The Coming of the Railroad

The coming of the railroad in the late 1850s brought a new "lease on life" to Kingstree and Williamsburg County. In addition to increased access to advanced medical care, the railroad gave farmers an easier way to get their crops to northern markets and also gave merchants an easier way to bring more choices of products to their customers.

The 1905 depot brought even greater access for farmers to get their crops to market.

But like many other advancements, it took a long time to get rail access into the area. On July 23, 1846, the New Orleans Picayune reported that on July 6, citizens of Williamsburg County held a mass public meeting with citizens from adjoining districts to discuss the feasibility of building a railroad from Charleston to Wilmington, NC.

Six years later, in February 1852, The SC Legislature appointed a commission composed of John Ravenel, Robert Hume and James Gadsden, to oversee the sale of capital stock in the North Eastern Railroad Company. Subscription books for the purchase of capital stock would be open in Charleston, Georgetown, Pineville, Kingstree and Cheraw. The article in The Charleston Courier noted that while Charleston had looked to expand westward with the Charleston to Hamburg railroad line, it had completely overlooked the importance of the city's connection to areas to its north but now sought to remedy that.

Two routes had been suggested for the proposed North Eastern Railroad. One ran from Charleston to Moncks Corner to Pinewood and on an "airline from there to Kingstree in Williamsburg District" and from there to the most eligible place to tie into the Wilmington to Manchester line, probably at some junction west of Florence.

The second proposal ran from Charleston to Lanneau's Ferry on the Santee, then on to Kingstree and to the same terminus with the Wilmington to Manchester as the first proposal.

The Courier noted, "Both will intersect with Williamsburg, a district which, from the last census, has increased in population and resources, at a ratio greater than most others in the state; an iron railway coursing through its center must stimulate into existence many new sources of agricultural wealth."

Amtrak still stops in Kingstree daily.

To build the railroad, $200,000 was needed for the charter and an additional $400,000 to $500,000  from the capital stock subscription drive would be needed to rapidly complete construction. The bridge over the Santee River would be the most expensive part of the railway's construction.

After due consideration the first option was chosen to build the railroad from Charleston to Moncks Corner, to Pineville, Kingstree and Florence. In reality it became a 103-mile, five-foot gauge railroad which ran from Charleston to a connection with the Wilmington to Manchester line two miles east of the city of Florence.

The farmers of Williamsburg District especially looked forward to the construction of the railroad as their produce could be shipped to Charleston in a matter of hours rather than a wagon journey of several days.

William Willis Boddie claimed in his history of Williamsburg County that several lives were lost in the construction of the railroad, and that a number of railroad employees were killed in accidents. Boddie wrote that the supervising contractor of the Santee trestle was killed before the job was completed.

It is likely that the first train came to Kingstree in 1856, although the line from Charleston all the way to Florence was not completed until October 1857.

Boddie wrote that many of Kingstree's older residents in the early 1920s well remembered the day the first train came through town. He wrote that there were celebrations at several stopping points with brass bands, barbecues and multitudes of people turning out to view the train. His father-in-law, Dr. D.C. Scott, was a wide-eyed six-year-old from Cedar Swamp, whose father, John Ervin Scott, had brought him to town for the occasion. His father had also bought him a hobby horse that day and cautioned him to hold his "horse" while the train was passing to keep it from bolting at the train's noise. Boddie added that all the real horses in Kingstree were tied well away from the railroad for the momentous event.

Dr. D.C. Scott many years after the first train roared through town.

Capt. Conrad Constine also told a story about the first train's arrival. He wrote that a large crowd had gathered on Main Street to watch for it. Capt. Isaac Nelson, whose home was on the southeast corner of Main and Academy streets, joined the throng gathered under a number of umbrellas as it was raining. Capt. Nelson cautioned them to put their umbrellas down as they didn't want to frighten the engine and was rewarded when several immediately complied, while others snickered at their neighbors' gullibility.

Boddie also noted that Railroad Avenue became a prime residential street as those who lived there enjoyed seeing the trains pass. However, he stated that half a century later, many residents of Railroad Avenue were given to complaining about the number of trains that passed by their homes every day.

In Dr. S.D. McGill's reminiscences of Williamsburg County, he wrote that the first depot was located on a public road near the Kingstree Branch. This would be today's Brooks Street which dead-ended at that time at the branch, which is today's canal. Dr. McGill noted that for many months a railroad boxcar was used as a depot, with Peter B. Mouzon the first railroad agent for Kingstree, a position he would hold until his death.

The location of the depot so far away from the business district was a major complaint for many years,  which was not fully resolved until the present depot opened on Thanksgiving Day 1905.

Dr. McGill also noted that the railroad brought new life to the community although he quoted one old citizen as saying, "Charleston is now too convenient; we must have a beefsteak every day for dinner."

Some Kingstree ladies like "Miss Lou" Gilland would often take the morning train to Charleston to shop, returning on the afternoon train.

While freight trains no longer stop in Kingstree, much freight passes through each day.

As railroads increased throughout the country, a saying came into existence about undesirable elements being "ridden out of town on a rail." Kingstree, unfortunately, was not exempt from this practice.

R.C. Logan, editor of The Kingstree Star, printed this in December 1859: Two straggling printers from the North were caught at the depot last night in the company of some negroes and rode out of town this morning on a rail. We intend to exterminate all such characters from our community.

In a more detailed story, the Charleston Courier noted that Edmund O. Daly (in other publications spelled O'Daly) and Andrew Dunn were arrested in Charleston and committed for examination as suspected abolitionists. The Wellsboro (NC) Gazette's story indicated that the people of Kingstree, suspecting the two men–one an older man and the other a young man, both of good personal appearance–had abolitionist tendencies and were in the community to stir up trouble, decided to rid themselves of the two. While no evidence was given, the citizens placed the two on rails, carried by several of their enslaved men, compelling their two suspects to sing while being transported in this manner all around town. They were then turned loose at the depot and placed on the noon train to Charleston. 

The other passengers, however, refused to ride in the same car with them, causing them to be put off the train at St. Stephen. They then walked on to Charleston and were immediately arrested as suspected persons

O'Daly (or Daly) was a native of Dublin, Ireland, where he served an apprenticeship as a printer. He had been in the United States for 10 years at the time of his deportation from Kingstree. Andrew Dunn was from New York, but had worked in the printing office of James Phynney in Charleston for a time in 1847.

O'Daly and Dunn were not the only people driven out of Kingstree under suspicion of abolitionist tendencies but that is a story for next time.