Snow Credited with Saving Town in 1895

The February 20, 1895, issue of Sumter's Watchman & Southron newspaper included a front page story which began: Kingstree–February 18–As day dawned upon the usually quiet little village of Kingstree this morning, it revealed the fact that fire had made a pretty large opening during the night right in the business centre of town. Four chimneys standing as monuments, three iron safes and some smouldering (sic) ashes is (sic) all that is left of what were considered yesterday four of Kingstree's most popular business places.

Around 1 a.m. that Monday morning, the clanging bells of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist churches aroused residents from their slumbers. Ringing the church bells was the only means the town had at the time to notify citizens of a fire. Bessie Britton, in newspaper columns originally published in the 1970s, noted that Kingstree residents would all rush outside half-clad to make sure their own roofs were not on fire before joining the bucket brigade. "Just calling back to mind the sudden discordant clamor of those loud bells in the night still makes goose bumps come on me, or perhaps it was only that being small, I lost my sense of security at seeing grown-ups in a bewildered state of fear," she wrote. However, she added, "(L)ife has a way of providing a bit of comic relief for mortals even when threatened by tragedy. Let me tell you about the Colored sextons who were employed to keep the bells ringing as long as a fire lasted. At first, the sextons, like everybody else, were wild with excitement, but if the blaze lasted long enough for them to settle into stride, they instinctively began to improvise ragtime tunes on those bells. ... They threw their full weight on the coarse ropes and went to town. The air pulsed with sound as they tried to outdo each other in volume, striving at the same time to synchronize the clamor of their bells, as carpenters on a building job will sometimes synchronize the rat-a-tat-tat of their hammers. ... Presently all the bells were swinging together in joyful harmony. A new ragtime tune was born."

On the morning of February 18, 1895, as residents stumbled out of their homes, they could see the glow of fire coming from Main Street. They quickly gathered to find that flames were coming from Wm. Epps & Son. They broke down the door, but the fire was already so advanced that they soon realized the store could not be saved. John Epps, the junior partner in Wm. Epps & Son, was asleep in the back room of the store. Friends outside the building made enough noise to rouse him, and he was able to escape unharmed out the back door. 

The current entrance to the Kingstree Fire Department. The KFD will be moving

later this year to new quarters next door to the Kingstree Town Hall.

The fire quickly spread to the buildings on either side of Wm. Epps & Son. One of these stores was also owned by Epps & Son and housed E.J. Aoston's barber shop and fruit stand. The other store owned by Mrs. I.M. Koger, was a large two-story building in which King & Montgomery operated a general merchandise store. Two more buildings also burned. These were Dr. W.G. Gamble's drugstore from which most of the drugs that were in the store were saved, and either Mrs. Ollie Epps' or Miss Mollie Epps' home. Newspaper reports vary on the name of the house's owner. Dr. Gamble and Mrs./Miss Epps were both out of town at the time of the fire.

Two very large buildings were on either side of those that were burning. These were the H.J. Weingarten store to the east and the Coleman Hotel to the west. Both of them were in grave danger, and everyone knew that if they caught fire, it was likely that the whole town would burn. The news article described it this way: For 40 minutes everyone put all their effort into attempts to save these two buildings, afraid that at anytime they would begin to burn, and all hope of saving the rest of the downtown area would be lost. 

It was a very calm night, and it was noted that everything had been covered for several days by sleet and snow, making it more difficult for the fire to spread, and so the hard work of the town's residents paid off as the fires slowly died out without moving to the other buildings. Losses were estimated at $5,000, with only $600 to $1,000 of insurance on them.

Later that Monday morning, court convened in the Williamsburg County Courthouse across the street, although court proceedings were greatly impeded by the aftermath of the fire. However, by Wednesday, life was enough back to normal that when attorney Barron Grier gave the defense's closing argument in the case of a former railroad agent's embezzlement trial, it was "considered to be one of the finest arguments ever delivered in this court." The jury deliberated a full five minutes before delivering a "not guilty" verdict.