USA > South Carolina > Richland County > Columbia > Historical and descriptive sketch of the leading manufacturing and mercantile enterprises, public buildings, officials, professional men, schools, churches, ets., railroads, canals, rivers, advantages and surroundings of Columbia, S.C. > Part 3
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From statistics gathered for the and the store room embraces many Charleston News and Courier by fine specimens of granites, ancient Major Ransom, and other publica- remains of animals, productions and tions of the State Board of Agricul- manufactured goods, etc., worthy ture we compile the following of inspection by the student of valuable information.
In the past eight years South
nature, and doubtless contains the
largest collection of phosphate de- Carolina has increased in taxable posit specimens in the world. A property over twenty millions of hall for conventions and rooms for dollars, approximating at this date general offices are on the second $150,000,000. The increase in value floor, while the Analytical Depart- of railroads. for that period has been ment occupies the third story and is nine millions.
The total value of farm produc- Philip E. Chazal, a native of Charles- tions, manufactured and mineral ton.
Hon. A. P. Butler, the Commis- vegetables in 1880 was $72,522,405, sioner of Agriculture, is a native of and in 1887 $101,682,530, an increase Aiken County, and commanded the of $29, 160,125. The detailed amounts First S. C. Volunteers during the are: late war, surrendering his regiment Industries. 1880. Product. with General Lee at Appomattox. Farm productions. $41,969.749 He served as State Senator from Aiken County, and was elected Com- Manufactured products ... 16,738,008 missioner in '79, being now on his Mineral products 1,371,939 Live stock 12,279,412 fifth term of service.
Fruits and vegetables. 163,297
Total .$72,522,405
1887.
$46,968,292
Manufactured products ... 31,975,103
Live stock 19,781,098
The members of the Board of Ag- riculture for the State at large are Mineral products .. 2.093,028 Hon. Johnson Hagood, of Barnwell, Fruits and vegetables. 865,009 and Hon. D. P. Duncan, of Union, while the Judicial Circuits, from one Total $101,682,530 to eight, are represented as follows: The rapid rise in the value of Hon. J. Stoney Porcher, Eutawville; manufactured products is an impor- Hon. John Lawton, Lawtonville; tant feature of the industrial devel- Hon. James Mccutcheon, Church; opment of the State, and speaks
Major L. A. Ransom, Secretary of the Board of Agriculture and Com- missioner's Clerk, is a native of Aiken, and served that County, as Treasurer, three years prior to ac- Farm productions.
cepting his present position in 1879.
products, live stock and fruits and
in charge of State Chemist,
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18
HISTORICAL SKETCH
highly of the additional wealth it, in a great measure, a profitable which manufacturing industries are one. destined to give to this State. In cattle raising there has been a
The value of farm products for marked increase as our live stock quotations from 1880 to 1887 given above show an increase of over seven and a half millions of dollars.
1887 is given in detail as follows :
Cotton, per lb .. 8.62 $23,476,323 64
Corn, per bushel
66
11.543.855 40
Rice, per pound.
2
1,355.658 40
Peas, per bushel.
78 620,341 80
Irish potatoes
85
315,629 65
Sweet potatoes.
48
1,534,939 68
Hay, per 100 pounds. 65
434,421 00
Pea vine hay ..
60
1.297,884 00
Fodder, per 100 lbs
2,56S.789 60
Sugarcane, per gal. ...
51
152,850 00
Sorghum. per gallon ... 47
307,351 95
Tobacco, per pound ..... 10
33,362 30
Wheat, per bushel ... ... 1 04
1,166,299 6S
Oats, per bushel .... ..... 54
2,160,580 50
$46,968,292 60
The value per acre of Irish pota- toes was $71.45 ; sugarcane, $52.12 ; sweet potatoes. $36.85; sorghum, $29.43; hay. $19.20; rice. $17.04; cotton, $15, and all cereals less than ten dollars to the acre. thus showing potatoes and sugarcane to be the most valuable crops.
The acreage of cotton in 1870 was 601,764, while that of 1880 was 1,527,959. and 1887 showed 1.714,- 937 acres with a total yield of 605,- 000 bales. The rice crop of 1887 was 67,782,920 pounds.
The result of the year's work on capacity.
. the farms may be briefly summed
Cotton mills, fertilizer factories, up. The farmers are in better con- lumber mills, flour, rice, and grist dition, financially, than for several mills, foundries and machine shops, years ; debts have been more gene- and general manufacturing has more rally paid than usual ; the barns con- than doubled during the present tain more grain and hay ; provisions decade. The total number of hands of home production are more plenti- employed in 1880 was 15,828, pro- ful; the practice of economy has ducing in goods $16,738,008, on a become more common; farm labor capital of $11,205,894.
is more efficient, and the new year In 1887 there were 34,417, work- opens with much brighter prospects men producing $31,975.103 with a than at any time since January, 1883. working capital of $22,204,070.
