South Carolina from A to Z

“P” is for Praise houses. Praise houses (sometimes called “prayer houses”) functioned on antebellum South Carolina plantations as both the epitome of slave culture and symbols of resistance to slaveholders’ version of Christianity. Generally simple, clapboard structures built by the slaves themselves, praise houses were erected with the knowledge--if not always the complete approval--of the master class. Gatherings   usually occurred on weeknights rather than on Sunday mornings. Enslaved Christians favored empty space over altars, kneelers, pulpits, and sometimes even chairs and pews. The resulting sparseness provided the slaves more room for “ring shouts” during often all night sessions of prayer and song...

“M “is for Mullis, Kary Banks (1944-2011). Scientist.  Born in North Carolina, Mullis grew up Columbia, S.C. A graduate of Georgia Tech, he obtained his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. While employed at Cetus Corporation, he conceived and developed the idea of PCR, polymerase chain reaction, in 1983. This technique amplifies DNA, enabling scientists to make a virtually unlimited number of copies of a single DNA molecule in a short time. Considered by many scientists to be one of the greatest advancements in molecular biology, Mullis's work on PCR garnered him (with Michael Smith...

“M” is for Mullins (Marion County; 2020 population 4,026). Mullins did not exist when the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad arrived in 1854, but the town grew up around the railway station. The town was named for William Sydney Mullins.  In the 1890s bright leaf tobacco became a commercial crop in the area. In 1894 the first tobacco sales building in Mullins was completed and the first auction sale was held that same year. Additional warehouses followed. Throughout the twentieth century Mullins remained the largest tobacco market in the state. Today the traditional auction warehouse system has been replaced by contracted tobacco sales. Some of th...

“C” is for Coogler, John Gordon (1865-1901). Poet. Coogler was born in Richland County near the town of Doko (now Blythewood) By the mid-1880s he was living in Colombia and printed at his own expense his first volume of poetry. Coogler and his poetry garnered attention of readers and reviewers from across the nation, who found his work entertaining, if not aesthetic. In 1897 Coogler published a one volume edition of his complete works, Purely Original Verse, which sold more than 5,000 copies. His couplet “Alas! For the South, her books have grown fewer—She never was given to literature” became a p...

“C” is for Conway (Horry County; 2020 population 24,849). Conway, originally named Kingston Village, was established on a bluff of the Waccamaw River about 1735. It became the seat of Kingston County (later renamed was renamed Horry--in honor of Peter Horry, a Revolutionary War hero). At the same time the village’s name was changed to Conwayborough. In 1883 the General Assembly shortened the name to Conway. As a county seat, the town benefited from the jobs and trade the courthouse drew. After World War II Horry County’s beaches began attracting visitors in ever greater numbers and the thriving sunbelt economy offered varied e...

“C” is for Converse College. Converse College was founded in 1889 by a group of Spartanburg leaders to provide for the education of young middle-class women. The institution was named to honor its founder Dexter Edgar Converse. The college opened its doors in 1890 with 117 students. Unlike many southern women's colleges, Converse offered students a course of study roughly equivalent to that offered by male colleges. The college established a School of Music in 1910. Two years later Converse was accepted into the Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Southern States. The school's highly respected conservatory-style musical education drew students from...

“B” is for Brewton, Miles (1731-1775). Merchant, legislator. Born in Charleston, Brewton traveled to England to finish his education and establish commercial ties. Through his marriage, numerous land grants, and purchases, he accumulated a large quantity of real estate. However, he made his fortune principally as a merchant rather than as a planter, becoming one of the wealthiest men in South Carolina. In 1769 Brewton constructed a grand house on King Street and decorated it in the latest English taste. Still standing in the early twenty-first century, the structure is considered one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in Amer...

“B” is for Brawley, Edward McKnight (1851-1923). Missionary, educator. Brawley was born in Charleston to free African American parents. In 1861 his parents sent him to Philadelphia to further his education. In 1870 he became the first full time theology student at Howard University in Washington, DC. He later transferred to Bucknell University and became that institution's first African American student. The American Baptist Publication Society hired Brawley to perform missionary service among black South Carolinians. In 1876 he organized the Colored Baptist Educational, Missionary, and Sunday School Convention. He went on to organize numerous local Sunday school programs throughout the state. In O...

