Ancestry

So it's been a while but not much has been going on to write about. I've been in a lot of pain with my fibromyalgia and some new health issues but I don't like being a Debbie downer so I've been keeping that stuff to myself.

A couple of weeks ago I started working on min and Mark's family trees. When I hit a road block I sent out an SOS on Facebook to all my family members and my cousin Emmy sent me a list of my Papa's aunts and uncles. Among them was my great great Uncle Thomas Rance Yarbrough.

Thomas was an employee of the Chiquola mill. In September of 1934 some of the employees decided to unionize and strike because of wages and long hours. The superintendent, who was also the town's mayor, deputized some of the men who hadn't joined the union and armed them with pistols, rifles, and shotguns. On September 6 things turned violent and shots rang out leaving seven men dead, including my great great uncle. Several others, including women, were wounded. Strange enough, all of this took place in the town of Honea Path, the town I moved to about 18 months ago.

I have to give credit to Frank Beacham and his e book, Mill Town Murder, for a lot of the information above. I highly recommend reading this book.

Today, Mark and I explored the ruins of the Chiquola mill. I read in an 2014 article from the Anderson Independent that an earthquake in February 2013 destroyed a lot of what was still standing of the old textile mill. As I explored it was easy to imagine the sounds, the sights and even the smells of what it must have been like back when it was still in operation. I grew up about two and a half blocks from the JP Stevens plant in Whitmire. I would fall asleep every night to the hum of the sounds the machines. I remember the smells from a tour the powers that be allowed when I was child. The place seemed huge. I recall my Meme coming home from her second shift job with lint in her hair.

Mills were the heartbeat of the southeast at one time.

On September 6, 1934 my great great uncle's heartbeat stopped on the sidewalk in front of a mill.

RIP Thomas Rance Yarbrough