Epps-McGill Farmhouse Inaugural Preservation Gala
The McGill family gather at the Epps-McGill Farmhouse Inaugural Preservation Gala.
Sponsored by SC Humanities, the Epps-McGill Farmhouse Inaugural Preservation Gala was a success. Planter level sponsors include Farmers Telephone Cooperative, Williamsburg County Council members including Supervisor Kelvin Washington, Councilwoman Jackie Hailes, District 7, Councilman Jonathan “Joe” Miller, District 3 Councilman Eddie “Butch” Woods, District 4 Councilman Paul E. McKnight Jr., District 5, Town of Kingstree Beautification Committee, and Town of Kingstree.
Seed Sower sponsors include Bank of Greeleyville, Herman A. McGill, Lambda Theta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Fulton and Washington Families, The Weaver and Margaret McGill Family. McGill and Associates INC thanks everyone for their support!
Mrs. Lillie McGill, manager of McGill and Associates, Inc. addresses the guests.
Published: Nov 25, 2024
SOURCE: Kingstree News
Kingstree historic home tells rare success story of sharecropping in South
The Epps-McGill Farmhouse at 679 Eastland Avenue has sat vacant for almost 20 years, but a local organization is raising money to preserve the historic structure and to use it as a means to educate the public about the agricultural society in Williamsburg County during the 20th century and the end of sharecropping for Southern farming.
Historic Marker to be Unveiled at Epps-McGill Farmhouse
With the fall of slavery in the South, many of the large farms turned to sharecropping. Both poor white and freed black families worked a farmer’s land in exchange for housing and a small share of the crop or cash, often with a long-term promise of land ownership. The system rarely worked in the favor of tenants. Land was overworked, and there was little profit in the crop share.
The history of the Epps-McGill farmhouse begins with the Epps family who settled in Kingstree around 1870. James C. Epps farmed the land and grew cotton, peas, and sweet potatoes on his 85 acres. By the early 1900s, the Epps family farm had grown to more than 100 acres.
Epp’s son, Silas Wightman Epps, began construction on the Epps-McGill Farmhouse for his future wife, Caroline Monroe, in 1905 on land owned by his father. The vernacular Victorian style home had large two-story porches on the east and west façade, and a separate kitchen attached to the main house by a west porch. The home took three years to build and sat on a 51-acre tract of land where tobacco was grown.
The Epps family began leasing some property to tenant farmers in the 1930s. In the early 1950s, the first new African American sharecroppers moved onto the farmhouse property. According to research conducted by McGill and Associates, Inc. who are working to preserve the history of the home, Esther Ervin McGill (c.1902-1956) leased the property from the Epps family around 1953, following the death of her husband Burgess McGill in 1952.
At the time, many of the smaller sharecropper farms were disappearing, being folded into larger parcels that were worked by the landowners themselves. A boll weevil epidemic, decreased crop prices, predatory lending schemes, and increased farm mechanization contributed heavily to the mass exodus of black farmers from the South to urban centers in the Midwest and Northeast.
Esther McGill lived in the house with her children and sharecropped the land for two years, before she moved to Rochester, New York, in 1955.
Esther’s brother-in-law Weaver McGill (1914-1994) and his wife Margaret Singletary McGill moved into the farmhouse with their children and continued to sharecrop the land into the 1960s. A close, longtime friendship between the Epps and McGill families eventually resulted in .86 acres of land and the historic farmhouse to be deeded over to Weaver and Margaret McGill in 1976 before the owner Adolphus Epps Frierson died in 1980. Margaret lived in the home until she passed in 2006. The home has remained unoccupied since her death.
There are few cases in the Southern history of sharecropping where the African American tenants were able to acquire the land their family farmed. The McGills are an important exception.
The Epps-McGill house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 25, 2020, and a historical marker was unveiled at the home on October 7, 2023.
