In Solemn Remembrance

A couple of posts ago, we shared Laura Hemingway's article about Jean Thompson, in which she noted that Mrs. Thompson's poem "Resurrection," written as a tribute to a young Cheraw man who lost his life in World War I, had been set to music and performed by soprano Elizabeth Spencer at the unveiling of a WWI Memorial in New York City. In light of that and with Memorial Day at the end of next month, it seems a good time to look at the 52 young men (31 Black, 21 White) from Williamsburg County who also died during the First World War.

The World War I Memorial at the Williamsburg County Courthouse.

Deams Baylor's name is misspelled "Bayman" on the memorial. 

All their names are engraved on Williamsburg County's World War I Memorial located on the grounds of the Williamsburg County Courthouse. But they are all more than names engraved in granite. Behind each name is a uniquely individual story. They were from every corner of the county and from all walks of life. Many were farmers, farm hands, sharecroppers, but there were also store clerks, a barber, a druggist. Some spent several years in the military, others, like Israel Burgess and Herbert McCutchen, died within days of their induction into the Army. Burgess died of pneumonia 15 days after his induction at Camp Jackson in Columbia. McCutchen fell ill with the flu the day after he arrived at Camp Wadsworth in Spartanburg and died of pneumonia a few days later.

Of the 52, only five were killed in action, with two more dying from wounds they received.  Sgt. Walter Paul, the only Black soldier from Williamsburg County to die in combat in WWI, was killed on September 29, 1918, on the Champagne Front. Sgt. Paul served in the 371st Infantry, an all-Black unit formed from draftees at Camp Jackson. Several Williamsburg County men were part of the 371st Infantry, and a later post will be solely devoted to them. One more that I will mention here is Sgt. Henry Cleveland McClary, an ordnance sergeant in the 371st. He survived the fierce fighting of the Meuse-Argonne, and his name was on a passenger list to return to the United States on February 3, 1919. However, his name is crossed off that list with a penciled notation that he had been admitted to a hospital. Sgt. McClary died of pneumonia on January 27, 1919. Both Sergeants McClary and Paul were from the Cedar Swamp area.

The cross marking Sgt. Walter Paul's grave in the

Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in Lorraine, France.

On October 7, 1918,  Pvt. Verdie L. Venters, Company B, 47th Infantry, 4th Division, was killed in action. He lies buried in Plot F, Row 40, Grave 18 of the Meuse-Argonne American Cemtery, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Departement de la Meuse, Lorraine, France. Sgt. Walter Paul is buried not far from him in this cemetery in Plot F, Row 36, Grave 30. Pvt. Venters was from the Hemingway/Johnsonville area. 

The other three Williamsburg County soldiers killed in action were all members of 118th Infantry. Pvt. William P. Camlin and Pvt, Eddie W. Sports were both in Company "L," while Cpl. Thomas G. Norton was in Company "I."  Cpl. Norton was killed on Oct, 8, 1918; Pvt. Sports, on Oct. 12; and Pvt. Camlin on Oct. 17. Camlin was from the Harmony community of Williamsburg County; Sports was from Morrisville, and Norton from the Suttons/Trio area.

A tribute to Eddie Willcox Sports, killed in action on Oct. 12, 1918.

The two wounded soldiers who succumbed to their injuries were  Pfc. David W. Hanna, also of the 118th Infantry and Pfc. Deams  Baylor of the 117th Engineers. Hanna died on October 1, 1918, and Baylor on October 14, 1918. Hanna is buried in Plot A, Row 13, Grave 10 of Somme American Cemetery, Bony, Aisne, France. Baylor was initially interred in the same Meuse-Argonne Cemetery as Sgt. Paul and Pvt. Venters, but his remain were exhumed and reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery on Dec. 20, 1921. 

The 45 other casualties from Williamsburg County died of disease, 35 of them from pneumonia. It is likely that many, if not all, of these pneumonia cases were in reality victims of the 1918 Influenza pandemic. British-born author Jaime Breitnauer in her book on the pandemic notes that all of the countries engaged in WWI were hesitant to attribute any of their losses to the flu pandemic. However, a close look at the deaths attributed to pneumonia show them clustered during the three waves of the pandemic with most of them occurring in the Fall of 1918, when the pandemic was at its worst.

