Orlando Benedict Mayer (24 February 1818-16 July 1891) was born near Pomaria, in present-day Newberry County, South Carolina. A rustic humorist whose work was mostly published anonymously or pseudonymously, Mayer is only now being discovered and, it seems, is due to rank high among writers of Southern backwoods humor. He also figures strongly as a precursor of the local color movement.

Hans Ulrich Mayer (1734-1803), the author's great-grandfather, came to Pomaria from Germany in 1752. Both he and his sixteen-year-old son Johannes Benedict (1761-1817) fought in the South Carolina Militia during the Revolution. Johannes, the author's grandfather, married Eve Margaret Summer, daughter of the Colonel John Adam Summer whom Mayer describes in his history of the community as the pioneer settler of the area. Johannes became a well-to-do farmer and blacksmith and had one son, Adam (1797-1834), the author's father. His mother was Mary Counts Mayer, and he had three sisters...