Four-year-old rides horseback to Columbia

It was along Farris Lane in 1916 that Johnnie and Leslie Farris traveled by buggy to Columbia and attended high school, coming home only on week-ends. On this particular time, they had driven a horse that their father William Lee had been hoping to sell, and the boys were lucky enough to sell the horse.

Their deal left Johnnie and Leslie without a horse to pull their buggy home. So they called home (their parents had a telephone at that time) and asked their mother to put Rollin, their four-year-old brother, on a horse and send him to town. They would meet him at the Russell Creek Bridge at the edge of town.

The plan was carried out without incident, even though Rollin had to ride through toll gates. One toll gate was in Cane Valley, where five cents toll was charged, and the second was near Columbia where ten cents was charged for double fare. Five cents for traveling the pike and five cents to cross the bridge. Five cents was charged for one horse to pass through a toll gate.

Not bad for a four-year old boy to make the nine and one-half mile trip on horseback over a country lane then over the well-traveled pike to Columbia.

LORENA FARRIS JACKSON