For a single weekend, Edgefield County’s rich historical heritage will be showcased in a tour featuring eight locations on Oct. 20 and 21.
Including a special live demonstration by the Village Blacksmith and a first look at Jackson Oaks, Friday’s 5-8 p.m. tour will be candlelit, while Saturday’s tour will be held from 1-4 p.m.
Tickets are $40 and can be purchased in advance or day of at the county Discovery Center, located at 401 Main St., or by calling 803-637-2233.
Locations highlighted in the tour will include: the Brooks-Tompkins House, the Dead Pirates’ Forge, the Edwin Folk House, the Edgefield Discovery Center Museum and Theatre, the Magnolia Dale House Museum, Trinity Church, the August & House’ Israel Mukashy building and Jackson Oaks.
Brooks-Tompkins House:
The Brooks-Tompkins House, located at 609 Buncombe St., was first built in 1820 by Waddy Thompson Jr., who later became a congressman and the U.S. Minister to Mexico. In 1824, he sold the house to his wife’s first cousin, Whitfield Brooks, a prominent lawyer and Commissioner of Equity of the Edgefield District. Brooks’ eldest child who grew in the home, Preston S. Brooks, eventually became a congressman who attained national fame in 1856 for canning Sen. Charles Sumner on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Sometime after, the home was purchased by Rev. Luther Gwaltney, a well-known Baptist minister, before being sold to Dr. James Glover Tompkins – a prominent local physician in the 1900s – whose family has continued to own it until present time. After partially being burned down in 1924, the house was rebuilt for Tompkins by W.S.G. Heath with many of the original house’s architectural adornments, such as mantelpieces, wainscotings and fanlights. According to the Historical Society, the elaborate carvings are of an unusual style in Edgefield, which can only be found in one other house located in Holmewood.
Dead Pirates’ Forge:
The Dead Pirates’ Forge was originally built as a blacksmith shop in 1917 by Bettis Cantelou – a longtime Edgefield businessman who owned a livery stable across the street where the Magistrates’ building now stands. In the days prior to automobiles, many blacksmith shops, such as the Dead Pirates’ Forge, were operated in conjunction with a stable so horses and mules could be tended to while owners conducted business in town. For several years, McKinley Oliphant, a courtly African American artisan, acted as the main blacksmith. Following McKinley’s death, in 1967, the shop closed and was later reopened as a living history project in 2000 by the Edgefield County Historical Society. Today, the Village Blacksmith, owned and operated by Jake Jacobson, produces artistic reproductions of items from the 20th century using tools and technology from the time. In addition to the blacksmith accepting commissions for custom works, within the shop, many items are available for purchase.
Edwin Folk House:
Located at 501 Buncombe St., the Edwin Folk House was originally built in 1890 by W.J. McKerall as a one-story dwelling.
Edwin H. Folk later bought and expanded the home to stories in 1895. A native of the far eastern side of the Edgefield District near Batesburg. Folk studied law at the University of Virginia prior to his relocation to Edgefield in 1887, where he practiced law with his brother, William H. Folk. Early in his career, Folk was promoted to captain of Edgefield Rifles, a local militia company, and became known as “Captain Folk.” Devoted to improving education in Edgefield County, Folk served on the school board and practiced law in the county for over 50 years until his death in 1940. Following his death, the house continued to be occupied by his school-teacher daughter, Ida Folk, and his lawyer son, J. Raymond Folk. Today, the house is being restored by its current owner in an effort to preserve Edgefield County history.
Discovery Center Museum and Theatre:
Built in 1840 by Capt. James Miller, a wealthy planter a part of the Edgefield militia company, the Joanne T. Rainsford Discovery Center is located today at 405 Main St. Moved from its original location in 1992, approximately seven miles south of Edgefield from the U.S. Highway 25, the museum’s first house featured heavy plaster moldings, uniquely painted designs on the ceiling and a second floor ballroom. When reconstructed after its move to Edgefield, the ballroom was not reproduced and changes were made to make the house more suitable for a museum. The house, which had been known as “Magnolia Grove” prior to its removal, was renamed in memory of Joanne T. Rainsford, the president of Edgefield County’s Historical Society and one of the founders of the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor. In 2010, the eastern wing of the Discovery Center was converted into the William Miller Bouknight Theatre, a black box showroom where the Historical Society sponsors theatrical productions.
