Sojourn in Liberia
In the difficult times following the War between the States, a mysterious long-haired Indian from the lands west of the Mississippi came to upper South Carolina. Copper-colored, with high cheek bones and with his glossy black hair plaited and hanging down his back, this strange man was a truly imposing figure. The Indian called himself ‘Waites’, apparently a sur-name.
Where Waites came from was not known. Perhaps he had been one of the famed scouts enlisted in the Unites States service or perhaps he had arrived from Oklahoma. There had been a Waites family that was quite prominent among the Cherokee. A famed young chieftain, Stan Waits, was commander of an Indian regiment that fought for the southern confederacy.
During the War between the States the Cherokee nation of Oklahoma had been divided in their loyalties. Most of the Cherokee supported the southern cause and in one battle drove the Union forces across the border into Kansas. For that reason there was an uneasy bitterness and hostility among the tribes for many years after the war. Many of the younger Indians migrates to mines, ranches and lumber camps but others, remembering stories of the ‘Trail of Tears; returned to their ancestral home in the Carolina highlands.
It was during this time that the Indian Waites came to upper South Carolina.
In southern Newberry County, upper South Carolina, Hannah African Methodist Episcopal Church lies a few miles north of Lake Murray. To the community grouped around the church long ago there came a Cherokee Indian, a good man, industrious worker and model citizen. He married one of the daughters of a family belonging to the Hannah AME Church.
The Indian proved himself to be a good farmer and seldom did he ever leave the hills of Newberry County. His children were olive skinned, sturdy and reliable , an asset to the community.
But the iron grip of poverty on the war torn south made life hard on the many small farms in the Piedmont Hills.
The economic situation of Southern farmers became very much worse in the summer of 1893. A severe financial panic occurred at that time. President Grover Cleveland was then engaged in his second administration. Hundreds of banks closed. Businesses were paralyzed, and farm prices were very low. This was the beginning of a depression that lasted until 1897.
Many farmers, of both races, driven to desperation by hard times, abandoned their farms and migrated by railway to new lands in Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. Some of these migrants found that the depression was as bad in the West as in Newberry and returned to their former homes.
Years passed and a visiting evangelist in the community stirred up an interest in Africa. A few generations earlier President James Monroe had used his influence to set up a Christian West African Republic for the benefit of the American blacks who disapproved of slavery. This new country was located on the northern side of the Gulf of Guinea and was named Liberia and the capital city was called Monrovia.
From time to time small groups of African Americans sold their possessions and emigrated to Liberia but there was never the widespread immigration of the black population from America for which President Monroe had hoped.
On the Liberian coast these immigrants from America remained thinly settled. There was very little settlement or colonization of interior Liberia.
During this time of business stagnation in the United States , the officials of a big steamship company, operating from Atlantic ports, became desperate, for business. They decided to make use of the Liberian movement to persuade many black farmers to emigrate by ship to Liberia, in Africa, instead of migrating by train to Arkansas. This, it was hoped, would greatly increase the sale of steamship, tickets.
Into Newberry County came
a high-pressure steamship agent. Whatever the company paid that man, he was worth it. Aesop and the Baron ,von Munchhausen were pikers in comparison with that prevaricator.
The black farmers of Newberry were told that Liberia, in Africa, was a lovely, earthly, Paradise. Just about everything necessary for a good life grew abundantly on the trees. Bananas, oranges, cocoanuts, palm nuts, chocolate trees, and many other foods flourished all over the place.
There was also a big ‘lasses’ pool. On the bank of the lasses pool was a ‘wiffle’ tree. The wiffles were already buttered. It was only necessary to pull them loose and dip them into the lasses. The reference, of course, was to a molasses pool and a waffle tree.
In Liberia, it was said, work was scarcely necessary.
In Monrovia, the capital city, the American immigrants built houses like those in Charleston South Carolina, three stories high and with an ornate porch for every story of the house. Pictures of these homes circulated in America. Of course this was before the days of lavish photography but there was no scarcity of talented artists who drew good sketches. These pictures and the stories of travelers helped fire the imagination of many African Americans and some decided to take the bold move of emigration.
Among the black families of Newberry County who made that decision was the industrious half-Indian farmer named Oley Waites, a son of the Cherokee Indian. He was a good carpenter and an excellent farmer. He was doing quite well for himself and his family in South Carolina but decided to sell his mules and plow gears, crate his carpenter tools and furniture and emigrate to Africa. Relatives and friends tried to dissuade this good man but he sold his mules to Henry Chapin Lake of the Silverstreet Community near his home. Then he loaded his crated possessions aboard a train and with purchased tickets for his family of three daughters and two sons, set forward on the adventure. His mulatto wife Hattie Johnson, did not want to leave Newberry. She feared for her children’s health and loss of education. The children, Ella, Katie Belle, Queen Ann, Snowy and Johnny were like most children, eager for the adventure.
