Gonzales: News Without Fear
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Please do not disturb the flower beds, the cache is easily found with NO digging.
This memorial cenotaph (obelisk) for Narciso Gener Gonzales (1859 – January 19, 1903) was erected on Senate Street across from the State House in Columbia. It is the only one known erected for a newspaper editor.
Gonzales, co founder of The State Newspaper with his brother Ambrose, was a vocal opponent of the Tillman regime in post Civil War South Carolina. Gonzales had waged a crusade against avowed racist and White Supremacist Governor Benjamin "Pitchfork" Tillman in his newspaper and all of the other Tillmans in the state. His continuing editorials and exposes on all of the Tillmans helped ensure Lt. Gov James T Tillman's (nephew of "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman) defeat in the 1902 South Carolina governor's race and ultimately cost him his life: Gonzales was shot on January 15, 1903 by James H. Tillman and died four days later.
Tillman escaped punishment, however. Tillman used his family's influence to change the venue to his home county of Lexington. The jury was considered rigged and highly partisan considering Tillman shot Gonzales in broad daylight in the presence of many eyewitnesses. He was acquitted ostensibly on a shaky self-defense theory, but in reality because the jury believed Tillman was right in taking justice into his own hands and many of the jurors were cronies of Tillman.
Not to be outdone, the friends and family of Gonzales erected this memorial at this site because it was purportedly on the route Tillman regularly walked home from the State House. The prose and flowery praise for Gonzales is indicative of the early 1900s and is quite moving. Today the flower gardens that surround the memorial are tended by local garden clubs.
The cache owners challenge the finders to look deeper into the story of Gonzales and Tillman - maybe some day there will be a movie made: it certainly has lots of villains!
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Narciso Gener Gonzales (1859 – January 19, 1903) was born in St. Paul's Parish, South Carolina, South Carolina. He and his brother, Ambrose E. Gonzales, were the founders of The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina.
Gonzales was the son of General Ambrosio José Gonzales and Harriet Rutledge. His father was a Cuban revolutionary general who opposed oppressive Spanish rule. His mother was the daughter of the wealthy South Carolina rice planter, state senator and writer, William Elliott.
(West face)
Erected
By popular subscription
A Tribute
To the worth and service of
N.G. Gonzales,
Born August 5, 1858,
Died January 19,1903.
—–—
"Faithful unto death."
Gonzales
(North face)
A great editor
An eminent citizen
An honest man
"Without fear and without reproach"
His fellow citizens rear
this monument
to perpetuate his memory.
(South face)
Founder and first editor
of
The State
——
For twelve years he conducted it
with signal ability and conspicuous courage:
A potent voice for civic righteousness,
An influential factor in every movement
for the welfare of the people.
——
"The measure of success is not what we get out of life,
but what we leave after it."
Editorial Dec. 10, 1900.
(East face)
"God give us men a time like this demands
strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men of whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men of whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor, men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue,
and damn
his treacherous flatterers without winking.
Tall men, sun-crowned, who who live above the fog
in public duty and in private thinking:
for while the babble, with their thumb-worn greeds,
their large professions and their little deeds,
mingle in selfish strife,- lo ! Freedom weeps,
wrong rules the land,and waiting justice sleeps."
Erected 1905.
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Please leave your thoughts about the area, the day that you cached, or other info - We love to read your logs and they encourage us to place more caches into our caching community.
Please do not disturb the flower beds, the caches is easily found with no digging.
~~~~**Congratulations to IkeHurley13 for the FTF!**~~~
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Unatvat