The Journey Begins

Main Street, South Carolina Manager Beppie LeGrand presented an overview of the 45-page baseline assessment for Main Street, Kingstree to town council May 21. Throughout her presentation she stressed that this will be a long-term, ongoing process.

The assessment encourages promotion to position downtown as the heart-and-soul of the community, providing a reason for residents, as well as tourists, to go downtown for both commercial and recreational reasons. To help establish this link, the local Main Street director should organize regular meetings with other organizations and with retail/service businesses to help them find ways to develop a strong campaign for year-round local shopping and to integrate downtown businesses into special events. The assessment urges Kingstree to develop a distinct "brand" and to use it consistently across all promotions. 

Main Street, Kingstree should evaluate all current festivals and events to determine how they are perceived and if they are meeting expected goals before planning new events. An example given of the kind of event that would play to the town's strengths was working with hunters and fishermen to create a wildlife cooking competition that would incorporate "how-to" demonstrations on cooking wild game.

The report notes, "Black River is a valuable natural resource and provides many opportunities for special events and recreation. This is an asset that should be developed for use and promotion as soon as possible." A strong recommendation was made to develop a master plan for using Black River to the town's advantage.

In looking at economic vitality, the report notes there are 169 buildings in the Main Street District, which covers about 130 acres, with an absentee ownership rate of about 54 percent. According to town records, 79 retail, service-oriented, and professional businesses operate in the district. Many of these buildings appear to be under-utilized. The report suggests the town consider focusing its immediate efforts on a smaller district, roughly encompassing the same area designated on the National Register of Historic Places as the Kingstree Historic District. "This manageable 20-acre area can serve as a smaller area of initial focus from which the revitalization of the entire district may be effectuated," the report states.

In addressing parking, the report notes that the Town of Kingstree has secured funding to improve the downtown parking lot. The town will soon solicit bids for this project. The report also notes that heavy commercial truck traffic on Main and Longstreet streets poses a challenge for redevelopment, but also notes that a truck route and a new streetscape design are in the planning stages.

According to the report, the town should identify marketing opportunities and pursue a way to expand those opportunities so that both new and existing businesses can profit from them. A Retail Market Assessment, Branding and Tourism Promotion Plan would provide the town with strategies for marketing Kingstree to tourists and provide specific recommendations for downtown development projects and initiatives and how to implement them.

One strategy suggested would include developing housing options in the commercial district as a way of generating traffic downtown during evenings and weekends, providing an impetus for businesses and restaurants to stay open later at night and on weekends. Further, the assessment suggests that the town should plan more public activities and events downtown during these times to foster the idea that Kingstree's Main Street District is family-friendly.

The report encourages town council to establish economic development policies that provide incentives for renovation of existing buildings and new construction on empty lots. There are several federal and state historic preservation tax credits that are available, and the town should be able to guide building owners and developers to the programs that best fit their needs through a comprehensive incentives package. Developing a database of buildings in the Main Street District, along with information on the incentives for which each building qualifies, is a major component needed to establish the economic vitality of the town. The report also suggests that the town maintain a list of developers who have successfully completed renovations in other areas of the state by using incentives and tax credits and approach them about projects in downtown Kingstree.

The design component of the plan encourages "comprehensive visual improvements through good design that are compatible with historic features, and, therefore maintain the integrity of the downtown." Appearance is important as it is the first impression that visitors get and, as such, shapes their perceptions of Kingstree. The assessment notes there are many inexpensive ways to dress up windows of empty buildings to add visual interest to downtown. It also suggests that the town may want to concentrate efforts on incremental facade improvements, such as one year concentrating on awnings, while the next year working to upgrade windows. Colorful Adirondack chairs, umbrellas, bistro tables, and flowers were also suggested as ways the town could use bright colors to bring energy to the downtown area.

The baseline assessment encourages the town to create a bold downtown master plan, using many visual components to express a clear vision for the future. This would include plans for preservation of existing building, integrating new construction, and developing a walking/bike trail to promote community connectedness. Beppie LeGrand will meet with the Main Street Committee on June 7 to begin prioritizing actions to put the recommendations in the assessment to use.

Main Street, Kingstree Director William Freeman said after the presentation he is excited to have the direction and support of Main Street, South Carolina. "We are hopeful and very driven to see this baseline assessment come to fruition," he said. "Our goal is to make Kingstree better not only for our future but also for future generations."

