rford (86), Newberry, S.C., RFD
Interviewer: G. Leland Summer, 1707 Lindsey St.,
Newberry, S.C.

=Project #-1655=
=Mrs. Genevieve W. Chandler=
=Murrells Inlet, S.C.=
=Georgetown County=

=FOLKLORE=

=Uncle Sabe Rutledge=

(=Testimony given by old man born 1861, The Ark Plantation.
Horry County--owned by Mr. John Tillman=)

"Fust thing I realize to remember, I nuster cry to go to the old
boss--old Massa--for sugar. Massa say:

"'Martha, what Newman (he call me that) crying for?' Ma say, 'Wanter
come to you for sugar!'

"'Bring the boy here, Martha!'

"He gi'e me sugar.

"Boil salt? Pump! Pump! Pump it! Had a tank. Run from hill to sea. Had a
platform similar to wharf. And pump on platform. Fetch good high. Go out
there on platform. Force pump. My Grandmother boil salt way after
Freedom. We tote water. Tote in pidgin and keeler--make out of cedar and
cypress. No 'ting to crove 'em (groove 'em) compass. Dog-wood and oak
rim. Give it a lap. (This was his description, with pantomime, of the
way pidgin and keelers were made by plantation carpenters)

"My Grandmother had two pots going. Boil all day and all night. Biling.
Boil till he ticken (thicken) Cedar paddles stir with. Chillun eat with
wooden spoons. Clay pot? Just broken piece. Indian had big camping
ground on beach near the Ark. After big blow you can find big piece of
pot there. I see Indian. Didn't see wild one; see tame one.

"Indigo? Old man Lashie Tillman nuster plant indigo. Seed lak a flax.
Put myrtle seed in with indigo to boil. Gather and boil for the traffic.
All the big folkses plant that fore the rice. Rice come in circulation,
do way with indigo. Nuster (used to) farm indigo just like we work our
corn. Didn't have nothing but ox. And the colored folks--they came next
to the ox--Hill keep advancing out. Reckon you wouldn't blieve it, but I
ken cummember (Uncle Sabe stutters a bit) when all that beach been
cultivate field. Must be nature for sand hill to move. Time most got too
fast now for the people to live.

"Storm? Oh my Lord! Flagg Storm? Sea naturally climb right over that
hill like it wasn't nothing. Water come to King Road. Reckon it would a
come further if the wind didn't shift.

"Calls this 'The Ridge.' Why? I first man settle here. Oak Ridge. (It is
the highest land between the Waccamaw river and the ocean.) Just name it
so.

"Member the shipwreck. Two men and lady come to the Ark. Stormy time.
Massa take