Random recollections of a long life, 1806 to 1876.

Front matter

Randoms,

1 Recollectionv^ g

^ LONG? LIFE

Chapter II. Historical Events On The Continent Of Europe

Napoleon Bonaparte — Louis the Eighteenth — Charles the Tenth — Revolution of 1830— Louis Phillippe— Revolution and Republic in 1848 — Louis Napoleon — The German Empire— Its Conquest of Austria and France 4

Chapter III. Great Britain

George The Third— Poets, Novelists, Essayists and Critics— George The Fourth— Trial of Queen Caroline— William The Fourth- Reform Bill — Queen Victoria 7

Chapter IV

Black River — Presbyterian Church — Indigo — Cotton — Specie Currency — Wells— Manchester — Its School House — Ball Battery — Drinking and Gambling — African Negroes — Yankee Peddlers — Catawba Indians 9

U CONTENTS.

Chapter V

Rev. George Reid's Academy — War of 1812 — Colonel William McWillie and His Son — Chapman Levy — General Blair — Henry G. Nixon — Boys' Artillery Company — Insurrection of Negroes — Cruelty of Criminal Laws — Baron DeKalb — Church, Preachers and Leading Citizens 14

Chapter VI. Columbia, 1817 To 1822

Departure from Camden and Arrival in Columbia — Apprenticeship and Return to Camden — Emigration Westward — Importance of a Wafer — Trip to Augusta — John McLean — Race Between Argyle and Bascom — Robert Waddell and Colonel Preston — Hugh McLean, H. I. Caughman and Sid Johnston — Sojourn at Lexington — Henry Shultz — Toasts 19

Chapter VII

. COLUMBIA— CONTINUED.

Introduction of Steam with Its Effects — Magnetic Telegraph — Express Companies — Waterworks, Gas Works and Other Improvements and Inventions — Changes in Habits, Utensils, Diseases, &c. — Roads, Streets and Ferries — Drowning of Yoimg Blocker — Markets and Butchers 29

Chapter VIII. Columbia — Continued

Business Houses and Their Occupants— John D. Brown and Family— D. and J. J. Faust— Terence, James and John C. O'Hanlon— The Bryces — Daniel Morgan — Adam Edgar — Dr. F. W. Green — Dr. S. Percival — John Parr — The Purvises and Hunts — Major Benj, Hart — Old State House — Isaac Frazier and Isaac H. Coleman — Little Levy — R. E. Russell and His Garden , . . 34

CONTENTS.

Chapter IX. Columbia — Continued

Main Street, East Side— Dr. Sam Green— Business Men and Their Houses— From Gervais to Lady Street— From Lady to Wasliington — From Washington to Plain, Including the Court House — From Plain to Camden or Taylor — From Taylor to Blanding — From Blanding to Laurel 42

Chapter X. Columbia — Continued

West Side of Main Street — Ainsley Hall — From Laurel to Blanding Street — From Blanding to Taylor— From Taylor to Plain — Andrew Wallace — Columbia Insurance Company— From Plain Street to Barrett's Store — David Coulter and Family — Benjamin Rawls — McCord and Nott — Shipwrecks — William L. Lewis 50

CHAPTER XL

COLUMBIA — CONTINUED.

Private Dwellings and Their Occupants— The Beards, Taylors, Hamptons, Wades, DeSaussures, Notts, Starks, Guignards, Herbemonts. Fishers, Chappells, McGowans and Others — First Theatrical Performance — C!ircus and Ball Room 59

Chapter XII. Columbia — Continued

Remarkable Negroes — Lawyers — James and Maxcy Gregg — Abram Blanding — Columbia Canal — State Road — Saluda Factory — Railroad Bank — Water Works — Chapman Levy — Trial of William Taylor— Duel — Academies, Schools and Watering Places 67

CHAPTER XIIL

DISTINGUISHED CLERGYMEN.

