YorkvIlle HIstorIcal SocIety P O Box York SC The

YorkvIlle HIstorIcal SocIety P.O. Box 1122 York SC 29745 The White Rose of York DAVID FINLEY Quiet Force for America s Arts By David A Doheny Board Members Anne Allison Mary Byrum Nancy Cumbie Bobbie Hawkins Scott Hollis Linda Lennert Peggy Palmer Russell Propst Pam Schronce Linda Simpson Grace Ulbricht Issac Wright Review by Grace Ebersold Ulbricht Officers President .. Vice-President Co-Treasurers Secretary Marguerite Neary .Edward Wood .Linda & Dennis Lennert ..Mary Montgomery A few months ago, while reading these headlines in the Sunday Book Section of the Observer, I thought, Could it possibly be OUR David Finley from York and it was. It is. I ran to my computer pulled up Amazon and ordered the book. All I knew about David Finley was what I had read on the historical marker (located on North Congress Street past Starr Corner) plus the story Dennis Lennert told about him at our first Rose Hill Cemetery tour. (By the way, we plan to have another tour in the Spring). I knew Carrie, his sister in law, but she never spoke of him to me. - A few days later, after receiving the book, I found myself curled up in my reading chair, enthralled with the story that David Doheny tells of David Finley s life 1890 1977. You know the saying, you have to know someone to be someone ?? Well, it seems that David Finley knew everyone who was somebody . His father, also David Finley, served 10 terms as Representative to Congress from the 5th District (The same district that John Spratt now serves). David grew up meeting important people not only throughout his childhood but through his entire life. (continued on page 2) NEXT MEETING Join us Thursday October 26th at 7:30 pm at the McCelvey Center The Yorkville Historical Society meets four times a year (January, April, July & October) www.yorkvillehs.org October 2006 Ulbricht David Finley Imagine nine presidents knew him on a first name basis!!!!!!! Yes, I know he married into money and that did not hurt him at all, but no matter what road he chose- -- wat great things he h was able to accomplish .he was a humble, out of the limelight sort of guy. If you do not know what all David accomplished, here is a short list: first director of the National Gallery of Art founding chairman of the board of the National Trust for Historic Preservation helped create the national Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. ... leadership in the Roberts Commission, which protected the art and architectural monuments in Europe during WWII. When Marguerite told me David Doheny had agreed to speak to our YHS, I was thrilled. I knew we had to hold his lecture right here in McCelvey where David attended school (The Museum was glad to honor our request). Now do not run out and buy the book David Doheny will have books for sale and will autograph them after the lecture on Thursday evening, November 30th, at 7:30 pm in McCelvey s auditorium on Jefferson Street here in York. All proceeds from the sale of the book go to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. After the lecture we will have time to personally speak to David and have refreshments. Please do not miss this lecture. You will be talking about it for months. David A. Doheny Lecture Thursday evening November 30th at 7:30 pm McCelvey Auditorium The Yorkville Times -2- HISTORIC YORK - The White Rose City -1785 Yorkville Historical Society-P.O. Box 1122-York, SC 29745 The Yorkville Times -3- The Little Red Caboose By Grace Ebersold Ulbricht Once upon a time there was a little red caboose behind every train in America. This started in 1850 when trains were getting so long that the crew could not watch every car from the engine. At first it looked like a wooden shanty on a flatcar at the rear of the train. It later developed into a separate car and was not only an office, dormitory for the crew, but the kitchen as well. Cabooses were usually painted grey, trimmed with black, and the handles painted red. These cars weighed over 25 tons and cost about $70,000. Each caboose was assigned to one man who rode in it 12-15 hours a day 6 days a week. His job was to sit in the caboose; keep an eye out for derailments, dragging equipment and overheated axles. He actually cooked meals in this car. When the meal was ready the train stopped and all the crew would go back to the caboose to eat their meal. Some men fixed up their cabooses as if they were home .later a group of men was assigned to each caboose . The Yorkville Times -4- The Little Red Caboose By Grace Ebersold Ulbricht continued Starting about 1982 a black box that cost $4000 replaced the caboose. With computerized record keeping, changing work rules, and electronic monitors every 50 miles, the cabooses became obsolete. There were about 12,000 in the