Spring In All Its Glory

While most of us are focused on the way our lives have drastically changed in just a few short days, Spring has come in all its glory to Kingstree. And so, this week, we'll ramble around town, enjoying the flowers, including a look at our three National Historic Register homes.

The John G. Pressley House in on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Joseph Scott House is also on the National Register,

as is the M.F. Heller House.

Kingstree Has Weathered Epidemics and Quarantines Before

As the world struggles to slow the spread of  Covid-19, or novel coronavirus, it's worth remembering that while many of our younger residents have little to no experience with epidemics and quarantines, to our ancestors these were not unusual occurrences.

A smallpox quarantine sign.

A 1918 story in the Charleston Evening Post, written in the midst of the influenza pandemic, noted that citizens of the United States had lived through five epidemics, beginning in 1831. The 1831 pandemic was apparently known as Russian Cholera. The only other date given was that the most recent flu epidemic had occurred in 1889-90.

We know from The County Record that a yellow fever epidemic held Charleston in its grip in 1897. The whole city was quarantined, and armed guards were stationed on all roads leading to Charleston. There were many rumors in Williamsburg County that one of those guards was posted at Lane.

Later in 1897, small pox was prevalent in some areas of the state, prompting County Record editor Louis Bristow to state, "Nearly all the towns in the state are requiring the citizens to vaccinate, as there is small pox within our state limits. Why does not Kingstree take some action on this matter? While there is no immediate danger, it is well to guard against a possible epidemic."

A few years later, in February 1900, a small pox outbreak in Lake City caused the Kingstree Town Council to call a special meeting in which a quarantine was issued for anyone coming from Lake City. Roadways were guarded, and the police met every train that stopped in Kingstree. No one who had been in or come through Lake City was allowed to get off in Kingstree. Several people were turned away during this time. At that time, Town Council ordered that all citizens would be vaccinated. The vaccine was free to anyone who was unable to pay. Refusal to comply with the order could result in a fine of $20, or 20 days in jail, or 20 days of hard labor on the chain gang. The quarantine was in effect until mid-March.

The next year, Kingstree became the target of many rumors as students at the Kingstree Academy began to suffer from a mysterious illness that caused skin lesions. None of them felt particularly ill, and little attention was paid to it until Headmaster W.W. Boddie began to suffer symptoms himself. He closed the school and called in the State Board of Health. Dr. James Evans arrived from Columbia and diagnosed the illness as varioloid, a very mild form of small pox. Rumors quickly spread. Charles Wolfe, who owned a paper in Georgetown, as well as The County Record, was in Georgetown that week and noted that he was hearing on the street that there were 25 diagnosed cases of small pox in Kingstree and that everyone was in danger. Within a couple of weeks, symptoms had abated, and no new cases appeared. By the end of the month, the Circuit Judge decided to hold court in Kingstree, although it was noted that jurors coming into town from the country were still quite nervous about the possibility of contracting the disease.

In 1903, a single case of small pox was confirmed in Fowler, 10 miles east of Kingstree. The Town of Kingstree enforced a strict quarantine, not allowing anyone from Fowler who had had contact with the patient or anyone in the patient's family to enter the city limits. The town again set up a quarantine in 1904 when several cases of small pox were confirmed on the other side of Black River.

Typhoid fever was an almost constant presence in Kingstree during wet summers. Many people thought that the cause was germs trapped in the earth, that were released when farmers or gardeners broke ground. Charles Wolfe, who himself suffered from tuberculosis, and must have lived in constant fear of contracting typhoid, editorialized often on the ills of breaking ground before a certain date. 

Typhoid claimed the life of George S. Barr, 46, who owned Barr's Hotel next door to the courthouse. It also contributed to the death of former sheriff, Joseph Brockinton, who died of a heart attack shortly after suffering from typhoid. Both Dr. W.G. Gamble and Dr. Liston Bass Johnson came very close to dying from the disease but survived.

Cases of infantile paralysis, or polio, were first noted in the United States in 1911 and 1912. It was not until 1916, however, that it reached epidemic proportions, particularly in New York City. Dr. Walter Harper left Kingstree to go to Riverside Hospital in New York to help with the huge number of children who were suffering from polio. Shortly afterward, Martha Gordon and Hessie Mouzon followed him to offer their assistance as nurses. In South Carolina, children under 16 could not travel by train unless they had a "Certificate of Health," issued by a doctor. The Town of Kingstree also required this certificate before it would allow visiting children to enter the town limits.

That summer 27,000 children in the United States were affected by the disease, with 6,000 of them dying. Two thousand of those deaths were in New York City. There were 81 cases in South Carolina that year. Polio did not return in epidemic proportions until 1921, when future President Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted it. During the Depression and World War II, there were few outbreaks, but there were epidemics again in 1946, 1950, and 1951. From 1916 until 1955, July, August, and September were considered polio season. Sunday School classes were canceled, movie theaters banned children under 16, and summer birthday parties were postponed until cooler weather. It was not until the early 1960s, after the Salk and Sabin vaccines were widely in use, that parents were finally able to feel some measure of reassurance that their children were safe.

