Good morning,
Quote of the day:
"Life is meaningless only if we allow it to be. Each of us has the power to give life meaning, to make our time and our bodies and out words into instruments of love and hope."
Tom Head
I have changed the format somewhat today. In addition to the history lesson, I have added a biography of one of the shapers of the state of South Carolina, especially in my area...It is Andrew Pickens. Enjoy.
Andrew Pickens
Andrew Pickens was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania on September 19, 1739 the son of Ulster Scot immigrants. His family along with several other Scots immigrant families moved to the Waxhaw district on the North Carolina/South Carolina border in the mid 1700’s. Pickens was a participant in the Cherokee Wars of 1760-61 in trying to subdue the Lower Cherokees. From the very start with settlers trying to settle in the Yadkin Valley in North Carolina to the Savannah River valley in South Carolina and Georgia the Cherokees of various sections were constantly attacking the frontier settlements trying to prevent expansion and understandably so. In 1764 he moved to the Long Cane Creek settlement in present day Abbeville County, South Carolina near the Savannah River. After moving he married Rebecca Calhoun, the daughter of Senator John C. Calhoun and he and she had issue of six children. In 1768 Pickens built a blockhouse in what is today the city of Abbeville, South Carolina. He was between a rock and a hard place, he needed trade with the Cherokees but the Cherokees would launch an attack from time to time. He was described a dour man of few words. He was a farmer, justice of the peace and Presbyterian Elder. When the Revolutionary War erupted he joined with rebel leader General John Williamson at Ninety-Six and was given the rank of Captain. In 1775 he joined with General Williamson in the so-called Snow Campaign against the Loyalists in the back country of South Carolina. In 1776 the Cherokees raided and burned many villages on the frontier killing many. As a result Andrew Pickens led a group of militiamen from the Long Canes and joined with General Williamson in burning the villages of the Lower Cherokee including Essenecca (present day Seneca, S.C.), Tomassee (present day Tamassee, S.C.), Jocassee (beneath the water of present day Lake Jocassee, S.C.), Brass Town (site still exists), Cane Creek (partially submerged beneath the waters of Clarke Hill Reservoir), Chehohee (actual site unknown), Qualhatchie (actual site unknown), Toxaway (site still exists, NC/SC border), Chittitogo (actual site unknown), Sugar Town (site unknown), Tugaloo (site exists), Keowee (beneath the waters of Lake Keowee, SC), among other villages. The largest of them all was Keowee which was about 15 miles west-northwest of present day Seneca, SC. Pickens then joined again with Williamson and went into North Carolina and Georgia destroying the Cherokee villages in the Cherokee Valley totaling 32 towns and villages. After this rape of the Cherokees, Pickens and Williamson joined in the war against the British and failed in the attempt to kick the British out of Saint Augustine, Florida. In 1778 he was appointed as Colonel in Ninety-Six South Carolina Militia. It was right after this that a Pickens led 350 man militia kicked the crap out of a 700 man British/Loyalist army. The British/Loyalist was on their way from the recently captured city of Augusta, Georgia to North Carolina when they were ambushed about 50 miles northwest of Augusta by Pickens and his militia and the Battle of Kettle Creek ensued. The battle ended early when one of the first persons killed was the British commander and the green Loyalists soldiers panicked and it was all over. After this the British gave up on trying to control the back country for the present and withdrew from Augusta. In 1780 Charleston, South Carolina surrendered to the British and Andrew Pickens along with many other Patriot leaders accepted parole and promised to obey British rule. The British then resumed their attempt at controlling the back country. Then Pickens heads for home in Long Cane only to find his home burned and his property looted by Loyalists. The extremely pissed Andrew Pickens notified the British that they had violated their end of the parole and all bets were off and he was a Patriot once again. He took over operations in the vicinity of Ninety-Six and over into Georgia. He was in command of the South Carolina Militia at the Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina where the Patriot army commanded by General Daniel Morgan out-generaled the infamous British cavalry commander Banastre Tarleton and slaughtered his army and came within a gnats-ass of capturing him. After this, Pickens joined with one of the greatest of our revolutionary commanders in Nathanial Greene in his North Carolina operations. After the Battle of Weitzel’s