Florence Morning News from Florence, South Carolina • 9

fvi's i Si i i J1 i i Rice lourished in Early South Carolina jlomtre Mnrtting Jtafi SECTION SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 18 1966 siCSfej PLANTATIONS OCCUPIED ROMANTIC SITES OLD RICE MILL MACHINERY Concept Spreads in New School for these job skills with matching funds i 'wqiHWii 1 iwwtww uamiHHWt I HWIjWI wh iiihiiillil EXAMPLE In Some Sites ture that has But not everyone agreed with the pictured golden age of plantation peace and plen ty When Anthony Wayne was given an 800 acre rice plan tation by his grateful govern vocational schools is now un derway at Aiken Hartsville lorence and for an addition to the Denmark Area Trad School Contracts for six addi tional schools are scheduled to be awarded between now and ebruary 1 for schools of Mar ion Kershaw Oconee Spartan Chester and Greenwood plans for an area school in airfield County and an addition to the area trade school in Columbia are expect ed to be ready for contract awards before June 30 Anderson continued Anderson explained the area vocational school a new con cept in vocational education makes possible a cooperative effort by several school districts to provide the best in vocation al facilities in a central loca tion for the joint benefit of all Students are transported by bus from their home school to the area school for vocational ment he soon wrote tired I am of being buried in a rice And traveling through Car olina Methodist Bishop ran cis Ashbury said much classes and shop experience and return to the home school for academic classes The area school is designed to prepare high school students for job entry and also to serve the needs of out of school youth and adults during evening class es 1 area vocational school does not eliminate previously established courses at the lo cal individual high school neither is it an attempt to cen tralize vocational training at one school The real purpose of these schools is to expand pres ent vocational offerings by add ing new courses and by offer ing special courses that cannot be provided by one individual high Anderson pointed out Expansion of vocational edu cation in South Carolina through construction of area vocational schools was made possible sected by placid canal The old (cause streams and ditches once dug ways) are overgrown with for the rice fields Now they are left to the egret and the heron and the occasional fish erman Many of the old wooden 'gates and water control struc tures still stand some are still in use especially on the areas set aside for wild life refuges The wild rice and the rice cut grass have taken over the marshes and pro vide haven for wintering ducks wharf This was sponsored by the Texas Rice Associa tion and fittingly enough the 1 closing speech was made by Thomas Rice Today we still see the crumbling brick chimneys of oid rice mills and find half rusted machinery and piles of bricks on once populated river islands left now to the greening and kindly cover of spleenwort ferns and twin i ing Virginia creeper The low country is still bi AI1 told the State Department of Education says that four of 41 such schools planned over a five year period have been finished Schools now in use are in Lancaster Pickens Lower Richland and Union The lat ter two went into operation last spring while Lancaster and Pickens completed theirs this summer Anderson state direct or of vocational education with the State Department of Edu cation says that nearly $7 mil lion in federal and local school district funds will be spent in the projects by September of 1967 September of 1967 South Carolina is scheduled to have 16 area vocational schools in use nearly one half of the total of 41 such schools projected to be constructed during the next five years of four area rf provided in the 1963 Vocation al Act However South Carolina had applied the area vocational school concept on a limited bas is at several areas in the state prior to the passage of the 1963 act Approval of federal match ing funds to assist school dis tricts in the construction of area schools is based on a survey of needed skills and job oppor tunities in the area to be served by the school of these area vocational schools is helping vo cational education to qualify more youth and adults for the increasing number of job skills demanded by the industrial and economic growth and changing employment condi tions in the state education specif ically aims to give the 60 to 70 per cent of students who do not go to college all the edu cation they can acquire to pre Pee Dee sites are among sev eral where area vocational schools a new concept in public education in South Caro lina are either under con struction or planned Hartsville and Southside of lorence are school sites where two of them are underway Another is an unusual project in Marion County The Marion site is 30 acres between Marion and Mullins where the Marion and Mullins schools are sharing the cost of such a center The vocational center will serve as a supplement to schools in both districts but will not be a school in itself Students will shuttle to the cen ter from the present schools Officials say they expect ar rangements will be made to al low students from the other two districts to attend the center too tallow trees and buttonbush and blackberry thickets and provide nesting places songbirds There is a quiet almost haunting beauty over this low country land As Thomas Stokes wrote (along the Savannah) was the empire of rice once a profitable crop that created fortunes so that plantation owners might live in a lordly manner But that was a long time' note Important in the early development of South Carolina were the rice plantations with their value in trade channels Like other crops in this state it rose and fell The following is an ac count of its history) By MARIE MELLINGER The first rice was intro duced into South Carolina in 1686 by Captain John Thur ber who brought a bag of rice from Madagascar and gave it to Dr Henry Wood ward This rice flourished in the wet swamp soil and became the beginning of a rich low land empire Slave labor was introduced to clear swamp margins to till and clean and tidal watercourses form ed routes for transportation By over 17000 barrels of rice were being