On Saturday, November 16, there will be a Preservation Gala to raise money for the continued work on the Epps-McGill House and property. The event will be held at the Bean Market at 111 Henry Street, Lake City. Attendees will enjoy dinner, a silent auction, dancing, speaker Dr. Walter B. Curry, and music and show by Level 10 band. The event is semi-formal, black tie optional. Tickets are $100. For more information, visit eppsmcgillfarmhouse.org/gala
McGill and Associates, Inc., is dedicated to the restoration and preservation of Epps-McGill Farmhouse in Kingstree, South Carolina and its heritage and history and educating the community at-large and the general public about the history of the property. Our educational efforts include farming and sharecropping processes, tools and the types of plants and crops that were a part of the property’s heritage throughout the 20th century. For more information visit www.eppsmcgillfarmhouse.org.
Published: Sep 20, 2024
SOURCE: Kingstree News
Historic Marker to be Unveiled at Epps-McGill Farmhouse
National Register Listing : Epps McGill Farmhouse [S10817745012]
www.eppsmcgillfarmhouse.org
In spite of African American sharecropping farmers rarely having opportunities to purchase the land they worked for many years, South Carolina farmers Weaver McGill and Margaret Singletary McGill surmounted the odds and became owners of the land they sharecropped on for decades in Kingstree. Join Epps-McGill Farmhouse and McGill and Associates, Inc. on Saturday, October 7, 2023, at 10 a.m. for a public event to mark the unveiling of the historic marker recognizing the significance of the Farmhouse. The event will take place on the grounds of the Farmhouse at 679 Eastland Avenue, Kingstree, and speakers will include Kingstree, Williamsburg County and South Carolina state elected officials, local clergy, Divine Nine organization representatives and other guests.
The Epps-McGill Farmhouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places, in September 2020, as a surviving example of a vernacular structure that represents the evolution of agricultural society in Williamsburg County during the 20th century and the end of sharecropping in the second half of the 20th century. The structure’s significance is derived from the evolution of the house and farmland over the course of the 20th century which saw the rise of tobacco tenant farming and the eventual reduction of the farmland to its current footprint due to the changes in the agricultural economy. While the sharecropping system generally failed to produce its promised path to land ownership, the Epps-McGill Farmhouse stands out as a rare and important example of success, with the purchase of the property by African American farmer Weaver McGill offering an unusual case within the broader regional history of sharecropping.
Sponsored by the Lambda Theta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.’s, the marker was created in recognition of the Epps-McGill Farmhouse being added to the National Register of Historic Places. The unveiling and dedication of this historic marker recognizes the story and significance of this national historic gem.
About McGill and Associates, Inc.
We are dedicated to the restoration and preservation of Epps-McGill Farmhouse in Kingstree, and its heritage and history and educating the community at-large and the general public about the history of the property. Our educational efforts include farming and sharecropping processes, tools and the types of plants and crops that were a part of the property’s heritage throughout the 20th century. We are currently raising funds for the restoration and preservation of the Epps – McGill Farmhouse. More information about this historic property and our organization’s efforts is available on our website: www.eppsmcgillfarmhouse.org.
Published Oct 4, 2023
SOURCE: The News
Local home nominated for the National Register of Historic Places
BY MICHAELE DUKE news@kingstreenews.com Jul 30, 2020
The Epps-McGill Farmhouse was one of nine nominations under consideration for the National Register of Historic Places. The nomination was accepted by the State Historic Preservation Office and the South Carolina State Board of Review during a July 24, meeting. The application will be submitted to the National Parks Service in Washington DC for further review. Properties registered can qualify for tax credits to be used for restoration purposes.
The Board of Review is responsible for determining which properties within a state meet the National Register criteria for listing. Before any National Register nominations are submitted to the Keeper of the National Register in Washington, they must be approved by the board, whose membership includes professionals in the fields of architecture, architectural history, history, archaeology, and other related disciplines.
The Victorian style home built by Silas Wightman Epps, is located on Eastland Avenue in Kingstree and has served as a farmhouse for the Epps-McGill farm since its construction in 1905. In 1953, the McGill family leased the property who are considered to be the first African American family to do so. In 1976 Weaver McGill purchased the home.
Weaver McGill died in 1996 and his wife Margaret resided in the home until her death in 2006. According to the presenter, it is anticipated the home’s new purpose will serve as a bed and breakfast by the family. Information regarding the history of the home was obtained from the application.
SOURCE: The Kingstree News/Post and Courier, Published July 30, 2020