Tobacco: The Early Years

July 20, 1909. Although it's mid-morning, downtown Kingstree is strangely quiet. Strange because it's a Tuesday in the middle of summer. However, not far outside the city limits, wagons loaded with cured tobacco are making their way to one of two warehouses that will today oversee the first tobacco auctions ever held in Williamsburg County. It's a banner day for Kingstree, and downtown stores have closed for the morning so that everyone can attend the sales at the Banner and Farmers Warehouses, both located on what is now Third Avenue on the property now home to Kingstree Junior High School.

Someone could well write a book about the history of tobacco in Williamsburg County. Today, we'll look at the very early years of the growth and sale of the "golden weed" in Kingstree. Farmers in Williamsburg County first began looking at tobacco as an alternative to cotton in 1895. Even at that early date, there was talk of building a warehouse in Kingstree.

Former Williamsburg County Sheriff Joseph E. Brockinton led the charge on tobacco culture. On June 17, 1895, he had already cured his first barn of tobacco. This was believed to be the earliest tobacco ever cured anywhere in the United States. Brockinton laid claim to the development of a new method of curing tobacco by using a furnace instead of the traditional flues. With his method, he said he could direct the heat at an even temperature for 10 to 12 hours. That year he gathered 1750 pounds of tobacco from one acre, which he sold for $326.

In 1900, the high prices offered for cotton drove down the number of acres of tobacco planted in Williamsburg County, but a poor cotton crop in 1901 again heightened interest in tobacco culture. That year P.B. Thorn grew tobacco on acreage he owned in the town of Kingstree. In 1903, talk of building a tobacco warehouse in Kingstree was renewed. But it was not until October 1908 that Kingstree residents formed the Kingstree Tobacco Warehouse Company in order to sell stock to raise money for building a warehouse. They raised enough to construct two warehouses on the property just outside town, now Third Ave.

Construction began on the two 60'x150' warehouses in March. It was noted as a point of pride that neither warehouse had any columns, leaving lots of open space to hold the cured tobacco. By June, the warehouses were completed, and J.G. Slaughter, D.J. Epps, and W.P. Baller had leased the Banner Warehouse, with W.K. McIntosh and J. Moore leasing the Farmers Warehouse. That first year, the Kingstree tobacco market sold $1.5 million worth of tobacco, and the Kingstree Tobacco Warehouse Company was able to declare an 8-percent dividend at the end of the year.

By 1911, Kingstree had three warehouses. W. Koger McIntosh continued to lease and operate a warehouse here, but after the season ended in October, he spent the rest of the autumn in Clarksville, Virginia, where he ran a warehouse on their tobacco market.

In 1912, The Kingstree Tobacco Warehouse Company moved its operations downtown. They tore down one of the old warehouses and used the material to built a new warehouse on Hampton Avenue, where the Williamsburgh Museum Annex is today. It was to be called Gorrell's Warehouse, as three men from North Carolina, two of them Gorrells, had leased it for the season. The Central Warehouse was located across the street on the corner of Hampton Avenue and Mill Street. Nelson's Warehouse was on the railroad track where Family Dollar is located today. Opening day of the market was July 11, and that evening D.J. Epps entertained the out-of-town tobaccomen who would be Kingstree for the summer with one of his famous pine bark stews at Nelson's Warehouse.

Gorrell's Warehouse on Hampton Ave in 1913.

The summer of 1912 saw the old Kingstree Board of Trade rejuvenated as the Kingstree Tobacco Board of Trade. It was formed to regulate and uphold the by-laws of the tobacco market. G.W. Swain was elected president, with Henry Woods, Jr., as vice president. In 1913, the Tobacco Board of Trade launched an aggressive advertising campaign, touting Kingstree as the best place for farmers to sell their tobacco. That summer, the old cotton warehouse across the street from the depot was converted into a prizery, a building in which large presses, called prizes, compacted the tobacco leaves for shipment to manufacturers. Another prize house was built behind Gorrell's Warehouse in what is now the downtown parking lot.

Nelson's Warehouse on Main Street in 1913.

The first sale of 1913 was at Nelson's Warehouse on July 11. Wagons loaded down with tobacco poured into town all morning for the 11:15 sale. The second sale was at the Central Warehouse, sometimes called Morgan's Warehouse in 1913 as E.L. Morgan of North Carolina had leased it that year. The final sale of the day was at Gorrell's Warehouse. The County Record noted that many ladies were present at the sales that day to hear the auctioneers. A band also entertained a each of the three sales.

As had become the custom, a reception was held at the end of the first sales day for the tobaccomen from North Carolina who would make their homes in Kingstree for the summer. These men formed their own baseball team in 1913, beating the Kingstree High School team 4-1 in their first game.

Full page ad run in 1913 by the Tobacco Board of Trade promoting the Kingstree market.

In February 1914, Gorrell's Warehouse collapsed under the weight of a heavy snow. At a meeting the next week, shareholders of the Kingstree Tobacco Warehouse Company decided not to rebuild at that location and offered that lot, as well as the one on Third Avenue, for sale. Gorrell's opened for the 1914 season in a warehouse to the rear of Vause's Shop on Main Street, and R.H. Kellahan built a brick warehouse on the site of the old Gorrell's Warehouse. I've always heard that the current Museum Annex was built with brick from the old Kellahan warehouse after it was torn down.