Looking Back: A Journey Through the Pages of the Keowee Courier

By John Ashton Hester

This book contains fifty stories that were in the Keowee Courier during various years of its 170-year history (1849-2019) and week-by-week highlights from the years 1922, 1932 and 1962. It is the fourteen in a series of "Looking Back Through the Pages of the Keowee Courier" books which contain similar collections of stories and highlights of various years. Although the Keowee Courier was Oconee County's dominant newspaper through about the mid-1910's, and had stories from all over the county, this book focuses primarily on stories from the section of the county that encompasses Walhalla, West Union, Mountain Rest and Keowee Community and surrounding areas. Previous books have highlighted other sections of the county.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669850465

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 © 2022 by John Ashton Hester.

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.

The photo on the front cover appeared in the May 18, 1977 issue of the Keowee

Courier. The reason everyone is laughing is that, as Councilwoman Edithe

Mooneyham was presenting the umbrella to Walhalla Sertoma Club president Bill

Watt, the song, Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, sung by B.J. Thomas was

playing on the public address system.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/05/2022

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CONTENTS

Preface

I   (Stories from the Keowee Courier Over the Years)

II   Highlights From The Year 1922

III  Highlights From The Year 1932

IV  Highlights From The Year 1962

PREFACE

This is another in the series of Looking Back Through the Pages of the Keowee Courier books that I have compiled and published. This one consists of fifty miscellaneous stories that appeared in the Courier over the years, along with week-by-week highlights from the years 1922, 1932 and 1962.

The Keowee Courier was founded in 1849 in the town of Pickens Court House, which at the time was the seat of government for the Pickens District. The first issue was published on May 18 of that year.

In 1868 the Courier moved to Walhalla when the Pickens District was divided into Oconee and Pickens counties. The town of Pickens Court House, mostly disbanded, with all businesses moving either to Walhalla or Pickens. (The remnants of the town subsequently came to be called Old Pickens.)

The Courier closed down following the publication of the March 27, 2019 issue after 170 years of continuous weekly publication except for an interruption of three and a half years (March 15, 1862-September 23, 1865) during and following the Civil War.

My career as reporter/photographer/editor of the Courier spanned from August 16, 1973 to March 27, 2019.

I

(STORIES FROM THE KEOWEE

COURIER OVER THE YEARS)

Future of Adger College in Walhalla

Debated after Destructive 1888 Fire

(The following introduction was written by me, Ashton Hester):

In early 1889 there was a debate concerning the future of Adger College in Walhalla. The two buildings that housed the college had been destroyed by fire in October 1888, and classes were now being held temporarily in other buildings. The January 17, 1889 issue of the Keowee Courier contained a lengthy editorial advocating closing Adger College and replacing it with a graded school. The editorial was unsigned; however, it was probably written by the Courier’s principal editor, Col. W.C. Keith.

Two weeks later, in the January 31 issue, the Courier contained a lengthy letter to the editor disagreeing with the editorial and advocating that Adger College be rebuilt. Following are portions of the January 17 editorial and the January 31 letter to the editor:

January 17 Keowee Courier Editorial

No journal could advocate more zealously and constantly the interest of any institution than the Courier has done that of Adger College in the past. We aided in its organization. We have paid our interest promptly. We have patronized the institution uniformly.

From time to time we have impressed on our readers the importance and value of education, and we have pointed out the advantages in hygiene and cheapness of board in Walhalla as an inducement to parents to send their sons here, but now we stop.

The college, as such, is a failure, and no one can reasonably gainsay it. The pupils number about forty boys, a few of whom are hammering at Caesar, but the great bulk ranging in studies from the alphabet to geography, etc.

The studies pursued do not give it the rank of a high school, and the patronage is purely local. Why longer deceive ourselves with the fancy of a college which has no substance of reality?

There was a time when the college, under Professors Riley and Strong and their colleagues, had vitality and the promise of success. The students, many from other counties, numbered as high as 140, and the college enjoyed the support and good will of the town and county. This is no longer the case.

When Riley and Strong resigned and the college was put under the charge of Dr. Mullally, it began to decline in usefulness and popularity, and from that time it has been going down, down, until in numbers of students and studies pursued it is not equivalent to an ordinary school.

The gentlemen in charge of it are competent and with good patronage would do well, but where is the patronage to come from? The institution has, to a large extent, lost the confidence and support of our citizens.

A large number of the trustees have resigned some months back and have no hopes of its future.

