Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-05-23
Count MOLTKE
Story Of a Danish NObleman Who
Is Buried in YOfkVillC.
EXILED BECAUSE OF WOMANS Love

EXILED BECAUSE OF ROMAN'S Love
Lived Here for a Number of Years and
Is Remembered by Older Residents
Humorous Incidents Related OF
Him-Sons Said to Have Served In
the German Army In World War.
There's a great plot for a novelist
in the story of the life Of Count Oscar
z. A. Moltke, Danish nObleman and
gentleman whose bones lie mou!dering
in Rose Hill cemetery in Yorkville.. A
simple slab, wCatherbeaten and worn,
marks the spot in the cemetery here
where this mans. bones lie far from
the land of his nativity. Older people
here well remember Count Moltke as he
looked as he walked the streets here
forty years ago and they tell the story
of this man who gave up title under
the Danish crown Us well as broad es-
tates and vast wealth in order to come
to America and live in peace with the
to the wishes of his proud and naughty
parents and other relatives of the aris-
tocracy of a part of Denmark, which
later became a part of the German en-
pire. There are many still living in
Yorkvile who recall the rather stout
and florid old Count Moltke, kind and
considerate of all and not embittered
by the fact that he had been banished
from his heritagcs but happy in the
love of pretty peasant girl, the moth
er Of his children. 4
His Epitaph.
On the plain and simple slab, so
weather beaten and darkened by the
vicissitudes of forty summers and
nearly forty winters that the lettering
thereon is hard to distinguish and in
fact could be deciphered the other
evening only after it had been brushed
off and the characters traced with a
heavy black pencil, there is this sim
pie inscription: Here lies Count O. p.
A. Moltke; born July l, 1928, at Roune-
bahsholm near Nestved, Denmark;
died at Yorkville, S. c., November II,
1882. Rest in peace"
His tragic story is not recorded on
that old tombstone and in fact there
is no complete record Of that story to
be found anywhere. He had few If any
close personal friends during the sew
eral years that he lived in this town
and there was little that hef had to say
at any time about himself. In, small
town, however, the people have way
of learning a lot of the personal-affaFs
of each other and while Count Moltke
kept his own counsel prOtty well, in
the course of time quite bit came to
be known about him-some of 1t, per-
haps the most of it, fact; and some of
it guess work and speculation.
Relative of Field Marshal.
There are some who say and who
insist that Count Moltke was young
er brother Of the famous German Field
Marshal He!muth Karl Bernhard Won
Moltke, who was born In lSOO ana dled
in 1891. The famous field marshal OF
the Franco -Prussian war and Oh other
European campaigns under the Prus-
sian arms was born in Denmark ana
got his carly military training in the
Danish army and it is said that Count
Oscar Moltke, who died here, served in
the Danish army and later in the
prussian army as a young man. Still
some of those Who knew him in his
later days and who remember him as
a stout, corpulent, rather clumsy man,
are unable to conceive Of his ever hav-
ing been physically tit for military SER
vice. 1t is hardly probable that c
was a brother of Germany's great SOL
der because the field marshal was 2S
years old when he was born; but there
is no question that he was near rel
ative, probably a nephew. While the
count never did tell anybody just what
connection he had with the great
Prussian soldier, he. let it be known
o npar rnlgt