SIMPSONVILLE SENTINEL - JULY 2014 5Bsimpsonvillesentinel.com

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From 1912 to 1969, the late Caroline S. Coleman, was a

noted columnist for the Greenville Piedmont and the Fountain Inn Tribune. She was a 5th generation Greenville County resi-dent, who began her work-ing career as a one room schoolteacher. Until her death at 86, she wrote about life in the Fair-view community and the South Carolina Piedmont during the “nineties and the naughts,” (the 1890s and 1900s.) Back then, toothbrushes came on sweetgum bushes, peo-ple made their own soap and kept “the Prophet’s room” ready for the circuit preacher who might arrive in the middle of the night.

According to William Gaines,editor of The Pied-

mont, the columns “at-tracted the greatest volume of congratulatory mail of any feature (the paper) has run.” Mrs. Coleman’s sto-ries of how her grandmoth-er lived during the hard times after Civil War Re-construction, the religious customs and daily life of farming families of the era, are unimaginable to today’s generation living with television, the Inter-net and mobile phones. Yet the stories have an attrac-tion to modern teenagers.

In 1962, at the urging of her friends and fam-ily, Mrs. Caroline Cole-man published her col-umns in a popular book, Five Petticoats on Sun-day because, “Mother,” my children kept saying to me, “unless you write down these stories of life when you were young, our children will never know how people lived in the strange world which you remember.” (the 1800s.)

Contrary to images of big, Southern, Sunday dinner with family gath-ered around the table, the 1800’s Scotch-Irish South-erners did not cook or serve big meals on Sunday. “The sound of the coffee grind-er in the afternoon told us that it was Saturday,” said Caroline Coleman.

According to the origi-nal Five Petticoats on Sun-day author, Caroline S. Coleman, “…despite the almost Puritan code which governed our lives, we had good times and fun.”

Reading their Grand-mother “Muzzy” Cole-man’s admonishment in their copies of the original book, Mrs. Sherman and Coleman were urged to honor her instructions to, “keep the stories alive.”

Urged by Dianne Bai-

ley, owner of BookQuest, they have re-published and expanded the book into Scotch-Irish Life in the South Carolina Pied-mont: Why They Wore Petticoats on Sunday.

The new book is an en-thralling look at the lives of the residents in the area from Reconstruction until the 1900s with the Caroline Coleman sto-ries. These Scotch-Irish residents needed a ‘mad-stone’ to treat infections and felt obligated to pro-vide their sons with land and a home for the new bride. It also has recipes, Scotch-Irish history and genealogical resources.

The cousins laugh about their names. Sherman’s husband was not kin to the Union Army general. And Coleman’s husband

is Repub-lic of Irish-Catholic, not Scotch-Irish Presbyterian. The histo-r y - l o v i n g cousins call t h e m s e l v e s Scotch-Irish-Southerners, tracing their f a m i l i e s ’ m a t r i l i n e a l roots for 10 generations, i n c l u d i n g area kin-folks: Martin, Peden/Paden, S t e n n i s , McKittr ick, S p r o u s e , C o l e m a n , Smith, Gar-rett, Hopkins and Huff.

W h e n they speak

to groups, Sherman and Coleman, explain that the Scotch-Irish founded a plethora of Protestant churches across the entire Piedmont South, and why women and girls wore five petticoats on Sunday. Also, their Scotch-Irish language lives on. When South Carolina folks say, “I reckon,” they are speaking a proper Scot-tish, not English, phrase.”

There are also similari-ties in customs and games across the centuries. In the 1960s, Baby boom-ers danced “The Twist” to Chubby Checker’s re-cords, not knowing that their Scotch-Irish ances-tors played the game, “Twistification,” on New Year’s Eve in the 1890s.

Coleman, is primarily a culinary historian. Al-though this book contains only a few recipes, she has published a cookbook full of Scotch-Irish-South-ern recipes from another Peden descendent, Agnes Coleman New. Mrs. New was her aunt, the eldest daughter of Mrs. Caro-line Coleman. New left Fountain Inn to become the Dietitian/partner, of one of Atlanta’s largest restaurants. The South’s Legendary Frances Vir-ginia Tea Room Cookbook recalls this history and 200 popular recipes from this famous 20th century tea room. This female-owned business influenced the health, economic and social life of 2000 din-ers per day for 40 years!

Sherman, active in nu-merous historical organi-zations, grew up in Foun-tain Inn. She wrote the back cover copy for the recently republished His-tory of Fountain Inn, origi-nally by her grandmother,

Caroline S. Coleman. Scotch-Irish Life in the

South Carolina Piedmont, Why They Wore Five Petti-coats On Sunday, The His-tory of Fountain Inn, and The Frances Virginia Tea Room Cookbook are sold at BookQuest Bookstore on 108 South Main Street in Fountain Inn, 864-408-9747, or on line at www.bookquestusedbooks.com

You are welcome to meet Scotch-Irish cousins from all over the USA at the an-nual Peden Clan Reunion. It’s the 3rd Sunday in July, at the historic 1880s’ Fair-view Presbyterian Church in Fountain Inn. Just bring a dish or a story to share.

