USA > South Carolina > Williamsburg County > History of Williamsburg; something about the people of Williamsburg County, South Carolina, from the first settlement by Europeans about 1705 until 1923. > Part 39
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John James Brockinton Montgomery, alias "Daddy," has held continuous levees on the shady court house green for more than thirty years. Sheriff G. J. Graham listened to "Daddy's" tales every day for the twenty years he was sheriff, and now when this venerable citizen comes to Kingstree he has not spent a "perfect day" until "Daddy" has entertained him with a story. Mr. Montgomery has been auditor of Williamsburg since 1900, and few politi- cians even years ago had the hardihood to attempt to disturb his place. For many years, nobody has offered as a candidiate against him. Mr. Montgomery knows tax- ation as applied to Wiliamsburg and his office has always been kept along model lines. He knows the "previous condition of servitude" of every white man in Wiliamsburg and every man likes to hear him tell stories about every
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other man. He is dean of the Court House contingent and no man questions his kindly rule.
Among the physicians who have lived in Williamsburg during the period from the War between the Sections until the present time may be mentioned: W. S. Boyd, Sr., T. S. Hemingway, John F. Brockinton, James S. Brockinton, W. L. Wallace, James Staggers, R. F. Maurice, Samuel McGill, Robert Henry, James Bradley, J. A. James, W. D. Rich, S. D. M. Byrd, J. W. Graham, Richard Fulmore, A. H. Williams, Henry DuBose, D. C. Scott, Robert Gourdin, J. F. Pressley, Van Epps, W. G. Gamble, J. M. Burgess, W. V. Brockinton, R. J. Fulton, C. D. Jacobs, T. M. Mouzon, T. S. Hemingway, J. M. Mason, W. S. Boyd, William S. Boyd, Isaac Boyd, W. L. Sellers, W. S. Lynch, J. F. Register, B. M. Montgomery, W. H. Woods, E. O. Taylor, E. T. Kelley, Maurice Scott, Walter H. Harper, O. F. Hagan, A. M. Willcox, T. Cuy- ler Harper, J. D. Eaddy, H. O. Byrd, R. W. Sease, W. L. Whitehead, W. C. Rogers, John Rhett Brockinton, R. L. Cockfield, T. B. Harper, W. M. O'Bryan, Charles H. Pate, W. J. Haselden, J. F. Haselden, J. C. Moore, W. C. Hemingway, P. S. Thomas, A. G. Eaddy, John W. Staggers, S. B. W. Courtney, J. H. Pratt, H. L. Baker, L. B. Johnson, C. D. Rollins, John Boyd, and Carl Epps.
Among the dentists may be mentioned M. D. Nesmith, C. D. Haddon, R. C. McCabe, R. J. McCabe, Jack McCul- lough, J. A. Cole, D. Z. Rowell, Frank O. Lentz, and A. M. Snider.
Among the lawyers natives of the County or who prac- ticed here: S. W. Maurice, George P. Logan, E. J. Por- ter, Paul A. Cooper, E. H. Williams, E. G. Chandler, J. S. Wilson, John O. Willson, Texas Logan, John Hughes Cooper, Barron Greer, R. J. Kirk, H. J. Haynesworth, T. M. Gilland, John A. Kelley, LeRoy Lee, A. C. Hinds, J. Capers James, M. A. Shuler, L. W. Gilland, J. Z. Mc- Connell, J. D. O'Bryan, Philip H. Stoll, M. J. Hirsch,
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E. L. Hirsch, F. R. Hemingway, W. W. Boddie, John Barron, B. P. Barron, R. K. Wallace, F. W. Fairey, C. E. St. Amand, W. O. Godwin, P. N. Becton, Junius Mc- Intosh, Robert Pierson, E. L. Ard, C. W. Stoll, Hoxie G. Askins, J. D. Gilland, W. Furman Dargan, R. D. Epps, Timothy Dargan, W. L. Bass, John G. Pressley, D. A. Brockinton, and Heyward Brockinton. Colonel John G. Pressley migrated to California in 1869 and there be- came a distinguished jurist. Judge John S. Wilson moved to Manning as a young man. For more than twenty years, he has been a distinguished circuit judge.
Dr. John O. Wilson became a powerful minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was one of the three who determined the legal polity of the Metho- dist Church in the Southern States. He died in 1923 while President of Lander College.
