The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-09-06
wthe Body of Andrew Jack
son, Sr., Was Lost.
A FRIGHTENED DRIVER
In High Old Gallop to Keep Up With the Mel
low Mourners He Dropped His Silent
Passenger---found After
Long Search.

VI the HdmIlcO river. In MS very inter
esting account of the country through
which he passed, none is more interest.
ing than the Waxhaw region, lying part
ly in South Carolina, along the Catawba
River, where he tarried several days. His
description of the Waxhaw Indians lori
ginally spelled Warsaw, their manners
and customs. their festivals, their homes
and State-house-all read like jumbled
fragments from a chapter OF ARABIAN
Nights" The Waxhaws at this time were
a powerful tribe, but war and pestilence
by degrees robbed them of their identity.
and fifty years later, when the first Irish
immigration to this region entered upon
their wild lands, the Waxhaws had sub
merged into the Catawbas and were NOV
ing toward the westward. Before the re-
mains of this once powerful tribe were
erased there was being planted along
Waxhaw Creek another race to be- more
powerful and to exercise more construc-
tive force than any other group of men
on the American continent.
= Here came Patrick Calhoun, the father
of South Cardinals greatest statesman.
Here. too, came Andrew Pickens, the sol.
der and statesman who married John C.
Calhouns sister in the little brick church.
From the same community came Cal
nouns greatest rival, William H. Craw-
FORD, the great Georgian, who divided
Calhouns support for the Presidency in
1924. Here at the Waxhaws grew to
manhood William r. Davie, the soldier
who covered Gates retreat from Cam
den, Governor of North Carolina, Minister
to France. and here, after growing weary
of political honors, he turned his face
back to his old Waxhaw home. and his
last days were spent at his country home.
Tivoh, facing the Catawba, and at his
request his remains rest in the ittle
churchyard at Waxhaw. From the Wax
haws came Stephen d. Miller, jurist.
Governor of South Carolina, and United
States Senator; and, too, j. Marion
Simms, surgeon of worldwide fame,
and the greatest of his time A few miles
from here, in Mecklenburg county. N.
c., James X. Polk, the eleventh Presi-
dent of the United States, was born. and
about a half mile from the South Caro-
lima line in Union county, N c.. and
about three miles from the little Wax
haw church, was born Andrew Jackson.
the seventh President of the United
States. The remains of Andrew Jackson.
ST., he, buried in the little churchyard.
and tradition says that a small pile of
rough stones mark the place. In that
ancient place of burial families sleep to.
gether, but the place where Andrew jack
son, ST., lies is unknown. Fifty years
ago Parton, the historian, visited the
Waxhaws and wrote of the little church
yard. Very little change has taken place
since then, and his description. if dated
IN the twentieth century. would be al
most as accurate as when dated in the
middle of the nineteenth century. "a
strange and lovely place is that old grave
yard to this day. A little church (the
third that has stood near that spot). hay
ing nothing whatever of the ecclesiastical
in It's appearance, resembling rather a
neat farmhouse, stands not in the church
yard, but short distance from it. Huge
trees, with smaller pines among them, rise
singly and in clumps, as they were ORR
ginally left by those who first subdued
the wilderness there, and when a stranger
stands In that churchyard among those
old graves he has the feeling Of one who
comes upon the ancient burial place of a
race extinct. Rude old stones are there
that were placed on graves when as yet
a stonecutter was not in the province
stones upon which coats of arms were
once engraved, still partly decipherable:
stones which are modern compared with
these, yet record the exploits of RevoIu-
tionary soldiers; stones so old that every
trace of inscription is lost, and stones
as new as the New Year.
1t is the purpose to record especially
what tradition has to relate of the fun
eral of Andrew Jackson. Sra tradition
preserved and treasured by old inha bitants
around the Waxhaw church, and told
with that care and precision as if they
were lending you some ancient relic of
the Jackson family.
In the year 1866 Andrew Jackson, ST.,
with James, Robert and Joseph Craw-
ford, reached the Waxhaw settlement.
having come from Ireland by way of
Charleston. The Crawford brothers had
some money, and bought land adjoining
their relations at Waxhaw, Andrew Jack
son, 81, DelliS less FORTUNATE anu un-
able to buy, pushed further north with
his wife and two children, and settled in
the unbroken forest on Twelve Mile
Creek, in what is now Union County, ten
miles from Monroe. the county seat of
Union, and eight miles from the Waxhaw
settlement There is no evidence on re-
cord that he ever purchased this land
Anyway, he buiIt>a rude log house. clear
ed small patch, and raised his first
crop But his end was near. and in Feb
ruary of the second year he died. leav
ing Mrs. Jackson with two young sons
and ready to give birth to the third; and
in her loneliness and helplessness. she
turned to her brothers-in-law, the Craw
fords, for assistance. The friends and
relations from Waxhaw came, took the
corpse in hand. and prepared it for the
final ceremonies. The Irish wake, Miss
Edgeworth, characterized as "a midnight
meeting held professedly for the indul-