Carolina Rambling Meets Royal Town Rambles

McClellanville residents Bud Hill and Billy Baldwin talked about and signed copies of Carolina Rambling, their new book of photographs and poetry at the Williamsburgh Historical Museum last Saturday afternoon. Many of the photographs in the book are of Williamsburg County scenes.

Billy Baldwin (left) and Bud Hill wait for the program to start.

This is the third book Bud, who is director emeritus of the Village Museum in McClellanville, and his cousin Billy, a poet and author with numerous books to his credit, have published together. The first two, The Unpainted South and These Our Offerings, were both Benjamin Franklin Award winners. The Benjamin Franklin Award celebrates excellence in independent publishing.

The books are a result of the two's habit of several days a week heading out on the road, sometimes in a direction they've never been before and sometimes as Bud describes, "Billy will drag me to a place he's written a poem about so that I can take a photo."

Bud Hill recounts an adventure he and Billy Baldwin encountered while gathering material.

Saturday, with much good-natured razzing of each other, they described their adventures, and misadventures, to an appreciative audience. Bud noted that while they are often met with suspicion by people they encounter in their travels, once he explains that he's photographing old landmarks like churches, barns, and general stores, "they are so generous with the history of their communities." Being from McClellanville doesn't hurt, either, as he said people warm up to them when they find out where they're from because "everyone seems to love McClellanville."

The audience listens to Bud Hill recount tales of their travels.

As the two like finding old country stores, churches, tobacco barns and other buildings from the past, it seems particularly fitting that they gave their presentation in a building that had the day before, on June 22, celebrated its 101st birthday.

Kingstree residents met at the Main Street home of Louis Jacobs in May 1900 to discuss establishing a circulating library for the town. They formed the Williamsburg County Library Association which met monthly for awhile but made no real progress toward meeting their goal. Within a few years, with the building of the Kingstree Graded and High School, the push began to establish a good school library, and fundraisers were often held to buy more books for that library.

However, in 1915, citizens circulated a petition, gathering enough signatures to call for a vote on the construction of a public library, the cost not to exceed $7,500 with the town committed to an annual contribution of $750 for its maintenance. Shortly thereafter, Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Corporation offered $6,000 to the town to build a library if the town would guarantee annual support of $600 and provide a site for the building. In an election, held on June 22, 1915, the referendum to build the library passed by a vote of 50-14.

The State newspaper of June 26, 1915, noted, "The Town of Kingstree owns a beautiful site for the proposed library at the corner of Mill Street and Hampton Avenue, the old public school site, which it is thought will be donated for the library site."

The town opened bids for the project on January 21, 1916, awarding the project to Grandy & Sons of Sumter for a bid amount of $5,150. Grandy & Sons was well-known in town for building the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church and re-modeling the Wee Nee Bank.

The Library Commission and the Civic Club joined forces to form the Civic and Library Commission to oversee the outfitting of the new library. On Friday evening, June 22, 1917, the doors of the library were thrown open for the first time for a grand opening and library "shower." A large number of citizens attended, each bringing a book or set of books to start the library's collection. Local attorney, Capt. John A. Kelley, presented the library with a set of Encyclopedia Britannica. Two large library tables were filled with book offerings before the evening ended. At either end of the library, ladies served punch and cake to the crowd. Agness Erckmann, who had taught first grade in Kingstree for many years, became the new librarian.

At the time of its opening, the upstairs was used as the library, and in February, 1918, the Red Cross opened a work room in the basement. The work room was open Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of each week for ladies to knit socks and sweaters or to sew pajamas. The sewing machines, tables, and chairs used to outfit the work room were all donated for the Red Cross to use. On April 10, 1918, 25 pairs of knitted socks, 20 sweaters, 72 pairs of bed socks, and 62 pairs of pajamas were shipped from the Kingstree Red Cross work room to help in the war effort.

The building continued to serve as the Williamsburg County Library until 2000 when a new library was built on Jackson Street, and the old library became the home of the Williamsburgh Museum.

