Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-11-15

dred SlmhlnS, q pupil OF MOSES Wdu-
dell, at Wilmington, and later immor-
talized by Calbraith Butler made love
as the Family Provided for; his Sec
ond wife was Marion Deering Of
Athens, Ga.
Here fate took hand in the af-
fairs of Mathew Calbraith Butler, as
lit did several times atterward.
Colonel Pickens was getting ready
for the trip to White Sulphur Springs
in Virgins. He was heading straight
into danger, although he little reck-
oned it. He rounded up old Harper,
the coachman, old Nose Wallace,
baggage wagon negro, Henry Crook
er, footman and gate opener, and
Robert, small boy, who had Dolly,
the saddle mare, hitched to the bug
gy. In June, 1857, the cavalcade be-
gan its journey to the springs, resting
and relaying at Columbia, Charlotte,
Raleigh Richmond, and other places,
until they landed at White Sulphur
Springs for the late summer.
In his plans for business and poll
tics the coming fall, all fully ma
tured, Colonel Pickers failed to in
clude Lucy Holcombe; but there she
was, standing right across his plans
Radiant, glorious, with the sunshine
of the prairies on her brow and the
roses of Virginia in her cheeks, and
queenliest woman known to Ameri-
cas- history, she was destined to
strike dumb all beholders in that CEN
ter of female loveliness, St, Peters
burg of the Tsars.
Forty years after this event, l
stood before her at Edgewood, as she
handed me life of her distinguished
husband inscribed with her name,
and the royalty had not left her, a
woman that called up Byron's lines:
sWho hath not felt his sinking heart
and lips confess
The might, the majesty of loveliness"
Colonel Pickens went down call in
a heap" He was done far. The radi-
ant beauty hearkened to his wooing
this far. She consented on one condi-
tion only. He must secure an ambas-
sadorship. Now what is an ambassa-
dorship between friends?
Colnel Pickens and James Buchan-
an sat side by side in congress.
They were close friends, and friend
ship has always figured in the Butler
annals.
Colonel Pickens went to Buchanan
at once and got what he wanted, the
ambassadorship to St. Petersburg;
but this was not all. His plantations
were on his hands. They had to be
looked after. Perhaps somebody close
to him and interested vitally in Cal
braith Butler spoke to him on. the
subject! Anyway he told his daugh-
ter that she might now marry that
poor, but handsome and brilliant,
young Butler, who could look after
things while he was away. Then he
rushed out to Texas and married his
lady love, taking her forthwith to St.
Petersburg with John E. Bacon, chief
secretary, and Franklin j. Moses, as
sistant-the Governor Moses of the
plunder days.
Early in 1858 Matthew Calbraith
Butler and Maria Simkins Pickens
were married and their first son, now
DR.. F. w. P. Butler, of Columbia,
says he discovered America on De-
cember 8, 1853" (Named for his
grandfather, Francis Wilkinson Pick
ens.)
Now we come to Butler, the man.
Some time before his marriage, my
father told me, he was passing up
Main street in Greenville, when a
young man walked out Of the old
Mansion house, with cape flung
carelessly over his shoulder, and a
sporting stick in his hand. 1t was the
most superb type of physical man
hood he had ever beheld, and he ask
ed the first passerby who was the
young man. ooh! that is young Cal
braith Butler"
The same impression was made on
the French ambassador at the York
town celebration in 1881. When ask
ed to pick out the most distinguished
man in that gathering, where distin-
guished men from every country un-