Appalachian History

This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the Azalea Festival in Pickens, SC. Last year about 15,000 people swelled the streets of this town of 5,000 in search of classic cars, a pet pageant, hot air balloon rides, and of course, acres and acres of pink, orange, and purple azaleas.

The extravagant use of floral flourishes in public celebration isn't exactly a recent development in Pickens. Here are two photos from the Pickens County Library System, shot a year apart, labeled simply 'Pickens Fair (1910),' and 'Fair and Parade (1911)' below.







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"The revolt against the high cost of living, expressed in the nation-wide formation of old-clothes leagues, overalls clubs, and lunchbasket clubs, is highly significant in that it is the first indication of protest to come from a class which has been a silent and patient sufferer during all the clashes that have taken place between capital and labor in recent years," said the unsigned op-ed author of the Men & Things column in the April 1920 issue of American Medicine.

Men who joined these clubs pledged to wear overalls, and women to wear gingham, until prices became less prohibitive. They formed overalls clubs, held parades, threw parties, went to church, and even got married in overalls.

Some members of the Overalls Club of Pickens, SC.

Cheap blue denim work overalls like farmers or laborers wore were the weapon of choice, but people who couldn't find those wore various other types of work clothes or whatever old clothes they had to hand.

The movement caught on in Birmingham, Wilmington, Savannah, New Orleans, and other southern cities, then spread to other regions of the country. The employees and officers of various companies showed up at the office outfitted in overalls. The cotton mill owners of New England issued statements denouncing the Southern cities, where the movement had its birth, and alleging that the cotton-growers of the South had launched the movement to increase the price of cotton.

In Washington, Representative William David Upshaw of Atlanta formed an "overall brigade" in the House of Representatives, and secretaries in the Capitol showed up for work in overalls. The Assistant Post Master General sent out a directive to postmasters permitting postal employees to make their rounds in overalls.

The various "overalls clubs" and "old clothes clubs" sent petitions to mayors, governors and diverse other notables protesting high clothing prices. "The movement appears to have lasted from March to June or July of 1920, then faded away as the novelty wore off," says Paul Eugen Camp, who works in the Special Collections at the University of South Florida library.

"Everybody seems to have had quite a good time protesting in their overalls, but I don't know if the movement actually had much effect on the cost of clothing."


Sources: NY Times: April 15, 1920, "Overalls Clubs Spread in South and West; National Organization is Now Started," Special to The New York Times, Page 15
NY Times: April 15, 1920, "UPSHAW'S OVERALLS STARTLE CONGRESS," Special to The New York Times, Page 7
American Medicine, April 1920 "Old Clothes and Lunch Baskets," p. 187
The Argus, [Melbourne, Australia], June 26, 1920, "American Life: Overalls Craze," pg. 6

After her father died in 1904, Frances Miles Hagood (aka “Miss Queen") inherited his house in Pickens, SC. That same year she married Judge Thomas J. Mauldin, and the two of them remodeled the Hagood house from a simple farmhouse with a detached kitchen to a sumptuous Classical Revival dwelling. They added a detached law office building in the same style.

Judge Mauldin served as judge of the 13th Judicial Circuit of South Carolina from 1914 until his death in 1931. He graduated from The Citadel in 1891 and was admitted to the bar in 1892, but he taught for several years before entering the legal profession.

He was also editor of a local newspaper for a time, and during his lifetime was a Mason, a Shriner, a member of the Sons of the Confederacy, and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. He and Frances helped organize the Pickens chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which held annual meetings on the grounds of the house for many years to honor surviving veterans of the Civil War.

Frances Hagood Mauldin remained a social leader of the community until her death in 1954, was active in the Daughters of the American Revolution, and was president of the South Carolina Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy. Each June 2, the old soliders of the Confederacy met at their home for a parade and picnic.

The earliest section of the Hagood-Mauldin House was built about 1856 in Old Pickens Court House. The first owner, James Earle Hagood (1826-1904), son of wealthy landowner Benjamin Hagood, was a public official, lawyer, and planter of Pickens District. Hagood was a merchant until 1856, when he began his public career as Clerk of the Circuit Court of Pickens District, a position he held until 1868. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Hagood was made Commissioner in Charge of the Poor and a member of the Soldiers’ Board of Relief.

He loyally gave material to the cause of the Confederacy. Among his duties, he made several trips to and from the battlefields of Virginia, bringing home the sick and wounded soldiers as well as recovering the bodies of solider who had died in service, and ministering to the destitute and dependent families of the soliders in the field.

When Pickens District was divided into Pickens and Oconee Counties in 1868 Hagood was appointed to the Board of Special Commissioners which was authorized to select a site for the town of New Pickens (the present town of Pickens). He acted as Secretary Treasurer of that Board. He also served as Clerk of the Probate Court in the new county seat and as Clerk of the Board of Pickens County Commissioners (initially convened in 1868).

In that year, he had his house dismantled, the rafters and beams numbered, and moved to New Pickens. He was soon elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives and served Pickens County in the General Assembly 1869-1872 during the same period that he practiced law with partner Joseph J. Norton.

In May 1873, Hagood was appointed Clerk of the United States Circuit Court for the District of South Carolina in Charleston, serving in that capacity for 30 years.

Each room in the Hagood-Mauldin House was heated by a fireplace, and each fireplace mantel and trim has a different design and style. A traditional southern-style deep front porch is located on the west side of the house, with a low sloped roof and round spindle columns to form the entry. The cooking house was to the rear, separated from the main house. Several windows are triple-hung sash with cross lattice glass panels.

The Pickens County Historical Society acquired the house in 1987 from the estate of Mrs. Irma Hendricks Morris, and the home was opened as a fine arts museum in October of the following year. In 1997 the home was accepted onto the National Register of Historic Places.


Source: http://www.nationalregister.sc.gov/pickens/S10817739011/



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