The rebranding of Kingstree and better utilizing the river caught Mayor Darren Tisdale's attention. "These are both vital to the town, and we need to make sure we make the right decisions as we move forward," he said.

Town Manager Richard Treme feels positive about the assessment. "We need to remember this is a process, and it won't all happen overnight," he said. "We need to stay with the plan and not get discouraged when we hit bumps in the road. It will take all of us working together, but this is a vehicle, I believe, we can use to take us into the future."

PROGRAMMING NOTE:  The Kingstree Live event, scheduled for this Friday, June 1 from 6-10 p.m. at Black River has been moved to the Depot because of rising water at Gilland Park. The Palmetto Dance Band, with Williamburg County native Hugh Odom on the bass, will provide entertainment. See you at the Depot.

Remember the Ladies

Eight downtown Kingstree merchants participated in a "Sip and Shop" on Thursday, May 10. These businesses stayed open from 6-8 p.m., served refreshments ranging from cake to crackers and dip to smoothies, and allowed visitors to browse and buy. Visitors were given cards at their first location, and the shopkeepers each initialed the cards which were turned in at the last stop. The shops then turned all the cards in to Christy McCutchen of the HomeTown Chamber and William Freeman of Main Street, Kingstree, and they drew a winner to receive a huge gift basket filled with merchandise from the eight participating businesses. They also awarded two other prizes of $25 in "Downtown Dollars."

The participating shop owners, I noticed, were either women or couples, which got me to thinking that women's participation in Kingstree's business community started early in our history. By the late 1890s, the Coleman House hotel had served travelers spending the night in Kingstree for a number of years. Its advertising boasted that it had always had a woman in a management role, beginning with the English-born Sarah "Sallie" Coleman, who, along with her husband George, started the hotel. After the Colemans, William J. and Virginia "Jenny" Lee owned and managed the hotel for 10 years. At Bill Lee's death, his obituary proclaimed that many thought of him as the "Father of the Town," although he was not a native and had moved to Kingstree in 1860 from North Carolina. Jenny Lee took over the management of the hotel for a short time before she sold it to devote herself to her retail business. She and her sister, Sallie Wilson, ran a mercantile business on Main Street on the east side of the courthouse until Mrs. Lee's death in 1900. The entire downtown closed up shop for her funeral as a salute to a woman who had devoted much of her life to Kingstree's business community. 

After Mrs. Lee sold the hotel, Charlotte Chandler became its manager and distinguished herself in that role for a number of years. Mrs. Chandler's husband, Edwin, was an attorney and news editor for The County Record before his untimely death at age 38. After Mrs. Chandler left the Coleman House, she opened a boarding house of her own. 

Another successful female hotel owner was Mary Rebecca Scott Hemingway, mother of Dr. T.S Hemingway. After her husband's death, she moved back to Kingstree from Rome Crossroads and opened the Hemingway Hotel on Railroad Avenue, which she ran until ill health forced its closure shortly before her death. The hotel was known up and down the east coast for its sumptuous meals.

Women have long played a major role in the postal service in Kingstree. Charlotte Chandler, in addition to her duties at the Coleman House, served as postmaster for the town of Kingstree from November 26, 1889, until March 4, 1898. But she was not the first Kingstree lady to run the post office. Mary Gewinner was appointed to the position of postmaster on July 17, 1866, prompting  The Charleston Daily News to run this condescending story on July 27: Old things have passed away, and all things have become new. Amid the general transformation of everybody and everything by the late war, there is none more striking than the prevalent disposition all over the country of putting the mails in the hands of females. The Kingstree Star of the 25th boasts of that village now having a regularly "reconstructed post office," Miss Mary Gewinner having received the appointment as postmistress. The Star says that Miss G has been attending to the mails for some months past. Miss G, it would appear, has been more successful in her attendance on the mails than many of her sisters.

Mary Gewinner was succeeded as postmaster in 1869 by another daughter of Kingstree, Pauline Heller. In 1898, Miss Gewinner's husband Louis Jacobs received the appointment as postmaster and served in that capacity until his death in 1913. Their daughter, Mary Jacobs Gourdin, assisted him by working in the post office for the entire 15 years of his tenure. Another daughter, Etta Jacobs, served as assistant postmaster under her father, and after his death continued the insurance agency he also ran, renaming it the Etta Jacobs Agency.

