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Wonderful 1894 Letter, Hike to CAESARS HEAD Mountain SC
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Wonderful 1894 Letter, Hike to CAESARS HEAD Mountain SC
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***PLEASE CHECK OUT THE OTHER LATE 19TH CENTURY CHARLESTON EPHEMERA I HAVE UP FOR SALE FROM THE SAME ESTATE***
This has got to be one of my most fascinating finds in recent memory...absolutely a gem and hard for me to give up since I live in Charleston. Up for auction is an old 4 page letter written by young John D. Muller to his mother back in Charleston while he was on a hiking trip in the mountains of the Upstate (find more information about Mr. Muller at the end of my listing). He and another gentleman (I think one of his professors at the College of Charleston) set out on a hike from Hendersonville, NC to Caesars Head. He talks about the ordeal of trying to find lodging along the way. Obviously, they end up staying at the old Caesars Head Hotel. But, before they arrive t, they spend the night in a stranger's homestead along the way and then they stumble upon the old legendary hunting lodge, the Buck Forest Hotel! I found some information written on Buck Forest Hotel in the late 19th century on the Internet and you'll find that quoted at the end of my listing if you're interested. are some passages from the letter: "By 5 p.m. we reached a rather forlorn looking building, ornamented with many antlers of various deer which had been killed during the past forty or fifty years. These antlers gave the name to the place - "Buck Forest Hotel". The proprietor no longer bothers himself about possible guests. He tried to put us off and send us a mile further to Squire Heath's, but - we used a little persuasion and so obtained a bed. He had nothing to eat in the house so our supper that night and first meal the next morning consisted of crackers we had brought along and milk from the hotel cow. The milk as a redeeming feature. Oh, it was so rich and sweet and cool. He had put the milk bottle in a spring to cool. Somebody gave the man a Jersey cow some time ago, so we had jersey milk. His name is Carson, and he is a distant relative of the famous frontiersman, Indian scout, trapper & hunter, Kit Carson." A little later in the letter, they arrive at the Caesar's Head Hotel and I quote this from the letter: "We took a mile tramp this forenoon to have a view of the "Jones Gap" from an eminence called "The Bluff". We are having a splendid time: going by slow stages and poking into every hole and corner to see the wonders & beauties hidden away from the busy world by nature. I guess you will have to come up too next month and breathe this pure mountain air and lead this simple, unostentatious life. What do you say?" After Mr. Muller had written this letter, he added this postscript in the margins before mailing to his mother: "Monday evening July, 16/94. I did not mail my letter at Caesars Head because I wanted to let you know how we arrived in Greenville: we lost our way today and had an extra tramp in the wild forest with nothing to guide us except the sun. Both well but the Prof feels stiff and sore. My training in the YMCA gym helps me...in good condition." The entire letter is very entertaining to read. Another passage I found very interesting was concerning Capt. Ellison Smythe's daughter (Ellison Smythe was a native Charlestonian and Captain in the Confederate Army and a noted Upstate business man connnected with Pelzer Mill). The passage reads: "7:30 a.m. We're on our way again. And now comes another pleasant incident. We stopped by a spring to rest & get cool (the sun was throwing down rays of intense heat). A little boy from a house near bye came to us and said that the people requested us to come in and breakfast with them. The Prof. declined to go but I accepted the invitation and was delighted in making the acquaintance of a Mrs. McKissick, born a Smythe, daughter of Ellison Smythe in Charleston. Some of her husband's people were in the house. Just in that neighborhood a number of families from different cities have summer homes. Mrs. McKissick has named her mountain home "Cohasset". She is a charming little woma... 
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