It is hard to find information on how Kingstree weathered the "Spanish Flu" pandemic of 1918 as there are no issues of The County Record available from March 1918 through February 1919. We do know that Rhett M. Driggers, 25, a Charleston native, working as a pharmacist in Kingstree, died of double pneumonia, a complication of the flu in October 1918. From other newspapers, we know that one mother and daughter also died, as another daughter who lived in another town came for their funerals. It is also possible that Luna Tribble Arrowsmith may have had a bad case as her mother left Abbeville to come to Kingstree to care for her.

An advertisement from Southern Bell Telephone in the October 8, 1918,

Charleston Evening Post acknowledging service interruption due to the flu pandemic.

The epidemic began with a number of mild cases of influenza in Spring and Summer 1918. However, by September and October, many who had the flu also developed pneumonia, which was fatal. But even in September, the city health officer in Charleston said, that the Spanish Influenza was nothing worse than the common or war garden variety of grippe. The U.S. Health Service encouraged citizens to be cheerful, go to bed, take a laxative, and keep up their strength as nature was the only cure. Persons wishing to avoid the disease were encouraged to use Vicks Vapor Rub.

By October, it was evident that the epidemic was growing worse. Persons in charge of public buildings were told to keep all doors and windows open and to avoid over-crowding. In Charleston, funerals could be held in cemeteries but were not allowed in homes or churches. Schools closed, some for a month; others in more-hard hit areas of the state were closed for 15 weeks.

Headline from a story in the October 10, 1918, Charleston Evening Post.

Politics was a factor in the 1918 pandemic, as well. In the October 28, 1919, issue of the Charleston Evening Post, this editorial comment appeared: Strange that no Republican has yet accused President Wilson of starting the influenza epidemic which has prevented the holding of campaign meetings.

And although the Spanish flu gradually built from mild cases to a raging pandemic over a number of months, it burned itself out at a much faster rate. By the end of October, there were dramatically fewer new cases. An overall view of the state situation, published in the Charleston Evening Post on November 2, 1918, noted that many towns were lifting quarantines. The Town of Kingstree had decided to leave its quarantine in place for an additional 10 days to be cautious.  Figures vary, but approximately 80,000 South Carolinians contracted the Spanish Flu, with 14,250 of them dying.

Journalist, Minister, Hospital Administrator: Louis Bristow Did It All

Last week, we saw County Record owner, Louis Bristow's, passionate editorials in the pursuit of justice in the wake of the Frazier Baker lynching. At that time, Bristow had owned The County Record for slightly less than a year. However, the 22-year-old was already a seasoned newspaperman.

Louis Judson Bristow as a young man.

Born in Timmonsville and raised in Darlington, the young Louis Bristow had dreams of becoming a minister. However, his father died when Louis was 15, forcing him to drop out of school and go out on his own, as his mother could not support nine children. He found work as a printer with the News & Courier in Charleston, earning $6 a week. But the paper soon learned that young Bristow could write and gave him a reporter's job, which paid $10 a week. At age 20, he was offered the editor's job at The Georgia Reporter in Washington, Georgia, which he accepted. But a year later, he got the opportunity to buy The County Record in Kingstree from Pinckney A. Alsbrook, and at age 21 found himself the owner of a newspaper.

Bristow did much to improve The County Record, increasing the number of subscriptions greatly and  taking the Kingstree Town Council to task for allowing weeds to grow in the streets. He also editorialized frequently about trash in the downtown area and railed about livestock, such as cows and pigs, being allowed to roam freely through the streets of Kingstree. There was one issue, though, on which Bristow refused to weigh in. He noted, "Several parties have asked me to 'raise Cain' with certain young men in town for the manner in which they dress themselves these hot days, but we must refrain from doing so as it is entirely a matter of personal pride with the young men."

While in Kingstree, he was active in the Baptist Church. On one occasion when he attended a statewide Baptist convention, he noted that in his absence, "one of Kingstree's fairest young maidens will wield the local reportorial pen." We don't know who the young lady was, but we might surmise that it was Barbara Jacobs, daughter of Louis and Mary Jacobs, as Bessie Britton many years later noted that Bristow dated Barbara while he lived here. She married W.I. Nexsen, however.

As much he enjoyed his role as owner and editor of the newspaper, when the United States entered the Spanish-American War in April 1898, Bristow answered the call of duty, enlisting as a private. He sent dispatches about Army life to both The County Record and the News & Courier, and he chafed at being stuck in the states when he had thought he would be sent immediately to Cuba. In November 1898, he sold The County Record to Charles Wolfe. Bristow saw no fighting but was a part of the occupation forces in Cuba after the war. He was back in South Carolina by April 1899, where he was mustered out of the Army as a lieutenant. The Governor then appointed him Chief of Ordnance for the state of South Carolina, bestowing on him the rank of Colonel. In this capacity, he was one of the delegation sent to New York to welcome home Commodore George Dewey from the Philippines.

Bristow briefly returned to newspaper work in Darlington, but the call to ministry had become stronger while he was in the Army, and he soon enrolled at the Baptist Seminary in Louisville, KY, working his way through school by writing columns for the Louisville Courier Journal. Upon graduation, he accepted the call to Wedgefield and Ramsay Baptist churches in Sumter County. While there, he met and married Caroline Winkler of Summerville. 

