Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1919-07-02
JUDGE ARTHUR slMKINs.
Continued from page one)

were the men under Ferguson, Green,
also Sumter and Pickens who drove
Cornwallis from the South and made
possible his final surrender at York
town. These were the soldiers tha5
followed immortal Washington as he
marched onward to victory and to
qlorv and started the building OF a
nation which now leads the world. 1t
should never be forgotten, as the
writer has said by the children OF
Revolutionary sires that there were
foremothers as we'll as forefathers
who should be honored. Did time per-
nit, would love to recount the SELF
sacrifice and heroism of the women OF
the Revolution. Elizabeth Elicit in
her "Women of the Revolution says
that the first foot which pressed the
snow clad rock of Plymouth was that
of a fair young maiden, and that the
last survivor of those heroic pioneers
was also woman who lived to see
the planting of twelve out of the
Thirteen Colonies which formed the
nucleus of the United States. l might
tell you of the self-sacrifice of Rebec-
ca Motto, of the romantic and daring
ride of Emily Geiger as she carried
the order from General Green to
General Sumter; of Sabina and Ann
Elliott, born in the old City by the
Sea: of Behethland Foot Butler, an
cestor of the late lamented General
M. C. Butler and of cur distinguished
friend now present, General M. l..
Bonham. She was the mother of sew
en- sons, among them Andrew Pickens
Butler, for many years a distinguish
ed member of the judiciary of South
Carolina and United States senator,
and another of them being Andrew
Pierce Mason Butler who fell at the
head of the Palmetto Regiment in
Mexico. There were host of others,
who, like our noble women of the
present day, "kept the home fires
burning" and with splendid patriot
ism served their country in all her
wars. But this is not the matter ex-
pected of me today, but to tell of one
who was among the first settlers of
Edgefeld District and who, upon the
commencement of the Revolutionary
War Immediately relinquished all
purposes of self ACKNOWLEDGMENT and
with the true spirit of a patriot, de-
voted his energies to the service OF
his country. am decidedly democrat
ic in word, thought and deed; not
genealogist, nor very much given to
matters of that kind, but am proud
of my people and the record they
have made. I sometimes fear that
some have false ideas of the matter of
recording and preserving the history
of families. Such a one is apt to be
thought crank with undesirable
aristocratic tendencies; for my part
l believe everyone should have his
tory of their family and preserve it
as legacy.
Away back yonder, Peter the Her
NIT, addressing the Crusaders to the
Holy Land said: "Brave knights, re-
member the deeds of your ancestors"
1t was written by the Roman historian
Sallust: Gotten have aeard that
Quintus Maximus, Publius Scipio and
other renowned men of our common
wealth used to say that when they
beheld the images of their ancestors,
they felt their minds vehemently eX-
cited by virtue, and recollections of
their great actions kindled a gener-
Gus flame in their breasts, not to be
quelled till they, also by virtue, had
acquired fame and glory" Edmund
Burke, in his great speech on Recon-
ciliation with America, gave express
sion to this lofty sentiment: "They
who care nothing for the deeds of
their ancestors need not look for
ward to the doings of their posterity."
Shall we not, then, commemorate
the heroic days of old and the men
of the past, for the emulation of our
youth, and the inspiration of our
manhood?
The first of original Simkins as
in recorded in Lenox Library, New
York, (where by the way, is record
ed the genealogical tables of most of
the Northern and New England fam
ilies) came over from the port of
London on the 10th of August 1885,.
in the ship Safety, John Grant being