During those early years of the 20th century, a number of entrepreneurial, although unnamed, black women set themselves up in business by running outdoor kitchens on vacant lots in town, as well as on the courthouse square.

Women were also well-represented in the world of retail. Anne Marcus ran the women's department of S. Marcus for her husband Saul. Hannah Gale came to Kingstree from Baltimore and opened Gale & Gale millinery, where she designed and sold hats for a number of years before selling the business to the Kennedy family. When Jacob Eron died at age 32, his wife Sadie took over the day-to-day operations of his store, J.S. Eron's, running it very successfully. After her marriage in 1910 to well-known Atlanta violinist David Silverman, the couple lived in Georgia for several years before moving back to Kingstree, where they again engaged in a dry goods business. Many people remember Silverman's department store on Main Street, which was in more recent times owned and managed by Sadie Eron Silverman's younger brother, Isadore Goldstein.

All photos taken in downtown Kingstree from May 10-13, 2018

In a letter to her husband John in March 1776, future First Lady Abigail Adams urged him to "remember the ladies" as he and others went about setting up laws to govern the nation that had just declared its independence from England. We remember the ladies who have gone before us and salute the women of today whose businesses offer a significant contribution toward making Kingstree a better place to live. And, by the way, Cassandra Scott was the lucky winner of the gift basket, and Paul Amann and Justice Johnson won the Downtown Dollars.

Miss Lou's Gift Remains a Town Treasure

Anyone who's ever lived in Kingstree, South Carolina, has no doubt spent time on the banks of Black River at what is still known to many as The Scout Cabin but is officially Gilland Memorial Park. Standing in the park today it is difficult to imagine that in the early part of the 20th century it was called Gilland Spring and was difficult to access.

A park bench on the banks of Black River at Gilland Memorial Park.

Occasionally, groups did go to the spring for events. In 1901, The County Record reported that a wagonload of members of the Kingstree Club had traveled the distance to Gilland Spring to hold a barbecue and fish fry, complete with an ice cold keg of beer. Two years later, the older students of the Kingstree Academy celebrated a Washington's Birthday holiday with a picnic at Gilland Spring.

The spring was originally part of the Thomas Day Singleton plantation which encompassed the northern portion of Academy Street from Williamsburg Presbyterian Church to the house at the head of the street and stretched from what is now the old Kingstree Elementary School to the river. Singleton's granddaughter, Louise Brockinton Gilland, known to all as "Miss Lou," inherited the plantation and by the 1920s she had allowed the Kingstree Boy Scouts to build a little cabin at the springs. In 1927, she agreed that the Scouts, then sponsored by the Kiwanis Club, could build a more substantial cabin there.

A later, undated photo of the Scout Cabin.

Both photos courtesy Williamsburgh Historical Museum

The cabin was used for meetings as well as camping trips. The Florence Morning News of May 14, 1932, noted, "A number of high school girls went on a hike to the Scout Cabin Saturday morning for a breakfast picnic. A crowd of Scouts who had camped at the cabin Friday night participated in the picnic.

Miss Lou's son, Louis Gilland, an attorney and former mayor of Kingstree died, in 1929. In May 1933, she donated five acres, including the area then known as The Scout Cabin, for use as a park. A committee of the Kiwanis Club, which sponsored the park, named it "Louis Gilland Memorial Park."

A marker commemorating the land donation stands in Gilland Park.

Funding for the park was made possible through the New Deal's Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). A story published June 29, 1933, in the Florence Morning News, noted, "The site of the park is a beautiful one at the conjunction of Broad Swamp and Black River where a high bluff has made the spot a famous seineyard from the early history of the county."

The story goes on to explain that up until 1933, the area of the park had been difficult to access except on foot, noting that there was no bridge over the swamp. Using RFC funds, a 30-foot road was constructed "through the virgin forest of the swamp," and a bridge built. F.J. Watson donated the lumber for the bridge, with J.C. Epps cutting the logs at his sawmill.

A fisherman tries his luck in the serene waters of Black River.

