The Sustar twin brothers, Messrs. J.E. and B.A. Sustar, who live over the line in Mecklenburg county, celebrated their 60th birthday last Tuesday, Jan. 10th, at the home of Mr. J.E. Sustar in the Mount Harmony community. These gentlemen are well known in Monroe where they transact much of their business. Mrs. M.E. Ferguson, mother-in-law of the Messrs. Sustar, celebrated her birthday with them.
The occasion was a most interesting and pleasant one with the following relatives and friends n attendance: Mr. Robt. Gibson of Clarkton, Mr. Christopher Allen and son of Lanes Creek township, Mr. J.F. Renfrow of Matthews, Mrs. J.L. Benton and family of Vance township, Mr. D.E. Sherrin and family of Vance, Mr. J.C. Price and family of Morning Star township, Mecklenburg county, Mrs. J.O. Hall of Charlotte, Mr. Raymond Helms of Charlotte, Mr. Dowd Helms of Vance, Mr. Pat Crook of Goose Creek, Mr. L.A. Furguson and family and Mr. J.T. Moser and family of Morning Star.
Mr. J.T. Renfrow of Matthews made a very interesting talk in regard to this excellent family and spoke of the inspiration he had received from their lives.
A massive and beautiful monument which cost several hundred dollars stands in the cemetery at Mt. Harmony church. It was erected by Messrs. S.T., B.A., J.T., and J.E. Sustar to their mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Sustar. “To our mother” is the inscription in large letters on the top of the stone of the monument. And that good woman was certainly worthy of one.
The story of her heroism runs like this: In 1862 Mrs. Sustar was living with her husband, Mr. R.H. Sustar, and their four little sons and one little daughter in a cabin home in the pine lands of Lancaster, S.S. (S.C.?)
Early in 1862 the husband and father joined the Confederate army and went to the front. In a few weeks the news came that the husband and father were dead and had been buried in Virginia.
The mother looked upon her five little orphaned children, the two youngest, J.E. and B.A., twins but six months old, and resolved to keep her family together and to make a living for them. She had nothing and not a child was large enough to earn a living. But that noble woman went to work, hiring herself to the neighboring farmers, and although she was nursing her twin boys she went to the field and plowed many a day for 25 cents, and after a day’s work was done would walk a mile and sometimes two or three miles to her cabin home and there she would cook food for her children and often spin cotton at night with which to make their clothing.
And then came Sherman’s raid, and nothing was left in that home—everything being taken, and then that woman went out to where the army horses had been fid and picked up about half a bushel of dirty corn and washed it and carried it to a mill some distance away and by night had bread for her children. After the war she kept fighting to keep the wolf from the door and her children never suffered for something to feed their hungry little mouths. As the children grew they joined their great-hearted mother in the battle for bread. When 10 years old the twins were spinning cotton at night with which to make their clothing and were working for neighboring farmers for only 25 cents a day for the two.
In 1876 Mrs. Sustar moved with her children to Mecklenburg county, rented a small farm and there they made crops of their own. The twins brothers now have splendid farms—hundreds of acres—on which are two beautiful homes and the farms are dotted with neat, well-kept tenant houses, good barns and other outbuildings, and the land is in high state of cultivation. The stock and everything about the farms indicate prosperity and the application of brains to business.
Long before that good mother died and saw her children’s prosperity and shared it. With the Sustar boys there was nothing too good for their mother to have and her last days were spent in the midst of abundance, not only in material things, but those boys gave her a wealth of love and affection and their homes were her abiding place and in them she found a home indeed. Under that beautiful monument, erected by the manly sons who are victors in life’s battles, sleeps a real heroine.
From the front page of The Monroe Journal, Tuesday, January 17, 1922
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