The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1903-07-17
Letter from Spartanburg, S. c.

Mr.. ED1ToR:-You will kindly pardon
my presumption in thinking you can af-
ford space for a letter from this section
of our great country. l am tempted to
offer the trespass, for the paper coming to
me so regularly and is a source of so much
pleasure to me and my family, reminding
us so %strikingly of the long bygone days
when dear old Prince Georges county
was our camping ground and where we
ligious inspiration, I say it is hard to
throw off and appear Indifferent to those
early influences. I often long to be with
the younger and active element which
now dominates the destinies of that great
and prosperous county.
So much for the apology. Now as to
what I can give your readers which will
interest them is the question. About two
years ago in one of my letters I CAV a
detailed account of the wonderful progress
this county had made in mandatory
plants, cotton mills, especially, was treated
at length.
great flood disaster" which came upon
us on the 9th of June. and generally
known as the "Pacolet Valley" disaster.
No pen a faithfully portray what was
the meaning and result of this visitation.
What we here know as Pacolate river is
al ordinary waterway, coming from the
upper portion of this county, closed in by
high ground, with many reaches of the
most fertile and prosperous corn bottoms,
where the corn crop is expected to be
taken from in superabundance.
On this night, June 9th, between two
and four o'clock, this little waterway broke
all past records, first striking the railroad
bridge, placed so feet above normal water
line, swept it away. Two miles below
struck the Clifton mills, carrying away
two of the three, with many houses and
much loss of life. The third mill of this
plant was so damaged that it has been a
question of economy to removing the re-
naming structure or cleaning away the
wreckage and debris. Conservative esti-
mate places the loss to this plant at ST.
SOC, 900. The Pacolate mandatory plant,
three mills, eight miles below, was mex
struck, and there we find the same terrible
calamity-three and four story brick
buildings swept away like wheat straws,
thousands of bales of lint cotton and
manufactured goods carried away, much
of which has been recovered in a damaged
condition.
Every bridge in the county was de-
stroyed. Many of our farmers were
washed beyond hope of recovery. Many
small mills were seriously damaged, others
carried away. The estimated money dam
age from this nights rain in this county
is placed at $4,O0O,0 600. This is really
hard to realize, but there seems to be a
universal spirit among the people to put
the disaster behind them. These mills
will be rebuilt at once. but it will be some
time before a real healthy dividend-paying
resource will come from this direction.
The trade of this town has o apparently
fallen off; we will feel this probably later.
The great Southern Railroad deserves the
unstinted praise of all classes of our peo-
pie as we'll as the travelling public and
shippers for the heroic manner in which
they mastered their troubles they were
seriously worsted. In less than one week
they had their trains going and coming as
usual.
Our Daughters of the C~onfederacy are
doing a noble work in decorating the old
soldiers with the Cross of the Legion of
Honor. They work under rigid rules.
The %Spartanburg Chapter had their third
distribution on Gen. Lees last birthday.
About % members were present and were
thus honored. I had the privilege to be
among the number, and with the Mary
land Line badge and the Southern Cross
of Honor l have two souvenirs tt leave
behind. Have you anything of this kind
in Maryland? l hope you have, and the
many old soldiers there should be thus
honored. 1 could name many who be-
longed to Company F, Second Maryland
Infantry, now living in Prince Georges
and Charles counties. But 1 nave too
long trespassed and will close by once
more assuring you that the coming of
THE PRINCE GEORGES ENQUIRER is
pleasantly looked forward to.
A 7 GwyNN