Hospital History In Williamsburg County, Part 2

The destruction of Kelley Sanitorium by fire in November 1938 may have played a role in Dr. Allen Johnson's decision to build a hospital in Hemingway. At that time, Dr. Johnson was practicing in Marion, but in 1939. he began construction of a 152-foot by 33-foot hospital between South Main and Lafayette streets in Hemingway.

Johnson Memorial Hospital in Hemingway.

Source: Johnsonvilleschistory.org

The new hospital opened in the Spring of 1940. It was named Johnson Memorial Hospital in memory of Allen Johnson's father, Dr. Liston B. Johnson, who began his medical practice in Kingstree before eventually settling in the Rome Crossroads area of Williamsburg County, where he practiced medicine for close to 30 years.

Dr. Liston B. Johnson

George Creighton was architect for the $60,000 facility which had 42 beds for white patients, two operating rooms, an emergency room, X-ray department, laboratories and a nursery. A 40-foot by 40-foot building on Lafayette Street served as a Negro hospital. It held 24 patient beds. Worth Powell was contractor for the construction of the hospital.

This facility served the Hemingway area from the Spring of 1940 until the late 1970s or early 1980s. In early July 1981, the Wilson-Huggins Agency ran an ad in The Columbia Record offering the hospital for sale. Today, the Hemingway Food Lion occupies the site of the old hospital.

About a year before Kelley Sanitorium burned, it had converted from a private sanitorium to a non-profit hospital with a board of directors. W.E. Jenkinson was president of the board, with the Rev. E.W. Cantwell as vice-president. Dr. E.T. Kelley was secretary/treasurer of the board. Other board members included Tom Rowell, Thomas McCutchen and David S. Epps. The non-profit hospital's mission was to "relieve human suffering and to supply adequate hospitalization for all classes without respect to persons..."

When Kelley Memorial Hospital was built in 1940, following the fire, the board remained in place at the new hospital. 

The first floor of the new hospital contained a lobby, receptionist area, filing secretary's office, X-ray department and exam rooms. The second floor was devoted to patient rooms, delivery room, operating room and doctors' lounge. The third floor contained apartments for the hospital superintendent and assistant superintendent. The heating unit, laundry chute, refrigeration plant and cold storage were housed in the basement. The east wing of the hospital held a solarium on the third floor and provided a nursery with 12 bassinets. 

The one-story annex west of the main building was added in 1953, and an open front porch was enclosed in the late 1950s or early 1960s. A building which provided housing for nurses was built to the north of the hospital in 1956 and has since been torn down.

Shortly after the hospital opened, the country was plunged into World War II. The Rev. Mr. Cantwell, who was by then chairman of the hospital board, resigned his pastorate in Kingstree to serve overseas. Dr. Kelley also resigned as chief surgeon in 1942 to join the medical corps. He, however, ended up remaining in Kingstree as the recruiting board found that his service to the area was essential. 

It's unclear what happened in the years following World War II, but there was much upheaval at Kelley Memorial during that time. It appears that Dr. Kelley, who had been the sole authority at the hospital since its inception in 1919, struggled to adapt to working with a board of directors. This resulted in disputes with the board, the staff, and former board member E.W. Cantwell, who was by that time State Senator. The situation came to a head in February 1947, resulting in Dr. Kelley's being charged with assault and battery with intent to kill after a physical altercation with Senator Cantwell on February 24. Dr. Kelley posted a $1,000 bond, and the charges were withdrawn before the case was taken to the Grand Jury.

The board, however, barred Dr. Kelley from entering the hospital he had founded 28 years before. He protested his banishment, insisting that he had acted in self-defense. Dr. Kelley had strong support from  the community, a group of whom tried to find a way to smooth things over. However, the group was unsuccessful in getting Dr. Kelley and the board together for discussion of the issues. 

Oddly enough, the Rev. Mr. Cantwell, who was involved in the physical altercation with Dr. Kelley, later served as legal counsel for the group lobbying for Kelley's reinstatement. Cantwell had his own issues with the board of directors, which may have played a role in this turn of events. 

