Editing Dark Corner Exhibit (section)

== MUSIC ==
As is true in most places, music wasn’t ubiquitous; it depended on the family and immediate community. Some found music to be integral, while others had little to do with it.

=== The fiddle ===
One thing to note about the fiddle is the lack of a chin rest or wear in that location. Many old-time mountain fiddlers held their violin down under their shoulder or, like in the picture of Bill Hensley, against the chest. By the way, Hensley was a fiddler from “over the line” in North Carolina.

=== The Ballad of Holland Howard ===

Unfortunately, our recording ends before the last verse, leaving the story unfinished!

<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">They went upon Hogback Mountain
to the top of Chestnut Hill;
And just beyond a little hollow
they found the fatal still.
Reuben Gosnell hid behind some bushes,
Todd Holland the crowd to flush;
He heard the voice of an angry man cursing,
and soon the voice hushed.
He heard some shots and a call, come, Reuben,
And that was all Holl said;
For when he reached the fatal distillery,
poor Holland was lying dead.
Reuben called to Holland before he reached him;
Holl was lying on his face and head;
Holland Pittman said,
He will not answer, ’cause he’s already dead.
Reuben then drew his gun on Holland Pittman, said,
Tell me, or you will die.
Holland Pittman said, It was Henry Lindsey,
Lord knows it was not I.
Reuben took Holl Pittman on to jail, said,
I’ll be a coming back.
He came back and got Wade Plumley
to swear to Alex Pittman’s track.
They brought the Pittmans into court,
it was on one Thursday morn.
Alex Pittman said, I’m an innocent man;
I was at home shucking corn.
Alex Pittman wore a neat dress shoe,
the color of it was tan.
Reuben Gosnell said,
That’s the first fine shoe I’ve ever seen on that man.
They brought the Pittmans back to court,
both father and son were there.
Judge Mauldin said, You two men will die in the electric chair.
On the twenty-seventh day of June,
Nineteen hundred and twenty-four,
You will both pay the penalty for killing Holland Howard,
And you’ll never still no more.</poem>-- lyrics by Charlie Benson, son of Luther Benson

Ballad tales of momentous events were a common way to pass down oral history in the Dark Corner. Few of those have been recorded. This ballad, sung by Dean Campbell, is quite recent; the murder it references happened during Prohibition on January 1, 1924. The critical moment in the story is when Reuben Gosnell got Wade Plumley to “swear on Pittman’s track.” This means that Plumley was asked to look at a footprint, and he was willing to tell a court on his honor that the print could only belong to Alex Pittman. A descendant of Wade Plumley directly questioned this on one of the Limestone College interviews, and viewed his ancestor with disdain for doing it.

The Pittmans were tried in a case built on circumstantial evidence and found guilty on May 17, 1924. Their death sentences were upheld by the S.C. Supreme Court on Sept. 23, 1926. Death warrants were signed by Gov. Thomas G. McLeod on Oct. 11, 1926, but on Oct. 26, he commuted their death sentences to life in prison. Both men served nine and one-half years in prison and were paroled on Oct. 5, 1933, then pardoned on Jan. 12, 1935. Alex Pittman lived another four years, and Holland Pittman died on Mar. 25, 1981, at the age of 78.