USA in1985. We now find these bright yellow, green or red cabooses in many city parks across the country. Southern Railway donated our caboose to the City of York in 1985. This was during York s bicentennial year. Our caboose was built in April 1944 for the Wabash Railroad. That makes it about 62 years old. Its original number was 2757 but in 1964 when Norfolk and Western acquired the Wabash Railroad, they added a prefix making the new number NW562757. It is a model C 17, is 37 feet 10 inches long and built with a non c - ushioned under frame. -5- The Yorkville Times The Little Red Caboose By Grace Ebersold Ulbricht continued In 1968 it was assigned to thru freight on the Sandusky, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio service. In 1971 it operated out of St. Louis serving a large Ford plant there. The windows on the sides have been plated over due to constant rocking (Children threw rocks at the trains and broke out the windows). Our little red caboose was revitalized once but now it is in need of another rejuvenation. Paul Boger, director of the Chamber, has applied for grants and is waiting patiently for a response. Credits Article in Washington Post by T.R. Reed 2/18/85 Rail Treat by Peter Judge. Evening Herald 1/24/85 Article by Grace Ebersold in YHS newsletter 1994 All articles found in Linda Algire s files at the York Chamber of Commerce. Thanks Linda.!!! The Yorkville Times -6- THE LADY IN THE DOORWAY By Jack Baker I was out for a late night walk last Saturday night (11/26/05) when I noticed her. I was walking from the Presbyterian Church towards S. Congress St. when I noticed something. There was a person up ahead. She was standing in the doorway at 7 S. Congress St., the Latta House (the old funeral home). She appeared to be a very proper lady, dressed in an old time costume, or so I thought. As I got closer I realized that it wasn't a costume, or a person, it was a ghost. She was not scary but pleasant, with a touch of sadness in her expression. She noticed me but we did not speak. Her appearance was of a very proper lady, approximately 40 to 50 years old, silver and gold hair, worn neatly in a bun, good posture with her head held high with attractive earrings. Her hands were folded over one another at her waist. She was looking back and forth, scanning the roadway, obviously waiting for someone. She was wearing a white blouse with starched collar and cuffs, and a full maroon skirt with bustle and train. I didn't notice her feet. I watched closely, not quite believing my eyes. She was not rushed, but allowed me to get close enough to see her in detail before just vanishing. I walked right up to the door to make sure there wasn't some decoration or anything that I could have mistaken for this vision. There was nothing to be seen, and the property was dark and uninhabited. I don't know the story of this lady, but would like to. I am normally not into "strange occurrences "such as this, but I am a spiritual man and can believe that it actually happened, even if I don't know why. She is the very first ghost I have ever -7seen, and I would like to see her again. The Yorkville Times News and Events By Jan Ramsey MOORE PARK Have you noticed the improvements at Moore Park? During the last several months Scott Hollis, Anne Allison, and I have planted azaleas, hostas, and coleus around the gazebo and hung fern and petunia baskets in the archways. The City filled in the low places in the park and planted grass. They also added a picnic table and a grill! Recently a lantern type light was installed in the center of the gazebo and an antique weather vane was placed on the top of the roof. Society member Curtis Wingert who lives next door to the park said that many people had taken pictures there during prom season and that he had seen an artist sketching a bride standing in the gazebo. This is good news as we want people to enjoy spending time in the park. More improvements may be done at a later date. The Yorkville Times -8- News and Events By Jan Ramsey . continued Saturday, October 21st, Apple Harvest Festival featuring Hayrides, apple picking, cider making, petting zoo, making apple butter, apple cider donuts, slushies, make it and take it scarecrows and old time music - - at Windy Hill. This is just one of the many ways to promote beautiful historic York. DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION COMMITTEE ..This committee has been meeting regularly to discuss plans to improve the parking areas on North Roosevelt Street in accordance with the City s Downtown Master Plan. Society members Russell Propst, Jan Ramsey, Mary Lynn Norton, and Jeanne Ferguson along with Bill Boyd of the City, Paul Boger of the Chamber of Commerce, and JoLann Knott of the Cotton Gin and O Shea s make up this group. Issues