Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1901-03-06

l knew q man very we'll who lived
near Rome, and his four sons were
named Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John, and his two daughters were
named Mary and Martha. Those
good old time people had great rev.
orence for the Bible and Bible names.
One of my fathers customers was
named Shadrack Began, and his
three sons were Shadrack, Meshaok
and Abednego. Another customer,
David Allan, named his son Absalom,
and for a wonder he was good boy
and made good man, and his father
David had no occasion to say ooh,
Absalom, my son, my son %
Well, in course of time, the people
increased and multiplied 80 that
their children had to have two names,
so as to distinguish them, and SO
Johns son was called johnson in
English, or John Johns in Welsh.
After while it became John Jones.
The Joncses are all of Welsh origin.
The Welsh were a brave, religious
people, and fought the English for
many centuries. They never did
submit until they were promised
that no king should rule them, ex-
ccpt one born on their soil, and he
should be called the Prince of Wales.
King Edwards son happened to be
born at beautiful little Welsh town
named Caernavron, and the Welsh
accepted him as their future king
and called him the Prince of Wales,
and that is how the title started. He
was King Edward II.
Now, there was another Welsh
way of distinguishing the son from
the father. The little word ZAP"
means son of, and it used to be writ
ten John ap Jones, but in course of
time the little middle word was
dropped. 1t is little singular that
away back in the tenth century the
Welsh people who had been fighting
each other in civil wars for two hun.
dred years at last made friends and
chose David ap Howell for their king
and he had son named Evan. He
was good man, and his subjects
always called him Howell Da-
Howell the good. That must he our
Evan of The Atlanta Constitution.
lie has just been hid out all these
years. | see that the Chamber of
Commerce gave banquet yesterday
and Evan Howell responded to the
toast "Good Fellowship" That
suited him exactly, know, and had
| been there | would have told how
his great ancestor was called the
"Da" and was the last King of
Wales. | called him over the telc-
phone this morning and said, "ITello,
Da !" and he answered "IIere."
Now, about Bill 1Iigginbotham.
That is old Anglo Saxon and means
mountain ark. The old name was
lIicken. Probably the old ancestor
took his name from an ash tree that
shaded his house. Names were
scarce, and people took their sur
names from objects of nature, such
as hill, fountain, dale, peak, pine,
plant, oaks, chestnut, grub, twigs,
branch, water, pool, moon, star,
cloud and so forth; or from their
occupations as baker, farmer, car
pcntcr, mason, miller, gardener,
granger and all the family of smiths
who were the smiters of iron and sill
YER and gold. All who were detailed
to watch for an invading enemy were
called smitcrs or smiths. John
Smith was originally John, the
smltcr. Capt. John Smith was an
iilustrIous type OF that class. When
names were 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 hcrdcr Of cattlc-and
was not improved by the change.
The adjutant of our brigade was
named Coward, and ,hc army had no
bravcr soldier. lie lost an arm at
Chickanominy. He always signed
his name A. Coward, adj't. gcn'l.,
and being asked why he did not sign
hla full name, said: "Well, my first
name, unfortunately, is Adam, and
it is not quite so bad to be a coward
as it is to be adam coward"
a few centuries ago every civilized
nation had to adopt q prefix or a
snflix so as to prevent the confusion
of names. The English added son
to most of their names, as johnson,
Williamson, Jackson, Thompson,
etc, The Scotch prelixcd with Mac.
The Irish with Mac or Mo for ,o,