It is 1:15 a.m., December 31, 1906. Residents of Kingstree are roused from their slumbers by the incessant clanging of church bells, a signal that there is a fire somewhere in the village. As they stumble out of their homes, checking first to make sure that their own roofs aren't on fire, they can see the glow of a large blaze coming from the heart of downtown Kingstree.
The first to arrive on Main Street found that all the buildings on the south side of Main from the Courthouse Square to Jail Street (now Jackson Street) were ablaze. This included the Central Hotel, formerly known as Barr's Hotel and owned by Dr. R.J. McCabe, Dr. W.L. Wallace's drugstore, and two buildings owned by W.T. Wilkins and rented by black-owned businesses. The fire apparently had started in one of the Wilkins buildings, rented by Wilson McCullough & Co. This store was located between the store on the corner of Jail and Main streets and Dr. Wallace's drug store. The fire quickly spread in both directions, engulfing all four buildings.
All four of the buildings were old, frame structures and burned like kindling. The volunteer bucket brigade, made up of townspeople, was unable to bring the fire under control. However, the efforts of the volunteers did keep the fire from spreading to the courthouse, the stables located behind the four burning buildings, and John A. Kelley's law office.
The County Record noted, somewhat sarcastically, "As usual, the engine, "Our Pet," came prancing to the scene after the fire had burned itself out."
Before the fire had stopped smoldering, there was already talk of replacing the buildings lost with more modern construction. The fire was estimated to have caused $4,300 worth of damage, with the various building owners carrying insurance that amounted to $3,150.
In its heyday, Barr's Hotel, located just off the Courthouse Square, was considered one of the town's best advertisements. George S. Barr, who owned and operated the hotel, was described as genial, jolly, and big-hearted. He had himself worked as a traveling salesman, so he made sure that the hotel catered to salesmen, who were called drummers in those days, as well as "Knights of the Grip." Barr had a horse and buggy from the livery stable he operated behind the hotel meet every train arriving in Kingstree to ensure that the drummers could easily get to lodging for the night.
After the sinking of the Navy ship, the USS Maine, during the build-up to the Spanish-American War in 1898, The County Record received regular bulletins by telegraph. These were posted in front of the hotel each evening to keep the community informed of the latest news.
The Western Union Telegraph was located in the hotel, and in 1900, George Barr's 10-year-old son, Willie, was put in charge of telegraph operations. He was the youngest telegraph operator in the United States and was known by other operators as "The Baby." His story was printed in newspapers throughout the country. Willie Barr, the stories said, had traveled to Western Union headquarters and undergone rigorous testing before the company allowed him to take over the Kingstree telegraph.
On Presidential election nights, crowds would gather at the hotel, awaiting results to come in over the wire.
Sadly, George Barr died in August 1902, at age 48, after suffering for weeks with typhoid fever. After his death, B. Heyward Myers took over operation of the hotel, renaming it The Central Hotel. In 1906, J.P. Wheeler was running the hotel.
Dr. R.J. McCabe owned the hotel building, and soon after the fire, he started building a new 30'x80' two-story, brick building. That building became home to Kingstree's first movie theatre, but we'll look at that in another post.
Dr. W.L. Wallace's drugstore was located beside the hotel. At the time of the fire, Dr. Wallace had been practicing in Kingstree for 49 years. He was a graduate of the National Medical College in Washington, DC, and had done post-graduate work at Baltimore Medical College.
Dr. Wallace was fully engaged in the civic life of Kingstree, serving on town council as mayor pro tem. And, he did not mind speaking his mind about things he felt were not right. In a January 1903 letter to the editor of The County Record, he stated that there was "too much thievery" going on around town. He wrote that harnesses and other small items had been taken, but he had totally lost patience when his medical bag was stolen from his own piazza. He had left the bag there, as he always did, on Saturday night, but when he went out on Sunday to respond to an emergency house call, the bag was nowhere to be found. Therefore, he was calling for the town to enact a curfew in the winter months. He wanted a bell to ring promptly at 9 p.m. on Saturday nights as a signal for all businesses to close immediately. He also wanted the town to hire some "burly policemen" to enforce the curfew.
After the fire destroyed his drugstore, he opened temporarily in a small cottage that had once served as The County Record's office on the corner of the J.N. Hammet lot on Main Street. A year or so later, he built a two-story, brick drugstore on the site of his burned building. In 1908, Dr. E. Theron Kelley moved from Timmonsville to partner with him. Dr. Wallace, then 77, retired from active medical practice in January 1910. He had practiced medicine for 53 years, all within an eight-mile radius of Kingstree. He was described as a big-hearted, philanthropic physician, nurse, and pharmacist who not only filled his own prescriptions, but also often gave food and clothing to his patients. Dr. Wallace died in 1918 at age 84.
W.T. Wilkins sold the two lots closest to Jail (Jackson) Street to F.C. Thomas of Manning, who had also bought the livery stable once associated with Barr's Hotel. Mr. Thomas constructed a two-story brick opera house on those two lots. Again we'll look more closely at the opera house in another post.
The fire was not the only tragedy to happen in Kingstree on New Year's Eve 1906. Later in the day, as the Number 50 train from Charleston approached the water tank several hundred yards below the depot, it struck Austin Hines, fatally injuring him. Hines had lived in Kingstree for the past couple of years. He was a retired Atlantic Coast Line employee, having worked as a cook on the railroad's work train. A North Carolina native, he was 53 years old and appeared to have no living relatives. A coroner's jury ruled Hines' death a result of his own negligence. A look through records available online show that Hines was married at least twice. His first marriage was to Ella Whitehead in January, 1876, and his second was to Penny Mercer in February, 1879. The 1880 census shows him living in Wilson, NC, with Penny and a five-year-old daughter, Emma. The 1880 census also shows 16-year-old Neptune Baker living with the Hines family. Baker is described as a domestic servant.
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