One hundred and one years and one day after the library's opening, the board of the Williamsburgh Historical Society also served cake and punch to those attending the book-signing. In closing his remarks, Bud Hill noted that old landmarks like general stores, churches, tobacco barns, and service stations are disappearing at an accelerating rate. People "don't put a lot of value in things not being used anymore," he said. "South Carolina is changing," he added, "and I think it is important for future generations to see what was here." 

Kingstree can be thankful that its old library is still lovingly used in the service of reminding all of us of the important ways the past continues to influence the present and shape the future.

Williamsburgh Museum Director Wendell Voiselle will have copies of Carolina Rambling for sale at the museum for anyone who missed the book-signing. The museum's hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. 

Three Priorities

The Main Street Kingstree Committee chose three priorities to begin its journey toward revitalizing the town at a meeting June 7. Beppie Legrand, Main Street, South Carolina Manager, who will retire at the end of the month, led the discussion, assisted by her successor Jenny Boulware. The committee believes the town can meet one of the goals within a year. Another goal will require an ongoing commitment, while the third will need a number of years to bring to fruition.

The large, multi-year priority is working to position Black River to "become one of the South's premier destinations for outdoor recreation." Beppie reiterated a recommendation from the baseline assessment that the town pursue a master plan for integrating the river into the fabric of downtown Kingstree. The committee came up with a list of activities and businesses that it would like to see promoted for the river, including fishing, duck hunting, a bait and tackle shop, kayaking, picnicking, more access points in or near town, cruises on the river, quiet places for writing and reflection, a campground, nature trail, paddle boats, a restaurant that fronts on the river, wildlife education associated with the river, and river guides for tourists who might want to explore the river but are uneasy about going it alone.

While discussing the river, the committee agreed that the biggest drawback is the periodic flooding which shuts down Gilland Park and acts as a deterrent to entrepreneurs who might consider a business associated with the river. Cleaning and dredging the river could help with the flooding, but this has not been a priority for the Army Corps of Engineers, although the Corps has recently announced that it will clean out the canal downtown at no cost to the Town of Kingstree. However, Williamsburg County does have money that comes from gas tax, prorated to counties based on the number of boats registered with the state, that is earmarked for cleaning up water resources. Mayor Darren Tisdale said he would speak with county officials about the possibility of using this money as a start to the project.

We've all wondered, I'm sure, how the town of Kingstree grew up on the banks of Black River without more fully developing the river's potential. The flooding, which has long occurred, probably had much to do with that. Back in the 1890s, the road,  now Highway 52/261 over the swamp, was flooded for an extended period, making it impassable, and causing the citizens of Greeleyville to lobby for a train from there to Lane to Kingstree, or they would consider leaving Williamsburg County for Clarendon as it was difficult for them to get to the county seat to pay their taxes.

But there were those who promoted the river and made a living from it. Conrad Constine hauled timber down the river on his boats, The Mercedes, The Wanderer, and The Mary Swann. He also carried many groups of picnickers and sight-seers both up and down the river, often to the railroad trestle or to the picnic grounds at the Lower Bridge. The Mercedes was described in The County Record in April 1907 as a 32-foot long, 8-foot wide flatboat with a 10 horsepower motor mounted to it. Its inaugural trip was on April 25, 1907, when Constine carried 27 people to the railroad trestle and back. The Williamsburgh Museum has compiled his letters to the editor of the newspaper into a book: Poor Conrad: Tales from a River Rat, which it offers for sale.

And because we never saw it, we often tend to forget that Philip Boone Thorn owned and operated his Black River Cypress Mill on the river where the Mill Street landing is today. In fact, Mill Street owes its name to this enterprise. In 1897, the mill contained 12,030 feet of floor space and the lumberyard occupied two acres. Two engines were operating, and he had large boilers fitted with blowers, enabling him to use the sawdust generated from the mill as fuel for the engines. He was using a 60-inch circular saw, as well as a smaller saw, and had a 66-inch blade on order. The mill cut 12,000-15,000 feet of lumber a day and turned out 12,000 to 18,000 cypress shingles a day. In October 1897, he had 4,000 logs in what the townspeople called the "old river" and which he used as a log pen.

