Tag: Williamsburg County

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Falling house, Williamsburg County, S.C.

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This old house in the Mouzon community of Williamsburg County, S.C., is a study of contrasts.  On one hand, it’s falling down.  But look more closely — somebody appears to have put in new footings to prop it up.

Retired editor Linda W. Brown of nearby Kingstree, S.C., notes that unless something is done soon, it will fall down.  “There are more than a few of these in Williamsburg County,” she observed.  “I’m wondering if it was moved to this property as there are no steps in sight.”

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 taken on Sept. 27, 2013 by Linda W. Brown  All rights reserved.

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Empty grocery, Greeleyville, S.C.

Empty grocery, Greeleyville, S.C.
Empty grocery, Greeleyville, S.C.

Retired editor and photographer Linda W. Brown remembers when Greeleyville, S.C., had a busy IGA grocery store.  When it closed, a Super G Foods opened in the same location.  Now, that store closed and the parking lot appears to be just a place where big rigs get parked at night and on the weekend.

And so Greeleyville has become a food desert — a place lacking in consumer choices for food, much like the store we profiled earlier this year in Allendale, S.C.  Without a full-service store, Greeleyville residents have less healthy and fewer close options (think convenience store) and have to drive at least 12 miles to Kingstree to shop at a full-service grocery store.

Greeleyville, population 438, is in southwestern Williamsburg County.  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.

Copyrighted photo taken on July 14, 2013 by Linda W. Brown  All rights reserved.

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Main Street, Greeleyville, S.C.

Main Street, Greeleyville, S.C. Photo by Linda W. Brown.
Main Street, Greeleyville, S.C. Photo by Linda W. Brown.

Once upon a time, Main Street in Greeleyville, S.C., was a thriving place, but shops have closed along Main Street, leaving a lot of it abandoned.  Businesses that open now often locate on U.S. Highway 521, the three-lane main road through town.

“Several stores on Main Street that are beginning to deteriorate as can be seen in the missing bricks at the top of the store on the right of the photo,” former newspaper editor Linda W. Brown writes.  “I think many downtowns are not only losing businesses to the big box stores but to the nearest U.S. highway.”

It’s much the same in small rural towns like Greeleyville, population 438, in southwestern Williamsburg County.  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.

Copyrighted photo taken on July 30, 2013 by Linda W. Brown  All rights reserved.

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Voting booth, Kingstree, S.C.

Voting in Kingstree, S.C. Photo by Linda W. Brown.
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.

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Tobacco warehouse, Hemingway, S.C.

 

Growers Big 4 warehouse, Hemingway, S.C. Photo by Andy Brack.
Growers Big 4 warehouse, Hemingway, S.C. Photo by Andy Brack.

You can see a trailer of flue-cured tobacco, at right, being taken into the Growers Big 4 warehouse in Hemingway, S.C., a small town in northeastern Williamsburg County near Florence and Marion counties.

The production and sale of tobacco in the South has changed dramatically over the last 30 years in the South.  Tobacco auctions, quotas and government price supports dominated prior to 2004 when reforms eliminated government intervention into the market and allowed growers to produce as much as they wanted [Learn more].  These days, auctions are rare — with only one in South Carolina according to this story — and growers enter into direct contracts with buyers.

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.

Copyrighted photo taken on July 26, 2013 by Better South President Andy Brack  All rights reserved.

 

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Old gin, Salters, S.C.

Old cotton gin, Salters, S.C.

Old cotton gin, Salters, S.C.

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.

Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown, courtesy of the photographer.  All rights reserved.

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Old gin, Salters, S.C.

Old cotton gin, Salters, S.C.
Old cotton gin, Salters, S.C.

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.

Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown, courtesy of the photographer.  All rights reserved.

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Old depot, Salters, S.C.

Old depot, Salters, S.C.
Old depot, Salters, S.C.

This old railroad depot in the unincorporated community of Salters, S.C., looks almost exactly like a depot we featured in June that’s in Leary, Ga.

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.

Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown, courtesy of the photographer.  All rights reserved.

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Old store, Salters, S.C.

Moseley store, Salters, S.C. Photo by Linda W. Brown.
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.

Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown, courtesy of the photographer.  All rights reserved.

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Old gin, Kingstree, S.C.

Old gin, Kingstree, S.C.
Old gin, Kingstree, S.C.

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.

Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown, courtesy of the photographer.  All rights reserved.