If a college were necessary to our town, we assert without fear of successful contradiction, that it would be easier to begin anew than to attempt to renovate and the decrepit decaying shadow of the present institution.

All efforts to get an endowment for it (and we have contributed to agents for that purpose) have failed. With no hopes of further endowment, with the buildings in ashes and the obligors of the bonds no longer paying interest, what is before the college but utter failure?

The college, so called, is, in our opinion, an incubus on the town. It is an incubus on our educational interests. Remove it and we can open a first-class graded school which will receive our full local patronage and draw students from a distance.

We took this position both before and since the buildings were burned, but we were quieted by hopes of help from abroad held out by a few of the trustees. Longer silence, we think, is wrong, injurious to the true interests of both the town and of education. We may be wrong and give these only as our individual views.

January 31 Letter to the Editor

EDITORS COURIER: As the writer and some others in the community do not concur in the gloomy views expressed in your editorial last week regarding our male college, and have no sympathy with the suggestions thereof to abandon the scheme as originally projected, he begs leave to venture a few thoughts and to submit a few facts in the case.

Unquestionably, there exists to the town of Walhalla and the surrounding country the same necessity for the continuation and fostering of the colleges now that existed at the inception of their establishment, to wit: The moral and intellectual culture and advancement of our people and the material prosperity of our town and county.

(Book editor’s note): Regarding the reference to the colleges, in addition to Adger College for males, there was also Walhalla Female College. It was located on the north side of East Main Street between John and Johnson streets.

Yes, you will say, this is admitted by our plea for the displacement of the colleges (for your article includes both, and it is generally conceded that they will rise or fall together) by a system of graded schools, and you say in substance that the colleges have and are disappointing our expectations in accomplishing their intended ends.

The writer will concede that whilst the male college has accomplished a great deal, and is still doing a good work in affording the advantages of classical and scientific education to the young men and boys of Oconee and other counties of the State, yet it has not done for us all that we had hoped and expected.

But if it never accomplishes more than to have graduated the Messrs. Neville, Beard, Shelor, Jaynes, the Striblings, Cooper, Castles, Garlington, and a score of others whose names I do not now recall, like the famous mother of Gracchi, she may point with pride to her record and exclaim, These are my jewels!

This she has accomplished in the face of great difficulties. What might she not have accomplished and what may she not yet accomplish with the united support and encouragement of her home people?

The loss of our male college building, furniture, apparatus, etc., etc., by fire was a great disaster, and has been a serious embarrassment to the exercises, but we hope this will only be temporary and that ere long we shall see a new and better building on the site of the old one.

We have at present but two professors and about sixty enrolled pupils. These teachers (General Kemper and Professor Cochran) are doing their duty faithfully to those entrusted to their care.

We have not employed more teachers because the means to pay them for their labor has been withheld by the refusal to pay the interest on the subscribed endowment. Furnish the means, and the teachers will be employed, and if the subscribers will pay their interest as it accrues, the fund is then provided.

But you say give us a system of graded schools, and we ask what resources have we for the establishment of these schools, unless it may be the possible benefit of the Peabody fund, which may not be made available to fund the present system of colleges with much more hope of making them the success desired than entering into a new and untried system which is certainly, for some at least, not free from serious objections, not the least of which is blending the teaching of males and females under one government.

The Female College has made a good record and has many valuable graduates already, and now under Professor Reed and wife, with its seventy-five enrolled pupils, we doubt not is doing a good work, and we rejoice in its continued success.

The enrollment of the two colleges, male and female, now aggregates one hundred and thirty-five pupils, and all our people could be impressed with the idea that no change is to be made in our present system of schools if they would rally and give the colleges their united support and success is achieved.

Don’t give up the colleges, which have been the pride of our town in the past, and, if sustained, will bring glory in the future.

Adger College Advertisement

(A month before the two buildings housing Adger College were destroyed by fire in October 1888, the following advertisement for the college was in the September 13, 1888 issue of the Keowee Courier):

The work of the next session of Adger College will begin on Thursday, 13th instant. It is proposed to give greater prominence than heretofore to the Scientific Branches and such Technical Studies as Engineering, Architecture, &c.

The charges are as follows for term of five months: Tuition in Collegiate Department, $20.00. Tuition in Sub-Collegiate Department, $15.00. Tuition in Higher Academic, $10.00. Tuition in Lower Academic, $6.50. Tuition in Primary, $5.00.

Address: Del Kemper, M.A., President.

