MR. WILLIAM SNELL
(INTERVIEW ON March 6, 1943)
For some time maybe several years Snell knew they were after him. He
moved to Bosque for a time to get out of the way. He came back with three
of the Terrell boys from Clifton, nephews, I believe, with the intention,
in necessary of fighting it out with the bunch. They camped in a cave or
dugout down on the Leon and waited to
fight it out, but it seems never met them or come into collision. Before
that time they had shot Snell up on the mountain and wounded him. That was
Ault Ferguson.
In the early days Mr. Snell and Mr. William Claunch were partners in
the cattle business. Uncle Tom Pierson went up the trail with a herd for
Claunch, or with Claunch to Kansas. At that time the Claunches, Piersons,
Blansits, and most of the families lived on the river at Old Hamilton.
Mr. Williams said at one time this was called Hampton,
after Wade Hampton, but was changed because there was another postoffice
by that name.
(Recently the local library was given an old U. S. Census in which
Hamilton was written "Hampton"
and it was called a mistake. I called the attention to the paper to this
fact and it was explained. Part of Hamilton is on the James
Hamilton Survey, or one of them. The records shows he held various
tract of land in trust for the South Carolina Land Company, composed of
himself, Wade Hampton, and George Trenhelm. Hampton