Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-01-25
Mrs. Elizabeth Eleanor Miller
Adams.

Adams.
1t is not often that the whole span
Of a persons life may be numbered
by acts of self sacrificing devotion to
others, yet such is the case in the
instance of the long life of the below
ed friend and relative who has pass
ed to her long home. Eighty-two
years of ceaseless devotion, of cease
less un%selfshness.
In her early young womanhood the
elder sister whom she loved more than
she did her w self, married and
came to Edgefield. When state
seeded Major Abney was called to
the colors, so "Miss Bette" as she
has always been lovingly called by
those who knew her, came to Edge
field to make her home with her sis
ter and help in the care and attention
upon her growing little family. The
writer looks back upon those days
of the war and counts them by the
acts of unselfshness manifested by
her in her sisters family. She was a
second mother to US. She slept with
her pistol under her head to protect
the young family in case of danger
to them. She taught a school in. the
yard to help provide necessities for
them, so she was also a second faith
er to them.
Her own father was old, yet offer
ed his services to the state and for
nine months was in Georgetown
guarding the salt works. There his
health gave way and he returned to
Marion broken in health, his negroes
set free, no Office practice and with
two young sons to rear. 1t was now
that "Miss Bette" showed the real
heroism of which she was made. She
secured a school up or the Saluda,
the old Mount Enon school, boarded
around in the ne%ighborhood, at Mr..
VIM. Griffth's, at Mr.. Jack Coleman's
at the Cross Roads and at Mr.. John
Chapman's near Mount Enon. Here
she gave such perfect satisfaction
that the patrons were very loath to
give her up, but circumstances made
it necessary for her to be nearer
home, so she secured the school up
at Liberty Hill and lived in the Shop
pard home. While teaching these
schools every cent of the money re-
ceived was sent to her father for the
care of his family. She wore turned
dresses, homespun dresses, made her
own shoes, her own hats, knit her
own gloves and stocking, for which
she spun the thread to be able to send
all, of her money home.
After the war Major Abney was
an invalid and on Fridays she would
come down to Edgefeld and take the
burden of things from her sisters
shoulders. When the little boys died
her right arm was there to shield and
her love the bulwark upon which her
beloved sister might lean. In all of
her times of stress she was always
cheerful and gay, ready with wit and
repartee.
All children loved her. From my
earliest childhood, I remember the
stories she would tell, and there is
hardly a child or young person in
Edgefeld today, who has not sat at
her feet and listened, awe-struck and
interested to the stories she would
make as she went along.
After her marriage in 1869 to Mr..
Thomas J. Adams of Gilgal, she con-
tinued her life of unselishness, for
never had man a better wife or one
who gratifed his every whim more
eagerly, and yet she found time to
continue her help to her sisters and
brothers. For years Eleanor Abney
was a beloved inmate of her home, to
whom she was almost IS devoted as
she was to her own dear children,
only one of whom attained to wo-
manhood, a womanhood that has
been graced by all the virtues.
When her hearthstone was made des-
olate by death she continued to re-
side with this daughter, in whose
house she was when her husband died
and to exercise this most beautiful
Christian trait of unselfshness, for
in the love and tenderness and care
with which she enveloped her daugh-
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