Tazwell Upshaw, his father Dr. James Upshaw, and his younger half brother Harry Upshaw, were all three co-owners of Upshaw Brothers, a Hartsville dry goods store in the early 1920s.
Taz Upshaw had just returned from overseas where he had served in the American forces during World War I.
His father, Dr. Upshaw had purchased the business for his oldest son and youngest son to run together.
Yet, in a family that had seen more than its share of tragedy, there was more to come.
In our county archives, we have a small scrapbook kept by Dr. Upshaw鈥檚 wife, Cora. She was his second wife, his first wife and infant son having died. Cora had lost her first husband and two young daughters.
Yet, James and Cora had married, making Cora the stepmother of Taz and his two older sisters.
Then, a year after their marriage, Cora gave birth to a son, Harry Upshaw.
Cora鈥檚 scrapbook documents the lives of the combined families鈥 鈥榶ours, mine and ours鈥 blend that was healing for all involved.
Then, in 1921, the unthinkable happened.
In her scrapbook, Cora wrote these plaintive words, 鈥淗arry died March 8, 1921. Age 17 yrs, 8 months, 5 days. Harry had flu pneumonia.鈥
Having experienced so much loss already, James and Cora had yet more tears to shed.
Today, with the development of wonder drugs, modern hospitals and vaccines, we don鈥檛 lose people to illnesses that in the past were fatal.
Measles and mumps could be deadly.
The 鈥渇lu鈥 was a potent disease that had, during the first world war, decimated populations around the world.
Called the 鈥淪panish Influenza,鈥 in two years, from 1918 to 1920, over 50 million people died worldwide 鈥 the deadliest pandemic in modern times.
Elsewhere in the scrapbook, Cora noted, 鈥淗arry died on Tuesday, Mar 8, 1921, Sick four days.鈥
We can be sure Cora spent those four days anxiously, sitting bedside, while James, a doctor, treated his son with every method at his disposal.
In the scrapbook are two newspaper clippings yellowed with age.
One reads, 鈥淭he grim reaper, Death, has entered class No 4, of Hartsville Baptist Sunday School and claimed one of its loved members, Harry Upshaw鈥︹
The article lists the other boys in the class, 鈥淏ernard Hall, Edgar Dean Freedle, Ben C. Hall, Edgar Folk Oakley, Perry Merryman, Joseph Lipscomb, Jesse McMurry, Henry Lauderdale, George Martin, Walter Merryman, Herod Jenkins, Judson Oakley, Otto Johnson, Arthur Reed, Robert Dickens and Oakley Day.鈥
The Sunday School class teacher, Ethel Allan, penned the article on the loss of class member Harry, writing, 鈥淭o know Harry was to love him, and his fine nature, his unselfish love was an inspiration to us all.鈥
The second clipping in the scrapbook is a poem written by a friend of the family, Mattie Oglesby. Titled 鈥淗arry,鈥 the poem honors the memory of the young man.
鈥淣one knew him but to love him,
None named him but to praise,
Now, beneath a bank of flowers.
He is resting in his grave.
Seventeen short years we loved him.
But, he鈥檚 gone, aye, gone forever,
And we鈥檙e left so sad and lone.
The seven stanza poem, written two days after Harry鈥檚 passing, no doubt shared the feelings of our small community, a young life lost too soon.
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