They arrived at the seaport of Savannah GA and the children stared in wonder at the big ships that were moored along the busy waterfront. The family watched as their crated furniture was hoisted aboard and then, together with other passengers, filed up the gangplank and boarded the ship. The Savannah river was the largest water they had ever seen. There, at the port, people, well dressed and prosperous in appearance, walked the promenade known as Factor’s Walk.
The steamship company had over-sold tickets for the trip and there were families left on the pier trying to force their way up the gangplank as the ship was shoved from the long wharf.
The children watched intently as the crew cast off the mooring lines, followed by a resounding blast from the ship’s siren. A tugboat took the big vessel in tow and pushed her out into the middle of the great river. After the towline was cast off another tremendous peal came from the ship’s siren, the mighty engines started and a mass of dead water started to spout from beneath the bow. The big ship was on her way.
Sea gulls and porpoise followed and circled around the ship and intrigued the children. The porpoise leaped and played in the snow-white mass of dead water spouting from beneath.
Some of the white sailors would stand beside the ship’s rail and chat with the children. These old seamen enjoyed entertaining their small passengers with tall tales about the sea and it’s marvelous denizen. They told the children that the seabirds following the ship were the spirits of people who had drowned at sea. They warned the children not to fall overboard because sea serpents swarmed in the southern ocean. Some of the serpents were twice as long as the ship and could easily swallow a child who was careless enough to fall overboard.
Since there was no refrigeration, a small herd of cattle had been brought aboard to supply fresh meat during the voyage. These cattle had been penned in a small corral on the weather deck. Several old, broken down mules were penned together with the cattle. Supposedly, these mules were intended for farm use in Africa but as the cattle disappeared, so did the mules. Former Confederate soldiers had occasionally told Oley of eating mule meat and claimed it was palatable and did not harm. The Waites family received their ration of two bowls of stew a day and were grateful for the nourishment.
The temperature below decks became very oppressive as the ship plowed its way toward the equator and the children remained on the weather deck as much as possible. At night the family watched the star formations of the northern hemisphere disappear as the strange stars of the tropics rose above the southern ocean.
After several weeks of uneventful cruising in sweltering heat the palm lined coast of Africa was seen. A small cloud of sea birds came out to meet the big ship and escorted her into the beautiful harbor of Monrovia. The ship dropped anchor far out in the harbor because the waters close to shore were very shallow and could not accommodate such a large ship. Wide flat boats or barges known as ‘lighters’ of shallow draft began coming out to the anchored steamer and ferried passengers, baggage and cargo ashore. When the family reached shore their cargo was placed on an ox cart and taken to a small tavern. This tavern was located on a street lined with three story white houses, much like those of Charleston SC. Some of the homes had triple tiered porches and wrought iron balconies. The streets were lines with palm trees. The family stayed in the tavern for three days while Oley made final arrangements with the government officials concerning his recent purchase of land in the interior. Then with the help of the ox cart, the family returned to the harbor. A small sailing vessel called a schooner was at the harbor waiting for them. The father of the family had purchased land from the Liberian Government and showed his papers to the captain of a flat bottomed ‘lighter’ which then transported the family to the waiting schooner. Once the sails were hoisted the crew of the schooner took the family and all their possessions along the rugged coastline fronted by groves of palm trees and tiny fishing villages. The sailing vessel dropped anchor at the mouth of the large St. Paul river. On the banks was a village and from the village several large canoes came out to meet the schooner. The men propelling the canoes were very muscular people and it took six men to pull each boat up river against the current.
After the cargo and passengers were transferred to the canoes the rowing party commenced to travel up the mouth of the river into the interior of Africa. Along the river banks occasional native villages of round huts were seen. All the huts had conical roofs and sides made of upright sticks. Near the villages black people dressed in various fashions could be seen working in little fields and gardens. Along other portions of the river, great trees hung over the stream. Some of the trees bore strange fruits. Often too, monkeys could be seen scurrying away among the lofty branches. These monkeys, in their haste, disturbed many strange and beautiful birds, causing them to screech wildly. Occasionally, a crocodile was noticed. It was said manatees lived in the waters but none were seen on this journey.
At last the little fleet of canoes reached the tiny town of Brewerville. This small place was mostly a native village of round huts with pointed roofs. But Brewerville was also the home of three English merchants. These men lived in modern cottages placed high on stilts or pylons, to help prevent the intrusion of the myriads of crawling insects. The stores, or business places of the merchants might well have graced some village in America.
