Baseball Stories from Kingstree's Past

The Town of Kingstree's Recreation Center was the scene of an opening-day baseball jamboree last weekend. It is interesting to note that town-sponsored organized sports for our youth is a relatively new phenomenon. In the late 1890s, early 1900s, only adults played organized baseball, while in July 1901, six little boys were arrested by the police chief and charged with playing ball in the street. They were taken to Mayor's Court where Mayor W.H. Kennedy gave them a strong reprimand in lieu of a fine. After that, the little boys gathered late on summer evenings on the courthouse square to play ball.

All photos are from the 2022 Opening Day at the Kingstree Recreation Department.

Apparently, in the 1890s young men, both black and white, formed teams that played teams from other towns, but there appears to have been no real organization. While the teams were segregated and generally played teams from neighboring towns, on occasion the black and white teams in Kingstree played each other. And regardless of which team was playing, the crowds gathered to watch them included large numbers of both black and white citizens.

In June 1898, two white teams formed in Kingstree. They were known as the Sluggers and the Regulars. They played each other on a lot behind Louis Jacobs' house on the corner of Main and Longstreet, now the site of Hardee's. It is not clear, but it's possible that players from both teams represented Kingstree that year when playing teams from other towns. Toward the end of the season, the Kingstree team adopted a goat as its mascot. The spectators would then cheer, "Razzle! Dazzle! Zip! Boom! Kingstree Boys! Rah! Rah! Rah! GOAT!"

April 1900 saw the organization of another Kingstree team. The boys on this team practiced daily until the opening game on June 26, when they hosted the team from Lake City. Prior to the game Kingstree residents treated the visitors to a picnic in the grove in front of R.J. Kirk's home. The game began at 4 p.m. on this intensely hot day. Kingstree emerged victorious, whipping the Lake City team 16-5.

On July 31, 1901, almost all businesses in Kingstree closed for the day as everyone in town turned out to watch the Kingstree team play a double-header. The local team lost the morning game but won in the afternoon. On August 9, the lady friends of team members held an ice cream festival at the ball field, raising $20 to help support the team. The County Record reported that the Kingstree team had a "spotty" season in 1901, but noted that the local boys had played a number of teams that hired semi-pro players while all Kingstree's talent was homegrown.

By 1902, the Kingstree team moved to a field marked out on land behind the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church. C.D. Jacobs was the team's manager with J.F. Scott serving as captain. The team held a number of fund-raising "entertainments" at the Court House to acquire enough money to build a fence around the new field. 

When a new graded and high school was built, the high school boys laid out a baseball diamond behind the school in the spring of 1905 and played ball during recess. That year, the town's baseball team had a very successful season, playing 31 games and losing only one series to Clio.

The summer of 1905 also saw the formation of two, mixed-gender baseball teams, named the Blues and the Greens. Rosters for the two teams were Greens: Pearl Montgomery, pitcher; Grace Van Keuren, catcher; Grant Van Keuren, first base; Mantie Coker, second base; Henry Ferrell, shortstop; Annie Reddick, third base; Nita Whitehead, right field; Lila Hammet, centerfield; Theodore Hemingway, left field. The Blues: Sadie Meyer, pitcher; Ernest Evans, catcher; Ernest Epps, first base; Louis Stackley, second base; Massie Lee Estes, shortstop; Wesley Courtney, third base; Peele Epps, right field; Benton Montgomery, center field; and Florrie Jacobs left field. The two teams played a number of games against each other that summer, with the Greens winning the championship in the end.

By 1909, an Athletic Association had been formed, and members cleared a lot in New Town for a baseball diamond. That year saw the first of what was to become an annual event in which the married. men of Kingstree played the single men. That first game, played on April 20, was riddled with errors and won by the married men, 25-20.

Kingstree High had fielded an official baseball team by 1911. That year they played Lake City in Lake City and were defeated 17-10. The Kingstree girls were not allowed to accompany the team to Lake City but walked the four-and-a-half miles to Brockington to meet the team on its way home, providing moral support after the defeat.