“S” is for South Carolina Land Commission. In 1869 the General Assembly established the South Carolina Land Commission. The commission’s goal was to purchase land for sale in plots of between twenty-five  and one hundred acres, which would then be sold to landless African Americans on favorable terms. From the beginning the Commission was plagued by organizational and other problems. In addition to corruption and incompetence, the operation of the Land Commission was commonly dictated by politics more than economics. By 1871 approximately one-half of the Commission land was in the Black majority counties of Charleston, Colleton, Georgetown, and Beaufort. After 1...

“S” is for South Carolina Jockey Club. The earliest record of horse racing in South Carolina is February 1734. During the next two decades the sport increased in popularity in the colony, but it became organized with the founding of the South Carolina Jockey Club in 1750. By the turn of the nineteenth century, the club ushered in what would be called the “golden age of racing.” The club’s annual races, usually held in January or February, served as the high point of the Charleston social season and as a common meeting place for members of the planter class from across the...

“S” is for South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance. The South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance (SCMA), a powerful networking, information, and lobbying group for the state's varied manufacturing industries, began as an organization for cotton mill owners in 1902. The group's first paid lobbyist was hired in the late 1920s, and the association eventually became a visible and powerful voice for the textile industry. In 1951 the organization became the South Carolina Textile Manufacturers Association (SCTMA) and helped transform post-World War II South Carolina from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy. In 1996 the SCTMA transmogrified itself into the broader based South Carolina Manufacturers Alli...

“S” is for South Carolina Lunatic Asylum / State Hospital. The South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, located on Bull Street in Columbia, was established by the General Assembly in 1821 but did not open until 1828. It is the third oldest state mental institution in the United States. In 1896 the institution was renamed the South Carolina State Hospital for the Insane and it gradually adopted a custodial function, caring for large numbers of patients deemed primarily chronic and incurable. By the 1960s and 1970s anti-psychiatry and civil rights movements, community care initiatives, and Medicaid led to deinstitutionalization, a gradual process by which the numb...

“S” is for Sinclair, Bennie Lee (1939-2000). Novelist, poet. A native of Greenville, Sinclair was a graduate of Furman University. In 1986 she was appointed the fifth poet laureate of South Carolina. Sinclair taught writing at Furman and gave workshops at the University of Notre Dame, Western Carolina University, and Brevard College. Her commitment to teaching poetry included a twenty-eight-year connection with the South Carolina Arts Commission through its Artists-in-the-Schools program. Sinclair promoted public appreciation for poetry via educational radio programs during National Poetry Month. She also taught poetry at the Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities. In addition to f...

“G” for Gullah. The term “Gullah,”or “Geechee,” describes a unique group of African Americans descended from enslaved Africans who settled in the Sea Islands and lowcountry of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina. Some believe the term “Gullah” derives from “Angola”; or it could refer to the Gola people of Liberia.  The origin of the term “Geechee” (for residents of the Georgia lowcountry) is also uncertain. During the slave trade, Africans from different societies passed through Sullivan’s Island and melded together to form a new African American people. Thus, the process of combining African peoples and languages in the lowcountry...

“C” is for Converse, Dexter Edgar (1829-1899). Industrialist. Born in Vermont, Converse worked in a New York cotton mill and learned how mill machinery worked and how the business was operated. In 1854 he moved to Spartanburg and worked at the Bivingsville Cotton Factory. He soon became the mill’s manager. In 1868 Converse and his brother-in-law purchased the company and in 1870 they changed its name to D. E. Converse and Company. In 1880 Converse organized the Clifton Manufacturing Company. The factory employed 500 workers and operated 7,000 spindles. He opened a second mill in 1890.  During the 1890s the profits for the company ranged between...

“C” is for Continental Regiments. In the aftermath of the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Continental Congress passed resolutions that created the Continental army in June 1775. Congress then delegated the recruitment of soldiers up to the  individual states. The First and Second Provincial Congresses of South Carolina in 1775 and 1776 created six regiments that were adopted into the Continental Line. The First, Second, Fifth, and Sixth South Carolina Regiments were infantry units.  The Third South Carolina Regiment of Rangers was designed for protecting the frontier and the Fourth South Carolina Regiment was an artillery unit. Detachments from all South Caroli...

