Walterboro’s ‘A Christmas Carol,’ circa 1880

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By ELIZABETH LANEY
Independent Historian

Walterboro’s “A Christmas Carol,” published locally in 1880, may have little in common with Dicken’s classic of the same name, but for those of us living in 2020, it is as if the ghost of Christmas past is allowing us a glimpse of the town as it existed almost a century and a half ago.
Klein’s Drugstore, Terry & Shaffer, Wichman & Son, the Ancient Bazaar, the Post Office, the Old Jail – the 14-stanza poem is full of references to the places that dominated the business district of Walterboro in days gone by, as well as the personalities that embodied the community.
Written by the staff of “The Colleton Democrat,” a precursor of “The Press & Standard,” the poem takes the reader on a tour of downtown Walterboro as it existed on December 22, 1880. “Now give to us your kindest attention, for a moment or two, while we strive to mention, The many attractions in our town may be found, Or, come with us, and we’ll take you around.”
The poem is lighthearted and joking in tone – such as when it refers to the county jail as “Hotel de Black.” “Of course we’ll start the street far back, and greet the host at Hotel de Black, We cannot — and dare not, our old friend forget, for we might get into his clutches yet.”
Sheriff Robert Black had charge of the jail at that time and lived on the first floor of the building with his family, while prisoners were held on the top level. The 1880 U.S. Census shows 19 people living on the Old Jail property on modern Jeffries Boulevard: Sheriff and Mrs. Black, their nine children, four prisoners and the jailor, Adam Carter, and his family.
Klein’s Drug Store and Terry & Shaffer’s Department Store sat at opposite ends of downtown back in the day, effectively bookending Washington Street. They were popular stores at the time and would become mainstays of the local business community for a half century or more.
“To John Klein, Druggist, then next we will go... Just call at his place where the remedy’s sold... So give him a call, nor forget he’s a grocer, as well as a Druggist we’ll have you to know sir.”
John M. Klein was the son of the store’s founder, John J. Klein, a Russian immigrant who set up shop in Walterboro before the Civil War.

Like Klein’s, Terry & Shaffer’s Department Store was a family affair, established in 1875 by northerner J.K. Terry and his son-in-law A.C. Shaffer and operated by family into the early 20th century. “Messrs. Terry & Shaffer are next in our way, where you get Christmas goods with little to pay... Their clerks, George and Jim, are nimble and trim, and will sell you at prices whose profits are slim.” The store was rebuilt at least twice — once in 1884 after a fire downtown and again in 1916.
While there were almost a dozen stores in Walterboro in 1880, a gaping hole in “The Colleton Democrat” cuts right through a number of the stanzas which describe stores such as Wichman & Son or the stores of John Lucas and W.C.P Bellinger. The last stanza or two are almost completely destroyed, but for a tantalizing reference to a store operated by John Burbidge, one of the oldest stores in the town, appropriately called the Ancient Bazaar.
Holes and tears couldn’t completely destroy “A Christmas Carol” though, and the poem is truly remarkable for its showcasing of the diversity of the town’s business community in the late 19th century. Northern transplants Terry and Shaffer, Russian immigrant John J. Klein and Michael Flaum, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, are all highlighted in the poem, as well as prominent African-American businessmen and civil servants like Remus Waring and Daniel Sanders.
Michael Flaum, a merchant and tailor, was one of the earliest members of the extensive Jewish community that developed in Walterboro which, by the 20th century, boasted families like the Novits, Siegels, Warshaws and Bogoslows among others. “Then over to Flaum’s — he’ll do all your cutting, and sell you goods ‘so sheap as noting’ — Good Israelite friend! Long, long may you live, the light of your good deeds poor Gentiles to give.” Flaum and his family lived in Walterboro for over a decade before moving to Savannah, Ga., in the late 1880’s.
“Then next to the [courthouse] the caterer, Remus, His candies and [cookies] certainly please us; His prices are [trifling] for breakfast or dinner, And the prize for [best] baking he’s certainly the winner.” Walterboro was surprisingly integrated in the decades before Jim Crow laws were instituted. Remus Waring’s downtown restaurant was popular with those who had business at the courthouse — white and black — and was one of two black-owned restaurants operating in the town at that time.
Daniel Sanders was one of the town’s most prolific African-American civil servants. Though enslaved until he was 18, Sanders served as a Union soldier before settling in Walterboro following the Civil War. He served numerous terms as a town councilman and was the postmaster for more than a decade.
“Next we call on Sanders, our worthy Postmaster, tho’ troubled by mails works only the faster; Naught recks it to us what may be his color, we know that we find him as kind as a brother.”
All-in-all “A Christmas Carol” presents a rare look at a Walterboro of a different time. It was written a year after a tornado destroyed much of the residential portion of the town (Cyclone of 1879) and four years before a terrible fire destroyed much of the business district described in the poem, including Vogler House and Terry & Shaffer’s Department Store (1884). With the damage caused by the great earthquake of 1886 and the advent of the railroad in 1887, the town would never be the same. Still, its memory is preserved in this unique holiday poem written by a resident of Walterboro long, long ago.

(Elizabeth Laney is an independent historian and genealogist who grew up in Walterboro. She runs the Walterboro, SC – History Notes Facebook page and can be reached at wborohistorynotes@gmail.com.)