The itinerary, as outlined by Mr. Kaufman, was to include Columbia, Florence and Marion; each of these cities being the center of districts which were reported to have suffered severely during the recent disaster.
Arriving in Columbia late Monday night, I was met by Mr. Baker, a representative of The State, which is Columbia’s leading daily paper. The city is situated in the Congaree Valley, at the junction of Saluda and Broad rivers.
Broad River Bridge—Two Miles Above Columbia.
Columbia itself escaped with comparatively little injury; the city extending at an elevation considerably above the flood level.
The power house of the street railway company and the city water works situated near the river sustained considerable damage. The cotton factories also located on low ground were obliged to suspend work for a few days; the loss in wages said to be about $4,000.00.
Early next morning I had an interview with Captain William E. Gonzales, editor of The State. Captain Gonzales estimated that there were about two hundred destitute families in the flooded section between Columbia and Kingsville. From information received later, I should think this is probably an under-estimate.
The fertile “swamp” lands on each side of the river belong to a chain of “plantations” extending from Columbia to Kingsville. On some of these the owner lives, surrounded by his tenantry; others belong to non-resident owners. Corn and cotton are the staple crops.
The destitution of which Captain Gonzales spoke exists mainly on those plantations owned by non-residents who have no personal interest in their tenantry; and among the negroes who are working their own land. The flood sufferers living on land occupied by resident owners will not, as a rule, need any outside aid, as their landlords, though themselves very heavy losers, will provide for their pressing needs. The gravity of the situation, even for those who are actually destitute, is mitigated at present by the fact that for the next two months work will be comparatively plentiful, in harvesting crops in sections untouched by the calamity, and in repairing the damages occasioned by the flood.
Mr. C. B. Simmons, agent for a large plantation of 3,000 acres, drove me out to see the conditions on his place, which are typical of those on other places owned by non-residents. Mr. Simmons estimated that the damage done to the crops would be about $12,000. There are 40 tenants on the place, six of whom are white families. The crops are in many cases practically a total loss; the whole year’s work has been swept away. The only thing that will be realized will be a hay crop, which, under favorable conditions, may be harvested before frost. Some of the men had tried to get work in the phosphate mills near by, but without success. The entire body of tenants gathered together by appointment to meet Mr. Simmons, and each in turn gave detailed account of the loss he had sustained.
Mr. Simmons said that the most direct and practical way to help these people would be to provide them with seed-oats, which could be planted in October, and would yield a crop early next June. About 700 bushels would be needed for the 40 tenants on the place.
On Wednesday morning, September 9th, I went to Lykesland by train, a distance of about nine miles from Columbia. Here I was met by Mr. William Lykes, who drove me out to see the conditions in a little colony of negro swamp farmers.
There was not much room for possible exaggeration in the stories we heard here; the white line of mud in the branches of the trees, often 12 or 15 feet from the ground, indicated the height of the flood. Fallen chimneys and wrecked buildings showed the violence of the current. The cotton was ruined, fit only to be plowed under to fertilize next year’s crop. The corn was rotting on its stalks. The poor little, unpainted, windowless frame houses were unspeakably desolate; the walls marked to the very eaves with white mud left by the receding waters, and everything within the homes—bedding, clothes, furniture—wrecked and ruined, and saturated with mud. Nearly all the live stock had perished. They showed us the stockade on a small knoll, a little higher than the surrounding country, into which they had driven all their animals. Here they had managed to save most of their mules, but even at this elevation nearly all the cattle had been drowned.
The largest land-holder in the colony, a very intelligent negro, with a reputation for honesty and industry, had lost 16 acres of corn and 16 of cotton, 6 head of cattle and 10 hogs.
A week before, when Mr. Lykes first visited the colony after the flood, he found the people literally starving. At one house the hungry children were trying to eat the rotten corn. He at once secured $50.00, through Captain Gonzales, from the South Carolina branch of the Red Cross, with which he purchased provisions and supplies to meet the immediate need.
The flood sufferers, who had at first seemed dazed by the calamity, were now making efforts to rehabilitate themselves. Some were rebuilding their chimneys and outbuildings; others had secured work; one man had gone to work on a plantation five miles away, walking that distance twice daily; the women and children had also begun to pick cotton on neighboring plantations. The conditions on this little colony illustrated the situation of the small land holder, who has no resources except the crop, which he had hoped to harvest as the result of his year’s labor.
