A Nineteen Year Pilgrimage: Saluda, South Carolina

In some good cause, not in mine own,

To perish, wept for, honor'd, known,

And like a warrior overthrown.

~J. Hampton Kuykendall Sketches of Early Texians

      February 1996 saw my first of several visits to a place that would soon define part of my life, I trod hallowed  ground and visited the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.  Very soon after, the story of that place and of all the great heroes that gave their lives there would capture my heart, and launch me into a journey that continues to this day.  I sought and still seek to learn as much as I could, and become intimately familiar with the lives of these men, the causes leading up to the siege, those fateful 13 days and what followed after.  Although not the sole reason, the Alamo is part of why I became an historian.
    I left Texas several years later, and beautiful San Antonio with her, but the Alamo I carried with me, or maybe a piece of me stayed there. It became a fortification against howling modernity, and a reminder to always be courageous.  Years passed and and I wended my way through Colorado (leaving myself there as well), Florida, and eventually to South Carolina.
  South Carolina! From its original refusal to approve the U. S. Constitution, to the Nullification Crisis, to the Secession itself, South Carolina is one of the most fractious states of the Union.  It is little wonder that such a place would produce two firebrands in  the form of William Barrett Travis and James Butler Bonham.  Of all the heroes of the Alamo, these two are the most dear to me. And when I found myself in the state of their birth, I knew I had to find the place where they stood.
   While still in college, I discovered that both were born on a fairly-civilized frontier near a town in 1809 as Red Bank, but was later renamed Saluda when Saluda County was created from the Edgefield District. I do not remember the exact year, but I believe I was yet in school when I also discovered that the house where James Bonham was born, known as Flat Grove, still stood.  It is only surviving birthplace of an Alamo hero.  When I discovered this place was extant, I vowed to see it for myself.
   Life got in the way for a while, Saluda isn't exactly near any large cities or major interstates so you can't visit it on the way to somewhere else. And Flat Grove is in a rather obscure place, only to be seen by appointment.  When I got around to being able to go, I found out the historical society had closed the house to visitors, and I all but gave up being able to see it ever.  Finally, early December of last year, I was browsing the internet and found that the Saluda County Historical Society had reopened the house after repairing it and partially furnishing it.  After the turn of the new year I determined now was the time.  I called the Historical Society and made an appointment.
   April 11, 2015 finally arrived.  Saluda, by the way, is South of Greenwood and Newberry, and almost due west from Columbia. We pulled into town a little early for our appointment, but there was an interesting looking monument in front of the courthouse.  We wandered over to it through the morning-damp grass, and I was presented with this.

  I didn't expect this,  and was speechless with awe.  This little out-of-the-way town held more esteem for these two than I realized.  I would later learn from the museum curator that James Butler Bonham and William Barrett Travis were inducted into the South Carolina Hall of fame in 2001.  Usually each year a living and a dead South Carolinian are inducted, but since Travis and Bonham were from the same place and died together at the Alamo, an exception was made and two deceased native sons were added to the rolls.
   The museum was wonderful,  I would have stayed there all day if I could have, as it contains everything anyone ever wanted to know about the history of the city and county of Saluda.  Plus, whole section dedicated to the Alamo, complete with artwork and an extraordinary diorama with hand-painted figures. All of the museum volunteers and society members have much love for their work, it was obvious.  Still, tempus fugit and I had to tear myself away from the museum to see the goal of my quest.
     Flat Grove is, as I said,  not easy to find without help.  Our two guides were marvelous.  The house originally was build in the flat lowlands along Richland Creek (hence the name Flat Grove). For preservation purposes, it has since been moved about a mile and a half back from the river, on a slight rise. Built by Jacob Smith in the early 1770s, the house has only belonged to two families:The Smith/Bonham family sold the house to Henry Conrad Herlong in 1856.  The Herlong/Boyd/Matthews family deeded it to the Historical Society in 1989.  I suspect the land that the house sits on belongs to the second owners since two roads that lead to the house are named Herlong and Boyd's Branch.  When the house had been deeded to the Historical Society, two rooms had already fallen to the ground, and the house was declared not salvageable.  But Bonhams don't admit defeat so easily.  Flat Grove was taken apart piece by piece, transported and lovingly reassembled where it now stands.
   When I saw the house, it took my breath away, the quest had been fulfilled.

