Voting in Kingstree, S.C. Photo by Linda W. Brown.
A voter in Kingstree, S.C., votes in this photo on whether to change Williamsburg County‘s form of government from a council-supervisor type in which an elected official “runs” the county to a council-administrator form in which a professional manager is hired by the local council to run things.
Retired local editor Linda W. Brown says she thought the referendum failed by a 2-1 margin because of voters’ fears that the new form would erode voting rights, which were reduced when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key part of the federal Voting Rights Act earlier this summer.
Across the South, voters tend to participate in elections much like the rest of the nation. In the 2012 presidential election, for example, 58.2 percent of eligible voters cast ballots nationally. More than 60 percent of voters in four Southern states (Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina and Virginia) cast ballots, while three others exceeded the national average (Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.) Only Arkansas, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee were below the national average, but all were above 50 percent, according to a George Mason University study.
Here’s another old South Carolina cotton gin, this one in the rural community of Salters in Williamsburg County.
Retired editor Linda W. Brown, who took the photo, notes that the Salters gin not only provided employment for the adults of the community, but it also was a source of recreation for the young people. One woman who grew up there remembers “jumping cotton bales which were stacked at the gin ‘for recreation.’ She believes the gin closed somewhere around 1970. She says that during the time of year the gin was in operation, the three stores in ‘town’ stayed open late into the night.”
Residents, who often refer to themselves as “Saltines,” love their community and many fight hard to keep out landfills or growth of a current one, Brown writes.
“Visiting Salters for me is like stepping back in time to an era when people spent the afternoons sitting on their front porches watching the trains go by,” Brown writes.
Williamsburg County, located in the middle of the Southern Crescent, is about 75 miles north of Charleston, S.C. Just under 34,000 people live in the county, which is about the number who lived there in 1900, according to Census figures. Population peaked in 1950 at 43,807, but has dropped slowly since then.
About two-thirds of county residents are black, with almost all of those remaining being white. Only 2 percent of those in the county are of Hispanic descent. Some 32.8 percent of residents live in poverty, according to the Census. Of the county’s 1,921 firms, 36.5 percent are black-owned — a percentage that is three times South Carolina’s average.
The cotton gin in Salters not only provided employment for adults in the rural Williamsburg County community, but it was a source of recreation for young people, former editor Linda W. Brown writes.
“Beth Moseley Tisdale grew up in Salters, and she remembers jumping cotton bales which were stacked at the gin ‘for recreation.’ She believes the gin closed somewhere around 1970. She says that during the time of year the gin was in operation, the three stores in ‘town’ stayed open late into the night.”
Residents, who often refer to themselves as “Saltines,” love their community and many fight hard to keep out landfills or growth of a current one, Brown says.
“Visiting Salters for me is like stepping back in time to an era when people spent the afternoons sitting on their front porches watching the trains go by,” she writes.
Williamsburg County, located in the middle of the Southern Crescent, is about 75 miles north of Charleston, S.C. Just under 34,000 people live in the county, which is about the number who lived there in 1900, according to Census figures. Population peaked in 1950 at 43,807, but has dropped slowly since then.
About two-thirds of county residents are black, with almost all of those remaining being white. Only 2 percent of those in the county are of Hispanic descent. Some 32.8 percent of residents live in poverty, according to the Census. Of the county’s 1,921 firms, 36.5 percent are black-owned — a percentage that is three times South Carolina’s average.
Former editor Linda W. Brown tells us that the old depot was built in the 1850s when the railroad came to town and served the community for about 100 years. “The community was actually known as Salters Depot for many years,” she writes. “Charlie Walker never called it anything else although he pronounced the last syllable as if it were a cooking utensil. Salters has always been an agricultural community and the depot primarily handled ag products.”
Residents, who often refer to themselves as “Saltines,” love their community and many fight hard to keep out landfills or growth of a current one, Brown writes.
“Visiting Salters for me is like stepping back in time to an era when people spent the afternoons sitting on their front porches watching the trains go by,” she writes.
Williamsburg County, located in the middle of the Southern Crescent, is about 75 miles north of Charleston, S.C. Just under 34,000 people live in the county, which is about the number who lived there in 1900, according to Census figures. Population peaked in 1950 at 43,807, but has dropped slowly since then.
