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Interesting Sketch 6f Barnwell County^-Past, Present, Future The fourth hifK school h/«t Blsckyfilo. Their chounodiou* building was destroyed by fixe some time sfo and bee not yet been re- i i f ss. % The following inSerertinc sketch of BensreH County appeared *• a xe* ewt special edition of fee News dad Courier, on the occasion eft *he open- hw of the bridge o*qc the Ashley Barnwell County, one of the oldest eennties in South Carolina—etoop-ed el hi the honorable history of the State—is also one of the meet pro- greeglTe In education, africulture and the.bunding of food, roads. John Barnwell, a gentleman of Dublin and Influential family csnnectlons, was withstood many storms, being tom down serorel yseiw ago by its thqp owner, Mrs. E. AiS. Mbtson, a North- era school teacher who located here after the War between the States and who was postmistress at Barnwell for a number of yean. The property is now owned by H. L. O'Bannon, Esq., former master of equity, whose fami ly has always been closely identified with the history of Barnwell county. One of BemweU'f prised posses sions is on‘old time sun-dial, which is probably the only one of its kind In existence and which stands on x In addition to the excellent schools referred to ebotaviheTe are numbers of grammar schools located at con venient points throeghout the coun ty, many of the buildings being of brick. The terms of these- rural schools range from , seven to nine months and all are provided with orginal settler. ^He eikne t<r^he present court house square, ah in 1701, the M <hy wee of adventure. Barnwell, , ‘ ' wear, was named in honor of the Burnwells of Beaufort, decendantsof Boon after coming to * Carolina, Barnwell became deputy secretary of the colony, v ffe- . object of curiosity to visitors, It was presented to the town lit 1828 by Capt. Jos. D. Allen. - In February, 1866, a wing of Sher man's army came through Barnwell, burning houses and devastating thfc surrounding country. A battle was fought at Saltkehatchie, about three During the war which was fought in ’ IR j} w g 0 uth of here. It is said that jgfV Carolina between England on the one hand and France gnd Spain on the ot her, and v(hiie Barnwell was a volun teer In Col. Rhett's fleet, he carried news of the capture of the French at Beewee Bay to Charles Town. f In 1711 Col. Barnwell set out with • small body of militia and several hundred Indiana on an expedition against the Tuscsrora Indians of North Carolina. He defeated them and they retreated into their fort, where, being besieged, they soon aurrendtred. -The spot where the Indian fort stood is still called M Fort Barnwell.” in honor of Col. Barowel, who was wounded in this campaign. On account of hit gallant conduct he was generally called “Tuscarora.” Be cause of his wound he was unable to ‘aummand the aecond expedition Which South Carolina sent out against the Indians. When the forces of the colony were organised, Barnwell was made -a colonel in than. In 1719, after the government of the Lords Proprietors had been over thrown, the subject of this brief preface was chosen agent for the ffrovince. and sent to England to be seech King George to take the pro vince under his immediate ears. The xesult wee that the''province became •a crown colony. District Divided ' In 1785 the Legislature passed an act that Orangeburg district should he divide^ into four counties: Lewis- burg. Orange, Lexington and Winton The last named, which comprised that part of the former district of Vhwngeburg lying between the South "Edisto and Savannah rivers, was named “Barnwell” by an act passed ‘by the Legislature December 21, 1798. Since then, however, Barnwell County has been gradually reduced V» its present area by the formation of Aiken, Bamberg and Allendale counties, ail of which are a credit to the mother county. The first court house, in Barnwell County was built of togs at Patter- aon’s Old Mill. Tradition says that a man by the name of Blackman, getting drunk one night and being U vary powerful fellow, turned the court house over. .When the village of BarnweQ be came the county seat, the first court home was an old 2-story house in the aouthern part of the town. It was tlfa first two story house built in the county and people came from the ■urroundhig country to see it, many predicting that it would be turned over by the first hard wind. But it m * V-.iUT the Yankees were a week passing through Barnwell. During the reconstruction period, the court house was moved to Black- ville and for several years its location was the cause of many heated dis cussions and of’ ill-feeling between the residents of the two towns. How ever, in 1877, the present court house was built, and Barnwell has remained the county Seat since that time. Papers of Barnwell • In 1877, The Barnwell People was established, giving the county seat two newspapers The Barnwell Sentinel having made, its appearance in 1862. On June 1, 1925, the two (tapers were Consolidated under the name pf The Barnwell People-Sen tinel by B. P. Davies, who had previ ously purchased. The People in De cember, 1912. Since that time the paper has grown from a four-page sheet, only two of which were print ed hirs, to an eight-page, all home print newspaper, its plant being thoroughly modern