Looking Back: A Journey Through the Pages of the Keowee Courier, Featuring News and Feature Stories, Commentaries by Ashton Hester, and Highlights from the Years 1938, 1948, 1958, 1988, 1998 and 2008

By John Ashton Hester

Two stories of plane crashes in the Oconee County mountains are among the many stories from past issues of the Keowee Courier that are contained in this, the twelfth book in the Looking Back series. This book also contains some commentaries by Courier editor Ashton Hester, and highlights from the years 1938, 1948, 1958, 1988, 1998 and 2008. It is the author's hope that the Looking Back books will bring back some nostalgic memories for longtime residents and provide some historical insight for younger people and newcomers to the area. The Keowee Courier was founded in 1849. Sadly, it was recently closed down, with the final issue coming out on March 27, 2019.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796076929

John Ashton Hester

Early in his career as a reporter, photographer, and editor for the Keowee Courier, ASHTON HESTER became fascinated by the volumes containing issues from past years of the paper, which was founded in 1849. He began compiling a weekly column containing news highlights from the corresponding dates 10, 20, 30, 40, etc., years ago. He first titled the column From the Past but eventually changed it to Looking Back, which is also the title of this book and six previous books which highlighted different years and contained different stories.

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Copyright © 2020 by John Ashton Hester.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2019920096

ISBN:       Hardcover                      978-1-7960-7694-3

                 Softcover                         978-1-7960-7693-6

                 eBook                              978-1-7960-7692-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 12/10/2019

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CONTENTS

I         Stories from the Keowee Courier

II        Commentaries by Ashton Hester

III       1938 Highlights

IV       1948 Highlights

V        1958 Highlights

VI      1988 Highlights

VII     1998 Highlights

VIII   2008 Highlights

I

STORIES FROM THE KEOWEE COURIER

Oconee Mountain Residents Rescued

Seven Army Airmen Who Bailed Out

of Airplane, into Wilderness, in 1945

(This story was in the December 5, 1945 issue of the Keowee Courier):

The untiring efforts of a group of Oconee county woodsmen rescued seven army airmen from the fog-shrouded mountainsides along Chattooga Ridge near Long Creek last Tuesday night and Wednesday morning after the flyers had bailed out of a doomed C-45 army aircraft.

The seven army men, including a brigadier general, fished out of the densely-forested area by a handful of citizens of the nearby community, were forced to bail out of their plane when bad weather caused them to descend to a low altitude over the mountains where the plane hit a treetop and crashed into the rocks of Reedy Branch below.

The pilot of the aircraft, First Lieut. Robert A. Phillips, of Miami, Florida, was the last of the seven men to leave the plane. He jumped at such a low altitude that his parachute, on opening, became entangled in the top branches of a 140 foot hemlock and he was stranded there 127 feet from the ground from the time of the jump, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, until Wednesday at noon when he was lowered by ropes.

The other six men were scattered over a seven mile area, two landing just across the nearby state line in Georgia, and were rounded up by a posse of men composed of local residents, Forest Ranger J.P. Brown and his crew, and local county officers.

The occupants of the plane, besides Lieut. Phillips, were: Brig. Gen. George H. Weems, of Waverly, Tennessee, former assistant commandant of Fort Benning, Georgia, just recently returned from a tour of the Philippines; Capt. Charles B. Taylor, of New Richmond, Indiana, assistant public relations officer at Fort Benning; Capt. A.H. Cartier, of Boston, public relations officer of the parachute school at Fort Benning; Capt. Robert E. Tukey, of White Plains, New York, public relations officer at Fort Benning; Lieut. Julian Hayes, of New York, public relations officer of the infantry school at Fort Benning, and T-Sgt. Lester Gauldin, of Bedford, Ohio, aerial engineer.

The group was on a return flight from Washington to Lawson Field at Fort Benning. They left Washington at 3:30 in the afternoon. The crash occurred about 7:30.