William Capers, James O. Andrew, Samuel Dunwoody, Jonathan Maxcy and Basil Manly 73

IV , CONTENTS.

LEXINGTON, 1822 TO 1839.

The Village — George Haltiwanger — A. H. Fort — Jacob Drafts — John Meetze — Mrs. Corley — The Well Curb — Ephraim Corlej^ — Adam Mayer, Mrs. Stewart and the Hendrixes 87

Chapter XVII

R. H. Goldthwaite and Allen C. Stillman — The Court House — Bush Arbor and St. Peter's Church — Jesse Drafts — The German Lutherans, Their Habits and Characteristics, Their Negroes, Their Clothing, Food and Furniture, Their Honesty, Fights and Weddings — Game — Superstition — Edgefield Ghost , 93

CHAPTER XVIIi

William Jones and John Caldwell — My Election as Tax Collector and Marriage — Stenography and Bookkeeping — Bishop Capers and Mr. Petigru— Revs. Thomas Rail, Godfrey, Dreher and Yost Metze — John Snyder 102

Chapter XIX. Some Leading Men Of The District

West Caughman, John W. Lee, John Quattlebaum, Daniel Rambo, Tommy Williamson, Simon and Peter Redmund, John Hoover, Muller & Senn, John Threewitts — Old Granby and Its Inhabitants—A Tale of a Shirt 108

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XX. THE DUTeil FORK

George Lorick's — " My Pally Hurts Me " — Spring Hill — Thomas Boyd, Senior— Lindler as a Bridegroom— Jacob Counts— Henry Smith and His Mudderwit — Shealy's — Tom Frick and His Faith — Fred Wise — Spinning Flax— Grace Before Meat 114

Chapter XXI

Amos Banks — Buckeye Bayles — Whitman, the Blacksmith — Paysinger and Bates — Deep Swimming — Dominick and His Gun — Drunken Men and Hogs — Nicknames — Verses 118

Chapter XXII

Queer Sayings and Doings — Lewis Stack as a Plough Horse — Luke Manning and His Duel — Lowry, the Surveyor — Daniel and Jeremy Wingard and Jesse Floyd 123

Chapter XXIII

Judges and Lawyers — Judge Gantt and Judge O'Neall — Tom Hendrix and Isaac Vansant — Judge Butler and Barney Livingston — Old Grig Clark— Cases in Court— Joseph Kennerly's Widow- Dunning vs. Permenter, Breach of Marriage Contract— Meetze and Singletary— Arson and Forgery 130

Chapter XXIV

Lafayette's Visit to Columbia — Death of Jefferson and Adams — Nullification Convention — John Randolph, Henry Clay and Thomas Ritchie — Florida War — Klbler. Sims and Petigru — Lutheran Seminary — Rev. Dr. Hazelius 13?'

Chapter XXV

r

RETURN TO COLUMBIA.

Officers and Directors of the Commercial Bank — The Branch Bank — New Merchants and Business Men — The Clergy — The College — The Academies — The Seminary — Receipts of Cotton — Election in 1840— Sidney Park 140

VI CONTENTS.

Chapter XXVI. The War With Mexico

Colonel Butler, Lieutenant-Colonel Dlckerson and Major Gladden— My Assignment— Robert Latta, John A. Crawford, John Caldwell and Henry Lyons — The Freshet of 1852 — My Election as Cashier — The Bank Suspension of 185T — The College Riot 156

CHAPTER XXVn.

THE CONFEDERATE WAR.

The Central Relief Association — Joseph Daniel Pope — My Visit to the Army in Virginia — The Burning of Columbia 168

CHAPTER XXVin.

My Trip Up the River — End of the War — Visit to Salt Works — Election to the Legislature — Copartnership with George W. Williams—Bank Robbery— Connection with Southern, Baldwin and Shiver — Reconstruction and Radical Rule — Failure in Health and Business — Seven Spring Mass — Rhymes 195

LONG LIFE.

