Aiken, South Carolina [pp. 623-626]

ALI-A K, SOUTII CAR OLINA.
A descent from the ridge, of the most abrupt and precipitous char acter, necessitated the construction of an inclined plane, with a sta tionary engine to help the locomotives in ascending and descending.
Tihe exceedingly heavy grading required at the southwest made Aiken
thie terminus of the road for the space of nearly two years.
These were the "flush times " of the town and its vicinity. Groups
of stores-each an omniurn gatherum of every conceivable species of
goods needed by the backwoods inhabitants or the temporary so journers in the place-and large storehouses for the safe-keeping of
cotton, etc., were erected in convenient positions; a -' branch" of the
bank of the State was established, and the broad, sandy streets (or
rather avenues), resounding with the innumerable bells upon the
wagoners' mules and horses, together with the lumbering noise of
heavy trucks, and the occasional rattle of drays, showed how busy
and profitable the traffic had become.
Rough, sunburnt farmers, dressed in gray homespun, could be remarked along the sidewalks or at the doors and windows of the shops,
some accompanied by their wives and daughters, and all eager to secure, in exchange for the provisions or game they had brought in,
some precious luxury of civilization.
The wagoners were a race sui generis. Often owning little or nothing themselves, they acted as the conveyers of produce-such as
wheat, corn, and cotton-intrusted to their care by the wealthier
planters among whom they lived; and, though peculation on a large
scale was infrequent, because difficult, it must be acl~owledged that
their general character for honesty was not of the highest. These
men, after traversing perhaps hundreds of miles in their clumsy, clothcovered vehicles, or bestriding their lazy mules (animals as vicious
and obstinate as their riders), after camping-out every night for weeks,
and supporting themselves upon coarse if not scanty rations, would
enter a town like Aiken, burning for excitement and the rude relaxations of the border. They would meet, at the epoch of which we are
now speaking, with kindred spiriti in the low groggeries and barrooms, and the inevitable result, a" free fight," with bowie-knives and
rfles, was sure to follow.
Once, in the fall of 183-, there came into Aiken an old trapper
andl hunter from the neighboring State of Georgia, for the purpose of
selling a store of skins and choice venison-hams, which (accompanied
by his son) he had laboriously conveyed thither in a rough, springless
cart.
Sam Gregory-the old man's name-was known to some persons
in the village as a straightforward, honest, simple-hearted Methodist,
an individual of few words, but those always civil and amiable, and
as easy, on most occasions, to deal with as an unspoiled child. Though
seventy years of age, he was as upright as a pine, tall in stature, with
undiminished muscular vigor and activity. The son, then about
twenty-nine or thirty, was, in the minutest particulars, the image of
his father, except that he topped the elder by a couple of inches, although old Gregory was upward of six feet high.
It was "sale-day" upon which these two found themselves mingling with what, to their woodland eyes, seemed quite a crowd, among
the shops and warehouses of Aiken. A merchant, with whom
Gregory had been accustomed to treat in the disposition of his hides
and hams, having left the place, our hunter was compelled to seek
custom elsewhere. HIe went from shop to shop, exhibiting specimens
of his stock-in-trade, but luck was against him; he could obtain no
purchasers upon any thing like fair terms.
At length he came to an establishment which, supposing it to be
a grocery, he carelessly entered, his son just behind him. It was not
a grocery, however, but a notorious bar-room, kept by a fellow who
rejoiced in the nickname of "Bully Bob," one of those desperadoes
who infest all new societies, and are the terror of the virtuous and
inoffensive.
Bully Bob was even worse than his class in general. Having
grown rich by the sale of liquors, he waxed outrageously impertinent,
organized a "body-guard" of "Mohawks," who obeyed his slightest
nod, and were the pests of the soberer portion of the community
bot'h night and day. One of the bully's rules (as sternly carried out
as the laws of the Medes and Persians) was that no man, woman, or
child, should enter his bar, no matter how or when, without being made
to drink!
Il this unhallowed place, and in the presence of the bandy-legged,
ile,tie-browed, broad-chested, and fiery-nosed genius of the same, the
4('gorys now stood, looking about them in that lost, bewildered way
characteristic of the backwoodsman in town or city, and the effect
of which is half ludicrous, half pathetic.
