A BRIEF AND CONTINUING HISTORY OF CLARENDON COUNTY

Posted

Chapter Five: A New County - Part Two

by JERRY ROBERTSON

New and improved businesses were the order of the day. S.A. Rigby and A.L. Jacobs opened new businesses. The Hotel of Manning was purchased by Mr. Stukes and Mr. Clark, who immediately advertised it as The Clarendon House and stated in the ad that transactions would be CASH ONLY. Mayor G. A. Huggins and H. H. Huggins, both physicians, operated Clarendon Drug Store selling drugs, toilet articles, window glass, paints, and putty. Other doctors in Manning were John I. Ingram and S. C. C. Richardson. The Manning and Clarendon County doctors were kept busy battling malaria, typhoid fever, and diphtheria which were epidemic. Other diseases such as smallpox, scarlet fever, pneumonia and tuberculosis also took a heavy toll. Moses Levi and wife Hannah were among the earliest residents of Manning. Levi established a general merchandise business and the last building he erected still stands on the northeast corner of Brooks and Boyce Streets, diagonally across from the courthouse. The town of Manning and the county grew quickly.

Churches in Manning and Clarendon County appeared to be of the first priority in the mid 1800 and is a topic all to itself; however a few easily recognized locations are mentioned here. The First Manning Presbyterian Church was built by Joseph Sydney McFaddin, who also built other homes in the county. After completing the church, Joseph donated the building and the land it occupied to the congregation. Reverend Donald McQueen dedicated the building on May 19, 1855.

Manning Baptist Church was founded in 1857 and is illustrated in "Shadows of the Past" as it appeared in 1896. A new colonial- style brick sanctuary was dedicated in 1950 and the name changed to First Baptist Church of Manning in 1965.

Taw Caw Baptist Church located approximately 1 1/2 miles north of Summerton on highway 301 was built in 1860. According to some accounts, Confederate soldiers built a fire on the churches floor to keep warm marring the appearance of the sanctuary. Use of the church continued although. In 1855, the church was sold to an African American congregation and services continue there ever since.

The Manning Methodist Church was first built in 1859 on land given by Joseph C. Burgess. Another church was built on Church Street in 1897 and later moved to its present location on Rigby Street.

Packsville, the earliest continuous settlement in the area, is nearly one hundred years older than the county. In 1860, farmers in the vicinity organized an Agriculture Club that encouraged cotton, corn and potato crops and sought to get rid of unwanted black peas.

A community called the Summertown, now known as Summerton, was settled in the 1820s and 1830s. Wealthy families who moved there for the summer from malaria infested coastal regions considered the area a health resort. Charles Harvin, who farmed the Wright's Bluff area, moved his family to the longleaf pine region to escape the malaria and "chill poison" of the swamp. Early settlers were also John H. Reagan, Dr. John L. Felder and a Methodist Minister, Reverend Hartwell Spain.

Although the town of Turbeville was not incorporated until the next century, several families farmed the area. in 1840 Michael Turbeville bought land just north of the present town and built a home there. Sam Smith's farm joined the Turbeville place. A large plantation owned by Malone Green was located northeast of town. On the southwest side, two brothers, Nelson and Goodman Gamble owned several hundred acres.

Clarendon County grew and prospered for many reasons, constant and hard work was more than likely the main one. Elected officials represented the new county in the State Assembly, and all manner of legal business could be transacted at the county seat of Manning, no more than 25 miles from anyone's home.

Less than six years after the new county's creation, the War Between the States erupted, cutting short the county's grow and prosperity.

This is the fifth chapter of a continuing chronicle of Clarendon County from its early beginning to its present existence. Much of the information and facts is borrowed from Dr. Sylvia Clark's excellent publication "Shadows of the Past." A copy may be purchased at the Clarendon County Archives or the Clarendon County Museum & History Center.