Home RemodelingIn MCBee, SC

It can be easy to overlook some of the names that adorn various locations around the Upstate.

For newcomers, it’s understandable, given that they likely don’t have the proper context for why something — a town, a street, a landmark — is called what it is. Lifelong residents, on the other hand, may have known something by a particular monicker for so long that they simply take it for granted.

But when you dig deep into the etymology behind some of these famous local names, interesting stories can emerge.

Here are just a few.

Issaqueena Falls

Boy meets girl. Theirs becomes a forbidden love. Girl warns boy that he’s about to get slaughtered. Next thing you know, his assailants pursue them both. The chase ends at a waterfall, where the waters “boiled and foamed in great fury, like a seething caldron.”

She leaps …

That’s only part of the legend of Issaqueena described in the Rev. J.W. Daniel’s 1898 epic poem, “Cateechee of Keowee.”

Cateechee? Well, Cateechee is a Cherokee name, Issaqueena a Choctaw name, both meaning “The Deer’s Head,” as Daniel explains.

“The story contained within these pages is a historical fact,” his 78-page volume begins.

In 1750, Allan Francis is among a few settlers who established a trading post around Ninety-Six, South Carolina, in Cherokee country. Issaqueena, meanwhile, is, as the poem says, “a captive Choctaw maiden.”

Romance blossoms. Issaqueena’s chief isn’t too keen about it. He plans to wipe out the settlers. Issaqueena warns Francis of the scheme. The lovers flee. Warriors on their heels, arrows flying at them.

They’re separated, and then …

Spoiler alert.

She lives! The two settle happily ever after. And now we have Issaqueena Falls, about an hour-and-15-minute drive from Greenville and billed as one of Oconee County’s most popular destinations.

Ninety Six

The Issaqueena/Cateechee legend gives us other odd place names, including Six Mile Mountain, Twelve Mile River and Eighteen Mile Creek, according to The Historical Marker Database.

According to legend, Issaqueena rode 96 miles from Keowee, the capital of the Cherokee nation, to the trading post to warn Francis and his fellow settlers of the impending attack.

The town, established in 1730, features Star Fort, which played a role in the Revolutionary War and is now part of the Ninety Six National Historic Site.

Caesars Head

In 1987, a team of dogged young researchers published a 15-page article titled, “The Dramatic History of Caesar’s Head.” (The apostrophe was included in the piece.)

“The origin of the name ‘Caesar’s Head’ is still unknown. Many stories say the rock bears a likeness to Julius Caesar, while others say ‘Caesar’ is a mispronunciation of ‘Sachem,’ which means Indian chief. The most-believed origin is that it was named after a mountaineer’s dog named Caesar.”

That’s what Nawal Jaber, Joanna McCauley, Mindy McCauley, Melissa Norman and Andrea Zender produced for Echoes, a publication of Northwest Middle School in Travelers Rest. The student reporters, writers, photographers and interviewers also included this bit:

“In 1735, the British Crown sent surveyors to this area to set a boundary between North and South Carolina. The surveyors had a difficult time and went on strike because they were not paid.”

Tim Lee adds to our intrepid journalists’ story, while noting that the name dates back to 1820.

That’s when Robert Mills, a Charlestonian, writer, cartographer and the first architect trained in America, mapped the area that includes the ginormous rock formation rising 3,215 feet above northern Greenville County.

Lee works as interpretative ranger and naturalist at Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area, which covers 10,000 acres of South Carolina state parks and encompasses Jones Gap and Wildcat Way parks and Caesar’s Head.

He offers three origin stories of the latter’s name.

“One is that it was named after Caesar, the hunting dog of a mountaineer, which is potentially possible,” he says, noting that the dog could have belonged to Solomon Jones, after whom Jones Gap is named. That’s not likely, he adds, because Jones came to the area in the 1850s.

A second story, also echoed in Echoes, holds that a great chief sat on a stool (Stool Mountain) at a table rock (Table Rock) and participated in the Great Council Feast or watched the Great Council Feast being set there.

“Caesar,” then, would have been a misspelling and major mispronunciation of the Cherokee word, “Sachem,” for “Great One,” or “Chief,” Lee says.

Yet a third story goes that Hernando De Soto wound up here in the spring of 1540.

“Because the rock is many times shrouded in fog, it looks like the crown of Julius Caesar. Of course, it has that really elongated face with the cheekbones, but there again, so did the Cherokee have that elongated face,” Lee says.

