Henry Edison Eaddy, The Sage of Possum Fork

This story was originally published in the First Families Exhibit on the Johnsonville South Carolina History web page. Facts gathered by Josh Dukes.

Henry Edison Eaddy (1832-1912)
Henry Edison Eaddy (1832-1912) was a local citizen of some renown in his day.

Eaddy was the son of Henry Eaddy Sr (1778-1855) and Rebecca Ard (born 1782). He was a self-taught engineer, mathematician, and writer. He put those writing skills to use for The County Record out of Kingstree, where he was known by his column pin name "The Sage of Possum Fork."

He was married to Eliza Louisa Huggins Eaddy (1834–1916) with whom he had several children. One of their daughters was Rosa Belle Eaddy Woodberry Dickson, Johnsonville's first woman mayor and the first woman mayor in South Carolina (elected 1925).

Henry Edison Eaddy's granddaughter Ruth Dorrill Thomas shared a memory of her grandfather in The Promised Land by Elaine Y. Eaddy:

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"One spring morning when I was about 10 years old, my grandmother sent me into the vegetable garden to pick off the previous year's leaves from the big sage bush.  They would be dried for flavoring sausages at hog killing time next winter. 

She gave me a copy of The County Record newspaper to hold the leaves as I picked them.  Thus armed with the paper and admonished as to careful procedure, I opened the garden gate and went down the broad central row of herbs to the sage bush. I saw Grandpa hoeing the garden peas lower down in the garden.  He glanced at me and went on hoeing.  He did not indulge in "small talk" just to chatter about nothing.  But our relationship was friendly, and the silence companionable. I spread the newspaper on the ground, and sitting down, began carefully picking the sage leaves, a task I enjoyed.

Putting a handful of leaves on the paper, I saw the headlines on the first column of the front page of The County Record, which read, "The Sage of Possum Fork." In his articles in the paper, Grandpa always ended his last sentence with the capitalized words, POSSUM FORK, his only signature.  The editor of this weekly paper titled each article "The Sage of Possum Fork."

"Sage." Why, I wondered, was Grandpa called The Sage of Possum Fork?

"Grandpa, I called.

"Humph?" he answered.

"Why does The County Record call you The Sage? Wouldn't Catnip or Peppermint do just as well?"

Grandpa straightened up and gave a burst of hearty laughter.  I didn't see the fun and was peeved to be laughed at.

"Well Ruth," he suggested, "Why don't you write a letter to The County Record and sign it 'Peppermint'?"

Thinking he was gently poking fun at me, and still irritated that he had not explained my question, I silently continued picking sage leaves... but would you believe it? Grandpa never answered my query about sage? I now realize why Grandpa did not explain the meaning of sage.  I thought it was only a plant. But when applied to a person, sage means great wisdom.

Strangely, though he had served in the S. C. General Assembly, Grandpa was an extremely modest man. Had he explained to me the meaning of sage, it would have seemed to him self-glorification, a kind of boasting that was then considered beyond good taste."

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Henry Edison Eaddy
Eaddy's obituary from The County Record, June 27, 1912 tells of his life:

It is the painful duty of The County Record to chronicle the death of Mr. Henry E. Eaddy, well known as the "Sage of Possum Fork". He died at his home near Johnsonville Friday morning about 2:30 o'clock.

Mr. Eaddy was a man of rare personality. He was a self made man in every sense of the term. Intellectually he was a genius, being an expert mathematician. He was a civil engineer by profession, a hospitable Christian gentleman in his home, and a man of charming manner to all who came in contact with him. He was of unusual vitality, both physically and mentally for one of his advanced age, having celebrated his eightieth birthday in March.

The evening prior to his death he ate supper and was in his usual happy frame of mind and apparently in good health as he had been for some time and fell asleep. At 2:30 Friday morning he was found dead.

Mr. Eaddy was born and reared and spent his long life in the vicinity of Johnsonville. In his young life he married Miss Eliza Louisa Ann Elizabeth Huggins of Timmonsville, a daughter of the late Rev. J.S. Huggins, inventor of the first cotton planter used in the south.

He had represented the county of Williamsburg in the State Legislature several terms. He was first elected in 1890. He was one of the original founders of the Old Johnsonville Methodist Church and Trinity Methodist Church in Florence County and supervised the construction of the Old Johnsonville Church. During all of his public life he strove to render his county efficient service.

Mr. Eaddy leaves a widow, the former Eliza Huggins, five sons and two daughters: Messrs. J. A. of Bushnell, Fla.; C. L. of Linden, Fla.; John M. of Kingstree; S. O. of Johnsonville; Dr. A. G. of Timmonsville; Mrs. W. A. Hanna of Gifford; and Mrs. R. B. Dickson of Johnsonville.

The funeral service, conducted by Rev. E. P. Hutton, took place in Old Johnsonville Methodist Church at 4 p.m. Saturday, and internment was made in the church burying grounds. Six of his grandchildren acted as pallbearers. The funeral exercises were largely attended.


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