REMINISCENCES OF JOHNSTON STREET, ROCK HILL, S.C., 1897-1907 by ROSA BASKIN STRAIT GUESS Edited and annotated by William B. White, Jr.
The writer Rosa Baskin Strait was born at Rock Hill, S. C., on March 12, 1892, the daughter of William Francis Strait, M.D., and wife, Rosa Perry Gaston. She was educated at the Rock Hill Graded School (first-honor graduate of the Class of 1907) and at Winthrop College. After teaching a year in Denmark, S. C., she was married to Algernon Prothro Guess, who was mayor of Denmark and son of one of the oldest and most prominent families in that section of the Low Country. After the death of Mr. Guess, Mrs. Guess returned to Rock Hill, where she made her home with her mother, on Oakland Avenue near Winthrop College. She was director of choral music at Rock Hill High School from 1936 to 1964. Under her direction, the school chorus (the glee club), the largest in South Carolina, received high praise at the State Music Festival from the principal judge, Dr. John Finley Williamson, of the Westminster Choir College, Princeton, N. J. From 1940 to 1960 Mrs. Guess was choir director of the First Presbyterian Church of Rock Hill. In 1945, as president of the Winthrop College Alumnae Association, she was one of the featured speakers at the college’s Golden Anniversary Convocation, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Winthrop’s move to Rock Hill. Her children were these: Algernon P. Guess, Jr., W. Frank Guess, and Rosanne Guess (Mrs. Edwin S.) James. Mrs. Guess was the oldest person ever admitted to membership in the Huguenot Society of South Carolina. She died at Rock Hill on January 6, 1988. The interment took place in the Denmark city cemetery. The Street Johnston Street in Rock Hill, S.C., was laid out sometime in the early 1870s between Saluda Street and Elm Avenue (later Trade Street, now Dave Lyle Boulevard). Only two blocks long, the street early boasted some of the oldest and finest residences in the city. Mrs. Rosa B. Guess’ family lived for about ten years in the block of Johnston Street nearer the Elm Avenue intersection. It is this period of her life that Mrs. Guess recounts in these informal recollections. The entire Johnston-Hampton-Marion-Trade street area was once a part of the 144- acre farm of Dr. Thomas Lynn Johnston, early Rock Hill physician and town warden (councilman). The earliest proven record of the Johnston farm was a grant from the State of South Carolina for 278 acres on June 17, 1842, to Jane McNair, probably unmarried at the time. She was the daughter of William McNair and wife, Elizabeth Neely. It is likely that the original lease of this tract from the Catawba Indians dates from about 1819 and was registered in the name of Jackson Neely, who was a brother of Elizabeth (Neely) McNair. On October 15, 1846, Jane McNair deeded the 278 acres to her first cousin, William H. Neely. On December 31, 1851, Neely sold 150 acres of the original 278 acres (including the area cited above, mentioned in Mrs. Guess’ writing) to Isom Kirkpatrick.
On October 8, 1863, Kirkpatrick parted with his farm, selling to Thomas Kirkley Brown for the remarkably inflated sum of $13,500 (Confederate currency). Finally, on August 6,1869, Brown sold the place to Dr. Thomas Lynn Johnston of Lancaster County, S. C. , for $2,500 (Federal currency). Doctor Johnston then moved his family to this place. The house he lived in on his newly acquired farm was situated on the highest point of ground located along the rail line from Charlotte, N.C., to Columbia, S.C. To mark this site, the railroad surveyors erected a large boulder CHI the high ground about 1848-49. This stone remained in place until well after World War II. Dr. T. L. Johnston’s granddaughter Annie Luckey (“Jenks”) Johnston (Mrs. John Wesley) Anderson wrote once that she could stand in her bedroom in the house her father, Thomas Luckey Johnston, built on the same spot where Doctor Johnston’s house had once stood, look out the window with the southern exposure, and plainly see in the distance the trains passing through the little community of Ogden several miles below Rock Hill.
