In the Williamsburgh Historical Society's Summer 2019 newsletter, Director Wendell Voiselle reprinted an article from The County Record of June 14, 1917. That article was also a reprint in that it was written by H.S. Cunningham and originally published in his Bishopville newspaper, the Leader and Vindicator. It is an interesting look at how Kingstree had changed from 1880 to 1917. Mr. Cunningham had lived in Kingstre in the 1880s. He, on occasion, returned here to visit his brother and other relatives.
The Williamsburg County Courthouse as it looked during the time of which
Editor Cunningham writes.
Source: Williamsburg County: A Pictorial History
The article provides much useful data in describing how Kingstree looked in both the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I am reprinting it here with a few annotations and photographic illustrations. Please note that my comments are all in brackets.
The headline read, "Kingstree Long Ago and Now: Editor Cunningham writes interestingly about his old town."
"After a three hours run from Bishopville, we arrived at Kingstree about 6:30 p.m., our first stop being at the home of our brother, Dr. J.S. Cunningham. Here, after a short rest, the party divided, the Editor and better half going to the home of Mrs. Lou Gilland to spend the night. As we had so many relatives to visit, it is needless to say with what a glad welcome we were received by both relatives and friends, especially do we appreciate the pressing invitations from that most genial and warm-hearted, James D. Epps, and our old comrade, Harvey H. Kinder. Knowing our partiality and fondness for the famous Black River fish, we had no less than six invitations from friends Saturday to partake of the famous Black River bream, goggle-eye red breast and mawmouth fresh from the water.
Lou Gilland
Source: South Carolina's Williamsburg
"But our kind hostess, Mrs. Gilland, said to her son, Wilmot, 'Can't you get some fresh fish for your cousins?' Without saying anything more about it, he was up and off to the river by daylight and brought back 48 as fine specimens as one would wish to see and taste. The Editor is a pretty big fish eater, but two of those, almost as broad as your two hands, were just about as much as he could go at one time.
"It was indeed a pleasure to meet and visit in their homes so many of our old friends and relatives, but our time was so limited, we did not get to see more than half of them. We found our dear old brother in very good health and recovered from his terrible hurt during the storm last July. Sunday and Sunday night we spent with Mrs. Cunningham's brother, Mr. P.M. Brockinton, who lives five miles out in the country, although he is Probate Judge for Williamsburg County, and goes to town nearly every day.
"Here at this pleasant home we met an old Confederate comrade, Mr. A.W. Flagler, who, knowing how we love honey, presented us next morning with a gallon of fine extracted honey, almost as clear as crystal.
"Monday morning we hiked out for home and in about three hours time were back at Bishopville.
"Having said so much about our trip, we cannot close without saying a few words about old Kingstree, 44 years ago when we commenced business there, and new Kingstree of today.
"The first paper started in Kingstree was published about 1856 or '57 by Messrs. Gilbert and Darr of Sumter, with an old Washington hand press that took all day to run off an edition of 500. It was a six-column, four-page paper, known as The Kingstree Star, and the subscription price was $3. Messrs. Gilbert and Darr soon sold out to Mr. R.C. Logan, who continued its publication until '74 or '75, when he sold out to Capt. S.W. Maurice, a prominent lawyer, who published it until his death.
R.C. "Lum" Logan, longtime owner and editor of The County Record.
Source: Williamsburg County: A Pictorial History
"Mr. J.S. Heyward of Orangeburg rented the outfit and continued its publication for a year or two and gave it up. In 1878, the writer of this article bought the outfit and published The Williamsburg Herald. For sentiment's sake, he restored the Star, and it was then published as Star and Herald and was continued under that head till 1886, when the writer moved to Greenwood, having established the first paper in that thriving town, and sold out the Star and Herald to Messrs. Andrews and Chandler, who did not run it long before it was suspended. In the meantime, Mr. R.C. Logan established the Record, which he sold to C.W. Wolfe, Esq., and after his death it was sold to Messrs. Tolley and Wallace, who have an outfit up to date in every respect. [Editor Cunningham is not quite correct here. Mr. Logan sold the paper in 1895 to Pinckney A. Alsbrook, who ran it for a short time, before selling to Louis J. Bristow. Bristow volunteered to fight in the Spanish American war in 1898 and later that year sold to Wolfe.]
