♪ (male singer) ♪ Oh, I have found the sweetest place ♪ ♪ where people smile ♪ and know my name.

♪ ♪ Oh, I have found ♪ the sweetest land ♪ ♪ as warm as sun ♪ and cool as rain.

♪ ♪ A place so faaarrr... ♪ from all we had, ♪ ♪ a place so far ♪ from all we've known, ♪ ♪ a quiet place ♪ that we can love ♪ ♪ and call our home.

♪ ♪ ♪ Joanna Angle> There is a large sign here claiming this community, quote, "has had more dashing, brilliant, romantic figures, "statesmen, orators, soldiers, "adventurers, and daredevils "than any other county in South Carolina, if not any rural county of America," end quote.

As partial proof, residents offer the two Edgefield District-born heroes, James Butler Bonham and Colonel William Travis, boyhood friends who died defending the Alamo.

[no audio] The notorious Becky Cotton, called the Devil in Petticoats, was brought to trial here for murdering her third husband by splitting his head open with an axe.

She allegedly had poisoned her second husband and killed her first by running a mattress needle through his heart.

Mrs. Cotton's remarkable beauty and charm mesmerized the judge and jury and won her acquittal.

Ten South Carolina governors and five lieutenant governors have roots here.

An independent spirit and passion for politics have characterized this town since it was a frontier crossroads on Cherokee land.

Local tradition insists that the name derives from its location at the edge of Indian battlefields.

Welcome to Edgefield and to "Palmetto Places," a series that explores and celebrates South Carolina's small towns and countryside.

I'm Joanna Angle.

Laid out around this courthouse square, much of Edgefield is on the National Register of Historic Places.

There are about 40 19th-century buildings, mostly wooden houses with graceful fanlights over their doors.

Some are open to the public.

(no audio) Edgefield's reputation as a political hotbed was enhanced by events that occurred here.

After the War Between the States, this home, called Oakley Park, was owned by Confederate General Martin Witherspoon Gary.

General Gary and his colleague, General M. C. Butler, advocated drastic action... a straight-out fight policy to overthrow what they viewed as the state's corrupt Reconstructionist government.

Their goal was to elect Wade Hampton governor, and the uniform of their cause was the red flannel shirt.

One of the most romantic tales to emerge from that time is of a parade which began with a speech by General Gary from Oakley Park's second-floor balcony.

It is said that the daughter of former Governor Francis W. Pickens appeared on horseback, dressed in a flowing, crimson gown.

She reportedly rallied 1500 men under the Red Shirt banner and with General Gary, led them into Edgefield village.

The Red Shirts were successful in electing Wade Hampton governor of South Carolina in 1876, and today Oakley Park is a shrine to the Red Shirt movement.

The young woman who led the parade became known as South Carolina's Joan of Arc.

Her full name was... Eugenia Dorothea Olga Leva Lucy Holcombe Douschka Francesca Pickens.

Her father had been America's minister to Russia.

When she was born in St. Petersburg, the czar and czarina were her godparents.

To her many family names, the czar added Olga, for a Russian river, and the czarina, Douschka, Russian, meaning "little darling."

It was by the czarina's endearment that she became known.

Her gravestone in Edgefield's Willowbrook Cemetery is inscribed simply, "Douschka."

[no audio] Willowbrook is the resting place of governors, diplomats, more than 150 Confederate soldiers, and the dashing Preston Brooks.

In May of 1856, as U.S. congressman, Brooks was present when Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner delivered an antislavery speech that included offensive remarks about South Carolina and one of her senators, A. P. Butler.

After several days of brooding over Senator Sumner's comments, Congressman Brooks, 36 years old and a robust 6 feet tall, went to the senate chamber.

There in a calm and courteous voice he declared, "Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice, with great care "and with as much impartiality as I am capable of, "and I feel it is my duty to say to you "that you have published a libel on my state "and uttered a slander upon a relative "who is aged and absent, and I am come to punish you," which he did, striking Sumner unconscious with a cane.

This personal assault was greatly magnified by the newspapers and became a dispute between regions.

Northerners were outraged, Southerners cheered, and the national gap of misunderstanding grew wider.

After a defiant speech, Preston Brooks resigned from Congress, only to be reelected by a unanimous vote.

[no audio] This is Magnolia Dale, surrounded by its century-old magnolia trees.

