MYSTERY OF A WATEREE SWAMP SKELETON

You will know about this true story if you are following the Historical Society’s monthly column!

Are you reading it?

The Kershaw County Historical Society column appears by permission for first printing on the second or third Friday of the month in the Camden, S.C., newspaper Chronicle-Independent, a print publication also available digitally to subscribers.

 “Mystery of a Wateree Swamp Skeleton,” by Joan A. Inabinet, appears in the October 15, 2021, Chronicle-Independent. (Its content is described in the catalog below.)

A catalog of recent KCHS columns follows:

The Society also plans soon to post the recent columns on this website. (They are archived as well on the digital Chronicle-Independent and may be searched there.)

Author of the following columns is Joan A. Inabinet. All columns include recent or more detailed research, or a fresh focus on historical topics, all directly related to Kershaw County past and present.

In 2020

1. May “1918—What Happened Here?”  The 1918 flu epidemic (“Spanish influena”), schools, churches, and public entertainments closed by public health directives.
2. June “We Must Not Forget Again.” Events of the time that obscured public memory of the 1918 flu epidemic, continuing previous column.
3. July “A Centennial for Women Voters.” Reactions to women registering to vote.
4. August “Kershaw County’s First Women Voters.” Details on individual women (A-K).
5. September “More KC Women First-Time Voters.”  Continued (L-Z).
6. October “A Long Tradition of Sharing Historic Treasures.” Details of a sample 1957 KC Historical Society meeting that set a pattern of work and programs.
7. November “A Fresh Perspective on Collective Community Preservation.” 1960-1980: The Historical Society, District Heritage Foundation, Historic Camden, the Camden Archives and Museum. KCHS’s rescue, move, restoration, and use of the historic Bonds Conway House.
8. December “A Very Noisy Christmas to You!” Fireworks of years gone by. Carton by Jak Smyrl.

In 2021

1. January “Yep, He Sure Would Take It!” Smallpox, pest houses, local outbreaks, vaccination, turn of century. Photo grave of victim Joanna Morris.
2. February “Hearts and Valentines—1921 Style.” Customs of the time. Old photo of couple at the Precipice.
3. March “A Shout-Out to Teachers”—Teachers’ names/addresses at Camden and county public schools (white and “colored”) and at private Mather Academy, from a 1925 phone directory.
4. April “Historic Home Recalled in Memoir.” The Douglas-Witherspoon-Reed House, from early 1900s memoir of Sarah Mickle Marsh. Illustrated by a painting by Mary Ellen Jenkins.
5. May “A Gardening Book, A Love Story, and Life in 1800’s Camden.” Story of Phineas and Elizabeth Thornton. Illustration from book.
6. June “Mission in Mind—An 1819 Visitor to Camden Area.” Englishman William Faux’s visit regarding his relative Revolutionary Loyalist Col. Henry Rugeley.
7. July “Outside Camden—An 1819 Visitor in ‘the Wilderness.’” Continuing William Faux’s mission to learn more, visiting Rugeley’s kin. Image of Drakeford House. moved to Historic Camden.
8. August “Terrible Gale and Conflagration.” Horrifying woods fires with widespread outbreaks statewide and beyond, bring great damage on March 9, 1855, to county areas. Image, modern controlled burn by foresters.
9. September “A Legacy of Change and Roots.” A 1976 Bicentennial article on early 1900s Cassatt in Kershaw County Legacy inspires a review and update.
10. October “Mystery of a Wateree Swamp Skeleton.” In 1943, an extensive and futile search of the dense Wateree Swamp for a Shaw Field pilot trainee whose plane was lost. In 1946, discovery by chance of a skeleton in the swamp. Who was this young man?

Thanks if you are reading along with us! Please start and catch up if you have not been reading! Your responses and suggestions are welcomed.