The Great Fire of 1873

It's winter, and a cold January day (although given the fickleness of the weather lately, it may not be cold by the time you read this) is perhaps a good time to consider that those who lived before us in Kingstree were most concerned during cold weather with the danger of fire. Open fireplaces and wood stoves inevitably led to the loss of property. However, one of the largest fires in downtown Kingstree, believed to have been caused by an arsonist, is also remembered as the first fire to do great damage to the town, although more loss of life was recorded in the jail fire of January 7, 1867.

Today, the Kingstree Fire Department has equipment to deal with fires of all kinds,

but in 1873, there were no trained firefighters and no equipment except for buckets.

According to contemporary newspaper reports of the time, on Monday, January 27, 1873, around 4 a.m. a fire was discovered in the building on Main Street, known as Burgheim's Store. The property, which was vacant, had recently changed hands when baker Charles Hoffman bought it from John A. McCullough a few days prior to the fire. Hoffman was in the process of arranging for repairs to the building so that he could renovate it for his own business.

When the fire was discovered, the building was already engulfed in flames. Although an alarm was sounded, generally at that time by the ringing of church bells, without a trained fire department, there was little to be done except try to remove the contents from stores and homes not yet reached by the fire and attempt to keep the fire from spreading to the opposite side of the street. The fire had already spread to the buildings adjoining Burgheim's store within minutes of its discovery. 

The Kingstree Star noted, "The flames spread with such terrible rapidity that only a very short time was allowed in which to labor in securing the goods and furniture to which access could be had. Some saved considerable, while others lost all they possessed. In a very short time, every building fronting Main Street from Mr. Ward's corner to Mr. James Staggers' residence was in a sheet of flame, and at this period of the conflagration, it looked like the courthouse and all the other buildings on the street would be consumed, and that the fire would extend to the last building at both ends of the street on which it originated, but at this critical juncture a brisk breeze commenced blowing from the north, which threw the flames directly across the street, and Mr. Staggers' building being a brick one, prevented its further progress in a westward and eastward direction, and also saved the destruction of the buildings immediately in the rear of those what were consumed."

A bit later in the town's history, artesian wells strategically placed throughout town

helped townspeople fight fires as buckets could be filled at the wells and passed

down a line to the fire; however, in 1873, there were very few wells available.

Once the fire stopped spreading, it quickly consumed the buildings that were burning and burned itself out. The Star noted that it had rained heavily during the night, thoroughly saturating the roofs of the buildings. This prevented them from catching fire from the many sparks the fire generated. It was believed that had it not rained, the entire town could have been lost to the fire. As it was, almost everyone living or doing business in the main part of the village removed their goods and furniture from their homes and stores, piling them in the middle of the street.

The newspaper recounted "distressing scenes" as townspeople prepared themselves to lose all their worldly goods. The reporter specifically mentioned a young man running into his mother's home to save her from the fire as she was old and blind and unable to reach safety on her own. The reporter also noted that White men and Black men worked together "with great energy and determination" to do all they could to save what they could. "They are entitled to the thanks of the community for the heroism displayed," the paper stated, adding, "We would be wanting in personal gratitude were we to fail to recognize those who worked manfully to save the building in which this office is located."

While the origin of the fire was not known, it was believed to have been arson, based solely on the fact that the building had been vacant for more than a month. The paper also noted, "The very dark and inclement night and the late hour at which the fire occurred would seem to favor the presumption that it was the work of an incendiary."

Presumably the buildings involved were on the north side of Main Street, between Academy and Jackson streets today, based on the mention of the fears for the courthouse and that the wind blowing from the north pushed the flames into the street. In all, nine buildings–both stores and houses–were lost to the fire. Those losing property were W.W Ward, Ward & Maurice, Louis Cohen & Co., W.J. Lee, Joseph E. Wilson, Morris Schwartz, Henry Solomon, the estate of E.J. Porter, Dr. J.S. Brockington, Ann Jones, Charles Hoffman, and George Coleman. Damage was estimated between $45,000 and $50,000. Today that would be $963,653 to $1,070,735. Only about one-quarter of that amount was insured.

