Chapter Twenty Two

Bamberg County Towns and Communities

Edisto-Embree Community

From Midway eastward on the old Charleston-Augusta Stagecoach Road, which has now become a portion of Highway 78, are several rural communities, known as Brier Creek, Embree, Farrells, and Edisto.

The first place of interest after leaving Midway is Woodlands, the home of William Gilmore Simms, where, between the home and the Edisto River is the family cemetery in which, among other graves are those of Simms’s wife, Chevilette Eliza Roach, and her father, Nash Roach, who first owned Woodlands and another plantation across the river.

Next was Burwood, the plantation of the president of the Secession Convention, David F. Jamison, who moved from Orangeburg County to enjoy Simms’s companionship. Burwood was burned by Sherman’s army and nothing remains of the home. Gaspar Trotti’s plantation Briarwood was the last of this trio of pre-Confederate War plantations. A portion of the Briarwood estate was formerly owned by the C. S. Ridge family, who purchased it from the Bessinger family. The Trotti family cemetery is on this property. In 1786, in addition to other grants, the family owned one grant of 5,650 acres in one tract in this area. Gaspar Trotti, the immigrant, was a noted surveyor, and was granted lands in exchange for his services in establishing land grants.

Until about three years ago a small church, Brier Creek Adventist Church, stood on the left of the highway. It was established by B. W. Sineath about 1900 and was a flourishing church for years. The minister lived at Smoaks, S.C., and some of the families having memberships there were the Steedleys, Wilsons, and Bessingers. The church members are widely scattered throughout the nation. Several years ago the church had fallen in such a state of disrepair, that it was removed, and the cemetery only is maintained.

Several miles from the highway on the Edisto River was Embree, which was one of the busiest spots in the county in the late 1800s. At this spot on the curve of the river where it is crossed by the Southern Railroad was a thriving lumber concern. After some years of prosperous activity, the site remained forgotten, except by a few fishermen, until camping and vacation home sites were offered for sale in the 1970s.

The first-known occupant of this location on the river was a Mr. Walker, who operated a shingle mill there. At that time it was also a popular picnic ground known as “The Quarters.” Mr. Walker sold his business to a northern firm with whom a Mr. Embree was affiliated. The name was changed to Embree Lumber Company, and a sawmill and planing mill operation were established which cut thirty to forty thousand feet of lumber per day. As much as four million feet of cypress and pine lumber were often stacked on the yard at one time. It was then loaded in carboxes and shipped out by rail on the company’s spur tracks. Locally this lumber sold for $20/m to $22/m for the best grades.

Embree was also a flag stop for the train. Community residents often caught the train early in the morning to go to Branchville to shop, returning on the evening train. The oldest heavy timber railroad bridge in America crossed the Edisto River at Embree and stood until about three years ago when the railroad company took up all of the rails from Branchville to Denmark.

For the one hundred employees and their families, the company maintained its own school and inter-denominational church. Supply missionaries for the lumber camp were employed by the Barnwell Baptist Association in the years between 1917 and 1924. Two of the teachers in the school were the late Ochie Mae Jennings and Natalie Hooten of Bamberg. In an interview with Miss Hooton during her lifetime, she recalled when the area was flooded by the river and the residents had to be evacuated by boat.

The community of Embree was well maintained with electric street lights, and a large commissary, amply stocked to supply the needs of the employees. About fifteen six-room houses were the living quarters for the families and a large two-story home was the residence of the superintendent. The boarding house, a long two-story building containing sixteen rooms, accommodated usually twenty-five to thirty boarders. The late Mr. and Mrs. K.W. Hicks, who later lived not far from this spot on their farm, spent their early married life at the village. Hicks was employed by the Embree Company at the time of their marriage. Mrs. Hicks’s mother, Mrs. Mamie Cooner, was the proprietress of the hotel for nine years.

The timber was purchased from the landowners for fifty cents an acre in the earliest days of operation; later the price was increased somewhat. If the timberlands were located near the river, the logs were shipped down on barges with a man in a small boat alongside to serve as escort and remove debris from the stream in advance of the barge. If the timber lands were some distance from the river, a spur track was built and the logs transported to the mill by train. The company maintained from thirty to forty miles of railroad on its leased lands. One of the logging roads extended to the Hunter’s Chapel Community.

The Embree Lumber Company sold its holdings to G. O. Ness, also from the northern states, and he operated it for some years. In the 1920s the business gradually declined; the village fell into a state of dilapidation, and the equipment was sold. Today there are few signs of this once-thriving Bamberg County industry.

Only a few years ago old breastworks, which had been thrown up by the Confederate army to stop the Union army from advancing on Branchville and destroying the important railroad junction in the town, were removed by bulldozers from near the river at Embree.

From Farrell’s Crossroads about two miles on Highway 61 is Edisto Baptist Church, which, according to records of the Barnwell Baptist Association, was organized in 1875. Older residents of the community feel that services were being held some years prior to that date. The one-acre tract for the building was donated by N. G. and Martha Cooner on February 25, 1876.

Early families of this northeastern portion of the county include the names of Rentz, Morrow, Hunter, Smith, McCormick, Smoak, Herndon, Bessinger, Hamilton, Kinard, Cooner, Richardson, Collins, Farrells, Griffen, Kinsey, Hunt, Summers, Drawdy, Wilson, England, Carter, Thompson, Dempsey, Westberry, Blume, Neal, Blocker, Myers, Breedlove, Berry, McFail, Pearson, Jones, Gibson, Johns, Adams, Zeigler, Page, Bassett, Wannamaker, Warren, Johnson, Proveaux, Hutto, Miley, Ray, Steedly, Jolly and Hicks.