Spring Festival 2024

Monday - Saturday 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

We stop taking orders at 8:30 p.m.

Sunday buffet from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. 91

2024 Abbeville Opera House Season

Nightrain: The Guns N’Roses Tribute Experience

Sat., Aug. 10th at 7:30 p.m.

Interstellar Echoes: A Tribute to Pink Floyd

Sat., Aug. 26th at 7:30 p.m.

Motown & More

with United Sound Entertainment

Sat., Sept. 21st at 7:30 p.m.

Ernie Haase & Signature Sound

Sat., Sept. 28th at 7:30 p.m.

Abbeville Community Performing Arts present Misery

Sat., Oct. 26th – Sun., Oct. 27th

The Baillie Players present Frankenstein (Kids Camp)

Oct. 28th – Oct. 31st

Shot Thru the Heart: The Bon Jovi Experience Sat., Nov. 16th at 7:30 p.m.

Peachtree Players present Always Patsy Cline Fri., May 17th – Sun., May 19th

The Brave Collide Sat., May 25th at 7:30 p.m.

The Baillie Players present Snow White (Kids Camp)

May 28th – May 31st

The Baillie Players present The Prince and the Pauper (Kids Camp)

June 10th – June 14th

The Baillie Players present Stage Fright (Kids Camp)

July 22nd – July 26th

Abbeville Community Performing Arts presents Nunsense Sat., Aug. 3rd – Sun., Aug. 4th

Abbeville Community Performing Arts present A Gift To Remember Sat., Oct. 26th – Sun., Oct. 27th

The Baillie Players present Frosty the Snowman

Dec. 16 - Dec. 26

No borders

Abbeville churches host community-oriented events

By Henry E. Green

Abbeville has long been known as a welcoming community, and it shows that in many ways, especially in what we could call a tale of two churches.

Abbeville Presbyterian and Sacred Heart Catholic present events that bring the community together, albeit in different ways.

Abbeville Presbyterian presents services during Lent that feature the musical talents of organist Joe Greer.

Greer is a story in himself. He is still going strong in his 90s, and age has not dimmed the light of his musical genius.

During the Lenten services, which are held around noon on Wednesdays during Lent, he plays heavenly music--the kind that reminds you of the wedding of Maria and the Captain in the sound of music--while his listeners soak it all in. It puts you, you could say, in a zone of your own.

Across the street from Abbeville Presbyterian is Sacred Heart Catholic, which brings the community together in a different way.

Music, they say, is a universal language, and the same can be said for food.

Every year, Sacred Heart has, as a fund-raiser, a fish fry during Lent at its parish hall. The aroma of perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned flounder beckons to you when you walk in the door, and the baked potatoes and slaw simply add to the joy.

There are other examples of fellowship crossing denominational lines. Trinity Church, for example, has had “hymnsings,” in which the community is invited to come and sing treasured hymns.

Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Episcopalians--all are welcome.

The Gospel, it seems, knows no borders!

Abbeville Presbyterian Church (Photo by Amanda Smith)

Sacred Heart Catholic Church (Photo by Amanda Smith)

ABBEVILLE SPRING FESTIVAL

MAY 2nd- 3th (Evenings)

MAY 4th, 2024

www.abbevillecitysc.com

Thursday, May 2nd

5:30 pm – 10:00 pm

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

8:30 pm – 10:30 pm

5:30 pm – 10:00 pm

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

8:30 pm – 10:30 pm

Amusement Rides

Angela Easterling & The Beguilers (Main Stage)

The Silver Travis Band (Main Stage)

Friday, May 3rd

Amusement Rides

Corey Stevenson Band (Main Stage)

Ra’Shad the Blues Kid (Main Stage)

Spring Festival One Day Ride Wristbands

Skip the line and save money by purchasing your ride tickets ahead of time!

One day wristbands can be used Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. Rides will operate from 5:30 PM - 10:00 PM on Thursday and Friday and from 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM on Saturday.

Riders must pick up their wristband at the Festival Admin Tent, near the Main Stage on Washington Street. Tickets can only be redeemed on the day wristband is being used.

Spring Festival is a FREE family friendly event open to the public featuring live music, special events, vendors, and more! Ride Wristbands and tickets are available for purchase, but is not required to attend the festival. Looking for FREE kids entertainment? Make sure to visit the Kidzone!

Saturday, May 6th

9:00 am – 12:00 pm

KidZone on North Main Street

featuring: South Carolina Governor’s School, Abbeville County Library, & Due West Robotics

11:00 am – 10:00 pm

12:00 pm – 12:30 pm

12:30 pm – 1:00 pm

1:00 pm – 1:30 pm

1:30 pm – 2:00 pm

2:00 pm - 2:30 pm

2:30 pm – 3:30 pm

3:30 pm – 5:30 pm

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

5:30 pm – 6:30 pm

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

8:30 pm – 10:30 pm

Amusement Rides

Westwood Elementary Chorus

Dixie Hornet Jazz Band

Elite Cheer and Dance

Bliss Dance Company

Phoenix Dance and Cheer

Diane George (Acoustic Stage)

Stone Groove (Main Stage)

Nicole Quinn (Acoustic Stage)

Madison Medlin (Acoustic Stage)

No Speed Limit (Main Stage)

Bobby Power (Acoustic Stage)

The Grains of Sand Band (Main Stage)

City of Abbeville at your service

Trey Edwards, Mayor

Louise Aikens, District 1

Faye Thomas, District 2

John Sutherland, District 3

Chris Crawford, Mayor Pro Tem, District 4

James “J.J.” Jackson, District 5

Jason Edwards, District 6

Benji Greeson, District 7

Matthew Gambrell, District 8

Blake Stone, City Manager

Fran Strickland Anderson, Asst. City Manager

Pretty. Near. Perfect. ™

Public Utilities Police Department Fire & Rescue Public Works Parks & Recreation

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Abbeville County’s Press and Banner and Abbeville Medium

