The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-06-06


paper in its Sunday edition of Dec. 5,
1897. The name Of the author was
not given at that time, but the article
was reproduced by order of the HUI
guenot Society of South Carolina and
included among the papers published
in No. 5 Of the Transaction" Of the
Society, with the information that it
was written by Mr. John Altbeus
johnson, Of Washington City.]
South Carolina has many places of
historic interest upon which the pen
Of the novelist will some day throw o
glamor. When the time shall come
that the writer for our Southern coun-
try shall want characters for story
in which he may tell Of qualities that
give domestic Joy and content, and
that cause life to run smoothly into
green old age-an age crowned with
the glory Of children's children-he
can turn to the scene of the old HUI
guenot life at Bordeaux, in Abbeviiie
County, and, reviving a chapter in
history, have in abundance the mate
rial for his story. The little band of
French Protestants, two hundred and
twelve in number, who settled at Bor-
deaux in 1854 and pcopled the hills
and valleys of the surrounding coun-
try, constitute in themselves and their
immediate descendants community
rich with examples that show the
simple virtues which make charming
the individual and pleasant the home
life. In many Of the members of that
community all the functions of body
and mind inhered to an extreme old
age and accompanied the owners to
the brink Of the !ivcr, and when the
summons finally came to the owners
to J.ass over they went quietly, lcav-
ing as memory behind them life
filled with charity and kindness.
Mary Anne LoRoy, a little black
eyed girl of IL summers, was in the
number which thus crossed the Allan
tic in 1854 and made their home in
Abbeville County. She married
Joseph Bouohillon, who in. the latter
part Of the Revolution commanded the
company which the French settlers
maintained for operation against tho
Tories, by whom they were constantly
harrassed. The colony was allowed
from the beginning to do militia duty
Under its own separate organization,
aud company had been organized be-
fore leaving Charleston, where the
little band had landed in April, 1864.
The little woman above named, after
the death Of Capt. Bouchillon, married
Lazarus Gown, who bore to his death
the marks on his leg of gunshot
wound received at the battle of Cow
pens. Lissomeness Of body aud viva
city Of spirit remained with that little
woman until her death in November,
1889, and many were the stories she
told to her listening grandchildren Of
the depredations Of the Tories and the
carly adventures Of the Hugucnot
fathers in Abbeville. Two of her
grandchildren by her last marriage
are the present James Louis Gown
and Philip Augustus Gown, Of Mount
Carmel, brothers, both now upwards
Of so years Ct age. Two other grand
chiidren by the same marriage are the
venerable sisters, Grs. Eliza anne
Webb and Mrs. Lucinda Susan Foun-
tain, their maiden name being Thomp-
son, both of whom, born in Abbeville
County, che one in January, 1912, the
otherin April, 1913, having married,
gent to Alabama, where they now
live, The one at Shorter, in Macon
County, the other at Montgomery,
and are eble each Of them as they sit
in the quiet of a. serene sunset to re-
eeive the homage that is SO beautiful,
rendered at the hands Of loving chill
dren and grandchildren.
Another Of the grandchildren Of the
little woman above named, grand
child by her FIRST marriage, was the
late Joseph Leonard Bouchihon, Of
Bordeaux, who died in September,
1889, and who before his death was
able to enumerate over seventy per
sons descended from him and his wife,
living in five different States, chill
dren, grandchildren and great-grand-
children, and when che wife, her own
days numbered, gaye directions as to
the final hour and pronounced her
blessings by name upon children and
grandchildren, many Of whom were in
.1s;ssaas a;s.aa 6aat 56aaaatso5. IL was in the same
honae an which her husband, sixty
nine years before, had brought her as
q bride---the house in which her chill
u -yS ~ 4 4. q.