Columbia.
Arriving in Columbia late Monday night, I was met by Mr. Baker, a representative of The State, which is Columbia’s leading daily paper. The city is situated in the Congaree Valley, at the junction of Saluda and Broad rivers.
Broad River Bridge—Two Miles Above Columbia.
Columbia itself escaped with comparatively little injury; the city extending at an elevation considerably above the flood level.
The power house of the street railway company and the city water works situated near the river sustained considerable damage. The cotton factories also located on low ground were obliged to suspend work for a few days; the loss in wages said to be about $4,000.00.
Early next morning I had an interview with Captain William E. Gonzales, editor of The State. Captain Gonzales estimated that there were about two hundred destitute families in the flooded section between Columbia and Kingsville. From information received later, I should think this is probably an under-estimate.
The fertile “swamp” lands on each side of the river belong to a chain of “plantations” extending from Columbia to Kingsville. On some of these the owner lives, surrounded by his tenantry; others belong to non-resident owners. Corn and cotton are the staple crops.
The destitution of which Captain Gonzales spoke exists mainly on those plantations owned by non-residents who have no personal interest in their tenantry; and among the negroes who are working their own land. The flood sufferers living on land occupied by resident owners will not, as a rule, need any outside aid, as their landlords, though themselves very heavy losers, will provide for their pressing needs. The gravity of the situation, even for those who are actually destitute, is mitigated at present by the fact that for the next two months work will be comparatively plentiful, in harvesting crops in sections untouched by the calamity, and in repairing the damages occasioned by the flood.
Mr. C. B. Simmons, agent for a large plantation of 3,000 acres, drove me out to see the conditions on his place, which are typical of those on other places owned by non-residents. Mr. Simmons estimated that the damage done to the crops would be about $12,000. There are 40 tenants on the place, six of whom are white families. The crops are in many cases practically a total loss; the whole year’s work has been swept away. The only thing that will be realized will be a hay crop, which, under favorable conditions, may be harvested before frost. Some of the men had tried to get work in the phosphate mills near by, but without success. The entire body of tenants gathered together by appointment to meet Mr. Simmons, and each in turn gave detailed account of the loss he had sustained.
Mr. Simmons said that the most direct and practical way to help these people would be to provide them with seed-oats, which could be planted in October, and would yield a crop early next June. About 700 bushels would be needed for the 40 tenants on the place.
On Wednesday morning, September 9th, I went to Lykesland by train, a distance of about nine miles from Columbia. Here I was met by Mr. William Lykes, who drove me out to see the conditions in a little colony of negro swamp farmers.
There was not much room for possible exaggeration in the stories we heard here; the white line of mud in the branches of the trees, often 12 or 15 feet from the ground, indicated the height of the flood. Fallen chimneys and wrecked buildings showed the violence of the current. The cotton was ruined, fit only to be plowed under to fertilize next year’s crop. The corn was rotting on its stalks. The poor little, unpainted, windowless frame houses were unspeakably desolate; the walls marked to the very eaves with white mud left by the receding waters, and everything within the homes—bedding, clothes, furniture—wrecked and ruined, and saturated with mud. Nearly all the live stock had perished. They showed us the stockade on a small knoll, a little higher than the surrounding country, into which they had driven all their animals. Here they had managed to save most of their mules, but even at this elevation nearly all the cattle had been drowned.
The largest land-holder in the colony, a very intelligent negro, with a reputation for honesty and industry, had lost 16 acres of corn and 16 of cotton, 6 head of cattle and 10 hogs.
A week before, when Mr. Lykes first visited the colony after the flood, he found the people literally starving. At one house the hungry children were trying to eat the rotten corn. He at once secured $50.00, through Captain Gonzales, from the South Carolina branch of the Red Cross, with which he purchased provisions and supplies to meet the immediate need.
The flood sufferers, who had at first seemed dazed by the calamity, were now making efforts to rehabilitate themselves. Some were rebuilding their chimneys and outbuildings; others had secured work; one man had gone to work on a plantation five miles away, walking that distance twice daily; the women and children had also begun to pick cotton on neighboring plantations. The conditions on this little colony illustrated the situation of the small land holder, who has no resources except the crop, which he had hoped to harvest as the result of his year’s labor.
The flood also had seriously crippled the larger landowners, who could ordinarily be looked to for the relief of their poorer neighbors. From Mr. B. S. Rawls, who has a “general store” on the bluff road that parallels the river between Columbia and Kingsville, we learned, that he had lost 235 acres of his own crops, and would get practically no rent from the 2,000 acres he had rented out. Worse than this he expected to be “out” from $1,200 to $1,500 for supplies advanced to his tenants.