The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1920-10-14
RECTORS MEN OF NERVE
EJsxsenYiIle,s Sheriff-elect Said TIC
Have Shot Apples Off Brothers

;, iysxeenYille,s Sheriff-elect Said To
Have Shot Apples OF Brothers
Head.
Fiery of face, lean of waist, and
:1raYboned. Carlos A. Rector, reform
I'D moonshiner, who has been elected
I'D become sheriff of Greenville county
Esaext January, used TO shoot apples OFF
the top of his brothers head to en-
G. .hsvtain his barefoot friends when they
would call upon him at his parents
hut way back IN the heart OF the
Biue Ridge mountains. Mountaineers
for miles and miles around marveled
tie expert manner in which Carlos
sauad his brother Hendrix, handled the
,-ifle in making close-shave shots,
with each other as human targets,
writes ]. Carter Latimer, Green
4, willie, S. C., news writer in the At
Ianta journal. Hendrix was elected
sheriff IN 1912 and was serving the
sdaird year of his second term when
.. he was shot and killed on July 4,
1919, by Jake Gosnell, deputy col
= Iect0r of internal revenue, as a re-
= suit of old political strife. Carlos
was then prevailed upon to make the
lSaee and he defeated six opponents,
ancluding Captain Sam D. Willis, who
WAS wounded in France, and who was
=aRpeinted by Governor Coope as
sheriff to fill out the uneXpired term
of the late Hendrix Rector.
Both Hendrix and Carlos Rector
together with their brother, JEFF. who
-GnIIowed General Pershing into Mex
Sp0S7fM France and was decorated for
bravery, were born and raised" in
little log cabin in what is known as
Dark Corner" because for years and
years it was a liar >of moonshiners,
zanM still is. The Rector boys, like
ali Others who first saw the light of
day in this dismal section, did not
think it any harm to make moonshine
liquor. 1t was their belief-and this
aspinion still holds with most noun
taineers .today-that they had a
GOd-given right to do as they pleased
IHiib a scanty crib of corn which they
managed to raise on the hillsides. So
they distilled white lightning to sell
and drink. About twelve years ago
Carlos Rector became intensely in
seerested in religious revival and
was converted into the belief that
maxim liquor" was all wrong-itI
rwas- not the strong arm of the law
sktIS changed him, but the words OF
a mountain "sky pilot" He even
went out himself and beseeched his
fellow-mountaineer to abandon the
: sIin and make an honest living.
Among those who needed the appeal
and reformed was his brother, Hen
. dirk, and from then on they gave
their hearts to law enforcement.
SnennIax Rector was elected magls-
trate and Carlos served as constable.
Then Hendrix moved to Greenville
sand within a short time this Lion
nj the mountains" became lion Of
xpolitjcs and was elected sheriff, but
not without stirring up political
,2daR6s because he defeated the scion
.of one of the oldest and most aggres-
rsTye political families in the state.
His spectacular career ended when
three shots caused his big heart to
cease beating twenty minutes past IL
Ssxxalosk, noon, July 4, 1919, at a To-
Cal garage. Awaiting a second trial
foI the alleged murder Is Jake Cos
nell. "revenuer,'' the jury having
failed to agree upon verdict at the
rtfrsE hearing. Carlos Rector, who was
then deputy collector of internal reve-
nus welded to the solicitations or
friends to run for sheriff, and after
n strenuous campaign he was noml-
naIed to the highest office in the gltt
Of the people Of. the county.
mol often does it fall to the lot OF
An old. woman of the mountains to-
be the mother of two sherlns OF
great county like !GreenVllle IN the
ne old state Of South Carolina"
yzxzs an expression of gratitude that
uoured out from the heart OF Mrs.
IW. Rector, who is more than ninety
wears old and active for her age.
Carlos A. Rector, thirty-siX years
~ age, ~saId that it was his earnest
ambition to some day be elected 10
the seat of Congress to which his
iale brother aspired. When Hendrix
Rector, on a visit to Washington for
the hrst time, picked out in the capi-
ssa5 what he SAID he hoped TO make
his seat, he was the subject OF "tea-
tuye" stories in nearly all the Wash
,Ington papers, and his picture was
prominently displayed.
Mhile having been elected by what
. he said he was proud to term the
common people," it is generally ad-
xnjtted by the voters for the opposing
faction that Carlos Rector will make
a fearless, conscientious and hell
busting" sheriff.