#58: Winyah Indigo Society, Robert Mills buildings, and a lecture on the Heroes of Cowpens
For South Carolina history lovers far and wide! Enjoy weekly SC history and upcoming SC historical events
Welcome to the first 100 days of the South Carolina History Newsletter! My name is Kate Fowler and I live in Greenville, SC. I have a 9-5 job in marketing, and outside of work, have a deep love of history. I started this newsletter as a passion project to learn more about our beautiful state and build a community of fellow SC history lovers along the way! To establish a foundation for the newsletter and to grow my expertise on a wide variety of South Carolina historical topics, this past February I challenged myself to post 100 newsletters in 100 days. After this coming May 20th, the newsletter will become weekly. Thank you for joining the journey!
Dear reader,
Welcome to Newsletter #58 of The South Carolina History Newsletter! I’m so happy you’re here.
Here’s a little welcome/update audio message:
As always, I’d like to also extend a special welcome to the following new free subscribers — woohoo!
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I hope you enjoy today’s newsletter, and as always, please feel free to reply to this email with your ideas and suggestions on South Carolina history you’d like to learn more about. I’m only a click away.
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And now, let’s learn some South Carolina history!
Yours truly,
Kate
(Writing from Greenville, SC)
➳ Featured SC History Event
Please enjoy our featured SC History Event below, and click here to visit my SC History Events Calendar that organizes all the upcoming SC history events I have discovered. Please let me know if you’d like to add an event to the calendar! Reply to this email or send me a note at schistorynewsletter@gmail.com.
TODAY, April 9th at 7:00 pm | “Revolutionary War Lecture Series: Washington’s Immortals - The 1st Maryland Regiment - Heroes of Cowpens” | Laurens County Museum | Laurens, SC | FREE Admission, donations appreciated
“The Southern Backcountry was center of the fight for independence during the American Revolutionary War. The British mistook the repositioning of the Americans as a retreat and ran into an unexpected and concentrated rifle fire along with a cavalry charge. The Battle of Cowpens (January 17, 1781), along with the earlier Battle of Kings Mountain, were two American victories that defeated General Cornwallis's forces in South Carolina, causing him to abandon the state, and with it, he also abandoned the British “Southern Strategy”. The Battle of Cowpens lasted less than an hour but had a huge impact on the War. The Americans would win the Revolutionary War ten months later when the British Army surrendered at Yorktown. Do make your plans to come and hear Mr. Ashmore tell the rest of the story. "Washington's Immortals: The Untold Story of an Elite Regiment Who Changed the Course of the Revolution", is a book written by Patrick K. O'Donnell that details the history of the First Maryland Regiment during the American Revolutionary War.”
➳ SC History Fun Facts
I.
Did you know that early indigo planters of Georgetown, SC created a private society, as well as a school that would be a precursor to the nation’s first public schools?
Listen to this section in the mini audio voiceover below!
In the 1740s, wealthy indigo planters in the Georgetown area organized a “Convivial Club” as a forum for talking over the latest news from London and "hold(ing) high discourse over the growth and prosperity of the Indigo plant..."
Indigo was Georgetown’s first “cash crop” which was used to make blue dye.
The club officially became the “Winyah Indigo Society” through a charter by King George II in 1758. It continued to be an agricultural and social club that “met on the first Friday of each month in the Old Oak Tavern in Georgetown.”
(Note from Kate: I couldn’t find the reasoning why they were called the “Winyah” Indigo Society, but the Winyah were a tribe of Native Americans living near Winyah Bay, Black River, and the lower course of the Pee Dee River in South Carolina. The Winyah people “disappeared as a distinct entity after 1720 and are thought to have merged with the Waccamaw.” Perhaps the society was named in their honor.)
Thomas Lynch, owner of Hopsewee Plantation and representative to the Continental Congress, was the society’s first president.
Other officers were: “Joseph Poole, senior warden; Samuel Wragg, junior warden; Nathaniel Tregagle, treasurer; Joseph Dubourdieu, clerk; and Charles Fyffe and William Shackelford, junior stewards.”
Society rules indicated that the officers were fined between fifty cents and five dollars if they failed to attend meetings.
By 1757 the society became prosperous enough to sponsor “one of the nation’s earliest free schools,” the “Winyah Indigo School,” which was attended by “children of the planters, townspeople, and the poor.”
The Winyah Indigo school served as a predecessor to our nation’s public schools.
A contemporary account, published in the South Carolina Gazette on February 6, 1755, described it as a “free-school in George-Town, for teaching and instructing indigent children, in the use of letter, and principles of religion.”
The first location of the school is not known.
Most pupils, however, came from wealthy families who paid tuition. Only 12 slots were reserved for poor students. The tuition of these children was covered by scholarships from the Winyah Indigo Society and the students were “given paper, pen, and ink, two sets of outdoor clothing, and even firewood.”
In 1853, Francis Withers bequeathed $5,000, along with a lot at the corner of Prince and Cannon Streets in Georgetown, to the club. At that point, the society was able to construct a large building to be used as both the Winyah Indigo School and headquarters for the Winyah Indigo Society. Designed by renowned architect Edward Brickell White, the building was completed in 1857. E.B. White also designed Columbia’s Trinity Episcopal Church and the French Huguenot Church in Charleston.
