Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1901-02-20

has just been hid out all these years.
L see that the chamber Of commerce
gave banquet yesterday and Evan
Howell responded to the toast Good
Fellowship" That suited him exact
iy, know. and. had been there
would have told how his great ances-
tor was called the "Da" and was the
last king of Wales. l called him over
Hello Da!' and he answered Here"
Now. about Bill Higginbotham.
That is old Anglo Saxon and means a
mountain ark. The old name was
hicken Probably the old ancestor
took his name from an ashe tree that
shaded his house. Names were scarce
and people took their surnames from
objects OF nature. such as hill. foun-
tain. dale. peak. pine. plant. oaks.
chestnut, grub twigs. branch. wafer,
pool. moon, star. cloud, and so forth:
or from their occupations as Baker,
farmer, carpenter. mason, miller. gar
deper, granger, and all of the family
Of Smith who were the smiters OF iron
and silver and gold. All who were de-
tailed to watch for an invading enemy
were called smiters or smiths. John
Smith was Originally John. the smiter
Captain John Smith was an iustrious
type OF that class. When names we're
too long to pronounce readily. they
were shortened up. Peter. who lived
at the Seven Oaks, was called Peter
Svnoaks; then Peter Snooks. and
that's how our Atlanta friend came by
his name
The name Coward was originally
COW herd-a herder OF cattle-and was
not improved by the change. The ad-
Jutant of our brigade was named Cow
ard, and the army had no Drawer SOL
der. He lost his arm at Chickahom-
my. He always signed his name A.
Coward, ad'jt. genl., and being asked
why he did not sign his full name.
said: We'll, my first name unfortu-
nately, is Adam, and it is not quite
so bad 10 be a coward as 1t is to be a
dam coward
"A few centuries ago every civilized
nation had to adopt a prefix or a suffix
so as TO prevent the confusion OF
names. The English added son to most
or their names, as Johnson, William
son. Jackson. Thompson, etc. The
Scotch pretlXed with Mac. The Irish
Mac or Nc for son, and o for grandson.
The French took De or Du. The Nor
mans used Fitz or fils tfrom Latin OF
mus al SOnJ. me fIuSSNADS TOOK V.tCh
from the same word
Then there are many nicknames to
be accounted for, such as Bob. Bill
Jack. Jim, Sally. Polly, Betsy. etc. I
don't know how these started. bur
some of them came out Of the colleries
OF England and the quaries of Wales
Tor every miner had a nickname as
Nosey, Soaker. Shanks, Jigger. or
something easy to call. had a school
mate whose name was Melville YoynS.
One day he was trying to do a sum in
Fellowship at the blackboard and
wrote down what he intended-To- ID
but 1t looked ike tod and the
teacher said What do you mean BY
tod That was enough for the boys.
They began to call him Tod. and the
boys never quit, and he was known as
Tod Young all his after life.
But the girls are not so much inter
eSted in names, for almost every girl
expects to change hers when the ris hit
young man comes along. She is lot
Obliged to marry man named Cru. {
shanks or Snoozlefanter or Hogg. but
I've known them to do it. and they d!d
very well.-Bill Arp in Atlanta Con
stitution
+. Sin my last ! etter the types
made me TO say 266.0O0 confederate
soldiers. 1t should be 100, ,0O0-all told
from the beginning to the end of the
war r