Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-06-30
WATCHING PROGRESS
Mr.. John Knox Was Present at the
Birth Of the Town Of Clover.
WAS FIRST KNOWN AS new CENTRE

Residence, Talks Interestingly of Its
EstabIishment-Rec the Coming
of the Railroad and the Change of
Name from New Centre to Clover
Once Hunted Rabbits in Business
District-Sees Bright Future Ahead.
(By Staff Correspondent.)
Clever, June 29.-It is not given to
many men to live to see the birth of =
village and to witness the growth of
that village to hustling town of 1000
population and to see fields and forests
where he once hunted, transformed in
to sites for fine residences and cotton
mills and a place of general hustle and
hustle and activity, with every indica-
tion that that activity is going to be
considerably increased in the next few
months. But such has been the privi-
at Glover longer than any other citizen
has lived here and who has witnessed
the growth of the town from a couple
of houses TO many houses occupied by
many people and covering many acres.
Mr.. Knox, now in the S1st year of his
age, has lived at Glover since 1877,
and" nc says, Il remember that was
the year l moved here from the Beer
shcba section of York county because
it was the year after South Carolina
was emancipated from negro rule and
domination" Despite his 81 years OF
age, Mr.. Knox maintains that he is
still a young man and when the re-
porter interviewed him about Clover's
elrly days n short time ago he found
him in his garden, where the old gen.
tleman pointed to a quantity of grass
and weeds that he had just cut, in
proof of the fact that he is still hale
and hearty specimen.
No other man is as familiar with the
growth and progress of Glover ana
with the history of it's earliest days,
because he has lived it's history.
His memory is keen and if he were
inclined to do it he could no doubt sit
down and enumeratc each family who
came in the early days and he could
pretty nearly tell the year and month
that each came and what became Of
them and the children and all that sort
of thing. 1t wouldn't be hard for him
to do either, because Glover didn't
really begin to grow until the cot
ton mills began to look this way for
a location some thirty years ago.
Were Once Lots of Rabbits.
Before Glover was Glover, according
to Mr.. Knox, the site of this town was
the best place for hunting rabbits that
he knew in this section. Many time
when the snow was on the ground has
he tracked rabbits in large numbers
and caught and killed them right
where one of the banks or other build
ings stand.
Glover is not an old town in point Of
years, and in fact, it has developed al
together since the Civil war and since
1876. That was the year that the for
mer Kings mountain railroad, now the
Carolina and Northwestern railroad,
came through Glover and that was the
year the town really started. To the
Carolina and North-W Western railroad,
or the Marrow Gauge" as it used to
be known, more than any other factor
is due the building up of Glover.
New Centre Church.
Before there was any town at this
prosperous place there was a Presby-
tcrian church called New Centre, To-
Gated about one mile south of the
present main square of the town.
There the people from the surrounding
country gathered on Sunday to wor-
ship God.
That, however, was long before the
war and there was nothing there but
the church and the graveyard. 1t was
a good structure, that church, as coun-
try churches won't in that day and the
woodland around provided Il place for
numerous gatherings Of the people.
The first postoffcc that Mr.. Knox re-
called at Glover was kept by the late
Miles Smith and was located about
where the residence of w. II. Smith
now stands in the southwestern Sec
tiOn of the town. There wasn't much
mail to come to Glover or New Centre,
as the place was called in those days.
In fact, mail was only received twice Il
week, coming from LincOlnton, y. c.,
on the north and YOrkvillc on the
south. There was no GastOnia because
GastOnia is even younger than Glover.
After the Civil war this postofficc was
moved to the store of Iimri Carroll,
about one mile west of Glover on the
Glover Kings Mountain road. Then
came the railroad and the changing Of
the name from New Centre to Glover.
Torchlght Parade.
While Mr.. Knox was not living in
Glover in 1876, the year the Marrow
Gauge" railroad reached Glover and a
station was built there, he was in ClO-
yer the day that the station was open
cd for business and he remembers well
tbn tp,1bIipI,t ,,1rn do that ,vns hold in