Carolyn Carpenter: Discovering New Worlds in Your Own Backyard
I’ve lived in Aiken, South Carolina, my entire life. I’ve always known there were other small towns in Aiken County, but I didn’t really know where they were or why they were important. Most of these small towns are in an area known as the Horse Creek Valley area. I’ve always looked down upon those people and have thought of them as Valley Rats, a nickname that has been associated with them by those living in Aiken. Besides driving through the towns on US 1 to get to Augusta, there wasn’t a purpose for me to travel into the Valley.
One reason for my disdain towards the Valley people is that they typically live in the same town their entire lives. Sure, there may be a few outliers here and there, but for most of the people, their small hometown is the only place they’ll ever live. While there are a few who are proud to be an Aikenite and never want to live anywhere else, most of the time, once you graduate from high school, you search for somewhere else to live. Personally, I don’t want to only live in Aiken. I want to explore and live in different parts of the Southeast, so I can’t understand the mentality of wanting to live in the same place.
It wasn’t until I started my internship at the Aiken County Historical Museum that I delved into the history of Horse Creek Valley. Originally, I was assigned the task of researching the history of Langley, Bath, Clearwater, and Burnettown, four of the towns in this area. At the start of my research, I ran into a big problem. Most of the files and books at the museum lacked information. I also tried a basic Google search to see if I could find anything out this way, but of course, I had no luck.
I felt extremely frustrated to have hit a wall on my research. Earlier in my internship, I did research on North Augusta, and there was so much research at the museum and online that I felt a bit overwhelmed trying to go through it all. It seemed unfair to me that the Horse Creek Valley towns have barely any history preserved at the museum while North Augusta. I felt like the Horse Creek Valley people weren’t being fairly recognized for the contributions they’ve made to Aiken County.
So, I went to my internship supervisor, Lauren, about this problem, and she offered to contact Ann Diamond to gather more information about these towns. Ann has lived in Horse Creek Valley her entire life, and she is working on the new Horse Creek Valley Museum. Ann invited us to her museum to talk with her and two other women, Louise and Francis.
The day Lauren and I went over to the museum was the first real Fall day of the year. As we drove over, Lauren pointed out different historic buildings in Aiken that I had always seen but never really noticed. We also rode through the Valley towns, and I got my first real glimpse of Horse Creek Valley. It was run down with abandoned buildings, beat-up shacks, and tall grass alongside the road. It didn’t paint a favorable picture in my head and solidified my idea of these people as Valley Rats.
Before we knew it, we pulled into the parking lot right next to a funeral home and a little white house. As Lauren and I got out of the car and approached the house, which turned out to be the museum, I could see a short woman peering out of the door window. She welcomed us in and introduced herself as Ann Diamond. Ann was not what I expected her to be, though I’m not quite sure what I expected. She reminded me of my great-grandmother, affectionately known as Granny Noe.
Granny Noe was loud, brash, yet loving. She is what you would call a Tennessee hillbilly. Whenever we would go to her house as kids, my sisters and I would always have to give her a hug and a kiss, something we disliked. I think we were all a little bit scared of her. Granny Noe always served us the same lunch: beef stew with a stack of toast and a pot of beans. Every time we would go to Tennessee to visit my paternal grandmother, we would go see Granny Noe.
Ann reminded me of my grandmother because she was loud, brash, yet loving. I was caught off guard by how similar Ann and my great-grandmother were, and it immediately made me like her. She showed Lauren and I around the tiny museum. Lauren and Ann talked about the displayed artifacts that she was fascinated by. Meanwhile, I looked around the room, mentally preparing myself to talk with these ladies. I don’t like talking to people I don’t know, and I typically must psych myself up before I talk with them.
After looking around the museum, we sat down at the plastic table in the corner of the front room, and I asked if they could tell me about the Valley towns of Langley, Bath, and Clearwater. What they told me was a more generalized description for the area instead of each individual town. What I learned was that the Horse Creek Valley area was originally home to Native Americans, but after the Revolutionary War, settlers forced the Natives out of the area. These towns became huge mill towns, producing cotton, paper, fabric, and other items. During the Civil War, the Confederacy employed the mills to make goods for them, but General Sherman came into Horse Creek Valley to burn down the mills; however, the mill workers fought him off and kept him from doing so. The mills owned the villages the workers lived in, so if a worker wasn’t keeping their house and yard clean, they were kicked out of the village. No Black workers could work in the mills until after the Civil War, but they could work jobs in the villages like ground maintenance, freight handling, and privy cleaning. Almost everybody worked in the mills: men, women, and children.