For many years I have wanted to write my remembrances of Johnston Street in Rock Hill, S. C. It was the loveliest street for a child to grow up on—just two blocks long, and everybody who lived there “belonged.” I do recall that “old Mr. Romedy” did not seem very neighborly. Johnston Street began one block south of the First Presbyterian Church at the Saluda Street intersection and ran two blocks west to the Charlotte-to-Columbia railroad, at the Elm Avenue/Trade Street intersection.1 The street was named for the Johnston family of Rock Hill, which was founded there in the 1870s by Dr. Thomas Lynn Johnston, who lived in a cottage that once stood where his son Thomas Luckey Johnston built an imposing mansion that stood until after World War II.2 I have a vague memory of Doctor Johnston’s wife, who was originally named Dorcas Aveline Luckey. “Miss Dorcas,” as everyone seemed to call her, was a very small old lady who wore her hair rather quaintly, with a small knot at the back and two or three short curls on either side of her face. She was the mother of Kate Clarinda, who married Mr. David Hutchison; Jane Eliza, who married Wm. Campbell Hutchison; and Thomas Luckey, who was president of the People’s National Bank. “Miss Dorcas” may have lived with “Miss Kate,” her daughter, toward the end of her life. Mama remembered her (Miss Dorcas) as quite an interesting and entertaining character who was especially fond of roses and did all she could to encourage their propagation in Rock Hill.
REMINISCENCES OF JOHNSTON STREET, ROCK HILL, S.C., 1897-1907-Part 2 by ROSA BASKIN STRAIT GUESS Edited and Annotated by William B. White, Jr.
We lived on the second block of Johnston Street, nearer the railroad and on the north side of the street. My father and mother moved there after my brother Frank and I were born. I was born in 1892 on Hampton Street in a charming white frame cottage two doors from Dr. T. A. Crawford’s house.1 Frank was born upstairs in the large residence of Misses Sally and Lizzie Gibson, at the SE comer of Hampton and Johnston streets. Mama said Miss Lizzie was so afraid that she (Mama) would make a commotion when the baby was born and was quite shocked to find that the baby was there and the night had been quiet. It was just like Mama to make no noise at all. I’d like to begin on the south side of Johnston Street, at the Elm Avenue/Trade Street intersection. First there were the Frews—Wm. M. Frew and wife, Sallie Sturgis, with their two daughters, Inez (who married Harry Ruff) and Margaret (who married R. B. Hamilton). They lived in a large Victorian house on a lot surrounded by an iron fence. Next came Mrs. Emma Frew London, sister of Mr. W. M. Frew, and her children: Sallie, Rufus, John R., and Emma.2 The James E. Parker family lived in the next house. Mrs. Parker was Annie Belle May, and her mother had been a Frew.3 The Parker children were Tom May and Polly and James, the latter two being twins. The Bryants were next. Their children were Max, Hazel, “Buck” (Wallace P.), Bob, and a daughter Marion, born after we moved there. The Bryants lived in a house that had been built by a family who ran a school there and ultimately moved to Columbia.4 Next to the Bryants were the Mobleys—Capt. E. B. Mobley and wife, Corrie Massey. They lived in a cottage that they later remodeled into a two-story house with slate roof and massive columns in the portico. The Mobleys were an older couple. Their children were Miss Aline; Miss Todd, who I think was the loveliest person I had ever seen; Ladson; and Hazel. A vacant lot was next east to the Mobleys. Then came the Johnston lot, where stood the cottage of Dr. T. L. Johnston that was later tom down to make room for the son’s mansion. While the newer house was being built, the Tom Johnstons lived upstairs at our house. One room at the front of the Johnstons’ new house was all of bird’s-eye maple, very pretty and unusual. Mr. Tom’s daughter Annie Luckey (called “Jenks”) was about two years older than I was; and the other daughter was Madge, who was a young teenager at that time.6 Mrs. Johnston, “Miss Daisy,” was a lovely, quiet lady; and Mr. Tommy” was outgoing and very friendly.
There was a large vacant lot between the Johnstons and our next neighbors, the David Hutchisons. Mrs. Hutchison was Mr. Tommy’s sister. The Hutchison children were these: Thos. Johnston, Wee Davey (nicknamed by my father, who brought him into the world, William Campbell (nicknamed “Manny”) and Katie, who was about Frank’s age. Mrs. Hutchison’s mother, Miss Dorcas, lived with the Hutchisons. Mama told of one occasion when some church woman’s society was having a party to make money—they were always doing that in those days. The one who could spend the evening without speaking (I mean the woman) got the prize. Miss Dorcas got that prize. The Hutchison house (remodeled, with enormous columns on the facade) stood at the SW corner of Hampton and Johnston streets.
