The Center for a Better South
High summer finds a crop in the field in front of an old barn in Hyman, a small community just outside Pamplico, in rural Florence County, S.C.
Florence County had 137,948 people, according to a 2012 Census estimate. Its poverty rate — higher in the rural areas than the county seat of Florence, averaged 19.4 percent in 2010.
Copyrighted photo taken and originally posted in August 2014 by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
This old house in the southern part of Florence County is an example of so many farmhouses across the South that are no longer in use, writes Kingstree photographer Linda W. Brown. “From its size, one can imagine that it was once home to a large farm family,” she writes.
Photo taken December 2014 by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
Photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C., said she’s not exactly sure what this contraption in a Florence County pasture was used for on the farm. “Personally, I like all the different levels and sizes of wheels.”
Copyrighted photo taken by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
This old tobacco barn in Florence County, just off the Vox Highway, is beginning to lean and is losing its tin as age, sun, wind and rain take their toll, writes Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown.
You can spy hints of three three modes of transportation in this December 2014 taken by Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown. There’s a white horse, wagon wheel and old white sports car.
“We here in the country tend to hang on the past,” Brown writes, adding that the photo was taken Dec. 26, 2014, on Highway 341 between Johnsonville and Lake City.
Copyrighted photo. All rights reserved.
It looks like a rehab is in the works at this old barn in the Browntown community in lower Florence County, writes Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown.
Copyrighted photo taken Dec. 26, 2014. All rights reserved.
It’s been a long while since this clunker has seen life on the roadways. Photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C., spied it while driving on S.C. Highway 341 between Lake City and Johnsonville in neighboring Florence County.
Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown, 2014. All rights reserved.
These two mules live in Florence County on S.C. Highway 341 between Lake City and Johnsonville. Photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree recalls how mules, once a normal part of the Southern countryside, now are seen only rarely.
In 2010, Better South President Andy Brack wrote a commentary on the disappearance of mules across the region. He wrote in Charleston Currents:
Back in 1930, there were about 5.4 million mules in the United States, according to Census data. Today? 283,806 mules and donkeys, according to 2007 Census numbers, which combined both types of animals into one category. South Carolina had 188,895 mules in 1930, compared to 1,620 mules and donkeys today.
So what happened? Mechanization and World War II.
“When the army started to get tanks, mules pretty much went by the wayside” because they weren’t needed to pull artillery and do other work that could be done by machines, said Leah Patton, registrar of the American Donkey and Mule Society in Lewisville, Texas.
Farmers started plowing with tractors. Farm families started traveling by car or truck. Because mules, a cross between a horse and donkey, are sterile and can’t breed, the species’ numbers dropped dramatically.
Patton’s society has more than 70,000 donkeys and mules registered in an attempt to keep alive the interest in the animals. Most people, she noted, don’t register mules because they are only around for their lifetimes.
But mules are still revered in some corners where people use them for more recreational purposes — showing them and riding them. And you can still find them hard at work in developing countries where people live off the land and don’t have enough money for tractors.
Photo is copyrighted by Linda W. Brown; taken in December 2014. All rights reserved.
Fields across South Carolina are white with “Carolina snow” as the season’s cotton harvest is underway. This field, captured by photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C., near Sardis in rural Florence County, S.C.
Florence County had 137,948 people, according to a 2012 Census estimate. Its poverty rate — higher in the rural areas than the county seat of Florence, averaged 19.4 percent in 2010.
Copyrighted photo taken in October 2014 by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
Recently-baled hay is ready for the winter in this field west of the small town of Scranton in rural Florence County, S.C.
Florence County had 137,948 people, according to a 2012 Census estimate. Its poverty rate — higher in the rural areas than the county seat of Florence, averaged 19.4 percent in 2010.
Copyrighted photo taken in October 2014 by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