Most of the people had strange marks, consisting of scars, on exposed parts of their bodies. These were tribal markings and every tribe had a different mark. Witch doctors were in charge of creating these ‘brandings’ on teenaged children at ‘devil schools’ hidden in the bush.
In addition to the many tribesmen there were a few people who wore cloths of American type and who bore no tribal marks. These people greeted Oley Waites in English. They were called Liberians and were descendants of freed slaves who had migrated from America to Africa before the War between the States. It was the Liberians, a minority, and not the tribal majority, that maintained the Liberian Republic.
The immigrants landed their canoes and entered the English shops to seek the advice of the three Europeans who were already familiar with Black Africa.
The English merchants, Gant, Gates and Pheps were courtly and very polite but one of them shook his head sadly when he was told about the recent purchase of land from the Liberian Government. The Englishman said it would be very dangerous to settle on that land and the claim of that land by the Liberian Government was doubtful at best. If a lone family were to settle there, the risk of a sudden nighttime head-hunting or cannibal raid was very great indeed. These problems were the result of actions in the past by the Liberian Government. Large land purchases from tribal chieftains had been made. Being wholly unfamiliar with western ways the chieftains had not realized they were yielding all claims forever to the land. Now, bitterly resenting the intrusions of American blacks and the fact that some Liberian were trying to break up the slave trade, all outsiders were threatened with vengeance.
Strangely the Liberian Government practiced a form of temporary slavery for public works. When labor was needed for a job the young healthy members of a tribe were conscripted into service and placed in forced labor camps. The relatives of the worker were responsible for providing food and clothing to the worker during that time. Discipline was enforced with lashings of buffalo hide whips.
Oley Waites soon met the English merchants of the town and formed a pleasant acquaintance with them. But what the Englishmen told him was very discouraging. It was soon apparent that it would be very dangerous to proceed to the thirty acres or land recently purchased from the Liberian government.
Much nearer to Brewerville, there was an abandoned European – type farm. The owner was expected to never return. An American family could easily settle there and take over. But unfortunately, jungle undergrowth was already springing up and taking over the land, which once had been nicely cleared.
The family from South Carolina held a consultation and decided to investigate the abandoned farm near Brewerville. A black boy, who was sent by one of the English shopkeepers, showed the way. The house on the farm near Brewerville was somewhat like the cottages of the three English merchants in the little town. This small, neat structure had been constructed high on stilts in an effort to keep snakes and crawling insects away and reached by a crude stairway built of poles. It had no glass windows. There had never been any such windows. Rain was kept out by a wide overhanging roof. Water was available at a nearby spring. A small clearing provided space for a garden. The Americans immediately moved into the house and set up housekeeping.
The children soon dug up the ground with hoes and planted seed brought from America. The little plants grew and flourished. It seemed that almost all vegetables would grow in Liberia. But soon, and discouragingly, most of the vegetables were killed by unknown diseases or were devoured by myriads of' insects. The hardy plants that survived were mostly eaten by animals.
The few cattle of the people roamed everywhere. The many dogs were always hungry, as they were never fed. In addition, wild, red river hogs lived in nearby swamps and issued forth to feed at night. Several kinds of antelopes roamed through the fields, gardens, and small areas of grassland.
Often the Waites girls would laboriously do their laundry in the tub and scrub-board manner of America and hang out the clothes to dry, only to have to guard them. Several times these scarce and precious garments were eaten on the clothes-line by strange animals with antlers like deer.
It was observed that the native women did their laundry while standing knee-deep in the water of streams, where the wet clothes were beaten on smooth rocks and trains of' soap suds floated down stream, when, the people had soap.
Sweltering in the tropical heat, Oley and his sons dug up the garden area with mattocks and planted seed produced in Liberia. Several vegetables did well. Collards and sweet potatoes did better than anything else. But animals soon destroyed most of the plants. . It was found necessary to guard the vegetable garden. Nearby, the native Africans always sent boys with small drums, slings and stones to watch the vegetable gardens and the rice fields.
For some time the wife and mother of this little family did fairly well but she soon became ill. Perhaps the ailment was malaria or perhaps it was a combination of several tropical diseases. It first showed symptoms shortly after the birth of their daughter Mimmi and now the wife was again pregnant. Eventually the grieving husband realized that in order to save his wife’s life he would have to send her back to America. Leaving the children behind in the care of a neighbor, the sorrowful husband took his ailing wife back to Monrovia and purchased a ticket for her transportation to the States with the last of his funds. After seeing the ship sail away with his wife on board the father returned to his children at the old plantation house. The family began the laborious task of clearing away the undergrowth around the coconut trees.