And so too the name of big rock’s story is shrouded in fog, with echoes down the halls of history.

“As all legends go,” Lee says, “there’s part fact, part fiction.”

Sugar Tit

Snicker all you want, but the name of the unincorporated community near Reidville, halfway between Greenville and Spartanburg, actually came from a clever method to keep babies quiet.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, pioneer mothers would wrap sugar in a moistened cloth and — presto! — a pre-plastics/rubber pacifier, according to a July 1983 story in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal,

“The men of that section, it is said, spent their evenings talking and sharing a pull on the whisky jug around Brockman’s store and grew quite attached to the custom,” the story says. “The frustrated women, with youngsters underfoot at home and infants at least in part pacified by the tasty sugar tit, began calling Brockman’s store the sugar tit of their husbands because they liked it so well and didn’t want to break away from it.”

It would make sense, then, that a distillery would open there. In 2012, Sugar Tit Moonshine began making hooch it now sells in dozens of stores and restaurants throughout South Carolina.

Talk about keeping abreast of the news.

Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail

Greenville’s hockey team and the city’s rail-to-trail derive their names from the hare indigenous to the wetlands along the Reedy River. A century or so ago, the Greenville & Northern Railway, which operated between Travelers Rest and Greenville, came to be called the Swamp Rabbit Railway. The jogging/cycling/walking trail runs twice the length of the former 11.3-mile railway.

McBee

We know if you’re from around here by the way you pronounce Vardry McBee’s name. It’s MAC-bee. In 1815, McBee purchased some prime real estate around the Reedy River.

He did saddlery and farming and built an empire that included a sawmill, quarry, ironworks, grist mills and more. A life-sized bronze statue of the man known as the father of Greenville sits at South Main and Court streets.

S.T. Peden Jr. remembers watching Donald J. Sampson, Greenville’s first Black attorney, walk to the Greenville County Courthouse on South Main Street, just a few blocks away from the cluster of Black-owned businesses that have long since disappeared.

“We used to be so proud because he was tall, stately, dressed well,” Peden recalls, looking back on the 1950s, when Black-owned offices thrived around East Broad Street. “It was something proud for Black folks to see at the time of segregation.”

A couple of buildings are all that’s left of Greenville’s historically overlooked Black business district, which once spanned roughly eight blocks off Main Street. The Greenville Historical Society refers to the area now as North of Broad.

John Wesley United Methodist Church at East Court Street is one of those buildings, where Black congregants began worshipping shortly after the Civil War. A block away stands what used to be known as the Working Benevolent Temple and Professional Building.

In 1922, an organization called the Working Benevolent State Grand Lodge of South Carolina erected the three-story brick building at East Broad and Falls streets. With chapters in Greenville, Richland and Charleston counties, the lodge served as a health, welfare and burial-benefit society for African Americans, according to a Historical Society PowerPoint.

Peden, who was born and grew up around Haynie Street — a short bus ride or walk away from the area — remembers the offices that once housed Black lawyers, doctors, dentists, finance professionals and the like. Now, the law offices of Nelson & Galbreath occupy the space.

The Temple building, as it’s commonly called, stands as a cornerstone of Kendra Williams’ tours of the area. And on a stunning spring afternoon, she points to the Temple’s timeworn cornerstone, etched with names of some of the most prominent Black Greenvillians.

Williams, who serves as executive assistant to Mayor Knox White, says she started offering the tours in January after hearing stories about the area that also included the Liberty Theatre, a movie and vaudeville house for Black audiences; the McBee Avenue Service Station; and a meatpacking plant, among others.

Another marquee site: the original Phillis Wheatley Center. Peden remembers playing basketball at the East Broad Street facility, once known as the Black YMCA, back when African Americans were barred from the whites-only YMCA.

Williams says she felt compelled to keep those memories alive at North of Broad.

“Blacks in Greenville contributed to what Greenville is today. There is history — they weren’t just indentured servants or slaves here, they’re not just the bellmen at the hotel. They actually contributed to the city in a great way,” she says.

Peden, who graduated from the all-Black Sterling High School in 1968, says the end of segregation in Greenville in 1972, when Sterling closed, marked the end of the Black business district.

Williams agrees.

“There was kind of a Catch-22 with the Black district and integration,” she says. “You want to be able to go anywhere at any time, but you also want to be able to have the resources to get into something that has been renovated downtown.”

Call it business gentrification. Rising real estate prices and developers putting up costly buildings and charging higher rent drove some out, she says. Still other businesses saw opportunities outside of downtown that hadn’t been available until then, she says.