Reorganized Walhalla Fire Department

Celebrated 25th Year at 1948 Banquet

(The following story was in the January 15, 1948 issue of the Keowee Courier):

The Walhalla Fire Department celebrated the beginning of its twenty-fifth year of service to citizens and property holders of the city Monday night at a steak supper at Seigler’s Steakhouse.

Newt Collins, chief of the firemen, acted as master of ceremonies, introducing the mayor and council members present and the honorary firemen, and generally playing host to the group of approximately 70 fellow workers, guests, and friends.

J.F. Bearden, a member of the fire department since its reorganization here in 1923, spoke briefly to the group, recounting the history of fire fighting in Walhalla since the original fire company was organized in 1871.

In 1886 the fire company was reorganized, and again in 1903, Mr. Bearden explained. But it was not until 1923, after the city of Walhalla installed a modern water system, that the present fire department was formed.

For some time previous to the reorganization the city had no operating fire department as such. As Mr. Bearden said, The people just volunteered to help fight fires.

Although the fire department really had a hard time getting on its feet for the first few years after its formation, it has now grown into one of the best fire protection organizations of any small town in the state, Mr. Bearden declared.

The organizational meeting was held in the Masonic Temple. At that time John Ansel, Sr. was elected chief. He served until 1924 when Joel P. Keys succeeded him. Both these men were made life members of the department. Chief Keys served until 1936 when he became connected with the government and his duties took him away from Walhalla.

W.L. Norton followed in the line and tradition of the Walhalla chiefs. He served in that capacity until his business forced him to relinquish the post. Mr. Collins, the present-day chief, followed Mr. Norton.

Members of the department today are as follows:

N.F. Collins, chief; Pete Bauknight, assistant chief; John Z. Brandt, captain; Walter Grant, captain; Harold Phillips, secretary and treasurer, W.L. Norton, A.C. Phillips, Jr., J.F. Bearden, Mickey Bearden, Summers Long, R.H. Collins, Cleland Walling, Robert Dilworth, Zeddie Dilworth, Harry Rhodes, George Clark, Mack Neville, Claude Phinney, Henry Brandt, Henry Klaren, Strother Darby, E.C. Whitten, Bob Long, Wallace Seaborn, and John Snead.

Honorary members include J.A. Ansel, Sr., Joel P. Keys, Henry Rogers, and G.D. Abbott.

* * * * *

The first fire company was organized in Walhalla in 1871. Captained by William Korber, its membership included John Waldt, Claus Stucke, Henry Tiejen, Henry Stucke, Henry Schroder, John Goodman, John C. Mickler, Peter Waller, and Columbus Seiber.

The first fire fighting equipment for the city of Walhalla was purchased from the city of Charleston and had been in use there for a number of years. The first piece of equipment was an old hand pump, which the firemen named Mountaineer. The old hand-drawn hand-pumped outfit sits today in the fire hall and is affectionately called Old War Horse.

In 1896 the city purchased a new hook and ladder wagon, and a second fire company was organized. Captain of company number two was G.W. Pratt. Its membership included the younger men of Walhalla at that time, such as Boone R. Moss, Dick Steck, J.H. Norman, W.D. Moss, and W.D. Pitchford, the only living member today in Walhalla.

(Book editor’s note): G.W. Pratt had an eight-year-old son, Derrill (Del) Pratt, who went on to become a star major league baseball player.

In 1903, further reorganization took place in the Walhalla department. In the new group was a young man who was later to become an honorary fireman, and who is still very active in fire fighting in the city, G.D. Abbott.

(Book editor’s note): I believe that G.D. Abbot was Glenn Abbott, who for many years was local manager for the power company.

Mr. Abbott was among those introduced. In a few words to the group he recalled the burning of Walhalla in June of 1898. The fire had consumed most of the buildings along what is now Walhalla’s Main street, and the firemen, in order to prevent the fire from spreading further, dynamited a dwelling house.

That house that was blasted down, Mr. Abbott explained, stood on the exact spot as the building we are gathered in tonight.

Orr’s Regiment of Rifles Held Its

49th Anniversary Reunion in 1921

(The following are excerpts from a lengthy story in the August 24, 1921 issue of the Keowee Courier):

The forty-ninth reunion of Orr’s Rifles has been held, and another event has passed into history.

The survivors of this still-famous body of gallant soldiers and their friends began a simultaneous attack upon Walhalla from front, rear and flank about 11 o’clock Monday morning, the 15th, and before sundown we were permitted to make an honorable surrender.

