Mrs. Reeves Writes About Thanksgiving

I'll start this Thanksgiving week post with gratitude to my friend, Jay Reeves, for giving me permission to use a column, written by his mother in The County Record in the early 1960s. During that time, Jay's dad Ernie wrote a regular column for the local paper. But, that week, he asked his wife Jerry, who taught many of you in kindergarten, I'm sure, to write the column for him. Here is Mrs. Reeves' take on Thanksgiving from Jay's 1993 compilation of his dad's columns called, as the column was, Whistling In Dixie.

Jerry Brantley and Ernest Reeves at their wedding in 1953.

Photo courtesy of Jay Reeves

It starts out with with an introduction from Mr. Reeves: "I'm sure that most who read these rantings each week could do a better job than the writer. I asked my wife if she'd like to write the column this week. Our six-year-old, Tom, asked her to write something about Thanksgiving. What follows is her work.

"Tonight when Ernie left the house to go see Psycho at the movie, he jokingly said for me to write his article for the paper this week. So, I thought I'd be a good student and do his homework for him. At least I have something definite to write about––Thanksgiving.

"Children make a holiday seem much more real.

"At kindergarten, we've been coloring turkeys and finding out why we eat turkey at Thanksgiving, coloring butterflies and pasting Bible verses of praise to God in them, and learning that the word Thanksgiving means giving thanks to God for everything he has given us so freely.

"Thanksgiving is one of our American holidays. More than 300 years ago in October 1621, William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony, proclaimed a day of prayer and feasting on which the Pilgrims might give special thanks to God for their blessings. The main dish that day was wild turkey, which the men had killed. I guess that's why so many men go hunting on Thanksgiving day now––just the 'ole pilgrim blood' showing itself. The only difference in the hunting then and now is that the wife brings home the game from the store already dressed and pre-cooked, and the men come home tired and empty-handed (usually, that is.)

"On the first Thanksgiving the Pilgrims gave thanks to God for a chance to live and work in this new land, their new home, which was the real beginning of our U.S.A.

"We are apt to take much for granted today. We accept all the good things that make our lives pleasant, forgetting that life, even in the United States, hasn't always been so easy. Our warm homes, electric lights, running water (especially hot water), radios, and TVs are really quite new. Our grandmothers and grandfathers can tell us how different things were when they were small.

"This Thanksgiving, and every other day, let us give thanks for our loved ones and for all the good things that surround us. We can give thanks to God in any place or in any way that we think best––in family prayers or alone, indoors or out, where God seems quite near with nature all around us––or we can give thanks to Him in the church of our choice. It is important to feel thankful and to express our thanks for His love and protecting care. Prayers can bring us peace of mind––faith in God and appreciation of the worth of each other person are necessary for our own happiness and will help carry on the high purposes that Americans have always held important."

I'm supremely grateful that Ernie and Jerry Reeves were influences in my life, both as a child and as an adult, and that their sons Tom and Jay have been my friends for far more years than any of us care to remember. I'm also grateful to all of you who take the time to read these blog posts each week.  Although I may not respond to all your comments, know that they are always appreciated.

New Biography Looks at Former Senator, Auditor, Mayor of Kingstree

The third book published this year that focuses on a unique part of the history of Kingstree and Williamsburg County is a biography of Stephen Atkins Swails. Written by Mount Pleasant historian, author, and attorney Gordon C. Rhea, the book takes a close look at a man who was both loved and hated in his day.

Author Gordon C. Rhea

Source: Blue and Gray Education Society

Stephen A. Swails, Black Freedom Fighter in the Civil War and Reconstruction was released November 3. It follows the life of Stephen Swails from his birth in Columbia, Pennsylvania, in 1832 until his death in Kingstree in 1900. Although he was born to free Black parents, Swails saw from an early age that Black citizens, although free, were not free from harassment, as many of his neighbors' homes were burned and Black residents intimidated by whites who feared that Blacks would take their jobs. The Swails family eventually moved to Elmira, New York, and as a young man during the Civil War, Stephen Swails enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the regiment on which the movie Glory is based.

