By Judy Dancy Duncan
V-P Saluda County Historical Society

The Sunday afternoon was cheerful and sunny when members and guests of the Saluda County Historical Society met for its annual “Taste It” at Flat Grove, the boyhood home of Alamo Hero James Butler Bonham. Everyone was seated in the front parlor when to our delight – Sophia Smith Bonham, entered from a bedroom and began packing a little worn trunk and then started talking to us, and we could hear! We were taken back to 1856 when Sophie was packing to move from Flat Grove to Edgefield. Her youngest son Milledge Luke Bonham was after her to move to a little cottage in Edgefield. That silly Horse, if he hadn’t thrown her, maybe she could still live at her beloved Flat Grove. But you know how those military men are and finally you just give in and agree to move.

Flat Grove holds so many memories, and Sophie can take those with her, but it still does hurt to leave the home she came to as a young bride of the dashing James Bonham. She remembered first seeing him in her father, Jacob Smith, tavern and general store at Mount Willing. Sophie had a good life and a bit of sadness too, she guesses everyone’s life is like that - good and bad. But today, as Sophie packs the little trunk she reads the names of all her children printed neatly in her Bible, she notes that James Butler Bonham was always a child of energy and activity – from that food fight he got into at the South Carolina College to that Mexican garrison he and other volunteers captured in 1835. But she was most proud of him because he stood for freedom on that 6th day of March in 1836 when he died defending the rights of Texans to be free. Sophie remembered all about freedom and its cost. She remembered hearing the stories of how her father, Jacob Smith, was almost hung when she was a tiny baby and how her mother, Sarah Butler Smith, and other ladies led a burial party to bury her mother’s brother, Captain James Butler and her nephew, James Butler, Jr. after they were massacred at what would be later called the Cloud’s Creek Massacre. Yes, freedom was costly.

Today, happy memories flood Sophia’s heart and she thinks about the happy times, walking in Richland Creek, going to church at Red Bank and all her fine children. What would happen to Flat Grove she did not know, but she did have hope for its future. Sophia could not have known that Flat Grove would be preserved by caring and thoughtful people in the 21th century and that pretty little girls would laugh and ladies and men would munch on goodies on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in the year 2010.

Mr. D. S. Cone, Jr. summed it up for everyone when he remarked to Dr. Bela, “I just thought you really were Sophia but I counted and you would have had to be over 200 years old”. What a wonderful performance. Dr. Bela made us feel she truly was Sophia Smith Bonham who had returned and was with us on a fall Sunday afternoon. The Historical Society wishes to thank Dr. Bela Herlong for all her research and her willingness to give of her knowledge to the community. What a master teacher. We would also like to thank Gloria Caldwell for costuming Dr. Bela and Colette Dragoo for lovingly decorating the house and Dot Metts and granddaughters for planning and hosting the goodies.