Faith, Folklore, and Friends

Last Saturday, my friend, Sandra, and I went on a tour in downtown Florence called Footsteps of the Blue and Gray.  It was led by Lee Freeman and sponsored by the Florence/Lauderdale Public Library. The tour began in Wilson Park, one of my favorite places in town.  When Ferdinand Sanonner surveyed the place that would become Florence in 1818, he picked one block near the center of town for a 'public walk'.  It was renamed for Woodrow Wilson after his death in 1924. We met Dr. William H. Mitchell, who was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church and president of the Florence Synodical Female College.  During the war, Dr. Mitchell was arrested by Union soldiers for praying for Jefferson Davis during one of his sermons. We toured the Masonic Lodge, a first for me because women aren't usually allowed.  The Lodge was burned in May 1863, allegedly by accident, by Union soldiers who were burning other businesses that were sympathetic to the Confederacy...