" Old people tell of li'Jiat tliey have seen and done, children of 7vhat they are doing, anil fools of 7vhat thev intend to do^

Chapter I. Introductory

Aim and Scope of the Work.

However humble or obscure one's Hfe may be, be can hardly attain the age of eighty without witnessing and participating in some exciting and interesting scenes and becoming acquainted with many remarkable and distinguished persons. And when too old and infirm to serve his family or the community in any other way, he may, if blest with an ordinary memory, amuse or instruct them somewhat by recalling and recording some of the circumstances and transactions that have occurred in his time, together with the changes made thereby. This I propose to do. And whereas any statement of facts may be strengthened and confirmed by a knowledge of the manner in which they became known, my own experience shall be given whenever requisite to verify or simplify the narrative about to be related.

The present century has witnessed many startling and important events, producing a greater revolution in all the phases

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of human society than has occurred in the same length of time at any previous period of the world's history. Who can enumerate, for instance, the many improvements made in the arts and sciences, in government and education, in law and literature, in medicine and surgery, in agriculture and its implements, in mechanical inventions and chemical discoveries, all tending to promote the comforts and conveniences, supply the needs, advance the interests, and contribute to the welfare of the race? Without attempting at present to particularize or estimate the effects of these improvements on the character and condition of our people, which shall be done to some extent hereafter, a brief review of the most prominent public matters shall first be traced, and then a sketch of private affairs, with the great alterations in our business habits and domestic manners and customs, interspersed with local incidents and anecdotes, will form the subject of the following series.

Chapter II. Historical Events On The Continent Of Europe

Napoleon Bonaparte — Louis the Eighteenth — Charees the Tenth — Revolution of 1830— Louis Philippe— Revolution and Republic IN 1848— Louis Napoleon— The German Empire— Its Conquest of Austria and France.

We will first glance at the principal historical events, beginning with France.

The wonderful career of Napoleon Bonaparte, perhaps, exceeds in novelty and interest that recorded of any other character in history or fiction. His rise from a private station to supreme power without the aid of wealth or influential fiimily connections; his creation (for it can be called

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no less) of peace and order out of the chaos of conflicting and fermenting elements left by the great French Revolution ; his successive conquest of all the kingdoms of Continental Europe, until his fatal and insane invasion of Russia, with the horrors and sufferings of the retreat from Moscow; his waning fortunes at Dresden and Leipsic; his desperate but futile struggle to protect Paris; his defeat, abdication and exile to Elba; his sudden and unexpected return, causing the flight of Louis the Eighteenth; his busy and brilliant reign of the Hundred Days; his final overthrow at Waterloo; his vain attempt to escape to America; his banishment and death at St. Helena, wdie^nce after many years his remains were removed to Paris and received with great pomp by Louis Philippe, and where, in accordance with his last will and prayer, they '^repose on the banks of the Seine, among the people whom he had loved so well." Surely no more stirring and romantic life is found in the annals of our race. Such were his power and influence that his history was that of Europe for nearly twenty years ; and Allison, the historian, his bitter and prejudiced enemy, declared that all Europe would fly to arms at the display ^of his old grey coat.

I distinctly recollect reading the account of the battle of Waterloo in the Camden newspaper at the time ; and if the old Cornwallis mansion still remained, in which I went to school, and which was burnt by Sherman's troops in 1865, I could go to within three feet of the spot where I read the paper — one whole broadside being filled with the list of killed and wounded general officers.

After the fall of Napoleon, Louis the Eighteenth was restored to the kingdom by the Allied Powers, and was succeeded at his death by the Comte D'Artois, under the title of Charles the Tenth. Him the people dethroned and drove out by the Revolution of 1830, under the lead of Guizot, Thiers and others. This was in the same week that witnessed

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the commencement of a still greater revolution — though of a different kind — in the opening of the railroad between Liverpool and Manchester, and the successful application of steam power to locomotion by land ; Mr, Huskisson, the great British statesman, being unfortunately run over and killed on the trial trip.