During the late seventies, Major C. S. Land worked the Southern portion of the County for naval stores prod- ucts. He built a tramway for transporting logs from Lane to the western boundary of the County. In 1880, he sold this right of way to the Atlantic Coast Line Railway and immediately a standard gauge railroad was built from Lane westward through the County on to Sumter. In 1881, the first trains were put in operation on this railway. This railroad played a considerable part in the development of this Santee section. Along this rail- way was a section of country known as "Clocktown" for many years. It was told that soon after the War some agents selling seven-day clocks of considerable propor- tions and telling everything from one's "fortune" to the second of time went through this country and sold these clocks to all the inhabitants thereof. Some of these inhab- itants, the story goes, lived in dwellings that could not contain these clocks so that some of the clocks were fas- tened to large pine trees nearby these dwellings. Nobody ever lived in "Clocktown," but it was well known in the County.
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About 1870, S. J. Taylor and S. J. Hutson had the town of Greelyille incorporated and S. J. Taylor was elected the first intendant. It was then depending largely on the turpentine industry. Later it developed into a flourishing town. The first postmaster of Greelyville was Wade S. Varner; second, W. H. Campbell; third, H. D. Oliver. In 1899 Fred Mishoe became postmaster and still holds the office. Among those who have served as station agents at Greelyville have been Wade S. Varner, W. H. Campbell, Frank Welch, and David Sasser, Fred Mishoe, W. H. Hodges, T. S. Brunson, and W. D. Mat- thews. The first Masonic Lodge at Greelyville had as its officers : B. E. Clarkson, Worshipful Master; C. E. Hil- ton, Senior Warden; and D. A. Johnson, Junior Warden. The first drainage district for the purpose of reclaiming swamp lands in Williamsburg County was established in the Greelyville section. Its principal promoters were T. W. Boyle and E. B. Rhodus. About twenty thousand acres of excellent farming lands have been added by the efforts of this project. The Mallard Lumber Company has been of much service in the development of this Greely- ville District.
H. J. Brown, more than four score years old, Coroner of Williamsburg County, Commander of John G. Pressley Camp of Confederate veterans, Deacon in the Baptist Church, and for many years Superintendent of the Baptist Sunday School at Cades, has lived through more than the allotted time of man in the Cades section and knows its history. When asked about Cades, he replied, "I was ten years old when I came to Cades in 1852. It was then known as Camp Ridge and C. W. Cade was postmaster. He kept the office at his home where H. L. Poston now lives. He had three boys about grown and they carried the mail on horseback to Santee Postoffice and to Darling- ton once every week. General Marion had a recupera- tion camp during the Revolution in the field on the op-
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posite side of the road from where Larry Poston has re- cently settled. This place was called Camp Ridge from this fact. About the time my father moved to Cades, several other families came and joined with the other residents and built a school house near where M. Clark now lives. The patrons of this school were : on the north, Littleton Dennis, R. B. Green, Levi Brown, and Patrick Parker; on the east, C. A. Cade, John F. Graham, and Brown Graham; on the south, John Frierson and James E. Fulton; on the west, Martin S. Feagan and Benjamin Baker. Some of these men lived four miles from the lit- tle log school. The first teacher was named Palmer and boarded at Mr. Cades. The next teacher was Mr. Andrew Cade, and then came J. A. Feagan. These men taught three months in the year. In 1856, the Northeastern railway came through Cades, but it did not establish a depot for many years. Several turpentine stills were in operation, however. The first section boss on this railroad was named Pettit. He was killed by a train before his year was up. Charles DuBose was the next postmaster. He was suc- ceeded by J. N. Sauls in 1883. E. H. Sauls became post- master in 1887 and it was at this time that the name of the postoffice was changed from Camp Ridge to Cades. The railway then built a station house at this point and several stores were in operation. T. P. Fulmore became postmaster in 1907. He was succeeded by V. G. Arnette in 1913. L. G. Brock succeeded him and then came R. E. Tart, who was succeeded by W. J. Smiley, incumbent. There is a handsome graded school building, two churches, five stores, two meat markets, and a bank at Cades, which is in the midst of a good farming community. Its citizens are law abiding and prosperous."
Captain John A. Salters owned the plantation on which Salters depot was established and for him the town of Salters was named. Prior to the Civil War, mail was brought on horseback from Kingstree to William Lifrage's
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place just south of Black River where S. P. Britton now lives and the postoffice was called Black River. Theodore M. Lifrage was postmaster. During the War, this post- office was discontinued. About 1870, Maxmilian Jacobs had a postoffice established about two miles south of Sal- ters depot. It was called Dixie. This postoffice was in existence about one year. In 1873 a postoffice was estab- lished at Salters depot. Mrs. M. J. Rawlinski was post- mistress until 1877 when Dr. R. F. Maurice succeeded her. He was postmaster until February 5, 1879, when J. G. Lifrage, incumbent, took charge. He has held this office continuously for more than forty-four years.
