Pineville, a historic refuge
Part 46: The Santee Cooper Project and those damn mosquitoes
By Warner M.Montgomery Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

About 1,000 families, most of them black, were relocated by Santee- Cooper. Their houses were moved from the land to be flooded, placed on a new foundation, and a new porch was built. Each family was given 100 chickens. (Photo from Library of Congress)

Philip "Shrimp" Hasell developed a fascination for swatting mosquitoes during his school days at Porter Military Academy and The Citadel. After he graduated in 1920, Hasell spent a few years with Standard Oil, the South Carolina Highway Department, and the U.S. Public Health Service chasing mosquitoes, trying to control the dreaded malaria they carried across South Carolina killing 16 of every 100,000 people.

In 1923, Hasell joined the S.C. Board of Health and led the malaria control efforts during the clearing of Lake Murray. When the Santee- Cooper Project got underway in 1939, he became the sanitary engineer in charge of killing mosquitoes.

During his initial survey of the Old Santee Canal, Hasell found plenty of the malaria- borne larvae and men being infected with the disease. He was bedridden for four days with poison ivy infection.

Members of Hasell's crew are seen here crossing the Old Santee Canal at Highway 45 in Pineville. They are preparing to spray mosquito larvicide on stagnant water. (Photo from Walter Edgar, History of Santee Cooper, 1934-1984)

Shrimp Hasell worked the area between Pinopolis and St. Stephen, home to many Pineville planters since the Revolutionary War. He collected larvae, built experimental impoundages, inspected WPA camps, set out mosquito traps, and worked with the local people to develop sanitary wastewater disposal methods.

In his reports to the Santee- Cooper Authority, Hasell wrote of the 16 square miles of swamp, deep sloughs, large creeks, cane brakes, briers, underbrush, and two rivers to be crossed. Definitely not an easy place to control mosquitoes. Nevertheless, his crew of four lay down larvicide, cleared vegetation, dug drainage ditches, and installed screens in houses within a mile of the rising lake water.

Hasell praised the work of his crew but complained about their qualifications. The botany teacher, hospital technician, former bank clerk, and country boy had no previous experience in public health work. By 1943, their major task was screening the houses before the land was flooded. Hasell wanted more "real" mosquito control so he left Santee- Cooper and joined the U.S. Army where he headed up a major malaria control training program. He died in 1958 at the age of 58.

Pond Bluff, formerly the home of Gen. Francis Marion in Pineville, was dismantled and the land flooded by the Santee- Cooper Project. (Photo from Walter Edgar,History of Santee Cooper, 1934-1984)

The malaria eradication program of the U.S. Public Health Service in South Carolina, largely the work of Shrimp Hasell, contains 463 manuscripts, 226 photographs, and 156 technical leaflets. The Philip Gadsden Hasell Papers, 1914- 1958, are located in the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina.

((Next week: Gourdins and Marions save the village)

Woodlawn Plantation was flooded by Lake Moultrie. It had been the home of Edward Edwards, Stephen G. Deveaux, and William Francis Ravenel, and the property of J.K. Gourdin before the flooding. (Photo from Walter Edgar,History of Santee Cooper, 1934-1984)