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7. They Called Me uFool Billy" They called me "Fool Billy" and said that I would never find gold. Born the grandson of German immigrants in upcountry South Carolina, I built my plantation on Hard Labor Creek. Some folk~ thought I had lived up to the name of that creek and others thought I just got lucky. There was talk about gold up in North Carolina from as far back as I can remember and in 1828, like everyone else, I was excited about Ben Haile's panning gold out of the stream on his land near Kershaw. That was the same year they found gold on the Brewer property in Chesterfield District ... droves of miners began going up and down the streams of upcountry South Carolina. Over at Smyrna in York District men were out in the woods prospecting so thick they bumped elbows panning along the stream banks. I traveled up there and watched them myself. Then, four years later, a fellow named Zeig showed me one of the prettiest specimens of gold you ever saw and said he had panned it out of a branch running through John Hearst's land right near my place. From the time I laid eyes on that little nugget I couldn't think about anything else; and the next few years, I didn't pay any mind to planting crops ... I hunted for gold and spent my time panning Persimmon Branch. Every day I'd get out there in that creek and slowly and carefully work my way upstream. Most of the time I'd find some and then a day came when I couldn't see any more color in my pan. Next day was the same. I've passed it, Isaid, 68 They Called Me "Fool Billy" 69 angry with myself, and went back until it wasn't long before I thought I knew where it was coming from. Sure enough, I had pinpointed the location of rich ore deposits and when I did, I went to old man John Wardlaw Hearst. I told Mr. John I had found a rich vein and I said, "I'll show you right where that gold is, if you'll let me have an interest in it. How about it?" But all he did was shake his head and say, "Fool Billy, what crazy notion are you going to come up with next?" He leaned back in his rocker on that big piazza of his and he cackled fit to kill. But the more he thought about the chance he had to sell me that land at a good price, the more he couldn't resist. Course, I didn't have any money and all I could do was offer to buy it on time. But what did he have to lose? If I couldn't pay for it, he'd get his land back. I signed a note to purchase over 1,300 acres. Some folks sniggered behind my back and others felt sorry for me and purty soon I was beginning to do some worrying myself. It was getting hard just to feed the slaves I had out there panning every day; and I tried to take decent care of them. One Sunday morning in the early spring of 1852 I was sitting in church and that day I was beginning to believe the nickname of "Fool Billy" was right. Next day my plantation and all my slaves were to be placed on the auction block in Edgefield for back taxes. Today was Sunday and by tomorrow night, Iwouldn't hardly have a plug a tobacco left ... no land, no slaves ... much less any gold. After preachin', I went up to the house and was sitting eating field peas and cornbread while the men were out digging just like they had every day for months. Iwas feeling mighty low about the sale coming up next day and then it 144.172.115] Project MUSE (2024-04-23 08:24 GMT) 70 The Gold Seekers happened. I heard somebody hollerin' loud as they could, "Master Bill, Master Bill!" The first thing Ithought was that one ofthe men had been hurt bad so I jumped up from the table and hurried out on the back porch. There was Elias, a big strapping slave and one of my best miners. He held out his gold pan to me and his grin was a crescent moon in a dark sky. The bottom of the...

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