“Or maybe,” she adds, “you were antagonized. Maybe you were ‘encouraged’ to move on.”

Still, Peden, whose father ran a barbershop there, remembers the district’s friendly, safe, family atmosphere. Now, though, with no formal recognition of North of Broad’s role in Greenville’s past, he says there needs to be a recognition of the impact the area had on Greenville residents and the city as a whole.

“It gives the image that we have always worked for somebody else as opposed to the fact that we were owners of businesses and land and property downtown, one block off of Main Street. And that’s what’s hurtful,” Peden says. “It’s not even acknowledged as being a part of downtown Greenville, and it’s one block from City Hall.”

And that, Williams says, is a travesty she and Peden and others are working to change — perhaps one tour at a time.

“The reality is Black history is American history. If you’re looking at something historical and you don’t see a Black person associated with it, you’re missing the history,” she says.

Scanning an area that in other cities might be called Black Wall Street, she adds, “This is Black history here in Greenville. It’s Greenville history.”

For more information about Kendra Williams’ North of Broad tours, visit http://www.bhigtours.com. The two-hour, 2½-mile tours take place three Saturdays a month, weather permitting. Cost is $20.

Selected sites

Working Benevolent Temple and Professional Building- Broad and Falls St.

Phillis Wheatley Center – East McBee Avenue

Liberty Theatre, 14 Spring St.

East McBee Avenue Greenville Public Library for Blacks

Source: Greenville Historical Society

A bushel of peaches is averaging around $25 to $30 per bushel.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Inflation is no secret to consumers around the country, but it is especially evident to farmers and their produce partners at the State Farmer's Market.

Produce sellers say this year we have pricier peaches.

"You know everything has been more expensive for the farmers overall, and that comes out in the cost of what we sell," said produce saleswoman, Madi Delbosque.

Delbosque has been working at the Farmers Market since the start of the summer and says the produce stand gets their peaches from McLeod Farms in McBee.

"The price of food has gone up but gas too and the farm is two hours away, and not only that fertilizer has gone up, so our baskets used to be $10 but now they're $25 but we still try to offer people the best deal we can like a 2 for $20 or something like that."

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Another produce seller a few stands down from Delbosque's is Aurora Valadez with Muñoz Farms. Muñoz is all the way in Lake City and is also facing inflation head on.

Valadez says despite the higher prices, people are still coming to pick out their peaches.

"Especially on days like Friday and Saturdays those are our busiest days," Valadez said. "We have white, yellow, and free-stone peaches and they all are good, some are hard, some are soft, and people like them both ways, so they're doing well."

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Eva Moore with The Department of Agriculture assured that there will be plenty of peach ice-cream, milkshakes, and cobbler to go around.

"We had a good crop this year, in early March we did have a freeze that impacted some of the early varieties but they made it through and we actually have had a pretty strong season this year with lots of sweet South Carolina peaches," Moore said.

The Gilbert Peach Festival organizers said there will be plenty of peaches to go around this year at their festival as well.

Here are the South Carolina high school football scores from Week 1 of the SCHSL regular season. Check back for updates throughout the night.

Friday

Academic Magnet 14, Military Magnet Academy 0

Andrews 32, Georgetown 12

Appling County, Ga. 42, Aiken 7

Aynor def. Kingstree, forfeit

Bamberg-Ehrhardt 36, Denmark-Olar 20

Baptist Hill 26, St. John's 8

Battery Creek 39, Ridgeland-Hardeeville 28

Beaufort Academy 34, Hilton Head Prep 22

Belton-Honea Path 19, Westside 17

Ben Lippen 34, Heathwood Hall 6

Bethesda Academy, Ga. 40, John Paul II 24

Blythewood 43, Richland Northeast 7

Brookland-Cayce 31, Airport 20

Broome 54, Chesnee 28

Buford 35, McBee 8

Camden 53, Lugoff-Elgin 7

Cane Bay 30, Ashley Ridge 20

RANKINGS:Upstate Super 25 high school football rankings entering Week 1

GETTING STARTED:How Fountain Inn high school football nearly won its first game ever: 'Play with effort'

SETTING THE PACE:Sophomore Marquise Henderson's last-minute TD gives BHP football win over Westside