in every respect. BarnweH was without railroad facilities until 1880, when the late Capt. J. W. Woodward bcdlt a line from Barnwell to Blackville. The rails were made of wood, and the grading of the roadbed was done by refugee negroes. The first engine run over the road was called the "Loula Mae,” in honor of Capt. Woodward's elder daughter. Later the line was purchased by the South Carolina Railroad and iron rails re placed the orginal wooden ones. When it came into Col. Mike Brown’s possession a few years later, thef name was changed to the “Carolina Midland.” The line was extended north as fur as Perry and to Allen dale on the South. Col. Brown sold his railroad to the Southern Railroad Cmopany in 1898 and it is now an im portant, connecting link between Northern points and Florida. The story goes that when it was first proposed to \)uild the South Carolina Railroad, a line w'as sur veyed through Barnwell, but many of the* old slave owners objected The lending citizen, who owned a large number of slaves, refused to allow the line to go through his plantation, fearing that the train Avould kill his young slaves turkeys. Thus it is that the runs through Blackville. Additional railroad facilities provided for the county in when the Atlantic Coast Line road Company completed a line from Augusta to Florence by way of Barn well. • / . < To appreciate the strides that the county has made educationally, one has only to recall that prior to 1888 there was no public schools here, children; receiving what education they had from private teachers. The Barnwell Graded School was chartered by an act of the Legislature and ap proved by Gov. J. P. Richardson on December 23rd, 1886, a building being erected the following year. This building was soon outgrown and a larger a nd more modern one was built in 1900. This one was replaced In 1914 by the present handsome structure, which was modeled after the Alamo. It is being rapidly out- grown and it is only a question of a very short while,before jt will be necessary to construct an additional building. Other sections of the County have made like progress and last year as the-'result of a consolidation of school' distrieta the Williston-Klko High School building was agastad at * coat of about |7p,006| This is of the mosf modern school build- in** in South Carolina and; is * aborc* of groat pride to tbs citizens that section. A similar oonsoli- W y>ww Note ftt dntion is bda* affected in the weet- in Harmon Block. Main * erB ^ the county and a hand some building will soon ha exacted *1 excellent corpe of teachers. The wonderful growth of the school system in Barnwell County .ban been made possible by the excellent State highways and county roads that reach into practically every section of the county, enabling the quick trans portation of pupils to and from the schools. y ,.. • . ' . A few years, ^go, when the first automobile made its appearance in this section, a highway, in the pres ent day sense of the word, was not In this county, whose roads were wretched sand-beds for the most part. Today smooth, wide sand-clay roads from 'this city, connecting Barnwell with the other towns in the county and with the county seats of ether counties, bringing the people closer together and giving them, that “elbow touch” so necessary to the well be ing and advancement of any parti cular section In addition to the State highways already constructed, plans are being made right now to build a new road from Barnwell to Olar, which wiH provide a shorter and better route from this section to Charleston. It is understood that this road is practically assured. Not only has the county benefit ed educationally from the construc tion of good roads, but agriculture, has been given & tremendous boost, es pecially in the production of truck crops, in which Barnwell County is h leader. While cotton will always be one of the principal crops, the farmers are rapidly learning the many advantages of diversified farm ing. They are slowly but surely re .covering from the terrific blows dealt them in quick succession by the dis- asteroos deflation of 1920 and by the boll weevil, which reduced the pro duction of cotton the following year to a scant 8,000 bales. In 1925, Barnwell Cottdtjr- produced 26,000 bales, valued at between two and one- half and three million dollars. Afoot thirty-five years ago, the growing of asparagus was intro duced in this county by., the planting of a small acreage at Elko. The acreage has gradually increased un til today from ten to fifteen carloads are shipped daily from this county during the cutting season. It is in teresting to note that the largest asparagus form in the world is locat ed at Hattieville, this connty, being -owned and managed by Idis Brabham of that place- After asparagus, cucumbers, can- loupes and watermelons bring in Thg foe past few ydars, churches have been erected fo Black ville, Williston and other towns in the county. Church is rapidly nearing com hero, while Die Methodists of this will begin work on thoir new build in the very near future. Nor ^ are these things all that Barnwell County has to offer the world. Situated within a few miles of BarnweH are lands that have been pronounced by experts as being ; the finest field trial grounds in the coun try south of Saskatchewan... They are being used at the present time by the members of the Vlryinia-Caro- lina Field Trial Association, for their annual events and have proved so attractive in every respect that the prediction has been made that Barn well will suentuany become the field trial center of the United State*. Lovers of fine horses, as well as of fine dogs, should make BarnweH their Mecca, for located just with out the incorporate limits of Die town of Barnwell is what is said to be the finest natural race track in the world. This track was used extensively years ago when the,“sport of king*” was at the height of its popularity. New Enterprises \ Snow in Greenville. Greenville, May 15.