GRIST VISITS BETHEL TOWNSHIP
(Editor A. M. Grist of the Yorkville Enquirer reports on his visit to Bethel, February 5, 1935.)
I went up to Mr. and Mrs. Riddle’s in the late afternoon of Friday. Went out the Lincoln road to its junction with the Armstrong Ford road and then on that road to the turn-off just beyond Beaverdam Creek, and on to the Riddle home by way of the old Riddle mill site on Crowder’s creek. As I traveled out that way I very naturally recalled my first visit to the home of the late George L. Riddle. It was in 1882, and I went with my father. Our mode of travel was a phaeton drawn by a grey mare. We only traveled about four miles per hour, and we were four hours on the way—13 miles, they called it in that day and time.
The Yorkville Enquirer on Aug. 29, 1878 contained an ad from G.L. Riddle stating, “My mills on Crowders Creek have been thoroughly repaired and overhauled, and now are first rate for grinding wheat and corn. My woold carding machines are also in fine running conditions.”
The Yorkville Enquirer on Sept. 5, 1894 reported – “Riddles Mill is running day and night. Mr. Riddle bought 500 bushels of wheat from the west to sell to his customers.”
The YV Enquirer on Sept. 5, 1895 reported – “Mr. George L. Riddle has had an expert fixing the machinery in his mill, Mr. A. F. Weaver of Greencastle, Penn. They will start to grind grain today.”
The Yorkville Enquirer reported on June 23, 1897 – “Mr. S.A. Lackey of Burke Co., N.C. is an experienced millwright and is currently at Mr. G.L. Riddle’s mill repairing his mill dam and putting in a Munger ginning system.”
The Herald reported on May 1, 1901 – “The new bridge across Beaver Dam Creek which leads to G.W. Riddle’s Mill was completed last Saturday by R.P. Haney and is now ready for use.” (The exact location of this bridge is unknown.) The Yorkville Enquirer on Oct. 30, 1889 reported – “The York County Commissioners will open bids on Nov. 20th for building a bridge at Clinton’s Ford on the Armstrong Ford Road on Beaverdam or Beaver Dam Creek, eleven miles NE of Yorkville.”
My, what changes have taken place in those 53 years. Scarcely anything along the road looks today anything like it did then. To be sure there are some few landmarks that have changed little, but then almost everything else has changed — roads, farms, homes, people, and besides there are not so many white people on that road who were there 53 years ago.
Beginning right in Yorkville, the dismantled old Brick academy, with its window lights all knocked out, its doors gone, stood just a skeleton of a building where the residence of Mrs. J. R. Lindsay stands today. A little further on was the building that is now occupied by the Dickson family, then the cabin of Mrs. McAdams, the Thomas J. Bell house and Mrs. Curry’s, on the lot occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Edward Latham, and that was all the buildings on that side of the street. Across the other side the Denns house where the residence of Mrs. Paul Moore now stands, and there was a vacancy then to the house now occupied by Mrs. W. S. Peters, known as the “Boyd” house in those days. Then the home of Mrs. Sarah Eccles and next the home of the late Mr. and Mrs. A. Cody, and still occupied by his family.
The Yorkville Enquirer reported on Nov. 30, 1887 – “Last Friday a tenant house on the plantation of Mr. William Dobson burned. It was located two miles NE from Yorkville and was occupied by Bob Barnett, colored. He and his wife had left four children in the house but they escaped the fire.”
Out close to the railroad was the cabin of a negro woman, “Aunt” Liza Wilson, I believe her name was. From then on there were no houses until the place later known as the Johnson place, was reached. The roads were just red mud ruts all the way. Travel was very slow. Out across the second branch from town was the William Dobson place with a small unpainted house on it. Later Mr. Dobson built a large two-story house there. It was destroyed by fire a few years ago. There was no bridge across Fishing creek next at the bottom of the hill. On up the road was the home of the late Dr. J. Harvey Witherspoon. Yes, in my mind’s eye I can see Dr. Witherspoon yet as my father stopped chat with him for a moment at his front gate, and remember the doctor teasing at me. This Witherspoon home and place today is much the same as it was in 1882. It has been well taken care of. Half mile further on was the home of the late “Jim” Wood. I remember him as an old man then. He has been dead many years. It was at this place I believe I first saw one of those old time screw cotton presses. A very large screw cut out of a white oak leg by hand and propelled round and round, by mule power and a long sweep on each side, was used to press cotton into bales after it was ginned on a gin, also operated with mule power. Mr. Wood, if I remember correctly, was a builder, maker or cutter of those old wooden screws, something like 25 feet long and a foot in diameter, and you can believe me it took a very skilled wood worker to cut out one of those screws by hand with hand tools and have it right.
The next home along the way was that of the late Bruce Youngblood, and this place too looks much like it did the first time I ever saw it. To be sure there have been a few additions to the outbuildings, but the residence is much like it was half a century ago. A few hundred yards further was another Youngblood settlement. It hasn’t changed so much in appearance either. The next place on the road was the William Fewell homestead, long since destroyed by fire. Still further on was the Tate place. The late Mrs. Nancy Tate lived there with her family. The house is occupied by tenants now and is not so well looked after s it was when Mrs. Tate lived there and looked after things. However, it still somewhat resembles the place of half a century ago. On down the hill is Allison Creek we came out at the store of Glenn & Riddle—Samuel A. Glenn and George L. Riddle, proprietors. That was the first time I ever saw Mr. Glenn and we formed a friendship that continued as long as he lived. A fine man was Mr. Glenn.
We didn’t tarry long at the “store,” but went on down the road a little ways and turned to the right into a little used road and pretty soon we were at the place of a Mr. Faris—I do not remember his first name— and from there on out to the road and across Beaverdam Creek and thence on to and thru the place then owned by the late Samuel J. Clinton—now owned by T. Edward Brandon. This place has not changed much and today the residence and premises are kept in fine condition. (Information courtesy of and from: YCGHS – The Quarterly Magazine, March 05)
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