Tales From the Early Kingstree Police Department

Later this year, Kingstree Police Chief Andre Williams and his 14 officers will move into their new headquarters next door to Town Hall on Longstreet Street. 

Work is ongoing on the new Kingstree Police and Fire Departments.

This is the new police station.

The police department has come a long way since the town's early days. The first census in which we find anyone's occupation labeled as "police" was in 1880. In that census, both George W. Arms and William Blakely listed their occupations as "police." Arms was white; Blakely was mulatto.

By 1893, Arms was serving as the county's jailer as well as the town marshal (the title used instead of policeman at that time). His duties were usually routine patrol, but there were those cases that found space in the newspaper even then. For example, in July 1897, Arms arrested Lowry "Nunky" Pierson and charged him with throwing rocks into an excursion train that had passed through Kingstree on June 22.

By the late 1890s, Richard Stutts had become town marshal, with J.B. Lemmon serving as his assistant.

Fire Chief Tim Duke, Police Chief Andre Williams, 

and Town Council Member Chris Williams at the

groundbreaking for the new police/fire complex 

in November 2019.

B.H. Myers was hired as Town Marshal by the town council in January 1901. Myers also operated a boarding house in Kingstree. He, too, made some interesting arrests, including that of a local carpenter who was described by the newspaper as "pursuing an erratic orbit on the sidewalks and swearing like a pirate." That unfortunate gentlemen spent 30 days on the chain gang for his troubles.

The summer of 1901 was a hot one, and the long, 102-degree days seemed to bring out the worst in the town's youngsters. Myers arrested one small boy, described as having "an abnormally developed bump of combativeness" for having pulled a knife on a playmate during a game of marbles and for giving "vent to his Vesuvian passion in a choice vocabulary of 'cuss' words." In Mayor's Court, the boy was given a choice of "40 stripes, save one" or time on the chain gang. He chose the 39 lashes, which were administered by his father at the jail, where the youngster spent the night to "meditate on the consequences of his conduct."

Six other small boys were hauled before the mayor after they were arrested for playing baseball in the street, which had recently been outlawed by town ordinance. Mayor W.H. Kennedy gave then all a severe reprimand and sent them on their way.

Today's police officers work hard on building good relationships in the community.

Here Chief Andre Williams tests his skill during last May's Kingstree Live.

The town council decided in October 1901 to hire a night marshal. The council interviewed five men for the position, including the current day marshal Myers; former marshal G.W. Arms; J.B. Lemmon, a former assistant marshal; J.P. Nelson; and James Tharpe. Myers, Arms, Lemmon and Nelson were white; Tharpe was black. Council hired Myers. The night marshal was to work every evening and all day Saturday for a salary of $7 per week.

In January 1902, Myers was called to break up an altercation between brothers, Jubal and Clarence Scott, which they were attempting to settle with an axe. Jubal fled to the swamp when Myers arrived. He was pursued, quickly apprehended, and brought back to the scene. By this time, a crowd had gathered and some in the crowd began making "unnecessary comments." Myers put an end to that by knocking several of those making the offending comments to the ground.

After 15 months of service, in April 1902, Myers resigned the position after a disagreement with town council. Myers had been paid by the owner of a store which had closed pending litigation to watch the store at night. Council contended that this was a regular part of the night marshal's job and would not allow him to accept the money from the owners. Myers said he had not charged the owners, but that they had given him the cash as a gift.

At last June's Kingstree Live, John Thomas Thompson found himself "captured"

by Kingstree Police officers Kirby and Cooper.

S.C. Anderson was hired to replace him at a salary of $30 per month. In addition to his work as a police officer, he was also to be in charge of lighting the streetlights every night. The County Record noted that Anderson arrested a woman "for overindulging in booze and attempting to give an open air matinee on Railroad Avenue." Mayor J.A. Kelley fined her $2, which she cheerfully paid before going on her way.

After five months as marshal, Anderson resigned to become manager of W.R. Funk's brickworks. He was replaced by J.A. Scott, who resigned after only a month on the job. Council rehired B.H. Myers as day marshal and his son, Charles, as night marshal. Before the end of the year, B.H. Myers, once again resigned, and council again hired J.A. Scott.