—A barely per ceptible show fall was registered here this afternoon. The flakes melt ed, however, as aoon as they alighted. A temperature of 52 degrees was reg istered at 8 o’clock tonight, with the mercury rapidly falling. Frost was forecast for the mountain sec tion just north of here before morn ing. Growing Old Too Fast? Many BarnweH Folks F*el Older and Slower Than They Should. N$w enterprises in tbe xterritory served by us are invited to tunicate with us, as we may be able to afford assistance in the financ- \ ' ' •; J ~ ing of their enterprises, as well as as sist in\the distribution and sale of their products. our ce that is within e development of the Any power for Edisto-Savannah section will be cheer* fully afforded by us at any time. .j The Edisto Publi Denmark, South Service Co. lina a ■r tlx and road were 1899, Rail- —-r— -a “ luiiniiiiuininNi '' \V\A' . \ O ' s' - ■ 5 JtiSSeriS Wm. McNAB j§AS^4 fciM. uumh am® .Aoenrarr fS- ousunds of dollars at a season of the year when money is badly needed by the farmers. To give *ome idea of the extent of truck growing in this section it ie only necessary to state that in 19251 Barnwell County shipped 140 cars of asparagus, 400 cars of cucum- bers and 1,380 cars of watermelons, at art approximate income bf $1,000*000. A tour of this section will disclose the fact that the towns are exceed ingly substantial, those of two thou sand inhabitants and less having pav ed streets, splendid systems of water works and lighting arrangements. The business sections are of brick, mostly, -the buildings being modern and substantial. Some of the finest .farms in the State are to be seen on such a tour. The homes of the citi zens in the towns are substantial , • and would do credit to cities of many times their population. In fact, it has been said by visitors that the town of Barnwell has more beautiful mes than any other town of its «dxe in the atatc. T**® soil of. this section for the most part is highly productive, the climate is ideal and with the intensive methods of culti vation, Barnwell County has become one of the leading agricultural cen ters of the entire State. Agriculture and Industry. And it would seem that agricul ture is to be balanced by industry, for the Edisto Public Service Co., of Denmark, which was founded and is -being managed by a former citizen of Barnwell, Mr. R. A. Easterling, has brought hydroelectric power in to tljia county, his lines being connect ed with the super-power iryitem of the Southeast. Current is now being supplied by tibia concent to Williston, Elko, and BlaekviHe in this county. Barnwell has its own plant, which modem excellent 24-hour service at Nor has the reMgioua aide of life boon neglected for the material. Dur- Are you weak, tired, worn-out? Do you feel years older than other folks of your age? Then look to your kidneys! The kidney* are the blood filters and if they weaken, the effect is quickly felt. You have constant backache, headaches, dizziness and urinary troubles. You fee! lame, stiff and achy—all played out. Don’t wait’ Use Doan’s Pills—a stimulant diuretic to the kidneys. Read what this Barnwell resident says! Mrs. Virginia Sanders, says: ‘T had a dull, numb feeling across my back. My kidney* did not act right and were a source of annoyance to me. Doan’s Pills from the' Mace Drug Co. quickly rid me of those symptoms. Despite my age, I enjoy better health than I did at that time.” Price 60c, at all dealers.- Don’t simply a sk for a kidney remedy—^et Doan’s Pill*—the same that Mrs. Sanders had. Foster-Milburn Co., Mfrs, Buffalo, N. Y. ^ All of the Machinery for the ice plant of the Mutual loe and Fuel Company has reached Barnwell and we now have out erecting engineer on the ground placing machinery and getting 4 the plant ready to run. We will have a modern electric driven 20 ton capacity plant that will take care of the aeeds of Barn well and the surrounding territory for a long time. Mutual Ice & Fuel Co- R. G. HERNDERN, Mgr. S. C. R. C. HOLMAN, Free. Barnwell, _ * •- ■ HUDSON COACH ’1309 44 At Your Door" Ntihmg Skt l» fmy Brougham - 41564 7-Pass. Sedan 1800 Qe«ocr Rrar Vmmt Minor. Trunmusio* Lock (b«Hi tali Radiator Sbottara; r, Coobinatio* # Hudson holds first advan tage because of its paten ted Super-Six—the world's most famous motor. More than 8004)00 have been built by Hudson under its exclusive principle. * For 11 years itTias been out standing because of dis tinctive smoothness, wide flexibility, power, speed and reliability. And today’s Hudson Coach is not only the best ever built. also is priced lower than ever before. ?.. it' u << •> . .«***•• W. D. MAIN STREET HARLEY BARNWELL, S. C m i VF-' % :