Rhea traces the movements of the 54th Massachusetts from the bloody battle at Battery Wagner near Charleston to the Battle of Olustee in Baker County, Florida, in which Swails was wounded, to their march with General Edward Potter across parts of South Carolina. Stephen Swails' performance was such that his white commanders and Massachusetts governor John Andrew requested that the War Department commission him as an officer. However, War Department officials were reluctant, fearing  this would put Swails in a position to command white soldiers. Only after his commanding officers assured those officials that Swails looked like a white man did he become the first African-American commissioned line officer in the United States Army.

Stephen Atkins Swails

Following the war, Stephen Swails returned to South Carolina where he was employed by the Freedmen's Bureau and assigned to Williamsburg County. His job was to mediate grievances and issues between Blacks and whites. Rhea, in an interview with the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College, noted that this position gave him a great political advantage in that he was well-known by all segments of the community and was "able to win allies in both sectors of the population. "

While working with the Bureau, Swails studied law and was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1872. He set up a law practice in Kingstree with Melvin J. Hirsch, who had fought at Battery Wagner on the side of the Confederates.

Swails also sought public office and was elected to the South Carolina Senate where he served as president pro tem. He also served as Williamsburg County Auditor and as Intendant, or Mayor, of Kingstree from 1873 until 1877. In addition, he was editor and publisher of The Williamsburg Republican. He was an electoral college elector for several Presidential elections and served as a trustee for the University of South Carolina.

Gordon Rhea notes that until recently little has been written about Reconstruction. "This was a real educational experience for me," he said in the interview with the Civil War Institute. "I'm glad I went through it because I learned so much and met some fascinating characters."

During Reconstruction throughout South Carolina there was much violence, including a number of political assassinations. And while there were racial tensions and upheavals in Williamsburg County, there was little overt violence. Stephen Swails has been credited by several who lived through the time with helping to keep relative calm in Williamsburg County.

The historical marker commemorating the Stephen Swails' home

which was located on the corner of Main and South Brooks streets in Kingstree.

However, as times began to change, Stephen Swails began to feel the heat of his opponents' wrath. They eventually were able to drive him from the county by threatening his life. He found work in Washington, DC, with the Post Office Department and the Department of the Treasury. But it also appears that he regularly visited his wife and children in Kingstree without incident, and after he became ill, he moved back to Kingstree where he died May 17, 1900, attended by Dr. D.C. Scott.

Stephen Swails had more or less become a footnote of local history until 1978 when brothers Jimmy and Edward Moore happened to see a trunk on the side of Brooks Street, outside the Carolina Warehouse. (The Swails home once sat where the warehouse was then located.) They didn't stop at the time but came back later that day to find it gone. Still later, Jimmy Moore drove by the town dump and saw the same trunk. This time he stopped and picked it up. Inside were the personal papers of Stephen Swails. The brothers didn't know who Stephen Swails was, but they took their find to Sammie McIntosh at the Williamsburgh Historical Society. McIntosh gave them $75 as a finder's fee. But, it wasn't until the 1990s that Kingstree attorney Billy Jenkinson became interested in the papers and, as a result, in 1998, an historical marker was placed on the property to commemorate Stephen Swails. In 2006, Russell Horres, a board member of the African-American Historical Alliance, was able to identify Stephen Swails' unmarked grave in the Humane and Friendly Society Cemetery in Charleston. Subsequently, the Alliance placed a marker on the grave. Billy Jenkinson, through a set of unusual circumstances, met Gordon Rhea and told him the story of Stephen Swails. Rhea became interested and soon found out that Hugh McDougall, the official Village Historian of Cooperstown, NY, and a former attorney and diplomat, had also gathered information on Stephen Swails. Jenkinson and McDougall's research gave Rhea a solid base from which to begin his own research.

Stephen Swails' grave marker in the Humane and Friendly Cemetery

in Charleston, South Carolina.