Dr. Kelley was not reinstated and eventually set up a practice in Georgetown. Many Williamsburg County residents continued to use Dr. Kelley as their physician after his move. 

However, on March 29, 1948, The Benevolent Societies Hospital opened its doors to Kingstree's African-American residents, and Dr. E.T. Kelley was to play a role in the beginnings of this hospital, as well.

The Benevolent Societies organization was formed by representatives from eight African-American organizations in Williamsburg County. The group began a subscription drive to develop a hospital for African-Americans to which both black and white residents contributed. 

The building which once housed the Benevolent Societies Hospital as it looks today.

For $41,000 they acquired and remodeled the home of Mr. and Mrs. H.T. McGill on East Main Street into a hospital by adding a second story to include three three-bed wards, one four-bed ward, one semi-private room and one private room. Flora Nesmith was named hospital superintendent, Dr. E.T. Kelley was director of surgery, and Dr. J.A. Mason was medical director. The hospital also included a dining room, kitchen, operating room and a three-room suite for Dr. Kelley.

Officers of the Benevolent Societies at that time were E.W. Lawrence, president; W.W. Smalls, vice president; I.E. Lawerence, secretary; and Samuel Pressley, treasurer.

As it had done for Kelley Sanitorium when it opened, the community came together to help outfit the Benevolent Societies Hospital, as well. Morris Schrieberg, Harry Marcus, Jack Lybrand, and F. P. Seignious donated flood lights for the operating room. Kitty Marcus provided chandeliers for the hall, dining room, lobby and bathroom, while Isadore Goldstein presented the hospital with a library table. 

Historical marker at the site of the old Benevolent Societies Hospital.

The hospital served Williamsburg County's black residents for over 20 years. It underwent considerable remodeling in 1965, with further additions in 1970-71. It closed in the mid-to-late 1970s. The building later was used as a funeral home by Dimery & Rogers. 

The building still stands, although it needs considerable attention. A historical marker was unveiled at the site on October 9, 2021.

Next time we'll look at Williamsburg Memorial Hospital's founding.

Hospital History in Williamsburg County, Part 1

MUSC Health's new Black River Medical Center at Cades opened to patients yesterday, and it seems an appropriate time to take a look at the history of hospitals in Kingstree and Williamsburg County.

MUSC Health - Black River Medical Center at Cades.

From the first settlement in 1732 until the railroad came through Kingstree in the late 1850s, residents depended on the general practitioners living in the area for all their medical care. After the railroad came, patients with very serious injury or illnesses were taken by train to the medical college in Charleston or to McLeod's Infirmary in Florence. Some also went to Sumter to Mood's Infirmary, and some who were very well-off financially traveled to Baltimore to Johns Hopkins for treatment.

Around the turn of the 20th Century, Dr. Edward Theron Kelley moved to Kingstree from Timmonsville to practice medicine with Dr. W.L. Wallace. From the beginning, Dr. Kelley made it plain that his dream was to open a hospital to serve the people of Kingstree and Williamsburg County. Described by newspapers as a "stocky, energetic" fellow, he soon realized that there was an immediate need for better medical services than had been offered in the past. And so he set up an emergency operating room in his office behind his home on the corner of Mill and Academy streets in Kingstree. There he performed 490 operations in the 13 years prior to opening Kelley Sanitorium on that spot in 1919. 

He made the announcement of his plans to build a sanitorium in 1918. The 85-foot by 54-foot, three-story structure would face Academy Street and provide patient rooms, a sun parlor, and sleeping porches, as it was a widely accepted belief that fresh air and sunshine were necessary for the cure of most of life's ills.

Dr. Kelley bought the latest medical equipment and traveled to New York to attend special courses and lectures to learn to operate it. Charles H. Singleton, a local Kingstree contractor, was in charge of building the $30,000 structure.

The new hospital was dedicated in March 1919, and by year's end, 415 patients had received treatment there. Dr. Kelley, as head surgeon, and Dr. Cuyler Harper, house surgeon, performed a total of 141 operations during that first year. And patients had come not just from Williamsburg County, but also from across the state of South Carolina. According to The County Record, a sign hanging in the reception area stated: A Hospital is a Hotel for the Sick.