By 1905, S.C. Anderson was again town marshal. In October of that year, he discovered a thief in Wilkins' Retail Store between midnight and 1 a.m. He quickly recruited several townspeople to surround the store, but the suspect broke out the front door and escaped. The thief had filled two valises with merchandise, which he left in the store in his hurry to escape. The $23 taken from the cash drawer was not recovered, however.

At Blocktober Fest, KPD officers kept order but also found time to join 

the crowd in a little line dancing.

One of the more amusing incidents in early downtown Kingstree occurred on the evening of Monday, December 13, 1909. W.H. Carr, manager of Kingstree Hardware, was notified that evening by the night marshal that the door to Kingstree Hardware, then located on Academy Street, was standing open. When Carr arrived at the store a few minutes later, he found the door closed and locked. Mystified, he entered the store and discovered $3 missing from the cash drawer, as well as several items of merchandise and a pistol belonging to one of the town marshals which had been brought in for repair. He also noticed that the keys to the vacant building next door were missing. Still puzzled at how the thief had gotten into the store, Carr began experimenting and soon discovered that the same key opened half the stores on Academy Street, as well as several on Main Street. The next morning Kingstree was a busy place as storekeepers rushed to change their locks.

By 1915, J.H. Epps was police chief, with J.A. Scott and W.W. Dennis as officers. However, the three-man police department did not last long, as it was back down to the chief and one officer by 1919, and it remained a two-man operation well into the 1930s.

From January to March 1935, businesses in Kingstree found pennies missing from their cash registers. Finally in early March, a 30-year-old man, when confronted by the Kingstree Police, confessed that since the first of the year, he had entered a number of businesses and removed pennies from the cash registers, simply because he liked pennies. He said he had taken pennies from the wholesale division of the Kingstree Grocery Company, the Kingstree Service Station, Miller's Market, and the Dixie Garage, as well as from Wakim's Store twice and the Atlantic Coast Line Depot three times. These, he said, were all the places he could remember, but there might have been more.

The Kingstree Police Department, late 1950s or early 60s. Seated from l-r, S.L. McFadden, Chief

George B. Hammet, Orion Williams. Standing, F.D. Wheeler, George H. Roark

J.O. Strong, W.B. Cook, Cecil White, and A.A. Bracey.

Source: Williamsburg County: A Pictorial History

As the town grew, so did the police department. By the late 1950s, the police force consisted of nine officers.

The police station on Mill Street suffered irreparable damage during Hurricane Hugo in 1989. The police moved into the old Highway Department building behind the new town hall on Longstreet Street, with the promise that those arrangements were temporary and that a new police station would be built. Thirty-one years later that promise will finally become a reality. Monday night town council voted to name the new facility the Richard L. Treme Public Safety Complex in honor of the town manager, who happened to have been police chief in 1989. For Richard Treme, Chief Williams and the rest of the Kingstree police officers, the new building is a long-deferred dream come true.

County Considered Demolishing Courthouse in 1937

Kingstree residents of today should be grateful for another former resident, Nell Flinn Gilland, who used her considerable writing talent to preserve some of the history of Kingstree and Williamsburg County. She was the daughter of John William Flinn, a professor of philosophy and chaplain at the University of South Carolina. She moved to Kingstree after her marriage to Louis W. Gilland, an attorney and former mayor of Kingstree for whom Gilland Memorial Park is named.

The Williamsburg County Courthouse as it looks today.

The following story, written by Nell Gilland, was published in the October 3, 1937, News & Courier.

"A central depository at the University of South Carolina for the preservation of courthouse records no longer in use was authorized by an act signed by Governor Olin D. Johnston during the last session of the legislature.

"This act grew out of concern felt by those interested in seeing that South Carolina should not lose by destruction due to indifference or lack of space valuable state material. In the past, fire, war, and unawareness of the value of records have caused irreparable loss of data which never can be replaced. The new wings which will be added to the fine old library building at the university will offer room for filing the state's records.

"Williamsburg, Colleton, and Spartanburg delegations introduced bills to secure permission to destroy old records on account of lack of space. It was this proposed legislation which aroused the university to offer to become custodian of unwanted records either temporarily or permanently.

"Chester, Barnwell, and Edgefield counties have added fireproof annexes, like the head of a "T" across the rear of their old courthouses to provide space for records and in an effort to preserve the beauty of the architecture of their honored courthouse buildings. Georgetown has built an annex in the courthouse grounds for offices and records, thus not interfering in the slightest with the form of their old buildings.