According to The Star this was the first time the town had experienced a fire in which more than one building was destroyed. The townspeople thought this remarkable considering the village was 141 years old at the time of the fire. The newspaper concluded its account of the fire with these words, "Luckily for the population, they have been greatly blessed and favored in their exemption from the frequent and devastating fires that have visited all the other towns and villages in the State. But we are told there is a time for all things, and the time for the first fire of any magnitude in Kingstree was on Monday morning last."

The fire made it clear to the townspeople that they were not exempt from disasters such as this for by the end of February a bill had been filed in the South Carolina Senate to incorporate the Pioneer Hook and Ladder Company of Kingstree.

While the fire of January 27, 1873, may have been the first major fire experienced by the town, it would not be the last. We'll be looking at more of these disasters as we move through this year.

Beautiful but Treacherous

The Black River meandering along the west side of the Town of Kingstree invokes the feeling of a peaceful, natural setting. However, hidden currents and deep holes have made the river the scene of a number of tragedies and near-tragedies over the years. Today, we will look at a few of them.

Looking upriver from the Main Street Bridge.

On March 21, 1896, 30-year-old Samuel McBride Scott's life came to an untimely end on the river when he was killed in a freak fishing accident. Scott, an employee at Joel Brunson's lumber mill, located near the railroad trestle, decided to go fishing after work that Saturday. He took with him an African-American companion, most likely Ned Covington.

There are two stories of what happened, one printed in The News & Courier, the other in The State. The News & Courier account notes that Scott and his fishing partner were returning to Kingstree when they met a canoe, manned by Messrs. Kinder and Bryan. The paper only notes that the canoe capsized, and Scott and his companion attempted to rescue Kinder and Bryan. As part of the attempt, Scott jumped to shore in order to hold the canoe steady. But as he jumped, his foot dislodged his gun which was lying on the boat seat. The gun discharged, hitting him in the chest, killing him instantly. In The State's account of the accident, Scott and Covington were in the same boat as Kinder and Bryan. Kinder fell in the river, and as the others attempted to get him back into the boat, the gun discharged, hitting Scott. That report said Scott lived long enough to remark, "Boys, I am killed!"

A 2013 view of Black River.

As mentioned in the January 8, 2020, post, New Life for an Old Mill Site, T.B. Mims, also 30-years old, drowned on October 2, 1901. Mims, who lived on the Manning Road, had come to town that day to seek medical help for his brother-in-law's wife. After alerting the doctor of the family's need, Mims stayed in town until about 9 p.m. On his trip home, his horse strayed off the road in the dark, down a path leading to the river near what was called the "cut down grounds." The horse, driver, and cart plunged down the three-foot embankment into the river. Two days passed before someone noticed the body of the horse, still hitched to the cart, partially submerged in the river. Mims' body was not recovered, although searchers dragged the river several times. All they recovered was his hat, a cushion, and a storm apron. Sixteen months later, Walter Bryan discovered a partially decomposed body in the river, which was claimed by Mims' family.

Black River during the 2015 flood.

On June 9, 1902, tragedy struck again. Jeremiah Henderson, a sign painter, who had moved to Kingstree from Charleston, was enjoying an afternoon with family and friends on the river. About 4 p.m. he attempted to land a fish that had taken the bait on a pole set in the sand beside a beached boat. Henderson reportedly jumped in the boat to grab the pole but tripped and fell into the water. According to The County Record, this took place at Epps' Bar about a half mile up the river from the bridge. The area where he fell was known locally as Cooter's Hole. The river was 15 to 20 feet deep at that point. Henderson did not know how to swim, but likely would have been saved as someone in his party held out a fishing pole for him to grab. As those on shore were hauling him in, his wife, in a fit of hysteria, fell over the pole, snapping it in two. Henderson sank and did not resurface. Those summoned to help brought in grappling hooks to retrieve his body. He was taken to the bridge where Dr. Jack Brockington unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate him. Kingstree residents were later very surprised to learn that "Jeremiah Henderson" was an alias for J.L. Boone, who was wanted in Charleston for larceny.

