If the Soil Could Only Speak

Just a few short weeks ago, Hardee's was doing a bustling business at the corner of Main and Longstreet streets in Kingstree. Most residents knew that the old restaurant would soon be replaced by a brand new Hardee's, but it was still disconcerting to one day see a pile of rubble where the building had once stood. And for some of us it was a reminder that this piece of ground has long played an important role in the history of this community.

The Hardee's lot on November 16, 2018.

In William Willis Boddie's history of Williamsburg County, he indicates that very early in the town's history, Patrick Cormick owed either a store or a storage facility on this property. It became a central fixture of the community, when in 1805, it was decreed that court must be held at the King's Tree. The committee to secure a courthouse found that the lots originally reserved for it had been claimed by William Brady, who had already built a house on the property. The committee was unable to secure that property until after Brady's death in 1820, which left them with the task of finding a suitable building in which to hold court. They leased Cormick's store house, which Boddie notes was located at what was at the time of his writing in the early 1920s, "the corner of Main and Long Streets," which was used as a courthouse until the present courthouse was built in 1823.

Court sessions in those days were quite different than today. The High Sheriff, with drawn sword, would escort the presiding judge from his hotel to the bench. Court opened with a sermon, usually in this district given by the Rev. William Knox of Black Mingo Church. We know this as Knox was paid $12.85 for each sermon–$12 for his services and $2.85 for mileage. After the sermon a Grand Jury was drawn and charged by the judge. Boddie notes that the session would then adjourn and everyone would move across the street to Bracy's Bar to fortify themselves for the next day's trials.

At some point Patrick Cormick's store house was demolished and a house built on the property. We know that by the 1860s, it was in the hands of the Gewinner family. Dr. Napoleon Gewinner was only seven or eight years old when General William J. Hardee's army camped in the field between the Gewinner home and Black River during the cold, wet December of 1864.

In a 1933 letter to Laura Cromer Hemingway, he wrote, "I can remember going with Mother, a large basket on her arm and one on mine, containing food for the sick. I believe this was 1864. I remember when the report reached Kingstree that Sherman's army was approaching. On the banks of the river stood a little house about 20-by-30 feet which was filled with cannon powder put up in little red and white flannel bags. Everyone helped in opening the bags and pouring the powder in the river. The flannel bags were kept and many quilts were made of them. Some of the old folks had underwear made out of them. I can recall a quilt Mother made of them which we used for years." At the last minute, Sherman's army changed course, sparing Kingstree.

The Gewinner house boasted one of the oldest gardens in Kingstree, planted by Dr. Gewinner's mother. His sister, Mary, continued to live in the house after she married Louis Jacobs and raised her large family there. In a 1935 article, Laura Hemingway described the garden as at its loveliest in spring when masses of bulbs of many kinds were in bloom. Some of those bulbs were the same bulbs Mrs. Gewinner had planted before the Civil War. 

The 1913 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the Jacobs house on the corner of

Main Street and Buzzard's Roost. 

Mrs. Hemingway describes the house as being built end to the street so that it could face the garden. She notes, "For years a pergola extended from the porch into the garden some distance, and over this roses rioted through the summer. In the center is a lily pool, which now is the highlight of the garden." She added that a fairly large conservatory occupied one side of the garden.

The 1920 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. 

Note Buzzard's Roost was now S. Long Street

The Jacobs home was a gathering place for many community events. The Judge, as Louis Jacobs was known from his tenure at Probate Judge for Williamsburg County, welcomed many into his home, hosting dances, hot suppers, and meetings. The first meeting to discuss establishing a lending library for the town was held at the Jacobs home. It was also the site of the double wedding, officiated by SC Governor Miles McSweeney on October 31, 1900. To read more about that event, click here.

As roads were paved, automobiles became more prevalent, and traffic increased at the Jacobs' corner, two of the Jacobs' daughters opened a tea room at the house to provide a place for weary travelers to relax over a cup of tea and refreshments. 

In June, 1972, Boddie-Noell Enterprises of Rocky Mount, NC, announced that it was expanding its Hardee's restaurant network into South Carolina by building restaurants in three towns, Dillon, Kingstree, and Lake City. Hardee's has operated on the corner of Main and Longstreet ever since. We all look forward to the brand new Hardee's which will soon be under construction.

Much to be Thankful For

One hundred years ago, the people of Kingstree had much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving as just a few weeks earlier the Armistice had been signed, ending the great World War.