Continuing east, across Hampton Street, there was the imposing residence of Misses Sallie and Lizzie Gibson, maiden ladies of great dignity and propriety. They were from Lancaster County and were descended from the Masseys. They reared a young man who was not related by blood to them. He was connected to the Gibsons only by marriage. His name may have been Samuel Faust Mobley (according to “Gin” Mobley), but he was always known as “Capt. Frel Mobley.”7 Capt. Frel Mobley served in the Spanish-American War, 1898. He married a young widow, Anna Hope Hall. There is a story of romance told of how he got her. Her father, Dr. R. H. Hope, a renowned doctor and uncle of Dr. T. A. Crawford, lived in a two-story house (long gone) on White Street. The widow Anna Hope Hall lived there with him. One day, while Captain Mobley was courting her, he stopped by, and seeing her on the upstairs porch, he engaged her in conversation. She leaned on the railing and suddenly the railing gave way and she was precipitated into Captain Mobley’s outstretched arms. The street that ran north from White Street opposite Doctor Hope’s house was named “Annafrel” in honor of this couple, who ultimately came to live in a cottage next door to Misses Sallie and Lizzie Gibson, on Johnston Street Mr. Mobley’s daughter by her first husband, Miss Ira Hall, lived with the Mobleys. The Mobleys had two sons, Robt H. and Charles.
As I remember, there was a large vacant lot next to the Mobleys where Dr. and Mrs. William A. Pressly built some years later than my early days. Then there was the Craig house, where lived Mr. Barber Nathaniel Craig and his wife, who was Carrie O’Neal. Their children were O’Neal, Lula, Florence and Bernard, the last of whom was in my class at school and one of my dear friends, a sort of childhood sweetheart. I forgot that Green Street crossed Johnston Street not far west of Saluda Street and parallel to Saluda. The only house east of Green and facing Green was the Romedy place. I believe Mr. Romedy had several sons and one daughter. Bernard Craig said that when he was young and the twilight seemed to be fading into the darkness, as he and his chums were still playing, suddenly someone would say, “We had better get home. the Romedys will be coming home.”
Across the street and up on the comer of Green and Johnston there was one house, and the Poags lived there a long time, but I do not remember the house being there in my childhood.8 Just across Green Street from the Poags, and facing Johnston, was the home of Mr. Julian Avery, a son of old Dr. E. T. Avery of Ebenezer. Mr. Avery’s wife was Kate Cross. They lived there a long time, for I feel sure that was when Bernard Craig first knew Miss Kate’s niece, Marie Cross, and married her. (See Thread link – right.)
I do not remember who lived between the Averys and Mr. Valdora McFadden, who lived on the NE corner of Johnston and Hampton, facing Hampton.
Across Hampton Street and on the NW corner of Hampton and Johnston lived the Rawlinsons, Mr. Walter and his second wife, Miss Minnie, and their son, Walter Barnes, who was my age.9 Miss Hattie, Mr. Rawlinson’s sister, also lived there and had charge of the house. His daughter, Miss Addie, and his sons, Mr. Joe and Mr. Caldwell (all by the first wife), lived there, too. Mrs. Rawlinson’s room was facing Johnston Street and there was a little porch where she used to sit. There was also a long board fence that enclosed the backyard and the garden. Miss Hattie told me once that she always knew when Papa was going home after an evening of cards with Doctor Crawford, Cousin Harry Wylie, and Mr. “Cow Ed” Poag, because Papa loved to tease the dogs and make them bark by dragging a stick along the fence palings.10
Mama told us a story about these men. They were playing setback. The others began to tease Mr. Poag about being an old bachelor. Finally, he drawled: “Well, if I had had a mind to take somebody’s leavings, I might have got a wife, but for my part, I don’t like warmed over cabbage.” Doctor Crawford and cousin Harry had both married widows.
Next came a cottage at first occupied by Dr. W. A. Pressly and Mrs. Pressly in my early teens. They had three children then: Elizabeth, William and James, I believe. I recall that they lost an infant, and it was the first time I had seen a tiny little casket and the tiny little, lifeless body. Later Mrs. Lize (Eloise) Law and Mr. Law with their children lived there and how much time I spent with them!