Carolina High and Academy 22, Dillon Christian 14

Catawba Ridge 16, Charlotte Myers Park, N.C. 0

Central 63, Carolina Academy 0

Central 63, Carolina Pride, N.C. 0

Chapin 45, Mid-Carolina 0

Charleston Collegiate 42, Cathedral Academy 7

Charlotte Christian, N.C. 52, Southside Christian 28

Chester 22, Fort Mill 17

Christ Church Episcopal 41, Southside 14

Clarendon Hall Academy 43, Andrew Jackson Academy 16

Claxton, Ga. 29, Hilton Head Island 18

Clinton 55, Laurens 28

Colleton Prep 42, Northwood Academy 12

Crescent 34, Dixie 10

Crestwood 37, Gray Collegiate Academy 28

Cross 44, Hemingway 0

D.W. Daniel 55, Easley 7

Dillon 41, Lamar 0

Dorchester Academy 22, Orangeburg Prep 20

Dorman 42, North Augusta 28

Dutch Fork 27, Spartanburg 25

Edisto 12, Williston-Elko 6

Estill 24, C.A. Johnson 8

Fairfield Central 41, Andrew Jackson 21

First Baptist 23, Bishop England 10

Fort Dorchester 21, Beaufort 6

Gilbert 49, Batesburg-Leesville 14

Hammond 49, Florence Christian 0

Hampton 48, Allendale-Fairfax 0

Hanahan 22, Berkeley 17

Hannah-Pamplico 26, North Central 20

Hartsville 68, Darlington 0

Hillcrest 62, Greer 14

Hunter-Kinard-Tyler 22, Eau Claire 12

Indian Land 28, Timberland 0

Irmo 27, Lancaster 20

J.L. Mann 14, Riverside 7

James F. Byrnes 54, Chapman 7

James Island 52, R.B. Stall 0

Jefferson, Ga. 56, Wren 28

Jenkins, Ga. 24, Bluffton 21

Lake Marion 28, Calhoun County 22

Lakewood 30, Fox Creek 0

Landrum 34, Berea 3

Latta 31, East Clarendon 0

Laurence Manning Academy 32, Pinewood Prep 14

Lee Central 28, Great Falls 8

Lewisville 50, Wagener-Salley 24

Lexington 63, South Aiken 56

Lincoln County, Ga. 27, McCormick 6

Loris 15, North Myrtle Beach 7

Lower Richland 35, Westwood 8

Lucy G. Beckham 8, Wando 6

Marlboro County 40, Cheraw 12

Mauldin 20, Boiling Springs 7

Midland Valley 29, Strom Thurmond 23

Ninety Six 53, Ware Shoals 0

Northside Christian 28, Greenwood Christian 12

Northwestern 32, Clover 21

Orangeburg-Wilkinson 20, W.J. Keenan 8

Patrick Henry Academy 6, St. John's Christian Academy 0

Pee Dee Academy 48, Cardinal Newman 42

Pelion 15, Columbia 12

Pendleton 34, Eastside 8

Powdersville 51, Abbeville 44

River Bluff 52, Swansea 0

Robert E. Lee Academy 35, Thomas Sumter Academy 7

Saluda 34, Ridge Spring-Monetta 7

Sandy Creek, Ga. 46, Greenwood 21

Seneca 50, Palmetto 14

Socastee 21, Silver Bluff 0

South Florence 29, Oceanside Collegiate Academy 28

St. James 37, Philip Simmons 30

St. Joseph 35, Blacksburg 7

Summerville 38, Carolina Forest 7

Sumter 15, Ridge View 14

T.L. Hanna 36, Greenville 29

W. Wyman King Academy 38, Francis Hugh Wardlaw Academy 16

Waccamaw 33, Carvers Bay 18

Wade Hampton (G) 49, Travelers Rest 28

West Ashley 7, May River 3

West Florence 32, Lake City 7

Whale Branch 19, North Charleston 8

White Knoll 36, Spring Valley 9

Whitmire 41, Spartanburg Christian 24

Williamsburg Academy 47, Palmetto Christian Academy 0

Wilson 56, Marion 36

Wilson Hall 28, Hilton Head Christian Academy 7

Woodruff 31, Fountain Inn 0

POSTPONEMENTS AND CANCELLATIONS

Union County vs. Gaffney, ccd.

South Carolina Ports welcomes its 2022-2023 Class of Port Ambassadors, kicking off a yearlong program that provides a deep understanding of how SC Ports benefits South Carolina’s economy.

The 2022-2023 Class of Port Ambassadors — an esteemed group of 31 professionals from around the state — will get an in-depth look into port operations. Ambassadors will tour marine terminals, inland ports and customers’ facilities. They will hear from SC Ports teammates, port customers and elected leaders.