As he toiled beneath a blazing sun Oley would remember the ‘siren song’ of an earthy Paradise, sung by steamship agents in America. Not a word had been spoken of the heat, the insects, the ever resurgent jungle, the snakes and the fever. At times the family was in such dire need that the trousers of the boys were sold off their bodies. Difficulties increased to a point when even the furniture, including the beds, had been sold for survival.
One day a trader stopped to visit this father. He invited him on a trading expedition into the interior of the continent. Tempted by the opportunity, the father left his children in the care of his good neighbors and the English merchants.
He accompanied a small group of traders, all wearing basic packs and carrying rifles. Following them was a long line of black barefooted porters, dressed in loincloth and carrying large, heavy burdens of trade goods on their heads. In some areas half flooded swamps were crossed by walking on rows of logs. Sometimes big crocodiles could be seen slithering away into the dark waters of a flooded swamp. Often the traces of elephants, hippos and giant turtles could be seen. Strange birds, with brilliant plumage screamed from their perches in great jungle trees.
The tracks of great jungle cats were frequently seen. Huge python, gigantic snakes slithered through the tall grass or from branch to branch in the trees. When occasionally a native village stood beside the jungle trail, it was always a place of round huts with pointed roofs. In the center of the villages were located a small council house, an oblong structure with a thatch covered gable roof. The sides were built up of woven twigs and plastered mud to a height of about four feet. Such a structure was the much-used town hall of these remote inland villages. Here the village chieftains held court and conducted official business. Here the people gathered to socialize, chat and play games when rain prevented outside activities. Here too, the travelers camped at night using the building as a visitor’s center. They cooked on campfires built on the dirt floor and secured water from a nearby spring. Small streams were crossed by wading, by stepping stone to stone or by walking on logs. Large rivers were crossed on a cleverly made suspension bridge. Such bridges rested on gigantic jungle vines, which served as cables. There was no actual planking. The planks were replaced by notched poles, tied to the big supporting vines by some kind of wild vegetative fiber. Handrails on these crude but ingeniously constructed bridges consisted of additional vines, which were connected to the cable-vines beneath them by other smaller vines or jungle fiber. It was quite surprising how strong some of these crude bridges were.
Beyond the swamps lay the interior hills and plains of central Africa. In this vast, rolling countryside there were small jungle-covered areas along the hills and streams. But the greater part of this vast inland area was covered with tall grass. Here grazed herds of antelope, zebra, buffalo and other large animals of the Dark Continent.
But here also grazed the cattle herds of the West African natives. These cattle all had long horns and many of them were quite large in size. In this wild country great strength and long sharp horns were essential in aiding the cattle to fight off the many lions, jungle cats, leopards, jackals and hyenas.
There were many villages seen in the land of the tall grass. Surrounding the villages were gardens of vegetables and fields of corn and rice. Boys armed with slings kept away the birds that coveted the freshly planted seeds. Like the young David of the Bible they protected the fields and gardens by driving away the herds of roving wild animals that threatened to eat the growing crops.
Many naked children played in the villages. They mimicked the ceremonies of their elders, rattled calabash musical instruments and spun locally made tops of strange shapes. Scrawny dogs, chickens, ducks, pigs, sheep and goats roamed the streets. A few cattle grazed nearby. The livestock was too scarce to furnish much food and it was apparent these people seldom ate meat.
Often the village contained a tiny blacksmith shop. Women were forbidden to go there. Their presence was believed to bring bad luck to a blacksmith and ruin his work. The blacksmith used a bellows of monkey skin. Iron was from nearby hills and smelted it using a centuries old method. Fire and heat was controlled using charcoal created by burning giant termite mounds.
The cemeteries of the areas were marked by a cromlech of three tall upright stones with a big flat stone laid horizontally across them, signifying the house of the spirits. A Spirit Tree or stone altar containing pottery vessels used for sacrifices to the gods was close by.
Occasionally Oley saw a Devil House, surrounded by extensive grounds fenced by high walls of matting. Natives lowered their voices or look at the structures as they passed. It was there that the native young people spent several years under the tutelage of the witch doctors. Some of the students died during the rigorous training process.
More upland rice was produced than was needed by these industrious and thrifty grassland people. The surplus rice was traded to traveling merchants from the outer world. Textile products, cooking utensils, glassware, jewelry, and tools from Europe and America found a ready market in Central Africa. Among the trade goods was a large amount of gin.
For transportation purposes this rice was placed in heavy bags carefully and skillfully woven of rice straw. When emptied, these sturdy bags could be ripped open along one side with a knife and then after the addition of a cloth or leather hem, they became useful as carpets.
To a visitor from America it was very interesting to see the native Liberian merchants as they bargained with the native Africans and exchanged a variety of trade goods for the bags of rice.