The Williamsburg County Courthouse

Here is a special news article sent to The State newspaper, detailing Kingstree's celebration at the signing of the Armistice:

News of the signing of the armistice by the German government was received here by the night operator at the Atlantic Coast Line depot about 4 o'clock Monday morning, and the news spread like wildfire over the town. A little later the entire populace was awakened by the firing of pistols and the ringing of fire bells. Fireworks, horns, and various other methods of making a noise were freely indulged in throughout the day, and all business houses were closed, making a holiday of the occasion. The old cannon in the courthouse yard was again pressed into service and boomed at intervals in celebration of the signing of the armistice.

The old cannon is still on the courthouse square, although no longer mobile.

A thousand people gathered around the Confederate monument at 1 o'clock and listened to the reading of President Wilson's "Flag Day" speech by the Rev. Mr. Harmon, at the conclusion of which a fusillade from guns, pistols, and the old cannon rent the air. Then Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow, led by a choir of ladies and children, was sung in a wholehearted spirit of thankfulness.

The monument around which 1,000 people gathered in November 1918.

To mar the celebration, a young girl, Dollie McFadden, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John F. McFadden, was accidentally shot in the mouth with an automatic revolver by "Boots" Nelson. The wound is not thought too serious.

Thunderous Crash Jarred Buildings

Residents of railroad towns know two things. First, the presence of the track running through their towns, particularly in the early days of the 20th century when most of the nation's commerce was carried on by rail, means just a little extra measure of prosperity for their communities. But, they also know that the trains passing through their town each day bring with them the potential for disaster. Kingstree is no exception. Once upon a time the depot was the hub of the community, shipping cotton, tobacco, green beans, grapes, and other agricultural products to the cities up north. And November seems to have been a magnet for train disasters at or near the Main Street Crossing.

The curious observe the cab of a truck cut in half by a train in November 1950.

The most recent of these disasters occurred on November 12, 1950. Early that Sunday morning, a Kingstree Police officer observed a truck, part of a convoy of trucks bringing the Ross Carnival from Georgetown to its winter headquarters in Kingstree, approaching the Main Street crossing. He recounted to a reporter from the News & Courier that none of the other trucks in the convoy was in sight when Martin (or Marvin) L. Williams approached the tracks. Williams was driving slowly and was about midway the track when he was struck by a fast, southbound passenger train.

The train struck the truck just behind the cab, ejecting Williams on the west side of the tracks. He was thrown some distance, striking a utility pole, which killed him instantly, according to Coroner T.M. Kellahan.

The truck was carrying a disassembled merry-go-round, and splintered carousel horses and other mangled parts lay scattered for yards along the east side of the track.

At 1 a.m. on Friday, November 29, 1918, Atlantic Coast Line train #86, the through train from Jacksonville, FL, to Washington, DC, derailed just south of the Kingstree depot at what was known as Nelson's Crossing, where Ashton Avenue dead ends at the tracks today. Daylight showed debris from the engine and eight cars scattered about the railroad right-of-way. Two ACL employees, Engineer Henry J. Jaeger and Fireman Sam Butler, were killed in the accident. Jaeger's body was not discovered until almost noon the next day, buried under the end of the first passenger coach, concealed by about four feet of dirt and mud. Butler's body, found in the train's cab, was badly scalded from escaping steam. It was noted that the Express Messenger was injured only slightly because he had left the express car to go back into the train to get a drink of water. Only one passenger, an African-American woman, was injured seriously enough to be taken to the hospital in Sumter for treatment. She was cut by flying glass. Thirty-seven servicemen were on the train, all escaping injury, except for one who was slightly cut by glass when he was thrown through a window. Later in the day, railroad men engaged in clearing the debris said they considered the low casualty count miraculous, considering the seriousness of the wreck.

Jaeger, who was considered an excellent engineer and was well-known in Florence where he lived, left Lane at 12:50 that morning. It was estimated that he was running 60-70 miles an hour when the train derailed at exactly 1 a.m. The throttle was found not closed, indicating that Jaeger had not had time to attempt to slow the train down before he was thrown from the engine. ACL officials blamed a split rail for the accident.

All passengers not requiring medical treatment were transferred to another train shortly after daylight and sent to Florence. Mail and express items that could be salvaged were also removed and sent on. All perishable foodstuffs the train was carrying were sold in Kingstree that morning.

These photos are undated. They may be from the 1918 derailment, but

given the damage to the depot shed, they are more likely from November 1913.

At 4 a.m., Tuesday, November 17, 1913, many residents in the vicinity of the depot were "aroused from their early morning slumbers by a thunderous crash that seemed to jar the very foundations of the nearby buildings." The cause was the wreck of a through-freight train, running about 35 miles per hour. One of the cars near the engine derailed when its truck bar broke, catching and pulling up a heavy timber near the crossing at the southern end of the depot platform. Twelve other cars behind it, some heavily loaded, crashed into the derailed car. Railcars were piled three deep at the southern end of the platform. Rails were ripped from the cross ties, trucks were torn from cars, and wreckage was strewn in all directions. About 50 feet of the shed over the depot platform was torn away as the wrecked cars piled one on top of the other fell against the stanchions of the shed.

