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.
[Illustration: 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.