In 1883 W. D. Bryan, W. R. Bryan, and James Bryan lived on the railway in the sutheastern part of the County. They established a postoffice with James Bryan as postmaster and called it Trio. Helen M. Hinnant was incumbent in 1923.
In 1881, James Fowler Cooper had Fowler postoffice created and was postmaster until his death in 1914, when his brother, Hugh M. Cooper, incumbent, succeeded him. Cooper Brothers, merchants and planters, have their headquarters at Fowler.
Nesmith postoffice was established October 1, 1907, with R. J. Nesmith as Postmaster. B. L. Nesmith succeeded him December 31, 1912. This place was given its name from the old family so numerous in that vicinity.
Henry postoffice was named by J. J. Snow, a prominent scion of distinguished family in those parts. W. T. Turbeville became postmaster when the office was created in 1913 and is the present holder.
C. J. Rollins was the first postmaster at Lamberts. This post office was established about 1900. In 1913, Lamberts was changed in name to Hemingway, in honor of W. C. Hemingway, father of Dr. W. C. Hemingway, who was accidently killed by an explosion in his labora- tory in 1921. Hemingway has grown into a considerable
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town within the past decade. The Masonic Lodge at Hem- ingway was formed at Indiantown in 1872, with John Frierson, Worshipful Master, H. L. Hanna, Senior War- den, and D. L. Keith, Junior Warden. Its headquarters were changed to Hemingway about ten years ago, but it is still known as the Indiantown Lodge, No. 165. Its present officers are: Z. H. McDaniel, Worshipful Master, R. A. Hughes, Senior Warden, D. H. Oliver, Junior Warden, and W. F. Hanna, secretary.
For a long time, young women have been coming into Williamsburg as school teachers every year. Many of the best of them have married Williamsburg men, and almost without exception, they have proved valuable in home, church, and general community service. Possibly no one influence working in Williamsburg has been more wholesome and elevating than these educated women brought from other districts. Among them may be named Mesdames M. F. Heller, J. J. B. Montgomery, LeRoy Lee, W. V. Brockinton, P. O. Arrowsmith, R. K. Wallace, T. S. Hemingway, John S. Fulton, L. F. Rhem, J. Y. McGill, D. E. Evans, Hugh M. Cooper, Stuart Cunningham, John Cunningham, John Foxworth, J. B. Allsbrook, S. W. Mimms, Dodd Daniel, W. W. Holliday, J. H. Epps, Rob- ert Montgomery, G. A. McElveen, D. M. Ervin, L. S. Den- nis, W. S. Boyd, Wilbur Eaddy, and Lawrence Swails.
To all outward appearances, Williamsburg in 1923 was almost perfectly Puritan. More than ninety-nine per centum of all the social gatherings in the County were under the auspices of church or patriotic organizations. Churches had many societies and the frequent meetings of these absorbed most of the "herding" energies of the people. Christian Endeavors, Epworth Leagues, and Young Peoples Unions almost circumscribed the so- cial activities of the younger element; while Missionary Societies, Ladies' Aid Societies, and the like, almost en- compassed the field for the matrons. The men of the
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County had no social gatherings, except about once every year one of the very few fraternal lodges of the County usually gave a "Pine Bark Stew." A notable exception to the general social inactivity among the men was the "Pine Bark Stew" D. J. Epps usually gave about a hun- dred of his friends every May Day. Mr. Epps cooked and served Black River bream fit for a gathering of the gods. The taste of his stew always lingered in a man and lured him to return to the King's Tree on the Wee Nee. It has been customary in Wiliamsburg for more than a cen- tury for every minister to preach two or three sulphuric discourses every year on the subject of "worldly amuse- ments," this term being applied to almost every social activity not under the patronage of denominational, pat- riotic, or fraternal organizations. It has not been pos- sible for many years for the young people of the County to maintain a dancing club, or a card club; and almost any individual who encourages his children to participate in such entertainment as dancing or card playing is openly denounced as an advocate of the Devil. Partici- pating in a game of golf or of tennis on Sunday would probably result in a social and commercial boycott in Williamsburg.
CHAPTER XL.
GENERAL PROGRESS.
There were very few men that, prior to the emancipation, had depended upon slave labor who emerged from the reconstruction period with any material thing of econo- mic importance except land, and land then had but a nominal commercial value. W. B. McCollough says his father often told him that if a new comer desired very much to buy a tract of land, he might be induced to pay fifteen cents per acre; if the land owner were hard pressed for money, he would probably sell for ten cents per acre; but that where the land owner was neither practically forced to sell nor the purchaser over zealous to buy, the price was usually about twelve and one-half cents per acre.