Port Ambassadors see firsthand how SC Ports supports the supply chains of many businesses, including retailers, advanced manufacturers, healthcare companies and agricultural producers.

“Our Port Ambassador Program gives South Carolinians a behind-the-scenes look into how our port works and the vital role our maritime community plays in keeping freight moving for Southeast supply chains,” SC Ports President and CEO Barbara Melvin said. “We are proud to showcase how having a top 10 U.S. container port in South Carolina supports businesses and creates jobs.”

The 2022-2023 Class of Port Ambassadors kicked off with a recent visit to SC Ports’ headquarters in Mount Pleasant. Ambassadors learned about key infrastructure projects and day-to-day operations. They toured Wando Welch Terminal and ventured up 155-foot-tall ship-to-shore cranes to gain the perspective of a crane operator loading and unloading ships.

“It is so impactful for our Port Ambassadors to see how port operations support 1 in 10 jobs in South Carolina,” said Jordi Yarborough, SC Ports’ senior vice president of statewide stakeholders and local government engagement. “We are thrilled to have such an impressive and diverse group of South Carolina leaders learn more about the port, and we are fortunate to benefit from their expertise as well.”

The Port Ambassador Program is designed to increase public awareness and support for SC Ports’ strategic plan and initiatives. Since launching the program in 2016, 113 ambassadors have graduated.

Participants are selected from nominations by the Review and Oversight Commission on the State Ports Authority, SC Ports Board of Directors, SC Ports senior management team and County Council chairs from around the state.

2022-2023 Port Ambassadors

• Pat Black, Chairman, Calhoun County Economic Development Board, Cameron, SC

• Leslie Clark, Vice President of Operations, Carolinas AGC, Lexington, SC

• John Clark, Partner, The Clark Law Firm, Sumter, SC

• Dr. Delores Dacosta, Executive Director, SC Commission for Minority Affairs, Columbia, SC

• Rick Danner, Mayor of Greer, City of Greer, Greer, SC

• Todd Davis, President, Benefit Designs, LLC, McBee, SC

• Kimberlyn Davis, Executive Director, Mother Emanuel Foundation, John's Island, SC

• Cashion Drolet, Chief Advocacy Officer, Historic Charleston Foundation, Charleston, SC

• Barron Ervin, President, Ervin Engineering, Florence, SC

• Dewey Evans, Senior Associate, Site Selection Group, Greenville, SC

• Bruce Greenberg, Commercial Real Estate Broker, Trinity Partners, Columbia, SC

• Brooks Hearn, Senior Public Relations Manager, Chernoff Newman, Summerville, SC

• Emily Heflin, Business Development Manager, MAU, Greenville, SC

• Jerome Heyward, North Charleston City Council Member and Mayor Pro Temp, City of North Charleston, North Charleston

• Jack Jamison, Principle and Broker-in-Charge, RealtyLink, Greenville, SC

• Kaala Maple, Consultant, Deloitte, Cayce, SC

• James T. "Jim" McCain, Jr., Chairman, Sumter County Council, Sumter, SC

• Richie Murray, Partner, Charter One Realty, Hilton Head, SC

• Joannie Nickel, Legislative & Public Policy Advocate, Municipal Association of SC, Columbia, SC

• Rob Perry, Director of Traffic Engineering, SCDOT, Columbia, SC

• Matt Pickard, Senior Brokerage Associate, Colliers, North Charleston

• Ashley Powell, Deputy County Supervisor, Berkeley County, Summerville, SC

• Daniel Prohaska, President & CEO, Lions Vision Services, Columbia, SC

• Mark Sweatman, Chief of Government Relations & Senior Advisor to the Board, MUSC, Columbia, SC

• Bryan Symmes, Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, Office of the Governor, Columbia, SC

• John Truluck, Director of Economic Development, Dorchester County Economic Development, Summerville, SC

• John Wall, Counsel, Burr Forman, Columbia, SC

• Marshall West, Berkeley County Councilman, Senior Real Estate Appraiser, Compass South Appraisals, Pinopolis, SC

• Charlton "Chuck" Whipple, Executive Director, Enterprise Campus Authority, Midlands Technical College, Lexington, SC

• Michael Wood, Principle, Asset Integration Consultants, Summerville, SC

• Jonathan Yarborough, Director, Government Affairs & Economic Development, Dominion Energy South Carolina, Columbia, SC