Sumter was a small crossroads community in Sumter County, just north of Smithville; it had a post office from 1884-1954. [It may have also been known as Sumter City]. It could just as well have been known as Webb, as the Webb family was in the area by circa 1825 and John Ronaldson Webb (1822-1881) was farming 125 acres east of Muckaloochee Creek by the 1850s. He and Amanda Melvinia Williams Webb had at least thirteen children. They eventually owned and cultivated 900 acres. According to the National Register of Historic Places, Amanda divided the land between her seven living sons in 1900. They all built homes along Highway 19 and farmed them separately.
This is one of the numerous farmhouses built by the Webb brothers. I believe three are extant, including the William A., and Emory C. Webb houses. This eclectic Queen Anne was owned by George Franklin Webb (1861-1936) and Ida Varina Goynes Webb (1875-1956). Together, these resources make up the historic Webb Family Farms.
The houses and historic farmland, along with the adjacent Liberty Primtive Baptist Church, are also significant as surviving structures of the nearly forgotten Sumter community.
Office or Commissary? I can’t decide. With my track record for guessing, it’s likely neither.
I made these photographs in 2018, under the blazing sun and unforgiving midday light of August, somewhere on the outskirts of Broxton. I didn’t like the way they turned out so they were forgotten. This happens all the time. I planned to return to the location but never made it back and imagine the structures are all gone now. I’m glad I got them. They were elements of a larger historic farm.
Hay/Stock Barn
The Queen Anne Folk Victorian farmhouse was my favorite structure on the property. Nature was decidedly reclaiming the place.
Butler Island Plantation, Real Photo Postcard, 1935. Collection of Brian Brown.
After many years of decline, the historic lands and waterways of Butler Island, just south of Darien, were purchased and modernized by Col. Tillinghast L’Hommedieu (T. L.) Huston, in 1926. A dairy was part of the Butler Island Plantation enterprise before it was converted to an iceberg lettuce farm, and some of the dairy structures were maintained throughout Huston’s ownership. This barn and other related buildings have been gone for decades, but may have still been in use when R. J. Reynolds purchased the property after Huston’s death in 1938.
This real photo postcard, dated Tues. Apr. 16, 1935 wasn’t mailed, but features a somewhat exaggerated, tongue-in-cheek message on the reverse: “Near border of Georgia & Florida. Air fresh & fragrant with blossoms. Cattle have free range in this state & receive excellent attention, as card shows. Autos barely escape colliding with hogs, cows, chickens, dogs, turtles, etc. on the highways.” It isn’t signed.
This Folk Victorian cottage is the center of an amazing historic farmstead. A breezeway connects a kitchen behind the house. Tom Peterson writes: This house was built by William James Peterson in 1876…William James and his wife, Catherine Joanna Calhoun Peterson, had 12 children, all born in this house. It is currently owned by Hugh Peterson and has been the site of the annual Peterson Family reunion since 1922.
The property is one of the most intact I’ve stumbled upon, and its numerous outbuildings are perfectly maintained.
There are at least four log barns on the property.
While log barns and homes are still built today, it’s highly unusual to find this many older examples.
Owner or overseer’s home. There are several lightning rods on this pyramidal Georgian cottage.
Driving through the bucolic countryside of Hart County, I came upon this farm near Bowersville. As I slowly passed each structure and took in the scope of the property, I realized what an amazing place it was.
I’m identifying this is a commissary, for its store-like layout. It appears to be used as a barn today.
It has become rare to find this many structures still standing that were once the center of a vibrant working farm. I always appreciate the fact that there owners who recognize their importance and allow them to stand long past their original purpose has been fulfilled.
Barn
The farm looked much the same when photographed for an historic survey over 30 years ago, though the white paint was a bit brighter and one building has been lost.
Barn, which may have served another purpose at one time. Windows aren’t generally associated with barns.
Farms like these are the ones most people think of when they get nostalgic about our agrarian past. This may have been an larger operation than some, but it wasn’t a corporate farm running on government subsidies.
Double shotgun house, most likely used a tenant residence
These buildings have been empty for many years, yet they’re still maintained as part of a larger property today. There’s still a farm here and the landscape is really something to behold.