A considerable portion of the present county of Wil- liamsburg was swamp land until about 1900. When the pioneers settled here about 1730, it seems that nearly every one of them built his home within a stone's throw of a swamp and he buried his dead overlooking water. Hundreds of earth mounds showing the locations of the original adobe houses and the deeply ditched graveyards prove these statements. Neolithic peoples known as kitchen-middens of about ten thousand years before Christ lived on the lowlands of Scotland, from whence came these original settlers in Williamsburg. Was it a race instinct that placed these pioneer homes in Williamsburg over- looking swamps?
In the beginning, the mosquitoes that infested these sluggish waters seems to have been more annoying than harmful. Later, these little insects became infected by all kinds of fever producing germs and threatened the life of the swamp dwellers. It became necessary that every white family move out of the infested area during the mosquito months, and this proved a serious economic
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factor. Some of the wealthier men sent their families to the mountains every summer; others, unable to do this, built summer homes as far as possible away from the swamps. Later, everybody in Williamsburg began resid- ing permanently, winter and summer, on the highlands rather than in the low lands. One hundred years ago, a man might have travelled across Williamsburg without having seen a residence from the public roads: now the homes are nearly all located on the highways.
Some planters before the War between the Sections undertook to drain their swamp lands, but these were very few in number. There was so much land available that nearly everybody elected to plant small patches here and there where water would not interfere.
These high lands planted produced but little per acre unless fertilized, and from the War until about 1900 not very many farmers in the County had been able to pur- chase the necessary commercial fertilizer. At first, Peru- vian guano was used by planters. The cost of this was almost prohibitive; and besides, some wiseacres thought that this mixture actually destroyed the vitalizing el- ements in the soil. Later, commercial fertilizers grad- ually grew into use and the production of cotton increased. The soil of Williamsburg responds promptly and effec- tively to the intelligent use of chemical fertilizers.
Comparatively little land had been cleared for culti- vation up to 1900. It was about that time that nearly everybody began to realize that the swamp lands were much more fertile than the sand hills, and the drainage of the lowlands became a serious undertaking. Draining the swamps helped in the conquest of the mosquito as well as added greatly to the productiveness of the section. It was about 1890 when the first artesian well in the pres- ent limits of Williamsburg was bored at Hebron Metho- dist Church. This well has been flowing continuously since that time. It was soon found that pure artesian
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water could be secured all over the County at depths from fifty to five hundred feet, and wells were located in all the towns, at most of the churches, and on many plantations within a decade. Theretofore surface drinking water had always been a menace to the health of the section.
With an abundance of pure and delightful artesian water all over the country, with the mosquito relegated to stagnant fens and moors far away from habitation, the health conditions rapidly improved and creative energy and productive ambition resulted in progression. Better lands planted produced more abundant harvests. About 1900, considerable visible material manifestation of economic development was evident.
About the only people in Williamsburg who accumu- lated any property between 1866 and 1876 were those who worked in the turpentine business. These men depended most largely on white labor. Nearly all of them had mi- grated into Williamsburg a few years before the beginning of the War between the States. Among these dealers in naval stores and pine products who made fortunes may be mentioned Captain J. F. Carraway, J. R. Lambson, R. H. Kimball, Edwin Harper, James Harper, R. H. Kel- lahan, Major C. S. Land, J. H. Pittman, and Dr. John F. Brockinton. Dr. Brockinton was the only man named in this list who was a native of Williamsburg.
As a rule during this time from 1876 to 1900, the mas- ters of plantations were losing them little by little as necessity forced them from time to time to convey to others their inheritances. As late as 1905, Charles W. Wolfe said, "Negro labor is yet worse than nothing." It did not produce so much as it utilized. The whites began the period laboring under the delusion that manual labor degraded, and it was exceedingly difficult for them to realize that a gentleman might work with his hands. Many years passed before either the negro or the white man could reasonably adjust himself to the changed con-
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ditions. This was the most trying era in the history of Williamsburg.
Cotton was practically the only thing produced for market during this period. It was grown in ever increas- ing quantities, but the price received had gradually diminished from one dollar per pound just after the War to four cents per pound in 1897. All this time it must have seemed to the "indwellers in Williamsburg" that the gods had determined to enslave them forever. Plant- ers had accounts with the merchants in Charleston and these accounts usually absorbed all the proceeds from the sale of their cotton every November. The planters of Wil- liamsburg by this system of marketing almost surrendered their independence to cotton factors and merchants in the City of Charleston. These cotton factors and merchants determined the price they charged for supplies and also the price they paid the planters for their cotton. Actual results from the negro labor and this system of market- ing show that the cotton planter in Williamsburg was between two mercilessly grinding millstones; that he, out of the substance which his ancestors had accumulated prior to the War and what his own energy could produce, fed and clothed freed negroes for a generation, as well as enriched cotton manipulators who kept him bound in economic chains.