The 1908 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Thorn's Mill. 

Note that Longstreet was then Buzzard's Roost.

The possibility of making the river navigable by large boats all the way from Kingstree to Georgetown intrigued Kingstree Hardware manager W.H. Carr. This became one of Carr's pet projects as he envisioned steamboats navigating the river as far as the Main Street bridge. He attended at least one conference in Washington and finally persuaded the government to send a civil engineer to look at the feasibility of dredging the river. The report nixed the idea, stating that the river had too many twists and bends in it to make this a profitable venture.

The Main Street Committee's priority that carries an ongoing commitment is to seek permission from the owners of empty downtown buildings to allow the committee to clean the windows and spruce up around the fronts of the building by sweeping up debris and attempting to add a little "sparkle and shine" to downtown.

This, too, has been an area of concern for many, many years. Way back in 1912, the Civic League discussed with newly-elected Mayor L. Percy Kinder the importance of enforcing an ordinance that required merchants to be responsible for their premises and the sidewalks in front of them. The ladies of Kingstree had formed the Civic League in an attempt to help beautify the town and make it a place where people wanted to shop and live. Exasperated that the town seemed unable to keep the streets clean, they finally installed zinc trash cans with covers and hired a man to clean the streets on a regular basis. They just as quickly fired him when he didn't work to their standards, noting that they would not squander the league's resources to pay for substandard work, especially when it was work for which the town should be responsible.

The third priority, which the committee believes can be accomplished within the next year is having a colorful mural painted on a wall of one of the buildings downtown. The committee has on several occasions discussed this possibility, and while neither the subject matter nor the location has been nailed down, the project has been enthusiastically embraced by committee members. There are several walls in the downtown area which could easily showcase such a mural. This, too, is not a new idea. Many will remember the Francis Marion mural, designed by the late Peggy McGill, and painted by locals on the side of the old Cornerstone building on Mill Street. Once the location and subject matter for the new mural are decided and an artist is selected, there will be fundraising efforts to raise money to make this a reality.

New Main Street, South Carolina, Manager Jenny Boulware will soon begin meeting with four committees, formed from the initial committee. All of these committees–organization, economic vitality, promotion, and design–will work on parts of the three priorities to begin setting them in motion. Architect Randy Wilson will also work with the design committee. The priorities are not set in stone and can be changed and tweaked as the town moves forward with its plans.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS:

Thursday, June 21: The Paisley Pearl, 136 North Academy Street, turns three and celebrates with everything in the store 20-percent off from 10-6:30.

Saturday, June 23:  Photographer Bud Hill and poet Billy Baldwin will sign and talk about their new book, Carolina Rambling: A Visual and Poetical Tour, at the Williamsburgh Museum, 135 Hampton Avenue. No admission charge.

Thursday, June 28:  Take a "Sweet Summer Stroll" through downtown Kingstree from 5-8 p.m. Lucky shoppers will win cash and gift prizes. Seven downtown businesses are participating plus Williamsburg Feed and Tack.

Hot Time in the Old Town

The Town of Kingstree, FTC, Duke Energy, Sykes, and the Williamsburg County Tourism Board presented the summer's first Kingstree Live event at the depot June 1. The Palmetto Dance Band provided an evening of beach music and oldies with the added attraction that two of the band's members, Hugh and Marianne Odom, are Salters residents. While not too many people took advantage of the music for dancing, old and young alike had a "hot time in the old town" that Friday night.

Bobby and Beth Jonte had the street to themselves as they danced the evening away.

The Palmetto Dance Band

Street dances and outdoor concerts were not a common occurrence in late 19th and early 20th century Kingstree. Which is not to say that Kingstree residents of that time didn't enjoy a good dance. In fact, from newspaper reports of the day, it seems they had far more stamina than we do today.