But rice was not all these industrious people of the African hither lands offered in trade. There were elephant tusks, rhino horns, and other items of great treasure. Gin was used as one of the trade goods and was very demoralizing to the tribesmen.
The native market places were entered by permission of large guards who collected a toll from each vendor. Then, with a clamor of bells, there would be a signal for order. The chief himself would appear in his blue and white robe of State, and after a speech would wave dramatically with and elephant tail scepter or cow tail wand. Then the trading and bargaining would begin.
Most of the produce was displayed on bamboo matting spread on the ground. There did not seem to be enough meat for the demand at the market.
Sometimes a wandering minstrel would be at a market and would enliven the occasion with entertainment for the purchasers.
Skins, vegetables, fruit, cloth and locally woven and crafted clothing was sold. Some of the better articles of clothing were brought by the Mandigoes, the Moslem traders. They came from the interior and had many wives, a property that could be used for barter and pawn.
On their return trip to the coast, the traders and their native porters saw flocks of speckled wild guineas scurrying across the trail. Sometimes they saw the ugly wart hog and enormous python, along with the crocodile, huge turtle and hippopotami. All the rice obtained in trade was retained for sale to the coastal people of Liberia. The hippo horns were cut up, pulverized and used as medicine. The elephant tusk was sent to craftsmen who carved the ivory into ornaments. A few tusks were sent to America and Europe.
Lepers were encountered on several occasions along the journey.
While he was gone on the expedition the children became employed by friends and neighbors in the dressing of the hair of the village women in the American styles they were familiar. Pleased with the results the patrons would leave the children food and other tokens of gratitude called ‘dash’. The children were also learning to cultivate African vegetables properly and the use of native plants as food. They were taught to make bread from cassava roots and pudding from plantains.
The coastal people soon learned that the black American settler was an excellent carpenter and woodcarver. Frequent requests were made for his skills in the building and improving of the homes in the coastal area.
His children attended a local mission school. They worked a wonderful garden, gathered nuts and wild fruit and generally kept themselves busy. The children formed pleasant friendships with some of the native African children and often played and went fishing together. They even swapped work with the native children.
Meanwhile, back in Newberry South Carolina, the wife and mother of this family was earning her livelihood by going from house to house and working as a child nurse, baby sitter, attendant for the invalid, laundress, cook and maid. Hattie had given birth to a child while aboard ship on her journey home but the baby had lived only a short time. She worked herself hard and never failed when the opportunity rose to tell her employers of her family in Liberia and her desire to bring them home.
The firm of Floyd & Purcell in Newberry took compassion on the woman and took action to help her win passage for the safe return passage of her family. First letters were sent to Monrovia in an effort to establish a direct communication with the family. Then arrangements were made for the family to crate their belongings and go on board an English ship at Monrovia. The family’s scanty furniture was carefully crated and stacked aboard the boat at Brewerville and farewells were made to the English merchants. The children were anxious to be with their mother again but they had learned to like Liberia and its people. So it was with tears and sadness that they had said their farewells to friends they would never see again.
Finally, for the last time, the family went down the great river while parrots screeched and monkeys played from tree to tree. The sailing schooner arrived and took the family to the harbor at Monrovia. After being transported on the flat boats they were taken to the outer harbor and the steam ship started on its way, stopping at many coastal seaports along the African coast before setting out to sea. The most interesting of these stops was Freetown in the colony of Sierra Leone, where a herd of long horned cattle were boarded by the use of a hoist and lift. It delighted the children to see the animals kicking and bawling in mid air while being brought on board. After all the cattle were boarded they were enclosed in a pen on the upper deck. Afterwards on the ship, the cattle were fed and watered but on subsequent days they were killed and butchered one by one. The meat was cooked and used to feed the passengers and crew.
