The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1914-08-26
Address By A ]. Sproles at the McGee
Reunion in Williamson Aug. 12

day, home, the last place on earth I
could make speech even If was a
speaker, nevertheless I welcome this
opportunity of expressing to you the
honor and pleasure I feel in being
with and Of you on this happy occa-
sion.
While my name is not McGee, I say
of you because the intimate associa-
tions, ties of friendship, bonds of love
and matrimonial alliances of the last
forty years have so endeared you to
me that I almost feel that am one of
the outermost twigs of your great fam
lily tree as it has just been uotlined to
you. To better understanding of the
basis of this feeling I ask your in
diligence for a brief personal remfn-
isence, not on my own account nor
that of my brotehr and sister, but be-
cause 1t involves two Of your sainted
relatives, Mr.. and Mrs. Abner Hill
Dodson, whose mother was a MCGEE
While they were not related to US they
were our neighbors, friends and bene-
factors in Mississippi and Kentucky
before you knew us and later in South
Carolina as all of you well know. By
one fthose terrible tragedies Of the
civil war-the siege of Vicksburg, our
mother was left penniless widow on
a very small poor farm in MississipN
with three small children, myself, the
eldest, being only seven years old, but
while she was destitute of this worlds
goods thanks to an allwise Providence
she was not without friends who min
istered to the widow and fatherless in
their distress! Pre-eminent among
these was Mr.. Dodson whose farm lay
just across the creek from ours, he
not only cultivated and gathered our
small crops but in many other tangi-
BILE ways helped mother to bear the
tremendous burdens 80 suddenly
thrust upon her. A little later she
gentleman from another
community which necessitated our re-
moyal from the Dodson neighborhood
but tho separation was of short ddra-
ton as the sequel shows.
zAbout-this7time, on account of rad
ics misrule, p you had hsre, quite o
cglQny from Holmes county 8liss.
t2q5sd Is Graves county, KY settiins
ia tks same general Iocality. Among
thsm the Dodsons and our step-father
Mr. Efmore, all Of which seems to have
been Providential as we were not
there5long before mother was seized
WIN what she thought was her last
illness and 80 1t proved to be. .
Il Naturally she was most concerned
about her children and what would be
comelo us for we were still young.
She remembered Mr. Dodson'n kind
II ofices in the past, but was afraid
he would not assume the expense and
responsibility Of our entire care, keep
and training, especially as he was un-
der no obligation whatever to do so
and had children of his own, besides
he and Mrs. Dodson both were well
in years, however, she sent
for Him to come to see her. OF course
he knew what she wanted but Samar-
itan that he was, he came and yielded
to her dying entreaties to take us and
do the best he could for us after she
was dead. With this assurance she
died with perfect resignation soon
thereafter-and when we had buried
her at old Smyrna we entered at once
into the Dodson home as members OF
the family and not as farmed-out or
phans as wei the custom in those
days there ebtng no Christian orphan
ages then as there are now, I need
not tell you the kind of home they had
for It was the same there as here,
where you knew it as one OF peace
and plenty, abounding in good works
and surrounded by Christian infiu-
ences.
should have stated that death al
most depopulated our Elmore nome
that year, he and two Of his daughters
our half brother and mother all nav
ing died between the 1st OF April ana
1st of August.
Mr.. Dodson did not remain in Ken
tucky long before he decided to move
back here to dwell with his kindred OF
whom YOU are and finally die on his
native heath and sleep with his fath-
ers. Consequently in December, 1874
we landed In Donnaldsville as l
thought among the finest people on
earth and time has proved 1t. Most or