Workmen cleared stumps and roots from the park grounds and also cleared the riverbed to make swimming easier. The surrounding swamp was cleared of underbrush and rubbish. The Morning News stated that "two good spring boards with ladders and a big flat have been erected as well as a 50-foot flagpole." Future plans included boring an artesian well, a community house with bath house attached, and an outdoor oven and barbecue pit. They also hoped to hire a permanent superintendent for the park. 

T.W. Gilland, I.V. Campbell, F.J. Watson, and Dr. J.W. Davis were appointed trustees of the park for life, with the Mayor of Kingstree serving for the duration of his term.

Dogs, as well as people, enjoy cooling off in the river on a hot summer day.

In 1958, the Kingstree Rotary Club improved the beach and swimming facilities. James Hinnant, a Rotarian and town council member, supervised the project. A July 5, 1958, Florence Morning News article said, "Tons of earth and rock were hauled to the Black River to build a large groin or dam, stretching high and far into the river. This groin serves to protect the park property from erosion and directs the channel of the river back to its original position after high water."

These improvement also included a wide, white sand beach on the park side of the river and the inclusion of a sandbar near the center for a sunbathing area. The article noted, "Only those who frequented the Black River in the old days can fully appreciate these improvements. Last summer, and for summers before, the beach was on the far side of the river. To get to the sand, the bather had to climb down a steep bank of black dirt and swim or wade through the water."

No matter what season, Gilland Park is a beautiful part of Kingstree.

The current gazebo, playground and picnic facilities were brought to the park in 1988. In 1933, a large sign hung at the entrance to the park, noting Louis Gilland Memorial Park, 1933. The reverse side of the sign stated simply: This park is for your pleasure. Please do not abuse.

Black River Characters

The Williamsburgh Historical Society's 2018 annual meeting, held April 29 at Thorntree House, was full of characters and cake, with four kinds of homemade ice cream and a little business thrown in for good measure.

Williamsburgh Historical Society members and guests at the society's annual meeting.

Guest speaker for the afternoon was Kingstree native Gordon B. "Bubber" Jenkinson, a family court judge and author of several published books of local history, as well as two novels. His most recent project is a book telling the stories of homes and characters associated with Black River and its tributaries, which he hopes to complete writing sometime this year. As part of his research, he said a friend took him to the source of Black River, a little spring just north of Bishopville. From there the river winds through the eastern half of the state until it reaches the sea at Georgetown.

Bubber Jenkinson

During his presentation, Bubber talked about nine characters and localities associated with Black River and its tributaries. One of them who is associated both with Black River and Black Mingo Creek is Capt. Henry Mouzon. Bubber noted that William Willis Boddie in his history of Williamsburg County insisted that Henry Mouzon was the civil engineer who drew the Mouzon map of North and South Carolina, published in 1775. He noted that, contrary to Boddie's assertions, there is no proof that the Henry Mouzon, wounded at the Battle of Black Mingo, was the same man who drew the map. In fact, another Henry Mouzon from Berkeley County is more than likely the mapmaker as there were no surveying tools in the inventory of Capt. Henry Mouzon's estate.

Mouzon was, however, a commander of one of the four companies that formed Gen. Francis Marion's original brigade. And he was wounded so seriously at the Battle of Black Mingo Creek that he saw no further action in the Revolution.

An old ice cream churn surrounded by flowers served as decoration for the annual meeting.

Before the Battle of Black Mingo, however, Henry Mouzon and his family who lived on the Black River Road west of Kingstree suffered at the hands of British Col. Banastre Tarleton and Tory John Coming Ball, when these two men and the soldiers with them burned all 14 buildings on the Mouzon plantation. On June 1, 1911, The County Record published a reprint of the November 1859 obituary of Nancy Mouzon, Henry Mouzon's daughter. Nancy was 11 years old when Tarleton and Ball burned her home, and often throughout her long life repeated her eyewitness account. She was on the roof of the smokehouse spreading bacon to dry when she saw the enemy soldiers approaching. She quickly alerted her father who was at home, giving him time to conceal himself in the swamp to avoid capture. Tarleton and Ball told Mrs. Mouzon they had come to punish Henry for turning against the king. The newspaper noted that the burning of Mouzon's plantation was the first act of atrocity committed by the king in Williamsburg District.

Williamsburgh Historical Society board member Beth Horton listens to 

Bubber Jenkinson's presentation from her seat on the back porch.

