Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1911-12-06
MONUMENTS TO WOMEN.
Capt. White Erected First Monument
to Women OF Confederacy.
(Anderson MALL

ment reared to the memory Of the
women Of the Confederacy.
While indeed 1t Is not as signifi-
cant as the grand memorial to be
unveiled in Columbia this month.
for this latter represents the affection
and admiration Of the whole State
yet the monument at Fort Mill is one
OF the most beautiful expressions Of
Southern sentiment ever put into
lasting form.
This fact in the history of the
State is q matter Of pride and inter-
est to the thousands who know Of it.
After South Cardinals John Lau-
rens had made possible the liberty of
the American people by bringing to
our aid the armies and the navy Of
France; after South Cardinals An
drew Jackson had saved the inde-
rendence Of the people of the United
States by the defeat Of Packenham:
after the Palmetto flag had been the
first to float from the walls of Mex.
leo, 1t became necessary for South
Carolina to be the first to assert her
dignity and to withdraw from a In
ion which she considered dishonora-
Bile as well as distasteful under the
circumstances.
The South Carolina women were
ever first in their devotion to the
principles of freedom, and in that
great war in which went down the
Nag OF the great nation Of the Sout.,-
ern seas, the women were the great
est sufferers
Fast Is passing away that type of
educated. masterful and yet kindly
gentleman, the planter Of the old
South. But few remain. One who
has gone to his last rest within the
present year is Samuel Elliott White.
of Fort Mill, the first to perpetuate
the memory of the women Of the Con-
federacy. So intensely Southern was
Capt. White that, in the heart of the
little town, which even before the
Revolution had been the home of his
forbears, he has caused to be made
Confederate park. And this park
is filed with memorials to the nation
that is dead
South Carolina will be the first
State in the South, perhaps the first
government in the history OF the
world, to perpetuate the memory or
its women in a State monument. This
will be credit to the whole nation
as work Of art and its sentiment
W hD or
But this official State action cannot
take laurels from the brow of Capt.
White. who, as the representative of
the people OF York county, has of his
own private funds had the best of
modern Italian sculptors carve a
memorial Of great beauty in COM
mcmorat!on OF the virtue and the
character and the suffering Of the wo-
men of the South. A correspondent
thus writes Of Capt. Whites gift to
the people:
"rhrough the efforts Of one Of
South Cardinals most loy"' and
chivalrous sons, she has tn ligh
honor and distinction OF rearih the
first monument to perpetuate the
memory of the women OF the Confed-
eracy, and this devoted patriot Is
Capt. Samuel E. White. The shaft
stands on South Carolina soil, and 1t
will go down in history that South
Carolina has this new honor added to
her reputation for taking the initia-
tive in deeds Of valor, loyalty and pa
triotisI. The State owes debt Of
gratitude to Capt. White for thus
making for 1t such record, but es-
pecially should the women of the
State render him their love for the
interest and zeal he has manifested.
In this most substantial manner he
was the first to recognize the part
they played in this terrible tragedy.
Capt. White was a man of retiring
nature and innate modcsty and
claimed no honor for himself. But
while he shrank from publicity we
only honor ourselves by giving honor
to whom honor Is due, and to him let
us give the need he has won in the
past.
But Capt. White. imbucd with the
spirit of the motto Of South Carolina,
'AAimis opibusque parati,' has done
his work wisely and well. This
monument. has massive base
twelve feet high, surmounted by the
statue Of a woman i'm the attitude OF
prayer, making the whole monument
1S feet high. This female figure