Louis Philippe, then elected King of the French, was a son of the dissolute and unprincipled L'Egalite, Philip Duke of Orleans, who completed his infamy by voting in the National Convention for the conviction and execution of his kinsman, Louis the Sixteenth, and ended his life not long after under the guillotine, by authority of the Revolutionary Tribunal.

By the Revolution of 1848, Louis Philippe, the citizen King, was forced to vacate the throne and flee to England for safety. Then followed the stormy and short-lived Republic under Lamartine, Ledra Rollin and their associates ; the escape of Louis Napoleon from the fortress at Ham; his flight to England; his subsequent return and election to the Chamber of Deputies; his overthrow of the Republic and his assumption of the Empire with the title of Napoleon the Third.

The Revolution of 1848 extended over the Continent, "with fear of change perplexing monarchs," who quieted their subjects for the time by promises of reform, which, however, were soon falsified. The subsequent course of events, resulting in the consolidation of the German Empire by annexing to the Kingdom of Prussia the petty principalities formerly represented in the Diet; by its conquest in succession of Austria and France, with the defeat, capture and death of Louis Napoleon, are too well known to deserve further notice. Thus the French ship of state, resembling. " a stormy land, a stormy sea before her," was tossed and buffeted by the restless and tumultuous currents of foreign war and domestic factions.

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Chapter III. Grea T Britain

George the Third — Poets, Novelists, Essayists and Critics — George the Fourth — Trial of Queen Caroline — William the Fourth— Reform Bill— Queen Victoria.

Meantime England, having seen and paid dearly for the folly of intermeddling in the affairs of her neighbors, was steadily, if not rapidly, growing in wealth and power — undisturbed, save by an occasional gust from the coast of Ireland, whose people she had shamefully misgoverned and oppressed — increasing her population and territory, extending her commerce and manufactures, and utilizing and profiting by all the agencies and appliances that characterize and enrich an industrious and a prosperous community. My memory goes back to the close of the reign of George the Third, under the Prince Regent, an era distinguished by the remarkable and splendid galaxy of writers in poetry, fiction and criticism — Byron, Scott, Moore, Campbell, Rogers, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Shelley and Keats, Jeffrey, Brougham, Sydney Smith, Christopher I^orth, (John Wilson,) and Charles Lamb — who illuminated the whole horizon of polite literature, and, after the lapse of so many years, still shine with the brightness of morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and, in their influence on taste and sentiment, more powerful than an army with banners. They actually created new tastes and erected different standards of merit from those previously existing, while charming and surprising their own and succeeding generations by the beauty, variety and abundance of their productions. Many of these I devoured with avidity and delight at their first appearance, once sitting up a whole night with one of Scott's novels.

To fully appreciate our indebtedness to them, we must remember that from Burns to Scott and Byron — a period of

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some twenty years — no poetry deserving the name had appeared, whilst the next twenty were enriched by the list of authors given above; that the fashionable novels were mostly a mere mass of indecency, stupidity and sickly sentimentality, until the publication of Scott's, which at once secured a popularity that has never ceased and scarcely diminished, notwithstanding the host of competitors that has since entered the lists; and that in criticism the staid and correct, but hard and dry, utterances of Blair and Lord Karnes were superseded by the wit and wisdom, the common sense and audacity, of Blackwood and the Edinburgh Review.

At the death of George the Third, George the Fourth ascended the throne. He created intense excitement throughout the Kingdom by refusing to allow the coronation of his consort. Queen Caroline, and, as an excuse or justification for such refusal, by instigating her scandalous prosecution and public trial on a charge of adultery. Her counsel — Brougham and Denman — in a spirit of manliness and independence that was above all praise, in defiance of the monarch's personal wishes, and of the influence of his power and patronage, faithfully and successfully defended their client, whilst fearlessly exposing his conduct and character.