Five cars were completely demolished. Lumber, phosphate rock, shingles, building materials, and kaolin were scattered for 100 yards. Sumter's Watchman & Southron reported that a hobo was asleep in one of the cars deposited at the top of the heap of wreckage. As it happened, the car he was in was the least damaged of any of the cars involved in the accident. "When he awoke and crawled out, he could survey the whole town from his vantage point. Sedately picking a few splinters from his wool hat, he climbed down and called down dire fate upon a railroad system that would allow a gentlemen's rest to be this disturbed."

A wrecking crew from Florence arrived at daylight to clear away the debris and repair the track. Around 10 a.m. a second wrecking crew arrived from Charleston. Practically all business was suspended in Kingstree that Tuesday as people from miles around came to view the wreck. Children from the graded and high school were brought the two blocks by their teachers to watch the clean-up.

Trains throughout the day detoured through Lane and Sumter, but two local trains came to transport passengers and luggage both north and south. By 6 p.m. the track was repaired and enough wreckage cleared that the regular passenger trains were able to pass through on time. No injuries were reported, but damage was estimated at $30,000 to $40,000. Crews would need several more days, however, to completely clear the wreckage from the right-of-way.

All photos courtesy Williamsburgh Historical Museum

This wreck occurred almost in the exact spot as the last major train wreck which happened in 1905, but in March, instead of November. There was much excitement in town that Saturday, March 4, when an extra freight train ran an open switch, just below the Main Street crossing. The monster "copperhead" engine and nine of the 21 cars derailed, piling debris 15 to 20 feet high. The cargo, mainly fertilizer and lumber, was scattered along both sides of the track.

The engineer was thrown from the cab, but suffered only facial cuts, bruises, and a broken nose. The fireman, Pres Stevenson, however, had his foot and ankle crushed between the locomotive's driving wheel and the tender. He was forced to hang there for three hours until the wrecking train arrived with the equipment necessary to free him. Local doctors present at the scene did everything in their power to relieve as much pain as possible until he could be freed. Once his foot was extricated, it became evident that amputation was the only means of treating it.

The accident happened about 7 p.m. The local passenger train had come through safely at 6:30, so most residents believed that someone had deliberately opened the switch in the few minutes between trains. Crowds gathered all day Sunday to watch the wreckage cleared.

Happy Birthday, Amos White!

One hundred twenty-nine years ago yesterday, Lewis and Elizabeth Burgess White of Kingstree, South Carolina, welcomed their first child into the world. They named him Amos Earl Mordecai White, and little did they know on the day of his birth, November 6, 1889, that before he was nine years old, he would face a great tragedy that would ultimately lead him to a life that was I'm sure totally beyond their wildest dreams.

We don't know what happened to Lewis, but we do know that Elizabeth White, a teacher in the African American schools in and around Kingstree, died shortly before Amos' ninth birthday. The Rev. Daniel Jenkins, who is well-known for the orphanage he started in Charleston, also preached on a circuit that included a church in Kingstree, apparently the church the White family attended. Young Mordecai, as he was called then, was admitted to the Jenkins Orphanage, where he would learn both printing and music, things that would support him for the rest of his long life.

The Jenkins Orphanage was known for the bands Parson Jenkins produced. They played on a worldwide stage, one of them playing the Hippodrome in London. Amos White was not in that band as he was not allowed to play an instrument until he was almost 14 because he suffered greatly from hay fever. He was, however, a member of the bands that played in Theodore Roosevelt's second inaugural parade  in 1905; at William Howard Taft's inaugural parade in 1909, and actually led the band in 1913 in Woodrow Wilson's inaugural parade.

In his early 20s, White eloped with Parson Jenkins' daughter, settling in Jacksonville, FL, where he worked as a printer and continued to play trumpet and cornet. After 10 months there, he was asked to become director of the Jacksonville Concert Band, the second largest band in Jacksonville. The band gave concerts in the park every Sunday, a tradition White would continue many years later in Oakland, CA.

White later played in the circus band for the Cole Brothers Circus, one of the leading circuses of that era, and with a number of minstrel shows. When the United States entered World War I, White enlisted, becoming General Smedley Butler's bandmaster. The band serenaded General John J. Pershing four times during the war. Toward the end of the war, the band was sent to Le Harve, France, where it played for various occasions, including the sailing of troopships for the United States.