The flood also had seriously crippled the larger landowners, who could ordinarily be looked to for the relief of their poorer neighbors. From Mr. B. S. Rawls, who has a “general store” on the bluff road that parallels the river between Columbia and Kingsville, we learned, that he had lost 235 acres of his own crops, and would get practically no rent from the 2,000 acres he had rented out. Worse than this he expected to be “out” from $1,200 to $1,500 for supplies advanced to his tenants.
The next point visited was Florence, Florence County, 81 miles from Columbia. Reports of heavy flood losses had come in from the Lynches River section. A Relief Committee had been formed by the Honorable Hartwell Ayer, editor of the Florence Daily Times and a small sum of money raised.
After conferring with the committee, I concluded that it would be desirable for me to make some investigation of conditions for myself, and went down to Cowards, which is located in the flooded district, 16 miles from Florence. Here, at the recommendation of the committee, I called upon Mr. Z. C. Lynch, who keeps a large general store and supplies the needs of over 200 farmers in that vicinity.
Immediately after the flood Mr. Lynch had spent three days in riding around through the section that had been flooded, noting carefully the conditions of the crops, and talking with the farmers. He gave me a positive assurance that he had not met a single case of destitution, and that, as a rule, the loss in that section would not average more than 10% to 25% of the crop. After this frank statement from a man who is in a far better position to get the exact truth than I could possibly be, I decided to make no further investigation, but to await the report of Dr. Hicks.
After spending two days in the flooded district, under circumstances which enabled him to come into touch with representatives from every point, Dr. Hicks returned with exactly the same report as that given by Mr. Lynch. He said that while the losses had been heavy, and many people were considerably crippled, there was no destitution and there was not likely to be any that could not easily be met by local resources.
Proceeding to Marion on Friday night, with the expectation of being able to complete the investigation in another 24 hours, I found a situation which made it imperative that I should spend two or three days in that section.
A very active and interested Relief Committee, with Mayor S. T. Miles as chairman, was fully alive to the needs of the situation, and had succeeded in raising a fund of over $500.00, in addition to what had been sent by the Red Cross. I learned from this committee that the four townships of Marion County had been practically submerged. These townships form a tongue of land lying between Big Peedee and Little Peedee Rivers. During the flood the water of Big Peedee had risen and flowed clear over the intervening strip of land until they met the water of Little Peedee. A sandy ridge extending North and South through the interior ordinarily forms the water shed between the two rivers, and, at many points, the water had covered even this comparatively high land.
Arrangements were at once made for me to proceed to Eulonia, the home of Mr. S. U. Davis, who was said to be more thoroughly familiar with conditions in the flooded section than any one else.
After dinner Mr. Davis drove me through several miles of flooded country. It was a matter of regret with him that I had not come a week earlier when—nearly two weeks after the flood—the whole country was still under water, and boats were the only available means of transit from point to point. At that time most of the homes were vacant, and the occupants, with their cattle and household effects, were camping out wherever they were lucky enough to find a spot that was “high and dry.”
Pee Dee River Flood.
In a little two-room shanty, near Mr. Davis’ place, thirty-four people found shelter at one time during the high water. One resourceful farmer, when forced to move out of his home, which, though partially submerged, was still the dryest spot on the farm, provided for his live stock by tethering the cow to the cook-stove in the kitchen, and quartering his five hogs on the bed. In another instance a couple, who were determined to stay in their homes at all risks, themselves “camped out” on the bed, and at meal times paddled over to the cook-stove on a hastily-constructed raft.
That people who had suffered as these people had could still be brave-hearted enough to dwell upon the humorous side of their tragedy, shows that it is hard to drown out American “grit,” and the American sense of humor. But the tragic side was ever present and needed no emphasis. One woman, of whom Mr. Davis spoke, a widow with three small children, had lost her entire crop. At the time of the flood she was desperately ill, and, when rescued in a boat with the children, it was feared that she would die as a result of the exposure. She was now, however, recovering, but some provision would have to be made for her until another crop could be raised. Throughout all this section there had been comparatively little loss of household goods and effects, because most of the people were warned in time to enable them to remove their belongings to a place of safety.
We drove through acre after acre of rotten corn, and of cotton fit only to be plowed under to fertilize the ground for next year’s crop. Fences had been ruined and bridges swept away, and several times it was necessary to make a wide detour, in order to find a safe crossing place.