After him came William the Fourth, and then Queen Victoria, whose reign continues to the present date. In the meantime the matters of most interest were the passage of the Reform Bill in 1832, regulating and extending the suffrage; the repeal of the Corn Laws; the Irish agitation under Daniel O'Connell; the Crimean War; the Sepoy Rebellion, and others too recent and unimportant for further remark.

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.

CHAPTER IV. SUMTER, iSod TO iSii

Black Riveu Presbyterian Church — Indigo — Cotton — Specie Currency— Wells— Manchester— Its School House— Ball Battery- Drinking and Gambling— African Negroes— Yankee Peddlers— Catawba Indians.

At home, my first recollections found me at Sumterville, where my father kept a tavern in 1806, when I was about three years old. To get me out of the way at Court time, when the house was full of guests, I was sent to the home of my grandfather, VVm. Anderson, some ten miles East of the village, beyond Black River, between it and the Brick Church, (Presbyterian,) which then stood nearly, if not exactly, on the beautiful spot occupied by the present Salem Presbyterian Brick Church, Black River. The river swamp where we crossed it was half a mile wide, crowded with large trees, and had a high bridge over the main current of the stream, which was reached by a causewayed road through the black and sluggish water on either side, so narrow and crooked that a passenger could see but a few yards ahead; always looking gloomy and threatening, often hazardous and sometimes impassable. Now it has a broad embankment, above the highest freshets, through which the river flows under three or four substantial bridges, with strong hand-rails that give a sense of perfect security to the traveler. This valuable improvement is due to the skill and energy of my deceased friend Matthew E. Muldrow, formerly Commissioner of Roads.

Indigo was then raised in all that region for sale and for domestic use. It grew wild in the woods, attained the height of one and a half to two feet, and had bluish green leaves. At the proper season the plants were cut off near the ground and immersed in water to extract the coloring matter, which sank by its own weight to the bottom of the vat, when the water was drawn off, the sediment left to dry and harden, and then cut into squares, forming the finest blue dye known to the world. To make a first rate article the water was sometimes drawn from one vat to another, stirred and boiled. When broken, the cleavage in good indigo was smooth and showed a copper-colored tinge. A knowing old lady, in telling another how to judge its quality, said : "Take a clean new cedar or cypress piggin, fill it three-thirds full with clear spring water, put into it a lump of indigo as big as an egg, and, if good, it will either sink or SAvim, I have really forgotten which." I have seen the vats or tanks when in use, and the remains of some of them still stand in the neighborhood.

There being no cotton gins at the time, the cultivation of that staple was quite limited. Families in the country usually spent the long Winter evenings in social converse, while picking cotton from the seed with their fingers, and seated around a big log fire, in which a plenty of pindars and sweet potatoes were roasting. The growth of cane in all low places, together with other plants, afforded a capital range for stock, and planters raised large numbers of beeves and hogs for the Charleston market, whither they were driven every winter. They also sold their indigo in the city, bringing home the proceeds in Spanish silver coin, which composed almost the entire currency before the Bank of the State came into existence in December, 1812. This was a very clumsy and inconvenient medium of exchange, especially for large amounts and for merchants in North Carolina and other distant points who dealt in Charleston and were forced to carry their money in boxes fitting under the seats of the sulkeys in which they traveled, so as to be taken out at night and put back in the morning. Goods, except upon the rivers, were hauled by wagons, and freight on heavy articles like iron and salt was enormous! v hicdi. Mr. Robert Latta laid the foundation of his immense fortune by wagoning goods from Philadelphia to Yorkville, where he did business during the war. Wagons, for safety and company, went together in large numbers, and it was not unusual to see a dozen or more in a gang, the jingling of the bells on their horses' heads making '* music in the sinners' ears."

