HISTORY OF THE WHEEL. 67 



to which they were reduced. The need of a reliable and 

 truthful history was never more severely felt by any 

 organization. That it was a scheme concocted by the 

 Republicans to demoralize the Democratic party of the 

 South, was heralded all over the State. The partisan press 

 helped to circulate this abominable story and it spread like 

 a deadly plague through the ranks of the organization. 

 The merchants, seeing their opportunity to deal the Order 

 a blow, lost no time in contributing to the general con- 

 fusion. Never before was there such a merciless, unceasing, 

 frantic and combined attempt to break the power of an 

 organization as was made in this State in the summer of 

 1888. To forever set at rest these infamous slanders and 

 give to the world the true history and objects, and the 

 origin of the Wheel was our mission into Prairie county. 

 To see and talk face to face with the founders of the Order, 

 and others who came in shortly after; to look upon the old 

 log school house whose walls had witnessed the first feeble 

 efforts to lift the burdens from oppressed labor; to take by 

 the hand the men who had given life and vitality to an 

 organization that was to sweep like the wind over the 

 Southern States, spreading, like the fire-flamed foxes of 

 Phillistia, consternation and dread among the cohorts of 

 monopoly. All these were inducements enough to visit 

 the scene of efforts- that were pregnant with such impor- 

 tant results. Through the kindness of Col. Morehead, 

 who furnished himself and conveyance, we were enabled 

 to see much, and gain information that we should, 

 perhaps, otherwise have missed. Bro. Morehead was one 

 among the first to join the Wheel after it started; has been 

 one of the most faithful workers, and has watched its growth 

 with deep interest Our conversation with the original 

 founders and others who are conversant with the early his- 

 tory of the Order, enables us to say that the history written 

 by W. W. Tedford, and published in the preceding chapter, 