 "Come down, come down sweet reverence, unto my simple house and ring". ~Gregory Alan Isakov The Stable Song

  Though it doesn't look like much now, it was a mansion in its day.  The house was originally built in a "dog-trot" style (one room on each side with a breezeway in the middle), then the breezeway was later enclosed, two more rooms built behind, and two rooms above.  Finally, in the early 1900s a kitchen and porch were added to the very back of the house. The exterior has never been painted, and many of the interior rooms still have the original blue-tinted paint, probably made with indigo. (Indigo and rice were the major cash-crops of the low-country plantations).

Entrance hall (former dog-trot) of Flat Grove, note the blue paint

One of the two front rooms, the oldest part of the house. Do you think James B. Bonham stood on these floorboards? 

The original stair case was enclosed when the newer one was built, but still functional. Dad added for perspective.

One of the rooms built behind the original rooms. The bed belonged to the last family to own the house. Also more indigo paint. 

Fireplace in one of the upstairs rooms. 

       Like the museum, I could have spent all day at Flat Grove. But, while at the museum, the curator had mentioned a Travis Monument. Of course, this I had to see, so we climbed back into cars and followed our worthy guides down the road.  True enough, at the junction of Highway 121 and Rocky Creek Road sits this, front and back.

   Across the road from this monument is land that was the original Travis homestead.  The land is privately owned, so no public access is allowed, but I there are unmarked graves not far from the road that are presumed to be Travis family members, including William Travis' grandparents, Berwick and Ann Travis.
  By this time I decided I might as well take the grand tour, so we went on a short distance down the road to the Marsh-Johnson house.  While not associated with the Bonham or Travis families, this house is one of the oldest in the area and was at one time a plantation house and tavern. It sits  at the corner of Rocky Creek and Fruit Hill roads, along one of the earliest roads through the region. Usually the term "plantation house" conjures mental images of 50 roomed, white columned mansions right out of Gone With the Wind, but most of them were probably much like this.

The Marsh-Johnson house, with anachronistic security system, which doesn't keep squirrels out.

     Marsh-Johnson is smaller than Flat Grove, and about 40 years younger.  It was built sometime between 1804, when the land was sold to Bryan Marsh, and 1825 when the house appears on a map of the area. It has been restored and is in very good condition, despite the persistent squirrel problem. There are six rooms total, a large front room, a smaller parlor to the side, Two large rooms upstairs, and then the back porch was later enclosed to make another room and a kitchen,  Except for upstairs, this house is fully furnished, and has electricity.
    Like Flat Grove, the interior walls are painted a blue, probably with the same type of indigo dye. The stairs, while still unwieldy in the dark, are better built than the original staircase at Flat Grove.

The front room of Marsh-Johnson

The parlor to the side of the main room, decorated as a Ladies' Parlor

The back bedroom

One of the two large rooms upstairs.  I'm not sure I'd be keen on staying up here with half  a dozen or so strangers.

The kitchen, added later by enclosing the back porch and decorated 1940s style

   The twin chimneys of Marsh-Johnson are quite interesting.  The pattern is called a Flemish Bond and is made by alternating headers (the short end) and strechers (the long end) of the bricks.  This actually makes for a stronger structure than just using the long sides of the bricks.  The headers are glazed with a blue glaze that is still apparent.  Such glazing and the Flemish Bond pattern indicate this house was built for a person of some wealth.

Blue glaze of the brick headers

   So that was Saluda.  I took my leave of the houses, the land and the charming and helpful museum staff. Once I returned home, it was in the following days that I realized I had left part of myself behind again. I had left a piece of myself beneath the floorboards of one of the most beautiful houses I had ever seen (not for its looks, but for who came from it), and another piece in a spring-greening field that likely held the bones of a once indentured servant whose grandson would sign "Victory or Death" to a plea for help in defeating a tyrant, and thereby send himself an another 180 odd men and women into Apotheosis. The story of the Alamo is the story of South Carolina and America as a whole, as much as it is the story of Texas. For the first time in 13 years, I feel like I am home.

   I would also like to give my sincere thanks to all the volunteers at the Saluda County Historical Society.  They were informative, helpful and very accommodating.  If they ever see this, I hope they know how appreciated they are.