The wells in this section and most of the low country were quite a curiosity to strangers. The pond cypress, unlike that of the swamps, has the peculiarity of being hollow nearly its entire length, thus forming a tube, sometimes two or three feet in diameter, surrounded by a rim of wood two to four inches thick. These are cut into sections, cleaned, cleared out and converted into well curbs, bee gums, ash stands, &c. The knees — so called — when inverted and fitted with handles, make the best of buckets, which never leak nor shrink, and hardly ever decay or wear out; so that the boy was not far wrong who said that cypress timber lasted always, for his father had tried it twice. I know of one such curb that after being in daily use upwards of fifty years is as sound as it was at first. In that low, flat country, some of the wells during a wet season require banking around the curb to keep the water from flowing out on the surface, yet when freshly drawn it is cool, pleasant and healthful.

I was too young to take much notice of fashions in dress, but young ladies at balls wore sharp-toed morocco slippers of all the colors of the rainbow, and gentlemen looked particularly neat and genteel in fair-topped boots, worn with knee breeches, and having a band of smooth yellow leather four or five inches wide at top. They also wore white powder in their hair on public occasions.

From Sumter we removed to Manchester on the main road from Camden to Charleston. This village was settled, for the sake of health and society, by the Moores, Ramseys, Ballards and other rich planters who owned lands on the

Wateree River. Besides their residences, it had a tavern, kept by my father, a shoe shop, tailor shop, blacksmith shop, a school house and two or three stores — the principal one owned by Duke Goodman, who soon after went to Charleston, where he became a leading cotton factor and Methodist exhorter. He was said to have once confounded the two professions and shown which was uppermost in his mind, by giving out a hymn as short staple, instead of short metre. But this might have been a mere piece of fun or slander; for slander and fun were as much relished then as now.

The school house, built of logs, had a stand at the Eastern end, that served for a pulpit whenever a stray Methodist preacher happened to call and hold divine service, which was done by at least one of them in my time, who declared that he was not ashamed to be called "old bawling Jenkins." He was widely known as a zealous Christian, had been a faithful soldier in the Revolutionary War, and bore an excellent character in every respect, which together caused him to be elected doorkeeper of the Senate in his extreme old age. In that building I first went to school, my teacher being a Mr. Rivers from the low country. Many years afterwards, when visiting my friends in Salem, I was delayed several hours at the Manchester station on the Wilmington Railroad, about a mile below the old village, and walked up to it, where I found but two houses remaining — that formerly occupied by my father, and the old school house, looking both inside and out exactly as I had left it half a century previously — the pulpit, seats and benches all in their places, and so it may be to this day. A short distance South of the village was a ball battery and alley, where the young men played fives, sometimes at match games with those from other places, as is now practised in base ball, with the addition of considerable sums being occasionally staked on the result. Stephen D. Miller, afterwards Governor, was one of the best players in the State.

The battery was a smooth wooden wall, perhaps forty feet long by thirty in height, with the alley of corresponding length and breadth, carefully leveled, tightly packed, and swept clean. Some of the villagers and neighbors met every day at a store, where the card table was brought out into the piazza soon after breakfast, and gambling went on till night, winding up, now and then, with a supper and ball, to which the young ladies were invited, and that lasted to a late hour. This, with drinking freely, was their regular habit week after week, varied by quarter races, feats of strength and activity, and an occasional fist fight. The natural consequence followed: in a few years they were bankrupt in health, fortune and morals.

The slave trade was then in operation and many Africans were brought into the District by the planters. I saw quite a number of them, bright-looking, smooth-faced, and slender in form, but clean-limbed and very active. So fond of whisky were they, that for a dram one would stand with his back against a post or wall and let a strong man strike him in the forehead with his fist.

