Franklin County GaArchives News.....Uncle Billy Bowers March 9, 1890
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Alisa Dunn ardunn91@gmail.com September 2, 2023, 10:12 pm

The Atlanta Constitution March 9, 1890
One of Two Who Voted For Lincoln in 1860

A Rock-Ribbed Republican Who Stood the Storm of War Without Changing His Politics-
-A Remarkable Life.

But two Georgians voted for Lincoln in 1860, and only one is left to tell the 
story. That one came to The Constitution office the other day--Uncle Billy Bowers-
-who was hung and burned in effigy, and passed through it all with the same 
serenity that now invests him;

He was a pletare of the old time and the old fashion--a dome-like head, a broad, 
benevolent face, covered with a white beard, a firm mouth, a strong chin and a 
massive jaw that showed strength of will. He wore a soft hat with a broad brim, 
and his body of comfortable rodundity was clad in gray jeans cut in the old style 
by "Aunt Chrissy,"

His voice was strong and deep, but soft and well modulated, his firm lips cutting 
off each syllable distinctly and slowly, as you might cut a off a taper with a 
pair of shears. He is a minister, a Baptist--no he left that church in 1864, and 
which his followers organized what they call the Church of Christ, which now has a 
hundred or so members in several congregations in northeast Georgia.

"And you voted for Lincoln?" I said by way of beginning

"Yes," he said, in the same deep, soft voice and slow measured words, "I was 
taught from my boyhood that human slavery was wrong. My father was a Whig, and in 
my young days I committed to memory speeches of Clay and Webster. I committed that 
famous speech Daniel Webster delivered in reply to Calhoun in 1832; it was a 
speech in defense of the constitution. In my earliest boyhood I memorized the 
declaration of independence, and I was thrilled by the opening words of that great 
instrument, 'all men are by nature free and equal.'

"I favored Fremont, and when Lincoln was nominated, it was upon a platform that 
agreed with what I had always believed. As McCollum and I rode along I said to him 
‘Cyrus, I think I shall vote for Mr. Lincoln,’ and after we had talked it over he 
decided he would vote the same way.

“When the election day came we went to our voting precinct and deposited our 
ballots. The managers knew how we voted, but very little was said. We were not 
molested, but we had to be prudent. McCollum was conscripted and went to the war, 
where he lost his life. Being a minister and opposed to warfare, I was exempt.”

“When the first company left my neighborhood for the war they sent for me to make 
them talk. I didn’t say anything unkind or imprudent, but I could not say anything 
encouraging. I was not like the bloody preachers who told them to go ahead. I told 
them on the contrary that war was a great calamity, and they would find it very 
different from what they expected.

“Nothing was said, but when I got through a relative came to me and said, ‘you had 
better get away as quick as you can,”

“What is the matter?” said I

“Well, you had better get away,”

“I did not run, but I did not loiter, that night they erected a gallows. They 
thought I would return to preach the next day, and the idea was that they would 
hang me to the gallows. Instead of going there, I went to the branches and filled 
my regular Saturday appointment.

“Cyrus McCollum went to Carnesville a few weeks after he voted for Lincoln, and 
the boys got him up and rode him on a rail. I never suffered any violence, but 
they hung me and burned me in effigy once in 1884.”

“I was an elector on the Blaine ticket, and made several speeches in my district. 
I had been down to Carnesville, and made a speech there; I had spoken at Athens 
and Hartwell, and other places, and there was no trouble, but when I got down to 
the next appointment it was different. As I went in I saw a great ingathering at 
the court house, and pretty soon I was waited on by a committee, who told me it 
was the sense of the people that I should not speak there.
“Squire,” said I, “is that the sentiment of the whole people, or is it the wish of 
only a fraction?”

He said the sentiment was pretty general. “Very well,” said I, “I have no desire 
to force myself on a community,” and I left without making a speech. The night 
after I was informed, they had an effigy which they hung and burned.

“I don’t look upon the thinking of people of that place as responsible, because 
they expressed their sincere regret to me afterwards. I had the names of good 
democrats on my petition for appointment this year as the supervisor of the census 
for the second district.”

“How old are you?”

“Sixty-four. Your Washington correspondent, ‘E.W.B.,’ said I was ninety years old. 
I would like to wrestle with him, and have the pleasure of helping him up and 
brushing the dust off his back. Or I would like to run a foot race with him, and 
have the pleasure of looking over my shoulder at him panting along behind.”

“Yes, I am well preserved for my age. All my life I have been an early riser and 
early to retire. We get up at 4 o’clock and have breakfast at 5, summer and 
winter. Just before breakfast we have the morning lesson, as we have had it for 
thirty years. Then we send our petition to the throne of grace and sing a hymn. We 
have a great many. One of the most frequent in morning worship, is this;

“How firm a foundation,
Ye Saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith,
In his excellent world,
What more can he say,
Than to you he has said,
You who unto Jesus,
For refuge have fled.”

“My wife and I were married in 1850 and in the first seven years we were blessed 
with six children. That is in accordance with the scripture, ‘multiply and 
replenish the earth.’ None of those children ever touched whiskey, tobacco or 
coffee, and in all their raising days I never paid a nickel to a doctor for 
professional service.”