Louis J. Bristow
Source: The Lost Cause: A Confederate War Record, Vol. 4
"Standing at the foot of the Confederate monument at the intersection of Main and Academy streets, after strolling up and down these two thoroughfares, we were amazed at the transformation. The monument has taken the place of the old cucumber pump right in the cross of the two streets, where countrymen watered their stock when they came to town. The old Nelson House, Gewinner Hotel, Court House, somewhat remodeled, an old wooden shack next to the Court House, where one of the most successful merchants of that time, W.J. Lee, did a big business, the old Benjamin home, the Star and Herald's old printing office, the Donaught house and that of Mrs. T.M. Gilland, Mrs. Steele, the Harper house, and the home of the notorious S.A. Swails, are about all the old landmarks on these two main streets that we recognized as being there forty years ago.
"The merchants doing business there then were James Staggers, Benjamin Bros., W.M. Kinder, Mrs. M.J. Porter, W.J. Lee, Haynesworth Bros., L. Stackley, M. Schwartz–father of the Schwartz Bros. of Sumter–and Ed Grayson. Three drug stores, Dr. J.S. Brockington's, Staggers' and Dr. Scott, who had just opened up.
"The lawyers at the Kingstree bar were E.J. Porter, Capt. S.W. Maurice, and four young men just admitted to the bar, H.J. Haynesworth, T.M. Gilland, J.A. Kelley, and Melvin J. Hirsch. P[hilip] Heller, father of Mr. Mike Heller, kept a hotel and livery stable on Main Street where Capt. Kelly now has two modern dwellings. On the corner where the large three-story brick building [Jarritos] now stands was a carriage and wagon repair shop with upstairs portico extending over the sidewalk. All the stores were one-story wooden buildings, but the one most conspicuous was the old Flint house on the corner where the handsome two-story Wee Nee Bank now stands. From the old Nelson house going towards the railroad there were but three houses on that side of the street as far out as the old Ward hotel, now known as the Harper house; they were the homes of Dr. Merrett Mouzon, Capt. S.W. Maurice, and W.W. Ward. On the opposite side from the old Flint house, there was one two-room cottage, where Miss Mollie Epps lived, and with the exception of a grist mill across the railroad in the edge of the branch, there was no other house except Swails' and one or two negro houses.
"The branch, which has been filled in, a canal cut and where those solid brick and concrete stores now stand, was so boggy a cat could not cross it without sticking in the mud. The late Capt. Purvis Nelson used to tell that he pulled seven (old cat and kittens) out of the mud one morning.
"The depot was a half a mile up the road from where it is now. Mr. Peter B. Mouzon was agent. It was while he was agent that the first telegraph message was received in Kingstree. It was not received then by sound but written in telegraph code, and everybody went to the depot to see the invisible man write.
"From the monument to where Dr. J.S. Brockinton lived at the head of Academy Street, there were only two stores, Wm. Kinder and Benjamin Bros.; but afterwards Dr. Scott's drugstore, the printing office, and Grayson's store were built. Dr. Brockinton's drug store was on the opposite side of the street from where it is now, but afterwards (he) built a wooden store on the spot where his son, Dr. W.V. Brockinton how has his up-to-date brick store.
"Out of the 500 inhabitants accredited to Kingstree by the census of 1880, or even up to the time of our leaving there in 1886, we find only a few who were in business then are there now. No wonder we felt sad and lonely as we passed and repassed strangers and only now and then met up with someone we knew.
"But the transformation is equally as great in the growth and progress of the place as in the change of inhabitants. To see the old shops with heavy barred doors give place to elegant two- and three-story buildings with plate glass windows, strung from the courthouse to beyond the railroad, and then for a block or two along Railroad Avenue and Academy Street, three thriving banks to none when we left there, miles of cement sidewalks, water works, electric lights, sewerage, fine churches, and a magnificent school building, to say nothing of the ice factory, tobacco and other industries, acres of old fields converted into streets and handsome homes, was enough to wonder at the transformation that had taken place in so few years, especially when we were told that the census of 1910 showed a population of 2,500 against 500 in 1880.
