Category: History and Genealogy

Trails to Highways

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History and Genealogy

Trails to Highways

You have died of dysentery.

That was the sad fate that awaited many who played the 1980s game “The Oregon Trail.” It was a frustrating game, and I used to enjoy torturing my students with it back in the day. The game was supposed to be a representation of the perils of pioneer life on the early cross-country routes like the Santa Fe, Cumberland, Oregon, Mormon, and Chisholm Trails.

Flash forward 75 to a hundred years or so. Railroads crossed the country, but routes for automobiles were still a challenge. Neither the roads nor the cars themselves were suited for long cross-country road trips. While one probably wasn’t going to succumb to dysentery, flat tires, steep hills, winding treacherous roads, and all manner of other problems awaited.

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Rambling between the Rivers – The Edisto and Savannah

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History and Genealogy, Photography, Rambling

Pool General Store 1

On our recent trip down to paddle the Savannah River I lamented the fact that we couldn’t stop and all of the cool photo ops along the way. We had a schedule to meet and we were running late. Tuesday of this week I decided to take a break from house remodeling to get and explore a bit with my camera, and I was determined to catch some of those photo ops that we had missed.

Actually, this post is just a taste of a much larger project, one that I hope to complete over the next couple of weeks. Even on this outing I had a tighter time crunch than I might have liked, and I still missed lots of things I’d like to have explored further. I would be exploring the land between the rivers – the basins between the North and South Edisto, and the Savannah River.

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Ellenberg-Oliver Ramble

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Family, History and Genealogy
Siloam Baptist Church
Siloam Baptist Church

Earlier this summer my cousin Brent Baker contacted me about some family history sites. His mother, Judy Oliver Baker, is my first cousin, and they were wanting to visit home sites and graves for the Ellenberg-Oliver family.

I sent Brent a map of locations I knew about, and he and his mom set off. I would have loved to have tagged along, but that was during the time that Laura and I were in Florida. Brent was kind enough to send me his write-up of the trip and share some photos on his Amazon Cloud Drive. I told him I’d be happy to post his information here, even though I wasn’t able to go with them.

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From Pickens to Oolenoy

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History and Genealogy, Local, Miscellaneous, Photography, Rambling

Oolenoy Baptist Church and Cemetery-012

It was a spectacular Wednesday morning. I’d been doing yard work all week, and needed to escape. That seemed like the perfect time for a trip to the Pickens Flea Market. This time, rather than carry cameras, I had a backpack loaded with audio recording gear.

Apparently everyone in Pickens County had the same idea as me. I had planned to get there around 8:00, but Highway 183 from Greenville to Pickens was a zoo, and traffic was clogged headed through the town and out to the flea market. Eventually, though, I did get a nice, shaded parking space, and set out to explore.

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The Mystery of Shiloh School

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History and Genealogy, Photography, Rambling

Shiloh-Queendale School-002

Back last fall we were presented with a mystery. Fellow photographer Hank Myers had contributed a photograph of an old brick school to the SCIWAY.net South Carolina Picture Project. The project editor, Tara Bailey, had initially labeled the school as Shiloh Rosenwald School. After a bit of research, the three of us decided that it wasn’t a Rosenwald school, so Tara edited the photo entry to reflect that new information.

Shiloh School

When Ken and I visited the location we had a couple of potential sites for the Rosenwald School. We checked those out, but couldn’t find any existing schools at those locations. Based on that information, the SCIWAY entry now says that the school is no longer extant.

…or is it?

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Laurens Cemetery Tour

Posted on By Tom 4 Comments on Laurens Cemetery Tour
History and Genealogy, Local, Photography, Rambling

Laurens Cemetery Tour-1

A couple of weeks ago I received notice through Facebook that the Laurens County Museum would be holding tours of the old Laurens City Cemetery.  Glynda and I had visited several weeks ago, and I thought this would be an excellent follow-up, and possibly answer some of the questions we had generated on our trip.  I figured that this might also be a good opportunity to get some audio for my upcoming podcast on cemeteries.

Prior to the tour I contacted Bill Cooper, who is chair of the Laurens City Cemetery Committee.  Bill works at the local library.  He’s  also an organist, and would fill in occasionally for me when my organist at First Presbyterian in Laurens was absent.  Bill would be conducting part of the tour, and was willing to contribute to the podcast.

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Modoc Cemetery Ramble – Part 4, Willowbrook and a Bonus

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History and Genealogy, Photography, Rambling

The wonderful luck and visit we had at Horn’s Creek Baptist Church was going to be a hard act to follow. It was getting later in the afternoon, and we had quite a ways to go to get home. Anything from this point on was going to be an afterthought. But sometimes those afterthoughts can … Read More “Modoc Cemetery Ramble – Part 4, Willowbrook and a Bonus” »

Modoc Cemetery Ramble – Part 3, Horn Creek

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History and Genealogy, Photography, Rambling

Horn Creek Baptist

Alan Russell and I had made it to Modoc. However, it wasn’t quite what we had expected. It was a bit past the noon hour, and we were ready for some lunch, so we headed toward Edgefield. Lunch was on the square at Row Market, and consisted of some excellent sandwiches. The decor of the place was an odd mix – antique general store accoutrements with several LCD screens.

Row Market

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