Williamsburg County, South Carolina - Chapter 35: Public Education Since 1880, 1923

Dr. Samuel D. McGill became County School Commis¬ sioner on January 1 , 1881, and filled that office for ten years. The other members of this school commission were T. M. Gilland and M. J. Hirsch. It was during this decade that public schools became rooted in the soil of Williams¬ burg. Prior to this time it had been considered beneath the dignity of the "better element" to patronize "free schools," and universal education had not been regarded as practical, possible, or even a "consummation devoutly to be wished."

Williamsburg was especially fortunate in having these three men to determine its school affairs during those ten formative years. This decade may be called the silent epoch in the history of the County. It was probably the most directing period this section ever experienced. Dr. McGill had taught private schools in various parts of the district for many years, knew everybody intimately, and had the saving sense of humor. Mr. Gilland was a trained lawyer, knew how to find facts out of conflicting testi¬ mony, and was firm and resolute in his convictions. Mr. Hirsch had remarkable skill in pouring oil on troubled waters. Hardly any man who ever lived in this County ever settled more teapot tempests than he. It will be recalled that when the Democrats elected Mr. Hirsch to this commission he was serving under Republican elec¬ tion as Solicitor of the district. Fortune Barr, a Demo¬ cratic negro and an interesting mimic, said one day while entertaining a street crowd, "Mr. Hirsch he see de Re¬ publican ship wuz sinking made one jump en lit on de deck uv de Democratic boat."

The entire amount of money spent for all public school purposes in the County from January 1, 1881, until Jan¬ uary 1, 1891, including buildings and repairs, furniture and fixtures, teachers' salaries and current expenses was $52,393.18. Three times as much money was used for paying teachers' salaries and current expenses in the Kingstree school alone in 1922 as was spent for all school purposes in the whole County in 1882. It must be re¬ called that Williamsburg County has since that time lost a considerable part of its most populous territory to Florence County.

Among the white public school teachers of that period were: J. L. Barley, Mrs. S. L. Barrineau, Miss Sue T. Barr, Miss C. A. Blackwell, Miss M. A. Brockinton, Miss L. A. Brockinton, Miss F. W. Britton, W. R. Brown, J. J. Brown, Mrs. M. A. Carter, Miss Dora V. Chandler, Mrs. Ella Collette, Mrs. M. E. Cockfield, Miss Mutie Cooper, Miss Mollie Epps, Isaac Epps, Rev. Martin Eaddy, Miss L. N. Ervin, Miss S. M. Ervin, Miss L. A. Elliott, Miss M. Y. Graham, Miss A. M. Henry, A. W. Jackson,

Charles W. Wolfe wrote in the issue of The County Record of August 23, 1906 : "Kingstree's excellent school system may be said to owe its origin to the establishment of the Kingstree Academy, the forerunner of the present handsome and splendidly equipped school building. Prior to that time the efforts to tend and till the pedagogical field in Kingstree were haphazard and without concert of action or organization. Finally certain public spirited citizens with an eye to the town's present and future needs resolved to bring about improvement in the then existing educational conditions and as the result of their efforts the Kingstree Academy was built. This was in 1886.

Epps, W. W. Boddie, and Ernest Wiggins. With the election of Mr. Boddie came the adoption of the graded school system and the merging of the old Academy into Kingstree Graded School. Then came an awakening along educational lines and an agitation for a new building, the outcome of which is the present structure, which may well be termed The pride of the town/ To show the spirit that animated the people in this matter, only two negative votes were cast in the election to issue bonds for the school building which was erected in 1904."

The board of trustees of the first graded school in Kingstree were : I)r. D. C. Scott, Chairman, Louis Stackley, M. J. Hirsch, Edwin Harper, and Louis Jacobs. As¬ sisting the principal as teachers at that time were Misses Amelia Kennedy and Nina Riser. The school building then stood at the corner of Hampton and Mill Streets, where was in 1923 the Carnegie Public Library. In June, 1902, the first certificates for the completion of the course of study in the Kingstree school were awarded to Misses Bessie Harper, Pearl Koger, Lorena Ross, and Helen Scott. The three first named entered Winthrop College and the last the College for Women, Columbia, the fol¬ lowing September, all graduating with high class rank in due time.