In 1915, the annual game between the married and single men was played on May 21. Those playing were Marrieds: W.N. Jacobs, catcher; H.H. King, second base; J.H. Epps, first base; John Jennings, center field; W.K. McIntosh, third base; W.L. Taylor, pitcher; R.C. McCabe, shortstop; C.D. Jacobs, right field; Thomas McCutchen, left field. Singles: A.L. McElveen, catcher; H. Britton, second base; Virgil Kinder, right field; W.S. Gilland, first base; S.J. Montgomery, center field; George Covington, pitcher; Raymond Speigner, third base; T.C. Jacobs, shortstop; and L.D. Rodgers, left field.

In the Spring of 1915, the Kingstree Baseball Association was organized in a meeting at the Court House. P.H. Stoll was elected president; W.T. Wilkins, vice president; Thomas McCutchen, Manager; W.L. Taylor, assistant manager; J.W. Cook, treasurer; and J.D. O'Bryan, secretary. The association was looking for 100 members with an annual membership fee of $5. It was also looking for land that could be fenced and on which a grandstand could be built. They planned to recruit players from high schools and colleges across the state. By early May, $500 in memberships was secured and plans were made to lay out a field in North Kingstree at the fair grounds (now the location of Kingstree Junior High School). The first games were played June 28-30. The Baseball Association's team for 1915 included: C.C. Epting, pitcher; E. Holmes, catcher; Fred Lanham, first base; M. Martin, second base; H.T Bolin, shortstop; C.M. Simms, third base; Jake Williams, right field; Algie King, left field; Dave Lenoir, center field. Earle Cook and W.W. Holliday were also team members. The opening game drew a crowd of 700 to 800 spectators.

Next time we'll look at Kingstree's participation in the Pee Dee League and also at the Kingstree Royals.

It Takes a Village to Raise a Child

We've all heard the proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child." Not having children of my own, I hadn't taken the time to think much about the saying until I witnessed a sterling example of it at last Saturday's Farmers' Market. 

One of Kingstree's second graders approached the ladies who were selling cupcakes and cookies. As their goodies go fast, there wasn't a whole lot left on the table, but he asked hopefully if there were any chocolate chip cookies. "Yes, there are," he was told. When asked how many he wanted, he said, "One." Then he paused for a second, shook his head, and corrected himself, "No, two." And then I think he said very quietly, "I should get one for my sister."

"The cookies are a dollar a piece," the lady told him, "so that will be two dollars."

"I only have a twenty dollar bill," he said.

"That's okay," she reassured him. "I can make change." As she reached for her cash box, she added, "Now, you tell me how much change I should give you." 

He thought for a second. "You said the cookies are two dollars. I gave you twenty, so you should give me... eighteen."

"Very good!" she said. And they high-fived!

He handed her his money, and she got his change. Handing it to him, she said, "Now, you count it for me to make sure I gave you the right amount."

"Ten, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen," he counted.

"That's good," she said. "You put your money in your wallet and put it back in your pocket while I put your cookies in a bag."

The transaction completed, they grinned at each other, and one happy little boy disappeared into the crowd, not realizing that both math and social skills had just been reinforced by the nice lady who had sold him two cookies.

Yes, it takes a village to raise a child, and for those of us who love this village, this little vignette should make our hearts happy.

Kingstree School Faculty from 1898 Interviewed in 1960

In October 1960, Ann McIntosh interviewed the faculty who served the Kingstree school in 1898. There were only two members of the faculty then, and both of them were still alive and in Kingstree sixty-two years later. The resulting story was published in The State on October 21. This is the article.

Thomas Olin Epps and Eva Lee in 1960, sixty-two years after

they constituted the entire faculty of the school in Kingstree.

"Revered and respected, the entire faculty of the Kingstree school of 1898 still lives in Kingstree.

"The school stood on the site of the present Carnegie Library. Mrs. LeRoy Lee and Olin Epps taught all the grades from the first through high school. They were the faculty.

The school after the wings had been added to either side.