In 1859, Georgetown Library Society transferred all their books to the Winyah Indigo Society building, and the combined library of the two societies made the building into an intellectual hub for the area.
The Civil War disrupted both the school and society operations. From 1865 to 1868, Winyah Society Hall was used as a hospital for Union soldiers. Unfortunately, in this period, many of the society’s books and items were damaged or stolen by Union soldiers.
In 1894, President Grover Cleveland visited Georgetown and made a speech before the society’s members.
And speaking of presidents, a few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, on February 26, 2020, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden made a campaign stop at Winyah Indigo Society Hall.
The Winyah Indigo society remains active and awards an annual scholarship to the valedictorian of Georgetown High School.
Today, the Winyah Society Hall is a private event space, and it features a grand ballroom.
In 1907, the Board of Trustees of the Winyah Indigo School District purchased land on the corner of Highmarket and Cleveland Streets in Georgetown from the Parker family for the purpose of constructing a school.
Construction began in the summer of 1907 and was completed by April 1908, at which time it was hailed as "The Finest School Building in the State." This new building contained 12 classrooms, 8 cloakrooms, and a 600-seat auditorium.
When the school moved into its new building in 1908, the City of Georgetown severed its ties with the Winyah Indigo Society, thus establishing for the first time in Georgetown “a public graded school separate from the Society's school.”
The school building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Today the building includes the original school, auditorium, a 1924 addition, and houses a prep school and several businesses: The Georgetown School of the Arts & Sciences (a private college preparatory school), the Lowcountry Conservatory of Music, Coastal Optical, and Coastal Eye Group.
Here is an informative video on the Winyah Indigo Society from the Georgetown County Library:
Have you visited the Winyah Society Hall or School? Leave a comment if so! Or if you just want to further discuss.
II.
Did you know that South Carolina architect Robert Mills was the first architect born and train in the United States, and was an early proponent of fire-resistant building materials?
Listen to this section in the mini audio voiceover below!
Architect Robert Mills was born in Charleston in 1781 and was the first architect born and trained in the United States. He is most well-known for creating the initial designs for the Washington Monument in Washington, DC. In fact, we did a newsletter on this very topic here!
Mills is also known for popularizing the Greek Revival style in the United States, and many of the buildings he designed around the state still stand today, including courthouses, churches and jails, and even a fireproof building in Charleston.
Today, let’s look at 3 iconic Robert Mills-designed buildings in South Carolina.
The Robert Mills House, 1616 Blanding St., Columbia
The Robert Mills House is one of the few private residences Mills ever designed.
He was hired in 1823 by Columbia merchant Ainsley Hall and his wife, Sarah, to design the Classical Revival townhouse, but Ainsley died before the house was finished, and Sarah sold the mansion.
In the years since, the house was used as a Presbyterian seminary and a Bible college and is now an historic house museum.
In 1961, a “grassroots effort saved the house from demolition and the building received an extensive restoration.” The house re-opened in 1967 as a historic house museum as part of the Historic Columbia Foundation.
The Robert Mills House is one of just 5 National Historic Landmarks in Columbia.
The house and gardens are open to the public for tours Tuesday through Sunday, and the grounds are available for rent for private events and weddings.
The Fireproof Building (also known as the County Records Building), 100 Meeting St., Charleston
Built in 1822, the County Records Building is believed to be the “first fireproof building in the country built specifically to protect documents.” In his architecture, Mills was an early advocate of making sure buildings included fire-resistant materials.
The two-story masonry building is set on a tall stone foundation, with brick that has been stuccoed to make it look like stone. It is built in the Palladian style, with Doric porticoes.
While it was originally used to house offices and records, today the building is home to the South Carolina Historical Society.
Major renovations to the building were completed in 2002, and it is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark.
The Colleton County Courthouse, 101 Hampton St., Walterboro
Walterboro became the seat of Colleton County in 1817, and a courthouse at Jeffries and Hampton streets designed by Robert Mills was completed in 1820.
In 1828, the first meetings on nullification were held in the Colleton County Courthouse, when local leaders urged South Carolina's governor to resist federal tariff laws. It was seen as the beginning of the nullification crisis during Andrew Jackson's presidency, “when South Carolina declared tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and null and void within the state.”
The brick building is stuccoed to represent stone, with four Tuscan columns. Two large wings were added in 1939.
The courthouse was included on the National Register of Historic Places as an example of Greek Revival architecture and because of its historical significance.
Have you visited any of these beautiful Robert Mills buildings? If so, leave a comment below and tell us about your experience!
➳ Quote from an SC historical figure
“The exercises of this school will be resumed after an intermission of one month, on the first Monday in October. The school, at which a thorough and extensive English education can be obtained, is divided into first, second, third, and fourth classes, to which, pupils are assigned according to their capacity and scholarship… A limited number of pupils, over whom a guardianship is exercised by the examining committees, is allowed the preceptor [teacher] in addition to those on the bounty of the Society. The most approved textbooks are used, and every effort is made to render instruction as practical as possible that the pupils may be fitted for the active duties of life.”
— Excerpt from a newspaper clipping describing the activities of the Winyah Indigo Society School
Sources used in today’s newsletter:
This month in SC history: The Winyah Indigo Society is incorporated
Take an Architectural Tour of SC by Starting with Robert Mills' Designs
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