The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1921-10-07
BY.WAYS OF STATE HISTORY
By J. W. Daniel
Camping on the Hilltop

Camping on the Hilltop
I like to sit around the campfire at
night and tell of the romances and
tragedies. of pioneer life; no place
seems more fitting, especially when l
know that in hundred cabins-yes,
really cabins, for our whole history is
a product of the cabin, mean our
early hisotry; the first frame houses
ever built on Reedy river were erect
ed not earlier than 1910; they were
built by Samuel Boiling, Hewlett Sui
livan and James Dunklin. Yes, l
know that in hundred cabins almost
within the sound of a rifle shot and
in the virgin country around them, the
things which l am relating were
enacted then I feel movedsto speak of
1.-THE past. The stars that peep down
on US seem to wait patiently for our
stories, the sighs of the night winds
fseem to want to inapart something to
Fus, the roar of the waterfall in the
distance seems to wait for interpreta-
ton, deep calleth unto deep at the
noise of thy waterspouts. The poet
who wrote the line was keeping watch
with David in that mountain region
to which David had fed from Absa-
lom. AS he listened to the falls the
sentiments of the Forty-second
Psalm welled up in his heart. AS he
listened to them in their varying
tones, now as the wind bears the
sound toward him the falls roar as if
Fat his ear, then as the ftful wind lulls
or changes it's course, the tones sub
side to a confidential whisper. Any
way you take it, it seemed that the
mountain torrents were calling to
each other through all the long watch
es of the night. Had the Jew who lis
Etened been a Saxon like me he would
have said, the "waterspirits are call
ling to each other, and to me-" The
poet, writing under inspiration, meant
that the night messages which came
II his ear awoke in his soul the keen
est appreciation Of his own experience
and, therefore, that these majestic
voices, then lullabys, awoke in his own
heart a call and a correspondence, so
I am Scriptural as we'll as poetic.
The roar of the falls, which just
now GREETED our ears, came probably
from Wares Shoals. I have listened
to it many a night before the current
was arrested by the hand of manu-
featuring interests, then the falls
could be heard for miles around when
the night was quiet. Just below those
falls there is great shelving rock
within fifteen feet of the rivers wa
ter. From beneath the rock bursts
out tiny spring cool and refreshing,
runs dozen feet and trickles into the
river. Many a time I have taken
shelter under it from the hasty sum-
mer showers that overlook me in pis-
catorial rambles. That rock, local
tradition said, was the hiding place
of John Peacock, a locally notorious
TORY and robber during the dark days
of the Revolution. His name would
have perished long ago had not the
rock been named Peacoca's rock and
handed down from generation to gen
GRAFTON. Hush. Did you hear that
wall Of the waters piercing the still
night air? Did you hear it subside to
a whisper then cease? Maybe the
water-spirits are trying to tell US of
walls they heard long ago when john
Peacock burned some settlers cabin,
3shot the father and robbed the help
less family. 1t is all passed and for
gotten now, no pen wrote. his evil
deeds. 1t is proper that some men be
forgotten and that even no epitaph
survive them, so God decreed relative
to John Peacock.
It is strange how names, not worthy
of remembrance, survive by tradition
and real names of worth are cor
rupted. I was thinking of Peachland
creek. 1t was PychIand creek, named
after Henry Pychland, one. of the first
settlers of the country. In the census
+, of 1890 the name does not appear, he
must have moved on, perhaps into the
great Southwest after he gave his
name to the creek. The name Pea
Ecock was still in the district in 1870.
Mr.: Mills writing of Laurens in
1925 says, marriages are early and
generally prolific. 1t is rare to find
a woman of the age Of twenty-five
who is not either wife or widow.
An unusual proportion of children is
raised to maturity; from their birth
they EXHIBIT strong marks of health.