“C” is for Conroy, Donald Patrick (1945-2016). Author. In 1961 the Conroy family moved to Beaufort. After graduating from Beaufort High School, Pat enrolled at The Citadel and graduated in 1967. Conroy then taught at an elementary school on Daufuskie Island. Fired for his unorthodox approach to teaching his nearly illiterate Black students, Conroy turned to writing to vent his frustration and earn a living. The Water Is Wide (1972) was a critical and commercial success. Conroy followed with five more novels—four of which were made into motion pictures. A consummate storyteller, in his novels he relates tales of family conflict, racism...

“C” is for Conner, Henry Workman (1797-1861). Merchant, banker. A native of North Carolina, Conner arrived in Charleston in 1822 where he opened a factory and commission house. The firm pioneered the use of steamships to carry freight and passengers between Charleston and towns in the interior of South Carolina and Georgia. Conner was among the original directors of the Bank of Charleston when it was organized in 1835 and in 1841, he was elected its president. In 1850 Conner resigned as president of the Bank of Charleston and became president of the South Carolina Railroad. He was a leading investor in the cons...

“B” is for Brawley, Benjamin Griffith (1882-1939). Educator, author, editor, clergyman. Born in Columbia, Brawley earned degrees from the University of Chicago and Harvard. Between 1902 and 1939 he taught English at predominantly Black colleges in the South and East, including Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina and Howard University in Washington, D.C.  He developed into a prolific writer contributing works to major periodicals such as Sewanee Review and North American Review. However, it was his writing and editing of books about the African American experience that he pioneered. In 1913 he published his first of twenty books, A Short History of th...

“B” is for Brown, Morris (1770-1849). Clergyman. Brown, a free mulatto, was born in Charleston. He became a licensed Methodist preacher and organized an African congregation in Charleston in the early 1810s. After White church officials reduced the control that Black Methodists had heretofore exercised over their church affairs, Brown led most of them from the denomination in 1817 in protest. They formed an African church. His Charleston church which had grown to more than three thousand members, affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a northern Black denomination. After the Denmark Vesey plot in 1822, there were accusations that Brown and...

“S” is for Southern 500. The Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway was the oldest and one of the most storied races on the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing’s (NASCAR) Winston Cup circuit. With a seventy-five car field, the first race was held on Labor Day 1950. It was the first Grand National later Winston Cup race contested on a paved super Speedway and NASCAR's first 500 mile race. Equally famous was the legendary status of the activities on the Darlington infield. Although infield partying became considerably tamer in later years, the event remained a fan favorite and a victory in the ra...

“S” is for South Carolina Highway Patrol. Operating under the South Carolina Department of Safety, the South Carolina Highway Patrol is a law enforcement organization that concentrates on traffic violations. The State Highway Patrol was originally a field unit of the State Highway Department’s Motor Vehicle Division. Troopers were given uniforms, badges, guns, summons books, and motorcycles. Motorcycles were soon replaced by cars, and in 1953 the patrol became a separate division in the department.  The existence and duties of the patrol were contentious from its founding with several governors sparring with patrol officials over governance and authority. The patrol’...

“P” is for Post and Courier. Published in Charleston, the Post and Courier is the oldest daily newspaper in South Carolina. The publication’s lineage can be traced through three newspapers. The oldest, the Charleston Courier, began publication in 1803. The Charleston Daily News began in 1865. The owners of the Daily News purchased the Courier, and the first issue of the News and Courier was published in 1873. The third newspaper in the Post and Courier's lineage, the Evening Post was founded in 1894. That newspaper was purchased by News and Courier in 1926. The Evening Post and News and Courier continued to publis...

“M” is for Moxon, Barbara Wischan (1921-2011). Political activist. Born in Philadelphia, Barbara Moxon moved to Columbia in 1963 where she immediately became involved in the League of Women Voters, serving as state president for three terms. She was appointed and reappointed by governors to the South Carolina Commission on Women. Moxon was also active in the American Association of University Women (AAUW) She headed an organization called Advocates for Competitive Health Education, which brought together more than fifty organizations to support legislation strengthening state programs on nutrition, accident prevention, substance abuse, disease prevention, and sexuality education. In 1988 thanks to a gr...

