Thorntree House, nestled in recent snow that blanketed much of South Carolina in a rare super-cold snap, is believed to be the oldest home in “Williamsburgh District,” retired editor and photographer Linda W. Brown writes.
“Built in 1749 on Thorntree Swamp near present-day Salters, it was the home of James Witherspoon, one of the early settlers. It was moved to Kingstree in the early 1970s and restored as a ‘house museum.'” These days, Thorntree is owned and operated by the Williamsburgh Historical Society.
“Small rural historical societies work hard to preserve the history of their communities, but it is becoming more of a struggle with each passing year,” Brown writes. “Grant funding for this kind of historical preservation has become scarce and funding, in general, is becoming harder to secure. Historical societies depend largely on volunteers, donations and membership dues to continue their preservation work.”
Kingstree is the county seat for Williamsburg County, which is about 75 miles north of Charleston, S.C. Just under 34,000 people live in the county. Population peaked in 1950 at 43,807, but has dropped slowly since then.
About two-thirds of county residents are black, with almost all of those remaining being white. Only 2 percent of those in the county are of Hispanic descent. Some 32.8 percent of residents live in poverty, according to the Census. Of the county’s 1,921 firms, 36.5 percent are black-owned — a percentage that is three times South Carolina’s average.
Copyrighted 2014 photo by Linda W. Brown, courtesy of the photographer. All rights reserved.