Kelley Sanitorium as it looked shortly after completion in 1919

The community showed its support for the new hospital by holding a linen shower, donating approximately $800 worth of bed linens and towels. The Kingstree Methodist Church placed Bibles in each of the patient rooms, and several families furnished rooms in memory or in honor of loved ones.

By 1921, Dr. Kelley realized there was a need for a facility to train nurses, and that year he opened the Kelley Sanitorium Training School. From 1921 through 1934 the facility trained 22 student nurses who received diplomas and passed the state boards.

By 1935, the hospital had undergone a renovation and now contained 16 rooms for white patients, some large enough to accommodate more than one patient. The Negro hospital attached to the main building contained 12 beds and employed one graduate nurse and two practical nurses. 

In the early hours of Sunday morning, November 27, 1938, nurses at the hospital noticed smoke pouring from the walls and floorboards. They evacuated the 20 white patients, transporting four to Lake City hospital by ambulance and taking the rest to neighboring homes until they could arrange transportation to their own homes. The patients in the Negro hospital were taken to the telephone company across Mill Street, where they were taken care of until arrangements could be made for them to also go home. 

Firefighters from Kingstree and Lake City fought the blaze from 2 a.m. until after daylight. They believed that the fire started in the basement near the furnace, and it appeared that the hospital's design acted like a chimney, funneling the flames upward to the third floor. While rooms on the first and second floors suffered severe smoke and water damage, the nurses quarters on the third floor were gutted, as was the two-story wing of the building which housed the kitchen, dining room, x-ray department and operating room. The separate Negro hospital was not damaged by the fire. Initial damage assessments of $15,000 quickly climbed to upward of $40,000 when it was discovered that almost all the hospital's equipment was destroyed.

Dr. Kelley was out-of-town at the time of the fire, and it took some time to reach him. He announced on December 2, 1938, that he had no plans to rebuild. This announcement caused a great uproar among area citizens, and several public meetings were convened to discuss ways to finance rebuilding the hospital. In August 1939, it was announced that $120,000 had been secured. Several of Williamsburg County's "winter colonists," most notably Bernard M. Baruch of Little Hobcaw and R.R.M. Carpenter of Delaware' E.I. DuPont Company, and the owner of Longlands Plantation in southern Williamsburg County, contributed to the hospital fund. Dr. Kelley and his adult children would retain two-thirds ownership of the hospital, and Dr. Kelley would remain chief surgeon. The hospital was named Kelley Memorial Hospital in memory of Dr. Kelley's wife, Lorena Ross Kelley, who had died December 2, 1937.

The Kelley Memorial Hospital building that opened in 1940.

Boyle Road & Bridge Company of Sumter was contractor for the new 42-bed hospital. Architect John F. Mullen of Washington, DC, chose a Colonial design for the three-story hospital to harmonize with the then new United States Post Office at the other end of the block on Mill Street. The main body of the building measured 167-feet by 30-feet with side wings. Unlike its predecessor, this hospital faced Mill Street. One stipulation was that a sycamore tree standing near Academy Street was to be left untouched. When Dr. Kelley bought the property from the Hon. R.H. Kellahan, Mr. Kellahan asked that the tree remain standing, and Mr. Carpenter was now making the same request, which would be honored. Mr. Kellahan had reportedly pulled up the sapling while fishing in Black River in the 1890s and transplanted it to that spot, where it had flourished. The tree no longer stands.

The new hospital was dedicated on April 14, 1940, and continued to operate until 1965.

Next time, we'll look at more hospital history.

They're Twistin' in Spring Gully

American Bandstand host Dick Clark once said, "The three most important things that ever happened in the music industry are Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Chubby Checker." And while, as we shall see, Dick Clark had a bit of a proprietary interest in the last named, it is difficult not to see the impact of Chubby Checker's being the only artist to have five albums in the Top 12 at the same time; the only rock and roll artist to have a song reach #1 on the Billboard charts twice (The Twist in September 1960 and January 1962); and the only artist to have nine double-sided hits. It also goes without saying that Chubby Checker is Williamsburg County's most famous native son.

Ernest Evans, known to the world as Chubby Checker.

