The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1914-10-09

II Washington Ave. Albany, n. Y.
April II, 1914.
Dear Mrs. Clifford fear that
have delayed writing what you ask
| ed me to so long as to eynbarass you
or perhaps to make it useless. And
have finally written that which may
seem more biographical than histor-
ical. But I have been so filled with
the story told with wealth of de-
tail by my mother in her delightful
letters and have so newly acquainted
with this very dear lady who passed
away when | was but five years of
age that it has been only by taking
thought that | have restrained myself
to the simpler task you set for me.
Many an hour have | sat with nv
father and gone over these years and
scenes with him, the best and most
prlzed companion of my life. I know
Union which | left at the age of 10
years, and those good people of sixty
years ago as if or better than. if
had always lived there From our
home, the old Arthur home, which
then filled with its grounds from what
then was the home of the Misses Nc
Twain to the corner, and opposite the
Brandon house and the Academy
which | can still see from it near Col.
Dawkin's; there was first an open
common whore travelling circus shows
were held; then Captain Joiner's up
the side street short distance the
home for time of my parents; op
posite was DR.. Cages office where
was skeleton in a closet, as recall
still with dread; further down the
SfrQaf CNccp III
very insistently, sort of school bell
at meal time, and across the way was
the Greek temple of courthouse
from which one day as | was passing
man came and led me as I thought
my doom, but only to draw names
out of a hat for which | was paid ten
cents; somewhere near the hotel was
the postoffice; further down near the
courthouse was the residence of
Judge Wallace, then those of Mrs.
Goudelock, DR.. Dogan, Col Clowney,
Mr.. Pratt, and there was as | recall
1T, a ravine to one side of the street
and the limit of my wanderings. so
deep. that china tree growing in it
barely protruded. Down the side
street from near the postoffice was
the cemetery still there, and the
white church.
Rev. Lupton Warner Curtis was
native of Stockbridge, Mass, where
and whereabouts lived for genera
tons the numerous descendants of
Henry Curtis, their progenitor, who
came from England to New England
in 1913. His name is associated with
the nearby town of Canaan, N. Y,
where his boyhood was spent and all
the later years after leaving South
Carolina. He prepared for college
there under the tuition of a retired
officer of West Point, training and en-
tered Williams College. The fortune
of broken health drove him south soon
after and determined the momentous
part of his life for him. On the long
voyage by sailing vessel to Savannah
he found family whose memory for
their kindness and Southern hospital
ity he always cherished; they took
him home with them to their planta
tion near Savannah and employed
him as tutor for their children, and
under their favoring care his health
was so restored that he returned. end
completed his college course at Union
college, graduating in 1886. His
heart was set on the South with it's
balmy air, and he took his further
study in the Columbia Theological
Seminary where he graduated in 1880
at the age of 26.
Elizabeth Cotton was of the Long
meadow, Massachusetts,, family Of