Tribute to Joseph Chandler by his Old School Mate

Col. John P. Thomas of Columbia, who attended The Citadel at the same time the late Maj. Joseph B. Chandler did, wrote and had published in the Columbia State the following tribute to Maj. Chandler last week:
The surviving members of The Citadel class of 1851 are again called upon to lament the death of an esteemed comrade–J.B. Chandler. Born in Sumter county, S.C., Dec. 14, 1827, Major Chandler died at his home in Williamsburg county, April 20, 1897. Removing to Williamsburg after his graduation from the South Carolina Military academy, he at once engaged in farming. When the war came on, he entered the service, and for four years did his duty to the State and the Confederacy.
After the close of the war, Maj. Chandler resumed the pursuit of the farmer, which he followed with marked success. For 43 years, he maintained with mutual satisfaction, business relations with the well-known firm of E.H. Frost & Co.
Having won the confidence of the community in which he resided, he was elected to represent his county for several terms in the popular branch of the general assembly. His career as a legislator was one useful to the State and honorable to him. He served on the committee of ways and means, where he impressed his fellow members with his good judgment and his fine sense of truth and justice.
The element of religion was influential in his nature and in his life. A Christian man, devoted to his church, in which he served long as one of its elders, he spent his years, as we are informed by one who knew him well, in doing good to others.
Gravity of character and of deportment was one of Chandler's traits, and this was linked with dignity of bearing and excellence of conduct.
In his death, the State loses one of its best citizens and his Alma Mater one of her worthiest sons.

The County Record, May 6, 1897

Indiantown News

If the county supervisor will travel the road from Indiantown P.O. to Rhems, his nervous system will have to be very strong, or it will be shocked. The road is plowed up, corn and cotton planted in it. Now I am one of these who think it folly to work all the bad places in the road, when all the high, good places are plowed up and made as rough as driving across a field. There is room right here for "reform." Will some trusted "leader" take a hint?

Photo: County Supervisor Benjamin Britton Chandler


This section was visited by a very heavy rain on Friday 30th. Grass was quite vigorous before but will take on a new life since the rain.


Corn is exceedingly small and a very bad stand; bud worms have played havoc with it during the late cold snap.


Cotton is recuperating slowly from the effects of the late frost. Fruit does not seem to have suffered from the effects of the frost, except figs, which were killed.


Tobacco transplanting is being pushed by Col. McCutchen and Dr J.S. Cunningham, whom, I think, are the only tobacco planters left in this section.

The County Record, May 6, 1897

Other Suspects Arrested

Sheriff Daniel received a telegram from Estill, Hampton county, last Saturday, stating that two negroes had just been arrested there who were supposed to belong to the party which murdered the two Italians near Salters on the night of April 17th. There were three men in the party at Estill, but one of them got away from the officers and avoided arrest. The man who escaped is described as being a yellow fellow, about 5 feet, 8 inches high, weighing about 150 pounds. The men who were arrested claim that they had known the other negro about a month but did not know his name, simply calling him "Sam."
The men were carried to Hampton and lodged in jail. Mr. G.W. Arms went over to Hampton Sunday and returned with the prisoners Tuesday morning. When arrested, the men each had a .38-caliber revolver, and one of them had a razor, a 32-caliber Winchester rifle and a long-blade pocket knife.
Mr. I. Cannon, of Strawberry, into whose store the supposed murderers did so much firing, came up Tuesday afternoon at the request of Sheriff Daniel for the purpose of identifying the prisoners. He says that they are not the men who were in his store some weeks ago. 
The negroes were interviewed by a reporter for The County Record Wednesday morning and gave their names as Louis Gardner and Jim Williams. Gardner is a very dark brown fellow, about 5 feet 8 inches in height and weighs about 145 or 150 pounds. He says he was born and raised in Charleston; that he left there about three years ago and has worked at various places in Georgia since that time, the last being with Mr. Padden Porter at Clyo, Ga.; that he and Williams left Clyo Friday morning to visit some friends at Estill and were arrested there Saturday. He worked on a chain gang in Effingham county, Ga., from January 1896 till February 1897. Gardner said he was then known as John Edwards.
Williams said he was an Alabamian; had been in Georgia for several years; he and Gardner had worked at Mr. Porter's together, etc., his tale corroborating Gardner's. Williams is a black man about six feet in height, weighs about 145 pounds and is about 30 years of age. He has a scar about 2x1-1/2 inches in size, caused from a burn, on the right arm just below the elbow.
The rifle taken from the negroes is in good condition but shows signs of having been used quite a good deal. Williams' pistol is one of the Iver Johnson Arms Co.'s make with a six-inch barrel, in excellent condition. The cylinder will take five .38-caliber cartridges. Gardner's "shooting iron" is a Harper & Allen short-barrel .38-caliber, five-shot revolver and is in a very battered condition. The razor was an old one but had a keen edge. The knife was only an ordinary, long-bladed one and was in pretty fair condition. 
The negroes will be kept in jail until they can prove where they were on the night of the murder.
Governor Ellerbe on Monday offered a reward of one hundred dollars for the arrest and conviction of the murderers. The governor would have offered a reward sooner, it is said, but for the fact that up to last Friday no less than nine men had been arrested for the crime, and until then, he had received no official request for the reward. 
The two men who are now in jail were arrested before the sheriff made the request for a reward, so we suppose that should these negroes be the right ones, no reward would be paid at all. Up to this time, eleven men have been arrested for killing the two Italians, and it is hoped that the right men will yet be caught.

The County Record, May 6, 1897

No Church Services

There will be no services in either the Baptist, the Presbyterian or the Methodist churches next Sunday.

The County Record, May 6, 1897

Vegetable crop

Quite a lot of vegetables have recently been shipped from here to the Northern markets.

The County Record, May 6, 1897

Decoration Day Briefs

The "Decoration Day" services will take place in the Court House at 4 o'clock p.m. next Monday. Let there be a large crowd present.


Don't neglect to send a good lot of flowers on Monday.


Let the old time Rebel Yell be heard once again on Monday.


The ladies particularly are invited to participate in decorating the graves of the Confederate dead. Be sure to attend next Monday.


There will be a dance at the Coleman House Monday night.

Abram Evans

Mr. Abram Evans, who lived near Lynche's river, died very suddenly a few days ago. His remains were interred in High Hill cemetery in the presence of a large concourse of sorrowing friends. Mr. Evans was a quiet, inoffensive man, a good citizen, a consistent Christian. He served through the late war with all the unswerving fidelity of a true patriot. But he has fought his last battle and in triumph has crossed the cold, sullen stream of death to join those of his fellow comrades who yielded up their lives years ago in defense of their country. And as we record the departure of this gallant old soldier, our heart is made sad by the reflection that all too soon the last of the battle-scarred veterans–noble old heroes–will have gone the way of all the earth. On a new generation, whose hands are unused to the implements of war, will develop the duties which they so nobly performed. It is appropriate then that we who are of the aftermath consecrate ourselves to the unfinished work which they so nobly advanced, for each generation leaves to its successor an unfinished work.

C.

The County Record, May 6, 1897