September, October, and November of 1918 must have been an extremely somber time in Williamsburg County. Thirty-seven of the 52 men from the county who died, died during these three months. September 8, Walter Fulton of pneumonia; September 23, Reddick McClam, pneumonia; Sept. 24, Frank Wartham, pneumonia; Sept. 28, Joe E. Jordan, pneumonia; Sept. 29, Mose Cunningham, pneumonia; Sept. 29, Walter Paul, killed in action; Sept. 30, James Gibson, pneumonia; Sept. 30, William McClary, myocarditis, October 1, David W. Hanna, wounds; Oct 1, Nathan Burrows, influenza; Oct, 2, Ashton T, Nelson, pneumonia; Oct 2., Phelix Moore, pneumonia; Oct. 3, Ben Cooper, pneumonia, Oct. 5, Henry Gilliard, pneumonia; Oct. 5, Ben Chandler, pneumonia; Oct. 6, James Alexander Thompson, pneumonia; Oct. 7, Verdie Lee Venters, killed in action; Oct. 8, Thomas G. Norton, killed in action;Oct. 8, Carter Johnson, pneumonia; Oct. 9, Spencer Fulton, pneumonia; Oct. 10, Richard Moultrie, pneumonia; Oct. 10, Charles E. Lawrence, pneumonia; Oct. 11, Sam Tisdale, pneumonia; Oct. 11, Henry Lee McCants, pneumonia; Oct. 12, Eddie Sports, killed in action; Oct 12, Thomas Troy Pope, pneumonia; Oct 12, Isaiah Giles, pneumonia; Oct. 13, Joseph White; pneumonia; Oct. 14, Deams Baylor; wounds; Oct. 17, William P. Camlin, killed in action; Oct. 17, Levi G. Brunson, pneumonia; Oct. 21, Aurin B. Wilson, pneumonia. November 5, David Covert, pneumonia; Nov. 9, I.E. Davis, pneumonia; Nov. 16, Herbert James McCutchen, pneumonia; Nov. 16, John Heyward Scott, acute dilation of the heart; November 29, Allen Ravenell, pneumonia. When you consider that county residents at home were also likely dying from the flu pandemic, it must have been a very painful time. There are no County Records available from March 1918 through February 1919, so it is difficult to get a good feel for what was going on and how residents re-acted.

Company "A" of the 1st Provisional Regiment, 156th Depot Brigade at Camp Jackson provides some evidence that many of these pneumonia deaths were likely tied to the pandemic. Spencer Fulton, Carter Johnson, Charles E. Lawerence, Sam Tisdale, Aurin B. Wilson and Richard Wilson, were all members of this company, and all died of pneumonia in the space of a little less than one month.

Others who died of pneumonia either earlier than September 1918 or after November 1918 were Henry Carlisle Myrick, Henry C. Williamson, Ivory Gamble, Philip Whitfield, and E.A. Cribb, 

Two soldiers, E.J. Clary and Irby Anderson Altman, died in 1917 of measles. Another two, Charlie Creel and Dewey Douglas, succumbed to meningitis. Alex Scott's cause of death was a brain abscess, while Richard Wilson died of typhoid fever, and John Montgomery of pulmonary TB.

Dr. D.C. Scott's son, John Heyward, actually died at home. He had been on furlough and was expected back at Camp Jackson the night of November 16, 1918. He had been visiting friends in town but went to his parents' home on Railroad Avenue about 3 p.m. to get ready to return to Columbia. He was suddenly taken ill and died at 10 o'clock that night. Drs. T.C. Hemingway and E.T. Kelley both signed his death certificate which attributed the cause of his death to "acute dilation of the heart." Before entering the service, he had been a druggist at the Scott Drug Company. He was remembered for his great fondness for Wiliamsburg County barbecue.

And, of course, there is at least one mystery. Harpy Mouzon was inducted into the Army on July 29, 1918. He was assigned to Camp Wadsworth near Spartanburg, where he was a Private in Company "C" of the 422nd Reserve Labor Battalion. He died January 27, 1919. The Official Roster of SC Men in World War I gives his cause of death as broncho pneumonia and skull fracture. On the day of his death, the entire city of Spartanburg was placed under quarantine in an attempt to combat the flu pandemic. There also had been racial tension between the Black soldiers at Camp Wadsworth and white residents of Spartanburg. In addition, several soldiers had attempted to "escape" from camp and had been hunted down and returned, with one of them killed by his pursuers. Did any of these factors play a role in how Pvt. Mouzon's skull came to be fractured? We likely will never know. He did not appear to have any close family ties as he listed his employer James V. Burgess as his emergency contact on his draft card, and Mr. Burgess was notified of his death. James Burgess, himself, died a few years later when his vehicle was hit by a train at the railroad crossing in Kingstree.