This store, or commissary, was likely built around the same time as the Craftsman house located behind it. Because the community is known as Maretts (for the Marett family), it’s a good bet there is an association. It’s one of at least three stores or commissaries in the general area, indicating a thriving agricultural community at the time they were built. Places like this were the convenience stores of their day, and since few people owned cars, they served an immediate local need.
The only reference I could find about Hard Cash was that the place name appears on an 1894 Southern Railway map. This indicates it was a railroad siding, perhaps with a freight depot for shipping whatever goods were being produced. I’m imagining cotton or even corn, but it may have encompassed a lot of different products. As to the Hard Cash aspect, I suspect it referred to a business owner not running credit accounts, and only accepting “hard cash”. That may be overthinking it, but it’s how I see it.
This old shotgun store was likely a commissary, serving farm workers or other laborers who lived in the area.
Pediment of the Singleton House, believed to be the work of itinerant carpenter S. J. Suiter
The construction of the late Greek Revival main house at the plantation of Rebecca Louise Griggs Singleton (1833-1907) and David Terrell Singleton (1831-1913) is credited, through oral tradition, to a very skilled but otherwise unknown carpenter named S. J. Suiter, who came to Putnam County from North Carolina. Suiter was still in Putnam County at the time of the 1860 census, living with the family of William Spivey and perhaps doing work on their property. To my knowledge, nothing else is known of Mr. Suiter. A Parisian plasterer lived on site for two years, creating the cornices and ceiling medallions.
Well house, dating to the ownership of the Singleton family. The Victorian details suggest it likely dates to the late 1800s-early 1900s.
The house was built circa 1854, the year of Rebecca Griggs’s marriage to David Singleton and in the National Register of Historic Places nomination in 1974 was described as “a modest, yet classically sophisticated plantation residence.” That characterization still applies. Structures added to the property by Earl McMillen, Jr., the architect who purchased it in 1968, are featured below with earlier historic structures.
Caretaker’s house, near the entrance to the farm. Likely built in the early-mid 1900s, but may be an expansion of an earlier cottage.
Rebecca Griggs Singleton purchased the property through an inheritance from her father, Robert Griggs, who owned adjoining land across Murder Creek. The Singletons bought several more large tracts in the area, and along with other plantations in the area, formed the basis in 1859 of a community first known as Avalona, and sometime between 1882 and 1895, Willard. The Singletons were members of the Avalona Baptist Church.
Covered bridge over Beaverdam Creek, built by Earl McMillen, Jr.
When Atlanta architect Earl McMillen, Jr., purchased the estate in 1968, the main house and outbuildings were all in a very run down state. As a passionate preservationist, Mr. McMillen set about restoring the house to its historical appearance, while adding modern conveniences to the grounds, He also saved and moved the old Phoenix Academy to the farm.
Covered bridge
Mr. McMillen also built a private covered bridge at a point where Beaverdam Creek crosses the property. Recent flooding caused one of the approaches to shift, but it’s still in good shape.
Tenant home converted into a hunting and fishing cabin by the Odums. Mr. Odum told me that one lady lived here most of her life, died at age 104, and climbed the steep stairs to her loft bedroom even in her old age. They’re some of the steepest stairs I’ve ever seen.
The Odums are the present owners and I am very grateful to their generosity in allowing me to visit and photograph a property that is as vibrant as it ever was. Mr. Odum is passionate about the historic structures but equally important, in keeping the land in good shape for future generations. They are doing a wonderful job.
I made this photograph in 2008 and rediscovered it when I began re-editing my Sumter County images. The historic, largely forgotten New Era community holds a special place for me as a photographer of rural subjects. Its owners have allowed it to stand, long after it was abandoned, and in doing so they preserved a living museum of a certain place and time. They appreciated what it represented. Letting it go back to the elements is just part of that process.
This was a huge building, almost certainly serving an agricultural purpose. The front section at right was probably an office, while the remainder was a gin and/or warehouse. As best I can tell, the structure has since collapsed or was razed.
This appears to have been a general store. Located in rural Sumter County, not far from Andersonville, it’s a very plain structure, made of cinderblock. One can imagine that it was important to the people out here in the country, who probably didn’t go to town very often. General store, as opposed to the more quaint “country store”, is an important distinction, because these places usually sold a little bit of everything, and the owners knew what people needed. It’s possible that it was a commissary. There’s a sign at the roadside that indicates it was part of the Hoke Smith Farm.