Mill, Andrew Pickens and his South Carolina Militia, along with the Georgia Militia was called home to take care of local interests. In the spring of 1781 the British military in Augusta surrendered to Andrew Pickens, Elijah Clarke and a Continental army commanded by General Henry (Light-Horse Harry) Lee. Lee was the father of the beloved Robert E. Lee. In June of the same year, Star Fort near Ninety-Six was under siege by the ubiquitous Patriot General Nathaniel Greene. Greene failed in the attempt and withdrew. But on his way out he instructed Pickens to do his utmost to keep the peace in the back country between the Patriots and the Loyalists. In July the British destroyed Star Fort and the associated village and withdrew south. Pickens instructed his men to seek justice and preserve order after the British left. Pickens then joined again with Nathaniel Greene and they moved to attack the British under the command of British Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stewart based on the Santee River at a place called Eutaw Springs, South Carolina. Upon arrival The Battle of Eutaw Springs was enjoined. During the battle Pickens was struck by a bullet in his sword belt buckle. The wound was not fatal but he was knocked form his horse. In September while recovering from his wound, the Cherokees attacked the frontier villages in Oconee County, South Carolina. With the withdrawal of the British, South Carolina governor Rutledge tried to establish civil rule once again and in January of 1782 Pickens became a member of the South Carolina General Assembly. But before he took office, he led a punitive raid against the Lower Cherokees in Oconee County destroying several town and villages. In 1785 Pickens signed the Treaty of Hopewell where the Cherokees ceded their lands to the state. In 1787 Pickens moved to Seneca and established a plantation he named Hopewell in honor of the treaty. About 1802 he moved to the site of the former Cherokee village of Tomassee, now named Tamassee, South Carolina. There he established a plantation he named after the village. Tamassee is in the very northwest corner of the South Carolina Mountains just a few miles from either North Carolina or Georgia. He died on his plantation in 1817 at the age of 78. He is buried in the churchyard of The Old Stone Church in Clemson, South Carolina. I have ridden by this church many times not knowing what a hero was close by. I will know from now on. Fort Pickens near Pensacola, Florida and Pickens County, South Carolina along with a myriad of other sites and places are named in his honor, and deservedly so.
This date in history June 16
1738 US printer publisher Mary Katharine Goddard is born in New London, Connecticut. Mary was unequivocally linked to her brother William who became a printer publisher also. They opened a print shop in Providence, Rhode Island and became very successful and opened shops in Philadelphia and Baltimore. They eventually moved to Baltimore to oversee their shop there that became their most busy. Mary was a very efficient person and William and his network provided for Mary to become the postmistress of Baltimore. She remained in the position throughout the turbulent years of the Revolutionary War. The Goddard Print shop was designated to print the United States Declaration of Independence with the signatures included. William tasked this great honor to his sister Mary. On this immortal document is the note, “Printed by Mary Katharine Goddard.”
1862 Earlier the US army had captured the South Carolina town of Port Royal. It is about half way between Charleston and Savannah, Georgia and was in a good location to launch attacks against Confederate installation around the port city of Charleston. Early on this morning Yankee General Henry Benham led 9,000 troops onto John’s Island with the intent of capturing the Confederate installation there. CSA General Nathan “Shanks” Evans was in command of the installation. I became clear that the Installation was near impenetrable because the only access was a firm narrow path between two marshes meaning the Confederates only had to concentrate their fire on the hard ground. There were only 500 Rebs manning the installation but they had their firearms and artillery zeroed in and it was a massacre. The Yankees lost over 800 killed to 150 for the Rebs. General Benham was arrested for disobeying the overall commander’s (US General David Hunter) order of no assaults with his permission. A court martial indicated that General Benham’s commission should be withdrawn but Abe Lincoln recognized Benham’s aggressiveness and reversed the court martial’s decision. Aggressiveness in the US General officers was a rare commodity. Benham ended up on the staff of US General Grant for the remainder of the war. The encounter on John’s Island is known as the Battle of Secessionville for the town near to the battle site.