Magnolia Dale House Museum:
Built by Peter Youngblood in 1762, the Magnolia Dale House Museum is found on the site of the first residence in Edgefield, located at 320 Norris St. The property later became the home of Erasmus J. Youngblood, who later sold it to Samuel Brooks of Connecticut after the house burned in 1843. It is believed by historians that Brooks built the core of the present house and Brook’s daughter eventually sold the property to Alfred J. Norris, a prominent lawyer and businessman who engaged Anton Market to enlarge the house. Many of Markert’s signature architectural features are incorporated in the structure, and in 1875, Norris’s only daughter, Mamie, was born within the structure. She married James Hammond Tillman who became lieutenant governor of South Carolina in 1896.
In 1929, the house was sold to the Kendall Company; however, Mamie Tillman continued to live at the house. In 1959, she prevailed upon the company to give the property to the Edgefield County Historical Society.
Today, the home houses the museum of the Society and is open by appointment. Interesting artifacts in the house include several portraits of prominent figures, such as: Arthur Simkins, his wife Margaret Matthews Dalby, Edmund Bacon, his wife Eliza Fox and the daughters of Francis Pickens, a sideboard belonging to Governor George McDuffie. Other artifacts include the dining room table of Benjamin Ryan Tillman, who served as both governor and senator of South Carolina, and various other items in the Strom Thurmond Room. At his death in 2006, Edgefield’s beloved character, Broadus M. Turner, left a substantial bequest to the Society for the restoration of the house.
Trinity Church:
Organized in 1835, Trinity Church features Palladian windows and a portico on the front. Later eliminating the original portico in 1886, the church’s Victorian tower was built, with an upper portion being replaced in 1951 by its present steeple.
Among the original leaders of the church were Whitfield Brooks and his wife, Mary Parsons Carroll Brooks, James Parsons Carroll, Francis Pickens, Andrew Pickens Butler, Francis Hugh Wardlaw and Edmund B. Bacon.
Significant memorials in the church include stained glass windows to Edward Tabb Walker, a longtime rector, and James T. Bacon, longtime newspaper editor and organist at the church, marble tablets to Whitfield Brooks, prominent lawyer and planter, Whitfield Butler Brooks, a valiant soldier who died in the war with Mexico, and Francis Butler Simkins, considered by historians as one of the greatest Southern historians of all times, and a baptismal font to the daughters of James Parsons Carroll.
August & House’s Israel Mukashy building:
Prior to a fire in 1881, this site was home to the A.A. Clisby store and barroom, where the infamous Booth-Toney shootout of 1878 occurred. Located at 102 Courthouse Square, the present building was built in 1891 by James M. Cobb, a long time Edgefield merchant who operated a dry goods store as early as 1870 and continued business into the 20th century.
Israel Mukashy, a Jewish merchant who had emigrated from Russia in 1905, occupied the building for many years. Mukashy, originally a peddler operating out of Augusta, moved to this location in 1920, where he lived with his wife, Kate R. Marcus Mukashy, until his death in 1964. In 1950, the Mukashy Department Store was sold to Joseph Vigodsky of Greenville and was operated under the name “Carolina Sales.” It came under the management of Archie E. Keesley, Sr., who operated the store for nearly a half century until his retirement in 1999. In 2020, this became the retail shop of August and House, a novelty shop offering apparel and gifts, “Creative. Raw + Refined,” as well as ice cream.
Jackson Oaks:
Jackson Oaks, located at 1247 Augusta Road in Trenton, S.C., was originally constructed in 1835 by Thomas Ross McKie. The site later became the home of McKie’s son, Dr. Thomas Jefferson McKie – one of the foremost physicians of the Edgefield area and a one-time president of the South Carolina Medical Association. Dr. McKie was known as a substantial contributor to John R. Abney’s book “The History of Edgefield County.” In 1969, Clyde Reel (Betty Wise) Jackson, III of Edgefield, purchased the house and dismantled it board-by-board, before moving the building to its current site and re-erecting it. In doing so, they also made appropriate changes to make it more convenient, but were careful to preserve several unique architectural features which make this location one of “the most significant historic houses of Edgefield County,” according to historians in the Historical Society.
One of these aforementioned additions include the columns from “Evergreen,” a home previously housed on Main Street in Edgefield where the police and fire department now stands. The Jacksons also planted an avenue of live oak trees from which the house derives its name. This tour is the first time that this house has been on an Edgefield tour.
For more information about the Edgefield Historical Society, please visit: https://www.historicedgefield.com/