The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery where Verdie Venters and Walter Paul are buried.

Of the 52 men who died in the war, six of them are buried in American cemeteries in France. They include David Hanna at the Somme American Cemetery, Verdie Venters and Walter Paul at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, and Nathan Burrows, John Montgomery and Phelix Moore, all at Oise-Aisne American Cemetery at Seringes-et-Nestes. Deams Baylor and Ivory Gamble are buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virigina, and Mose Cunninghan was laid to rest at Edgewood Arsenal Post Cemetery, also known as Aberdeen Proving Ground South Cemetery, north of Baltimore,  MD.

Oise-Aisne American Cemetery at Seringes-et-Nestes, France.

Nathan Burrows, John Montgomery, and Phelix Moore are all buried here.

Years after the war, an article in the News & Courier brought to mind Pvt. Spencer Fulton. His father, Robert, a leading member of Williamsburg County's African-American community, dropped dead of a heart attack on August 24, 1931, in Clarence Alsbrook's American Legion Office in the Williamsburg Count Courthouse where Robert Fulton had gone to attend to some paperwork regarding his son, Spencer's, death during the war.

These men have all been gone for over 100 years now. But their stories shape how those of us from another generation view them and their times, just as our stories will one day shape how future generations view us.

 

Tourists Swarmed Kingstree in 1931 to View Spring Flowers

On Thursday, April 16, 1931, the following article appeared in The News & Courier with the headline: Kingstree Hotels Are Filled As Gardens Reach Height. So, let's amble back 90 years and see what was going on in town.

Today, Kingstree is still adorned with many colorful azaleas in the Spring.

"The tourist business here is all anyone could ask at present. Rooming houses and hotels are filled to overflowing, eating places are rushed, and automobile storage rooms are crowded every night. On the uptown streets, cars carrying licenses from practically every state in the union and some beyond, are parked daily. Groups of strangers, who are classed instantly as 'tourists' stroll the streets, wandering into residential sections, where they saunter more leisurely while they gaze high overhead at the cascades of purple color that is wisteria catapulting down lofty pines and oaks, or shimmering on trellises.

"Many express their surprise at the beauty of the town now, as evidenced by individual gardeners. 'The town in naturally pretty,' is a comment often heard in speaking of the patriarchal live oaks and virgin pines that stand along the street side or on lawns of homeowners.

"It is the opinion of others that Kingstree could be as attractive as Summerville, it being almost as much of a 'flower town' in spring as that. Many azaleas have been planted by individual gardeners the last few years, and whenever one builds a house here not, it goes without saying that the ground will be landscaped and planted. Neighboring nurseries have been doing a lucrative business here all spring, beginning last fall. They come and lay out the grounds and return, bringing shrubbery and plants by the truckload.

"Kingstree gardens are at their height just now. Wisteria has never been prettier nor bloomed with greater profusion. Spireas are like unto fountains of white, iris innumerable, in various colors, bloom in many gardens. Climbing roses have come into their own special glory, and azaleas, weigelas, kerria, dogwoods, honeysuckle, and others, too numerous to mention, have taken up the tale that is spring.

"The several old gardens about the town are a delight to those who love all things old. In them, ancient boxwoods and camellia japonicas lend tone to their antiquity. Some of those have lost patriarchs among the plants during the winter, when winter residents from the North who hold lodges nearby bought the plants, removed them intact to their own gardens. Their places are missed. It is as though old friends have left those who loved them.

"Yes. Kingstree is a pretty town naturally."

Famed Nature Writer Spent Time in Kingstree

Ninety years ago this week, Laura C. Hemingway wrote a story, published in News & Courier, about nature writer Jean M. Thompson, who was a member of Kingstree's "winter colony." It seems appropriate to share Mrs. Hemingway's story today:

Nature writer, Jean Thompson, who spent at least four winters in Kingstree.

"Among the tourist colony of Kingstree is one whose name is especially associated with the Easter season. That is Jean M. Thompson, whose "Resurrection" was published in 1920 in The New York Times, and set to music by that dean of composers, Mark Andrews, and has been sung at Eastertime the country over.

