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.
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