Not long afterward, he accepted the call of Marion Baptist Church. While in Marion, the Bristows welcomed a daughter, Gwen, and a son, Louis Judson Bristow, Jr. And while he obviously enjoyed the work as a minister, journalism was still in his blood, and when he got the chance to become the co-owner of the Baptist Press, publisher of the Baptist Courier, in Greenwood, he jumped at it. But in late 1906, he began to suffer with throat trouble. His doctor encouraged him to spend more time outdoors and suggested that a move to Anderson County might be beneficial. Bristow was able to reach an agreement with Williamston Baptist Church that allowed him to preach only twice a month and moved his family there.

He spent three years in Williamston, and while there, he began to think about a mission that would become his life's work. Years later in an interview in New Orleans, he said, "I saw that the Protestant churches were not doing enough to relieve the sick and suffering; our Lord ministered to bodily hurts as well as spiritual ills, and it seemed inescapable that the churches should follow the same path."

He began broaching the idea to South Carolina Baptists that they should consider building a hospital that would serve all denominations. At the same time, his throat better, he accepted a call from Abbeville Baptist Church. He threw himself into the community, working with the Boy Scouts, joining the Rotary Club, serving as President of the Abbeville Library Association. He also served as secretary-treasurer on the board of Anderson College. He often preached on a topic he called, "Civic Righteousness," and it is obvious that he practiced what he preached. In addition to his community activities, he was the driving force behind construction of a new church and parsonage.

First Baptist Church, Abbeville, SC

He also lobbied hard to get his proposed Baptist Hospital located in Abbeville, but the committee appointed by the Baptists to look into building a hospital eventually chose Columbia as the site for the building. The Anderson Daily Intelligencer in July 1914 noted that the agreement to build the hospital was "quite a triumph for the untiring labors of the brilliant young preacher, who is also secretary of the board of Anderson College."

An early postcard of the Baptist Hospital in Columbia.

Bristow was named president of the Baptist Hospital board. He had no desire to oversee the daily operation of the hospital, but after its first year, it was deeply in debt and the future did not look promising. The board prevailed upon him to take over the duties of hospital superintendent, which he felt he must do to attempt to save the hospital. One year and four months into his tenure, he had greatly reduced the debt, painted the building, purchased an X-ray machine, added beds, renovated the heating plant and installed a new telephone system. The hospital was also commended for its extremely low mortality rate.

During Bristow's three years in Columbia, another daughter, Caroline, joined the family, while older daughter, Gwen, graduated from Columbia High. Each year, too, the hospital grew and began to prosper. In June 1918, he commissioned plans for the construction of a new hospital. 

In December of that year,  the members of Abbeville Baptist Church again issued a call for him to become their minister. Believing that the hospital was on a sure financial footing and missing the life of an active minister, Bristow accepted. Back in Abbeville, he continued his civic engagement. By August of 1919, he was also once again editing the Baptist Courier in addition to his other duties while its permanent editor worked with war-torn European countries in the wake of World War I.

Selma Baptist Hospital, Selma, Alabama

In 1921, the trouble with his throat returned, and in July he received an offer to oversee the building of a Baptist hospital in Selma, Alabama, which he accepted. The State Baptist Hospital of Selma was dedicated on Valentine's Day 1922. While in Selma, he also proposed and was overseer of the construction of a hospital for the city's black residents. After its completion, he served as superintendent for both hospitals.

The Baptists from New Orleans came calling in 1924, asking him to re-locate to their city to work on building the Southern Baptist Hospital of New Orleans. Once again, he worked to build a hospital and then became its superintendent. This time, though, he appeared content to stay in New Orleans, serving as superintendent there until his retirement in 1947. During those years, he wrote three books. The most well-known was Healing Humanity's Hurt, published in 1927. "Healing Humanity's Hurt" was also the motto of the Baptist Hospital in New Orleans. At the time of his retirement, it was noted that he had served as a hospital administrator for 35 years and never ended a year with a deficit.

Southern Baptist Hospital in New Orleans, LA.

He had planned to return to South Carolina in retirement but was asked to consult at Baton Rouge General Hospital and ended up living out his life in New Orleans. He died there on November 15, 1957. It is also interesting to note that in reading reports of speeches or interviews he gave while in Selma and New Orleans, he always mentioned Kingstree and The County Record, and his ownership of it was prominently mentioned in his obituary.

Newspaper photo of Louis Bristow in 1932.

Gwen Bristow Manning

Dr. Louis J. Bristow, Jr.

For all Bristow's accomplishments, though, he was overshadowed by daughter, Gwen, who built a reputation as a tenacious reporter for Louisiana newspapers and made a name for herself nationally as an author of novels, such as Celia Garth, Deep Summer, and Jubilee Trail, among others. By the 1940s, Louis Bristow was identified in many news articles as the "father of novelist Gwen Bristow." Louis, Jr, went to medical school and became head of the radiology department of the hospital in New Orleans that his father built. Caroline married a doctor and settled in Mississippi.