Next, in a house sitting back from the street, lived Mrs. Adams, Miss Molly, and her children, all older than I, except Tom. I remember that Tom asked Papa for me, and my father said, “Well, now, Tom, if you will be a good boy, I’ll give her to you.” There were Speight, Jay, Carrie, Jennie, and Mary, and Tom. When Mrs. Adams moved to Dr. Boney Johnson’s house on the newly-made Marion Street at the corner of Hampton Street, Mr. Johnson having purchased the house which Cousin John T. Roddey had built on the lower end of E. Main St. and which was the typical elaborate Victorian mansion, (Cousin John had sold the place to Mr. Lee Kerr and his wife, Esther Neisler)— Mrs. Schultz and her family moved then into the Adams home. We all loved Mrs. Schultz, whom most of us knew as “Granny.” I recalled nursing Rudolph, the baby.
Next was our house, a two-story structure that was high off the ground in the rear. We rented the place from Mr. Johnny Stultz. There we lived until I was a freshman at Winthrop College. Of the first years I remember little except the happy days of living with my dear, dear parents and dear Aunt Betsy, who came to us when I was very small, but I do remember the first day she came. Everybody was sick with la grippe except me, so Mama had me to go to the door and let Aunt Betsy in. I was very timid and did not want to go to the door. But from then on I was under her beloved control or rather protection.
After my father died in 1898, and I’ll speak of this later, our house was shared with many of the family. Uncle Joe Gaston lived with us for many years.12 Uncle John Newt was riding and studying medicine under my father’s counseling.13 Aunt Anna, Aunt Ethel, Cousin Mattie Belle Kee—all stayed with us and attended Winthrop College.141 remember sitting on die back steps with Mama, waiting for them to get home. Our house was high off the ground in the back, as I have said, and overlooked the large area behind all the stores that faced Main Street (on the south side). There was a branch below our garden and a line of small houses along the branch—five or six houses, in one of which Aunt Betsy lived, but I did not know any of the other tenants. It was on our back steps that Aunt Betsy would say to me as she looked toward the town jail, which was also in this area below our house and in plain view, “Well, last night they put John (I’ll say) in jail, “ and when I’d question, ‘What did he do?’” she’d say, “Nothing to be put in jail for. He just did not get treated right. Us don’t have no rights.” Maybe that is what made me hope always and ever that her race would one day have its rights.
Let me hurry on to name the friends in the last four houses on the street Next door to us were the Sadlers: Mr. Rufus Sadler and his children and Miss Carrie, the bookkeeper and caretaker. Mrs. Sadler, nee Lillie Crawford (Dr. T. A. Crawford’s sister), died when one of the children was born. My mother nursed the infant, Rufus, for a time alone with me. The children were Mary, Hope, Lillie Earle, Maggie Lee, Etta, Carrie and Rufus. They were all fun-loving and filled with a sort of native gaiety. I used to love to go over when they were eating dinner. I know it was bad manners for me to do that but there was so much laughter and fun at the long table and I adored the crisp, brown muffins cooked in fancy-shaped tins and would always accept when offered one.
Next door lived the Evans family. Doctor Evans was a druggist. There were several children: Julius (my age), Mable Lee, and a couple of boys.16 I do remember that Mrs. Evans lost several babies at birth, and on one occasion I remember seeing Miss Carrie running around through the back doors and on to see Mama. Mrs. Evans had a piano; and when I first began to take music lessons, I practiced on her piano. I believe the Poags lived in this house after the Evanses left. There was a vacant lot next when I was small, but the Clouds lived there before we left Johnston Street. Mr. E. E. Cloud had a dry goods store on Main Street. The building was later used by the Penney’s store. There were only girls in the Cloud family: Mary Evelyn, Esther, Ernestine, Sarah and Jessie. Next west was Mr. Tommy Robertson’s house, near the comer, a cottage with a wide porch around the front, and on the side what we used to call a “shotgun house,” one room wide, where Mr. Tommy’s mother and afflicted sister lived. I never saw either of them and can’t remember the others of the family. Mr. Tommy and his wife, who was called “Miss Cleola,” had two children: Cleo and a boy. This family moved to New York City, where Mr. Robertson opened a factory where they made ladies’ shirtwaists. I recall that several times a box of “two-family shirtwaists” was sent to Mrs. T. A. Crawford and my mother, perhaps on account of a doctor bill. My father and Doctor Crawford practiced medicine together until 1898, when my father died.
REMINISCENCES OF JOHNSTON STREET, ROCK HILL, S.C., 1897-1907-Part 3 by ROSA BASKIN STRAIT GUESS Edited and Annotated by William B. White, Jr.
