The Center for a Better South
Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown sends a long this “tired, worn-out Farmall tractor, complete with very flat tires, [that] sits beneath a shed in the Sandy Bay community of Williamsburg County.
Copyrighted photo taken Feb. 15, 2015, by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
This old store, located near Britton’s Neck in Marion County, was probably replaced by the convenience store that is now across the road from it, writes photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C. Country stores provided those who lived in rural areas a means of buying staples without having to drive all the way to town.
Marion County, rural in nature, is home to just over 33,000 people. An estimated 23 percent of residents live at or below the federal poverty level.
Photo is copyrighted by Linda W. Brown and taken Jan. 19, 2015. All rights reserved.
Just looking at this picture by Linda W. Brown excites our taste buds because we know from experience that Rodney Scott makes some of the best barbecue ever.
The Williamsburg County joint, located at Brunson’s Crossroads outside Hemingway, S.C., recently was named the most iconic restaurant in South Carolina by ThrillList. You can learn more about Scott’s tasty barbecue here.
Other iconic Southern restaurants on the list, by state:
Photo is copyrighted by Linda W. Brown, 2015. All rights reserved.
“The collection of buildings known as Ella’s Grove reminds me of the ‘perfect’ little ghost town,” writes Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown.
“Near Centenary in Marion County, Ella’s Grove was the name of the B.F. Davis plantation. One of the stores was moved to property; the brick one, I believe, was built there. The property is still in the Davis family, owned today by his grandson.
Marion County, rural in nature, is home to just over 33,000 people. An estimated 23 percent of residents live at or below the federal poverty level.
Photo is copyrighted by Linda W. Brown and taken Jan. 19, 2015. All rights reserved.
This stable on Cedar Swamp Road in Williamsburg County, S.C., used to be home to a large number of horses, photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree remembers. Now, only a handful of horses can be seen grazing in surrounding fields.
Photo is copyrighted by Linda W. Brown, June 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.
Photographer Linda W. Brown says this old truck, parked in a Clarendon County field near Goat Island, S.C., almost transports you back to the 1940s and 1950s.
Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown, 2014. All rights reserved.
A cotton picker stands in the middle of a cotton field on S.C. Highway 261 in western Williamsburg County. Photo taken by Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C., on Dec. 21, 2014. All rights reserved.
While country stores seem to be dying out in the rural South, Workman Grocery at Workman Crossroads on S.C. Highway 527 in Williamsburg County, S.C., still is in operation, says photographer Linda W. Brown of nearby Kingstree.
Just under 34,000 people live in Williamsburg 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.
Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown taken in September 2013. 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.