There were about sixty-five veterans of the War Between the States present, thirty of whom were survivors of Orr’s Rifles. They came from all parts of South Carolina; they came from Georgia; they came from Texas, to honor us by their presence.

(Book editor’s note): The reunions were originally for survivors of Orr’s Regiment of Rifles only, but as the veterans’ ranks began severely thinning out, different units joined together to hold combined reunions.

While the weight of years is beginning to force the shoulders of some to stoop, they are still young and hopeful in spirit.

After all of the survivors had arrived in Walhalla, they assembled for an informal reception and business meeting in the High School Auditorium, which had been very tastefully decorated for the occasion.

The roll was called to ascertain if any had died since the last meeting. It was found that at least ten had answered the last earthly roll call. And thus, the ranks are being rapidly thinned.

It had been planned to have on Tuesday morning a grand parade of the old veterans and veterans of the World War, school children and citizens, but the greater part had to be abandoned on account of rain.

At 11.45 the crowd reassembled in the auditorium and were called to order by W.T. McGill, president of the association. The veterans occupied the front seats, and seated on the rostrum with the president were the sponsor, Miss Eunice Macaulay, and her maids of honor, Misses Eloise Strother, Janie Harrison, Elsie Kaufmann, Sarah Moss and Eunice White; the Boy Scout Band of Seneca, and Hon. John D. Cappelmann, orator of the day.

On behalf of the Daughters of the Confederacy, Mrs. James M. Moss, secretary of the Walhalla Chapter and granddaughter of Lieut.-Col. (Lieutenant Colonel) D.A. Ledbetter, former commander of Orr’s regiment, welcomed the veterans.

(Book editor’s note): Lieutenant Colonel D.A. Ledbetter assumed command of Orr’s Regiment after Col. James Lawrence Orr resigned upon being elected to the Confederate States of America Legislature. Ledbetter was promoted to full colonel but was later killed in action. The members of the regiment subsequently adopted his wife as the honorary Mother of the Regiment. She resided in Townville, and after the war she attended all of the reunions of the regiment until becoming disabled by ill health.

(Book editor’s note): This story included a list of all the survivors who attended the reunion, both from Orr’s Rifles and other Confederate units. The Orr’s Rifles survivors from Oconee County who attended were as follows.

From Walhalla: Fred White, W.T. McGill (president of the Survivors Association), S.K. Dendy and R.P. Chastain.

From Seneca: E.F. Miller, J.W. Todd and James Massey.

From Mountain Rest: W.H. Mongold.

From Salem: John W. Cannon.

From Westminster: W.T. Bearden.

From Townville: Harrison Price.

(The Oconee County survivors from other Confederate units who attended the reunion were as follows.)

From Salem: Thos. M. Littleton and Andy Perry.

From Westminster: J. Oliver Ridley.

From Mountain Rest: Turner Lyles.

From Walhalla: M.E. Deal.

From Seneca: A.E. Ellison.

Orr’s Regiment of Rifles Held Its

50th Anniversary Reunion in 1922

(The Orr’s Regiment of Rifles Survivors Association held its 50th anniversary reunion on Monday and Tuesday, August 14 and 15, 1922 in Walhalla. The August 23 issue of the Keowee Courier contained a lengthy report about the reunion, from which the following excerpts are derived):

The Survivors of Orr’s Regiment of Rifles of South Carolina Volunteers have again met in their fiftieth annual reunion to renew the friendships of the days of yore and to tighten the bonds that so firmly hold them to each other and to their posterity.

(Book editor’s note): By then the war had been over 57 years, and the Orr’s Regiment ranks had so thinned out that they had begun inviting all Confederate veterans to attend their reunions, regardless of what unit they served in. The names of all the veterans who attended were listed at the end of the Courier’s report. I counted 98 names, which included 97 men and one woman, Mrs. J.C. Caldwell. Could Mrs. Caldwell have been a field nurse? Or maybe her husband was a veteran and she was attending as his widow? Of the 98 attendees, only 19 were members of Orr’s Regiment, which included two honorary members.

The veterans began arriving in Walhalla Monday morning, and by the afternoon it looked as if Father Time had dealt kindly with them since their last meeting, there were so many badges in evidence.

They came as guests of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Oconee Post of the American Legion, which organizations vied with each other to do the old soldiers the most honor.

The first meeting was held Monday night at 8 o’clock at the high school auditorium. Lieut. J.N.