Kingstree Marks Anniversary

The Town of Kingstree marks an anniversary this week. On Friday, July 12, 1912, contractors handed over the reins of the town's new municipal water system to the three men elected as Water & Sewer Commissioners, LeRoy Lee, W.H. Carr and D.J. Epps. The sewer system went online 10 days later on July 22, after a delay, as the contractor had to wait on rocks to arrive so he could finish lining the drain field.

For the first 160 years of the town's existence, residents and businesses were pretty much on their own in how they provided water and waste removal for themselves. In the early 1890s, the town dug two continuous-flow artesian wells for public use. By 1897, County Record owner and editor Louis Bristow noted, "With two good continuous-flow artesian wells in town, Kingstree is well-supplied with pure drinking water..."

Over the years, town council made improvements to those wells and added others, and as residents began to build large homes, some of them found means to provide running water on their property. The first public building to get running water was the county jail in 1897. Barr's Hotel, located next door to the courthouse where the Alex Chatman Complex is today, added running water in 1898. The newspaper noted, "a commodious bathroom has been added and either hot or cold water is available anytime night or day." When the Kellahan Hotel was built across Main Street from the site of Barr's old hotel in 1907, it was equipped from the start with electricity and running water. The 475-foot well drilled behind the hotel for its use was the deepest in town at that time and produced the largest flow of water. The jail's water system, however, had ceased working by 1906, and it was not until 1908 that Kingstree Hardware won the bid to install waterworks for both the courthouse and the jail.

One of the public flowing wells. This one was located at the intersection of 

Academy and Kelley streets.

Photo courtesy Williamsburgh Historical Museum

Some of the public wells produced too much of a good thing. The well located at the Baptist Church on the corner of Academy and Brooks street, produced so much water that the town had to dig a ditch to funnel the excess to the river.

By 1905, some townspeople and The County Record began lobbying for a townwide water and sewer system. In 1907, the town appointed a committee to conduct a feasibility study. However, by the end of the year, nothing had been done, and the town council summarily fired the committee. In late 1910, the town seriously began considering a public water and sewer system, and in September 1911, voters went to the polls to decide whether or not to float bond issues for these two utilities. They voted 64-23 in favor of a $28,000 water bond, and 67-22 in favor of a $14,000 bond to install a sewer system.

By December 1911, Meeks Construction Company of Atlanta had secured the contract for both systems, and work began in early January 1912.  By June 10, the company turned on the water to test both the lines and the fire hydrants. Forty years ago, Livingston McFarlin spent an election evening telling me, a young cub reporter covering her first election night, stories about life in Kingstree in the early part of the 20th century. Mr. Livingston was nine years old that summer of 1912, and he claimed he was allowed to take the first taste of the water from the new system. Laughing heartily and slapping his knee, he said those many years later, "They thought that if it didn't kill the little colored boy, it would be safe for them to drink." Mr. Livingston died July 12, 1981, 69 years to the day the water was turned on for good in Kingstree.

In 1971, Bessie Swann Britton wrote about the installation of water and sewer lines in Kingstree. She began, "Long ago, a crew of happy-go-lucky laborers known as traveling roustabouts installed the first system of waterworks in Kingstree. Those powerful young men seemed to radiate good health. They worked long hours digging ditches and laying sewer pipes, installing a septic tank, and erecting a storage tank for the town's reserve supply of water. It stood high in the air near the police station on Mill Street. Stationary steel ladders reached from the ground to a narrow platform around the tank, and there was a single guardrail around the platform. 'Kingstree, SC,' was painted in large white letters on the dark tank, which was not as big as the one now on the same spot."

The water tank Bessie Britton referred to as the one standing in 1971, 

moments before it was demolished in the mid-1990s.

Photos Courtesy Williamsburgh Historical Museum

She went on to tell that once the water tank was completed, the crew chose to throw themselves a farewell party on the platform surrounding the tank. "Two played leapfrog around and around the platform; one pretended to skin the cat on the guardrail, while the others raised their voices in Sweet Adeline," she noted. Meanwhile, they all imbibed freely of alcoholic libations. They continued to sing, going through Who Threw the Overalls in Mistress Murphy's Chowder?; The Railroad Rag, Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye; The Girl I Left Behind Me, which they changed to The Girls We Left Behind Us; and a rousing rendition of Dixie, before the lone policeman on duty arrived on the scene and shouted impatiently for them to cease and desist. He was greeted by one of the men standing on his hands and waving his feet furiously in the air. The policeman's response was to head off to consult with Mayor Percy Kinder. In the end, the roustabouts came down when they were good and ready, and as Miss Bessie concluded, "Nobody got hurt. Nobody got arrested. Nobody got sued, and nobody got conked."

I haven't been able to find any source that confirms this tale, and it is doubtful that Bessie Swann was an eyewitness–unless she was home for a weekend–as she was working as a stenographer in Clemson during the summer and early fall of 1912. But it sure does make for a good story.

W.H. Carr was the first citizen to run city water to his home, and F.W. Fairey, who was building a home on Academy Street at the time, was the first to tap on at the town's expense after going through the necessary procedures.

G.S. Chu, known as The Chinese Laundryman, advertised within weeks of the water system going into service: "I found in impossible to do good work with the well water at my place so have connected my laundry with the city water system and have every facility for doing good work. Send me your shirts, collars, and cuffs, and I will give you satisfaction."

By the early 1950s, town water customers were using 350,000 gallons of water a day, except during the hottest part of the summer when consumption jumped to 500,000 gallons. The system had expanded to seven wells placed throughout town, but by the 1970s, only four wells were in use.

The town continued to boast about the quality of the water. In 1955, children in Kingstree participated in a study, which compared them to children in Bishopville. Kingstree's water had a supply of natural fluoride, while Bishopville's had none. Children, ages 6-16, who had lived all their lives in Kingstree had teeth that were in astonishingly better condition than those in Bishopville. Sixty point nine percent of children, aged 6-16, who had lived all their lives in Kingstree had no decayed, missing, or filled teeth, compared to only 19.2 percent of children the same age who had lived all their lives in Bishopville.

So tomorrow raise a glass of Kingstree water in a toast to 106 years of continuous water/wastewater service and salute the men and women who have in the past and continue today to provide us with a utility we all too often take for granted.

DON'T FORGET:

JULY 13:  KINGSTREE LIVE AT THE DEPOT,  7-10 p.m., Music by Charlie Floyd. Food trucks, snow cones, face painting, corn hole.

JULY 14:  BOOK SIGNING, WILLIAMSBURGH MUSEUM, 5-6 p.m.  Sherman Carmichael will be signing his latest book, Mysterious Tales of Coastal North Carolina. Free Admission, Light Refreshments.

AUGUST 10:  KINGSTREE LIVE AT THE DEPOT, 7-10 p.m., Back-to-School Bash. Music by The Band Punch. Food Trucks, Free Snow Cones, Face Painting.