I do remember, though I was a very small girl, an incident that happened. My father had me in the buggy with him when the horse shied or ran, throwing me out of the buggy. My father picked me up and carried me to the porch of the Robertsons’ house. Mrs. Robertson brought out a basin of water to wash my face, which had landed in the middle of the dirt road. I remember the pretty basin and pitcher, with sprays of pink roses on them. This completes the roll call of Johnston Street as I recall my early days there. The railroad tracks were next. Across the tracks were several houses. I remember that the Buttons lived there. Mrs. Button, who was called “Miss Sallie,” was, though not a trained nurse, one who helped take care of sick people, especially helping those in childbirth. Around the comer, the street that led to Main Street was called Railroad Avenue, and the same street from Miss Sally Frew’s comer to High View, the Charlie Frew house, was called Elm Avenue. Along this street I remember the house of Dr. W. W. Fennell and his wife, my cousin Mary Lyle. I’ll skip several houses I got help in remembering, but the Diehls lived in one and the Steeles in another—Mr. Toad Steele and Miss Sue, who was my father’s dear friend. I believe she was a great friend, too, of my Aunt Sue, and helped when I was taken to my grandfather’s to stay when Frank was bom. The Steeles had one daughter Margaret, a bit younger than I, who married Tom Good. Their son, Tom, Jr., married one of my colleagues at Rock Hill High School, Lucy Swearingen. Tom, Jr., had a fine voice and was soloist in the choir of the First Presbyterian Church while I was director of music, 1940 to 1960. Across the street and next to the railroad were several houses and I do remember Mrs. Morrison who lived there with her son, who ran a bakery. The Steele house was on the NE comer of Moore Street and Elm Avenue, and on the SE comer stood High View, where lived Mr. Charlie Frew and his wife (who had come from Penn, to be a milliner for Frew Brothers store). They had three children: Lucile, my age; Katherine; and Charlie. Mr. Frew’s sister Mrs. Cobb, whom they called “Aunt Maylie,” lived upstairs with her sons Morris and Charlie. Mrs. Cobb helped to run the house. Later, in the year of the last great Galveston flood, a dear friend lived just across Moore Street from Lucile, and her name was Lillian Gibson. Across the street (Moore Street) from the J. M. Cherrys lived the Fewells, Mr. Ed and Miss Mamie. His first wife had been a Shiver and was the mother of Cecil, my very dear lifelong friend. Cecil was bom in their house. Later the Fewells moved to Oakland Avenue, and the Scruggs family lived in the Fewell house on Elm Avenue. It was in that house that James (Jimmy) Scruggs was bom. He was one of our schoolmates. He ultimately married Cecil—each having been bom in the same house. Lillian Gibson, my good friend from Galveston, lived for a time in the same house, but then moved on Moore St. across from High View.
Mrs. Will Frew’s house on the corner of Johnston and Elm was an 1890-style house with a particular mark, a stained-glass window in the entrance room, not a hall, but a room with a fireplace—most rooms in those days had fireplaces. Mrs. Frew, or “Miss Sallie,” was a pretty woman with a warm, happy way about her. She was a Sturgis and was an ardent Baptist and most of the rime had a woman worker at the church living there with them [probably Miss Emma Dowell]. I imagine Miss Sallie was a good cook, though I do not remember eating there. Her daughter Margaret was in the grade above me, so I was not there too much. The house was distinguished by an iron fence. Most people had wooden picket fences; and the house had, I believe, a cupola or a tower.