Philip Henry Stoll

One week after lightning struck the office at Thorn's Mill in July 1905, Kingstree attorney R.J. Kirk and his son Robert experienced a close call on the river. Kirk, who had in the 1890s been the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, had taken Robert and some of his friends to the bridge to swim. Kirk was seated on the bank talking with P.H. Stoll, while the boys played on a sand bar near "Rock Hole," an area known for deep water, a swift current, and a rocky bottom.  Robert who could swim only if he kept one foot on the bottom, strayed too far from the sand bar and was swept by the current into water over his head. His father, seeing what was happening, jumped fully clothed into the river. He, too, was sucked under by the current. Judge Stoll, although this event happened before his service as a circuit court judge and a Congressman, stripped off his outer clothing and also jumped in the river. Kirk, by then, had managed to grab hold of Robert, but both were being swept down river, sometimes underwater, sometimes not. Stoll returned to the bank and began running along the side of the river looking for a chance to rescue the two. But, they sank out of sight, resurfacing again about 15 feet downriver. This time as they resurfaced, Kirk was able to hang on to a log in the water, which allowed Stoll to rush in and bring Robert, who was by then unconscious, to shore, where he revived him. He then returned to the water to help the semi-conscious father to shore. Both were carried by buggy to Dr. Gamble's drugstore on Main Street, where Drs. Gamble and Jacobs further revived the pair. Robert recovered quickly, but his father was confined to his home for several days from "ingesting too much river water."

Census Provides a Snapshot of Community

It's 2020 and already there are news stories about the decennial (every 10 years) census that the U.S. Department of Commerce will oversee later this year. Census data are used as benchmarks for a number of things. We most often hear that these figures determine the districts for the U.S. House of Representatives, but they are also used to determine districts for local bodies like county councils, town councils, and school boards. They also play a role in determining funding amounts for certain federal programs. Genealogists and those interested in tracing their family history are indebted to census records from 1790-1940 to help them place members of families. But, a close look at census records can also provide a great deal of context to what was going on in a community at a given time.

Digitized records provide access to the census from 1790-1940, with the

exception of 1890, which was burned in a fire in Washington, DC.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've taken a close look at the 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses for Kingstree, looking primarily at age, occupation and birthplace. I suppose it should not be surprising that Kingstree's population was generally on the young side. In 1860, E.O. Frierson, an Old School Presbyterian clergyman, was 28; attorney J.G. Presley was 27; Laura Benjamin, teacher, was 20; S.W Maurice, attorney, was 25; Robert Henry, physician, was 29; S.J. Carter, listed as hotel keeper, was 32; Henry McElveen, fisherman, was 20; Gordon Belcer, dentist, was 22. 

Several of the older citizens listed in the 1860 census were Dr. James Bradley, age 70; Robert Deston, 59, who was an English-born school teacher; W.C. Footman, 64, was postmaster. Fifty-three-year old A.A. McKinsey, a native of North Carolina, listed his occupation as saddler. His 17-year-old son, Henry, worked as his apprentice.

The 1870 Census is very important because that was the first time African-American citizens were listed by name. While many of them were farmers and farm labor, a number had become tradespeople, serving as barbers, laundresses, seamstresses, blacksmiths, railroad workers, coopers (barrel makers) and school teachers. Some of their names  and ages are Elvira Brockington, 35; Dinah Staggers, 60; Daniel Staggers, 12;  Pauline Pendergrass, 14; Sam Blakeley, 19; Elvira Footman, 30; Maria Bradley, 22; Marla Singleton, 40; Robert Singleton, 16; Gadsden McKnight,  24; Phil Fulton, 22; and Nancy Mouzon, 46. H.W Hampton, 46, and Benjamin Roberts, 49, were black clergymen serving in the community.

Stephen Atkins Swails

The census records can also help trace a person's employment history. For example, Stephen A. Swails, who holds the distinction as Kingstree's first African-American mayor and State Senator, came to South Carolina with the 54th Massachusetts during the Civil War. He settled in Kingstree after the war and is listed as County Auditor in 1870. By 1880, he lists his profession as attorney.

The historical marker on E. Main Street, marking the site where S.A. Swails' house once stood.