Rhea points out that the white citizens of Williamsburg County had varying views of Stephen Swails. Dr. Samuel Davis McGill in his book Narrative of Reminiscences in Williamsburg County credited Swails with keeping serious violence at bay in Williamsburg County during Reconstruction. However, W.W. Boddie and Henry Davis saw him more as a villain, calling him a carpetbagger. I can add two other voices to these, one on either side. In 1932, Nell Gilland interviewed David Erwin Gordon, son of A.M. Gordon and Mary Lee Gamble, for the Bicentennial issue of The County Record. His view of Stephen Swails was much like that of Dr. McGill with the feeling that without Stephen Swails' influence, Williamsburg County's experience during Reconstruction would have been much more violent. However, in his unpublished memoirs, State Senator Edwin Christopher Epps noted that "The elder Swails was an agitator among negroes and must have caused quite a bit of trouble for how the Klu Klux and the Red Shirts handled him and finally made him leave town are stories which are among my first memories, and were told by both negroes and white people."

Senator Epps, however, had much kinder words for Stephen Swails' eldest son, Florian. He remembers Florian as working in James Sullivan's blacksmith shop; however, in his 1935 obituary, Florian is remembered as having worked as mail clerk on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad for 32 years. His obituary notes that he owned one of the oldest homes in Kingstree, as he inherited his father's house on the corner of Main and South Brooks. Florian Grant Swails was also elected to the Kingstree Town Council in 1895. The article in The State newspaper notes that he and the three white men elected were all "young businessmen, expected to give general satisfaction."

Stephen and Susan Swails' daughter, Daisy, born in 1880, was also well-thought of by the citizens of Kingstree. She appears to have been the sole teacher in the "colored school" in Kingstree in the late 1890s. There are several mentions in The County Record of programs she and her students put on at the Court House that were attended by both white and Black residents. The 1940 census shows a 60-year-old Daisy M. Swails still teaching in Kingstree, boarding at the home of Joe Austin. Also boarding with the Austins was a 35-year-old Charles Edward Murray, who would make his own name in education in Williamsburg County.

Florian Swails' son, another Stephen A. Swails, was a veteran of the Korean War and taught for 15 years in the New York City school system, carrying on the legacies of his family in both the military and education.

"If you don't know about the past, you're bound to repeat the mistakes of the past," Gordon Rhea commented in his interview with the Civil War Institute. "It helps put into context a lot of what is going on today."

Historial Novel Set in Kingstree and Greeleyville

The second book with ties to Kingstree and the surrounding area is very different from the one we looked at last week. Silk: Caroline's Story by Sophia Alexander is, according to its author, "a character-driven historical novel with unexpected twists." One reviewer has described the book as the "social realism of Jane Austen meets the Southern Gothic of Flannery O'Conner." It was published June 30, 2021

Author Sophia Alexander

Photo Courtesy of Sophia Alexander

In 1899, Caroline Corbett moves to her uncle Sam Swann's plantation near Kingstree so that she can work in a nearby sewing factory. Her new surroundings bring her into contact with two attractive men: one, a sharecropper who lives near Greeleyville, and the other, a young doctor in Kingstree. And, as Alexander says, while the doctor is the obvious choice, "things get complicated, as life does." One of the complications is a young sociopath who is determined that Caroline will have nothing to do with the sharecropper. The story does indeed have many twists and turns, some that I saw coming and some that I did not.

And while this is Caroline's story, there is a sub-plot which involves her best friend, Anne, also employed at the factory. While Caroline ends up choosing traditional family life, Anne, who becomes a talented clothing designer in the course of the book, makes her way out into the modern world. "I believe they balance each other out," the author told "Book Banter" host Tanya E. Williams in an interview streamed on You Tube July 23. 

The title for Silk came from silk dresses the girls made for a Christmas party.

