MR. ALLEN WRITES OF YE OLDEN TIMES

A Visit to Octogenarian Recalls Incidents Long Since Forgotten
in the Lives of Former Marionites.  The Fidelity of old Mr. Smith
to His Employer.  A Visit to the Old Stackhouse Homestead
 Which has Remained in the Family for Nearly a Century and a Half.
Mr. Bridges Successful at Intensified farming.
 A Letter full of Interest to Young and Old.
Other Matter of Local Interest.

Mrs. Mary LeGette has spent several days recently with her daughter, Mrs. W. C. Easterling in Dillon.  Mrs. LeGette is 81 years old and is the only child left of a large family.  Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. Isham Watson who lived a short distance from Antioch church.  Mrs. LeGette is in good health, and is very active.  Her husband, the late J. B. LeGette, was a good manger and by good management and strict attention to his business left a good property.  Mrs. LeGette has several children living, two of whom Mrs. Henry Hayes and Mrs. D. S. Cottingham reside at Latta.

The writer is in the habit of visiting old people and loves to hear them tell of old times and old things.  He called a few days ago on the oldest couple that he knows; Mr. and Mrs. C. Lee.  Mr. Lee was 91 years old last April and Mrs. Lee is a few years his junior.  Mr. Lee has always been a poor man, but he has always been a clean man socially, morally and religiously.  His occupation during his earlier days was that of overseer, an occupation that the young folks of this day and generation know nothing about.  He served that capacity for many years for this writer’s grandfather, Samuel Smith and after his death he served the late Woodard Manning.  Mr. Lee has survived them and all their children except Mrs. John D. Bethea of Latta.  The writer has a very find feeling for this old couple.  It was Mr. Lee who was a nurse for his brother, William J. Allen, who died in the war from measles, which were driven in while helping to unload a blockade vessel that had run aground.  It was he that had Maj. S. A. Dunham to telegraph to his father and who arrived only a few minutes before his death.  It was he who helped to prepare his body for sending it home, and it was Joseph Smith who took the body and carried it home but which owing to its state of dissolution was not allowed to be place in the baggage car, and it was Mr. Smith who with loaded gun took a seat on the coffin and prevented the conductor from throwing it off. Mr. Smith still lives and may God bless those old people in their old age.  The writer will say that he lost another brother in the war, John C. Allen, by name. He was a mere boy in age but when his country needed him, he like his older brother and their father, responded to the call.  He was left with a Georgia boy in a hospital near Summerville, S.C. by those in charge when Sherman passed through.  They were found there by a widow lady of the community and taken to her house and their mothers were written to, their father being in the army.  A colored man, Jack Lane by name, went twice after the young man Allen; the first time he was not well enough to be brought home and when he went to the next time at the appointed date he had been dead 4 days and his body was brought home.  The writer met on Saturday Mr. Hardy Smith who was also present with his brother who died.  Mr. Smith was quite a lad when he came out of service and went to school at Old Mount Andrew church to James Patter, and while there the writer who was yet quite a young lad heard of the arrival of his father from a yankee prison and his readers can imagine his anxiety to reach home that evening.  The writer will say that to the young and rising generation his writings may prove interesting but the many expressions of approval and manifestation of pleasure in the perusals of his letter had repaid the writer many fold.

The writer a few days ago called at the plantation of Mr. R. P. Stackhouse.  Mr. Stackhouse is no stranger to many of his readers but the writer will say that he always met Mr. Stackhouse as a gentleman in very sense of the word.  He is polite, affable, well informed but not ostentatious.  He is an educated gentleman but uses his education to dignify his calling – (that of a farmer), and to make him a more useful citizen.  Mr. Stackhouse occupies the old Stackhouse homestead which has the remarkable record of remaining in one family since 1766, and grows better, more productive and more valuable as the years go by.  Mr. Stackhouse uses a mounted gasoline engine and threshes with it. While writing about a Stackhouse the writer will say that here is another that is better than all the other, because when he sent out postal card statement for the Dillon Herald she alone of all his readers sent him a check on the bank for her subscription and is was signed by Miss Lottie Stackhouse.  The writer does not wish that were more and better Stackhouses but that his many readers would go and do like she did, and that they were all good mangers as she and were as considerate of others feeling.  She has a nice home, well cared for but has purchased property at Latta and may yet reside there.  There are so many good people in that community that it is a hard matter to take in all at once or perhaps at all, but will say that he found on his first visit to the home of Mr. C. C. Bridges much to interest him.  Mr. Bridges is a good farmer and while he is the owner of some valuable real estate, does not own where he resides.  He had 14 acres this year in corn on the Williamson plan and averaged 30 bushels per acre. He has 50 acres in corn and made a good crop. 30 acres in oats and 80 acres in cotton.  He raises quite a lot of hay and he has a small patch of ribbon cane and makes his own syrup and many of his needs are supplied by home production.  He told me that his neighbor, Mr. J. W. Hamer had this year the best corn on a new ground that he ever saw, and the writer who saw it from the time of planting to August 1st fully corroborates this statement.

Miss Alice Cottingham of Gallavon has taken a school at Sinclair’s Cross Roads Academy.  Miss Cottingham is young in age and this is her first experience as a pedagogue, but she is well qualified and has a strong determination to bend or break any unruly urchin who may go to her.  The writer who has himself taught many sessions and knows something of pedagogy and from an acquaintance dating back for 5 years with Miss Cottingham predicts great success for her if she follows teaching.

Miss Kate Wright on No. 3 took in the Fair, and the writer’s family were represented there too in number.  J. J. Allen of Dillon, A. B. Allen of Clemson College and Misses Minnie B. and Kittie C. Allen, of Latta, R. F.D., No. 2, and his son-in-law, J. D. Coleman, were all present.  J. J. Allen reports seeing a woman eating snakes at the fair.  He did not know that his great-great-grandfather Smith did the same thing and that people said that he had the devil in him, and that he had inherited some of it too but he bucks at snakes and eels, but like his father, thinks quite a lot of pretty girls.

J. S. Thompson, Mrs. and Mrs. M. S. Britt, J. N. Hargrove, Dr. W. B. Smith and others on Nov. 3 took in the Fair.

D. S. Allen