raised by the property owners will be discussed at public meetings. It is very important to gather additional input before any final decisions are made. FALL FESTIVAL October 28th, ..The 5th Annual Fall in Downtown in York Festival is scheduled for Saturday October 28th from 1:00PM 6 0PM in York, S.C. Some of the attractions 0 : include the farmers market, face painting, various artists, food vendors, bluegrass bands in front of the Sylvia Theater, and a Halloween Costume Contest for all ages. Come dressed in your costume and join in the fun. ..October 30, 2006 at Cotton Belt Elementary School located at 1176 Black Highway, York, S.C. Candidates for District 1 School Board will speak from 6:45PM 7 :45PM. Candidates for District 3 York County Council will speak from 8:00PM9:00PM. This event is sponsored by the Greater York Chamber of Commerce. JASMINE CAFÉ ..YHS Members, Dennis and Linda Linnert, have opened the café behind Jasmine Gifts at 8 North Congress Street. Please stop by and enjoy a good meal, Hershey ice cream, various coffees, and delicious desserts in a nice, relaxing atmosphere. CANDIDATE FORUM The Yorkville Times -9- CHRISTMAS TOUR .The 2nd weekend in December is rapidly approaching! At the time of writing this article (10/4/06) we have two homes (Rena Strawhorn on East Liberty Street and Jason and Sara Lane on College Street) and one church (Episcopal on East Liberty Street). We need at least three more homes! If any of you can offer your home or know of someone who might consider showing their home, please let us know. We can not do a thing about a brochure, tickets, publicity, etc. until we get the homes. The tour committee consists of Anne Allison, Jan Ramsey, Scott Hollis, Russell Propst, Deborra Wood, Cynthia Mackery, and Jessica Dunlap. We have had some meetings already and hopefully everything will fall into place. The Yorkville Times - 10 - COLLECTING TODAY By Ken Spaulding Over the past thirty years I have attended as well as conducted a great many auctions. Some were simply moving sales, others were weekly consignment auctions, a good number of them were benefit auctions and there were many, many, estate auctions. 'Back in the day' when I was first introduced to the auction method of marketing as a lad of five years old, an estate auction always meant that someone had passed away and the family was selling the decedents personal property. These were always the most exciting type of auction! More often than not the family members themselves had packed and prepared the items to be sold, seldom knowing what it really was they were selling. My late grandparents were avid auction buffs. Grandma and I would pile into her trusty old station wagon and cross several state lines, if necessary, to attend the estate auction she had carefully chosen. Grandma was wise beyond her years: she always chose the most poorly written auction ad or the most unknown auctioneer feeling that the other auctioneers would have their steady followers following them leaving the best bargains to us! Grandma's methods almost always held true! We would load the old wagon and if Gramp was not with us ,we would drive home and send Gramp back for the next load or loads. I never once heard my grandfather complain at his added responsibilities. I always think of my grandparents when I am conducting an auction, especially an estate auction. I wonder what they would think of the way I am conducting the auction, the crowd's response to the auction, the lack of or the convenience of parking, the poor or perfect weather conditions and especially the prices we are now seeing for many of the items that were almost given away all those years ago! I recently held an estate auction at the old Anderson Guest Home on Oakland Avenue in Rock Hill, South Carolina. My grandparents would have loved this auction! The Anderson family had operated a guest home on the property in the 1910s. One of the grandparents passed away in the early 1980s. The remaining spouse simply closed the house up and visited sporadically until his own demise several years later. The couple's son followed his parent's example leaving this once grand old family home alone and virtually on its own until his death almost two years prior to the auction. When I met with Mary Frances, the out of state daughter, who had been saddled with the administration of the estate, it was quite clear that there were a lot of emotions and memories to deal with. I learned long ago that listening is indeed a virtue, especially at a time like this. The family had removed the items that were personally important or emotionally charged for them. Yet there were a number of great items still in the home that were ready to be sold or adopted. There were also many, many, items left behind to be boxed, sold and removed