Silk's origin is almost as interesting as the storyline itself. Sophia Alexander, which I might note is a pen name, states that while the plot and storylines of the book are totally fictional, a number of the characters names come straight from her family tree. Names like Caroline, Amarintha, Jessie, Swann and Gaynell. (And if any of you are wondering if Gaynell is for Gaynell Gamble Hammet, you are indeed correct, as she was the daughter of Caroline "Carrie" Cox Gamble, for whom the title character in Silk is named.)

Caroline "Carrie" Cox Gamble, for whom Caroline in Silk was named.

Source: Ancestry.com

Alexander has been interested in genealogy since she was 12 years old, and it was natural for her to reach into her family's past to name her book's characters. Another character in the book, Sam's Swann's younger daughter, Emma, was based on none other than Bessie Swann Britton. In fact the idea for Silk came to Alexander while she was reading Remembering Kingstree: Memories of a Southern Village, which is the collected writings of Bessie Swann Britton, that I edited and published in 2007. "A Visit from Mrs. Santa Claus" is the final story in Remembering Kingstree, and Caroline Cox makes an appearance in that story, which relates a Christmas Eve adventure in the Swann household. This story became the springboard for Silk.

Sophia Alexander also combed through Dr. Samuel D. McGill's Narrative of Reminiscences in Williamsburg County. From it, she was able to tease out authentic details about what schools were like in those times, and also found colorful descriptions which helped her create a wedding dinner.

The overall plot and storylines may be fictional, but there is at least one small vignette in the story that comes straight from young Bessie Swann's life. Like Bessie, Emma in Silk insists on going to school before she is eligible, all because she wants to carry a shiny lunch pail like her older sister. And also like Bessie, her first day of school is a less than happy experience.

Silk is Alexander's first novel and was a Finalist in the Family Saga Division for the American Fiction Awards, sponsored by American BookFest. It was also a Finalist in the Historical Fiction category for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and was longlisted for the Goethe Award 2022 by Chanticleer International.

Tapestry will be available in April 2022.

Silk is the first novel of a trilogy, tracing three generations of this family. The second novel, Tapestry: A Lowcountry Rapunzel, will be released on April 16, 2022, with Homespun to follow at a later date. The e-book version of Tapestry is already available for pre-order.

Sophia Alexander is a South Carolina native and a graduate of the College of Charleston who lives in Savannah with her husband.

A Fresh Look at Francis Marion and Snow's Island

It continues to surprise me that an area as rural and sparsely populated as ours is the subject for a number of books on a variety of topics each year, and this year is no exception. Today, we'll look at a February 2021 publication by archaeologist Steven D. Smith. Francis Marion and the Snow's Island Community offers a fresh look at Gen. Francis Marion and the area that offered him refuge.

Author Steven D. Smith is Director of the South Carolina Institute of 

Archeology and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina.

Source: University of South Carolina

In the past 30 years Steve Smith has excavated a number of sites within a circle around Snow's Island from Port's Ferry west to Witherspoon's Ferry, southeast down to Britton's Ferry, and across Britton's Neck to Potato Bed Ferry, looking for signs of military encampments. He has also searched Snow's Island itself for any indication of Francis Marion's famed hideout. In this book he looks at both the historical and archaeological record and presents an intriguing theory.

While he gives us a brief overview of Francis Marion's life, he spends much more time introducing us to the families who lived in the vicinity of Snow's Island during the American Revolution. We meet the Snows, Goddards, Ports, Brittons, Jenkinses and others who entered into a symbiotic relationship with Francis Marion, in that Marion and his men, many of whom were from these same families, provided some protection from the Loyalists who lived across the Little Pee River, and the families of the area provided Marion's Brigade with provisions, including food, fodder for their horses, and valuable information on British and Loyalists movements.

The subtitle of the book is Myth, History and Archaeology, and he aptly covers all three within its pages. Much of what the general population knows about Gen. Marion comes from three sources–books by Mason Locke Weems, William Dobein James, and William Gilmore Simms. All of these works paint a romanticized picture of the man we know today as The Swamp Fox. However, these books do capture "the sense of the time." Smith spends time looking at all three of these works and how they furthered the legend of Francis Marion. He also mentions the 1960s Wonderful World of Disney production, starring Leslie Nielsen, which added to the Swamp Fox mythology. 