The Londons were next and Mrs. Fred H. London, the mother of the household, was a small woman with a quiet but determined way about her. I recall that their yard was filled with elm trees of a good size and once one of the London cousins from North Carolina visited them. We played croquet every day. Perhaps he was more my age than Emma, but I had quite a good time and I was quite taken with the boy, I believe, and not the game. Miss Sallie was a great friend of Aunt Jennie Gaston, Uncle Joe’s wife, and I believe they always remained friends. Aunt Jennie came to Rock Hill to teach kindergarten at the mill with Miss Minnie Macfeat while we lived on the street. She lived or had room and board with Mrs. Louise Law, in the Pressly house. Emma London never married. She became a house mother in an Episcopal school in Baltimore. Rufus and John married and lived in Rock Hill, where their families still live. When Miss Sallie’s husband died, she and Emma came back to the old house and lived there until the street was gone. The Parkers lived next. The oldest son, Tom May, graduated from school—I can’t say “high school,” since we had only nine years. Our last and perhaps the best remembered year, Mr. E. W. Hall taught us Latin, a splendid foundation for English and other meaningful things not written in textbooks. Polly Parker married and had three daughters. Then she married Hiram White, and since his death she lives in a lovely section of Rock Hill and enjoys her children and grandchildren. I do recall the lovely handwork Miss Annie Belle did and if I am correct, she and Mrs. Bryant made Miss Todd Mobley’s trousseau. In those days everything was made by hand and much time was spent on lovely underclothes—lace, tucks, embroidery. Even my clothes were all made by Mama and me and Miss Cammie Smith, who was a very fine seamstress—Mama called her “the mantua-maker”—and she usually specialized in brides’ dresses. She made me two dresses—one, a crepe de chine which I wore for an evening dress to the party your Aunt Sallie gave me, and the other a beautiful shade of blue silk. I have this one on in the picture taken the day I was married. Why I wore a coat suit I do not remember, for my wedding was just a small affair with the family here—or should I say “the Kin”? Max, the oldest of the Bryants was about my age, some younger I believe.12 The other children were all younger. Marion, now my friend, was bom after we moved to Oakland. The house the Bryants lived in was—so Billy White tells me—built by a family for a school. Then that family moved to Columbia. Next to the Bryants was the Mobley house. Capt. Edw. B. Mobley and his wife, Corrie [Cornelia] Massey lived there with their children. My grandmother always would say, “I went to school with Dump Massey,” so you see the Mobleys were older than most on the street. I recall one night they came over to sit with Mama, and as usual, Frank begged for a War story [Civil War]. The grown people wanted to talk, so Mr. Mobley said, “Well, Frank, a battle took place, but I did not get there in time.” “Mr. Mobley, didn’t you ever get there in time?” said Frank. There were four children in the family: two young ladies, Miss Aline and Miss Todd; and two young men, Lad and Hazel. The comings and goings of young people were fascinating to us youngsters. Lad had the good looks of a Greek god—with fair complexion, blue eyes, close-knit blond curly hair, and trim figure. Mrs. Mobley always made white fruit cake for Christmas. I have her recipe—and in the cake she used one pound of chopped almonds.13 In those days you had to crack the nuts, get the brown skins off by putting the pieces in boiling water, and then you had to dry the nuts thoroughly. One day near Christmas Mrs. Mobley was making the cake when the house caught fire. Mrs. Mobley came walking out of the house carrying the tray of drying nuts before her. “White Fruit Cake” made by Mrs. Mobley’s recipe was one of the things Mama always made for our Christmas. I included the recipe in my cookbook. As I said, the young ladies of the Mobley household were very lovely. Miss Todd was considered one of the loveliest young ladies in the town. Isabel was a very sweet child and a great pet of the young ladies. She was in Miss Todd’s wedding, and I believe they gave her a very pretty doll, a French doll with pretty China head and hair she could comb. Mama helped with the affair, but Frank and I were not included. It was quite the talk and admiration of everyone. The bride was most beautiful, the wedding dress elegant, and the guests most pleased. Miss Todd (her name was Corrie, for Mrs. Mobley, her mother) married Mr. George White, a catch of the town and they went to live in Charlotte.14 A year later, she came home. She had died in childbirth and was buried in her wedding dress, holding the tiny baby in her arms. It was a sad and tragic event for our street. If I remember correctly, it wasn’t long after this that Lad brought home his pretty bride, who was a divorced woman with a very handsome, dear little boy just Isabel’s age. My! She and Lad made such a very handsome couple! The boy’s name was Russell Bevins, and he stayed at our house quite a lot. He said to Mama one day, ‘“Miss’ Strait in-law kin isn’t much kin, is it?” I never knew what happened to any of them, but they left for parts unknown in not too long a time. Miss Aline, the Mobleys’ oldest daughter, married Mr. Gib Greene and lived on at the old house with her family of pretty and delightful girls. By the way, nicknames seemed to be a part of the past years.