The pilot said that his radio was not working, and because of such bad weather conditions he was forced to descend from his cruising altitude of 8,000 feet. On descending to 2,500 feet the aircraft struck a treetop which broke off part of the right wing and knocked out one engine of the twin engine seven-passenger plane.

I managed to get the plane to climb up to 3,000 feet on one engine while the rest of the men got ready to bail out, Lieut. Phillips said. "I remained in the plane, circling for two or three minutes after they had jumped. I couldn’t get the plane trimmed up and under control so I locked the controls and made a dash for the emergency door.

As I was falling through the air I saw the ship crash and burst into flames on the rocks below even before my parachute opened. Just as the chute opened, it was caught in the top of the tree.

Dewey Swofford, who lives about a mile from the scene of the crash, had heard the airplane flying low in the area and rushed out on a mountainside near his house and saw the glare of the burning airplane. On reaching the spot where the plane had crashed, he was attracted by the calls of the pilot from his perch in the treetop about 200 yards away.

P.W. Shedd, also on the scene soon after the accident happened, got in touch with Forest Ranger Brown who in turn called others out to help search for the other men who had parachuted from the plane.

Expert tracking and woodsmanship on the part of Burt Thrift, Ed and Dewey Swofford, P.W. Shedd, State Constable Seab Moss and Forest Ranger Brown enabled the men to round up the stranded flyers through the dense fog and rain during the night.

None of the men were seriously injured as they landed, although several had received cuts and bruises from hitting tree limbs, and General Weems received slight ankle injuries.

* * * * *

Because of the darkness, fog and rain, the rescue of Lieut. Phillips from the tree was impossible during the night. Men were stationed at the base of the tree to keep watch and help keep the stranded flyer awake until daylight.

Several plans of rescue were brought up, including building a scaffold up the tree to the top, and also procuring a fireman’s net for the pilot to jump into, but the actual rescue was made by means of ropes.

Fred Chastain of Mountain Rest and M.C. Sheriff, REA lineman from Westminster, deserve great credit for volunteering for the dangerous job of retrieving the man from the treetop.

By crossing on a rope from the top of a 50 foot tree about 10 feet from the tree in which the pilot was hanging, Chastain managed to climb to the first limb of the big hemlock which was approximately 55 feet from the ground. There he succeeded in throwing a rope over the next limb and was hauled up to it by men pulling the rope from the ground. By repeating this procedure several times, Chastain managed to get high enough in the tree to throw the rope up to the pilot, who securely tied himself around his body and was lowered to safety by the men on the ground.

The pilot was brought down from the tree about noon, 16 1/2 hours after he landed in its top.

When he first landed in the tree Lieut. Phillips was hanging in mid-air in his parachute harness, but by desperately swinging he managed to catch a limb near the trunk of the tree and pull himself astraddle. He loosed his parachute harness and remained perched on the limb.

I didn’t know what to do, he said. It was dark and foggy and raining and I couldn’t even see the ground. I sat there and watched my plane burning below me and wondered how high up I was.

I used up all my matches and cigaret lighter fluid making lights so the men on the ground could see me, the very game 25-year old pilot continued.

Throughout his 16-hour sit in the treetop the pilot was very jovial. He had not suffered any injuries in his fall but was severely chilled by the rain and cold.

As soon as he was lowered to the ground navy medical corps personnel administered first aid and carried him up the mountainside on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance which wheeled him on to the Stumphouse ranger station.

* * * * *

After the roundup of the flyers the ranger station was made general headquarters for the group. A group of army men from Asheville made the investigation of the accident, and the plans were made for the return trip to Fort Benning.

Several of the men had already eaten breakfast—some at the home of Mr. Thrift and some at Bunyon Phillips’ home near the scene of the crash.

Mrs. J.P. Brown, wife of the forest ranger, prepared meals for the others. She also prepared lunch for the whole group, which was greatly appreciated by the grateful and exhausted flyers.