"'It was crowded, and we really had too many pupils. The next year, two teachers and two more rooms were added to the building, which in later years was torn down,' recalls Mr. Epps. NOTE: the two-room addition was torn down; however the original school building was bought by Dr. D.C. Scott and moved farther down Hampton Avenue, where it still stands today.

"'We got about $40 a month, and I saved about half of that,' he adds. 'There was no janitor, and we had to clean up our own rooms. I remember we only had one key to the building, and we had a place to hide the key. I absent-mindedly one afternoon put the key in my pocket and went home. When I came to school the next morning, there was Miss Riser standing outside in the cold. She was ready to break her umbrella over my head, and I wouldn't have blamed her.'

This house, also located on Hampton Avenue, is what remains

of the old school. It was once the home of Ernest Reeves who

was principal of Kingstree Elementary before becoming an

Assistant Superintendent of Education for Williamsburg County.

"Mrs. Lee was Miss Eva Riser when she came to Kingstree to teach in the school. She sat on the porch of her handsome, white-columned home on Academy Street and recalled that classroom of 62 years ago She taught the first few grades and French, English and Latin in the upper grades. All the children were together, and there were no definite grade distributions.

"'I gave Billy Britton his first spanking,' she remembers. Billy Britton was Kingstree's chief of police for over 25 years. The spanking, Mrs. Lee recalls, was 'for pulling Marion Gilland's pigtails.' The spanking must have "taken" Mrs. Lee figures, for he never got up nerve to hand her a parking ticket during the many years she drove around town in her celebrated car–a car she this spring quit driving due to doctor's orders. NOTE: Mrs. Lee was celebrated around Kingstree for her notoriously bad driving. I remember hearing many stories in my childhood about Mrs. Lee's driving.

"Mrs. Lee observed her 90th birthday on Thursday, June 30. She says she is the oldest person in Kingstree. She is still quite capable of chastising unruly children–and is well-known and respected by same. She lives across the street from her Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, attends services regularly, and keeps an interested eye on the comings and goings.

"A native of Newberry, daughter of a merchant and planter, the former Miss Riser was graduated from the old Female Academy of Newberry, conducted by Capt. A.P. Pifer of Virginia. In 1900, she married Mr. Lee, an attorney, an organizer of the Kingstree Federal Savings and Loan Association, organizer and president of the Exchange Bank of Kingstree from 1932 until 1948. He died in 1949.

"Residing with Mrs. Lee now is an adopted daughter Miss Elsie Reynolds Lee. A graduate of Furman with a masters degree from the University of North Carolina, she formerly worked with the American Red Cross in Japan.

"Mr. Epps recalls that his teaching experience lasted from 1898 to 1899. He had attended a preparatory school in Spartanburg and graduated from Wofford College in 1897. Olin Epps was one of 14 children, five of whom are now over 80 years of age. He lives in a comfortable home on the Warsaw Road a few miles from Kingstree and still farms a part of his family's original landholdings. His wife is the former Mary Alice Frierson, who attended Lander College, and they have three children, Thomas Olin Epps, Jr., Mrs. Isabel Tompkins, both of Kingstree, and Julian Epps of Headland, AL.

"Olin Epps was Williamsburg County's first county agent. 'We didn't even have an office in those days,' he recalls, 'and only worked for about two days a week.'

Founder of Women's Professional Golf Association Once Lived in Kingstree

I wonder how many living in Kingstree today realize that Hope Seignious, the founder of the Women's Professional Golf Association (WPGA), forerunner of the LPGA, lived the last years of her all-too-short life in Kingstree and is buried in Williamsburg Cemetery.

Hope Seignious and Edith Estabrooks in July 1936.

Source: Detroit Free Press

Born in Orangeburg County, Hope got her start in golf after the family moved to Detroit, Michigan. There, her father, G.M. Seignious, began coaching his nine-year-old daughter. Four years later she became the city's youngest golf champion by winning the Detroit Women's Public Links title at age 13. Golf, however, was not her only sport. She also played shortstop on her middle school baseball team and participated in–and won–swim meets.

