Pineville, a historic refuge
Part 15: St. Stephen Jockey Club
By Warner Montgomery
warner@thecolumbiastar.com

Pond Bluff may have been the site of a Jockey Club Ball. The original house was burned during the Revolution. Gen. Francis Marion rebuilt it in 1773 and it burned again in 1816. The house pictured here was built in 1820 and demolished in 1939 for the Santee- Cooper Project. Pond Bluff is now covered by Lake Marion.

1791. The United States of America took its place among nations of the world, George Washington toured South Carolina, and the men of Pineville sat down with Col. Hezekiah Maham, hero of the Battle of Fort Johnson, to establish the St. Stephen Jockey Club. After all, Southern planters needed sports of the turf as much as did British gentry.

The census of 1790 revealed that the population of the parishes of Berkeley County, which included St. Stephen and Pineville was 19,075. There were 2,191 white people, 16,759 slaves, and 125 free blacks. The population of Berkeley County in 2000 was 142,651 - 68% white, 27% black, and 3% Hispanic.

Maham laid out the race track as Colonels Washington, Alston, Warren, and McPherson toasted the occasion with Madeira wine. Col. Christian Senf, superintendent of the Santee Canal, agreed in 1800 to build a club house. Members that year included Theodore Gourdin, John G.K. Gourdin, Samuel Porcher, Robert M. Palmer, John S. Ravenel, Isaac Porcher, and Samuel Dubose.

In this 1931 map the St. Stephen Race Course in Pineville is marked.

The track, just a half mile from the center of Pineville, ran over a level surface. A large pond drained and cleared of trees was in the center of the oval track. There was not a bad place to stand to watch the horses during the race.

Breeding and racing horses was nothing new to the gentlemen of Upper Berkeley County. Before the Revolution, Daniel Ravenel and Peter Sinkler raised thoroughbreds from European stallions for the race courses of Charleston. Trials were held at Strawberry Race Course and Bluford Plantation (now Oakland Club) in Pineville.

The Pineville stables were raided by British troops before Cornwallis was chased into North Carolina, but the stock was quickly renewed as was the social life of the planters. Race week in Pineville became the social event of the year.

Keith Gourdin of Pineville wrote a paper on the St. Stephen Race Course in which he lists the "Original Rules of the St. Stephen Club" that included:

+ Establish club meetings monthly from November through June.

+ A dinner would be served at 1:30 pm that would include turkey, duck, fowl, piglet (shoat), sheep, ham, beef, assorted spices, rice, bread, Madeira wine, brandy, gin, whiskey, and cigars. The member providing the dinner shall be president for the day.

+ A person could apply for membership by letter or by recommendation of a member and would be accepted by a two- thirds vote of the membership.

+ There shall be no sales, negro trials, or card- playing on club days.

According to F.A. Porcher and Samuel

DuBose (History of the

Huguenots of South Carolina

, 1887), the season in Pineville always closed with the races and the Jockey Club Ball held at the end of October. The races continued for two full days beginning with a full dinner and concluded with the ball.

There was no entrance fee to the races, but there was gambling. The stakes were moderate so there were no professional bookies present. Almost everyone participated in the small purse on each race.

The ball was held in a nearby plantation house. It was the grand culmination of dances held in private homes over the season. There were no elaborate decorations or refreshments. Music was provided by black servants - harpsichords, fiddles, fifes, harmonicas, and maybe drums and bugles.

The crowd gathered in the early afternoon, first on the large veranda, then moved inside when darkness fell on the village. The elderly men sat around playing cards; their women knitted and crocheted while commenting quietly on who was courting whom.

A country dance led off the evening, then dancers, men and women, drew lots for places and partners. The head lady called the first figure. PopuClaar

Iirna t,hMeo enaerylmy dusaky,sH waesrtee

to the Wedding, and La

Belle Catharine.

The staple dance of

the evening was the Cotillion

. This six- handed reel was a lively, merry, animated affair. Sets of three couples formed, and the music began. Young men and women chased, crossed, and came down the middle in a glorious melange of flashing skirts and dangling swords.

The evening usually concluded with a boulanger, a dance of quiet, seductive movement. Partners for this last dance were chosen not from the list but from choice. The perspiration of the reel was allowed to cool as the man whispered a request in a young lady's ear hoping for permission to take her home.

The carriages that brought them to the ball had long been returned to their sheds. As was the custom, the couple was led, on foot, through the darkness by a servant with a lantern. Words of love, sweet words, passed between them.

At the lady's home, the gentleman thanked her for the evening, bade her farewell, and, if the moment presented itself, encircled her waist with his arm and placed a kiss on her cheek. He felt her tresses on his face and tasted the scent of her perfume. She blushed, turned her shoulder ever so slightly, and disappeared with an approving giggle.

(Next week: Life in the Village)