General Weems, a Bull Durham chain smoker who rolled his own cigarets, and a friendly 64-year old army man, paid a great compliment to the people of this area.

These people are superb, he said. They came out into the foggy, wet night and drug us out of the thick underbrush and rocks of the mountainsides. They are real woodsmen and honest hard working people. People like this make up the real America.

Sgt. Gauldin was the only one of the seven who had made a previous emergency parachute jump. He jumped from a burning plane over Cleveland, Ohio, two years ago.

* * * * *

The pilot’s parachute still hangs 127 feet from the ground in the tall hemlock near Chattooga Ridge as efforts are being made by the army at removing the scattered wreckage of the transport plane from the rocks of Reedy Branch nearby.

Crashed Plane Located in Oconee

Mountains after Four-or-Five-Day

Search; Pilot, Two Passengers Die

(This story was in the November 6, 1957 issue of the Keowee Courier):

The final grim remnants of airplane wreckage which had claimed the lives of three persons on the rugged solitude of an Oconee mountainside were cleared and hauled away Saturday from Medlin mountain where the small twin-engine craft crashed the night of October 23.

Bodies of the three victims, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Shaw and pilot Ben Gunn of Charlotte, N.C., were brought out late last Wednesday by a search party after wreckage had been spotted from the air several hours earlier.

Intensified search for the missing plane and its three passengers had been going on since the preceding Saturday when members of the families became alarmed at their long absence on the trip which was to take only a day or so.

Mr. Shaw, 49, president of the Shaw Manufacturing Company of Charlotte, had flown the plane to Atlanta with his wife who was undergoing medical attention. He hired Gunn to fly the plane on the return trip since his own pilot license did not authorize night flying.

The plane, a twin-engine Piper Apache, left Atlanta late Wednesday, Oct. 23, bound for Charlotte. Gunn was a veteran pilot who had taught flying for a number of years. He was holder of private, commercial, and instrument licenses.

Members of the search party found all three victims of the tragedy thrown from the craft. Gunn lay some five feet from the biggest portion of the wreckage. Mrs. Shaw was about 10 feet away, and Mr. Shaw about 35 feet up the mountainside.

Torn pieces of the plane were scattered about in a circle of about 60 feet in diameter. Civil Aeronautics officials who inspected the area said the craft apparently flew squarely into the mountain.

Locale of the crash was on the western slope of the mountain some two miles from the U.S. Fish Hatchery and approximately one mile off Highway 107. Terrain in which the wreckage was found was so wild and rough that it required the exertion of 12 persons to bring each of the bodies down the tangled mountainside.

Air search for the missing plane had been going on for four or five days, but mainly along the usual aerial route used by Atlanta to Charlotte traffic. The wreckage was spotted from the air by a Civil Air Patrol pilot, Lt. Carl Cummings.

First to locate the scene for ground searchers were two Oconee county National Guardsmen, J.R. Harden and Bill Talley. They signaled others of the party searching in that area, including Coroner Floyd Owens and Deputies Ervin Manley and Frank Alexander.

Wreckage of the plane was removed from the rough terrain under direction of Sam and J.T. Fowler of Mt. Rest. Pieces of the craft were scattered for great distances along the mountain, much of it entangled in trees and underbrush where it ripped through before crashing. In one instance a tree had to be cut down in order to recover a wing, a landing gear, and part of an engine.

Coroner Owens empaneled a jury to view the bodies and scene. Serving on the jury were Jack Hunt, Alvin Thomas, O.H. Vaughn, Emory Alexander, Jr., Bob Grogan, and John Carter.

The bodies were brought to Ansel Funeral Home in Walhalla and the following day were carried to Charlotte. Final rites were conducted there Friday.

NIGHT WAS STORMY

(This supplemental story about the plane crash was also in the November 6, 1957 issue of the Keowee Courier):

The night of October 23, when a twin-engined passenger plane crashed against the side of a rugged mountain and carried three persons to their deaths, was one of heavy fog and gusty winds with hard rains in the U.S. Fish Hatchery area.

