It's been a while since my friend and I have been out discovering South Carolina. We've had rain and cold and one vacation to deter us. We did spend one cold morning in the library doing research on early Columbia so that we would have more starting points. And finally, today we are out again.
Jenkinsville is the smallest town in South Carolina. At its incorporation in 2008, there were only 50 people living there. But just because it has only recently become a town, don't let that fool you. There is plenty of history to discover there. And we intend to find it all. So today is day one. We are heading to Jenkinsville with only a street name for an old church that we are looking for. We can't find an address anywhere.
Guided by a misguided GPS, we end up at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station and are turned away at the guard gate. He doesn't know where our church could be located and he says it's definitely not on the site. On the way out, behind an old bar, The Twilight Zone, we spot an old abandoned house and my friend decides we should take a look.
I am a little wary because we are in the sticks, driving right beside a dive bar which sits in front of the property. There are already ten or so cars there at 9:00am. I worry that we might get shot for trespassing by some old drunks but I keep my thoughts to myself as my friend goes plowing forth. She tries to hide the car behind the old property.
I manage to shoot a photo as we drive around back. The area has lots of brush and after a few seconds we decide maybe it's best not to get out here. My friend backs up and hits a roll of wire fence. We are trying to make a quick and quiet getaway and as she pulls forward to back up again she accidentally lays on the horn alerting the drunks to our presence on the property. Thankfully none came out.
I snap one more photo before she speeds out of there. Once safely on the main road again, we both have a great laugh. Since we can't find an address, and our GPS is trying to take us go onto the nuclear plant, we decide to just drive around in hopes of discovering something old and interesting. We come across a church (the only one in town it appears) with a cemetery across the street.
We decide to investigate to see how old the graves are. Then we can determine what kind of history can be found here.
It looks like this is the White Hall AME Church.
The first thing we discover is that someone is throwing all the graveyard flowers and adornments over the fence into the woods. It's sad to see them all piled up. The place looks trashy and unkempt and even though the grass is kept short, not much care or maintenance goes on here. The fence is bent and deer tracks lead to and from the fence indicating that deer use this as a crossing to get inside the graveyard.
We find sites like this one where no gravestone has ever been erected. This is Ella May Hugher, "Loving wife, mother, and friend." Born August 29, 1915. Died July 28, 2011.
Many gravestones are broken or laying down now. This says, "Lodge No 8 ???CWS Francis Sanders Died Aug 30, 19?? Age 85 years, Asleep in Jesus."
Eliza wife of Nelson Thompson Died March 27, 1924
Geo Burns Died Feb 7, 1880 Age 12
Some sites had markers like these with no information at all.
Some of the grave sites were in good condition. Most were not. We could only find dates going back to the 1800s here. I'm going to list a few more. I'd like to research and find some personal information on all the sites we saw to give each one a story. Maybe sometime in the future.
In Remembrance of our Dear Father John Philip Lakin Born 1853 Aug 29 1917
Martha Harper Mother of Mariah Martin. Born in Slavery. Died 1897.
My friend found a buried stone and dug it up and cleaned it off. She then placed it back where it belonged.
Buddie Lakins Born April 18, 1814 Departed this Life September 21, 1849
We saw enough and decided to keep driving to see if we could find the church we were here to see.
We see this house on a dirt road. It is used as some kind of meeting place or perhaps a church. We continue driving and find another interesting church. I will show our next Jenkinsville find on a separate page..
