The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1901-10-16

the country had not recovered from tll
effects of the civil war. The work Jus
finished was done and done well b
the Stewart Contracting company o
this city.
Poverty scatters all things" sal,
Capt. Courtenay yesterday. "Tim
rod's sister was gifted with min,
very much like that of her brother ant
composed beautiful verse. She hat
collected this into book in mapusclIp
form but it has been lost. They were
too poor to keep their treasures safely
A blographer has recorded that when
racked with disease and suffering iu
the general poverty of the State just
after the war, Timrod said, " would
consign every line 1 have written to
eternal oblivion for 500 in hand"
Henry Timrod was born in Charles
ton in 1929. His father was an officer
in the German Fusiliers during the
campaign against the Seminole In
dians in Florida and there contracted
the disease which was inherited by his
son. The elder Timrod was himself IL
writer of verse of much merit. The
younger Timrod studied law under
James l.. Petigru, but devoted his life
to literature. William Gilmore Slmms
took great interest in Timrod, Paul
Hamilton Hayne and other talented
young men. Timrod's first book of
poems was published in 1860 and was
hailed with delight by his friends.
When the war came upon his be-
loved State, Timrod's bold spirit was
fired, and he wrote number of pa
triotic and martial lyrics which made
him very popular in the South. When
the war was ended he was in Columbia,
where he had been editing The Caro-.
linian when the city was destroyed.
Ruined in fortune, with the hand of
disease tearing at his life, with starva-
ton and suffering facing him, Timrod
lived but short while after the war.
He expressed to Capt. Ccurtenay and
others desire for his poems to be
collected, and that was the inspiration
which prompted the noble South Caro-
linians to lend their energies to giving
Timrod's name its proper place on the
scroll of fame.
Capt. Courtenay says that in youth
Timrod was looked upon as an athlete.
He was rather short of stature but
very broad shouldered and his very
walk indicated strength. But con-
wasted his frame aud he died
at the age of 3S when life should have
been but beginning. The pallbearers
who attended the body to Its last rest
ing place were Gen. Wade Hampton,
DIR. A. N. Talley, DIR. r.. w. Gibbes,
Gov. Hugh s. Thompson, Melvin M.
Cohen and Felix G. de Fontaine.
In 1878 Paul Hamilton Hayne col
lected and published number of Tim
rods poems and three years ago the
Timrod Memorial society secured from
Mrs. Kate Lloyd, relict of the beloved
poet, the copyright to his poems on the
condition that whatever profit might |
accrue would be used in erecting a
memorial. Over $4,000 has
been raised and spent in this way and
,he copyright has recently been sold
by Mrs. Lloyd to the b. f. Johnson
who will get out another
edition.
Timrod's grave "through the sack
cloth of the Reconstruction in South |
Carolina remained without stone"
But, as Timrod himself wrote of the |
host of Southern dead in the war:
~ In seeds Of laurel in the earth
The blossom Of your fame is blown,
And somewhere waiting for its birth
The shaft is in the stone"