Both the Wee Nee Club and the Kingstree Social Club often hosted dances, particularly in conjunction with holidays. Most of them were held at the largest hotel in town, most often at the Coleman House in the 1890s–early 1900s, and at the Kellahan Hotel from 1908 forward. However, during the time after the Coleman House closed and before the Kellahan Hotel was built, dances were held on the second floor above the Farmers Supply Company, or at the Thomas Opera House, which was on the second floor of what is now the Alex Chatman Complex.

Bands for these events were varied with the local Mouzon String Band often providing music in the late 1890s. In the early 1900s, both Metz' Orchestra and the First Artillery Band of Charleston often made appearances at Kingstree dances, but at one Easter Hop, music was provided by a piano and violin duo, and the Boston Italian Orchestra, and the American Realty & Auction Company Band also made appearances.

The festivities usually didn't begin until 8 or 9 p.m. and lasted most often until 2:30 the next morning, with refreshments served around midnight. However the 1911 Easter Dance, held at the Kellahan Hotel with the First Artillery Band, didn't break up until dawn.

They were a drawing card, however, for visitors from other towns. So much so, that a letter to the editor of The County Record, published December 7, 1911, suggested, "The people of Kingstree should cooperate with the young men of the town in giving dances. The dance has proven one of Kingstree's greatest and best-paying advertisements in the past, and if the businesses houses would leave a light burning in the stores and banks on these nights when so many visitors are in town, it would enliven things up a bit and make a very favorable impression on visitors–one that they would take home with them."

The 1920s and '30s saw weekly dances at both Boswell's Beach and Wee Nee Beach, but that's a story for another time.

Cornhole competitions were ongoing throughout the evening.

Children and adults could get their faces or their knees painted.

Over the years there were also activities on the streets of Kingstree, mostly in the form of carnivals and circus parades. Some of them were well received by the town; others less so. In December 1908, the Kingstree Fire Department sponsored Smith's Greater Shows. It was widely believed that this was the first true carnival to come to town. Residents were surprised by how large it was and that it carried its own supply of electricity. The County Record noted, "For the first time in its history, Kingstree is lit up with electricity." The carnival also erected an old-fashioned merry-go-round and an ocean-wave carousel on the streets. The fire department received $159.34 as its cut of the proceeds.

On another occasion, they did not fare as well. The St. Louis Amusement Company also promised the "fire laddies" as they were then called, a cut of the proceeds. They did get $90, but the newspaper said there was much grumbling about town that the carnival surely had made more money than that as they had at the last minute raised the price of admission for Friday night. The paper also complained that the carnival left the streets of Kingstree dirtier than they had been in a long time.

On a hot night, shaved ice makes a lot of people happy.

As darkness deepened, the twinkly lights turned the street to fairyland.

On October 22, 1910, John Robinson's four-ring circus brought Kingstree a large crowd. The crowd on hand to witness the 10 a.m. circus parade through the streets of the old town was estimated at 7,000. The circus sold 4,500 tickets for the 2 p.m performance. Robinson's was billed as America's oldest circus, and it had been coming to Kingstree for 50 years by 1910.

From our vantage point, it's hard to realize the impact roller skating had on communities all across the country from the nineteen-teens until the early 1940s. As early as 1916, Kingstree tried to ban children from roller skating on the streets. But parents argued that as skating was such a major part of their children's lives, the prohibition should only apply to downtown streets. 

Apparently, town council realized that skating was here to stay and for several years closed Hampton Avenue from Brooks Street to Main Street every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon so that children could use the street for skating.

This didn't stop children from skating at other times, including well after dark, which gave the town council no end of heartburn. But as young people started holding skating parties, and children''s birthday parties included roller skating on the sidewalk, the council resigned itself to the fact that they could not easily regulate skaters. However, they again tried in 1930 to ban skating after drivers complained that daredevils were swinging on to their cars, leaving the drivers in fear that they were going to run over a skater. 

Keeping time to the music.