At long last the shores of Africa disappeared from the horizon and then a great stone mountain appeared to rise from the ocean off to the right. The sailors said that the mountain was the rock of Gibraltar and that Europe lay just beyond the rock. A few days later the ship entered the English Channel and off to the right there was a dim view of the coast of France. On the left were the White Cliffs of Dover. The steamer entered the mouth of the wide river Thames, swarming with other vessels. The voyage continued up the river and took the family to London, the capitol of England and at the time considered the largest city in the world. A tugboat took over the water travel and gently placed the ship alongside a long wharf. The father left the children on the vessel and went into London and from that city a telegram was sent to the firm of Purcell & Floyd of Newberry. While in the city he had seen a large crowd of people cheering and a woman in a carriage waving to everyone. He was told it was Queen Victoria. The father returned to the ship and told the children he had seen the Queen and described her in detail to them, including her beautiful white dress and hat and the four horse carriage she rode. Soon after, a telegram was delivered to the father with a reply from his Newberry friends. It was time to change ships for the final part of their journey. The family went down the gangplank and after a considerable distance with a horse drawn cart carrying their crates, they found their ship of departure. It was an even larger steamer and had two funnels. The children were full of curiosity and explored the gigantic ocean liner with delight. Two days later the mooring lines were cast off and a tug towed the ship out into midstream. Flocks of graceful swan, swimming in the river, scurried out of the way as the big ship’s engines started and she began her voyage down the river. Far up the river two towers could be seen with a big bridge between them. It was said to be the Tower Bridge of London. On leaving the river Thames the ship entered the English Channel, turned westward past the Cliffs of Dover and reached the open sea. The misty coast of Ireland rose off the starboard and then disappeared as the ship braved the heaving swells of the broad Atlantic.
Several days later the children spotted palm fringed islands on the horizon. The ship stopped at the harbor of Kingston, the chief seaport of the island of Jamaica. There was a Union Jack of Great Britain flying from the masthead of almost every ship in the harbor. The port area was beautiful with forested Blue Mountains rising in the background. Here, several small black boys in little boats came out and swarmed around the ship. The passengers began to throw silver coins to these children. With shouts of glee the boys would dive overboard and swim down to retrieve the coins, easily found as they glittered on the sea bottom. A sunken city lay at the bottom of the bay. A great earthquake in colonial times had caused almost the entire city of Port Royal, together with the land upon which it stood, to go sliding into the sea. Some of the buildings of the drowned city were still vaguely visible in the deep water of the harbor. The survivors of the earthquake disaster had later moved across the Bay and founded the City of Kingston, which is Jamaica’s chief seaport today.
A short time after the ship called at Kingston, she sailed northward and passed the great island of Cuba. It was interesting to see the waters of the Gulf Stream, which issued from the Strait of Florida. The Gulf Stream waters were clearly discernable from the surrounding ocean waters. Still going north the ship sailed the North American Atlantic Coast and entered the Delaware Bay. Ocean going boats, yachts, fishing boats and oyster gathering craft swarmed in the great bay. The voyage ended at a dock on the Delaware River in Philadelphia.
Olin Waites took his family and their possessions ashore. Then he hastened to send another telegram to Floyd & Purcell in Newberry. The Newberry friends wired money to pay for train tickets, together with instructions to proceed by rail to Greenwood South Carolina.
In Washington DC it was necessary to change trains at a big glass enclosed railway station. One of our Presidents was fatally shot at that place.
After a very long railway journey across the rolling hill country of the southern piedmont, the family reached the small town of Greenwood. There the weary travelers spent a comfortable night beneath the pines, which at that time surrounded the railway station.
The next day wagons of the firm of Floyd & Purcell arrived from Newberry and the weary travelers, crates and baggage were loaded aboard and taken to a farm belonging to the Floyd family of Newberry. The house into which the family moved was a few hundred yards north of Belfast Road and about eleven miles from Newberry, known as ‘The Reeder Place’.
It was presumed that the Waites family would remain on the farm several years while repaying the firm of Floyd & Purcell for the debt incurred in bringing the family back from Africa. But the land on which the family was settled was wet-natured. In a wet year the crops drowned out on the land and in a dry year the crops would do a little better.
It happened that two dry years occurred in succession and during that time the wet natured ground yielded two tremendous crops. Thus in two years the Waites family was able to pay off the entire debt incurred on their return trip from Africa.
Tragedy then struck. One day, two of Olin Waites sons were working in the woods. It is not remembered if they were chopping wood or working with a sawmill. Anyway, just as one of the trees was falling, it jumped back across the stump and struck one of the sons, Snowy, in the chest. The young man died that night. The heart broken mother and father were never the same after that tragic accident. Olin Waites moved almost every year after that. He was a good dependable worker and he usually made a good crop but he almost always moved at the end of the year. It seemed as if this unfortunate man felt he was eluding a demon that caused misfortune if he moved often.
The Waites children married and moved away one by one and finally the saddened father found himself alone. Ella married a Richardson and moved to Augusta GA. Queen Ann married Joshua Hall. Mimmi, the girl born in Africa, married Levi Hall, a brother to Joshua. Gloria, the child born on the Reeder place married a Jackson and died while picking cotton at the Pat Scott Place. Katie Bell, at 16 years, became the second wife to Sam Tribble. One of the Tribble daughter, Althia, the widow of Paul Williams, was still alive in 1986.
The final home of the good man was a small house near the Farmer’s Oil Mill in Newberry SC.
