The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1901-10-16
AT PIcKENsvILLE MUSTER
A Place of Importance In the Hal
cyon Days of the Past.

cyoh Days of the Past.
"The Idler," contributor to th
|, Spartanburg Journal, gives the fo
,, loving "reminiscences of Old Picken.
! vile, which will be relished by ou
readers:
One old Southern institution, how
ever, has departed for always. Tb
changes of the manner of life, the de
velopment of the country, the concen
Sratlon of amusements and organiza
tlons in the towns, large and small
are the reasons for its going. Tha
was the muster. 1t is gene but no
its memories. have heard the olde,
people talk of musters andmy Irisl
blood has been raised by numerous re
mlnlscences. L have heard old men
tell OF the great crowds. the CAV dress
the gorgeous DRINKS and the glorious
fights that used to be features of the
gatherings at the general muster
grounds in the up.country. The militia
was the pride of the State and il was
thick with generals and colonels and
majors and there was vast pride in
these and the miuor offices, and the
wearers of epaulets and titles {" did
strut pow'ful." After the reviews
| often by the governor-the fun would
commence. The neighborhood bullies
would go against each other and fist
and skull fights" ensued thick and fast.
1t was cowardly to use knife or pistol
and the man who did lost his social
standing. Brandy and honey was the
favorite beverage and the result of the
mixture OF that seductive draught with
enthusiasm, July sun and militant am
bitlon is not hard to imagine. Cider
and ginger cakes were the delight Of
the sober element and great articles of
trade. There We're mighty fighters in
those times AMI the stage-bouts of
these days besides a muster day scrap
would be dumb show of fools. Horse.
trading, barbecues, and dancing to the
music of the fiddle played by fiddler
added to the charming features of the
day and sank them deep IN memory.
The people who did this were the
sinew of the country and they were
simply a little rougher and more en-
thusiastic i'll their sports, than we,
their descendants, are with ours.
One of the most famous of these old
muster grounds and gathering pieces
of all the tribes was PIckensvillc,
which was hundred or more years
ago the court house town of the part
OF the State now comprising Anderson,
OcoDee, Pickens and parts of Green
vile and perhaps other counties.
Pickensville was place of Importance,
and was perhaps the woolliest point on
the map. In fact it came to be dis
reputable and finally became little more
than name and memory with many
odious features. There were num-
Der of killings there in the first half of
the last century and public hangings
had an enormous attendance: killing
and hanging were associated in those
days before the gentle expedients
of insanity and self defense came
into fashion. Horse thieves Jared
badly. There were some remarkable
fights, some being pitched battles be-
tween renowned bullies. Drinking,
gambling, horse racing, chicken fight
ing andother sports still in vogue, but
more quiet, were INDUCED in with
frontier earnestness, and many stories
Of financial and moral ruin had their
beginning there-and the fast days
and furious nights are inwoven in
tragedies that long have darkened up
country homes.
Pickensyille, as L remember it from
first sight, in my childhood days, was
a small, deserted village, encompased
by senile gloom. A large tract Of land
was grown up In tough and then
dreaded grass called "Tom Bell " on
account of local legend connecting it
with his Satanic majesty; scrubby
pines growing near by furnished sighs
and walls that the nervous might as
sociate with the past. A few houses
then remained and the race track could
be defined. A. few hundred Yards
away, on tract of granite, there were
dungeons cut in the solid rock; that is
whert some of the old-time terrors
were kept, under the old jail.
hear this is all changed now. The
dungeons me no more and the granite
has been blasted for building rock.
Several years ago an enterprising far
mer tore up the face of the earth and
had terrific battle with the jointed
grass and was rewarded by gaining a
magnificent cotton field. The old
shacks have disappeared. A mile
above, on The Southern Railway, ls the
prosperous town of Easley, and cot
ton mill has been built there with a
settlement reaching almost to the pre-
cincts of Old Pickensville. The big
house" of the place, once the hotel
Is, L believe, standing and is the res
idence Of VIM. A. Neal.
A quaint theory was once advanced
about Pickensvile. The tearing up of
the "Tom Bell" grass was followed,
it is said, by an extraordinary outbreak
OF trouble in Easley, a mile above.
The town was torn by factions and the
churches were male scenes of war.
An old citizen said that the "Tom
Bell " had mercifully come to Pickens.
vile and formed tough cover and
that the devil was covered in. His
theory was that the tearing up of the
Tom Bell " let the devil loose and
hence all the trouble.