But by 1933, skating parties, some sponsored by a ladies circle at the Methodist Church and some by the school PTA, were held on the block of Hampton Avenue from Mill Street to the railroad. The Margaret Speigner Circle sponsored the town's first skating carnival on Feb. 3, 1933, with prizes given for fancy skating by both elementary and high school students. Jane Nesmith won the elementary prize with Charlie Cook taking the high school honors. The town eventually again blocked Hampton on Friday afternoons for children to skate and play marbles. Those Friday afternoon and evenings were some of my own father's favorite memories, as he talked often about the fun he and Matthew Gardner had skating and playing marbles on the blocked-off street with side trips to the town's livery stable on Mill Street to visit the Clydesdales that pulled the town's trash wagon.

If you missed out on the fun at the June 1 Kingstree Live, two more are scheduled this summer. The next will be July 13 and on August 10, there'll be a Back-To-School Blast.

Monuments of Stone

"Cemeteries hold the stories of the people who lived in the past....

people who have shaped our past."

Audrey Bierhans

McClary Cemetery was begun by John McClary.

The Williamsburgh Historical Society sponsored a cemetery/graveyard tour, "Monuments of Stone," on Sunday afternoon, May 20. Two cemeteries and two graveyards in the area we know as Cedar Swamp but our ancestors knew as Benson were on the tour. 

Over the course of the afternoon I realized that cemeteries hold much more than the bones of the departed. They can, as any genealogist will tell you, fill in blanks on a family tree. But they can also help you learn more about the history of a community, in some instances tell you something just from looking at the tombstone of the person buried there, bring back wonderful childhood memories that have grown hazy, and remind you of legendary figures from the not-too-distance past. I experienced all that May 20.

Tombstone of John McClary (1760-1833) stands among

those of his three wives in the cemetery he established.

At McClary Cemetery on Simms Reach Road, I stood at the grave of John McClary and thought about the contributions he made to the Town of Kingstree. He, along with John Witherspoon, was chosen to lay off and stake every lot in the town of Williamsburgh (now Kingstree) in late 1791 and probably on in to early 1792 as the original stakes had all fallen down. In 1801, he was among those appointed to a committee to oversee the complete resurveying of the town.

Perhaps his most important contribution, though, was that of peacemaker between the Williamsburg Presbyterian and Bethel Presbyterian congregations. The Williamsburg Church, founded in 1736, worshipped in a building in what is now the Williamsburg Cemetery. In 1783, the church employed the Rev. Samuel Kennedy for a term of three years. At that time there were two factions in the church, one that held to the ancient Presbyterian doctrine of Scotland and one that leaned more toward the teachings of John Calvin and John Knox. At the end of the Rev. Kennedy's three years, those who held to the ancient doctrine and were in the majority chose to retain his services while the Calvin/Knox supporters declared that he denied the divinity of Jesus and that as his sermons profaned the sanctuary their fathers had built, they withdrew from the church and built for themselves a church about 50 yards away from the old church. At that time they, as well as the original congregation, called themselves the Williamsburg Church. According to W.W. Boddie, the two congregations held services at the same time each week and because of the close proximity of the two buildings could easily hear what was going on in the other church. "When the congregation in one of these churches began to pray, the other would immediately begin to sing an old familiar hymn," he wrote. 

The animosities became so great that on a hot August night in 1786, members of the Calvin/Knox group, using 100 slaves, tore the original church down, removing even its foundations. They hid the pulpit in Samuel McClelland's hay loft three miles out in the country. The aggrieved church took its case to court where those who had torn down their building were forced to pay damages. With those proceeds the congregation immediately rebuilt.

In 1803, the group that had broken away became known as the Bethel Church and built themselves a sanctuary one mile east of the courthouse on the north side of the road leading from Kingstree to Cedar Swamp. From 1786 until 1828, only John McClary was held in esteem by both congregations. He was a member of both congregations and a ruling elder in each. After 42 years of animosity, he was able to convince the two groups to come together to hear a sermon at the Williamsburg Church on June 15, 1828. After the sermon, Mr. McClary presided over a vote for re-unification which unanimously brought the two churches back together.

An historical marker was erected at McClary Cemetery in 2010.

The graveyard at Cedar Grove Baptist Church.

