A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....01-09-04....South Carolina ~ "Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places"

visualops, dixie sass | Mama_Bear

[Mama_Bear]

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day

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A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in need; and congratulate those deserving. We strive to keep our threads entertaining, fun, and pleasing to look at, and often have guest writers contribute an essay, or a profile of another FReeper.

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Today we have a special treat. Visualops and dixie sass are presenting their beautiful state of South Carolina. And what a great job this team has done! Dixie sass contributed the research and the text; visualops the photos, the tribute to South Carolina's fallen heroes, and the over-all design. I had the easy part, I simply added a border and posted it this morning.

I think, after you have toured our featured state with our Fine FR ambassadors and tour guides, you will agree with me.....there is something very special about South Carolina.

A Finest salute to visualops and dixie sass for this excellent introduction to South Carolina, and to all 201 FReepers who hail from this beautiful state.

South Carolina - doesn't it just sing when you say it? South Carolina - smiling faces and beautiful places! How true - from the foothills of the Smoky Mountains to the Atlantic Coast.

How do I begin to tell you about our beautiful state, one of the original 13 colonies? Well, lets see...

SC Revolutionary Flag	SC State Flag

I know, our State Flag and State Pledge: "I salute the flag of South Carolina and pledge to the Palmetto State love, loyalty and faith."

The history of the flag goes back to 1765 - pre-revolutionary days. If you were around in 1765, you might have seen a flag with three white crescents on a blue background carried by the SC protestors of the Stamp Act. When Colonel Moultrie was asked to design the flag he chose two components from the uniforms of the militia - the blue and silver crescent the soldiers wore on their caps. At the time of Civil War a new banner was created to fly over the newly created nation. Only one change was made and that was to add the Palmetto Tree which was instrumental in the defense of Sullivan Island by Colonel Moultrie against the British warships in 1776. The Cannonballs that were fired from these ships couldn't destroy the walls the fort which were built of the Palmetto logs. The cannonballs sank in the soft, tough wood of the Palmetto. The South Carolina flag with that one addition has flown over this state since 1765.

Our state Flower is the Night Blooming Jessamine	Our state Dog is the Boykin Spaniel

Our state Bird is the Carolina Wren	Our state Tree is the Palmetto

Our state Dance is the Shag .
Our state songs are "Carolina" and "South Carolina on My Mind".
Our state Tartan (yes, we have one because of the many Highland Scots
and Ulster Scots that settled here) , isn't it pretty? This is the Carolina Tartan!



And of course, being the good wholesome folk that we are our state beverage is MILK!!!

We have three major rivers, Savannah, Edisto and the Santee. We also have two rivers, the Ashley and Cooper, that come together in Charleston Harbor to create the Atlantic Ocean!

South Carolina has four major lakes, Hartwell, Marion, Moultrie and Murray. The highest point in the state is Sassafras Mountain - 3,560 feet (1,085 m) above sea level.

Although North Carolinians try to claim him, we know that Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States, was born in Waxhaw, South Carolina on March 15th, 1767.

---

South Carolina has many "firsts". Here are just a few, both good and bad:

First European Settlement - 1526 - San Miguel de Gualdape thought to be close to present day Georgetown. The settlement failed due to famine, disease and unrest among the black and Indian populations. Only 150 of the original 600 settlers returned to Santo Domingo.
First slave revolt - November of 1526.
First American built ship to cross the Atlantic - 1563 - French Huguenot settlers built a makeshift vessel and sailed from Port Royal for France after being left behind in Charlesfort by their leader. (We would eventually see a large influx of French Huguenots into the Charleston area)
First public library-1700
First professional female artist -1707
First Opera performed - 1735 - Colley Cibber's ballad opera Flora, or Hob in the Well.
First Fire Insurance Company - 1736
First building constructed solely for use as a theater - 1736
First systematic, scientific recording of weather information - 1737
First major slave insurrection - 1739
First musical society - 1762
First cotton exported to England - 1764
First public museum (still in operation) - 1773
First black Baptist Church - 1773
Oldest municipal Chamber of Commerce in continuous operation - 1773
First business publication - 1774
First independent government in the colonies - 1776 - Four months before the Declaration of Independence was signed, South Carolina adopted a state constitution - drafted by a Provincial Congress and elected John Rutledge as the states president and Henry Laurens as the vice-president, titles which were later changed to Governor and Lieutenant Governor by the Constitution of 1779
First major Naval battle of the Revolutionary War - 1776
First treaty between two US states - 1777
First eminent architect born in America - 1781
First golf club - 1786
First cotton mill - 1789
First ice transported commercially - 1799
First tea planted - 1802 (and is still grown in the low country)
First fireproof building - 1823
First Reform Jewish Congregation - 1824
First regularly scheduled rail passenger service - 1830
First municipal college - 1836
First trial in a worker's compensation lawsuit - 1838
First building to be used solely as a college library - 1840
First American Opera written was by George Gershwin and it was set in Charleston on Catfish Row - 1934. It was based on a book by Dubose Heyward.
Read more about it HERE.

---

South Carolina has every sport imaginable for you sports fans, from professional and college football and basketball, to semi-pro teams of all kinds, hockey, soccer, baseball, Polo and horse racing, etc. The winningest high school football coach in history with over 500 hundred wins in his career at the helm of the mighty Green Wave of Summerville High School: John McKissick.

We have the finest Military College in the south - the Citadel - the first to admit women, albeit under a cloud. A top medical college in the Medical University of South Carolina. We have the University of South Carolina, Vorhees College, Teachers College, Presbyterian College, Newberry College, College of Charleston, you want to learn it, there is a school to teach you.

Our men are handsome and gentlemen and our women are beautiful and ladies.

We have everything from ocean to mountains, a old capital city, Charleston, with it's wealth of history to the new capital city, Columbia, with it midlands beauty to the Spartanburg-Greenville area with it's foot in modern commerce, to Aiken situated in the beautiful horse country.

Angel Oak(on John's Island) is perhaps the oldest live oak at 1400 years plus, and the canopy of Angel Oak produces 17,000 square feet of shade!	Golden Creek Mill in Easley

Downtown Greenville with the flag that's been there since 9-11

In Charleston we live and die by the bells of St. Michaels which presides over the "Four Corners of Law" - ecclesiastical, federal, state and county/city.

We have S.O.B's in Charleston - oh wait, it's not what you think! It means someone who lives "South of Broad".

Rainbow Row, Charleston, South of Broad St.

 We have the international arts festival Spoleto, with everything from children's theatre to jazz.

We have the Hunley!

We have several distinct areas - the Low Country, the Midlands,
the PeeDee, the Sand Hills and the rest of the state.

Beaufort	Campbell's Covered Bridge

Columbia, the state capital

Actually, everything is the "Up-Country or the Low Country".
Beautiful swamps, marshes and forests. Beautiful weather.

Cypress Gardens	Shem Creek shrimp boats

Golf at Hilton Head Island

We have suffered through hurricanes, tornadoes and the great earthquake of 1886. The earthquake almost accomplished what Sherman couldn't. We came back twice as strong and twice as determined to move forward and make our state great.

We have representatives from all services here, Air Force, Marine, Navy and Coast Guard. We are proud of our training facilities at Fort Jackson and Parris Island.

We have given more of our men and women to protecting this country than any other state. We have fought in every war since the beginning.

South Carolina continues to give her sons and daughters
to the service of their country in Operation Iraqi Freedom. God
rest the souls and comfort the families of these brave men
and women who have given their lives for the cause of freedom.

