The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1909-01-08

AT exactly IL O'Clock on New Year 8
morning there was curious cere.
mony at 4the old Edwards place" in
Maine The word ceremony, in fact,
but family describes what happened.
It was more like jubilee, with the
semblance OF barbaric rite added.
All the Edwards kith and kin were
there, with goodIy number Of their
friends and neighbors.
At the farther end Of the garden,
IN front OF the farmhouse, there Is a
knoll, at the top of which a messy
ledge crops out. On this ledge there
was pyre erected of dry wood, pitch
and rolls Of curved birch bark-a
fine pile Of it. At the centre stood an
iron rod, set in a hole, drilled in the
ledge. and here an old oppressor OF
the Edwards homestead was burned
at the stake.
This sounds so savage that I make
haste to say that the old oppressor
was not an animate form of flesh and
blood, but merely an efigy.
The eflgy was a masterpiece in Its
way, the very simulacrum of rapacity,
with a face like the tabled Harpies
and hands like talons, hugging to its
breast a folded. yeliowed paper.
That yellowed paper was mort
gage, which had rested on the home
farm for one entire generation.
The history Of that mortgage is so
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1t would hardly be worth relating If,
at the last moment, noble effort to
lift it had not been crowned by sue
cess. The story of that effort is one
like to tell.
The Edwards farm adjoins the one
where I lived when a boy. There
were three hundred acres of tillage,
pasture and woodland, with we'll
built two-story house and two large
barns.S The Edwards children
Chester, Thomas, Catherine, Eunice
were my youthful neighbors and
schoolmates.
In those days the farm was we'll
&illed, unencumbered and prosper
Gus; but in an evil hour travelling
agent cajoled Jonas Edwards, the
father, into buying the State right
TO make and sell certain newly pat
ented automatic farm gate, for the
sum Of two thousand dollars. Ed
wards had thousand dollars in the
savings bank; he drew out this and
raised the other thousand by mort
gaging the homestead.
It was the old story. The much
yaunted gate proved gate to trouble
for Edwards. He was never able to
sell it. But If the gate proved IL
lusory, the mortgage was tangibleI
The farmer spent the remaining
fifteen years Of his life paying inter-
est on 1t.
After his fathers death Chester
Edwards went home to liye," as
people say in Maine. The family
then consisted OF his mother, his sis
ter Eunice, who was an invalid from
spinal curvature, and his mothers
brother, Uncle Horace, who had lost
a leg in the Civil War. but for some
reason did not draw pension. Ches-
ter began by selling off the wood and
timber on the old farm, thereby pay
ing the accumulated interest. He
then embarked in the dairy business,
but did not prove successful farmer,
and during the fifth season lost al
most his entire herd Of cows from
tuberculosis. Becoming discouraged,
he gave up and set off suddenly for
the Klondike gold region.
A nephew then carried on the farm
for a year, but did not remain.
Meanwhile Thomas, the younger
son, had become a Methodist min
lister. He was unable to do anything
toward reducing the mortgage.
"The mortgage will get the old
place now, and no help for it." the
neighbors said.
But there was still another men,
Der of the family to be heard from
Catherine, the younger daughter.
Largely by her own efforts, Cath
crime Edwards had graduated from
the State normal school, and obtained
q position as instructor in another
normal school at a good salary. We
imagined that Catherine would aid
her mother and sister, but never sup
posed that she would come home to
care for them there.
But after Chester left, Catherine
never hesitated for a moment. She
resigned her position, babe farewell
to all prospects Of advancement as a
teacher, and came home.
She had saved seven hundred dol
lars. With this she paid years in
terest, had the leaky roofs repaired,
and hired such help as was necessary,
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