The Langley Mill was hydroelectric-powered by the Langley Dam.
Courtesy of SC Picture Project
From talking with Ann, Louise, and Francis, I could sense an overwhelming pride from being from the Valley. They recognized that they were hard-working people who helped contribute to Aiken County and South Carolina’s economy. They seemed to like having the ability to know almost everyone who lived in this area because it gave them a sense of community and understanding for each other. This initial meeting with the Valley women showed me that there was so much more to the Valley than I ever realized.
At the end of the meeting, Lauren and I thanked them for meeting with us and helping us gather more about these towns. As we drove back through the Valley on our way back to the museum, Lauren and I discussed how the meeting went, what information we wanted to include in the exhibit, and whether we should go back over again to scan some photographs they had. We decided that we should probably go back in a week or two.
A week or two went by, and we reached out to Ann again to see if it was okay for us to come over again. Ann responded that we should come over as soon as we possibly could because my internship was ending in the next few days, so we packed up our stuff and drove back over to the Horse Creek Valley Museum.
Again, Ann was peering out the door window as we pulled up, and we hurriedly rushed inside because it was cold. Lauren brought her scanner to this meeting with the Valley women, and we immediately sat down at the plastic table and began flipping through photographs they had and deciding which ones we wanted for our exhibit. While we scanned, Ann and Francis told us about some stories from the Valley.
Francis told us a story about the mill she and her family worked in. Every 4th of July, the mill hosted a big picnic for all the workers and their families at their recreation complex. There were hamburgers and barbeque. There was a live band for people to dance to. There were tennis courts and ping pong tables to play on. There were other unspecified games to play. This was a day working for the mill that required rest. During Christmas, the mill gave the workers’ children fruit and a toy.
Seminole Mills was a fabric mill in Clearwater, SC.
Courtesy of Post and Courier
Ann told us a story about walking to school. She said that she walked uphill and downhill a mile to school and back every day. She can remember walking through a foot of snow to school one morning and not thinking anything about it. Everybody walked to school in those days, and nobody thought about catching a ride with someone. Part of her childhood was during WWII, and gas was rationed. The mentality was why waste gas on going to school when you could just walk.
After being thoroughly entertained by Ann and Francis, Lauren and I began packing our stuff to go back to the museum when Ann asked us if we wanted to go out to eat. Lauren and I were hesitant at first. I didn’t bring any money with me since I typically bring my lunch with me to the museum, and Lauren knew she needed to go back to let another coworker go on their lunch break. Lauren decided that she would call the coworker and ask if it was okay for us to go to lunch with Ann and Francis, and the coworker told us to go have fun.
We went to a restaurant called Blue Top in Graniteville, one of the Horse Creek Valley towns. This was a restaurant that I’ve never heard of, even though I’ve lived in Aiken my entire life. Lauren and I arrived at the restaurant first, and there was no parking. This made Lauren nervous because she didn’t want to leave the coworker waiting for awhile to go to lunch. She told me that if the parking lot wasn’t clear by the time Ann and Francis got there, we would have to tell them that we needed to go back to the museum. But, of course when Ann and Francis arrived, two parking spots opened, and we were able to park.
Blue Top was a little white shack overflowing with people everywhere. Inside had the typical diner look to it, and we found a booth close to the door. I had confided to Lauren that I didn’t have any money with me in the car, and she assured me that she would pay for my meal. As soon as we sat down, a waiter came over and took our order. We didn’t have to wait long at all for our food, and we chatted about trivial things. The food was delicious, and I enjoyed myself. Towards the end of our meal, Ann told us that lunch was her treat today, which I was very thankful for. Soon after Ann paid for our meal, Lauren and I said our goodbyes and thanks and headed back to the museum.
My experience with the Valley women has opened my eyes to a different way of life that I hadn’t really considered before. I feel more informed and sympathetic towards not just these women but towards everyone who lived in the Valley. They are a hard-working group of people who are proud of where they live, and I have no idea why I prejudged them before really getting to know them. I have learned that I should never prejudge anybody before getting to know them. I have gained a new appreciation for the Valley because of these ladies and the history I’ve learned.
Carolyn Carpenter is a senior English major who’s graduating in December 2023. She completed her breakaway at the Aiken County Historical Museum where she completed research for two different exhibits. After graduation, Carolyn plans to go to graduate school for a masters in English and library science.