Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1901-02-09
Straps If gueat 4istory'
"REMINISCENCES Of YORK.
Valuable Bits Of Local History Pre-
: served by a Septuagenarian.
DIR. Maurice Moore in The Enquirer Of 1870.

the Is or 20 years prior to our late civil
war, that we almost felt as If the pow
er of Aladdin's lamp had been elected
to rear the piles, whose halls are those
of learning. With such facilities for
the requirement of knowledge and ac-
complishments on every hand, it is
very hard to realize the difficulties
which lay IN the way Of obtaining even
a common-school course, at the close
Of the last century.
The latent ferocity of the animal
man seems never, except in civil war,
to culminate in it's cruelty. We read
the record Of his crimes in history, and
shudder to know our natures may be
so abused. The Tories OF the Revolu-
tionary war; with a sense Of hatred
ever sharpening their thirst for every
petty injury possible to visit on the
patriots, destroyed books wherever they
found them, full we'll knowing how ir-
reparable was the loss to their possess
sors. Even when by some unwonted
pity they spared the home-roof, the
precious featherbed was ripped up, and
its contents scattered by the four
wipass. of heaven. Other articles of
houseMld comfort and all provisions,
printed volumes and papers, were COM
mitted to the flames. No matter If 1t
were the Book of Books" still more
refined was the cruelty. No pleading
Of the helpless woman would avail to
save the volume, whose inspired word
taught her to "sing songs in the night"
Boys who were not able to bear the
hardships of camp life and the burden
Of a days march with the clumsy mus
ket, sustained a part little less severe
at home. Striving, with earnest effort,
to fill the absent fathers place, they
helped their mothers till the soil, as
best they might, with the rude imple-
ments of husbandry they could procure
and devise. In spite Of these difficult
ties, the virgin soil yielded a subsis-
tence for themselves and the younger
children, with a spare morsel, now and
then, to share with those on whom a
harder lot might fall. The devoted
women Of those times were compelled
to plough and spin, brew and bake,
and nobly did they perform their mis-
sion. But work done, there was no
spare hour for imparting the little book
knowledge they might have to the chill
dren, who were wearied, too, in their
round Of allotted tasks. 1t required in
cessant toll for daily bread and a garb
to cheat cold wind. Twas wisely so
ordained; for this ordering Of Provi-
dence kept them alive to the powers
that were in them, and sustained them;
whereas, If they had INDUCED in one
moments idleness, they would have
faltered and fallen.
Thus, when the struggle ended, the
victorious backWoodsmen worn, though
they were, with the weary strife, were
buoyed up by the thought Of their
glorious success, and were urged on by
that proud remembrance, to build up
fortunes in the land they had freed
from foreign masters, and stimulated
to rear sons for a place in the councils
Of a country, where mind and merit
not rank and wealth-gave the pre-
eminence. Naturally they began to
bethink them of schools and scholars.
Out Of some well-secreted horde, here
and there, a book crept to light; but
alas! where were the teachers? Most
of those who had received such oppor-
tunities Of instruction as our infant
settlements possessed, had laid their
lives on freedoms altars, and "the
places which knew them, knew them
no more" The ministers Of the gospel
were the usual resource; and, generally
the spiritual teacher became the daily
instructor. These were Presbyterians
in all the upper districts, as the de-
scendants Of the first settlers still adj
hered to the faith of their fathers. The
preachers of this denomination, then
as now, were all able divines and
learned men. Many youths who were
afterwards eminent as statesmen, the
ologians doctors and lawyers, were in
debted to them for their induction into
the paths Of literature and science. AL
though prevented by their ordination
from being men of blood, yet by words
of encouragement, acts of endurance
and we'll quoted promises of divine
help and strength, they melted the pa
triots and their families, In hours of
darkness to endure to the end. The
Tory raider and British invader visited
them in their day Of visitation; and
they, like their f1ocks, were plundered
burnt out, and some, for time, had to
En1na
common suffering, revered for their sa-
cred office and superior attainments,
perhaps no more happy a selection
could have been made, had every COL
lege of the mother country offered can
didates for the pedagogue's chair.
To show the scarcity of books, re-
member being told by Mrs. Judge Mott
that she learned her letters, and to
read and spell, in "Locke's Essay on
the Human Understanding" and was
proud to be the possessor Of volume
of her own, as many of the children in
school had to borrow from their more
fortunate mates, book from which to
learn their lessons, as they were not
able to procure one of their own. The
same lady told me the mode of instruc-
tion to her in writing was, the master,
with a pointed stick, wrote a copy on
an even spot Of earth, below which,
she, with a like instrument, inflated
him as best she could.
The earliest of the academies OF
learning in the up-country, was that
of the Rev. DR.. Joseph Alexander, of
York, the pastor of the Bullock's Creek
congregation. This school was found
ed a few years after the close of the
Revolutionary war, and it, with one
other. (Dr. Abner Pyles' Grammar
School in Laurens) were for some time
the only grammar schools in the upper
portion of the State. 1t stood, for
years foremost among the classical In