Category: South Carolina History
-
SPOTLIGHT ON: John L. Hart
In 1845, a twenty-year-old John L. Hart bought from his brother-in-law Colonel T.c. Law some 491 acres of virgin pine forest. Here he established Hartsville Plantation and thus it was known as late as 1913. The Plantation ran along East Home Avenue to U.S. 15, now known as Fifth Street, which dead-ended on Home Avenue,…
-
FAMOUS DARLINGTON COUNTY RESIDENTS: Buddy Johnson, jazz musician
Woodrow Wilson “Buddy” Johnson, a renown jazz and New York blues musician, was born in Darlington, SC, on January 10, 1915. A pianist and bandleader, Buddy performed songs with his sister Ella Johnson. Among his songs that went into the R&B and pop charts were “Let’s Beat Out Some Love,” “Baby Don’t You Cry,” and,…
-
FROM THE ARCHIVES: “The Company Store” and “That Village Isn’t There Anymore”
I found these in the Darlington Cotton Mill files. Mills, particularly Southern cotton mills, have a complicated history, and I’d like to hear more about them from firsthand sources. So if you’ve got information, an anecdote, pictures, songs, poems, or anything else on the subject, please leave a comment and tell us about it. …
-
SPOTLIGHT ON: Isaiah DeQuincey Newman, clergyman and civil rights leader
Isaiah DeQuincey Newman, a Darlington County native, was an esteemed clergyman and important civil rights leader. Educated in Williamsburg County public schools and Claflin College, he was ordained in the United Methodist Church (UMC) in 1931. In 1943, he helped organize the Orangeburg branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).…
-
SPOTLIGHT ON: Henry Hannibal Butler, educator and ordained preacher
During the Great Depression, Butler was in charge of the distribution of relief supplies to the African-American community, and as a Mason and an Odd Fellow, he was respected by religious and business leaders both black and white. According to “Rev. Henry Hannibal Butler,” a remembrance written by Horace Fraser Rudisill, Butler, among his many…
-
“A Giver to Everyone”: Remembering Lucile H. Windham
I sometimes think of our files as children, and I bemoan the fact that some are fat and happy and receiving lots of attention, while others are skinny and sad and starved for affection. Ironically, our vast collection of files is housed in the old Darlington County Jail…
-
SPOTLIGHT ON: Lawrence Reese, master carpenter and merchant
At the age of 21 or 22, Lawrence Reese came to Darlington, S.C., where he married Lula Aiken. According to an article in The Community Times dated May 3, 2001, Dr. McGirt, Lula’s father, asked young Lawrence how he would support his new bride, and Lawrence replied that he was a carpenter. Dr. McGirt, needing…
-
The Book and Toy Company of Darlington, S.C.
The Commission’s archives are housed in the old Darlington County Jail. The top two floors are where we keep the majority of our files and artifacts, and every time I climb those steep steps, I start to feel like a kid on Christmas morning. I get so excited about what I might discover in those…
-
FAMOUS DARLINGTON COUNTY RESIDENTS: Rufus T. Bess, Jr., NFL player
Bess went on to play nine seasons in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, and Oakland Raiders from 1979-1987.
-
Letter from General Nathanael Greene to Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox
On April 24, 1781, General Nathanael Greene sent the following letter to Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox. Written and sent from his camp in Camden, Greene wrote: When I consider how much you have done and suffered, and under what difficulties you have maintained your ground, I am at a loss which to admire most,…