Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-09-07

seemed not to improve at all. For sew
eral successive years crops were short
and prices low. The small farmers who
had been compelled to go into debt for
food. clothing, and; supplies were get
ting deeper and deeper in debt to the
merchants. who seemed to be prosper
ing at their expense. There was a
growing feeling that something was
wrong and that somebody was to
blame.
All this time. out in the backwoods
Of Edgefield, on his large plantation
for a good part of each day lying on
the piazza floor beneath the shade Of
spreading oak trees-was a one-eyed
man, reading French history and par
adise Lost" In 1875 he had gone out
to Hamburg and Ellenton. a few miles
from his home, to participate In the
famous negro riots. He also took a
prominent part In his immediate sec
tion In the "red shirt" campaign of
that year. 1t was he who had made the
first red shirts, or bloody shirts" and
distributed them to the men summoned
to the court house to stand trial for
participation in the riots. On that
same day he had fixed at the top of a
tall pole transparency with the figure
of a negro's head above; on the white
canvas below, for exhortation to the
white people along the road. he had
printed in bold black letters: Awake,
arise, or be forever fallen!" After the
whites had won and the United States
troops had been withdrawn from the
state, he returned. to his backwoods
farm, to his crops and mules and ne
groes, to his improvised lounge on the
floor, his oak trees and his books, and
to his devoted young wife.
Benjamin Ryan Tillman had been
born on that farm, which had been in
the Tillman family for several genera
tions. He was the youngest Of seven
sons and four daughters, being born
the very year, 1S47, that his eldest
brother was killed In the Mexican war.
Two years later his father died. OF his
six brothers, now all dead, three died
by violence, one having been killed In
war and two in personal alterations.
Another brother killed a man and left
the country, but afterward returned
for trial and was convicted Of man.
slaughter. While in Jail, he was
elected to the state senate, which he
entered as soon as his Imprisonment
ended. This was the Honorable George
Tillman who served a number Of terms
in congress. 1t was his son, James H.
Tillman, who. while lieutenant govern.
or, shot down N. G. Gonzales, the edi-
tor Of the Columbia State. Ben Till
mans uncle, John Tillman, was a man
of rakish habits but of strong intellec-
tual qualities. He was an omnivorous
reader, as we'll as a great cock fighter,
and he collected large library Of the
best English literature. Being a bach
elor but a man Of great family pride,
he, selected his nephew Ben, then a
small boy, as the one most likely to
conserve and advance the Tillman
name, and to him he bequeathed his
books, we'll annotated by himself Ben
Tillman's mother was also an extensive
reader and lover of books, and these
also he inherited. From that day to
this the present senator has been a
student of English literature and his
tory, not an orderly one, but profound,
and few of his colleagues in the senate
are better read; not one remembers
better what he reads. He did not re-
ceive a college education, the war hav-
that great ambition Of his youth. AT
the outbreak of the war; when he was
fourteen years old. his mother sent
him to a neighboring academy to pre-
pare for South Carolina college, but
he never went farther than this acad-
envy. Moreover. realizing soon that
this would be his only chance, he ap-
piled himself so assiduously to his
studies that his health was seriously
impaired and his life threatened. 1t
was here that he lost the sight Of his
left eye as the result of an abscess.
At the close Of the war, though but
seventeen years of age and still an in
valid, he took charge Of his mothers
large farm. adding gradually to its
acreage by purchase so that by the
time he became governor, in 1890, 1t
comprised LOO acres. At twenty he
married and during the first eight
years of his married life, as he had no
children. his young wife was his fell
low student Of the books he had inher-
tied, as we'll as his constant compan-
ion and counsel in the management OF
his large estate. Thus Benjamin r.
Tillman spent the first twenty years
Of his manhood, taking little II any
part in affairs outside of his immedi-
ate neighborhood. attending strictly to
his own business, and enjoying life
Thus he acquired his mastery Of corn
field law" stored his mind with a
plentiful knowledge of common things
and cultivated the acquaintance Of the
great characters in history and litera-
ture.
1t was on August g. 1885, when he
was thirty eight years old, that he
made his first real appearance before
the public of his state. A farmers
convention was in session In the town
of Bennettsville. the county seat OF
Marlboro. Farmers and planters from
all parts of the state were present
principally planters-well-bre we'll
dressed South Carolina gentlemen
The sessions were held in the court
house. gaily decorated for the occasion
with flowers and evergreens. Ladies
and young people" and ministers OF
the gospel came out to hear the Ora
tors" After the days proceedings, re-
ceptions were held in the evenings by
the citizens of Bennettsville to enter
tain the distinguished guests. At one
Of these 1T was rumored that on the
morrow a green, gawky, sallow faced
one-eyed fellow from the backwoods OF