The occasional, and always welcome, advent of a Yankee peddler, driving a good horse in a covered wagon, supplied families with tin ware and other light goods. And a few Catawba Indians visited us every winter, with bows and arrows, moccasins, and earthenware pots and pans of their own manufacture, some very neatly made and prettily colored ; the women carrying infants wrapped in blankets on their backs, so that the little ones could peep out over their mothers' shoulders. To complete my reminiscences of Manchester, it may be stated that we had a bright comet and several severe earthquakes; that shad were so abundant as to sell by the hundred at 12^ cents each; that for health's sake my brothers and myself were given a small quantity of whisky before breakfast every morning, and that I had learned

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to play cards before I could read. It would seem that nothing but a special providence or a lucky chance saved me from becoming both a drunkard and a gambler, for certainly no one ever had a fairer start in that direction. But my task is to relate facts, not to moralize on them.

Chapter V

Rev. George Reid's Academy— War of 1812— Colonel William Mg Willie and His Son — Chapman Levy — General Blair — Henry G. Nixon— Boys' Artillery Company— Insurrection or Negroes- Cruelty of Criminal Laws— Baron DeKalb— Churches, Preach- #ERS AND Leading Citizens.

In iSir my father removed to Camden, where I was sent for six years to an Academy for girls and boys, kept by Rev. George Reid, a portly, pock-marked Presbyterian clergyman, of much experience and very superior attainments as a classical teacher, a rigid disciplinarian, who used the rod and the ruler unsparingly and impartially whenever he thought it necessary. His favorite method of inflicting punishment was to lay the delinquent across his lap, face downwards, and then paddle him with a broad, flat ruler, leaving marks, in some cases, that were visible for weeks.

Public opinion, in these latter days, seems to condemn corporal punishment and the mingling of the sexes in our schools. But, while disclaiming any competency to decide on these questions, I confidently affirm that neither the spirit of the one sex nor the modesty and purity of the other was unfavorably affected by these practices as then enforced, and that, so far as my knowledge and belief extend, no undue familiarity between them ever was reported or suspected.

Under Mr. Reid, I took his regular course in Latin, viz., Ruddiman's Grammar, Corderii, .^vsop's Fables, Erasmus, Cornelius Nepos, Caesar, Virgil and Horace, and was a year or so in the Creek, as my old friend, John Summer, said of his son Adam. He had, as assistant in the English department, C. J. Shannon, subsequently a leading merchant and father of the lamented William M. Shannon; and later, in the classics, William K. Clowney, of Union, who afterwards was a tutor in the South Carolina College and represented his District in Congress. My classmates were Isaac H. Smith, David Evander Reid, son of the teacher, William O. Nixon,

Henry I. Abbott, William Trent, and part of the time

Brevard and Adamson. I have not seen or heard of

any of them for many years, and, as all were older than myself, probably not one survives.

During this period the war of 1812 was declared, and I well recollect the rejoicings, illuminations, torch-light processions and paradings around the liberty pole that stood on Main street, a little South of Havis's tavern, at the news of every victory over the British, and particularly at the proclamation of peace.

An affecting scene was presented at the separation from their families and friends of the volunteer regiment on its departure for the coast under command of old Colonel William McWillie, of Lancaster, with his son William, my schoolmate, as Adjutant. The latter, some years later, was President of the Branch Bank of Camden, and after his removal to Mississippi became Governor of that State. He was said to have been the father of twenty children by one wife.

Camden contributed two companies to this regiment — the Rifles, Captain Chapman Levy, and the Artillery, Captain James Blair — not the giant General and member of Congress, of the same name, who shot Tom Evans in a duel, nearly killed Duff Green with a cudgel, and finally blew out his own brains at Washington. Evans's excuse for missing so fii'iv a mark was that the muzzle of Blair's pistol looked as big as a barrel. General Blair was the second of Hopkins in his duel with my former school-fellow, the eloquent and talented Henry G. Nixon, at Augusta, where the latter was shot through the heart at the first fire, his second being Governor John Lide Wilson, author of the " Code of Honor," who had himself stood fire in a similar rencontre with a cigar in his mouth.