Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1912-01-03
Secession Convention Recalled by
Its Sole Survivor.


claim the State Of South Carolina an
independent sovereignty
Applause, stamping and shouting
shook the very building. Hats and
| canes were waved and broken. Out
side, fireworks doomed and cracked.
Scores Of bonfires were kindled and
] professions wound through the
| streets. The pent enthusiasm Of a
people had burst through the armor
Of dignity and reserve which they had
preserved until the final step had
been taken. thinkingly, purposely.
"Soon after this history-making
meeting St. Andrews Hall, in which
the first ordinance was signed, was
destroyed by a fire that swept great
| portions Of the city"
Col. Thompson's name appears di-
rectly in the middle Of the group OF
signatures appended to the original
| parchment Of the ordinance.
| ''It's just the luck Of the middl -
| man to be the last to punk" he says
| about 1t cheerfully.
The colonel was born near Pendlo-
| ton. S. c., on Twelve-Mile river. He
! worked hard on his fathers farm
| during his boyhood, and a peculiar
circumstance is responsible for his
abandoning the tilling Of the soil.
| He was ploughing new ground when
| the ploughshare caught in the roots
nf ct,
unable to draw the plough through
| the tough roots and the boy could
| not drag 1T back. His Is not tho ma
| ture to skirt around trouble. He
| smashes through, and SO he did with
the plough. After sufficient urging
the mule tuggnd so hard that the
roots snapped, the plough was jerked
through the air and the share hit the
ploughman so hard rap that he
keeled over on the ground. If he had
been older 1t Is probable that ha
| would have continued his farm life,
taking the mishap philosophically,
but Instead he went home and told
his mother that he was done with
farming life.
"Then and there" he says, my
parents put together for me a few
small belongings and I went off to
Pendleton to become printers devil
on the Pendleton Messenger"
Until 1858 he (Thompson) worked
In different capacities on various
newspapers and he was then appoint
ed Commissioner in Equity.
Robert Anderson Thompson backed
up his action of signing the Secesr
sion Ordinance by volunteering for
the Confederate army, and later was
conspicuous in the reconstruction
period. Entering the war as a COM
missioncd officer, he rose to the rank
of lier 'enant colonel for bravery In
the fie.u. OF this it is very difficult
to persuade Col. Thompson to talk.
In fact, he has very little to say Of
the many personal incidents which
| reflect considerable credit on his
name.
For some years he has eaten but
two meals day, contending that
more are unnecessary for one Of his
age, The distance of n mile and a
half from his home to the little office
in Walhalla he walks almost every
day, and there are younger men who
do not care to keep pace with him.
He takes unbounded pride In Pick
ems District and Is fond OF talking of
great Southerners and patriots who
have lived there.
Way back in Revolutionary
times Pickens was famous" he says
1--WE had Gen. Cleveland, Gen. Ander-
son and Horseshoe Robinson. There
have been two Governors of South
| Carolina named Pickens, both ma
| lives Of Pickens District. Governor
F. w. Plckens, the war Governor,
was a gentleman of the old school.
There are very few Of us veteran
Confederates left now; fewer than
Of the Grand Army, and we arc no
longer 'Confederates. We are Amer
leans, and I can honestly say that we
have striven to do and to achieve for
our country. The old quarrel has
| been forgotten and wo Jnva tho Now