Those are the weather facts shown on the official records maintained at the Hatchery by Mrs. J.F. Harrington.

The aircraft struck the mountainside only several miles from there in some of the roughest terrain in this section.

Mrs. Harrington recalled the tragic night as one when a thick curtain of fog began rolling down and rising out of the valleys shortly after dark. She also told the Courier her records showed a high wind rose and hard showers of rain began to fall about 10 minutes to 9.

The heavy showers fell off and on through the night, she said, and it began to clear off only the following morning about 4:45. A total of about 1.85 inches of rain fell.

She also said she and Mr. Harrington, an official at the government trout hatchery, remembered hearing an airplane engine as if the craft was circling about above the fog. She said the sound soon faded and they thought no more about it since many planes travel the area, apparently those leaving or heading for Donaldson Air Force Base at Greenville.

Whether the sound they heard that night was the plane that hit the mountain, they, of course, have no way of knowing. Mrs. Harrington said they heard no crash or other unusual sound, but pointed out it is difficult to hear planes unless they come directly overhead, since the hatchery is located deep in a valley. The rushing water noise from the Chattooga river and the huge hatchery pools also lessen the chances of detecting outside sounds.

EDITOR KNEW PILOT

(This editorial by Keowee Courier editor Charles S. Charlie Collins was in the November 6, 1957 issue of the Courier):

Life plays odd tricks with its twists of fate and incidents that bring memories of names and faces long since filed away in some little corner of a fellow’s mind.

It had been some 17 years since a slender, dark-haired handsome fellow hopped out of a Piper Cub airplane after landing on the airport runway in Athens, Ga., looked back with a quick grin, and then said, All right, now take it up and bring it back by yourself.

It had been 17 years since this writer had seen that flight instructor who at the time was teaching flying under the Civilian Pilot Training program for the University of Georgia.

And I suppose, frankly, it had been not much less of that time since I had occasion to even think of the fellow who must have had all the patience in the world to have taught flying to me and some of the other characters he had to contend with in that class.

Four years of war and a big hunk of lifetime have whisked by since those days of 1939.

Although many incidents of the period are pretty well hazed over now, in a way it seems like only yesterday he would shake his head and ask if I had to have a whole runway to land a little ole Cub, or would josh Erle Coke, Jr. (since a national commander of the American Legion) about landing his plane while he was still 20 feet in the air.

It’s just the way life goes, of course, but it brings back a flood of memories to realize that same fellow whom you hadn’t seen or heard of in all that time runs into a foggy mountainside with his plane only a few miles from where you’re sitting.

‘Fiddlin’ Slim’ Organized Hillbilly

Band While Serving 18 Months

For Transporting of Moonshine

(This story was in the November 25, 1948 issue of the Keowee Courier. It was accompanied by a photograph of Fiddlin’ Slim lying on his bed playing the fiddle):

Christmas Eve, coming, will be a happy time for Fiddlin’ Slim, Oconee county’s jailbird maestro, who in spite of the fact that he has been confined to the county jail for the past 18 months has organized a hillbilly band and really expects to go places—as soon as he gets out of jail, that is.

In the meantime—and for the past eighteen months—Fiddlin’ Slim has been fiddlin’ away his time.

Come Christmas Eve, though, he will be released and with his locally organized band he hopes to hit big-time hillbilly music lanes, via a spot on the Grand Ole Opry, the dream of every fiddle-player, guitar-swinger and banjo-plucker in the country.

Slim’s a pretty hot fiddle handler, as he will admit, and has his own records and own compositions to prove his point. Besides his own Special, his favorite and perhaps best piece is the fiddle version of The Flight of the Bumblebee.

Although he has been in jail for 18 months, he has been swinging a fiddle bow for quite a number of years. The 32-year-old native Oconeean says he began with a toy instrument when he was four, and within a year could