While the crop of 1887 was not a There are now 29 cotton mills very abundant one. the circum- which are scattered into 13 counties, stances connected with it have made and while the mills of 1880 used
النا شطة الغنية جحبـ
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.
The growth of manufactures in the State for the last seven years has been steady and satisfactory, but during the year just closed the interest in manufacturing industries has been so quickened that the in- dustrial development in this direc- tion may be considered something more than the normal growth, even in these days of Southern progress and prosperity. For several years preceding 1887 the general depres- sion prevailing throughout the country affected, to some extent, the manufacturing establishments of South Carolina, but that period has been passed without disaster, and the natural reaction has quickly fol- lowed. bringing with it marked im- provement in almost every industry. Capital has been freely invested in various enterprises, and many well established concerns have added to their investments and increased their
.
19
COLUMBIA CITY.
36,346 bales, those of 1887 used 110,- land, O., a few months since. The Sig- 000 bales. This is but a trifle over nal Service was begun in Columbia one-sixth of the production of the only a few months since, and for an State, and with our superior manu- estimate of the temperature of a year, facturing advantages, every pound we refer to records kept by Dr. E. raised in South Carolina should be E. Jackson, of this city, giving the made into the staple goods of com- highest and lowest temperature re- merce within her borders ..
corded in each month. January The fertilizer factories are princi- 77º-27°, February 71º-15°, the latter pally around Charleston, although holding for a single day only, March there is one at Beaufort. one at Port 70°-29º. April 84º-39º, May 85º-54°, Royal, and the Home Standard Com- June 902-602, July 93º-64°, August pany at Greenville. In this line of 93º-67. September 89º-53º, October industry there is nearly four million 76°-399, November 78°-30°, Decem- dollars of invested capital.
There is some difference of opinion regarding the advisability of putting further capital into the manufacture of cotton seed oil. but on another page we shall give a detail of the Columbia mills established a year or two since, and let the figures speak for themselves.
In kaolin and granite mining there is a large capital invested in this section of the State.
In 1880 the value of all mineral pro- ducts of South Carolina, including gold, phosphates. and non-precious metals, was $1.371.939. and in 1887 it had increased to 82.093.028. These figures show conclusively that this State is destined to become one of the principal manufacturing States The present Court House was of the Union, and a quarter of a cen- erected in 1874 at a cost of about tury hence we expect to see South Carolina compare favorably, if not outstrip in industrial enterprises, with Massachusetts. Pennsylvania. or other important States of the nation.
THE U. S. SIGNAL SERVICE
And South Carolina State weather service has rooms in the Agricultural
68°-26°.
THE COURT HOUSE.
The first Court House used by Richland County stood nearly oppo- site the present City Hall, and with its yard, occupied an acre of ground. This was torn down about 1850, and one of more modern architecture took its place, this latter going with the general destruction of war in 1865. Carolina Hall was erected after the fire and the lower part used by the general merchandise of Jas. G. Gibbs, while the upper part was used as a court house from 1868 to 1874. This was the place occu- pied by the Wallace Legislature in 1876.
$30,000, and is a handsome Corin- thian style of Grecian architecture. Richland was part of County Craven of colonial days, and the fort at Granby, three miles south of this place, was a point of siege during the Revolutionary war.
CLERK OF COURT.
Edward R. Arthur, the Clerk of Hall and is in charge of Sergeant Court, is a native Columbian, his Wm. Line, an Englishman, who has father having been the first Mayor spent many years in the States, and of the place after the name was who came to Columbia from Cleve- changed from Intendant to Mayor.
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20
HISTORICAL SKETCH
Mr. Arthur graduated from the is located on Lincoln street. This Military Institute of Lexington, Va., is a brick structure, and his boarders July 4th, 1870, took the degree of average about twenty. LL. B. from the University of South Carolina in 1871, and commenced SCHOOL COMMISSIONER. the practice of law. In 1880 he was Lucius C. Sylvester was born in elected Clerk of the Court, re-elected Sumter County, but for thirty years in 1884, and is just about closing his past has been a resident of this second term with credit to his ability vicinity. Superintendent Sylvester as an officer. graduated from the South Carolina COUNTY TREASURER. University in 1861, and has been in educational pursuits since that time. . The moneys of the county are in He was elected as School Commis- the hands of James S. Campbell, a sioner in 1878, and has been re- native of the county, and in mer- elected successively ever since. The cantile trade for twenty years number of schools in Richland prior to his being selected as County County is 69, and total enrolment Treasurer at the last election. The 5,388, with an average attendance arerage yearly collections of Rich- throughout the school year of 3,067. land foot up about $80,000, which The term in the city is nine months is again disbursed for the various and outside five months. Ninety public uses. Mr. Campbell is as- teachers are employed, and the pay sisted in the clerical duties of his roll foots up $19,061.49. office by his son, R. E. Campbell.