About two-thirds of county residents are black, with almost all of those remaining being white. Only 2 percent of those in the county are of Hispanic descent. Some 32.8 percent of residents live in poverty, according to the Census. Of the county’s 1,921 firms, 36.5 percent are black-owned — a percentage that is three times South Carolina’s average.
Moseley store, Salters, S.C. Photo by Linda W. Brown.
Salters is an unincorporated small community in southwestern Williamsburg County, South Carolina. Former editor Linda W. Brown writes that the residents, who like to call themselves “Saltines,” love their community and many fight hard to keep out landfills or growth of a current one.
“Visiting Salters for me is like stepping back in time to an era when people spent the afternoons sitting on their front porches watching the trains go by,” she writes.
Years back, you could easily watch trains go by from the front of this store pictured above. It’s the old C.E. Moseley Store and remains in the Moseley family. “I’m not sure when it was built, but it was open until 1943 when the Moseleys moved across the railroad tracks to a larger building,” which operated until the late 1980s.
Williamsburg County, located in the middle of the Southern Crescent, is about 75 miles north of Charleston, S.C. Just under 34,000 people live in the county, which is about the number who lived there in 1900, according to Census figures. Population peaked in 1950 at 43,807, but has dropped slowly since then.
About two-thirds of county residents are black, with almost all of those remaining being white. Only 2 percent of those in the county are of Hispanic descent. Some 32.8 percent of residents live in poverty, according to the Census. Of the county’s 1,921 firms, 36.5 percent are black-owned — a percentage that is three times South Carolina’s average.
Years ago, the Cooper Brothers Gin in Kingstree, S.C., was one of Williamsburg County’s most important businesses, writes photographer and retired editor Linda W. Brown.
“Today, it sits abandoned just off Longstreet Street/Highway 52. Many longtime residents are not even aware it’s there behind Cabbage’s Tire Service, although it is visible both from Longstreet and from the Kingstree Police Department parking lot.
“To me it exemplifies that we live such fast-paced lives that we are often not aware of the past or of parts of our history even when they’re visible to us every day.”
Williamsburg County, located in the middle of the Southern Crescent, is about 75 miles north of Charleston, S.C. Just under 34,000 people live in the county, which is about the number who lived there in 1900, according to Census figures. Population peaked in 1950 at 43,807, but has dropped slowly since then.
About two-thirds of county residents are black, with almost all of those remaining being white. Only 2 percent of those in the county are of Hispanic descent. Some 32.8 percent of residents live in poverty, according to the Census. Of the county’s 1,921 firms, 36.5 percent are black-owned — a percentage that is three times South Carolina’s average.
Hampton Avenue building, Kingstree, S.C. Photo by Linda W. Brown, all rights reserved.
This 1904 brick building on Hampton Avenue in Kingstree, S.C., was being renovated for use by the Williamsburg County Department of Social Services when a nasty storm blew in its unbraced side walls on June 9, retired newspaper editor Linda W. Brown tells us.
“That debris crushed the two small buildings beside it — one of which was used by a tax preparation service; the other was empty. The building adjacent to the smashed buildings belongs to the Williamsburg Historical Society. It, too, was damaged.”
Taking the photo of the damage was tough, Brown said, “because in the past 10 years, we have lost five buildings on that block to fire and two other buildings have collapsed. None of those buildings has been replaced.”
When the three-story structure that suffered damage was built 109 years ago, it was the Kingstree Hardware Company.
“The hardware store was on the first floor and there was a funeral home in one of the upper stories. The building later housed department stores, but had been vacant for a number of years. It is one of 48 properties on the National Historic Register as part of the Kingstree Historic District.” Despite damage, renovations are expected to continue.
Rural Southern communities face major challenges in finding money to preserve significant old structures that can boost their attractiveness to tourists and smaller companies that want to relocate in an historic setting.
Williamsburg County, located in the middle of the Southern Crescent, is about 75 miles north of Charleston, S.C. Just under 34,000 people live in the county, which is about the number who lived there around the time that the Hampton Avenue building was constructed, according to Census figures. Population peaked in 1950 at 43,807, but has dropped slowly since then.
About two-thirds of county residents are black, with almost all of those remaining being white. Only 2 percent of those in the county are of Hispanic descent. Some 32.8 percent of residents live in poverty, according to the Census. Of the county’s 1,921 firms, 36.5 percent are black-owned — a percentage that is three times South Carolina’s average.