Ovid Gilbert, known to all as Frenchy, may be Black River's most well-known character, as the mystery surrounding his 1926 murder has never been solved. An itinerant umbrella repairman, Frenchy visited Kingstree from time to time for 15 years before he settled in a cabin on Black River near the railroad trestle. While considered by many to be a hermit, he often came to town and welcomed fishermen to his riverside camp. On Thanksgiving Day, Warren McCants went to his cabin to invite Frenchy to Thanksgiving dinner with the McCants family. He found the cabin locked, the usually vicious dog gone, and a trail of blood leading to the river. The next day, law enforcement dragged the river, recovering Frenchy's severed head. Bubber Jenkinson noted that his father W.E. Jenkinson, then a teenager, had heard that something was going on at Frenchy's cabin and walked down the railroad tracks, arriving just in time to witness the gruesome recovery of Frenchy's head. A gang of 13 railroad workers was arrested after it was learned they had argued with Frenchy over a string of fish, but when no further evidence surfaced, they were released. In early 1927, another Frenchman, John Groman, who had taken up residence in Frenchy's cabin was charged with his murder, but the solicitor was unable to convince the Grand Jury to indict him. Through the years, many theories have surfaced, but the mystery remains unsolved.

Warren McCants' daughter, Dorthy Jean McCants Mann, a portrait artist,

drew this portrait of Frenchy from memory.

Charles Flint Rhem, born in the Rhems community on Black Mingo Creek, spent 12 years as a pitcher in Major League Baseball, winning 105 games for the St. Louis Carndinals, Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Braves. Named for New York shipbuilder Charles Flint, a close friend of Rhems' father D.D. Rhem, who was associated with the family's Black River and Mingo Steamboat Company, Flint Rhem was called "one of the most capable right-handers in the game" in 1927. But Rhem, who had a serious drinking problem, will be forever remembered for his 1930 kidnapping hoax. St. Louis was in Brooklyn to play the Dodgers with Rhem scheduled to pitch. He never showed up for the game, and when he resurfaced, he had a wild story to tell. He said he had been forced into a car by armed men who took him to a secluded roadhouse in New Jersey where they forced him to drink "terrible stuff." No one believed him, and he soon admitted that he had been drunk, but not kidnapped. Major League shortstop Dick Bartell said, "If he'd ever stayed sober, what a pitcher he could have been!" Rhem retired after 12 years and spent the latter part of his life in Greer, farming on his wife's land. In 2016, he was inducted into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame.

Flint Rhem baseball card.

Bubber Jenkinson also touched on the stories of Charles Woodmason, Capt. John Brockinton, Patrick Dollard, Charles Wesley Wolfe and Hamp McGill, Lakewood Plantation, Ernest Evans, better known as Chubby Checker, and Henry D. Shaw. Bubber began his talk with a quote from travel writer Paul Theroux: Rivers are history made visible. Black River's history is as winding as its literal passage through the state, making for an interesting, and sometimes unexpected, journey.

Churns full of homemade ice cream await members and guests.

Brownies, cake, and cookies were available with the ice cream.

After the presentation, members and guests adjourned to the back porch for ice cream, cake, brownies, and cookies.

Prayer Walk Brings To Mind Local Church Legend

A small group of interested citizens took a walk through Kingstree on Saturday, April 21, stopping along the way to offer prayers for local institutions ranging from government, to business, to education.

Participants in the Prayer Walk gathered at Town Hall at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 21.

The walkers then proceeded down Brooks Street.

At Kingstree Town Hall, Pam Tisdale offered prayers that all local government officials receive guidance in making wise decisions for the residents of Williamsburg County. She also asked for guidance and protection for all law enforcement officers and emergency first responders. The group then proceeded down Brooks Street to the West End Barbershop where Anthony Page prayed for the prosperity of every business in the community, rebuking poverty in the name of Jesus, and requesting that new businesses that can benefit the community be drawn here.

Anthony Page offers prayers for businesses.

Prayers for all educational institutions were offered at the 

Williamsburg County School District Administrative Offices

The group then moved down Brooks Street to Academy, where it turned left and Mike McKenzie prayed for the county's religious community at a point between Kingstree First Baptist Church and Williamsburg Presbyterian Church. He prayed for the churches in the county to come alive in a revival that promotes unity. At the administrative offices of the Williamsburg County School District  on School Street Phyllis Underwood prayed that all educational institutions set high standards, that drugs and violence be banished from schools, and that the halls of each become places of friendship and camaraderie.