COUNTY AUDITOR.
MASTER FOR RICHLAND COUNTY.
The duties of Master for the Edward S. Percival was born in county covers the labors formerly this county in 1823, and has a large devolving upon the Commissioner plantation some seven miles from in Equity and Master of Equity as the city. He is a graduate of the they existed prior to 1870. Jobn T. South Carolina College and was the Seibels, the present Master, is a Captain of Company F. James Bat- native .of Columbia, and has held talion of South Carolina Infantry. the office for five years. He is a Captain Percival's duties are to keep graduate of the South Carolina the accounts of the returns and dis -- University, and was admitted to law bursements of moneys, and he is practice in 1872, continuing in that assisted by Thos. D. Hopkins, who profession until he accepted his pres- is also a native of this county.
COUNTY SHERIFF.
Samuel W. Rowan, the County Sheriff, is a native Columbian, and lost an arm at the battle of Sharps-
ent office. He is assisted in the clerical work by his brother, Robert E. Seibels.
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.
The Board of County Commis- burg. Sheriff Rowan was for two sioners are W. A. Black, Louis Mar- years Clerk of the Market, and eight stellar, and P. B. Speigner, and the years ago was elected to his present clerical work is in the hands of high station, having been re-elected Arthur C. Moore, who also officiates for a second four years' term. The as County Attorney. Mr. Moore is Sheriff has charge of the jail, which a native Columbian, graduated from
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21
COLUMBIA CITY.
the South Carolina University, and when Mr. Eugene Cramer, a scenic was admitted in 1868. He has offi- artist from New York, was given ciated in the Commissioners' office the management of the Columbia for five years past. theatre a dozen years since. Mr. PROBATE JUDGE. Cramer found the place a mere shell and at once set to work to make of John H. Pearson is a native of it a first class stage and surround- the city, and on the death of Judge D. P. McDonald, Mr. Pearson was
ings, which task he has admirably accomplished. He has here facili- appointed to fill out his term, and ties for painting very large sized since elected to the position of Pro- curtains, a large quantity of fine bate Judge. scenes, a fine carpenter shop, and has not only added largely to the CITY HALL. paraphernalia of the Columbia Opera House, but to many promi- nent theatres of the South. Mr.
This building is a conspicuous landmark on Main street, but not Cramer has made several valuable commensurate with the vast amount inventions in theatrical hardware, expended for its construction. It which are on sale by J. R. Glancy, was erected in 1874 under Radical of Syracuse, N. Y., one of the largest rule, and the contract price was opera furnishing houses in the $65,000, but opera house bonds were country, and for which he holds the Southern agency.
issued to the amount of over $300,- 000, which all stood against the city The railroad train manufactured by Mr. C., brass piece of artillery, large safe, skiff, water scenes, etc., when the present political faith took the control in 1876, besides some $300,000 worth of railroad bonds are very realistic, and the entire had been used up in reckless expen- outfit of the Columbia Opera House, ditures as direct thefts. leaving a dressing rooms, scenery, etc., is ex- · debt against the municipality of over ceptionally fine. The seating capacity one and a half million dollars. This is about 700, but a thousand persons has been reduced more than one half, can witness a play, on pressure. with a less rate of taxation, and Some of the best talent of the the city is now in a prosperous country, Booth, Barrett, and other condition, and ready to en- great stars, have used the Columbia courage new industries. The stage. Mr. Cramer has earned a municipality owns several valuable wide notoriety for his careful selec- manufacturing sites, and with the tions and good financial manage- new canal development, will hold ment and his reputation as a scenic forth large inducements to manu- artist is not excelled by any in the facturers. The canal will have a South. separate mention farther on. MAYOR.
THE OPERA HOUSE
His Honor. John T. Rhett, is a native of Beaufort, but came to Co-
Is a part of the City Hall, and lumbia in childhood. He served as was the scheme used by the Radi- Lieutenant of the 2d South Carolina cals to absorb the people's money. Cavalry in the late war, and returning To foster that enterprise, some to private life, commenced to prac- $250,000 in bonds had been used tise law in 1865.
