|
'Looking Back'
Harmon Maybin Harmon
Maybin was born in western Newberry County SC. His father, Ruben Maybin,
worked a small farm about a mile west of the Island Ford Road. This farm
was separated from the Main Road by almost a mile of forestland on what
was then referred to as the ‘Wicker Place’. Little River was
nearby.
In the fall of the year many visitors used to come to the
Maybin Farm as they made their way to the river swamp to gather ‘scaly
bark’. These were the tasty nuts of a tree belonging to the hickory
family. At other times hunters came to this area to shoot squirrels and
rabbits or to hunt possum and coons at night. Several kinds of berries
flourished on the Maybin land and Mr. Maybin constantly experimented with
unusual plants. It was in this pleasant location that the five Maybin
children, two sons and three daughters, grew up. The Maybin children
attended the Burton School, a small one room, one teacher institution,
about three miles from the Maybin home. Of course it was necessary for the
children to walk to school. In Newberry, automobiles and buses did not
exist at the time.
At school the Maybin children did quite well.
They were all smart. At recess time at school the children played several
kinds of games. A favorite game was ‘paddy-cat’ and was played with two
bats and a hand-made ball. But a new game called ‘baseball’ had been
introduced into the community and was becoming increasingly
popular.
Harmon Maybin, the younger of the two Maybin boys, was an
exceptionally good baseball player. In those days few people in rural
areas took a newspaper, but late in 1914 disquieting rumors began
spreading in America. In Imperial Germany Kaiser Wilhelm was fanning the
flames of a great war that was already engulfing most of the continent of
Europe. In America most people thought of the war overseas as a distant
conflict that had nothing to do with the United States. A few years passed
and then, one Sunday afternoon at Trinity Methodist Church, young Richard
Maybin, the brother to Harmon, rose and made a short speech. He told the
astounded churchgoers that he was resigning as Sunday School
Superintendent at Trinity Church and was about to enlist in the US Navy.
The congregation accepted the resignation with deep regret. Richard Maybin
soon departed.
A few months later, just as Richard had feared would
happen, did indeed occur. The persistent attacks on American merchant
ships by German submarines drew America, very reluctantly, into the World
War. Harmon Maybin, the younger of the two Maybin brothers, was soon
drafted into military service. After completing his basic training he was
informed that he would soon be sent to Europe. He was allowed to return
home for a few days before leaving for Europe and was the show of the
community. He was very handsome in his uniform and the ladies all sighed
with anticipation for the opportunity to be escorted by him at a social
function. But the leave was all too short and after a few days this young
man and his comrades stood on the heaving deck of their ship as she
breasted a rough sea. The shores of America receded in the distance. Other
heavily laden ships steamed nearby and a cordon of US Destroyers in a
great circle guarded the troop ships against attack by hostile
submarines.
Several days later the convoy entered a closely guarded
harbor on the coast of France. Then, after boarding a quaint French
railway, the newly arrived troops moved up close to the far extended
battlefront. Finally a tremendous allied offensive breached the formidable
Hindenburg Line, which the Germans had considered impregnable. Then, in
the face of the desperate enemy resistance, the armies of America, Great
Britain, France, and Belgium fought their way northward toward the German
Rhineland. The French roadsides were strewn with the bodies of dead men
and horses as well as the wreckage of hundreds of wagons and motor trucks,
all hit by artillery fire. In later years Harmon, like most other combat
veterans, would tell very little about what happened during the desperate
fighting which characterized the latter days of the war in northern
France. He said that he had seen the war and impoverished French women
washing their clothes in the cold waters of rapidly flowing rivers. Beyond
that, he would not speak of his experiences.
Armistice day came at
last. Kaiser Wilhelm fled to Holland. A provisional Government headed by
liberal statesmen, took control in the war-exhausted Germany and the great
conflict was over.
For a time many of the American Troops were
assigned to help the French as they began the laborious task of repairing
and rebuilding the damaged and ruined homes in northern France. After a
few weeks many of the American troops were moved to French seaports and
from there the weary ‘Dough-Boys’ were sent home to America, as soon as
transportation became available.
It is not remembered when Harmon
was discharged but he celebrated the event by coming directly home and
spending a few days visiting family and friends. Unfortunately, the Maybin
family now had no home. During the War Years, with both of his Sons in the
war, the father, Reuben Maybin, had a hard struggle as he tried to operate
his farm with no help. One day he hitched his two mules to a mower and
went to a field to cut hay. During the operation the mower struck a small
bush at one edge of the field and several teeth of the mower blade were
badly bent. Mr. Maybin stopped his mules, dismounted, straightened the
bent teeth with a pair of pliers and began to sharpen the blade with a
file. All of a sudden the mules pulled forward unexpectedly and one
of Rubin Maybin’ s legs was badly cut. In spite of medical care it was
necessary to amputate the leg below the knee.
With both of his sons
away in France it was impossible for him to work his farm. Because of the
manpower shortage due to the war no hired help was available. As a result,
with a deep discouragement, Rubin Maybin felt obliged to give up his
farm.
After the war, Richard Maybin found work in a mill store.
Harmon found it more difficult to find work and was approached one day by
a good neighbor and childhood friend, Jesse Foster Senn. Mr. Senn was
seriously short of help. Many of his pre-war helpers did not want to
return to farm work after holding the high industrial jobs during the war
years. As a result rural labor was in serious neglect.
Mr. Senn
invited Harmon Maybin to work for him for a time. He was to live in the
house with the Senn Family, plow a fast mule called ‘Titanic’ and
cultivate as much land as he was able. Harmon gladly accepted the proposal
and was treated almost as an honored guest. Charlie and Jesse, the two
small Senn sons, adored their handsome visitor. They loved to bring him
books and magazines and they listened raptly while Harmon turned the pages
and explained the pictures in them. Early every morning Harmon would hitch
the mule called ‘Titanic’ to a plow and go to the field. It was amazing to
see how much land that mule and long-legged man could plow in a day.
Harmon worked the crop well and made a good harvest on two successive
years. When the peach crop ripened in the large Senn Orchard, Mr. Foster
Senn was much too busy to harvest and sell the fruit and Harmon assumed
the job. In those days the fruit was sold locally about twelve miles away
in the town of Newberry by peddling door to door. Harmon was very
successful in selling the fruit, for in those days mass marketing of fruit
scarcely existed in the south. Women did a good amount of canning and
pickling in those days because fruit was still only a seasonal
luxury.
Two big crab apple trees on the Senn farm were prized by
the Newberry Women for making jelly, applesauce and jarred fruits for pies
etc. Charlie and Jesse Senn use to help Harmon Maybin pick the fruit and
occasionally accompanied him when he peddled in the town. One house in
particular was a favorite of the Senn boys, the home of ‘Aunt
Sudie’.
But after two years of farming Harmon wanted to try a new
way of earning money and became a ‘drummer’ or traveling salesman. The
departure saddened the Senn boys.
Harmon Maybin made many new
friends in his travels peddling ‘Witkins Remedy’. In the small town of
Hickory Grove the charming gentleman met the woman who stole his heart.
Harmon married and settled down in Hickory Grove and eventually became
mayor of the town. A few years later Federal Law required him to resign as
Mayor when he accepted the position of Postmaster of Hickory Grove.
The rest of his years were spent in the same town but before he
died he requested that his body be interred at Trinity Methodist Church in
Newberry, among the people and scenes of his happy childhood. At the age
of 90 years this writer still remembers with great pleasure that wonderful
adult friend of long ago, Harmon Maybin.
|