It is now the headquarters of the Edgefield County Historical Society, which maintains a museum of regional artifacts.

Built circa 1830, Magnolia Dale was the home of Mamie Norris, whose wedding to James H. Tillman was held here.

Jim Tillman served South Carolina as lieutenant governor and was a nephew of the state's political legend, "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman, who also hailed from Edgefield County.

As governor between 1890 and 1894 and then U.S. senator until 1918, Ben Tillman was the fiery champion of the small farmer.

[footfalls on floor] He was largely responsible for the founding of the state's agricultural college, Clemson, and its teacher-training school, Winthrop.

Colorful and controversial, he favored state liquor dispensaries and stayed at odds with most South Carolina newspapers.

By deposing the Lowcountry aristocrats who had long controlled state government, he won the adoration of the masses and remained a political power until his death.

Always considering himself a man of the soil, Ben Tillman also introduced the commercial growing of asparagus at his farm in nearby Trenton.

[pottery wheel whirring] The soil of Edgefield County is not only ideal for agriculture.

Its combination of clays, kaolin, sand, and feldspar is perfect for pottery.

Clay pots have been made in this region since 2,500 B.C.

The finest stoneware in the South was made here between 1840 and 1863.

Master potter Stephen Ferrell tells the story.

[pottery wheel whirring] Stephen, tell me about these pots.

They're very old, aren't they?

Stephen> These are products of Pottersville, which was our closest pottery to Edgefield proper.

This village, one-third the size of Edgefield, a mile and a quarter north of town, got started about 1809, and these are pieces that date about 1810 to 1830.

Typical are the really light-colored ware.

Dr. Landrum called it Upcountry porcelain.

He used a high portion of the kaolin clay.

The glazes are relatively clear.

The light-green coloration is from iron impurities in it.

Joanna> Now, the technology to do this glaze goes way back to the Chinese, right?

Stephen> That's what we believe.

Some of the runs you see are from ashes falling onto the shoulders of the pots from the firing process, but the glaze was made of crushed rock.

This one pot here has little fragments of the rock still in it that was in the liquid.

But basically, the Chinese describe taking bracken ferns, limestone rock, burning it repeatedly, crushing it, mixing it with feldspar, with water, and a little bit of clay to help it stick, and this would become what we call the alkaline glaze.

Joanna> So, they had to have, in order to make pottery, not only did they have to have the sands, clays, kaolins, things in the earth, but there had to be trees to burn to get ashes, right?

Stephen> Right...trees for the tremendous heat that was required to finish the pots off.

I fire to around 2,400 degrees today.

These were fired in that range or higher, in some cases.

Joanna> Now these date to when?

Stephen> These are about 1810 to 1830.

These are characterized by having a small mark lots of times at the base of the piece.

Joanna> Right-- Stephen> This has kind of an upside-down "V" right here at the base.

It's right here.

This is called a maker's mark or slave mark in an age of illiteracy.

We know in 1820 there were four potters' wheels in operation.

Also, Dr. Landrum had the print shop there, where he printed his political views.

So it was natural to give somebody a little piece of wooden printing type.

This one has an "I" on it.

Maybe Isaac was the person who made this piece.

This was an apprentice-made piece.

This has the mark here, but this person didn't center the clay well.

As you look, it's really-- Lopsided.

Joanna> Now, people were making pottery in this area long before this was made.

Stephen> That's right, this is... about 1809 is when this got started.

But they were by no means the first potters.

Joanna> I'd like to know more about that.

Stephen> All right.

Joanna> Stephen, what does archeology tell us about Edgefield pottery?

Stephen> Well, really, the first workers in clay were discovered down here at Stallings Island, which is an island in the Savannah River.

This is a fragment from the shores of Edgefield County, right off Mims Point.

This is called fiber-tempered pottery.

It's the oldest Indian pottery in North America.

About 4,500 years ago is when it got started... in the North American continent.

This is the oldest tradition, and it happened right here on the Savannah River.

The clays and humanity kind of all came together here.

They mixed Spanish moss and palmetto fiber together with it to form fiber-tempered pottery.

When it fires, lots of times you see little porous areas where the plant material was burned out.

This was the beginning tradition.

It took a long time for it to totally spread throughout the U.S. Joanna> It evolved to a form that had a golden age.

Tell me about that period in the 1800s that's known as the golden age of Edgefield.