1999 In the early and middle 1970’s there was a revolutionary unit operating in the United States known as the Symbionese Liberation Army, better known as the SLA. This group was not above bank and armored car robbery and even killing to keep themselves financed. It was the SLA that kidnapped millionaire Patty Hearst who participated in a bank robbery with them later on. One of the bank customers was killed during the robbery. After Hearst was captured she named Kathleen Soliah as one of the participants in the heist. A few days later a bomb was discovered under a Los Angeles police car that had failed to detonate. The LAPD named Soliah as the bomb builder and went on the search for her. Soliah had left LA never to return. She traveled across the country avoiding the police and ended up in Minneapolis. 23 years later the TV show America’s most Wanted did a segment on Soliah and her neighbors identified her to the police. Her name then was Mary Jane Olsen and had been leading a normal life, husband, children, dog, etc. She was arrested and charged with complicity in the murder of the woman in the bank robbery and planting two bombs. As part of a plea bargain, she pled guilty to the bomb planting and was given six years but the Bureau of Prisons in California threw out that sentence and gave her 14 years. The California Judge overruled that decision by stating that the Bureau of Prisons had overstepped it bounds but an additional 6 years was added making a total of 12 years. This happened in 2004 meaning she could be in the slammer until 2016. As we speak, she is cooling her heels in a California prison for women.
1961 After three performances in Paris, the world famous Russian Kirov Opera Ballet was at the Le Bourget airport waiting to board their plane to go back to the Soviet Union. The unquestioned star of this ballet company was the barely 20 year old Rudolf Nureyev. All of sudden Rudy screams out that he ain’t going back to Russia. The rest of the troupe gather around him trying to convince him to go home but he bolts and runs up to a French policeman, grabs him around the neck and sobs “Protect me!” Rudy was granted political asylum and in less than a week he was hired by the English Royal Ballet and the American Ballet for whom he performed for the next 30 years to standing ovation audiences. His performances with ballerina Margot Fonteyn are legendary. Rudy caused the Russian government much embarrassment because they were trying to convince the world of their freedom of the arts, which was bullshit. In his early fifties he began to be more and more ill. He contributed that to a variety of different reasons and blew it off. Eventually he was hospitalized and in 1993 he died of AIDS in Paris where he is buried. What else can I say?
1858 A relatively newly elected Senator from Illinois addresses the Illinois Republican convention in Springfield. Abe Lincoln in very somber tones warns that there is a coming division in the nation and he quoted the bible saying “A house divided cannot stand.” The division he was talking about was the problem of the new states that were joining the Union as to whether they would be “free” or “slave”. The United States Congress was very tense about keeping an equal number of “free” states and “slave” states and there was much animosity in the Congress about this issue. The state governments back then were sensitive about state sovereignty, or the right of each state to determine its own destiny. Abe was right and three years later the most important event in the history of this great nation began in the American Civil War. If things had turned out differently we would have at least four nations instead of one. We would have had the United States, the Confederate States of America, the Republic of Texas, which had been an independent nation from 1848 to 1858 waiting to be allowed to join the Union. They had to wait because they would be coming in as a “slave” state which would have upset the balance until Maine came in as a “free” state. Texas had a Constitution and the mechanics of government already in place. The government of the state of California was contemplating forming their own Republic because they did not have enough population to qualify as a state. Then gold was discovered and the population skyrocketed.
Born today:
1890 English comic Stan Laurel. When on his death bed he told those gathered around “If you cry at my funeral I will never speak to you again.” Stan was a funny guy.
1902 US scientist Barbara McClintock. She said “I know my corn plants intimately, and I find it is my pleasure to know them.” Hey Babs, loneliness is a bitch, isn’t it?
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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