"Well, strangers," growled Bully Bob, "aire ye a-going to stop
thar all day? Wat's the likker?"
Old Sam explained in his simple, innocent way that he had made
a mistake as to the place, and that "fact was, nuthlier Jemmy" (pointing to his son) "n or his dad (that's me, boys) ever tuk to likker yet,
nor ever mean to! "
Whereupon he turned to the door, and seemed about to leave.
"None o' that, now!" yelled Bully Bob, leaping the counter and
locking the door instantly, the key of which he put into his pocket.
"You d d old cuss," he continued, "I'll make ye swill a pint o'
whiskey Beat, and pay double for it to boot!"
Here was a dilemma. Bully Bob was supported by half a dozen
of his reckless myrmidons, and to attempt resistance seemed madness. That did not strike the Gregorys, however. After recovering
from a little natural surprise at the unexpected position, the elder demanded their freedom.',' Let us go!" said he. "When you've done
your dooty, and obeyed orders," replied Bob, who had again taken
his place behind the bar, and was searching among his bottles. Sam
wheeled round, but quite deliberately, and walked toward a back
door that was open, beckoning Jem to follow. But three of Bob's
"M lohawks" put themselves coolly in his way. "No use, old'un,"
said one of them, with a provoking grin,
"Do as you're bid " "And you'll niver be chidpiped another, with an Irish accent, and the flourish of a huge stick.
Perhaps it was the threat, or insult conveyed in this movement,
which roused old Gregory's blood; but certain it is that the next instant he had dashed his opposers vigorously aside, and might have
gained the door and passage-way beyond, if the entire party in Bully
Bob's interest had not come up and attacked him.
They were six men in all with whom the Gregorys fought, at first
with no weapon but Nature's; but at length, a pistol having been discharged at the old marl's head, he drew his long, keen couteau de chaasse,
cut down two of the assailants, seized Bully Bob-who had just joined
the?nlre-by the " scruff" of the neck, and, through a storm of bullets,
rushed from the back entrance round into the street, dragging the
amazed and discomfited bully along with himn. Jemmny staggered
after his father, wounded and bleeding.
"Hurt, Jem?" asked the elder, briefly. "Done for!" answered
Jem, with equal conciseness, and sinking slowly to the ground. Then
the spectators, attracted by the previous firing, witnessed a terrible
scene. The old man looked upon his son and saw that he was dying.
He looked next at the wretch upon whom his grasp, firm as iron, still
rested, regarded him for one fleeting moment with an indescribable
expression which appeared to paralyze the ruffian, then, with a jerk,
he pulled the heavy body up, as if it had been a little child's, bent it
backward across his knee, so that he could see his enemy's face to the
last, and with a dreadful calmness proceeded to stab and disembowel
the victim, whose quivering remains he threw from him, when all was
over, with a single, half-smothered cry of satisfied rage, which none
ever forgot who heard it.
In a few minutes more Jemmy too was dead.
That night, untouched by the hand of the law, old Gregory, with
the body of his son in charge, returned to his backwoods home. He
was never again seen or heard of by any of the Aiken people.
But the "flush times" of Aiken were not of long duration. Energetically carried forward, the railroad soon reached Hamburg, whereupon almost the whole of the lucrative cotton-trade was transferred
thither. Then came the great commercial crash of the year 1837,.
and, to verify the proverb which maintains, in effect, that misfortunes are gregarious, moneyed troubles were made worse by a fire
that consumed the larger portion of the business street and the public
buildings. A report, accounting for the origin of this fire, says that
a certain young man, either a clerk or storekeeper, "possessed by
more partiality for puppies than prudence for property," in attempting to smoke out a nest of yellow-jackets which was inimical to his
canine pets, first set the flames burning.
Many weary years of depression ensued; and Aiken threatened
to remain in statet quo, or even to degenerate into an insignificant
depot, or paltry trading-post, when rumors of the sanitary nature of
its clinmate, and of extraordinary cures effected in the case of persons
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