Miss Koger died of pulmonary tuberculosis soon after her graduation from Winthrop College. She was the only child of her widowed mother, Mrs. Ellen Koger. This writer helped Miss Koger learn Arithmetic, Algebra, and Geometry, Caesar, Cicero, and Virgil, something of Liter¬ ature and of History. She had one of the brightest minds and one of the most beautiful personalities that he ever knew.

William Cooper was superintendent of education in Williamsburg from 1900 to 1910, during which time the first graded school in the County was organized in Kings¬ tree, and later others at Johnson ville and Union, and mod- ern school buildings erected for all three ; many special dis¬ tricts were established and communities began contribut¬ ing towards the erection of school buildings and voting special tax levies for supplementary support to their own institutions. During this decade a majority of the white people in the County , for the first time, believed that schooling for their children was actually worth some time and money. Furthermore, that small minority who in all the history of the County has educated its children in college, began to hope that it could depend on the pub¬ lic schools for the high school grades.

The next decade from 1910 to 1920 almost everybody in the County, white and colored, began to believe that schooling for their children was actually worth time and money, and many felt that it was worth much time and money. Sometime during the last days of this decade one or two parents in Williamsburg actually heard Yah well's unuttered reply to Cain's first question, and realized their duty to give their children a sound and various learning, for the purpose of serving their fellowmen as well as for private profit and power. These one or two parents stretched the ribbon streak of dawn for Williamsburg's Day.

Once five righteous men would have saved Sodom. There were in Williamsburg in 1923 more than five men and women who, understanding, were educating their children for the highest degree of citizenship. There were a hundred others who, seeing, like Browning's beggar, were preparing to plunge. Jocund day for Williams¬ burg was standing tiptoe on the misty mountain top.

Following will be found a list of the school officials of Williamsburg in 1923. Some of those named as teachers were worthy of the designation : others "kept" school hours for wages. One cannot know who teaches from one who does not, until the harvest time. A real teacher starts growing out of a mind something that environment can- not stop. Sometimes a mind shows few recognizable signs of growth for many years, and then seemingly all at once brings forth fruit an hundred fold.

The County Board of Education in 1923 was composed of M. A. Shuler, J. G. McCullough, and M. F. Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery was Superintendent of Education. Fol¬ lowing are the names of the white schools, their trustees, and the teachers :

Kingstree: Dr. D. P. Frierson, L. W. Gilland, and A. C. Swails ; J. W. Swittenberg, Superintendent, A. H. Bald¬ win, H. Bueck, Laura Lynch, Lilia Babb, Agnes Erckmann, Varina McDaniel, Elizabeth Speigner, Mrs. M. F. Montgomery, Lillie Pruitt, Carrie Lancaster, Mrs. Bettie Gwin, Mrs. G. A. McElveen, E. O. Baker, and Mrs. Ira Calhoun.

There were one hundred twenty-one white school teach¬ ers in the County in 1923 and one hundred fourteen negro teachers. Of these white teachers twenty-three were teaching by virtue of special permit, and forty-three ne¬ groes. The State school law requires that all teachers in the public schools shall hold certificates before being paid public money for services, except by special permits which may be granted for one year to teachers. This exception practically nullifies the effectiveness of the cer¬ tificate requirement. It makes it possible for a board of school trustees that wishes to employ some favorite who cannot pass the examinations required for a certificate simply to request the County Superintendent to issue a special permit for such person.

An official opinion states that 44% of the white teach¬ ers in Williamsburg were not qualified to teach above the sixth grade and 14% not qualified to teach primary grades. From a standpoint of methods of teaching, it is said on authority that only 50% of the white teachers of the County are qualified and 30% of the negro teachers.

