Historyman blogs…
The legend of “Red” Kelly began on the streets of Olympia, among the textile workers in Columbia, SC. As a teenager he was a cigar smoking, hard drinking fighter with a traveling boxing ring. He went from town to town with his friend, fighting all comers for cash. ““Red” was bold and tough and the …
MAJOR JAMES HALLPersonal Anecdotes by Sherry Jaco When my grandfather, Major James Hall, was a child of about seven years, his family left their home in Chesterfield County, SC—about the year 1900. His family with six children packed all their belongings into a horse-drawn wagon and left their small share-cropping farm in search of a …
HISTORY OF JACO’S CORNER August 2017 The intersection of Bluff Road and Rosewood Drive in Columbia has been known as Jaco’s Corner for over a century. The Jaco Family owned and continuously operated a business called Jaco’s Corner there on that corner. This intersection needs to be named officially by the City of Columbia because …
Corkball “You take a regular size cork like you would have in a wine bottle and wrap it in masking tape. That is how you make a cork ball.” Jake Jaco pulls from his pocket one of the cork balls used in a tournament he put on in 1993 at his family’s bar, Jaco’s Corner. …
Against a backdrop of war and political strife, Emily Dick taught Sunday School to the children of the mill villages in Columbia, SC. Her calling was not the political picket lines in front of the White House, or the smoke and cinder of the battlefields, or even as a Red Cross nurse. Her passion was …
Major Hall sat by the window in the school house and stared out into the world beyond. The teacher droned on and on as he dreamed of something else, something that was more “hands-on”. The 9-year-old was physically present in that clapboard schoolhouse, but his heart was in the mill with its whirling spindles and …
On March 15, 1781 one man, Peter Francisco, was a force of nature on the battlefield at Guilford Courthouse. Despite being wounded in Greensboro, NC he continued fighting all the way to the end of the Revolutionary war. Standing 6’06” and weighing an estimated 260 lbs., Francisco towered a full foot above his contemporaries. He …
Of late, the old dam has a fallen tree hanging over the ledge that never seems to quite go over, despite the flooding of recent years. After traveling down the river it now hangs like an ancient warrior fighting to not go over. It hangs there as if it has something yet to say. Around …
Ten minutes was all it took to hack to death over ninety men on February 24, 1781. Screams and pleas for mercy went unheeded as broadswords and bayonets cut through flesh, bone and any hope that Lord Cornwallis had of the masses coming to the King’s standard. Just west of the Haw river in Alamance …
Revenge could not wait, smallpox or not. Captain Robert Harrison was a dangerous menace to all Patriots. He would be found bedridden by a scouting party on October 14, 1780 near the Antioch community in Kershaw County. Before the fall of Charleston, the Harrison brothers lived in a run-down log cabin near the Lynches River, …
William Moore was a bold and fearless fighter during the Revolutionary war. Taking up his rifle and horse, he would leave his wife at home to confront the British before they came to his doorstep. On making the long journey from Abingdon, Virginia with Colonel Campbell, he proved himself in the eyes of his leader. He …
Impaled by bayonet and concealed by the powder smoke, Robert Henry, a mere 16 years of age, was forced to lay prostrate and helpless as the battle went back and forth at Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780. The bayonet charges were a mainstay in the British army and Major Patrick Ferguson had taught his …
Colonel Benjamin Cleveland was of the same bold character as Daniel Boone and found his most delightful pleasure in hunting rather than plowing. As a young man he was often found in the woods hunting and gathering pelts. Two of his childhood friends were Thomas Sumter and Joseph Martin. Sumter would later be known as the …
Signal Beacons of Gandor used in NC mountains during the revolution? Local folklore in and around Wilkes and Caldwell Counties in NC reveal the story of Martin Gambill. His 100-mile journey to warn the Patriots of the British invasion into the mountains is the stuff of Legends. The story goes that the watch fires that …
“If you want your horses fed, feed them yourself,\” replied ten-year-old William Davenport to Tory leader John McFall in September of 1780. Channeling his father\’s courage he would become a leader in his own right as he grew older. The Davenport College for Women in Lenoir, NC was formed through his philanthropy. John McFall served in Major …
In September of 1780 British Major Patrick Ferguson raised his army of over 1000 men and headed up into the North Carolina Mountains. Going through present day, Chesney, SC and onto Rutherfordton, NC., his army would live off the land as they worked their way from community to hamlet. On the general route laid out …
The Twin Poplars of Peace Local legend has it that over 280 years ago the Catawba and the Cherokee Indians were locked in a brutal and savage conflict in the smoky hills around Lenoir, North Carolina. So many warriors were killed on both sides that the leaders came together to talk peace, not as victor over …
Isaac Shelby was definitely not a “fence sitter” during the war with the mother country. He was, as a son of his father Evan Shelby, a proponent by deed of the Fincastle Resolutions and had resolved to \”live and die\” while never surrendering his \”inestimable privileges\”.(1) He understood Freedom and slavery. He understood the Quebec acts as intolerable to …
A man and a horse do not a cavalry make! A lack of swords was a serious problem for Revolutionary war era cavalry, and on June 18, 1781 the Patriots got the worst end of their encounter with 200 British mounted infantry in Gilbert, SC. After this running battle from Highway 1 down Peach Festival …
The Battle of the Great Savannah Perhaps the greatest single order that General Gates gave prior to his ignoble defeat at Camden was to appoint Francis Marion as the Brigadier General of the South Carolina Militia. Following up on his orders, Marion departed from Gates at Rugeley’s Mill above Camden. He then headed south to …