22
HISTORICAL SKETCH
Mayor Rhett is now serving on a third two years' term as the highest official of the city.
CITY CLERK AND TREASURER.
William J.' Cathcart. the City Clerk and Treasurer, is a native of Columbia. and was ticket agent of refer with good grace.
. the Atlantic Coast Line here for several years prior to bis election to office in 1884. Mr. Cathcart was Sergeant in the 3d South Carolina Battalion, which did heroic service for the Confederacy in the struggle between the States.
CITY AUDITOR AND ASSESSOR.
Henry P. Taylor, the City Audi- tor, comes from the original Taylors of Columbia, although born in Ala- bama, whither his parents had re- moved. He has, however, lived in Columbia since childhood, and was elected as Auditor in April. 1886. Mr. Taylor reports the assessed valuation of the city at $4.025,000, and the levy for 1888 at ten mills. The annual revenue from licenses amounts to some $18.000. The water works, reservoirs, etc., will be notel under a separate heading farther on.
STREET COMMISSIONER.
The care and supervision of streets. devolves upon Hugh Weir. who first saw the light of day upon the Emer- ald Isle. ,Mr. Weir has been thirty years in America, and in the employ of Columbia city for about ten years, the first half of the time acting as Sergeant of police, and for five years past in his present capacity.
Do not destroy this book, as you will want to refer to it again.
PENITENTIARY.
The State Penitentiary of South Carolina is located near the Conga- ree River, just in the edge of Co- lumbia, and its successful manage- ment is one to which the State can
The prison wall embraces within its enclosure about 11 acres, and besides giving a sufficient space for the va- rious buildings and workshops, fur- nishes an area on which a handsome gardening business is done. There was raised last year on about five acres of ground, in cabbage-
10.930 heads. $ 546 50
133 bushels tomatoes ... 133 00
424 okra 424 00
65
66 onions. ... 97 50
200 turnips ... .. 114 50
59 Irish pota .. 59 00
1.000 bu. Sw. potatoes .. 500 00
Other products 509 50
Total $2,384 00
On the Lexington farm of 250 acres improved, the value was $4,- 602.32. more than half of which was cotton. Two places of Sims, two of Seegers, and the Aughtry farm are worked on shares, bringing a reve- nue last year of $31.305.96, which, with the garden and Lexington farm, brought a total profit to the State of 838.292.30. On the above farmns a daily average of over 300 laborers have been employed.
In the tailor shop about 40 women and 8 men are worked. Four band- looms are run, and the arrangements for pushing the shuttle have been perfected until an expert can pro- duce 160 ticks per minute, although the average is but little more than half that number. A single work- man can turn out 30 yards a day of 8 oz. goods, No. 6 yarn, but the
23
COLUMBIA CITY.
average is about 80 yards for the work on the Blackwell & Newberry four looms. This is of the prison Railroad. stripe, and is made up into clothing In the Superintendent's report for
for the convicts. This department the year ending October 31, 1887, is in charge of J. Cartledge, who we find the following summary : learned his trade at the Richmond "On the 1st of November, 1-86, manufactory, near Augusta, and there were in confinement 985 per- handles his force of hands with good sons, viz., 64 white males and 5 judgment, producing over $4,000 white females. 878 colored males worth of goods each year. and 38 colored females. We have
Ten men work in the blacksmith received during the year 37 white shop under charge of W. H. Miller, males and 4 white females, 500 col- Jr., a Columbian, as foreman, and ored males and 29 colored females, most of the work is for prison use, and we have recaptured 19 colored amounting in value to $2.225.
males and 2 white males, making in
Jas. Fraser. as foreman of stone- all 591, and for the whole year 1.576. work, reported for last year a value The discharges and other casualties of $13,483, which was principally were 576, leaving in confinement on for the 60 new cells that were added. the 31st of October, 1887, 1,000 per- He operated an average of 30 men sons." as cutters and quarrymen. The discipline of this vast regi-
.
.
