Old Cornerstone Box Yields Valuable Spartanburg Lore

Photo by B&B Studios for The Journal

J. WADE HUGHSTON (left) secretary of Spartan Masonic Lodge 70 and County Board Clerk R.H. Ashmore display a large Spartan Lodge roster placed in the recently demolished old County Courthouse here by the lodge. The document is dated May 22, 1891, date of the old building cornerstone laying. Some of the numerous other historical treasures yielded by today's opening of the old cornerstone box are shown in the foreground. They include copies of The Carolina Spartan, Spartanburg Daily Herald, The Charleston News and Courier and other records, photographs, books and pamphlets. County Board and a committee became custodian of the treasures until a suitable permanent location can be arranged for them. Judge Charles M. Pace today suggested that the museum of proposed new county library building would be appropriate.

At 10 a.m. the lid was lifted on a metal box which was mortar-sealed into the cornerstone of the county's old courthouse amid colorful Masonic and other ceremonies 68 years ago - on May 22, 1891.

Six decades of fast occurring events and the record of much that had gone before were dramatically paraded before the eager eyes of near-breathless hundreds of spectators, packing County Courtroom to capacity.

Every item of paper and metal in the tightly-packed container was found to be in an excellent state of preservation.

Veteran Clerk of Court Ernest Miller gently lifted them from within the box and briefly described each to the tense audience attending the especially convened proceeding. County Judge Charles M. Pace and Resident Seventh Circuit Judge Bruce Littlehohn sat jointly for the full hour ceremonial which preceded convening of the February term of County Criminal Court.

The rumored rye whiskey bottle didn't turn up - but there was a myriad miscellany of plaques, newspapers, photographs, converse and Wofford publications, almanacs, pamphlets and a very old brown bound Bible which according to a faint script record upon its fly-leaf, came from the old courthouse which gave way to the 1891-dedicated structure.

Probably the most keenly interested spectators were Mrs. Bernice Caldwell Brown, 70, of Landrum and R.C. Barry of Moore.

Together, they identified in a faded photograph - among the many prizes of the box opening - two principals in the old courthouse's construction. They were County commissioners A.J. Caldwell, Mrs. Brown's father, and Charles a. Barry, Mr. Barry's grandfather.

Earlier, Judge Pace paid tribute to Mrs. Brown's insistence of several months ago that the cornerstone and its box of relics be sought out before the old building was demolished.

EXCEPT FOR the mild musty odor of the old newspapters and other documents, the quaintness of their hand typeset printing and the use of woodcuts and engravings of drawings as illustrations, the documents could have been tuchked away recently, so remarkable was their preservation. The plaques South Carolina Grand Lodge and Spartan Lodge 70 Masons carefully put away glistened. Their delicately etched and beautiful script was perfectly legible. Clerk Miller hastily read choice excerpts from some for the benefit of the many Masons and others present.

The many historic heirlooms the box yielded included:

• A MAY 20, 1891-dated copy of The Carolina Spartan, founded 115 years ago and predecessor to The Spartanburg Journal.
• TWO COPIES of The Spartanburg Daily Herald, one appropriate to the cornerstone ceremonial and the other dated April 4, 1891. The latter copy carried a plate of an architectural drawing of an annex to Converse College.
• THE SEVERAL Masonic plaques. Each had been separately wrapped in tissue paper and the collection placed in an outside wrapping of heavy cloth. One was engraved with replicas of the Bible and the square and compass and rule and guide of Masonry. Some bore numerous etched-in signatures. These were S.C. Grand Lodge deposited.
• Various religious newspapers.
• An 1889 period catalogue of the University of South Carolina.
• Several almanacs.
• Two quart-size glass jars containing coins, Masonic and other momentoes but not immediately opened.
• Copies of Columbia and Charleston newspapers, a temperance publication which outlasted the bottle of rye whisky - if the latter was ever in the box - and the 1888-90 annual report of the Spartanburg graded schools.
• There was also a Chamber of Commerce type publicity pamphlet extolling the virtues of Spartanburg city asnd county. Its quaint illustrations included views of this city's old opera house and the earlier courthousst at the intersection of Magnolia and W. Main Streets. Frontal touches to the latter view included horses and buggies.
• There were also a Converse College 1891 commencement souvenir folder, a booklet on "Converse College for Ladies," one many-paged handwritten document and various Grand Lodge and other Masonic records.
• One discovery immediately focused the eagle eyes of wofford College Librarian Herbert Hucks. This was a copy of the Wofford College Journal for January, 1890. It listed as editors: "J. Wright Nash, chief; Calhoun (Hall?) - D.M. McLeod and J.G. Blake; Preston (Hall?) - T.G. Herbert, Jr., and C.W. Stoll; J..O. Norton, local editor, and A.J. Cauthen, business manager."
• The box also yielded Wofford College and Fitting School catalogue for 1889-90

Photo by B&B Studios for The Journal

JOURNAL FORERUNNER: Ernest Miller, Spartanburg County Clerk of Court, displays a May 20, 1891 copy of The Carolina Spartan. The newspaper was a predecessor of The Spartanburg Journal. The newspaper was not yellowed and was in excellent state of preservation when removed from the old courthouse cornerstone today.

Committeemen in charge of the box and recognized at today's ceremonial are County Board Clerk R.H. Ashmore, Dick Gossett, County Highway Department Roebuck Route 1, who helped bring the box to light, and J. Wade Hughston, secretary of 1849-founded Spartan Masonic Lodge 70.

County Solicitor John Nolen read to the audience excerpts of early Grand Lodge and other Masonic history pertaining to the old courthouse and various other pre - 1900 Spartanburg structural cornerstone layings. One referred to area Masons' participation in laying the cornerstone at the Battle of Kings Mountain memorial.