Soon after the War between the Sections, the News and Courier, Charleston, undertook to promote the cultivation of tobacco in the State. Among other things, it offered a prize of considerable value for the best specimen of to- bacco grown in South Carolina. A great many men in various parts undertook to win this prize. It was awarded to Dr. Robert F. Maurice for his exhibit produced on his plantation in what is now the McCollough community, south of Black River, in Williamsburg.
Although it was known that the soil and climate of Williamsburg were peculiarly adapted to the cultivation
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and production of tobacco, it was thirty years later before it was undertaken. Sheriff J. E. Brockinton was the first man in the County to grow the "golden weed" for market. This was about 1900. In many ways Sheriff Brockinton was a valuable man in Williamsburg. His experiments growing early vegetables for market brought much light along this line and were instrumental in promoting the valuable trucking industry in the County.
It was not long after Mr. Brockinton made some pleas- ing sales of tobacco before men in every section of the County began to grow it, and almost at once it became a considerable economic factor. Among the first tobacco planters of this time in Williamsburg, may be mentioned : J. E. Brown, J. Y. Mc Gill, Percy Snowden, B. N. Stuckey, J. B. Player, Solon Nesmith, J. B. Gamble, J. B. Talle- vast, F. Rhem, and sons, J. C. Graham, R. D. Gamble, W. E. Lesesne, J. I .. Lesesne, J. J. Bradham, W. O. Camlin, R. W. Smith, J. L. Thomas, W. J. Smiley, B. E. McKnight, William P. McKnight, J. S. Evans, and D. I. Burgess.
For the first few years Williamsburg tobacco planters marketed their crops in Florence and Lake City. In 1909, W. K. McIntosh and D. J. Epps each operated a tobacco sales warehouse on what is now, 1923, the Williamsburg County Fair Association grounds. In that season, one and three-fourths million pounds of tobacco were sold in these two warehouses. The building now used by the Fair Associ- ation for exhibits was one of these two sales warehouses. The other building was removed to the corner of Hampton and Mill Streets in Kingstree, where it was used as a sales warehouse until the brick Central Warehouse now standing replaced it.
In 1918, Williamsburg County produced eleven million pounds of tobacco and sold it for the average price of $33.20 per hundred. This crop of tobacco was all placed on the market during the month of August and the first week in September of that year and brought $3,652,000.00
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into the County during that short time. There were four warehouses selling in Kingstree that year and several others in the smaller towns in the County. During that five weeks in 1918, Nelson's Warehouse in Kingstree paid out to farmers for their tobacco $989,752.52. This was, however, the largest sales warehouse in the County. It was owned and operated by W. K. McIntosh, E. J. Hester, E. C. Burgess, and L. F. Rhem. There were sold in 1918 in Kingstree during that memorable five weeks seven and one-half million pounds of tobacco.
Williamsburg produced that year an enormous cotton crop and it sold for about forty cents a pound. Those old men in Williamsburg who had been conscientious, con- sistent, continuous apostles of gloom for three or four score of years rubbed their eyes on Christmas morning and some of them actually admitted that Williamsburg was the promised land. That year and the next Williamsburg had an abundance of everything.
The census of Williamsburg County, 1920, shows its total population as 38,539, male 19,029, female, 19,510. There were only thirty-eight persons of foreign birth in the County, less than one-tenth of one per centum. There were 13,046 whites and 25,452 negroes, one Indian, and two Chinese. In 1920, the percentage of white population was 33.9 ; negroes 66; foreign born less than .1. In 1910, the percentage of white population was 38.2; the negro, 61.7. In 1920, there were 3006 white males and 4775 colored males over twenty-one years of age in the County. There were 7,232 dwelling houses in which there lived 7,318 fam- ilies. The census valuation of all 1919 crops was $12,529,167.00 ; cereals, $2,035,529 ; seeds, $30,137; hay and forage, $288,410; vegetables, $283,030; fruits and nuts, $11,112; all other crops, $9,880,949. There were 992,260 bushels of corn, 37,102 bushels of oats, 2,159 bushels of wheat, 168 bushels of rice, 7,173 bushels of peas, 11,707,464 pounds of tobacco, 28,511 bales of cotton, 23,302 gallons
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