The local building contractors learned that this aging man was still a good worker and that he had great skill as a carpenter. As a result Olin Waites was almost constantly employed. Eventually it was his fate to be a member of a repair crew that was doing some work on a house on Boundary Street in Newberry, home of Dr. Wicker. That house is still in use today. It stands on the east side of Boundary Street only a short distance from the overhead bridge spanning the southern railway. A mass of English Ivy festoons the trees in front of the house today.
As repair work proceeded on the house it became necessary to move a heavy piece of timber a short distance. Two strong men should have performed the task. Olin Waites was proud of his strength and moved the timber without help while refusing to wait for another worker to come down from a lofty scaffold to help him.
The heavy timber was moved all right but the effort had been too great for the old man. He died that night, April 29, 1925.
The last son of the Waites family, Johnny, died in his home near the Congaree River. Then the daughters, almost forcefully, moved their mother against her will, to the home of one of the daughters in Ashville North Carolina. But the aged mother never reconciled to the change. Always she longed for her own small house in the Valley of Little River in western Newberry South Carolina. Sometimes in Ashville the Church chimes could be heard in the distance through an open window. To the grieving old lady would come precious memories of other Sabbaths in a far away land of eternal summer, where flowers bloomed forever and the bells of a little white church, inland from Monrovia, seemed to peel for eternity across the bounds of time and distance.
Two of Olin’s daughters married farmers who lived near the home on Island Ford Road where the writer spent his childhood. When I was a baby, one of these women, Katie Bell Waites Tribble, came to see me. I do not remember the lady but I remember quite well her sister who was usually called ‘Aunt Queen’. This dark lady was the wife of Joshua Hall and was the mother of several children. She lived to a great age.
When Aunt Queen was quite old and had been a widow many years her health became frail. This writer, who was then a young man, began to make frequent visits to the aged woman, taking gifts of cooked food to her. For this, the old lady was always grateful. Always she would want me to sit near her bed for a short time and tell her of the latest news. On such occasions I would ask questions and jot down notes about things that my hostess told me. And so it was that I was able to preserve this true story of the adventures of one of the most respected men in Newberry South Carolina.
Today a tiny forgotten and neglected graveyard, lost in a small area of woodland near Newberry College, Oley Waites lies in his final sleep. Beneath the pines of his native Carolina, he awaits the second coming of the Divine Master and Lord in whom he firmly believed.
Robert Caldwell Family
A time came when a great fire broke out in the Newberry Forests. The fire was threatening the Caldwell family’s rail fences and Robert Caldwell
, with several of his good neighbors, fought the fire in a desperate attempt to prevent it from spreading. Mr. Caldwell became very hot and badly exhausted. As he returned homeward to rest, his wife, Mary went to meet him. “Mary”, he said, “I’m gone”. And within a few hours Mr. Caldwell was dead. Family called him ‘Robin’ but his given name was Robert.
Robert and Mary Caldwell had two sons, Calvin and William, both of who became confederate soldiers. There were at least four daughters in the family. There was Elizabeth Caldwell “Lizzie” (the writer cannot recall her married name); Eliza who married Samuel Boozer of the Smyrna Church area; Asenath (“Seen”) who became the second wife of Charley Johnston of Ninety-Six; and Mary Caroline who married Charles Walker Senn and became my grandmother. After the death of the mother of these daughters, Asenath lived with the Senn Family, her sister and brother-in-law until she married. The Senn family at the time was renting the property of the Higgins family in western Newberry. One night the planks in the second story loft of the dwelling house began rattling violently and jumping up and down. Aunt Senn, who slept upstairs, thought her brother-in-law, Charles Senn, had sought some amusement at her expense and had climbed into the house attic, banging planks together. Aunt Senn kept shouting, “Charley, stop that”. Next day, to her astonishment, Aunt Seen learned that an earthquake had occurred during the night.
Aunt ‘Lizzie’ Caldwell lived near Travelers Rest SC and came to visit the Senn family once when I was a baby in my mother’s arms. She traveled in a wagon driven by one of her sons who as I remember, was in great needed of a shave and haircut. After the visit Aunt Lizzie proceeded to the home of her sister, Aunt Lisa (Eliza) Boozer. It was considered a long trip at the time and recalled by family over the years.