The progress made in public school service in Wil¬ liamsburg for the past score of years certainly has not been exceeded by that in any other county in the United States. Notwithstanding this remarkable improvement, the public schools of Williamsburg in 1923 hardly gave 50% efficiency for the money expended. There may be a hundred reasons for this condition, - the principal one that the citizenship of the County, not trained itself, re¬ quires school officials and teachers, who should be leaders and directors in the educational work, to conform and to follow rather than to lead. In other words, the schools are dominated by politics and a school official or a teacher who attempts to lead beyond where the parents know is immediately eliminated from public service.

Another reason for the inefficiency of Williamsburg's public schools is that the average Williamsburg parent seems to desire appearance more than reality in the school¬ ing of his children. A popular teacher must necessarily give high grades and promotion to the children of the leading citizens of the community. The average citizen seems to regard paper grades and paper promotion for his chil¬ dren more desirable than sound and various learning. The people of Williamsburg almost without exception now know that the schooling of their children is necessary, but few of them realize what education is and how it must be obtained. With the money available for public schools in Williamsburg a wise and generous school dic¬ tator, one who knows the way and has power to will it, could work out the public school salvation in this County in a single decade.

There are some parents in Williamsburg who are obtaining real service for their children from the public schools. Some of the children trained in Williamsburg's schools are well equipped when they go to college, but these well trained are exceptions. All of the high schools in South Carolina compete every year in a debating con¬ test for the Manning silver loving cup. These high schools also hold a recitation contest. In 1923 Jane Smyth Gilland and James F. Cooper won the Manning cup for the Kingstree High School, Miss Gilland winning the medal for the first debater and Mr. Cooper that for second. Miss Mary Catherine Epps won the medal for the second best recitation. Thomas Merriman won third prize for reci¬ tation. The Kingstree High School baseball team at the same time gave an excellent account of itself in the athletic contests of the State. These high school pupils have received excellent public school training. Their parents belong to that class that require service from the schools and receive it. It is the function of the public school to give good training to pupils whether the parents of these pupils are of sufficient education and intelli¬ gence to require it or not.

There are some teachers in Williamsburg who regard their work seriously and who make it a profession and a business. J. W. Swittenberg, B. A., Newberry College, 1895, came to Kingstree as superintendent of its schools in 1910, which office he was holding in 1923. Mr. Swittenberg has taught school consecutively for twenty-eight years. Since 1910 and under his administration, the Kingstree High School has granted diplomas to thirtyeight boys and seventy-one girls. Miss Agnes Erckmann of Charleston came as teacher of the first grade in the Kingstree Graded Schools in September, 1902, which po¬ sition she has held continuously since that time. Miss Erckmann is also in charge of the Carnegie Public Library in Kingstree. During her long service in the Kingstree schools, she has been an influential factor in community life.

While the white schools of Williamsburg have made remarkable progress when compared with those of other parts of the country, for the past few years the negro schools in Williamsburg have accomplished even greater things. From 1918 until the present, 1923, the negroes of Williamsburg had made such exceptional improvement in their educational conditions that it seems spectacular. In 1918, the negroes, as a general rule, had a surplus of money for the first time in their history. Be it recorded to their everlasting credit that they chose to use this money to a large degree for the education of their children. They went about this work seriously and with more intel¬ ligently directed energy than they had ever shown in any¬ thing else. There was in June, 1923, but little difference between the school obtained knowledge of the average twelve year old white child and the average twelve year old negro child in Kingstree. There were living in 1923 in Williamsburg a number of negro teachers who had given long and faithful service in their schools. Among these may be mentioned Mary Murray, thirty years; Bos¬ ton Cooper, twenty-five years; Hattie Frierson, twentyfive years; Lillie Cooper, fortv-fonr years; William Mouzon, thirty years; J. S. Fulmore, thirty years; David Fulton had been principal of the colored schools in Kings¬ tree for fourteen years.

There were fifty-eight school districts averaging about sixteen square miles each in the County in 1923. There were fifty-one white and fifty-nine colored graded schools, in which were enrolled 10,931 pupils. High Schools for whites were functioning in Kingstree, Hemingway and Greelvville, with a total enrollment of 909. There was neither a private nor a parochial school in the County. The total expenditures for all school purposes in Wil¬ liamsburg in 1922, amounted to $143,023.56; value of school property, $237,215.