Brawley Gilmore
From:
South Carolina
Project 1885-1
FOLKLORE
Spartanburg Dist. 4
June 10, 1937
Edited by:
Elmer Turnage
STORIES FROM EX-SLAVES
"We lived in a log house during the Ku Klux days. Dey would watch you
just like a chicken rooster watching fer a worm. At night, we was
skeered to have a light. Dey would come around wid de 'dough faces' on
and peer in de winders and open de do'. Iffen you didn't look out, dey
would skeer you half to death. John Good, a darkey blacksmith, used to
shoe de horses fer de Ku Klux. He would mark de horse shoes with a bent
nail or something like that; then atter a raid, he could go out in the
road and see if a certain horse had been rode; so he began to tell on de
Ku Klux. As soon as de Ku Klux found out dey was being give away, dey
suspicioned John. Dey went to him and made him tell how he knew who dey
was. Dey kept him in hiding, and when he told his tricks, dey killed
him.
"When I was a boy on de 'Gilmore place', de Ku Klux would come along at
night a riding de niggers like dey was goats. Yes sir, dey had 'em down
on all-fours a crawling, and dey would be on dere backs. Dey would carry
de niggers to Turk Creek bridge and make dem set up on de bannisters of
de bridge; den dey would shoot 'em offen de bannisters into de water. I
'clare dem was de awfulest days I ever is seed. A darky name Sam Scaife
drifted a hundred yards in de water down stream. His folks took and got
him outen dat bloody water and buried him on de bank of de creek. De Ku
Klux would not let dem take him to no graveyard. Fact is, dey would not
let many of de niggers take de dead bodies of de folks no whars. Dey
just throwed dem in a big hole right dar and pulled some dirt over dem.
Fer weeks atter dat, you could not go near dat place, kaise it stink so
fer and bad. Sam's folks, dey throwed a lot of 'Indian-head' rocks all
over his grave, kaise it was so shallah, and dem rocks kept de wild
animals from a bothering Sam. You can still see dem rocks, I could carry
you dere right now.
"Another darky, Eli McCollum, floated about three and a half miles down
de creek. His folks went dere and took him out and buried him on de
banks of de stream right by de side of a Indian mound. You can see dat
Indian mound to dis very day. It is big as my house is, over dere on de
Chester side.
"De Ku Klux and de niggers fit at New Hope Church. A big rock marks de
spot today. De church, it done burnt down. De big rock sets about seven
miles east of Lockhart on de road to Chester. De darkies killed some of
de Ku Klux and dey took dere dead and put dem in Pilgrims Church. Den
dey sot fire to dat church and it burnt everything up to de very bones
of de white folks. And ever since den, dat spot has been known as 'Burnt
Pilgrim'. De darkies left most of de folks right dar fer de buzzards and
other wild things to eat up. Kaise dem niggers had to git away from dar;
and dey didn't have no time fer to fetch no word or nothing to no folks
at home. Dey had a hiding place not fer from 'Burnt Pilgrim'. A darky
name Austin Sanders, he was carring some victuals to his son. De Ku Klux
cotch him and dey axed him whar he was a gwine. He lowed dat he was a
setting some bait fer coons. De Ku Klux took and shot him and left him
lying right in de middle of de road wid a biscuit in his dead mouth.
"Doctor McCollum was one of dem Ku Klux, and de Yankees sot out fer to
ketch him. Doc., he rid a white pony called 'Fannie'. All de darkies,
dey love Doc, so dey would help him fer to git away from de Yankees,
even though he was a Ku Klux. It's one road what forks, atter you
crosses Wood's Ferry. Don't nobody go over dat old road now. One fork go
to Leeds and one to Chester. Well, right in dis fork, Mr. Buck Worthy
had done built him a grave in de 'Woods Ferry Graveyard'. Mr. Worthy had
done built his grave hisself. It was built out of marble and it was
kivered up wid a marble slab. Mr. Worthy, he would take and go dar and
open it up and git in it on pretty days. So old Doc., he knowed about
dat grave. He was going to see a sick lady one night when dey got atter
him. He was on old Fannie. Dey was about to ketch de old Doc. when he
reached in sight of dat graveyard. It was dark. So Doc., he drive de
horse on pass de fork, and den he stop and hitch her in front of some
dense pines. Den he took and went to dat grave and slip dat top slab
back and got in dar and pulled it over him, just leaving a little crack.
Doc. lowed he wrapped up hisself in his horse blanket, and when de
Yankees left, he went to sleep in dat grave and never even woke up till
de sun, it was a shinning in his face.
"Soon atter dat, my sister took down sick wid de misery. Doc., he come
to see her at night. He would hide in de woods in daytime. We would
fetch him his victuals. My sister was sick three weeks 'fore she died.
Doc, he would take some blankets and go and sleep in dat grave, kaise he
know'd dey would look in our house fer him. Dey kept on a coming to our
house. Course we never know'd nothing 'bout no doctor at all. Dar was a
nigger wid wooden bottom shoes, dat stuck to dem Yankees and other po'
white trash 'round dar. He lowed wid his big mough dat he gwine to find
de doctor. He told it dat he had seed Fannie in de graveyard at night.
Us heard it and told de doctor. Us did not want him to go near dat
graveyard any more. But Doc, he just laugh and he lowed dat no nigger
was a gwine to look in no grave, kaise he had tried to git me to go over
dar wid him at night and I was skeer'd.
"One night, just as Doc was a covering up, he heard dem wooden shoes a
coming; so he sot up in de grave and took his white shirt and put it
over his head. He seed three shadows a coming. Just as dey got near de
doc, de moon come out from 'hind a cloud and Doc, he wave dat white
shirt and he say dem niggers just fell over grave-stones a gitting outen
dat graveyard. Doc lowed dat he heard dem wooden shoes a gwine up de
road fer three miles. Well, dey never did bother the doctor any more.
"Doc, he liked to fiddle. Old Fannie, she would git up on her hind legs
when de doc would play his fiddle."
=Source:= Brawley Gilmore (col), 34 Hamlet St., Union, S.C.
Interviewer: Caldwell Sims, Union, S.C. (12/3/36)
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Willis Gillison
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