Returning to the States at the end of the war, White moved to New Orleans in 1919. There he got a job as a printer and began making a name for himself with the jazz bands. Jazz great Papa Celestin gave him his first real break, although White later said in an oral history, prepared by Tulane University in 1958, that all he could do was read the music, occasionally playing it with a little variation. But it didn't take him long to get into the New Orleans swing of things. While with the Celestin band, he played with a young Louis Armstrong. White remembered that they played many New Orleans jazz funerals in those days. Louis Armstrong later joined the famed Fate Marable Band, and after he headed north to Chicago, he was replaced as lead trumpet by none other than Amos White, who was later, White admitted, fired by Marable.

White was playing with the Marable band when it recorded Frankie and Johnny and Pianoflage. In his oral history, White notes that those two recordings were "a mess," because everyone was trying to outblow each other. However, a more recent critique of those recordings notes, "If there was a roof present, Amos must have blown it off. The ferocity and beauty he brings to bear is colossal in its impact."

At some point White organized the Imperial Orchestra for the city of New Orleans at the request of Armand Piron. The band played for circus acts in the park and for dances at the pavilion. In 1924 he formed the New Orleans Jazz Creole Band.

He left New Orleans in 1927. moving to Arizona, where he stayed until 1934 when he moved to Oakland, California, his home until his death in July 1980, just a few months shy of his 91st birthday. While in California, he taught music, directed his own band in weekly concerts in the park, and often played with other old New Orleans greats.

A jazz column in the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1965 noted that "veteran trumpeter Amos White, who played with many of the historic New Orleans bands, has made his first recordings." That music is still available online and on CD. You can listen to Amos play with his band and sing Sister Kate here.

The May 19, 1969, San Francisco Chronicle stated, "Sharing the stand with Pops Foster the other night was Amos White, a cornet and trumpet player, who is a mere 75. Amos White has not been playing much recently due to new dentures, but when he does come in, it is loud and clear. The musicians in the band tell of one night when he and Pops disagreed about a musical point. "Now, George," 75-year-old Amos said, to the 72-year-old Foster, "You listen to me. I'm older than you."

When George "Pops" Foster died in November 1969, his funeral was held the day before Amos White's 80th birthday. Again from the San Francisco Chronicle: "He was a very fine man and certainly ahead of his time," said Amos White, who will be 80 tomorrow and still plays trumpet at Oakland's De Fremery Park. "No, there aren't any of the old bands around anymore," White said. "I have to go down to the union hall nowadays and scout around for some men who know how to play the old way.

"White, as alert and as erect as he had been in World War I when he had been General Smedley Butler's  bandmaster, smiled kindly when a white reporter asked him why nobody, hardly, was playing his kind of music anymore. "Why," he said very gently and without a trace of bitterness, "because you boys stole it from us."

White spent his later years trying to ensure that the old music would not be totally forgotten. In April, 1972, he took part in a weekend course on Ragtime at the University of California's Berkeley campus. He, along with piano greats Eubie Blake and Earl "Fatha" Hinds, engaged in discussion and offered reminiscences.

Ad from The San Francisco Chronicle, October 31, 1976.

On October 12, 1977, The San Mateo Times ran this article: An evening of New Orleans-style jazz, featuring 88-year-old Amos M. White and his jazz band will be presented at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on October 12 at 8 p.m. in the museum auditorium. Admission is free. Amos M. White represents living history, having played trumpet with the great jazz musicians of the past 80 years. He will have a lecture and demonstration of the roots of jazz. Under the direction of Amos M. White and his grandson, Eddie 'Snakepit' Edwards, the band will play a variety of old and new jazz. Together Mr. White and his grandson will present 123 years of the music that has inspired generations of American musicians.

In 2006, Eddie Edwards, an alto saxophonist himself, recorded an album of his own. One of the cuts on the album is titled Grandpa Amos. You can hear it here.

In Tulane's oral history project–undergoing an update and not currently available online–White indicated that he well understood that had he not been orphaned at an early age, he would have never become a musician.

While most Kingstree residents had never heard of Amos White until Cassandra Wiliams-Rush wrote a tribute to him, published in The News in January 2017, he was listed as one of South Carolina's Jazz Greats in a full-page discussion of jazz in The State on June 28, 1964. The paper stated. "Amos White, a Jenkins' Orphanage alumnus, was born at Kingstree in 1899 (sic), in 1921 replaced Louis Armstrong in the Fate Marable River Band and in 1924 formed the New Orleans Creole Jazz Band."

It seems well past time that the Town of Kingstree recognize in some permanent way the contributions of its native son to the jazz world. The form that recognition takes could be a worthy joint project for the town's Main Street Program and the Williamsburgh Historical Society.