“G” is for Guerard, Benjamin (died 1788). Governor. Benjamin Guerard’s birth date is unknown, but he was baptized in Charleston in 1740. His family sent him to England in 1756 to study law at Lincoln's Inn. He was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1761. During the Revolutionary War, he lent over £20,000 to the state and served in the militia. After Charleston fell to the British in 1780, Guerard and other prominent Charlestonians were held captive on a prison ship. While a prisoner, he attempted to raise funds for the relief of his fellow captives and offered his estate to the British as secu...

“C” is for Congaree River.  At the fall line in Columbia the Broad and Saluda Rivers form the Congaree River. For little over a mile, the river rolls over rapids, shoals, and interspersed islands before it enters the coastal plain. As is typical of slowly moving mature streams, it meanders through the coastal plain, changing its course frequently. Its main tributaries are Gills Creek, Sandy Run, Cedar Creek, Toms Run, and Congaree Creek.  If the river flowed is a straight line, it would only be thirty miles long.  However, because of its sinuous course, the river flows southeasterly for about s...

“C” is for Compromise of 1808. Under the constitutions of 1778 and 1790, the House of Representatives was apportioned to benefit the lowcountry while the majority of the voting (White) population lived in the upcountry. In 1794 the Representative Reform Association was founded and undertook an unsuccessful petition drive to compel the General Assembly to consider reapportionment. In 1808 the General Assembly finally passed a constitutional amendment that apportioned the South Carolina House of Representatives according to White population and taxation. Thus, one representative would represent 1/62nd of the state's population and one would represent 1/62nd of taxes collected, yielding the houses 124 members. The comp...

“C” is for Commons House of Assembly (1670 to 1776) The dominant political institution in colonial South Carolina was the Commons House of Assembly. It served as the lower house of the provincial legislature and was the only popularly elected branch of government and the colony. Over time it evolved from an impotent institution to an imperious political body that jealously guarded its immense authority. By the mid-1700s the Assembly had assumed ironclad control over all aspects of government: initiating laws, appointing revenue officers, establishing courts, supervising the Indian trade, selecting the colonial agent in London, auditing and reviewing all acco...

“B” is for Bratton, William (ca. 1742-1815). Soldier, legislator. Bratton was born in Northern Ireland and immigrated with his family to America. In the 1760's the family relocated to South Carolina and settled into the area of present day York County. In 1766 Bratton purchased two hundred acres of land on the south fork of Fishing Creek. During the Revolutionary War, Bratton served as a South Carolina militia commander and by late 1780 he was a colonel and commanded a regiment in Sumter’s partisan brigade. In July 1780 he participated in the battle of Williamson's Plantation when local militia defeated a unit o...

“B” is for Bratton, John (1831-1898). Soldier, congressman. Born in Winnsboro, Bratton attended Mount Zion Institute and later graduated from South Carolina college. He then enrolled at the Medical College of South Carolina and returned to Fairfield District to practice medicine. When South Carolina seceded from the Union, Bratton joined a local volunteer company and was elected as first Lieutenant. Following a reorganization in 1861, he resigned his commission and re-enlisted as a private in the Sixth Regiment, South Carolina Volunteers. He advanced through the ranks with remarkable speed, becoming colonel and commanding officer of the Sixth Regiment in April 1862. In M...

“S” is for South Carolina Educational Television Network. The South Carolina Educational Television Network (SCETV) is a state agency providing educational, cultural, and historic programming to South Carolina through telecom communications. It is also responsible for the state’s emergency preparedness network. SCETV began in 1957 with a resolution by the General Assembly calling for a study of the use of television in the public schools. The pilot was a success and by 1963 a closed circuit network had reached schools in all forty-six counties. Among its many locally produced and popular shows are State House Today and Making It Grow. Since...

“P” is for Port Royal Naval Station. The conquest of the Sea Islands by the United States Navy in November 1861 was the beginning of more than a century of US naval involvement with Port Royal Sound. With nearly thirty feet of water over the bar at all times, Port Royal Sound is the deepest natural harbor on the Atlantic seaboard south of New York. In 1883 the U.S. Navy began purchasing land on Parris Island in Port Royal Sound to build wharves and shoreside facilities. In 1890 more than $500,000 was appropriated to build the largest drydock in the United States on P...