Stephen> Well, basically, the golden age of Edgefield was from the 1840s to '50s, this time period.

This was when there were a number of potteries in competition.

The Landrum family certainly popularized the potteries.

Abner had left the area, but Reverend John Landrum continued to have a pottery between here and Aiken.

His son, B. F. Landrum, and his son-in-law, Lewis Miles, both had slave-produced potteries.

Of those folks, the most famous of the slaves was named Dave.

Joanna> Dave.

Stephen> When I say during the "golden age," this is when the competition prompted them to do things that were a little extra.

Dave's extra was in the large size of the pieces he made, as well as the fact that he incised his name and various verses onto the pieces.

Joanna> Now, he was a Black slave who was literate when many slave owners were illiterate.

He was literate because he worked in a typesetting shop?

Stephen> Right...Dr. Landrum's print shop at Pottersville.

Abner trained Dave to be a typesetter.

It was not legal to do at that time.

Dave basically used clay like a piece of paper.

He sat and wrote on them.

This typical piece has gallon marks, LM is his master, Lewis Miles, the date in 1856, and Dave's signature on the pot.

Joanna> He sometimes got carried away and wrote more than his name.

He had a sense of humor and wrote poetry.

Give us a verse he did.

The one in the High Museum says, "I made this pot for our sot and it will never, never rot."

Wonderful things... "Dave belongs to Mr.

Miles where the oven bakes and the pot biles."

Joanna> Stephen, these fabulous pieces are your creations, is that right?

You made these?

Stephen> These are in the style of Edgefield.

Some are replicas of what were done in early days.

I found the original Rhodes site 25 years ago.

There were pieces like this cream riser with a snake design.

All I'm doing is replicating what they did.

In other cases, I'm applying that design to a traditional Edgefield form.

There are specific forms from Edgefield.

Basically, red clay creates a very dark color.

I brush the basic design on in several layers.

Then the white portion is applied by slip trailing, which is like putting ketchup on a hot dog.

It's liquefied, and you have to get the right consistency or it's going to run down the side of the object.

Joanna> Like cake decorating with lots of different tubes.

Stephen> Cake decorating, yeah.

I'm hungry, so I'm thinking about food.

Joanna> Tell me, if someone's looking at pottery, what would be the characteristics that would indicate it might be Edgefield?

Is there a shape characteristic?

Stephen> Yeah.

Each of the various forms have characteristics.

Jugs, traditionally... the handle is going to come back and attach to the body.

In the pitchers in Edgefield, they usually have a fairly distinct break between the neck and the belly of the piece.

On the storage jars, this really bulbous form is very typical of the Edgefield work.

Joanna> The two-color glazes would also be a clue.

Stephen> This two-color decoration is really unique to Edgefield.

It's really a trademark.

If a pot has blue decoration, it's not Edgefield, but if something that has either brown or white or both, very likely it's an Edgefield piece.

Joanna> What are you trying to accomplish here?

Stephen> What we're doing is not just making pots to sell.

This is an educational facility.

We're trying to tell people about the wonderful tradition of the past, one of the most significant pottery traditions in America.

I consider it America's first real pottery tradition.

Everything else was transplanted from Europe.

This was something that's really our first real American blend.

We're dealing with every age group.

We have school groups come.

We talk about why these pots were made to begin with.

We talk about the process and the importance.

These people made these pots basically for food storage and preservation, but they did it so well that today they're on the pedestals of high-quality art museums.

They transformed from a vessel into, really, a masterwork.

To me, there are some pieces that really are the Sung dynasty pottery of America.

We can talk about the Chinese... wonderful things.

But this is really superb.

Joanna> And something all South Carolinians can take great pride in.

Thank you for letting us come.

We'd like to come another time.

Stephen> You're most welcome.

[no audio] Joanna> Another age-old art is practiced at Edgefield's Starview Farm.

Here, Brian and Micki Getson blend wool from their sheep and cotton from their garden to produce glorious yarns.

Micki Getson> We raise Coopworth sheep here.

Coopworth sheep are relatively new to the United States.

They came to America in the late 1970s from New Zealand.

A long, luster wool breed, their hair is long and very curly.

It almost has a sheen like silk.

They're very hardy here.

We have the same temperature climate as New Zealand, which is their native land, so they've been very happy here.

I'm working on a modern spinning wheel.

I have nothing against antique wheels.

If you can find a good antique wheel that works, by all means, use it.

