This report was written in the early 1900s. Exact date unknown.
This undated copy of the history of White Store Township was in a box of papers at my house for the past 30 to 40 years. It’s something I liked a long time ago and I realized back then there were no sources cited and figured that one day I would discover who wrote the history and the date as well, but that has not happened.
For 60 to 75 years, White Store Township was a prosperous and flourishing little village. There were several stores, shops, boarding houses, a temperance hall, churches, a school house, a post office, local doctor’s offices and a number of residences. At first most of the homes were near Mount Olive Church, but gradually the people built at the crossroads where the main mercantile business was located.
Among those living in the village were Frank Crowder, William Barrett, Wat Broadaway, Dr. J.D. McRae, Dr. Lee, Dr. J.C. Cottrell, H.A. Crawford, J.T. Redfearn, H. Billingsley and Wilson Chambers. The stores were operated by Joseph White, Calvin Crowder, James Redfearn, Townley Redfearn, William Faulkner, George Huntley and Joe McLaughlin. Mrs. J.T. Redfearn kept boarders including the teachers and the clerks in the stores.
In connection with the Redfearn store, which was a general merchandise and hardware store, there was a shop where buggies and wagons were made, a shoe shop and a large blacksmith shop. The store was a great trading center.
During the period preceding the Civil War, political gatherings were frequently held in the village. In 1861, the people gathered in a big grove near the McRae house when a volunteer company was being organized. The injustice of the War Between the States was being hotly discussed. James A. Leak Sr. was present and made a rousing speech.
Ben Jackson, who was a slave of Stephen Jackson, took all the land papers, put them in a tin trunk and buried them under a rock pile. He hid in a wildcat den while the troops were there. After the Yankees left, Ben came over to see if his old mistress had anything to eat. They took up the dirt in the smoke house floors, put it in hoppers, dripped it, then boiled the water to get salt. For baking soda the women burned corn cobs, sifted these ashes and used them with buttermilk in the bread.
As this portion of Sherman’s army advanced, Wheeler’s men were pressing them so closely that Sherman’s soldiers killed 700 horses and mules in front of the old Ann Ratliff house. These horses and mules had been taken from farmers and rather than have them taken back, they were killed and their bodies left by the roadside.
Stephen Jackson, afterwards known as “Colonel Stephen,” was a red-hot seccessionist from over the line in South Carolina. He made a speech in which he prophesied that the war would never amount to anything and that he would drink all the blood that would be shed. How futile was this prophecy is shown on so many of the tombstones and on the pages of many of the old Bibles in this community, where we read the names of sons and fathers killed in the war. Colonel Jackson was a member of the Secession Convention which met in Columbia, South Carolina.
Sherman’s main army passed through Maysville and some companies of troops passed through the White Store community. They camped across Dead Fall Creek, and Mary May, wife of David Townley Redfearn, and her mother were alone with the baby, Alexander May Redfearn. The soldiers killed the chickens, took all the meat of 40 hogs, broke the china, took the silver, cut open pillows, emptying feathers on the floor, drove off the mules and cows, took the molasses, poured out the salt, set fire to the barns and other buildings and burned all the cotton and the store.
A portion of Sherman’s army camped one night on the hill near the Coppedge place at White Store. Wheeler’s men were camped on the hill where the C.H. Rivers place now stands. A small skirmish took place between some of the men of both armies. Mr. J.T. Redfearn had a horse shot from under him. The next morning Sherman’s army set fire to the temperance hall in which Mr. Frank Crowder had 40 bales of cotton stored.
The Dr. McRae home was fired, but Wheeler’s men came in time to extinguish it. Two buildings in which supplies had been stored for the Confederate Army were burned. It is said that charred grains of wheat may still be found where the building stood. The same destruction of food took place here as it did all along the way.
Wheeler traveled the old road to Wadesboro, and Sherman went by Union Church. It is said that Wheeler climbed a tree on Gordon’s Mountain to see which way Sherman’s army went and so the war became a grim reality, and hardly a home in this section escaped losing a son or a father. At its close in 1865, the people found themselves impoverished, and most of the men had been killed or wounded.
The soldiers, who were able to return home by the first of May 1865, obtained a horse or a mule, here and there, and with stalwart hearts began little crops for food. A few years found them beginning to prosper, and many of the families of this community made a second fortune. Out of these sorrows and struggles came the fine characters of the citizens of this community. They are as fine as any group of citizens to be found in any community.
Steve Bailey is employed with the Anson County Historical Society and has specialized in local African-American family history for 20 years.