Kingstree during the mid-to-late 1800s was the home of many transplants. In 1860, E. Simmes was a 59-year-old brick mason from England, living in Kingstree. Twenty-five-year old Eunice Dodd from New Jersey was a school teacher. A number of Prussian and Bavarian natives ran businesses in Kingstree in those years, including Morris Schwartz, 29; S. Doffens, 27; J.C. Gewinner, 45; Solomon Link, 29; Louis Donath, 32; Philip Heller, 59; Solomon Beutschner, 25; Louis Bergamann, 38; William Stach, 39; Barbara Gewinner, 42; C. Hoffman, 37; J. Beltzer, 56; and Louis Jacobs, 38.

The home of Louis Donath, who was a carpenter. This house once stood where 

Kingstree First Baptist Church is today on Academy Street. The house was used 

by Laura Pugh as an art studio in the years after the Donaths vacated it. 

Some entries tease at what stories lie behind the person's settling in Kingstree. Several examples include 26-year-old blacksmith Edward McMann from Canada; 42-year-old Madison Carter, an African-American cooper who was born in Virginia; and Irish-born, 63-year-old John E. Mack who listed his occupation as gardener. One also wonders how 39-year-old silversmith Charles Moran landed in Kingstree to be counted in the 1880 census.

The census can also be used to verify information. As an example, my May 8, 2019, post, "Childhood Memories of Railroad Trains, recounted the recollections of J.H. Hogans, a Pullman porter, of his early life in Kingstree, watching the trains go by. The 1880 census shows five-year-old James H. Hogans living with his father Alex, a blacksmith, and his mother Margaret.

It can also disprove conventional wisdom. By the early 1900s, many people in Kingstree were under the impression that George Coleman, who had long run the Coleman Hotel in downtown Kingstree, had come here from England to open the hotel shortly after the railroad opened up the area to travelers. Coleman may have come to Kingstree in the late 1850s, but he is listed on the 1860 census as a ditcher and in 1870 as a farmer. By1880, he is a merchant/farmer. Another Englishman, Joseph Watson, is living with the Colemans in 1880, and his occupation is clerk in bar. So, perhaps Mr. Coleman had by that time acquired the Coleman House, although Philip Heller is listed as hotel keeper in the same census.

While there are errors in the census records, and the handwriting of some of the enumerators is extremely difficult to read, making it likely that other errors have crept in, the census is still a valuable tool for learning about a community on a given date in history.

New Life for Old Mill Site

One of the recommendations of the Road Mapping team that spent three days in Kingstree in December was that the town begin to establish Black River Landing as a park on property it recently acquired adjacent to the present Mill Street Landing.

Black River as seen from Mill Street Landing on January 1, 2020.

Way back in 1889, Philip Boone Thorn(e)–the spelling of his name varied, depending apparently on the person spelling it–established a saw mill on this site. The mill handled only cypress lumber and was at one time a booming industry for the town. In October, 1897, The County Record profiled the company, describing the physical plant as a "lumber mill of enormous capacity," and noting that it was "truly a sight worth seeing to witness the working of the machinery."

The mill itself was 12,030 square feet, and two acres of the property were devoted to the lumberyard. The mill operated with one Johnson, four-horsepower steam engine, and one Strother & Wells 20 horsepower engine. According to the newspaper, "the large boilers are fitted up with a patent blower, and Mr. Thorne is thus enabled to utilize the sawdust, etc., be it ever so wet, as fuel, the great force of the blower keeping the furnaces highly heated at all times.

The 1908 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows how Thorne's Mill was laid out.

The mill used a 60-inch Sterns circular saw for most of its work, although there was another, smaller saw employed as well. In addition, Thorne had on order in the fall of 1897, a 66-inch saw. An "edger" and a "butting saw" shaped the lumber after it was cut to get it ready for shipment. The mill had the capacity to turn out 12,000-15,000 feet of lumber per day.

A 42-inch shingle saw turned out between 12,000 and 18,000 shingles a day. After the shingles were made, a special machine tied them in bundles of 50, readying them for shipment.

The cypress logs were cut up river and floated downstream, usually in February and August, but at any time the river was deep enough to do it, to the mill, a distance of 30 to 40 miles. Six to eight logs were lashed together in what was called a "pen." One man was given seven of these pens to guide down the river. 

