On a June afternoon, local surveyor Kevin Wilson and museum director Wendell Voiselle visited the Williamsburg County Library to "do some science." Bobbie McCutchen, who coordinates the children's science programs at the library, invited them to give the young people attending an idea of what land surveyors do and how surveyors' work has changed over the years. In addition, she wanted the children attending to think about what the Town of Kingstree was like in its early years when it was known as Williamsburgh, what it's like now, and to dream about what it could be as the town embarks on a revitalization program through Main Street, South Carolina.
Kevin brought his surveyor's tools to demonstrate, while Wendell brought tools used by another local surveyor, the late J. David Brockington, back when transits and chains were used instead of lasers. The Brockington survey instruments are now on display at the Williamsburgh Historical Museum. In addition, Kevin took the group outside to show them how to identify a property corner.
The girls also looked at maps of the town. One dated 1737, was drawn by Anthony Williams, Deputy Surveyor to His Majesty, the King of England.
The 1737 Anthony Williams map.
Photo Courtesy Bobbie McCutchen
Another map, which appeared in W.W. Boddie's History of Williamsburgh, was drawn in 1923 by Adeline Shuler, presumably for inclusion in the Boddie book, from an 1801 map by Robert Frierson.
Map based on Robert Frierson's 1801 map.
Wendell also brought a map from the museum by surveyor P.G. Gourdin, which shows Kingstree's layout in 1948, complete with property owners' names written on the parcels of land they owned.
Kevin Wilson points out to Tiller Kennedy the property her grandmother now owns,
which in 1948 was owned by the Swains.
It is interesting to see how much you can learn from looking at the various maps of the town. For example, the 1737 map shows a large town square, or muster/parade ground in the center of town. By 1801, that square has disappeared, and the muster ground had shrunk to two lots, the two lots on which the Williamsburg County Courthouse sits today.
Apparently before the 1737 map was drawn, there had been some controversy over the size of the common. From the South Carolina Council Journals, Vol. 1, we read that the Council met on Friday, February 27, 1735/6, and "Read the Petition of Several of the Inhabitants of Williamsburgh setting forth that by an Instruction to them given, they run out 400 acres for a Town and Common and run their Tracts of land bounding on the said 400 acres where they settled, and they being informed there was an Order of enlarging said Common which would take away their Homes and their Lands they have Cleared & prayd a Stop may be put to y'e Same. His Majesty's Council taking the same into Consideration, and being satisfied that the Pet'rs would be great Sufferers if any Alteration was made in the laying out of that Town, and also that the Resolve of Council of the 19th of August last relating to the fixing of the Townships was made after they were settled. Ordered. That upon these Considerations the said Town remain as it was first layd out that none of the Settlers Lands may be Encroached upon."
The 1737 map and the 1801 map, which show numbered lots make it appear that the town was well-populated, and in so doing, are misleading. Another map from Boddie's History that I find fascinating is a sketch by someone named Fulton taken from an original 1788 map.
Sketch of the 1788 map of Williamsburgh.
This map dramatically shows how sparsely populated the town was almost 60 years after its settlement. Boddie notes that the King had decreed that each settler receive a one-half acre town lot and acreage outside the town based on the number of persons in the family, on which they were to grow their food. In New England this had worked well as settlements quickly grew up, serving as a defense for the more heavily populated coastal areas from Native American tribes. However, those stubborn Scots-Irish who settled Williamsburgh did not conform to the pattern. Instead of building their homes in town, they built on their farmland and ignored the town lots.
According to Boddie and the 1788 map, there were five small buildings, all less than 20'x20', in what we consider downtown Kingstree today. Two were located near the northeast corner of Main and Academy Streets. William Bracey lived in one of the buildings and operated a store from the other in which he sold whiskey, gun powder, and shot, the only things available for sale year round.
On the other side of Broad Street (Main), there were three little buildings. Patrick Cormick lived in one, located where the Williamsburg County Public Administration building is. He, too, had a small store near his home that he operated. John Bracy lived in the third building which was either on or very near the muster grounds.
While Anderson Brothers Bank currently occupies the property once known as
the James Davidson settlement, another well-known house, the Harper House, shown here,
was once located on the property.
Photo Courtesy Williamsburgh Historical Museum
Outside town, the James Davidson settlement was located where Anderson Brothers Bank is now, and Boddie says it "contained one of the most pretentious mansion houses in the district." Another cleared area near the town was a race track, located on the Fulton sketch in the vicinity of the old Kingstree Elementary School where Academy and Kelley streets now intersect. A lot belonging to the Church of England had also been cleared of its pine trees.
The 1788 map also clearly shows the Kingstree Branch (now known as the Canal) winding through town with a dam at its northern end.
Concern that the town was almost uninhabited instigated a call in 1788 for the entire town to be resurveyed and a committee established to assign lots to all who claimed they had an allotment and to sell all lots that were not claimed. By April 1789, 63 lots had been claimed, with another 25 lots sold. By June, another 40 lots had been sold.
However, in 1791, Robert Witherspoon and John McClary were hired to re-survey and stake every lot in town as the old stakes had either fallen down or disappeared. In 1801, the commission hired Robert Frierson to survey the Town of Williamsburgh at the King's Tree. From that map, we learn that Main Street was known as Broad; Mill as Washington; Church as Adams; and Brooks as Jefferson. Academy Street with Fourth Street, later, according to Boddie, known as Bay Street. In the 1890s, Academy was also called Wall Street by some.
The muster ground was located on the lots on which the
Williamsburg County Courthouse stands today.
In 1800, T.T. Woods was hired to lay out the muster ground and found that John Brady had built his house on the property set aside for it. Boddie notes that in 1805, the Commission appointed Arthur Cunningham, its secretary/treasurer, agent to file suit against Woods for conspiracy. Woods had been clerk to the Commission, and Boddie does not make it clear if the suit against him was in that capacity or due to some problem with his lay-out of the muster ground.
By 1806, the town had been surveyed and re-surveyed many times. Theodore Gourdin and John Scott obtained a restraining order from the court regarding the boundary lines of the town. A committee was appointed to have the boundaries confirmed by the courts. Finally in 1810, the committee fined several people for planting crops in the public streets. At that time, the committee also passed a resolution to maintain Broad Street as the center street for the town and on no account for it to be changed thereafter.
Eventually the town took on the shape we know today and expanded both to the east and to the north, but those are stories for another time.
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