	Capt. Kimberly Hampton, 27 Easley, SC 82nd Airborne Division
	Staff Sgt. Patrick Lee Griffin, Jr., 31 Elgin, SC 728th Air Control Squadron
	Spc. Rian C. Ferguson, 22 Taylors, SC Regimental Support Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
	Capt. Josh Byers, 29 Anderson, SC  Army ranger and paratrooper was a company commander in the 3rd Cavalry Regiment
	Sgt. George Edward Buggs, 31 Barnwell, SC 3rd Forward Support Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, GA
	Pfc. Michael Scott Adams, 20 Spartanburg, SC Loader on an M1A1 Abrams tank assigned to 1st Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment, 1st Armor Division
	Pvt. Algernon Adams, 26 Aiken, SC 122nd Engineer Battalion, Army National Guard
	Pvt. Nolen R. Hutchings, 19 Boiling Springs, SC 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, NC
	Spc. Darius T. Jennings, 22 Cordova, SC 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
	Pfc. Vorn J. Mack, 19 Orangeburg, SC 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
	Staff Sgt. Paul M. Neff II, 30 Fort Mill, SC 5th Battalion, 101st Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
	Spc. Orenthial J. Smith, 21 Allendale, SC Company A, 123rd Main Support Battalion
	Sgt. Anthony O. Thompson, 26 Branchville, SC Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery
	Lance Cpl. Joshua Daniel Speer, 20 Slater-Marietta, SC Marine Corps (Killed in a car wreck one week after returning home from Iraq)

If you look at South Carolina you will see a History of America. From the first Indian Agent in the 1500's to the late great Senator Thurmond. If you look anywhere in history you will find a South Carolinian, from Fort Moultrie to the Alamo - Col Travers who was from the sea islands of South Carolina.

Andrew Jackson's vice president was another South Carolinian, John C. Calhoun. Strom Thurmond like John C. Calhoun was an American statesman and political philosopher. Calhoun served until his death in these offices - congressman, secretary of war, Vice President, senator, secretary of state and again as senator. Calhoun resigned as Vice President to serve in the senate again because of the nullification problem that was facing the country and the conflict over slavery. Thurmond, like Calhoun was loyal to his Nation, to his state and above all to his principles. Thurmond like Calhoun served at a troubled time in our history.
 

Robert Smalls, a slave whose knowledge of Low Country waters aided the Union forces, eventually served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, after serving 5 terms in state government.

I have included here snipped excerpts from an essay of his from North American Review (1890). I'm sure FReepers will get a sense of deja vu!

"In South Carolina there is neither a free ballot nor an honest count, and since the election in 1874 the history of elections in the State is the history of a continued series of murders, outrages, perjury and fraud... 

...Having perfect immunity from punishment, the encouragement, if not the active participation, of the State government, and the protection of the courts of the State, the rifle clubs committed their outrages without restraint, and the election officers their frauds without even the thin veneer of attempted concealment. Elections since then have been carried by perjury and fraud – two things worshipped and adored by the South Carolina Democracy... 

...Many apologists for the rule of the minority in South Carolina assert that the negro votes the Democratic ticket, and that to form a majority from the census giving the entire vote to the Republican party is erroneous. There are colored men who vote the Democratic ticket, and I suppose that there are Irishmen in Ireland who act with the Tories of England...  

....All persons desiring to vote the Democratic ticket are registered without personal application, and certificates are furnished them either before or on the day of election without even the formality of an oath as to eligibility. Registration the fountain-source of election, curtails Republican suffrage by the expense and inconvenience it entails upon persons not living at the county-seat, by refusal through willful neglect to register Republicans, and by fraud of the supervisor in making false entries; it adds to the Democratic vote through his fraud in unlawfully adding to the names on the registration-books those of all persons who are expected to vote the Democratic ticket....  

....At a neighboring poll another scene is enacted. The polls are open, the boxes shown, the voters deposit their ballots, there is general levity, and everything appears to be fair. There are three hundred Republican voters; the Democracy have secured forty or fifty votes, and the polls close. The votes are counted; there are two or three hundred more ballots than names on the poll-list; instead of fifty Democratic ballots there are three hundred and fifty..."

You guessed it, Robert Smalls was a Republican!

More images of South Carolina...

