Pineville, a historic refuge
Part 29: Pineville struggles
By Warner M.Montgomery Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

The US- 52 br idge over Santee River between St. Stephens and Greeleyville was constructed as par t of the Santee- - Cooper project. Murrays Ferry had served traffic across the r iver from 1741 until 1863 when it was replaced by a railroad.

Persecuted Huguenots fled France for the new English colony of South Carolina in the late 1600s. Families made their way up the Santee River where they established farms and traded with the Indians. Within a generation, they became wealthy planters who spoke English and attended the Anglican church. During the American Revolution, they fought for independence from Great Britain.

In 1783, Capt. James Sinkler "discovered" the pine ridge between the Santee and Cooper Rivers where he built a home free from the dreaded annual fever. Soon planters between Jamestown, St. Stephens, Eutawville, and Moncks Corner built homes near Sinkler's on the Santee River Road. During the "sickly" season they left their indigo, rice, and cotton plantations along the river and took refuge in the new Pineville.

By 1804, there were 60 homes in Pineville. A school, a church, a race track, a library, and social clubs soon followed. The Santee Canal was built through Pineville connecting the Cooper and Santee Rivers, connecting Charleston with Columbia. The plantations prospered financially and culturally.

Mary Gourdin pays laborers in the cotton fields of Pineville in the early 1930s.

A serious malaria epidemic struck Pineville in 1833. The villagers fled. Three years later, the village began to recover. By 1850, life regained normalcy, only to be shattered by the Civil War when most young men went to war, and the few who returned found only burned homes and chaos.

During Reconstruction much land was confiscated by the military government or lost for non- payment of taxes. Wealthy Yankees bought many of the old plantations and established hunt clubs or vacation homes. Many planters gave up farming for life in the cities or adventure out west.

Black families had to make difficult decisions: stay on the small farms they had received, work as sharecroppers, or leave for the North.

These black residents of Pineville used a mule- drawn wagon in the 1920s.

An article in The State newspaper (September 24, 1899) by A.S. Salley Jr. spoke of the plight in its title: "Carolina Towns of the Long Ago, They Lived and Flourished, But are Now Forgotten. Pineville, Granby, and Hamburg. The Old Summer Homes of the 'Bourbons' Are But Memories of Former Days."

Salley wrote, "Probably the most famous dead town in this State is Pineville, and Prof. Fred Porcher made it so by his story of its rise. Had it not been for that delightful sketch,

which first appeared in the Southern

Quarterly Review for April, 1854, in connection with a review of Gilmore Simms' Golden Christmas and subsequently printed in pamphlet form, Pineville would have long since been buried in its own ashes, and no sentiment would attach to the spot where it once stood. But now a sweet pathos clings to the very brick- bats that lie where Pineville stood, and a modest poet there found inspiration for that local classic, A Carolina Bourbon."

A few families, black and white, remained in Pineville, accumulated land, built new homes around the chapel, and attempted to reestablish productive farms. Then they were hit in the 1930s by the Depression and the Santee- Cooper Project. Lake Moultrie flooded thousands of acres between Pineville and Pinopolis. Most landowners cashed their eminent domain checks and moved away. Those who stayed joined the crews to clear the land, dig the canals, and build the dams. Once again, Pineville faced death.

(Next week: St. Johns Hunting Club)