Property on which Black River Landing will be developed.

Thorne used what was known to townspeople as the "old river" as his log pen. He had devised a contraption that guided the logs easily into position once they reached the mouth of the old river. From there, they were floated along a 400-foot long, 35-foot wide, 15-foot deep canal to the mill. There a "log haul" pulled them up a 35-foot long track to the log bed near the saw. You must remember that these were not small logs. Consider that each log produced 500 to 600 feet of lumber, not counting the "rough edges" and "slabs."

Once the lumber was sawed and finished, it was loaded on a tram car and carried by tram railway about half-a-mile to a special siding on the Northeastern Railroad where it was loaded for shipment. The fire insurance maps don't designate where the tram road was located in relation to the mill, but according to the newspaper, in 1898, Thorne built a new tram road from the mill to the lumber siding at the railroad.

Landscape architect's design for Black River Landing.

In April 1900, there were 4,000 logs in the mill pond, and in May 1902, the paper announced that the mill had cut 2,475 logs during March and April. 

Also, in the spring of 1902, Mr. Thorne began construction of an octagonal, or pavilion-shaped, office under a large gum tree, fronting Buzzard's Roost, now Longstreet Street. That office would make the news again in July 1905, when it was struck by lightning on a Saturday afternoon. Mr. Thorne and his foreman, M.A. Ross, were in the office, with about a dozen African-American workers, who were there to pick up their weekly wages, when the thunderstorm hit. Lightning struck the brick flue, demolishing it, and then ran down the walls into the office, knocking all present to the floor, and tearing four holes in the floor. It also tore several pieces of weatherboarding from the building. Neither Thorne nor Ross suffered injury, but several of the workers were hurt. John Rose, age 14, was perhaps the most seriously injured, as he had not yet recovered by the next week. Jesse Green suffered a burn on his leg, and both his pants and shoes were torn. Joe Chandler's shoes were also torn up, and Joe Watson suffered a considerable shock from the strike. Mr. Thorne's dog was also in the building at the time, and afterward appeared to be blind in one eye. The newspaper marveled that while the building and its inhabitants were affected by the lightning, the gum tree, which completely shaded the office, showed no sign of damage.

Disaster was averted in December 1902, when Charlie McCrea, grandson of former postmistress Charlotte Chandler, almost drowned at the mouth of the canal. He was walking along the logs in the canal, when he slipped and fell into the almost six-feet of water. Walter Bryan and Conrad Constine working nearby heard his terrified screams and quickly rescued him.

Two months later, in February 1903, Walter Bryan made a grisly discovery as he was floating logs down the river to the mill. Seeing something floating in the water, he investigated and found the partially decomposed body of a man, who, according to the newspaper, was stark naked except for one shoe. Everyone believed it to be the remains of T.B. Mims, whose buggy had left the road and gone into the water at the "cut down grounds" on October 2, 1901. While immersion in water does slow decomposition, it seems unlikely that a body in the river for 16 months would still only be partially decomposed. However, the Mims family claimed the remains, and no further investigation was conducted.

Architect's rendering of what Black River Landing could look like in the future.

In March 1907, a dog, which was thought to be mad as it had bitten several other dogs, had the town stirred up until it was shot and killed at the mill.

By 1909, twenty years after it began business, it appears that the mill was slowing down. The ladies of the Episcopal church hosted an Easter egg hunt on the mill grounds the Monday after Easter, which would traditionally have been one of the mill's busiest times. Admission to the egg hunt was a dime. Proceeds would help to buy carpet for the church, of which P.B. Thorne was a founding member.

Newspaper mentions of the mill fall off after 1909, and further indication that the mill had seen its best days is that the 1913 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map still shows Thorne's Mill, but notes that as of August 1913, there was no lumber on hand and that the mill only ran periodically. By 1920, the fire maps still show the octagonal office as an office, but the area where the mill itself once stood is listed as dilapidated sheds.

P.B. Thorne died in North Carolina at the home of his daughter on August 6, 1920. There is little left to remind anyone that for 20 years he ran a successful sawmill near the river except in the name of Mill Street, but as the town begins to develop Black River Landing, perhaps new life will come to the site of the old mill.