The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1907-07-18
YE OLDEN TIMES.
Col. T. j. Counts Writes of the Old Days
"Before the War;"

In last weeks Barnwell People Col.
T. J. Counts, of this city, had the fol-
lowing letter, which we take the
liberty of reproducing:
Dear Holmes:-Today brings my
8Oth birthday 9th of July, 1907
Life is a wonderful thing, but yester-
day it seems that | was in my teens
going to school to old man Suares at
dear old Barnwell C. H. l say dear
old Barnwell, for the reason that
I was born and raised in the county
and naturally have fondness for it.
True | voted for the new county of
Bamberg, not but I love Barnwell
the more, but as matter of con-
venience for the people of Bamberg.
Now l am old, though we'll preserv-
ed. l write and read without glasses,
have not used them for several years,
can run up figures and make calcu-
lations as accurately as / could in
my youngest and best days. have
always enjoyed good health up to the
time of the loss of my dear wife who
was taken from me near two years
ago, the 18th of October, 1905. About
that time l took grip and that coupled
with the mental suffering which
naturally followed the loss of a wife,
has rendered me unfit for active life
especially in business, although / am
most IF the time able TO take h11ppv
ride and enjoy it.
AsI said before life is a wonderful
thing. At the age of twenty-four I
married me a wife, for fifty-four
wears we lived together and raised a
family of children, and for the fifty
four wears no man and wife ever
lived more happily together than she
and l. Now comes some of the Won
ders of life. She has been taken
with three Of the children who had
attained the age of maturity and
who had families. The surviving ones
live now respectively at Laurens and
Florence $50 miles away. l am living
at Bamberg but five miles from the
place l began the married life with
but one "a grand-son) and myself
constituting my family. Why these
younger ones of a family, a wife and
three grown children should have
been taken and I left is one of the
wonders of providence that we can't
understand. Apparently l have moth
ing to live for, but that is not for
me to say. Providence directs all
these things and not man.
The mind is a strange thing. If |
don't differ materially from man
kind | find as a man grows older
his mind don't 60 down with the
body but to the contrary it becomes
more searching and carries him
back to his boy days and all through
the panorama of his life. | spend
much of my time in recurring to
the past which gives employment to
the mind and helps to while away
the monotonies which we almost daily
encounter.
often think of the changes that
have taken place in the manner of
worship. The first church that ever
attended was a log house located on
the south side of Priester's mills,
then Abstance's mills. The people
came from every direction, some on
foot (men and women) and others on
horseback, the man in the saddle and
the wife riding behind him, both on
the same horse, she perhaps with an
infant in her lap and he with an
older child in his front riding on a
pillow made for that express purpose.
Persons living within two or three
miles of the church would invariably
walk, preferring to let the horses
rest for Mondays work. There was
no buggy to be seen at the church at
that day and time. | have no recol-
lection of but two vehicles in that
section. they were on two wheels
and called gigs, one owned by a
wealthy man by the name of Goode
and the other by a man by the name
of Abstance, and these two were the
men that put up the Goodies and Alb
stance mills or more recently Deer's
and Priester's mills. Now back to
the point.
When the people assembled at the
church and the hour arrived for
preaching, everybody, men, women
and children walked in and took their
seats on the benches with no backs.
When the preacher gave out the
hymn everybody stood and sung and
sung loud. At prayer the custom
was for everybody to neel, which
they did. It was really a feast to at
tend the meetings of that day and
time and see the earnestness of the
people. The women would return
to their homes and you could hear
them humming 'Jesus my all to
heaven is gone" or "When I can