Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic in Kingstree

On April 11, State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman declared a state of emergency in the Williamsburg County School District, paving the way for the State Department of Education to take over the day-to-day operation of the county's public schools.

The administrative offices of the Williamsburg County School District

on School Street in Kingstree.

Photo by Linda Brown

The current crisis, according to information provided at a public meeting held at Kingstree Senior High on April 10, developed over several years. It was brought into sharper focus several weeks ago when the D.P. Cooper Charter School filed suit against the district, prompting the county's legislative delegation to request a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) investigation, as well as an audit from the department of education.

A functioning education system is among the most important parts of the underlying infrastructure of any community. Organized education came relatively early to the village at the King's Tree. According to a pamphlet prepared in the early part of the last century, the person whose suggestion prompted the first organized school in Kingstree was none other than General Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox of American Revolutionary War fame. This pamphlet served as the basis for the education portion of a full-page article that appeared in The State newspaper in 1910 touting Kingstree's rapid advances in the early years of the 20th century.

This print of Peggy McGill's painting of Francis Marion 

hangs in the office of the Williamsburgh Historical Museum.

Photo by Linda Brown

It stated, "During the Revolutionary War, when General Francis Marion and some of his men were concealed in the river swamps, he was visited by a party of citizens from the community. In the course of the conversation, someone asked, 'Why are there so many Tories in this county?' Marion replied, 'Because of the lack of education. Why don't you start a school up here near the King's Tree?' To hear was to heed, and in a few months the first school in this community was organized." We have no way of knowing if this conversation actually took place although we do know General Marion strongly supported public education during his years in the state legislature.

In the early 1800s, Col. John Wilson taught a school about one mile north of Kingstree. A bit later townspeople organized an academy at the head of the street we now know as Academy Street. Some references refer to it as Williamsburg Academy; others call it Kingstree Academy. This private school was co-educational although boys and girls were taught in separate classrooms. Dr. Samuel Davis McGill, known for his Narrative of Reminiscences of Williamsburg County, taught here in 1850. The school closed during the Civil War and did not re-open afterward.

The first Kingstree Academy was conducted on this property

until it closed during the Civil War.

Photo Courtesy Williamsburgh Historical Museum

A private home now sits at the head of Academy Street.

Photo by Linda Brown

A number of small private schools sprang up during the years after the war. Edwin C. Epps in his typewritten memoir remembered the first school he attended was in an unoccupied building known as Ward's Old Hotel. Located where Anderson Brothers Bank stands today, it later became the home of Edwin Harper and was known for many years as the Harper House.

The Harper House, believed to have been built around 1840 was

apparently once known as The Old Ward's Hotel, according to Edwin C. Epps.

Photo courtesy Williamsburgh Historical Museum

Another school was located under the famous magnolia in Mrs. M.J. Porter's yard on Mill Street. Edwin Epps thought this small building had begun life as a law office but was used in the 1870s-1880s as a school. I speculate that perhaps Carrie Simons Heller, who boarded with Mrs. Porter when she first moved to Kingstree, taught at this school.

Epps also remembers a "miserable little hut" located where Jackson and Church streets now intersect. He stated that the yard of this school was always thick with broomstraw.

The lot on which the "miserable little hut" was located remains vacant today.

Photo by Linda Brown

According to the pamphlet on education in Kingstree, by 1895 there were three or more schools located in the town limits. At that time, the Rev. W.B. Duncan, pastor of Kingstree Methodist Church, suggested forming a high school. Those in favor of his suggestion appointed him principal; however, there was much opposition to the idea. To circumvent this opposition, the deed for the lot on the corner of Mill Street and Hampton Avenue was executed in the middle of the night, the pamphlet noted. This school, also known as Kingstree Academy, served the community for a number of years. For several years, the Academy, which was a private school, also allowed public school students to attend. However, in 1897, the public school separated from the Academy. Sallie Wilson taught the 25 students of the public school that year.