“M” is for Mulberry Plantation (Berkeley County). Completed in 1714 Mulberry is one of the most distinctive eighteenth-century houses in America. The building is stylistically unique and has variously been described as having Jacobean, French, and Anglo- Dutch baroque origins. Its design blends seventeenth-century forms with the formality of eighteenth-century Georgian architecture in a unified composition. The two-story brick structure is laid in English bond. Its overall form has the squat profile typical of Huguenot-influenced plantation houses in the lowcountry. The square main block has a steeply pitched gambrel roof with jerkin-head gables. Attached to the four corners are one- stor...

“G” is for Grosvenor, Vertamae (1938-2016). Writer, culinary anthropologist. A woman with varied interests Grosvenor traveled abroad and became interested in the African diaspora and how African foods and recipes travelled and changed as a result of it. Her first book Vibration Cooking; or The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl, was published in 1970. It is a unique combination of recipes, reminiscences, and stories from family and friends. It shows Grosvenor strong growing interest in Afro-Atlantic foodways and culinary history. This interest was further developed in several more books and in her cooking series, Seasonings, for public radio and Amer...

“C” is for Congaree National Park. South Carolina's only National Park, Congaree is located on 22,000 acres in the Congaree River floodplain of lower Richland County. Congaree protects the last significant stand of old growth, bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the United States. The forest is the tallest in eastern North America and one of the tallest temperate deciduous forests in the world. Between 1890 and 1905 Chicago lumberman Francis Beidler purchased a huge, near virgin tract on the eastern bank of the Congaree River. In 1910 he ceased logging operations along the Congaree. When his heirs demonstrated a renewed interest in logging the...

“C” is for Commission of Indian Trade. In 1707 the Commons House of Assembly created the Board of Indian Commissioners to regulate the traffic between Indian traders and such nations as the Cherokees, Creeks, and Catawbas. The commission issued licenses to private traders. The inability of the board to end abuses by the traders led to the disastrous Yamassee War (1715-1718.) After the war, the South Carolina government assumed a direct monopoly over the Indian trade, forcing the private traders out. A new law created a public corporation of five commissioners. The act replaced the single Indian agent with government trad...

“C” is for Coming, Affra Harleston (circa 1651-1698). Pioneer of early South Carolina. The Harleston family's property had been so ravaged by the English Civil War that two of the family’s children, Charles and Affra, left for South Carolina in 1669. Affra came on the Carolina as an indentured servant with a two year obligation to her sponsor. When she was free from her indenture, Affra married John Coming and they founded a substantial plantation, Comingtee on the Cooper River; acquired their own servants; and deeded part of their land claim at Oyster Point for the construction of what is now...

“C” is for Columbia Theological Seminary. An institution of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the seminary was founded in 1828 in Georgia, and moved to Columbia, South Carolina in 1831. Following the model of Andover and Princeton seminaries, a three-year curriculum was organized around the study of the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, church history, and systemic itheology. While Colombia attracted a substantial New England presence in the faculty and student body prior to 1860, the strength of the institution is linked to the South Carolina and Georgia lowcountry. Leading faculty members taught an Old School Calvinism that understood truth to be propositional. In 1928, the...

“C” is for Columbia Museum of Art. The Columbia Museum of Art was established in 1950 as an art, history, and science museum and included the Gibbs planetarium. In 1990 the mission statement was changed to focus entirely on American and European fine, design, and decorative arts from the medieval period to the present period.  In 1998 the museum moved into to a new facility on Main Street. The museum’s collection contains more than 7,000 paintings, works on paper, and examples of the decorative arts. Gifts from the Kress Foundation in 1954 and 1963 enhanced the collection with work by such artists as Botticelli, Boucher...

“C” is for Columbia Mills. The first textile mill in the world to be powered exclusively by electricity, the Columbia Mills Company was chartered in 1893 with an initial capitalization of $700,000. Work on the mill began in April 1893 and operations officially commenced in April 1894. The success of the Columbia plant revolutionized textile mills by opening the electric era. The new mill specialized in duck, a durable plain weave cloth widely used for belting, awnings, and tents, and sail cloth, a heavy duck made to withstand the elements in all kinds of weather. Mount-Vernon Woodbury Cotton Duck Company acquired Columbia mills in 1...