by the lucky auction buyers. - 11 - The Yorkville Times Spaulding Collecting Today We talked for quite a while both by telephone and in person about the things that needed to be done prior to the auction and we made plans on exactly how everything would be handled. The date was set and the contract was signed. My father in law and I both spent most of the next month working on and off at the auction site. Over the years we have discovered that it takes about five hours of prep time for every hour of live auction time. The Anderson Estate Auction prep time readily exceeded that! We found amazing toy lead soldiers in the basement in the tool boxes. We found depression glass pieces scattered throughout the basement and the top three floors. We found old letters and ledgers, even grandma's false teeth! We would come home very dirty and very tired but always ready to go back to put in a few more hours, knowing full well that the more we could accomplish before the sale the better off we would be on auction day. On the day of the auction we had beautiful weather, a great appreciative crowd and I personally feel that we got exceptionally good prices for the 450 or more items we sold in the seven hour sale. I may not be the fastest auctioneer in the south but selling an item every minute is moving along at a pretty good pace! Like the auctioneers of my youth I have established a very nice group of regulars or followers that attend many or most of my auctions. It is a great feeling to look out and see familiar and smiling faces as well as those attending for the very first time. We joke and kid one another and we all have a very nice time doing something we all enjoy doing. I visited today with a young lady whose very first auction experience was the Anderson Auction. She bought several items and she can hardly wait until the next auction so she and her very young daughters can attend. Auctions are addictive! The Yorkville Times - 12 - Spaulding Collecting Today On Saturday night long after the Anderson Auction was completed I called Mary Frances to apprise her of the day's events. I knew she would want to know that the auction had been successful and all of her family's 'treasures' had been disbursed to an appreciative audience. Mary Frances never asked me how much any single item had sold for or the grand total of the day s event. Her only concern was that items had all been sold and gone on to other homes or re sale shops where they would be appreciated. I assured her that we had accomplished all of that and even more. The next time you think of an auction look at it as Mary Frances and I did. An estate auction is a timely disbursal of a life time of memories. Even the things that seem mundane, dirty or unnecessary take on a new light in the eyes of someone who truly knows and appreciates them. Other items, boxed and packaged, lure the box lot buyer with a renewed sense of adventure! A good auction is a pleasant social event where people with similar interests band together for a singular purpose. We clap our hands when some one makes an especially good purchase and we laugh when they buy something that we are too staid or correct to purchase ourselves. When the elderly lady in the wheelchair buys an oversized item several of the other regular bidders help her load her car or they may even deliver it if their own trucks or trailers are not too full. When the next auction comes around we are always ready to visit our friends, spend a little or some times a good deal of money and do it all over again! Auctions are an American tradition! See ya'll at the next sale! The Yorkville Times - 13 - More Than A Rented Pineapple By Marguerite Neary Webster s Dictionary tells us that the root word in hospitality comes from the Latin hospitum, which means lodging. But we all know that to be hospitable means more than providing overnight accommodations for a visitor or a guest. It can refer to offering food and drink to friends or strangers, to opening our homes to visitors, and, through an even lesser known definition, to keeping an open mind. On all counts, the Yorkville Historical Society acknowledges and adheres to the many layers of meaning in the word hospitality, and YHS s determination to remain open mded is observable in n i the attitudes of non m - embers, too. Each year historic home owners, ministers, and history enthusiasts graciously open their doors to hundreds of tour takers, trusting in the good will of those to whom they extend hospitality and, very likely, hoping and praying that their unknown guests will be gentle on their belongings. This very same selflessness can be observed in our Society members, who volunteer their time, their service, and even their own personal space when the good of the organization is involved. There was