I like to use this wheel from Holland.

It spins very easily.

You really can't not spin on it.

But what I'm doing right now is I'm making one ply of yarn.

Most knitting yarns you'll see... it's a 3-ply worsted or an 8-ply or 2-ply.

Really all that is is how many strands are put together.

This would be one ply of yarn.

Now it's two plies of yarn.

Depending on what the finished product is going to be would depend on how many... would tell you how many plies to put in your yarn.

If I'm doing some very fine spinning, something like angora from Angora rabbits, I may do three or four plies.

Cotton as well...you may do three or four plies.

If it's knitting worsted, then one or two plies is fine.

So once it's spun, you just continue to spin until you would fill up your bobbin, and you keep filling up those bobbins.

Then you would ply one more time.

Then you're ready to knit or weave, or whatever you want to do.

You can dye it then.

You can dye it beforehand.

I like to play.

I don't like to have everything set.

I kind of like to A very good spinning teacher told me, "Have your project entirely planned "before you sit down to spin, but you have to keep your mind open."

You can't say, "This is what I'm going to do," and be rigid about it.

You have to be willing to explore a little and do samples.

Maybe what you started out doing isn't going to be right for the finished piece, so don't be afraid to change before you get into it too deep.

We have classes just about every Saturday, and they're different length classes.

Beginning hand spinning is three Saturdays.

We also do intermediate hand spinning where you learn to make designer yarns and work with other fibers.

We have all sorts of knitting classes.

We had sock knitting this last year and had a good time.

Everybody had their pair of socks knit.

Sometimes we have day classes, one-day lace knitting class or one-day carding class.

I don't use a lot of other people's patterns.

I do a lot of my own patterns.

I've done a few pieces of what I called, "interpretational knitting" would be a way to put it, where there's not a pattern for it.

I'm not sure what I'm going to get when I'm done, but I've always been happy with the results.

Again, it's very free-form, very exciting.

I like the excitement part.

Some people just like it for the relaxation value.

I look to it for some excitement value.

What if I put this with this, if I combine these colors?

What happens if I spin it like this?

I like the creativity.

I like being able to see a pile of white fluff and think, Hmm... what can I make out of that?

What does that pile of wool say to me?

What color would it like to be?

Usually how I do a project, I look at the wool, play with it a little, before I decide, Does it want to be mittens?

Does it want to be a pair of socks?

So I love that creative aspect.

For me, it's very exciting.

When I sit at my spinning wheel planning a project, it's exciting because I don't know what's going to happen.

I love the feel of it, the texture of wool in my hands.

I like the simplicity.

A lot of people nowadays don't realize-- especially children, I love having children here.

They think their clothes come from Wal-Mart.

They don't realize before they come from Wal-Mart, they come from somewhere else.

Actually seeing the sheep and the cotton, they start to realize, Oh...there's a connection here.

Two hundred years ago, every household had somebody in their house spinning from dawn until dusk.

It was a necessary function.

You had to spin yarn to have clothing.

There was no Wal-Mart then.

There wasn't even a fabric store.

You had to start from start to finish.

Now we're lucky in that we buy clothes.

We don't have to do this as a function of life, but we do it as an art form and just for pure enjoyment.

It's very therapeutic... it teaches patience.

You have to be patient.

It could take six months to finish a project.

You definitely learn patience.

Anybody in a high-stress job should learn to spin, because it's the most relaxing thing you'll ever do for yourself.

(no audio) Joanna> Edgefield County has dozens of beautiful old churches.

This is Our Saviour Episcopal church in Trenton.

It was built in 1882.

We're glad that you could join us, and hope that you'll be with us again for "Palmetto Places."

Until then, I'm Joanna Angle, inviting you to discover South Carolina... smiling faces, beautiful places.

♪ (female singer) ♪ And here we live, ♪ ♪ within this land ♪ ♪ of mountains' edge ♪ and ocean's shore.

♪ ♪ A land of strength... ♪ a land of grace... ♪ ♪ of men and women ♪ gone before.

♪ ♪ So many smiling ♪ faces here, ♪ ♪ so many memories ♪ still to come.

♪ ♪ Beautiful places ♪ we hold dear ♪ ♪ in this our home.

♪ ♪ ♪(choir joins) South Carolina, ♪ always near... ♪ ♪ and always ♪ hooommmme.... ♪