The carpenter shop is under the ment has been for nine years past watchful eye of C. E. Kirk, a native under W. H. Sligh, of this county, of this city, who has spent seven who was captain of a company in years as foreman of that work. Mr. Nelson's Battalion throughout the Kirk has an average of 13 men, and war, and whose skill in handling this reported $6,321 in value last year. large family of convicts has shown The engine room is cared for by W. itself in their good behavior. Capt. D. Long, who has resided in Colum- Sligb's guard force consists of Ser- bia for 30 years . past, and who took geant W. W. Adams, of Barnwell charge of the new boiler and engines County, five corporals and 28 pri- shortly after the explosion of the vates.
old bgiler in March, 1886, when two The Chaplain, Rev. Wm. Martin, men were killed and others injured. reports the Penitentiary congrega-
Over 100 hands are employed tion as a very orderly one, and the accessions to the church for the year within the prison walls in the manu- facture of shoes for A. C. Dibert, as 34. He is in need of additional and a similar number by M. A. literature, which will be thankfully Markley & Co., who operate the received from any source.
hosiery mills, which are also on the
Dr. D. S. Pope, the surgeon in prison grounds. . These industries charge, reports that the deaths in will have a mention in our manufac- the immediate prison charge was turing pages. Besides the above, but 22 per cent., but including those R. S. Pringle operates under con- working out under contract 34 tract over 100 men at Gregg's Phos- deaths occurred during the year. phate Works, near Summerville; with an average population of a lit- Rice & Coleman have over 100 grad- tle less than 1,000. The entire prison ing a railroad in Chester County, force is in charge of Superintendent and 100 have recently commenced Thomas J. Lipscomb and 5 directors.
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21
HISTORICAL SKETCH
Superintendent Lipscomb is from State farms, machinery, or buildings, Newberry County, and bas been in which more than makes up for the charge of the Penitentiary for near- deficit between the receipts and ex- ly ten years. His able financial penditures, besides the large amount management and executive ability of free work that has been done have been clearly demonstrated, upon the canal by convict labor. and with this regiment of convicts Of the farms worked by the con- in charge a revenue is returned to victs, 4,000 acres belong to Hon. the State instead of a heavy expense, John C. Seegers, an enterprising which is found to be the case in the German, who came to this country majority of States. Besides this, forty years ago, now a member of the convicts who behave properly, the State Legislature, and who owns as is usually the case, receive kind 3,000 acres in addition to the above. treatment, and with the exception of Eighty-five mules, and twice as many the stripes they wear, their place for men, are required on Mr. Seegers's sleep, the walls which bound them, farms alone. W. G. Bateman, a na- and the coarse diet which they re- tive of this city, has charge of the ceive, the ordinary observer would clerical duties in the Superintend- notice but little difference between ent's office and acts as secretary of the South Carolina Penitentiary the Board. hands and the employes of any other great industrial works. They LUNATIC ASYLUM. continue their labors with quietude and seeming interest, and but for the name and surroundings this ap- pears to be as congenial a place for work as many regular factories. The S. C. Penitentiary is one im- mense industrial work, and the Su- perintendent and Directors should be highly complimented for its suc- cessful workings.
The statistics of insanity are a matter of interest to all, and we herewith reproduce a summary con- densed from several annual reports made by Dr. P. E. Griffin, the Super- intendent in charge of the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum. The num- ber of insane in the United States by the census of 1870 was 37,432,
The brick buildings are valued at and by that of 1880 was given as $10,000, or over, and the granite five 91,997, an alarming increase of over story cell structure is one of the best 200 per cent., and in South Carolina prison edifices on the continent. increased from 333 to 1,112 during There are 625 cells, more than half the same time. It is, however, quite of which have been erected during probable that while insanity is on the superintendency of Col. Lip- the increase, that the more careful scomb, and the brick work has all summing up of statistics in the latter been done under his charge. The than in the former census, largely main prison will have 1,000 cells when accounts for the apparent increase. completed, and will have cost $500,- Illustrating the relative ratio be- 000. The women sleep in cots, in a tween the colder and more equable large room securely locked. By next latitudes, we find that in the popula- winter the entire prison will be tion of New England, there is one heated by steam and lighted with lunatic to every 342 persons; the gas. Some $20,000 to $30,000 has middle States one to 425; western been added each year to the value of States, 591; Southern States, 773;
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COLUMBIA CITY.
South Carolina, 895, and in Florida menced at that time, and is said to but one to a population of 1,065. have been the third State Asylum in
The expense of keeping, by the the new world. Additions have been able management of the present made from time to time, and about Superintendent, has been reduced 1855 the new Asylum was com- from a per capita of $202 in 1877 to menced, of which the male wing was about $140 at the present time. built before the war, and most of the Among a large number of reports remainder during the past ten years. from various sections of the United In 1836 Dr. John W. Parker was States, we find this among the most chosen as Superintendent and phy- economical in expense, some of them sician, and his labors in the institu- ranging three times as high. The tion covered a period of more than clothing is made by the inmates, forty years. His death in October, and a large share of the table neces- 1882, although at a mature age, was sities provided from the farm, which much regretted by all who knew is principally operated by the male him. inmates. About five per cent. of the
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