You are invited to eat sweet potato pie
By Jackie Perrone jacper@juno.com

Photo by from the 2008 Lower Richland Heritage Corridor Calendar The historic Harriet Barber House, above and below. The large oak tree stands in front of the garage of the Harriet Barber House.

Harriet Barber would love for folks in the Midlands to come out to Hopkins Park May 10 and eat some sweet potato pie. Donations will go toward restoring her historically important home off Lower Richland Boulevard.

The South Carolina Land Commission was a unique program by a southern state to give freedmen the opportunity to own land. The Barber house today is believed to be the only surviving house in Lower Richland built by former slaves who bought land.

Many freedmen lost their land, but this house and its land have remained in the same family since May 24, 1872. Today, Mary Barber Kirkland, Marie Barber Adams, and Carrie Barber White proudly carry the banner for the homestead of their great- grandparents Samuel and Harriet Barber.

"We had our first family reunion in 1981 right here at the Harriet Barber house," says Marie Adams. "Later it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Landmark No. 131, in 1986.

"Now we have received grant money from the Richland County Conservation Commission so that it can be repaired and restored for community use."

Fundraising will augment those funds, and the house will receive roofing, new siding, front porch repair, painting, and other structural work. A trove of original furnishings are securely in storage now, awaiting the time they can be returned to their home.

The Rev. Samuel Barber Sr., a pastor who had moved here from Blackstone Va., officiated at the wedding of his son Samuel Barber Jr. and Harriet in 1868. Four years later, that young couple bought 42.5 acres of land, where they built first a log cabin, then the house which stands today. They farmed the land and raised their children. Samuel Barber Sr. registered to vote in 1882, when he was 80 years old.

The story goes that Samuel Barber Jr. was away a lot in his trade as a well- digger, and it was Harriet who took the money into town to make the last payment on the property. The outcome of that mission was the house was registered in her name

The Hopkins Park Sweet Potato Pie festival will be followed two weeks later with a two- part Memorial Day Service in this historic southeastern Midlands community. At 11 am, a solemn memorial service will be held at Government Cemetery Site nearby, and St. John Baptist Church of Hopkins. From noon to 4 pm, a festival at the Harriet Barber house will celebrate its heritage and its future.

www.harrietbarberhouse.org.