Governor's Mansion	The famous Gaffney "Peachoid" We call it the "Big Butt"!

Hard Rock Cafe, Myrtle Beach

See the Yorktown, the submarine Clamagore, the destroyer Laffey, Coast Guard cutter Ingham and the Medal of Honor museum. Vintage military aircraft are on display at Patriot's Point as well as weapons and living and working areas of ships.

Oh yes, one more thing...we also have LadyX!

 

WE HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED THIS LITTLE TOUR OF SOUTH CAROLINA!!

 

THIS WEEK'S THREADS 01-05-04...Military Monday 01-06-04...And the Good News Is... 01-07-04...Our Whitehouse Pets... the exclusive interview... 01-08-04...John's Two Cents... By JohnHuang2

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[visualops]

Not at sunrise..but I did take the kids there alot. We went there and King St. and Folly Beach many times- Charleston is great for having fun without it costing anything.

[LadyX]

"Both daughters are Columbia College alumna."

My grandmother graduated from Columbia College in 1895, and taught school for three years before marrying my grandfather.

Her father had been an Assistant Pastor at the Methodist church (Washington Street) by the capitol building, and they married there in 1898 with him officiating.

At Columbia College, she had won the coveted Music Medal, and her youngest daughter, Aunt Betty, won it, too, when she graduated there. My grandfather graduated from Wofford College, and all seven of their children graduated from college.

I used to love to visit them in the summer growing up, each child required to recite a Bible verse before eating, and when I was at Parris Island in the Marine Corps, I went to see them one weekend in 1952 (Korean Conflict). They insisted I wear my uniform and sit up front, and it was such a joy to have my grandmother playing the piano, a cousin singing a solo of Bless This House, and listen to my grandfather's sermon.

An oddity is the fact my two sisters and I all ended up living in South Carolina - each one in a town where our grandfather had pastored a church. The one here is just off the Circle in the center of the town by the County Courthouse, and I actually often feel their presence....quite comforting, knowing of all the prayers they sent forth for their grandchildren, some now felt surrounding me...

Hate to relate this, but the heat is off again, and the repairman has returned and is outside.
Need more prayers, methinks...

[Mama_Bear]

Hate to relate this, but the heat is off again, and the repairman has returned and is outside. Need more prayers, methinks...

Oh, no. Well, don't let him leave until it is fixed. It would be awful to be there without heat all night.....can't even go shopping to warm up.

[Mama_Bear]

Hi dutchess. Thanks for your sweet words.

It sure is apparent that Dixie and visualops love their state. They put so much time and effort into presenting South Carolina. They left me with practically nothing to do.

Got your mail. Will answer in a bit. :-)

[N. Theknow]

Between the two of us we fill a few South Carolina colleges.

Brother graduated The Citadel with honors. Two cousins graduated Columbia Summa Cum Laude. Two male cousins graduated USC, and another two from Clemson.

Mom and her two sisters all graduated from Winthrop. Her oldest sister graduated with the highest GPA in school history until my Mom beat her record. The youngest sister said "They spent a lot of time studying, I had fun."

The oldest of my Mom's sisters willed her home to the Methodist Church in Barnwell to be used as a parsonage. It was the first private home I ever was in that was air conditioned. Early 1050's.

Whenever their two sons and my brother and I were punished we were sent outside into the HEAT and HUMIDITY.

It was a wonderful house. Everything was built in and could not be moved. Only moving furniture was the dining room and kitchen table and chairs. Glass tile windows. It was a kid's dream house because you couldn't break anything! It even had an indoor grill so my uncle didn't have to go outside to grill steaks.

[N. Theknow]

BTW - My faculty advisor at The Citadel said I was the first person he had ever seen that looked upon The Citadel as a party school.

[N. Theknow]

Early 1050's.

Oops! Should have been early 1950's.

[LadyX]

I won't take up a whole page of replies, but my mother graduated from Coker College, and Anne and Carolyn went there, too.
Winthrop - my cousin, Betsy, and there were a LOT of aunts and uncles and cousins in other colleges.