Charley Johnston, furniture merchant of Ninety-Six, was a white bearded ex-confederate soldier. He carried a walking cane and was co-partner in the business with his two brothers. Late one afternoon, while working, Charlie became ill and returned home earlier than usual. Aunt Seen was tending to her ill husband at home when there was a knock at the door. At the screen door, which was latched, stood a big ugly hoodlum. “Open the door and let me in,” he demanded. “You had better get away from here or I will call Mr. Johnston”, replied Aunt Seen, but the man laughed, “I know Mr. Johnston is not at home yet”, he replied. In the nearby bedroom Charley was listening and when the old veteran heard the exchange of words, his feet hit the floor. Hearing the sound of the old man’s approach, the hoodlum dropped the club he was carrying and ran for his worthless life in terror. Aunt Seen was already worried about her husband’s condition and that terrible experience had a dreadful effect on her mind. She was never of normal mentality after that traumatic experience. Often thereafter, when visitors were present, Aunt Seen would rise and walk to the screen door and look out anxiously as if she were expecting something to happen. After Charlie died Dr. W. D. Senn brought Aunt Seen to the Senn Homestead. Aunt Mae and Mama cared her for. My mother, Elizabeth McMillan Senn, loved Aunt Seen. It was very difficult to get her to take medication and she seemed afraid of the younger children in the family. Aunt Seen lived at the Senn Place until her death, never ceasing to grieve for her beloved husband. She died in our parlor “Front room” one day when mama was trying to give her medication. Afterwards mama learned the gentle old lady had choked to death when she swallowed her false teeth. Aunt Seen’s body was taken to Ninety-Six and buried beside her loving husband, the old Confederate veteran.
Robert and Mary Sloan Caldwell's daughter ELIZABETH married #1 John Long, #2 Henry Hardee, #3 Jeremiah Smith. She is buried in Conway, SC
Letter
Letters written by Charlie Senn for research in his descriptive writings:
To the Governor of Alaska
Dear Sir,
The writer of this letter is a crippled old soldier, more than 90 years old.
It will be impossible for me to ever visit your beautiful country but I still have a great interest in Alaska.
Please have someone answer the following questions for me.
- Several years ago some musk oxen from Greenland were brought to Alaska. Are these musk oxen being raised on ranches like domestic cattle or are they wild animals?
- In what part of Alaska do musk oxen now exist?
3. How is the musk oxen experiment succeeding? Are any plans underway to make similar experiments with introducing such exotic animals ad the Tibetan Yak, the South American Llama and Alpaca, the Australian dwarf mountain kangaroo?
These exotic animals if released on easily accessible off shore islands, would be additional tourist attractions.
Yours respectfully,
Charlie M. Senn
Dear Edith,
I often think of you and wonder how you are doing. But there is now very little chance that we shall ever meet again on earth.
Often I think of my good McMillan relatives. Incidentally, all of Uncle John’s daughters came to visit me recently. They also visited other members of our family. We were very glad to see our McMillan relatives.
I pass my time by trying to write true stories. But I often need help. Does Clear Pond in Bamberg County, still exist? If so, in what condition is it? I understand the confederate submarine experiments were performed there during the War Between the States. Later clear pond was a well-known swimming resort with a good ‘bath house’ on its shore.
I would like to see Aunt Sudie’s place again.
Is James Felder still alive?
Do you hear anything about Gerald’s children?
I hope you are doing well.
Love,
Charlie M. Senn
To the Sheriff’s Office, Bamberg SC
Dear Sir,
This letter is being directed to you simply because the writer is a badly crippled old soldier, 90 years of age, who does not know a single person in your county to whom he can write for information.
I badly need information for a magazine article that I hope to write. Please designate someone to answer this letter.
Does Clear Pond, in your county, still exist?
If so, in what condition is it? Does it still have a bathhouse on its bank?
Does it still contain fish and alligators?
Is it still a well-known holiday resort?
Your help in securing answers to these few questions will be much appreciated.
Yours respectfully,
Charlie M. Senn
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The Embassy of Great Britain
Gentlemen,
You will probably think that this writer is some kind of a demented person. But the information for which I am asking is needed for a magazine article.
Does a four horned sheep still exist on the Isle of Man in the SE of Ireland?
If so, what is the four horned sheep called?
Your reply will be much appreciated.
Yours respectfully,
Charles M. Senn
The Embassy of Germany,
Gentlemen,
I dislike troubling you with a trivial question but this information is needed for a magazine article.
Is there a herd of Aurochs (a pre-historic animal) in the Hamburg Zoo?
Your answer will be appreciated.
Yours respectfully,
Charlie M. Senn
The Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC
Gentlemen, The writer of this letter is an old soldier, badly crippled, who is trying to assemble material for a magazine article. Your help will be appreciated.
Prior to WW1 a herd of European Bison, a relative of the American Bison, existed in the Caucasus region of southern Europe. These European bison were considered as the property of a well-known Russian prince.
Does the European bison still exist? If so, in what numbers does it exist and in what areas is it still found?
Your help in answering these questions is badly needed.
Yours respectfully,
Charlie M. Senn
