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Hanging On William Franklin Clinkscales represents the middle-income farmers, a category that remained very important to the study area's economy until modern times. The Clinkscales settled on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River in the early 1850's, buying 450 acres. At the time, they owned eight slaves who lived in two houses. After his first wife died, William Franklin remarried in 1844 to Lucinda Burton, with whom he spent 62 years. They raised the two children from his first marriage, as well as a number of their own-with at least six of their offspring living past childhood. By the start of the Civil War, the Clinkscales' land was apparently worth $6,300. Despite the hardships of the war, William Franklin Clinkscales was able to survive with his assets largely intact. By 1870, the Clinkscales' property value had been cut by half, but the family was able to withstand the economic depression by diversifying farm production. They raised horses, mules, milk cows, other cattle, oxen, sheep, pigs, bees, and chickens. They also grew corn, oats, wheat, cotton, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, apples, and peaches. Just about all their livestock and produce were for their own use, although they sold cotton, possibly butter and eggs, and wood they cut on their land.
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