"It is of especial interest to the people of South Carolina to know that the poem was written as a memorial to a South Carolina boy, Lieutenant Brooks Malloy, of Cheraw, a Citadel graduate, who lost his life in the World War. Mrs. Thompson was a friend of the Malloy family, spending much time in that home. When news of the death of this only son of a widowed mother reached her, she went off into the woods alone, as she so loves to do, where she tried in her own way to reason out the why of life's complexities. It was the season approaching Easter. From out of the depths of the woods she saw emerge a moth of gigantic size and of pristine whiteness. There she composed her memorial to the South Carolina boy who slept in Flanders Field.

"'Silken butterfly wings unfolding/ Leave their wrappings gray./ From the mold pure lilies springing/ Greet the new-born day./ They are risen: 'Tis a promise/ God has given all men./ Lo, ye shall not sleep forever./ Ye shall rise again./ Far away 'neath rude carved crosses/ Rest brave soldier boys./ While on earth we mourn our losses,/ Turning from its joys./ Take ye comfort in your sadness./ Hush ye sorrow's cry./ They are risen! They are risen!/ 'Tis a promise/ Given from on high.'

When plans for unveiling the memorial erected in New York City to the 'brave soldier boys' who did not return were in progress, those in charge cast about for something appropriate to be sung at the ceremony. Mark Andrews, who had so successfully set to music 'In Flanders Field,' was requisitioned to find a poem and have it ready to be sung. He had almost given up in despair when he chanced to see Mrs. Thompson's poem in The Times. Permission was granted to use the verses. The music he dedicated to Elizabeth Spencer who sang the song at the memorial exercises accompanying the unveiling of the monument. The song, published by Schirmer, has since been sung by Metropolitan opera stars for victrola records.

But it is not for poetry that Mrs. Thompson lays claim for her reputation as an author, dearly as she loves that phase of writing. She is known best for her big animal stories that have appeared in many of the outstanding magazines. She is a close student of wildlife over a broad range, and she has won for herself through the merit of her stories with their authentic nature lore, the unique position of being the only woman in America whose work in this field is comparable to like work done by such male writers as Ernest Thompson Seton, Charles G.D. Roberts, Walter Pritchard Eaton, and other nature writers nearer home. For her stories, she has had the illustrators used by Charles Livingston Bull and Paul Bransom.

A charming book written by Mrs. Thompson is Over Indian and Animal Trail, published by the Frederick A. Stokes Company of New York, and illustrated in color by Paul Bransom. One edition of the book is bound in raw silk, making it a handsome book physically.

But it is through Water Wonders that Mrs. Thompson is best known to the reading public. This book, published years ago, has lived in a class of its own. Of a scientific nature told in a narrative manner that holds the interest of adult and youth, it has attracted attention far and wide. It has been published in eight different bindings, has gone through a number of printings, is recommended by the American Library Association, is used as a text book in many schools and universities and is now included in the series of "Every Child Should Know," published by Doubleday. Water Wonders is illustrated with the microphotographs made by Professor Bentley who originated that method of photographing ice and snow crystals and has won renown. This book brought the writer the title "The Jack Frost Lady," which is mentioned in Who's Who in America.

Mrs. Thompson is a versatile writer and a prolific one. She is the author of more than one thousand short stories that have appeared in 85 magazines in this country and abroad. She is a member of the David C. Cook Publishing Company's writers' staff. She contributes regularly to five of their publications, her work being featured on the front pages. She was once a member of the Butterick staff, and has been connected from time to time with various other publishing companies in the United States. But she likes to write independently and spend her time here and there about the country, choosing the great north woods for the summer season and the south for spring and winter.

Mrs. Thompson was born in Connecticut, but she spends her time between her travels in New York where she can come in touch with the literary world. She is a member of the Authors' League of America and other writers' affiliated clubs. This is her third visit to Kingstree."

It appears that Mrs. Thompson spent at least four winters in Kingstree. In 1918, she stayed in the home of Dr. and Mrs. R.J. McCabe. In the 1930s, she was a guest of Laura and Dr. Theodore S. Hemingway. Her books are still available, although a hardback copy of Wild Kindred lists for over $900 on Amazon. The Kindle versions are much, much less expensive.