There were Broke-nose Jim Ferguson, Ten-cent Bill Wylie, Galloping John Steele, Pappy Jim Steele, and Cow-Ed Poag. (Hoppin’ John Miller was an old name from Revolutionary times.) I was older than Katie Hutchison, who lived next door to the Tom Johnstons. It was only in our older days that we saw each other. We belonged to the same club, the Entre Nous, a club that Cecil [Fewell] started or founded, old friends for all of our lives, now almost depleted. With so many gone and Anne Claire (Bigger), lingering on, not aware of living. Katie was in the choir of the First Presbyterian Church when I directed the choir. The old Hutchison house was a cottage, but sometime after the turn of the century the house was remodeled and massive columns were added to a semi-circular elaborate, front porch. Anne Claire always said, “Aunt Kate’s house had a Queen Anne front but a Mary Anne behind.”
R&R Note: The author, Mrs. Rosa B. Guess, was the great-aunt of R&R founder, W.B. Fairey, Sr. She was an exceptional teacher and inspiration to all who knew her, welcoming relatives and visitors alike, to her home with tea cakes and her warmth.
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nancythomas45 says
Papa Craig and his wife , Caroline Frances ONeal, built their large family home in 1903 down on the Saluda Street end of the two block residential blocks. He wanted to be near First Presbyterian Church where he was married, and, where the ONeals were already members because he was very devoted to his church, and, this location was only a block away. He had come from Lancaster, where his family had given land for the establishment of the Shiloh ARP Chirch back in 1821, and his Scots Craig ancestors came to Lancaster County in 1772 on the ship Lord Dunluce lead by the Reverend William Martin. Reverend Martin was part of the new Protestant movement, ordained in Glasgow, and who brought his entire Covenanters Congregation to The Waxhaws to find religious freedom, which they did. Their Johnston Street home was a plain and simple Queen Anne clapboard painted white with a large porch facing Johnston.
Barber Nathaniel Craig along with his brother-in-law, J.W. O’Neal, whose family home was on Hampton St., would start small merchantile businesses along Trade and Main, then sell one and start another. Barber came from a large family farm in Lancaster County, and, went to work for a mercantile store in Lancaster shortly after the War, and after the age of twelve when he was just old enough to “pull the Bell Cord over the mule.” He came to Rock Hill on “October 13, 1876…with Hamptons Red Shirt procession who was a candidate for Govenor and was elected….” His Johnston Street land was adjacent to the O’Neal property, plus he bought land across the street on Johnston where he built several smaller houses, one for his youngest child, Bernard, who had just married and joined him in the wholesale grocery business on the corner of Trade and Main. This would be about 1915. He would go to Philadelphia and New York to purchase items for one of their “fancy” goods stores. Barber Craig also was a wholesale grain broker…wheat, Oates, barley and corn, as these were the crops grown on the farm in Lancaster County. He, his son, and his O’Neal in-laws were an integral part of Rock Hills growth after the War and during the cotton mill boom, and his businesses supplied the growing populations with farm and home necessities. Their wholesale grocery businesses would continue on the corner of Trade and Main until 1965, when Bernard Craig retired, and, the warehouse closed. It was later destroyed when the federal Model Cities program gave funds to small towns to revitalize their downtown areas, as were many other historic buildings, including the unique two story railroad station up Trade Street.
Submitted by Nancy B thomas, 2017.
nancythomas45 says
In looking back, it seems to me that Mother (Nancy Craig Thomas) told me that the O’Neals arrived on Hampton Street earlier than Barber Craig, and, that John Farris O’Neal, father of Carrie, Barbers bride, owned much of the original Johnston Street land on their side of the street, and, as time went on, he sold off lots of vacant land left between his property and Craig property. The 1895 house on the corner of Johnston and Green was moved next door to make room for the 1903 Craig house to be constructed. The children of Carrie and Barber were all born on that 1895 house.
The family story goes that Barber and Carrie would Walk up and down the backyard property lines on a pathway that connected the Craig land with the O’Neal land when they were courting. He was several years older than she and, lived in Rock Hill about ten years before he married. He first boarded with the Rheas, who owned a boarding house on the corner of Black Street and Hampton.
After reading The memories of Rosa Guess, it could very well be that Aunt Kate Cross (Avery) could have been the connection between Bernard and Marie, as Marie would have come to Johnston Street as a teenager to visit her Aunt Kate Cross, wife of Julian Avery. Her memoirs have shed light on several family connections that go all the way back to Lancaster, Co, plus, friendships that began as neighbors on Marion and Johnston Streets, continued on College Avenue as those same families spread out and along Oakland Avenue up to the new Winthrop College, relations that I observed as a child and friends that my brothers and I had as children three and four generations later.Rock Hill was a closely knit community back then.