Hope was a long driver. Even as a young teen, she was able to drive the ball over 200 yards. At 14, she set the new women's course record at Sylvan Glen Country Club in Detroit. At Plum Hollow Country Club, she broke all course records. She was often the youngest player in many of the tournaments in which she participated. Newspapers throughout the upper mid-west covered her regularly, calling her the "long-driving school girl golfer," or the "sensational school girl golfer."

In 1935, one newspaper compared her ambition for golf to that of Amelia Earhart's for flying.

Mrs. Don Weiss, Hope Seignious and Margaret Russell in 1938.

Source: Detroit Free Press

In June 1939, newspapers reported that she lost a seven-hole lead in the Michigan Women's District Medal Tournament but made one of the most spectacular comebacks ever seen in Michigan Women's golf as she recovered to win her fourth straight title. That year, Hope Seignious held the course record at 12 country clubs in Michigan.

During World War II, she did her part by working at an airplane plant in Detroit. However, in 1944, George Corcoran, a leading advocate for women professionals in golf, hired her as assistant pro at a country club in Greensboro, NC. As very few women were working as club pros, this announcement generated much newspaper coverage across the country. However, many of the papers seemed most concerned that she would be wearing slacks to perform her duties. Sports writers in general were not particularly kind to women golfers, describing Hope Seignious as "husky" and Lt. Patty Berg as "pudgy."

In an effort to bring women's golf to the forefront. Hope Seignious applied for a charter for the Women's Professional Golfers Association in North Carolina. The charter was granted in November 1944. She immediately began planning a WPGA championship tournament, with dreams that the association could find sponsors for other events as well. "I think people should be able to make a living at something they're good at," she was quoted as saying.

In January 1945, Hope Seignious was again on the front page of sports sections across the country as the 28-year-old accepted the position as head pro at Milwaukee's North Shore Country Club. She was not the first woman club pro, but the announcement was greeted with much skepticism. The Sheboygan Press noted that Hope had "an impressive golfing record but will have to prove herself as Wisconsin's first woman golf professional." At that time, she was a seven-time winner of Michigan women's golfing championships.

She worked at North Shore Country Club for one season before returning to Greensboro to devote more time to the WPGA, where she served as secretary/treasurer and promoter. 

In March 1945, she had announced that the WPGA's first Open Championship would be played in Spokane, Washington, that August, with a total purse of $19,700. This prompted Scottish men's golfer Bobby Cruickshank to quip, "Where are my kilts? This is where I start playing in skirts."

However, the WPGA Open that year was cancelled because of transportation issues in the Spokane area. It was rescheduled, however, and played August 26 - September 1, 1946. It drew 42 competitors, including the great Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who was eliminated in the first round. Patty Berg was the winner of the tournament. 

In July 1945, the first issue of Women's Golfer, a monthly magazine, appeared. It was published in Greensboro, with Hope Seignious as its editor and publisher. 

Hope Seignious, 1946

The WPGA, while financially sound, struggled, as the golfing community at large did not offer its support to the women. The 1947 Women's Open was played in Greensboro with the Seigniouses largely financing the tournament. 

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) was formed in 1949-50. Hope Seignious was a member of the LPGA but did not actively participate on the circuit.

In the late 1950's G.M. Seignious left his cotton brokerage in Greensboro and moved to Kingstree where he ran the Princess Ann Motel on Longstreet. In 1961, his daughter constructed a nine-hole, par-three golf course adjacent to the motel, which was one of the first par-three courses in South Carolina. She told reporter Ann McIntosh that her immediate interest in building the course was to introduce young people to golf. 

Hope Seignious is buried beside her parents in Williamsburg Cemetery.

Hope Ann Seignious died at age 49 on July 11, 1968, following a cerebral hemorrhage. After her death, Louise Suggs, one of the founders of the LPGA, said, "Hope was ahead of her time, yes, sort of. But you had to know back then golf was a rich person's game. Women and girls particularly didn't play a lot. Hope had a dream, and it didn't work out."