Residents of Kingstree have long believed in the power of the Almighty to protect the town. In an article published in the November 19, 1933, issue of the Charleston News & Courier, local correspondent Laura C. Hemingway wrote that it had long been a legend in Kingstree that the early settlers built churches at the three entrances to guard the town from the devil. "Some of the older citizens of the town still remember having heard their forbears declare Kingstree had built a church at each entrance to the town in order to keep Satan from entering," she wrote.

The Presbyterians formed a congregation on July 2, 1736 and had secured land from Roger Gordon on which to build a church by 1738. That church, known as the Williamsburg Meeting House, sat in what is now the Williamsburg Cemetery on the eastern edge of the Town of Kingstree. The original church, a log structure, was replaced by a more substantial building in 1746, which was doubled in size in 1770. According to W.W. Boddie, it was the largest building in town until the American Revolution. The church moved to Academy street in 1890, where the congregation met in a frame building until a new, brick church, still in use, was constructed in 1913.

The first Williamsburg Meeting House was situated in what is today

the Williamsburg Cemetery, facing east.

The 1890 Williamsburg Presbyterian Church on Academy Street.

Williamsburgh Historical Museum

Just as the Presbyterian meeting house was built on the extreme eastern edge of town, the first Baptist church was built on the extreme western edge. The lot deeded to the trustees of the Baptist Church by William Staggers for $10 was considered the prettiest in town, sitting on the high bluff overlooking Black River not far from the spot marked by the original King's Tree. The church they constructed there served the congregation until February 16, 1875, when the congregation moved to a little frame church it constructed on a lot it bought from R.C. Logan, also on Academy Street. The Baptists built a brick church in 1913, which they used until a newer church was built in the 1980s. 

The site of the first Baptist Church in Kingstree was once on a high bluff above Black River.

The bluff was cut down to make vehicular access to the bridge easier.

The 1913 First Baptist Church on Academy St. 

as it was undergoing demolition several years ago.

The Methodist Church was built on what is now the corner of Academy and Church streets at what was in the 1850s the northern edge of the town limits. On January 31, 1853, Alexander Isaac McKnight donated a lot on the corner of what was then Academy and Second streets to the Methodists. Before that time, the Methodists held services at the Williamsburg County Courthouse. The church built on the lot by Benjamin R. Pendergrass, largely from his own resources, was dedicated in 1857. This building was renovated in 1876, but by 1911, the congregation had risen in number to 270 and had outgrown the building. 

The site of Kingstree Methodist Church on Academy Street as it looks today.

The Methodist Church for which the cornerstone was laid in 1911.

 Williamsburgh Historical Museum

On May 15, 1911, the church celebrated the laying of the cornerstone for a new building. One hundred and fifty Masons from throughout the state participated in the ceremony in which the silver trowel used to lay the cornerstone was the same one presented to the Marquis de Lafayette in 1825 when the deKalb monument was erected in Camden. The Grand Lodge of South Carolina owned the trowel in 1911. The Methodists worshipped in that building until they moved to the church on Longstreet St., still in use today.

The Rev. William A. Fairy was pastor of the Methodist Church in 1911.

The County Record, August 24, 1911

There were, of course, other churches in town during those years, including the Episcopal chapel on Hampton Avenue, Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church, also on Main Street, and an African-American Baptist Church on the southwest corner of Jackson and Mill streets where postal employees park today.

The April 21 Prayer Walk concluded at Kingstree Seafood on Kelly Street. There, Sister M. Johnna Ciezobka reminded the walkers that we are all God's children and that in order to prosper as a community, we must find unity in diversity. She noted that while railroad tracks often serve as dividing lines of socio-economic status in communities, she prefers to see them as seams binding the community together. 

Sister M. Johnna Ciezobka of the Felician Sisters prays

in the parking lot of Kingstree Seafood to conclude the Prayer Walk.

All photos by Linda Brown unless otherwise noted

This marked the second year for the Prayer Walk, and at its conclusion Mayor Darren Tisdale announced that it will become an annual event on the third Saturday in April. Earlier Pam Tisdale noted that a prayer team meets twice a month to pray for the community.