One man with whom we talked, who, with his family, had just moved back into their still damp house, said that he had nothing left, but a little corn, a few chufas and a patch of cane. Every farm we visited in that section was practically in the same condition.
The next day, Sunday, we started again at 10 A. M. over a road that led down the sandy ridge that, for the most part, had not been covered by the waters, though even here the lower points had been submerged. Then turning eastward through the section marked on the map as the Low Flat Lands, we left the beaten track and, for a long time, traveled through alternating areas of partially submerged woodland, and sodden savannahs—the South Carolinian term for meadow land. It was not easy to follow the trail across the savannahs, and the drive through the woods was even more difficult. As we lurched along through the water we never knew at what moment the buggy might strike some submerged log or stump.
We took dinner at the home of Mr. Fontaine Davis, a planter and merchant at the lower end of Britton’s Neck Township, who kindly volunteered to take me on down into Woodberry Township, as far as we could go, while Mr. S. U. Davis rested his horse ready for the return journey.
The country we drove through at the upper end of Woodberry Township had suffered severely from the floods, and the crops were an almost total loss. We went as far as the road was open until we struck a point, beyond which all the bridges had been washed away. Woodberry Township forms a peninsula between the two rivers already spoken of. Fortunately it is very thinly settled, and most of the farmers have their homes on the comparatively high land in the center of the township. Mr. Fontaine Davis said that he had only heard of five families in the section below that which we visited who had suffered to any serious extent.
We talked with an old man, who for 43 years had lived on his farm in the upper part of Woodberry Township. “I ain’t never saw anything like it before,” he said, “and I don’t know how to figure it out. The waters was five feet higher than they was in the Sherman ‘fresh’ of ’65.” He said that within a radius of three or four miles there were eight or ten white families, and ten or twelve colored families: all of whom had lost practically their entire crop. He, himself, had lost all of his corn, most of cotton, and nearly all of his live stock.
Mr. Richardson, whom we next interviewed, a man who owned 80 acres of land, 27 in corn, 35 in cotton, the rest in pasture, garden, etc., had lost everything. The cotton had been an exceptionally good crop, and would have made a bale to the acre at the market price of about $40.00 a bale; this alone meant a money loss of $1,400.00. The corn upon which he depended for food for his family and stock was also gone, and, as he put it, “I don’t know what we are going to do for something to eat this winter.”
The next house we passed was a deserted little negro cabin whose wrecked chimney bore witness of the violence of the flood. This had been the home of an honest, hard-working colored man, who, with his family of five children, lived on the little rented patch of about 20 acres. His nine acres of corn would have fed his family and his animals. His seven acres of cotton would have yielded about three bales, which would have given him $120.00 as the cash proceeds of his year’s labor. With this he would have paid off his store bill of $50.00; $20.00 would have gone for rent, and after making a payment upon the horse he had just purchased, the husbandman would have had a small cash balance to see him through to next crop time. Now corn and cotton are both swept away; there is no money to settle the store bill, nor pay for the horse, and there is no food for the family to subsist on through the long winter months.
As nearly as could be estimated by those familiar with the local conditions, there were fully 200 families in the lower end of Marion County, renters and “lienors,” whose situation is about as hopeless as that of the family just referred to. Many, who like Mr. Richardson, owned more or less land, are in a position to obtain advances on their holdings, and though seriously crippled, can probably weather the storm. But for these other families, who are without such resources, some adequate relief measures will have to be undertaken.
The attitude towards customers and tenants assumed by the merchants and plantation owners bears high testimony to their generosity and public spirit. It is taken for granted that no claim for rent will be made and, as far as possible, credit will still be extended to the flood sufferers. But it is too much to expect that these men can assume the whole of the burden, for they have themselves suffered severely. Mr. Davis estimated that in an area of several miles there was only one of the flood victims who was not indebted to him for a larger or smaller amount. Some of these debts would eventually be paid; many of them would never be recovered. He said he had begun to figure out his losses, but they mounted up so appallingly that he had stopped short before he was half way through. I was told that he had advanced over $18,000.00 worth of fertilizer to the farmers trading at one of his four stores. If this was true, it gives some idea of the magnitude of his losses, and shows the impossibility of expecting men, under such circumstances, to do all they would normally be able to do for their poorer neighbors.
