Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-06-02

| Mr.. HalSei living at DR.. Loves, VINO
was addicted to the opium habit, on
one occasion he took an overdose
hold Of his arms and walk him and,
| Rad willie" as DR.. w. NJ. was then
called, pull up Halsel's Pants 10 his
knees and whip his bare legs. 1t was
amusing to sec how Halsel would
squirm and kick as Willie applied the
+ switch and laugh. After an hour or
two Of this exercise Halscl Eot all
right, his legs rather sore from. the
effects of the switch applied by Will
lie, who, for sometime had only IL dis
tant relationship with HalsCl.
During the reconstruction and i'm
mediatcly after, McConncllsville was
lOnc OF the places in. York county
where the negroes and scalawags field
their big political powwows. On
these occasions the negroes from, all
the surrounding ncighborhood would
assemble, 4 brass band was always on
hand us ii created more enthusiasm in
the average country darkcy than all
their speech making, therefore, it had
n very prominent part in the pro
gram and did much footing" They
had only one tune and they played 1t
for all II was worth. During the
speaking Capt. Jim Williams had his
company of. militia on hand and af-
ter the meeting closed Capt. jim
gave an exhibition drill by his COM
pany, which consisted Of double
Quicking his men for about an hour
over an old field near the station.
ErStwhile Capt. Jim came 10 grief On
the night of the first Monday In
March, 1871, DR.. Love and l had been
out west of McConnellsville for fox
chase and when returning about q
half mile from .McConnellsville we
were halted and demanded TO know
who we were and where going, after
a short delay we were ordered to fol-
low them and when we got to the sta
tion we discovered that they were Ku
klux as we had suspected. They
made the negro pumper get up behind
one of the men but Mr.. j. =. Moore
interceded for him and they let him
go. They inquired about several ne
yroes in the vicinity, but finally the
leader said they must hurry on as
they wanted Williams and could take
no chances. The next morning Jim
Williams was found hanging to a
limb of 4 pine tree near the Scott
Wilson place. This event created
a great commotion among the negroes
of the neighborhood, several left the
country and, the men who remained
slept ait night in. the woods for some
time fearing return of the Klan. 1t
was not an unusual thing to see be-
tween sundown and dark negroes
with blankets on their shoulders max
ing for the woods to spend the night
The negro militia company automati-
cally disbanded with the hanging of
Williams. The Klan that did the
hanging was known as the "Briar patch
Klap" and was zmade up, from the
Sharon section of the county. In a
patch of woods not far from where
Jim WilliUps was hung, is marble
slab marking the grave Of the colored
servant of Col. VIM. Bratton of revo-
lutionary fame and, the slab was
placed at his grave by Col Bratton
to commemorate his faithfulness to
his master during the Revolutionary
war, peculiar coincident.
or all the patrons of the school dur
ing the time l taught there, lot one
is living today Also a great many
of the pupils have passed to the Great
Beyond. Those. that are living are
the old people Of the community,
and in closing this article l want to
say to them, May they be spared the
sharp passions of an unguarde6 mo-
mcnt, may they never forget that
poverty and riches are spirit and, al
though age and intirmity overtake
them, and' they come not within sight
of the castle of their dreams, teach
them to be thankful for life and
times olden memories that are good
and sweet and may the evcningss twi-
light be gentle still.