Pausing a moment the patriarch continued:

“As near as we could we got Scripture names for our children. Our oldest son was 
named Bunyan. Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress was a great book in those days; it was in 
my father’s library. I read it carefully for a number of years, and was impressed 
with the idea that Bunyan was a great man. Our second son we named Ezra, for the 
scribe and prophet of the Babylonish captivity. He is now a Railway Mail Clerk. 
Nehemiah, our third son, is a farmer, living near me in Hart county. Bunyan and 
Nehemiah are married and have children. Our girls are all married except Lois. 
Naomi is the oldest, then comes Ruth, then Frances, Pink, Eunice and Lois.”

Uncle Billy has been an editor since 1884.

“After they hung me and burnt me in effigy,” said he, “I started the Bowersville 
American Union to propagate my ideas. I care nothing about partisan politics, but 
I adhere to my principles with all my strength. When the constitutional convention 
was held in 1868, I was a member and came to Atlanta. We did the best we could to 
make a good constitution, but my old friends didn’t hold out the hand of howdy as 
cordially as they might have done.”

“I tell my neighbors that they became theoretical republicans as soon as they 
accepted the 14h and 15th amendments.—In the convent of 1868, we were very careful 
about the negro question, but under it I could not vote to exclude the negro 
members from the legislature in 1870.”

“There was a great crowd of the of the elite in the galleries that day, and when 
they question came to a vote in the senate my name was called first, I rose and 
said:

“Mr. President, I am aware that I have no right at this time to make a speech, but 
the rules allow me to explain my vote, “I was an humble member of the 
constitutional convention, and knowing as I do the spirit and the intention of 
that instrument, I cannot vote in the affirmative, but will have to record my vote 
in the negative.”

“At this there was a storm of hisses in the gallery. I have heard of the days that 
tried men’s souls and that was one. That afternoon I met one of my old friends, 
whom I had not howdied with that morning. I held out the hand of howdy, but he 
shook his head. He could not shake hands with a man who voted as I did.”

“Congress at its next session seated in the Georgia legislature all those members 
of whatever race or color who had been returned at the elections held under the 
order of General Meade. Not only that, but they turned out several of the leading 
democrats. The next year when I came back to the senate I met one of my old 
friends who had refused to howdy with me. He grinned and held out his hand as I 
came up.”

“Well Billy,” said he, “you were right after all.”

“Since then I have never had any trouble about politics—only the little occurrence 
during the campaign of 1884.”

“There are two places named for Uncle Billy. His home is Bowersville, in Hart 
ounty, ten miles from Carnesville, also ten miles from Hartwell. When he went to 
Franklin county, four years ago, to take a contract on the Carnesville Railroad, 
his new place of residence was called West Bowersville. He now resides in 
Bowersville, Hart county, wher he has his supervisor’s office.

How He Became A Railroad Man

Notwithstanding the fact that he is an old-fashioned man, Mr. Bowers is an 
enterprising, public spirited citizen. Ever since he walked home from Augusta, a 
hundred miles, he has been interested in transportation.

“I had worked the year with my grandfather,” said he, “and what I got as my part 
of the crop was one bale of cotton, 300 pounds, packed with a crowbar in a round 
bale. When I got down to Augusta I sold it out for 6 ¼ cents, and it came to just 
twenty dollars. The man who bought the cotton gave me four new five dollar bills, 
and it looked to me like mighty little money for a year’s work.”

“Can’t I get silver for this?” said I to the man.

“Yes, step into the bank and they will give it to you.”

“I went in and the cashier took the four bills. “Count it.” Said I.

“It’s all right,” said he, and he pushed me out two little packages with twenty 
silver eagle half dollars in each. I broke them open on the counter and began 
counting, ‘one-two-three’ and so on. When I got up into the teens somebody made a 
racket in the room and I forgot. Then I would begin over, ‘one-two-three.’ By the 
time I got up into the teens I would get mixed up again. Then I gathered it all up 
in a pile against my stomach and went outside. I put it down on a goods box, and 
you’d better bet that money was counted, forty silver eagle half dollars.”

“I had on a jeans coat, one or these old-fashioned claw-hammers, with tails not 
wider than my hand. In each tail there was a little long pocket about the size of 
an eel skin, and into each I dropped twenty half dollars. Then I tied the pocket 
with a string above the silver. The next morning the wagoner said to me: 

“Bill, I hate to say it, but you’ll have to walk home, we are heavily loaded, and 
it’s a long way.”

“All right,” said I, and I stepped off as fresh as life. Every step I took, one of 
the long coat tails loaded with silver would come down on the calf of my leg like 
a club. I like to feel it, and I bent myself back so it would come down all the 
harder. The next morning I looked at my legs and the calves were black and blue.”

When the laugh subsided Uncle Billy continued.

“That trip took seventeen days, and from that time to this I have been an 
uncompromising railroad man.”

Uncle Billy left the church of his youth because he said it seemed to him that the 
spirit of most of the churches is the spirit of the world. He turns out a member 
for dancing, drinking, or failure to pay his debts, and the only rule of conduct 
to which he refers is the Bible. His hobby is the development of the resources of 
the country, and on this subject he expressed himself as follows:

Progress And Development

“The mammoth question which concerns the world today is the proper development of 
the natural resources of the world, beginning with the human mind, which 
constitutes the most important of all natural resources; and upon its proper 
development depends the proper development of every other natural resource.”

“There is a world of mind, and there is a world of matter; it is that of mind that 
moves and controls matter, and just in proportion as mind is properly developed 
well the material world be properly moved and controlled.


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