Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-07-01

The Pendleton Chapter of the
United Daughters of the Confede
racy in April last requested Prof
VIM. S..Morrison, of Clemson Col
lege, to address them and the Con
federate veterans on Memorial Day
at Pendleton, on aOld Pendleton.'
The following address, in compliance
with that request, was delivered or
the occasion named, May 8, 1903:N
OLD PENDLEToN.
The plow-boy poet of Scotland, ID
one of his we'll known songs, with
feeling makes this declaration
"of a. the dirts the windoan blow
Idearly love the West"
Such seem to have been mother
natures feelings toward SO much ol
her vast domains as men to- day cal
South Carolina. In its western
corner is the "Alpine Region" of the
Palmetto State. Here, as in Gale.
donia,
"Wild woods grow and rivers row,
And mamie hill between"
Here, in Mt. Pinnacle, in Pickens
county, our State reaches its greatest
elevation--three thousand six hun
dred feet--aboye old oceans level
Here the lover of the sublime and
the beautiful in nature finds Table
Rock, "rearing colossal and almost
perpendicular wall of solid granite
over eleven hundred feet above its
base, and striking the beholder with
awe and wonder" Here is seen the
vale of Jocassee-" -"celebrated for its
romantic situation, rich valleys and
beautiful water falls--literally shut
in on every side by lofty mountains"
This sunset corner of Carolina
was, in the days of the Indian, the
home of the Cherokees. About one
tenth of the territory of these dnsky
warriors of the mountains was within
the present limits of the little seces.
sion State. AS early as 1730, when
our colony was but three score years
old, the King of England sent Sir
Alexander Cumming three thousand
miles across the Atlantic, and from
the settlement at Charleston, three
hundred miles into the wilderness ia
treat with the chiefs of 3hese tribes
This fact is evidence of the estimate
placed by England upon the value oi
the lands and the worth of the friend.
ship of these red men IN the strug-
gle then pending between Briton and
Gaul for the possession of the great
yalley-the very heart of the North
American continent. The details oi
this treaty, made within the limits OF
Old Pendleton District, at Keowee,
an important Indian town which
stood on land by the side of the
river of the same name, now owned
by Mr.. Nimmons, are full of interest
and may be read in the records oi
those early days.
Twenty-Five years later-about
1755-the Colonial Governor of Ca
solina, James Glenn, made another
treaty with the aborigines, securing
vast tracts of land in the upper parts
OF the State, and permission to erect
in the Indian territory forts for the
protection of the back country. One
of the most important of these forts
was Prince George, on the Keowee
opposite, and within cannon shot of
the Indian village of Keowee, above
mentioned. Capt. r. E. Steele, &
Confederate veteran, now owns the
site of this famous fort, and takes
peculiar pleasure in pointing out tc
the visitor the spring which supplied
pure mountain water to the garrison
a large mulberry tree which grew ur
on the walls, and the lines of the
fortification. Much valuable history
and many thrilling traditions cluster
around old Fort Prince George
Miss Morfree's "Story of Old For
London" and DR.. J. Walter Daniel,
poem, "Cateechee of Keowee," ar,
cordially commended to all who ar,
fond of reading the stories of those
distant times.
Twenty years after Glenn's treat,