn stereotvped petition that all
the family knew by heart and the blaZ.
ing fire that thawed out the chilled fish
ermen, Newton fell fast asleep and did
not come to time when the old man
wound up. Newton's wife, seeing his
predicament, gave him a pull with, "If
/ was you I'd get up" This brought
him up standing. and with a glance at
his friend, he observed: "They keep such
a hi of a-prayin' here that a Teller has
no peace" But the old man, shutting
off to bed, neither saw nor heard his son.
Only a short while before his death Mr..
White became unsettled on the subject
&c hor{;crp on1 ,p0rnI nm NV ipinirr tho