By ELIZABETH LANEY
Contributing Columnist
In honor of the 2021 Black History Month theme - “The Black Family - Representation, Identity, Diversity” - these are the African-American families who helped build, shape and define Walterboro for more than 150 years.
For more than four generations, the Waring family and their descendants have been an integral part of the Walterboro community. The family rose from the ashes of slavery following the Civil War to become leading businessmen and women, educators and community leaders throughout the late 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries. Despite this, few local history books have bothered to preserve their contributions or those of other local black families.
The patriarch of the family, Remus Waring, was born around 1840 and was likely enslaved for the first 20 years of his life. Fifteen years after gaining freedom and citizenship, he had become a celebrated member of the local community and one of two black restaurant owners in downtown Walterboro. Waring operated a popular eatery near the courthouse in the 1880’s and was well-known for his baking skills. His ginger cakes, in particular, were remembered by members of the local community long after his death.
When Waring died in 1915 his obituary in the “The Press and Standard” named him a “prominent citizen,” quite a statement during a time when black lives and accomplishments were largely ignored or blatantly devalued. Waring left a powerful legacy behind - his children. John Waring (1879-1942) and Rachel Waring Maree (~1875 - 1937) were true successors to their father, becoming successful business owners and restaurateurs - John in Augusta, GA and Rachel in Walterboro.
At a time when many black women were relegated to the roles of housewife, laundress or midwife, Rachel Waring Maree was forging her own path - businesswoman. Her own obituary from 1937 notes that Maree was a “well known and prominent” figure in the community who “was in business for many years as proprietor of Maree’s Restaurant and lately of Maree’s tourist home.” Her restaurant was located on Walter Street, very near where her father’s restaurant had been a generation earlier.
Rachel Waring Maree’s husband was William C. Maree, the son of one of Colleton’s first black state representatives and himself a leading member of the community. His passing in 1910 left Maree a single, working mother. The challenge didn’t seem to slow the family down at all - less than a decade later daughters Rebecca and Edith were taking advantage of family connections in Augusta, GA to attend Haines Normal Institute, while Wilhelmena was attending the prestigious Allen University in Columbia, SC.
Three of the four Maree daughters - Wilhelmina, Edith and another sister, Ophelia - all became school teachers, with Wilhelmena Maree Tracy (1897-1976) and Ophelia Maree Lewis (1899-1963) both working for decades in the Colleton County School System.
It was the fourth sister, Rebecca Maree Brooks (1905-1954), however, who took up her mother and grandfather’s mantles. She operated the Maree tourist home, following her mother’s death in 1937 until her own death in 1954.
In the early 1950’s the tourist home, located on Savage Street, was one of two locations in Walterboro listed in the “The Negro Travelers’ Green Book,” a travel book published for black Americans in the mid-20th century that listed safe places to eat and sleep while traveling in the South.
Rebecca Maree Brooks has another credit to her name. She is one of the earliest known African-American correspondents for the “The Press & Standard.” Just returning from college in the summer of 1926, Brooks took over the column “Colored Notes” from local educator P.J. Hammitt. Her byline appears with the column throughout 1926 and 1927. When she passed away in 1954, she was buried alongside her mother, Rachel, and grandfather, Remus, in the family plot in the Live Oak African American Cemetery.
The family’s legacy was carried into the 21st century by Rebecca Maree Brook’s nephews - Harry Tracy, Jr. (1928 - 2005) and Ralph W. Tracy (1930 - 2012). The two brothers descended from two powerful local black business families through their father Harry Tracy, Sr., proprietor of Tracy’s Dry Cleaning, as well as the Waring family’s restaurant and tourist homes through their mother Wilhelmena Maree. Tracy’s Pharmacy and the Maree-Tracy Funeral Home (now the Stephens-Maree-Tracy Funeral Home) were well-known pillars of the local business community and the brothers’ contributions to a family legacy that continues even today.
Are you a descendant of the Waring family? Do you have stories or photographs of this family or their businesses? Please email us at wborohistorynotes@gmail.com if you can help contribute to the knowledge of this Walterboro legacy family.
Author’s Info:
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.