Mason Locke Weems, also known as Parson Weems, 

attained fame for his romanticized biography of George Washington.

Source: Smithsonian Institution

He presents the historical record from a number of different perspectives. This includes a look at how and when Marion became known as "The Swamp Fox." In addition, he looks at receipts for support provided to Marion and his men from the surrounding community. In doing so, he sheds light on some of the stories that have been passed down about Marion. 

As an example, Nathan Savage is a name associated with the siege of Rebecca Motte's home at Fort Motte. Savage is credited with shooting the flaming arrow onto the roof of the house, which drove the British from the building. We learn from Smith's book, that during his lifetime Nathan Savage amassed thousands of acres of property in the Britton's Neck area. Smith notes, "It is possible that the reputation gained as a result of his service during the war prompted his post war leadership."

Major John James also receipted a number of meals for sometimes as many as 70 individuals and forage for their horses at his home near Indiantown.

Contemporary writings noted that Marion's Brigade was composed of both white and black soldiers, but many historians believed the black soldiers were body servants for the more well-to-do partisans. To some degree that was true, including Marion, himself, whose body servant Oscar "Buddy" Marion found his own place in history thanks to a genealogist descendant. Smith mentions that Jasper Browngard and Moses Irwin were also enslaved men who were part of Marion's Brigade. However, he notes that there were an indeterminate number of free men of color who participated as well, including Jacob and George Perkins and drummer Jim Capers. 

The archaeological evidence is also carefully reviewed. In all the years of excavation, Steve Smith has found little that would indicate a military presence. However, he now believes that partisan groups may have left fewer artifacts that we today would associate with a military presence. There is also the possibility that over the long, intervening years, many of the buttons and hardware one would expect to find in a military camp may have been scavenged by relic hunters.

Francis Marion and the Snow's Island Community was published February 1, 2021.

Smith entertains the theory that Marion's base camp might have been at Dunham's Bluff rather than on Snow's Island itself. Snow's Island has yielded no archaeological evidence of such a camp, but the remains of a camp have been discovered at Dunham's Bluff across the Pee Dee River from the island. There is also some historical evidence that might add credence, including Robert Mills' 1825 Atlas which shows Marion's Camp at Dunham's Bluff. (The reference to Mills' Atlas is interesting in that I recently read a 1929 newspaper article on Robert Mills, written by Laura Hemingway, in which she quotes Charles C. Wilson, who was then an architect in Columbia on the accuracy of the maps in Mills' Atlas. Wilson said, "I have had occasion in the course of my practice to test the accuracy of these maps by extensive and precise surveys in 13 of the 28 districts, and I have yet to find the first material error or omission. Every stream, lake, road, hill, swamp or other permanent landmark I have found to be exactly as represented...")

Statue of General Francis Marion at Venters Landing near the site of

Witherspoon's Ferry, Johnsonville, South Carolina.

Steve Smith notes that while he can almost believe that Marion's famed base camp was at Dunham's Bluff, there are still some points that raise questions for him. However, he concludes, "Essentially, the geographical core family region of the larger Snow's Island region was in fact Marion's Snow's Island camp and depot." He adds that it is certain that "the Snow's Island community informed his strategy and tactical situation. He could not afford to lose the community which was not only his refuge but also his source of manpower, food, and forage."

Despite the fact that no physical evidence of Marion's presence has been found on Snow's Island, it is now on the National Register of Historic Places and is recognized as a National Landmark. Steve Smith writes that "the living memory of Francis Marion alone establishes it as a place of importance in the American narrative." This book also deserves a place of importance in the American narrative of Francis Marion and this area's role in the American Revolution.

P.S.: Don't neglect to read the footnotes at the end of each chapter. They contain additional information that is informative, and Kingstree residents will find one that mentions Spencer Barker, who grew up here.