"In Williamsburg County there is a movement afoot either to add to the present building, build a new one, or make some other provision for needed space and modernization of offices.

"It would be tragic should the present historic courthouse in Williamsburg suffer demolition, and many citizens of the county feel that even the addition of an extension or wings might interfere with the beauty of the building, which stands as a monument to the skill of South Carolina's distinguished architect Robert Mills. With the massive columns and portico typical of Mills' architecture, the building is of classical design with walls thirty inches thick and has been occupied since 1823. In 1883, (newspaper articles from 1889 prove this date to be incorrect) the second story of the building caught fire and burned three days. But the offices in the vaulted ground floor proved fireproof and were occupied by officials before the flames upstairs were quenched, the records being quite safe.

"Williamsburg became a circuit court district by act of 1804. It was then the intention of the county to erect a courthouse on the public parade ground, which had played an important part in the history of the county since its first settling in 1732. But with the irregularity which existed in early days, William Brady had built a house on the site and claimed the lot. After his death (in 1820), the commissioners regained possession of the parade grounds for the county, and $10,000 was appropriated by legislature for the building.

"The late J.J.B. Montgomery, for many years county auditor and whose son, Donald Montgomery, has succeeded him to that office, used to tell how many of the earliest courthouse records were lost in an effort to save them from destruction at the hands of Sherman's army. In anticipation of the of the enemy's approach, record books were collected hastily and not too wisely entrusted to wagons to be carried off to Sumter and Camden for protection.

Former Williamsburg County Auditor J.J.B. Montgomery, known to all as "Daddy" Montgomery.

Donald Montgomery, who followed in his father's footsteps as county auditor.

"Some arrived safely at their destinations, but others were spilled along the wayside. In later years, a book of Williamsburg County records would turn up every now and then in some church along the route presumably taken by the emissaries. Mr. Montgomery said it was assumed that such books had fallen from the wagons unnoticed by the drivers and had been afterwards picked up and taken into a church for safe keeping. Some were irrevocably lost.

"It is the accumulation of records since that time which now are a problem. Office space also is inadequate, and the heating of the old building is accomplished by quaint open grates in the basement offices and by stoves in the courtroom. County officials are faced with the problem of effecting modern convenience and space without destroying or defacing a landmark which is a pride to the entire state.

"The courthouse grounds in Kingstree have recently been landscaped as part of the WPA beautification project, greatly enhancing the beauty of the old building set amid spreading oaks. An outdoor stage has been arranged for May Day festivals and other occasions with a lily pool between the stage and the audience.

"On these grounds the Craven County regiment held its parades and gala days two centuries ago, and here during the Revolution, the men of Williamsburg met when they came from every corner and by-way of the county to form themselves into four companies under the leadership of Major John James and became the nucleus of Marion's Brigade.

"During the days of the Confederacy and in the years of Reconstruction, the courthouse grounds were the center of patriotic gatherings. The World War saw the descendants of Marion's Brigade again mustering in at their country's call to arms. And not only in war, but also in peace, the courthouse and its grounds have seen the history of Williamsburg made. Fiery political gatherings have been held under the shade of the trees in the shadow of the building. Citizens have met to discuss local problems there, and meetings designed to disseminate among the people valuable information, as to improved farming methods have brought the people of Williamsburg to its courthouse as a shrine. Tourists and visitors from many distant states have stopped to admire the stately building.

"However present officials meet their problem of needed additional space, the beautiful courthouse stands, mutely testifying to its ancient dignity, its wealth of historical tradition."

The courthouse, of course, was not demolished, and 17 years after this article was published, an addition was added to the rear of the courthouse, and changes were made to the front entrance to the courtroom.

AND ONE MORE THING:

An early addition was apparently added to the courthouse in 1854. A classified advertisement in the February 18, 1854, issue of the Charleston Courier states: To Contractors and Builders–The Commissioners of Public Buildings for Williamsburgh District will receive sealed proposals on or until the 10th day of March next, for building an ADDITION TO THE COURTHOUSE, 16 feet in length and of the same width and height as the present building. Also for building new roof, removing present Jury rooms, gallery and four pillars placed there to support the present roof. For particulars as to plan and specifications, contractors are requested to address or call on Col. N.G. Rich, Kingstree, South Carolina, by whom the desired information will be given.

D.M. MASON

Chairman, Commission of Public Buildings