not even a need for the slightest nudge when Grace Ulbricht started up a committee to plan for the forthcoming Doheny lecture on York s native son, David Finley (see the article in this issue), and the generous offering of the Cumbie residence for our guest s housing and dinner. This is a perfect example of spontaneous hospitality. Likewise, the Christmas Tour Committee materialized when Jan Ramsey and Anne Allison called for assistance: new members Jessica Dunlap and Cynthia Macri, joined the force, and the usual suspects (Pam Schronce, the Propsts, and Scott Hollis)) signed up for Christmas duty, knowing full well that the committee service would involve everything from cutting greenery, to lighting luminaria, to assisting with last minute touches on home décor. The Yorkville Times - 14 - Neary More Than A Rented Pineapple Whether the tradition of generosity and graciousness comes from the practices of the early settlers of York, who brought with them the Celtic imperative of sharing their bounty (even when times were not so bountiful), or from colonial traditions of providing food and lodgings for travelers passing through, we can affirm that an open, hosting spirit has not faded away. And the cost, whether of money, time, or energy, has occasionally been high. Reserving special rooms or towels or foods for company is embedded in our collective psyches. During the 18th century, hostesses were proud to display a pineapple for their guests, as they looked for a distinctive centerpiece for the dining table. This relatively newly discovered and quite exotic fruit, one that Columbus brought to Europe in 1493 (after his second voyage to the New World), was so prized that it was often rented. When circumstances allowed, astonished guests were even allowed to consume the pineapple! Because the tropical pineapple became a symbol of hospitality in American culture, one that appears on flags and stencil designs, we are reminded of the open ness of the newcomers to America, who were eager to learn about something new, to take a chance on the unknown, and to go to great lengths to impress their visitors. Their enthusiasm for knowledge of new things prevails today, although, at times, the willingness to be exposed to new concepts takes us to historic periods that can be disturbing or painful. Our interest in all aspects of history compels us to hear stories about an era when hospitality was not extended to all people. At our January 25, 2007 meeting, Dr. Litasha Dennis, who teaches in the English Department at Winthrop University, will present a talk on slave narratives, derived from a course she designed for Winthrop students. Engaging in and being receptive to conversations about the experiences of slavery, which are still in living memory in this part of the country, can only advance future hospitality. As we educate ourselves about the past, we continue to unlock our minds. We may not have to rent the pineapple anymore, but we can remember how a precious article symbolized our commitment to hospitality. The Yorkville Times - 15 - Membership Report By Scott Hollis I have ordered a copy of the book, The South Carolina Encyclopedia, for the Yorkville Historical Society at a cost of $60 for a pre- p ublication order. (scheduled to be printed in September 2006). Moore Park is done!!! Thanks to Jan, Anne, and Scott. The group planted flowers (Stacy s $180) and put up baskets (Fogle s $28) in the gazebo. A light and weathervane (Lowes $155) were installed by Mike Warmoth ($110). Thanks to Mary Montgomery for mailing welcome notes and copies of the By Laws to new members. Membership September 2005 July 2006 Paid Members : 96 In Memoriam Johnny Miller died on October 3, 2006 in Juan Griego, Isle Margarita, Venezuela. Johnny was a member of YHS and served as treasurer. Johnny and his partner, Bobby McDowell, were owners of the Ivy Hill Shoppe (gift shop) downtown York for many years. He also served on the York Chamber of Commerce board. Mail To: Yorkville Historical Society P.O. Box 1122 York, SC 29745 Type of Membership Name: Address: City: Phone: E mail Address: Single- $15 Family- $25 Student- $5 Patron- $50 Amount Enclosed: The Yorkville Times - 16 - Comments: Please submit comments to the following at: jamrosalez@hotmail.com Martha & Jose Rosalez 12 West Madison Street York, SC 29745 Editor: Design: Photographers: Distribution: Printing: Martha Rosalez Martha Rosalez & Jose Rosalez Martha Rosalez & Jose Rosalez Martha Rosalez & Jose Rosalez Martha Rosalez & Jose Rosalez Special THANKS to the authors of articles: Anne Allison Scott Hollis Marguerite Neary Jan Ramsey Ken Spaulding Grace Ebersold Ulbricht The Yorkville Times - 17 - Yorkville Historical Society P.O. Box 1122 York, SC 29745 The Yorkville Times Photo courtesy of Emma Coleman - 18 -