At the time of my visit to Columbia The State, in a paragraph announcing that the agent of the Red Cross was in the city, stated that Columbia would consider herself disgraced if she could not do all that was needed for local flood sufferers, without further aid from the Red Cross Association.
At the last census Columbia had over 21,000 inhabitants; its population now numbers some 25,000 people. It is the State capital, and has some thriving cotton mills. Taking Captain Gonzales’ estimate of 100 destitute families as being approximately correct, it would seem that with employment easily obtainable in the fall and spring, it ought to be possible for the people of Columbia and Richland County to undertake such local relief measures as would make further outside aid unnecessary. The dangers of creating a large relief fund, and extensively advertising its existence, are very obvious, especially as most of the people affected are negroes who would very readily accept a position of dependence.
Captain Gonzales told me that the securing of regular monthly subscriptions towards the relief of cases of genuine need had been suggested. This plan seems to be an admirable one, and would be less apt to result in weakening any attempt at self help that might be made by the flood sufferers. If properly and systematically managed, it would also probably be adequate to meet the requirements of the case.
From the foregoing report of conditions in this section it will be readily seen that no outside help is necessary at this point.
The activity and interest displayed by the local Relief Committee at Marion have already been noted. Probably one reason why they had accomplished so much more than had been done at the other points was that the situation in Marion County was apparently much more serious than in either of the other places.
Immediately following the disaster wagon loads of supplies had been promptly dispatched to the districts affected. The men to whom the distribution of these supplies was entrusted told me that they hoped nothing more would be sent at present. Indeed, Mr. S. U. Davis had asked that a contribution of $200 that had been offered be placed in bank and held for later distribution. He and Mr. F. Davis know personally every family in that section and both urged that no more relief be sent at present. Mr. F. Davis said that as long as the supplies lasted that were sent to his store, the negroes collected around and refused to do any work. When work was offered they said, “We all don’t have to pick no cotton, do white folks am gwine to feed us.” He also told of a white man who had $700 in bank but who, nevertheless, had sent his brother to see if Mr. Davis did not have “something for him.” In this connection it may be noticed that however poverty-stricken a colored family might be nothing would induce any of the girls of the family to accept positions as house-workers. Both Mr. S. U. Davis and Mr. F. Davis urged that hereafter relief be sent direct to individual cases of distress, upon their recommendation, after thorough investigation had proved that help was necessary.
It might be thought that possibly these statements were colored by the anti-negro bias with which the Southerner is usually credited, but though fully alive to the weaknesses of the negro, everyone with whom I talked manifested genuine sympathy with all cases of real distress, whether the sufferers were white or colored. Everyone with whom I spoke agreed that during October and November, while work was plentiful, all relief should be withheld, except in the special cases alluded to above. After this will come the winter months when work is scarce and there are few sources of income except a little fur trapping, or odd jobs. Mr. Davis had already written to a lumber company which has extensive timber holdings throughout the lower part of the county suggesting that if they could see their way clear to commence operations in that section at once the opportunities for employment that this would offer would be a veritable Godsend to the community. But, however favorable conditions may shape themselves and however generous may be the local responses to the need for help, it still would seem to be a certainty that outside assistance will be needed for this section. The destruction has been so great—the committee estimated that from 1,500 to 2,000 bales of cotton had been destroyed within the flooded area—and the loss has fallen so heavily on rich and poor alike, that it does not seem possible that the community can grapple with the problem unaided.
All relief work has been done, so far, through local committees who are thoroughly familiar with every detail of the circumstances of those who need help and if this policy be maintained there is very little possibility that any funds will be unwisely applied.
In conclusion, I should like to say a deeply appreciative word concerning the kindness and courtesy of the Relief Committees in the three cities. Though, during the investigation, I traveled over many miles of country, in no case was it necessary to use Red Cross money in hiring livery rigs, as all this was arranged for by the committees and individuals interested. I would make special mention of the kindness of the committee at Marion, who entertained me while I was in their city, and of the courtesy of Mr. S. U. Davis, at whose home I was entertained and who spent a day and a half in showing me the situation in Marion County, placing at my disposal his invaluable and intimate knowledge of local conditions. I also take great pleasure in expressing appreciation of the active and energetic co-operation of the State President, Mr. A. C. Kaufman, who arranged my itinerary and who, by letters of introduction, paved the way for me in every city visited.
Pee Dee River Flood.