In 1898, Kingstree Academy's two teachers, T. Olin Epps and Eva Riser, taught in crowded conditions. Ann McIntosh, correspondent for the Florence Morning News, conducted interviews in 1960 with Epps and Eva Riser Lee, both still living in Kingstree. Mrs. Lee remembered that she gave Billy Britton his first spanking for pulling Marian Gilland's pigtails. She said that Britton, who went on to serve as Kingstree Police Chief for 25 years, never had the nerve to give her a traffic ticket, which is amusing because Mrs. Lee was a notoriously bad driver. Attorney Dessie O'Bryan, Marian Gilland O'Bryan's son, used to tell stories about his father cautioning him and his siblings to get far off the street if they spotted Mrs. Lee driving by. Perhaps' one of Mr. Epps' greatest legacies is that his daughter, Isabell Epps Tompkins, was a much-beloved first-grade teacher who taught many of us over the years.

Also by 1898, a school for black children was operating next door to the Odd Fellows Hall. Daisy Swails, daughter of Stephen A. Swails, served as director and teacher for this school. She directed several exhibitions at the courthouse each year, showcasing her students' abilities in recitation and singing. Large integrated audiences attended these evenings. On May 8, 1904, this school burned, along with the Odd Fellows Hall.

In 1900, William Willis Boddie, who would later write the History of Williamsburg, became principal of the Kingtsree Academy. He established it as a graded school and brought it into the state's public school system.

The Kingstree Academy located on the corner of Hampton Ave. and Mill St.

where the Williamsburgh Historical Museum is today.

Photo Courtesy Willaimsburgh Historical Museum

When the Carnegie Library was built in 1917, the main body of the Academy

which had been converted into a house was moved down Hampton Avenue.

Fittingly, it was for many years the residence of the Ernest Reeves family.

Mr. Reeves was a long-time administrator for the Williamsburg County School District.

Photo by Linda Brown

In the early 1900s, the Kingstree school was almost wholly supported by proceeds from the dispensary, South Carolina's state-run monopoly on liquor sales. When Williamsburg County embraced prohibition, there was real concern about how the schools would continue to operate. As the school grew, the primary department moved into a cottage on Mill Street owned by R.H. Kellahan on the lot where Personalize It is located today.

As the school continued to grow, Mayor John A. Kelley, Postmaster Louis Jacobs, and Dr. D.C. Scott began meeting nightly at the Kingstree Post Office to discuss the need for a new school building. Again certain parties vehemently opposed borrowing money to build a school, but voters approved a bond referendum, and the new school, built on the corner of Brooks and School streets, was ready in time to host commencement exercises in 1904. To build and furnish the school cost $15,000.

Enrollment increased rapidly as families who lived in the country sent their children to board in town in order to attend the new school. A number of families bought property and built homes in Kingstree. The school became a victim of its own success as it quickly outgrew the building. Work began on an annex in 1907, which included a 700-seat auditorium with a frescoed ceiling. By 1910, enrollment reached 250 students, and the school boasted a faculty of eight. For the 1910-11 school year, Superintendent J.W. Swittenberg and the board of trustees appointed Irene Robinson principal for the high school, the first woman to hold the position of principal at the school.

The Kingstree Graded and High School on the corner of Brooks and School streets

as it looked in 1911.

Photo from The County Record, May 1911

Despite the school's success there was also a number of problems and concerns. One was that far too many young men failed to complete high school, most of them dropping out before graduation to farm or enter the workforce. On a more physical plane, the roof of the original part of the building was ripped off during the hurricane of 1906, which damaged almost every building in Kingstree.

The school on Brooks Street continued as an elementary school until the mid-1950s when the district undertook a major building initiative. The high school moved to Third Avenue in 1924. The graded school building was demolished in 1960.

This building on Academy Street, completed during the 1950s, served as the elementary school

until a few years ago when a new one was built on another site.

Education in Kingstree has experienced periods of great success as well as periods of crisis throughout its long existence. State Representative Cezar McKnight stated at the recent public meeting, "You cannot fix what you will not face." As the school district faces the current crisis, it's good to remember that it has weathered quite a few in its long past.