The graveyard at Cedar Grove Baptist Church on Big Woods Road has some older graves, but it brought back more contemporary memories for me. I knew Ernest Haddock, Jr., as a registered land surveyor in the 1980s when I worked in the County Auditor's Office. He was quiet, almost shy, when he came into the office, but he had a number of interests. I knew he was interested in trains and that he was a talented artist. His tombstone, I noticed, tells anyone who takes the time to look a little bit about his interests. There is a train, pine boughs presumably to note a love for the outdoors, and a line of music. I never knew until I read his obituary in 2008 that he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army and that he had taught Civil Engineering at Mississippi State before moving back to Kingstree to work as a surveyor.

Ernest Haddock, Jr.'s tombstone gives a glimpse at his interests in life.

Cedar Grove Baptist Church

I wonder if everyone on the cemetery tour didn't stop at some point during the afternoon in front of the grave of a person who triggered a cascade of happy memories from an earlier time that were now growing a bit dim until seeing the name brought them back. For me, that happened in the Cedar Swamp Methodist Church graveyard as I happened upon the grave of Carroll E. Gordon. When I was a little girl, Mr. Carroll was the proprietor of Gordon's Little Grocery on Main Street. Back in those simpler times, my mother called him once a week to place an order for the meat she would need for the coming week because she believed he had the best meat in town. Later in the day, I would see his old car chugging up to our house as he made his deliveries. And every week–every. single. week.–on top of the meat in the big brown bag would be a small paper sack full of candy just for me. For all I know Mr. Gordon may have done that for all the children of his regular customers, but back then, it made me feel like the most special little girl in the world. Such a simple kindness; such a lasting memory.

Carroll E. Gordon (1891-1967)

An old oak tree shades graves in the Cedar Swamp Methodist Graveyard.

The Cedar Swamp Methodist graveyard with the church in the background.

At the Tisdale Cemetery on Cemetery Road you can find the grave of one of Kingstree's legendary citizens. James Ridgeway's tombstone may read "Cooper Jack," but he was Coobie Jack, sometimes spelled "Cooby," and to some people "Coopie," to everyone who knew him, and that would have been everyone in Kingstree and probably in Lake City, too. The stories of Coobie Jack are legendary, particularly the one in which he is said to have approached town employees digging a hole in the middle of the street to ask what they were doing. When he was told they were digging a hole to throw all the fools in town in, he pondered that for a few minutes before asking, "Who's going to cover it up?" 

The tombstone of James Ridgeway, known to all as Coobie Jack.

Coobie Jack was a regular visitor in the Williamsburg County Auditor's office when Noot Montgomery was auditor. I remember two of those visits with great clarity. Each time he came to visit, he'd eventually get around to saying, "Moot, gimme a dollar." And, Noot would reach in his pocket and give him a dollar. However, on one memorable occasion, Noot was engrossed in some county business when Coobie Jack arrived. As he made his famous pitch, Noot reached in his pocket, pulled out a bill and handed it to him without breaking his concentration. All of us in the room jumped when Coobie Jack began hopping up and down and proclaiming at the top of his lungs, "Moot gonna have a heart attack." It took us a few minutes to realize that "Moot" might have a heart attack because instead of a one dollar bill, he had handed Coobie Jack a twenty. After dancing around for a few minutes Cobbie Jack was more than happy to return the $20 for his usual $1 bill. But we could hear him telling the story in other offices as he made his way down the hall.

The gazebo at Tisdale cemetery.

On another occasion, Coobie Jack had come in out of the heat and was in no hurry to depart. He was standing at the high drafting table Noot used as a desk, idly flipping through an American Legion magazine, when he stopped and pointed at something on the page. "Moot, get me this," he commanded. Noot looked at the page and laughed, telling him he believed that was a little bit beyond what he could do. It turned out that a picture of the Congressional Medal of Honor had grabbed Coobie Jack's attention.

Tisdale Cemetery sign.

An afternoon spent in four cemeteries makes you realize that life is short. It also made me wonder: What stories will they tell about us when we're gone?