University of SC? My older son graduated there; my granddaughter is a Junior there; niece graduated there and is going to Med School - another niece is at MUSC...

My grandfather, Reverend Martin Luther Banks, had the Methodist Church here in Barnwell in the latter 1920's!
Small world.

[dixie sass]

I agree wholeheartedly about South of the Border.

And Charleston? I will never be "at home" anywhere in the world, just visiting until I get back home to Charleston.

LadyX, my first love and my first kiss was a Skinner from that family but their plantation had been on James Island and I believe that they also had land on Seabrook as well as other places.

I forgot to mention the Bell family from this area. One of the Bell's wrote a book about his family several years ago. I believe the title was "A Slave in the Family"

On my momma's side I can claim the Wraggs and Pringles among others. We have many beautiful plantations still "in the families". Most people don't understand that it is a very hard job to be a farmer and raise crops and that Plantations, although small fiefdoms, were in reality nothing more than successful farms.

Medway and several other plantations lie partially or totally within the domains of the Naval Weapons Station. Oh my, I just ramble on and on...

Oh Maggie, I'm so glad that you got the heat on and could come and join the party!

[dixie sass]

Lori, you have to come, no two ways about it!

[dixie sass]

I'm so proud of her for that remark. I've never heard it put better!

Are both your daughters teachers?

I can't find any of my beach music CD's. My son might have taken them with him when he went to Florida.

[Slings and Arrows]

One minor quibble: In your list of South Carolina universities you forgot Coastal Carolina University! GO CHANTS!

[dixie sass]

She was from Goose Creek and her dad was retired military. There were two other girls besides her, one was from upstate and got into trouble - something about fire and sex. Another girl was from overseas, her dad was a diplomat. Most of the girls that came in after Shannon, were quite intelligent and were able to toe the line, even through the hazing.

My momma went to Coker College and I had always wanted to go there because she had gone there. Coker was at one time a girls school but went co-ed. Most of the womens colleges ended up co-ed long before the Citadel went through it's troubles.

[LadyX]

One time my sister, Anne, and I went into downtown Charleston to have lunch with our cousin, Herbert, at a restaurant near the bank where he was a V-P.

It was one of those small ones 'around the corner' built several steps up from the street.
Visitors might not realize that was an absolute necessity in the days of unpaved streets, becoming muddy quagmires whenever it rained, which had the building have been on the same level, would have flooded.

The restaurant manager had a man positioned whose ONLY task was to be on those steps (4-5 steep ones) solely to escort all ladies up and down them!

It was done with the same quiet and respectful manner, tucking you securely in hand, and making sure you did not stumble or exert yourself..:))

YOU know what I mean, dixie, about devilishly but sweetly charming Charleston men, I'll wager!

[dixie sass]

Thank you Dutchess. They are part of our heritage now, their sacrifice is just one more building block in the house of our heritage.

[dixie sass]

That is precious!

[Mama_Bear]

One minor quibble: In your list of South Carolina universities you forgot Coastal Carolina University! GO CHANTS!

Uh oh. Happens everytime!

About Coastal University.

Go Chants!!

How's that? :-)

[dixie sass]

That would be the Yorktown at Patriot's Point. You'd better get back here!

[LadyX]

Have to include Middleton Place near Charleston!

and here is Medway Plantation, built in the 1600's,
where my several greats-grandfather - 'Papa Tom' - is buried:

[dixie sass]

Oh, I know. Just the visual art. Or listening to the locals talking about the past as if it were just happening -listening to them was a lesson in history without the boringness of it.

I picked up a book the other day and on the cover was a picture of the College of Charleston and some of the graduating class and in the back row was a man that I knew -it was my granddaddy.

I walk past Rainbow Row and the Fishburnes old house and or visit the cemetaries and can find my history there. There are times that I am talking with another Charlestonian and all of a sudden we are in clothes from another century talking about the same things just as it was happening then.