In October 1941, Ernest Evans was born in the Spring Gully community of Williamsburg County to Raymond and Eartle Evans. The Evanses would live there until 1947 when they joined the Great Migration to Philadelphia where Ernest would grow up in South Philly, attending high school with Fabian Forte, who would also go on to a career in show business under the name Fabian. Chubby Checker told a reporter in 1981, that his mother took him when he was four years old to see a child piano prodigy named Sugar Child Leonard. "I knew then that's what I wanted to do," he said.

In Philadelphia, he had two after-school jobs: one at the Produce Market and the other at Fresh Farm Poultry. Both of his bosses would play a role in his later fame. His boss at the Produce Market nicknamed him Chubby, and Henry Gott of Fresh Farm Poultry encouraged his musical endeavors. Along with a friend, Gott arranged for Chubby to do a private recording of Jingle Bells for Dick Clark to use at Christmas. While he was recording, he said that he was playing the piano and imitating Fats Domino, when Dick Clark's wife, Bobbie, heard him. She reportedly said, "From now on, we'll call you Chubby Checker." The name stuck.

In June 1959, a 17-year-old Chubby Checker, fresh out of high school, recorded the Hank Ballard song, The Twist. The president of Cameo-Parkway records was not particularly impressed, but Chubby thought there was something special about the song and promoted it non-stop. In the summer of 1960, he performed it live for the first time at the Rainbow Club in Wildwood, NJ, and a few weeks later Dick Clark invited him to sing it on American Bandstand. It swept the nation, and the rest, as they say, is history. In a 1979 interview with Rick Kogan of the Chicago Sun-Times, Chubby was asked if he wrote The Twist. He replied, "Hank Ballard wrote a song called The Twist, and I'm the guy who put a few steps to it." By September 1960, it was #1 on the Billboard Charts, and in the fall of 1961, it again entered the charts and by January 1962, it was at #1 again. It stayed at the top of the charts for a total of nine months.

A 12'x40' mural honoring Chubby Checker was unveiled in Wildwood, NJ, in 2015, a block from the site of the Rainbow Club where Chubby gave his first live performance of The Twist.

The mural honoring Chubby Checker in Wildwood, NJ.

Source: The Greater Wildwoods Tourist and Development Authority

Chubby Checker went on to have 31 hits in quick succession. After The Beatles came on the scene, it seemed that his popularity waned, but Chubby continued to perform. And in 2007, his Knock Down the Walls was Billboard's Number One Dance Track. Listen to Knock Down the Walls here. In 2018, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame introduced a new category for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Singles. The Twist was rightfully one of the inaugural inductees. Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Chart continues to list The Twist as the Number One record of all time. You can listen to The Twist here.

Despite his fame, Chubby Checker has not forgotten his family in Williamsburg County. Until Covid restrictions curtailed travel, he regularly visited his cousins here, particularly around the July 4 holiday when the family used to hold a big reunion. For a number of years, he performed in Andrews on these visits, donating funds for the library there.

The unveiling of the marker honoring Chubby Checker.

Photo by Linda Brown

On December 10, Williamsburg County unveiled a state historic marker at the intersection of US521 and Steadfast Road, honoring Chubby Checker. The house in which he was born was located on Steadfast Road, as is the house to which the family moved before they migrated to Pennsylvania.

Senator Ronnie Sabb (left) reads aloud the inscription on the marker honoring Chubby Checker.

Photo courtesy Rep. Roger Kirby

Chubby Checker continues to perform at age 81. He may have hinted at the secret to his longevity in the business in a July 1981 interview in the Post-Courier with reporter Jimmy Cornelison. "I sing because I like to," Chubby said. "If I make money at it, that's fine. It's just a gift, and I try to use it wisely." He went on to confess, "I'm undecided between being a kid and being a man. I want to be both, I guess. I've had them both for a long, long time. If the kid in you dies, something of the person dies."

The kid in Chubby Checker appears to still be going strong.

As for The Twist, Cornelison in the 1981 article noted, "There is something wholesomely American about the dance, and you feel it is almost patriotic to twist to the words and music of the man who started it all."