Sherman and Coleman will appear at these area events and booksignings:

July 20Fairview Presbyterian

Church, Peden Reunion, July 21

Fountain Inn, 11:30a.m. July 25

Rotary Club, Fountain Inn 12:15 p.m, Monday,

July 25Sweet Catherine’s

Restaurant, Fountain Inn, 11:30-2 p.m.,

BookQuest Bookstore, Fountain Inn, 4-6 p.m.,

July 26 Pickwick Pharmacy, Greenville, 12-2 p.m.,

Sidebar: Author BiosMary Caroline “Car-

rie” Sprouse Coleman, 1883-1969, was an ex-traordinary South Carolina writer, leader, and popular speaker, famous in her era. She attended Greenville Chicora College, graduat-ing from Asheville Nor-mal Teachers College in North Carolina in 1904.

Coleman’s writing ca-reer began in 1912 with a column, “Little Town Talk” in her mentor, Rob-ert Quillen’s, paper, The Fountain Inn Tribune. He was a well-known Ameri-can columnist and humor-ist. The columns resulted in countless awards for her public service, as well as newspaper and magazine features throughout the U.S. Mrs. Coleman was a regular contributor to SC State Magazine’s Palmetto Profiles and The Sand-lapper, where her article, Robert Quillen: “The Sage of Fountain Inn” was cho-sen for The Sandlapper’s 1969 hardback edition.

She was the long time Fountain Inn corre-spondent for the Green-

ville News and wrote an editorial page column, “Away Back When” for The Greenville Piedmont, culminating in her first book, Five Petticoats on Sunday. She co-authored the History of Fountain

Inn. She continued to write until one month be-fore her death at age 86.

Married to Samuel Lew-is Coleman, she was the mother of three daughters, twin sons, eleven grand-children, and one name-sake great-grandchild at the time of her death.

Listed in Who’s Who of American Women, Coleman received “The Star Scribe Award” in1952 and 1954 from The Pro-gressive Farmer, (pre-cursor to Southern Liv-ing); The Fountain Inn Rotary Club’s Outstand-ing Citizenship Award; and Honorary President of The United Daugh-ters of The Confederacy.

Coleman was a Charter Mem-ber and State of-ficer of the Na-tional League of American Pen Women, The United Daugh-ters of the Con-federacy, State and County His-torical Societ-ies, and civic organiza t ions .

Leaving the P r e s b y t e r i a n Church of her youth to join her husband’s First Baptist con-gregation, she laughed, “I have been sprinkled so I guess now I can be dunked.”

Caroline Smith Sherman, oldest granddaughter and namesake of Caroline S. Cole-

man, is a former teacher and retired Certified Wom-an Owned Business owner (WSOB). Her 30 years of sales and marketing led to a State Board position in the National Associa-tion of Temporary Ser-vices. She testified as an independent/small busi-ness owner at the 1998 National Press conference, moderated by Senate Ma-jority leader, Trent Lott (R-MS), and in 1999, The National Labor Relations Board, Department of Labor, Washington, DC.

Caroline spent her ear-ly childhood on Muzzy’s farm with her mother, Uncles Broad and Bill, while her father, Smitty, was overseas. She played in the creeks and pastures with cousins, children and grandchildren of families who lived on Muzzy’s place. She stole away, up the path, through cotton fields, to talk to Mamie who smoked a corncob pipe and made the best cornbread.

C a r o l i n e graduated from

Hillcrest High School, Simpsonville and Lime-stone College, Gaffney, SC, with a BS in Home Economics Education.

She has one brother, Walter, “Buzzy,” two daughters, Mary Caroline Riner and Elizabeth Martin Patty, and three grandchil-dren: John, Elizabeth and George Siddall. Married to the now deceased, Lew-is E. Sherman, , she ac-quired five more children, ten grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Today, she lives in Virginia Beach, is a char-ter member of The Foun-tain Inn History Center ,member of The Daugh-ters of The American Revolution, and The Mu-seum of the Confederacy.

Mildred “Millie” Car-oline Huff Coleman, another namesake of grandmother “Muzzy” Coleman, A Southern Foodways “Her-storian,” properly dressed in vintage hats and gloves, “Miss Millie” speaks at wildly diverse events: National Oral History and National Women’s Studies confer-ences, Steamfest Steam-punk Victorian Tea, The American Orient Express Train Tours, and WABE Public Radio. Quoted in USA Today, World Tea News, and Southern Liv-ing Magazine, she is au-thor of The South’s Leg-endary Frances Virginia Tea Room Cookbook.

She has an MA in Women’s Studies; BS in Family and Consumer Sciences: Food Journal-ism and Education; Ra-dio/TV, Emerson College, Boston. She is a Univer-sity of Georgia Family and Consumer Sciences “Distinguished Alumni.”

She is certified in Fam-ily and Consumer Scienc-es; member of Les Dames

d’Escoffier Interna-tional, International Association of Cu-linary Professionals;

Master 4-H Club; and a past president of the Geor-gia Nutrition Council.

She and her husband, Tom, (42 years!), live in The Battle of Atlanta area where her Great-great-grandfather McKit-trick died in 1864. They have a daughter, Carina, son, Nick, and grand-daughter, Aria Belle.

Caroline and Mil-dred are members of the Southern Foodways Al-liance, and enjoy “food-ie” trips together. This doesn’t help their diet, but they are having fun writing and speaking.■

Book on Life in the South Carolina Piedmont in 1890s – 1900s Revived By Grandaughtersby Mary huff

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Mrs. Caroline Coleman