exported By 1754 rice was as accept able as money in payment "of taxes and South Carolina was exporting sqme 104682 barrels By 1768 rice com posed over one fifth of the total export trade of the colo nies By 1775 it was said there were 80000 Negroes working on the rice planta tions And the trade in rice' and indigo was worth over 1000000 pounds a year Up until 1859 South Caro lina and Georgia furnished half of the United States crop of rice At least 120 varieties' were raised avorite varie ties were the and the As one plantation owner wrote science of rice planting is difficult and its execution most laborious The planter must be engineer well as He also had to have a vast acreage and an abundance of help Every part of the rice planting tend ing and harvest was hard work Rice was planted in March April and May and then flooded at full moon and new moon Before planting the rice seed was spread on a floor covered with a thick mixture of clay and water Slaves danced barefoot on the rice until the seeds were covered' with heavy clay to keep them floating until they took root Water was drained when the shoots showed green When the rice began to rip en blackbird boys had to remain in the fields all day keeping the blackbirds away with noise makers Then came gathering and hulling and cleaning and finally the long trek to market often by boat The digging of canals and ditches for the flooding of the rice fields was a big business in itself Often a way had to be cut through densely wooded swamps or a ditch had to detour around what was called a an old cypress stump so large it could not be dug out Canal companies such as the Brunswick Company and the Vernezobre Bank company were formed James Hamil ton Cooper in 1838 devised what was considered a model drainage system for i planting but it took fifteen hundred slaves to keep it up What happened to Carolina and rice industry? Well first came a devastat ing hurricane that hit Charleston area in 1752 and another in 1804 It took vast amounts of labor and money to repair the damage from flooding Malaria was a constant threat to the inhabitants of the rice plantations and a va riety of and tertian plagued those who lived in the marshy areas pare them and for living new Vocational Educa tion Act not only has helped to strengthen vocational educa tion but with it has come new concepts new opportunities new challenges and new inspir ations has brought the entire vo cational program in focus with job opportunities and the need for providing people with mar ketable skills not only to im prove the well being of the individual but to promote and further the economic develop ment of the state has stimulated the think ing of our people to the point that they more fully realize the importance of vocational edu cation to provide more youth and adults an opportunity to benefit themselves and society with occupational training and job entry An derson said! The war with its subse quent loss of slave labor dealt the final blow to the great rice plantations After the war when labor costs became pro Arkansas with upland and more diversified forms of rice growing became the center of the rice culture in the Unit ed States Thomas Ravenal harvested the last large commercial crop in 1926 A few planta tions such as ife and Luck now still raise rice as a side RICE Old Water Control Structure Here on Coastal Marsh Canal in Lower State Old Mills Can Be ound line or to attract waterfowl for hunting This country still raises rice but also imports over 70 million bushels a vear Rice hibitive Texas Louisiana and is still a staple part of south ern diets and southern cook books have recipes for such southerners for the life tions with wicked masters dainties as rice purlieu (pi lau) hop in john red rice rice bread and chicken bog The old rice plantation days have been written up in many a romantic novel and in rap turous accounts of a life of riches and indolence As one modern author put it ers indicate side roads to es tates of once prosperous rice planters Each place has it story is the romance that awakens the nostalgia of the worse are the rice planta of beauty and ease and cul overseers and Negroes with no Sabbaths or But good or bad the tales and evoked memories still exist In 1961 Charleston cele brated the 275th anniversary of the' first rice planting with a historical pageant at Ad i MH1H Shk 'a IIUuiiiiUiuiUii4iuuuiii KibMiirmdiiiihuinbdihL IMMINUO'WIIMi MWiijHfft WRmiflfflaL JMMMMOni 1 bn1 i i 'd iil (Staff Photo ky Thom LOWER LORENCE COUNTY HOSPITAL BUILDING NEARS COMPLETION AT LAKE CITY Long elt Need for Hospital acilities to Be Met Soon by $12 Million acility H1E1 i Ml I Oj Lake City Hospital Now i In inal LAKE CITY The Lower lorence County Hospital is the as it awaits its opening day Ad ministrator Allen Martin Jr says Martin said this week about six weeks will be required from the time the building is finished The contractor has reached the late stages of construction Equipment comes in late this month Martin said and about four weeks will be re quired to place the equipment and make it operable Then he plans about a two week training period for the new staff When the doors swing open the Lake City area will have Building a $12 million 50 bed hospi tal It will be located in a two story building on High way 52 just inside the city limits Department heads most of whom have been announced in recent weeks will assume their duties Oct 1 regardless of the status of the building The administrator said they will spend about four weeks work schedules and Just before the facility op ens Martin said he plans about a of intensive training for the staff to fa miliarize themselves with the layout and equipment It will amount to a he said Stages When the hospital opens it will be the first time since? 1960 the community the coun second largest has had hospital facilities A 12 bed infirmary operated by Dr 7 Whitehead closed here in 1959 Development of the Lower lorence County plan came after lengthy com munitystudy of the situation About $150000 of the cosC came from a public fund raising drive A $50000 Duke oundation grant and a $200 000 Lower lorence County Hospital District bond issue provided more funds The bulk of the money however is' coming from an $800000 Hill Burton Grant Tll IIIK.