"We found the names of more of our old friends resting in the cemetery than what we found on the streets or at their homes."
The Donaught House, located where First Baptist Church stands now.
Emma Donaught is pictured standing in front of the house.
Source: Williamsburg County: A Pictorial History
Historical marker noting the site of the Stephen A. Swails House.
Today, Fresenius Kidney Care in located there.
"The lawyers at the Kingstree bar were E.J. Porter, Capt. S.W. Maurice, and four young men just admitted to the bar, H.J. Haynesworth, T.M. Gilland, J.A. Kelley, and Melvin J. Hirsch. P[hilip] Heller, father of Mr. Mike Heller, kept a hotel and livery stable on Main Street where Capt. Kelly now has two modern dwellings. On the corner where the large three-story brick building [Jarritos] now stands was a carriage and wagon repair shop with upstairs portico extending over the sidewalk. All the stores were one-story wooden buildings, but the one most conspicuous was the old Flint house on the corner where the handsome two-story Wee Nee Bank now stands. From the old Nelson house going towards the railroad there were but three houses on that side of the street as far out as the old Ward hotel, now known as the Harper house; they were the homes of Dr. Merrett Mouzon, Capt. S.W. Maurice, and W.W. Ward. On the opposite side from the old Flint house, there was one two-room cottage, where Miss Mollie Epps lived, and with the exception of a grist mill across the railroad in the edge of the branch, there was no other house except Swails' and one or two negro houses.
The Nelson House once stood on the southeast corner of Main and Academy streets.
This house was also known during one period as The Colonial Inn.
Source: SC Department of Archives & History
The Harper House, also known for a time as the Ward Hotel.
Anderson Brothers Bank is now located on this site.
Source: Williamsburg County: A Pictorial History
"The branch, which has been filled in, a canal cut and where those solid brick and concrete stores now stand, was so boggy a cat could not cross it without sticking in the mud. The late Capt. Purvis Nelson used to tell that he pulled seven (old cat and kittens) out of the mud one morning.
"The depot was a half a mile up the road from where it is now. Mr. Peter B. Mouzon was agent. It was while he was agent that the first telegraph message was received in Kingstree. It was not received then by sound but written in telegraph code, and everybody went to the depot to see the invisible man write.
"From the monument to where Dr. J.S. Brockinton lived at the head of Academy Street, there were only two stores, Wm. Kinder and Benjamin Bros.; but afterwards Dr. Scott's drugstore, the printing office, and Grayson's store were built. Dr. Brockinton's drug store was on the opposite side of the street from where it is now, but afterwards (he) built a wooden store on the spot where his son, Dr. W.V. Brockinton how has his up-to-date brick store.
The Dr. J.S. Brockington home which once graced the head of Academy Street.
Source: Williamsburg County: A Pictorial History
"Out of the 500 inhabitants accredited to Kingstree by the census of 1880, or even up to the time of our leaving there in 1886, we find only a few who were in business then are there now. No wonder we felt sad and lonely as we passed and repassed strangers and only now and then met up with someone we knew.
"But the transformation is equally as great in the growth and progress of the place as in the change of inhabitants. To see the old shops with heavy barred doors give place to elegant two- and three-story buildings with plate glass windows, strung from the courthouse to beyond the railroad, and then for a block or two along Railroad Avenue and Academy Street, three thriving banks to none when we left there, miles of cement sidewalks, water works, electric lights, sewerage, fine churches, and a magnificent school building, to say nothing of the ice factory, tobacco and other industries, acres of old fields converted into streets and handsome homes, was enough to wonder at the transformation that had taken place in so few years, especially when we were told that the census of 1910 showed a population of 2,500 against 500 in 1880.
"We found the names of more of our old friends resting in the cemetery than what we found on the streets or at their homes."
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