The The Great Secession Meeting, November 22, 1860

Robert R. Hemphill in Abbeville Medium, May 2, 1907

I remember the great Secession meeting in Abbeville in 1860 which was an introduction to the War Between the States. It was on the twenty second day of November and a great multitude was in the town. Augustus M. Smith was Marshal of the day. W. M. Rogers and J. F. Livingston were his assistants. The procession formed in the public square and escorted by about 500 minute men marched to the grove near the Southern depot where the mass meeting was organized by electing T. C. Perrin, President; Judge D. L. Wardlaw, Col. John A. Calhoun, Dr. J. W. Hearts, Capt. John Brownlee, and Dr. John A. Logan, vice presidents, and James C. Calhoun and George McDuffie Miller, secretaries.

Hon. A. G. Magrath of Charleston was the first speaker and I remember his first sentence was, “The time for speaking has passed and the time for action has arrived.” He rolled his “rs” in fine style. He was a very handsome man and made a capital speech urging immediate action on the part of South Carolina at any and every hazard. He was followed by Hon. M. L. Bonham who also favored immediate action. Resolutions were unanimously adopted favoring secession of the state. A Committee of Twenty was appointed to select nominees for the Convention which met December 17, 1860. While this Committee was out, speeches were made by Samuel McGowan, W. C. Davis, and J. N. Cochran. The following gentlemen were elected to the Convention: Edward Noble, John A. Calhoun, Thomas Thomson, John H. Wilson, and D. L. Wardlaw. Called upon for an expression of views, each one endorsed the resolutions adopted which were published in the county newspapers. The speeches,

however, were crowded out and lost to the generations that came after.

It was not however the official action of the mass meeting that I now undertake to record. It is the small and commonplace incidents of the day. I came down with several students from Due West which was rather a conservative community, a place where the war spirit had not reached. Four of us did not join the procession but stood on the sidewalk where the post office now is. Near us was a great watch hung out as a sign that H. T. Tusten was in business there. W. W. Lindsay and I. L. Grier of Due West, Robert Yeldell of Alabama and I kept together during the day. Yeldell would not march in the procession because he was afraid of giving offense to Samuel Jordan, a kinsman, who held strong Union sentiments. We could not get near enough to hear much of the speeches and

Site of General Hampton’s Speech on Secession Hill, marking the spot where the first secession speeches were made

Part of the original monument that was destroyed by the fire under the Christmas Tree on Abbeville’s Court Square in 1991, moved to Secession Hill

so we sat down on the ground and watched the firing of a cannon at intervals during the meeting. It was all new to us and we wondered how anyone could stand before artillery. In time, however, we learned the lesson. The last I saw of Yeldell, he was a lieutenant in an Alabama artillery company with the army near Yorktown in 1862. I. L. Grier was killed at the battle of Gaines’ Mill. W. W. Lindsay was mortally wounded at Snicker’s Gap in Virginia, November 2, 1862 and died on the 20th day of the same month, and only I escaped to tell the story.

There was a man in the crowd that day from Turkey Creek on the Saluda side of the District. His name was Wesley A. Robertson. He was up in years, well past the military age, slender in figure, with keen eyes, and full of good humor. When Judge Wardlaw in his speech inquired what we would do if a revenue cutter of the U.S. Navy would come into Charleston harbor to collect duties on imports, W. W. Perryman made some interruption and Robertson shouted. “I’d wade in and sink her, blank her, sink her.” He never heard the last of it while the war went on. He was not the kind of man to help get up a fight and back out of it. He and his boys went to the front. He did all his age and strength would allow as a member of Co. G, Orr’s Rifles, the famous command. In the winter of 1863-1864 when camped near Orange, he was sent up in the mountains upon light duty to look after commissary supplies. Returning from his detail when he came in sight of the regiment, he wore a high crowned, white stove pipe hat and was mounted on a skewbald or calico horse. He was greeted with the cry, “sink her, blank her, sink her,” and received with the warmest welcome. No joke of his comrades ever disturbed his equanimity and the pleasure of his comrades in seeing him on this occasion was particularly enhanced by the fact that he had in his commissary wagon a barrel or two of eggs for Co. G., which he had received from the pretty mountain girls for telling their fortunes. He always told them

Grave of an Unknown Confederate Soldier, Secession Hill

something good and pleasant. After the close of hostilities, he went west and died in Texas in 1894. I write this narrative to keep in the minds of our people a son of Abbeville past the vigor of young manhood and gray haired, who fought a good fight and risked all for his home and friends.

Secession Hill, 2024

Historians help tell the story of Abbeville

By Henry E. Green

The past and the present seem to walk side by side here in Abbeville County, and perhaps that is why Dr. Lowry Ware was such a perfect fit for it.

Before his passing, Dr Ware was a walking encyclopedia of knowledge about all things relating to Abbeville County. He not only talked the talk, but he walked the walk as well, writing a number of books about Abbeville County history.

Old Abbeville is one of them-a work which draws heavily, interestingly enough, on the newspapers of the period for its sources.

There were descriptions of the Belmont Inn and the Opera House when the two opened in the first decade of the 20th century.

There was also a look at 19th century newspapers.

Dr. Ware was by no means the only historian. There was also Lester Ferguson, whose Southern Lifestyles Lost in Time was a collection of little glimpses of life in Abbeville County through the years.

One of those glimpses took in the tornado which devastated Abbeville and Calhoun Falls in the spring of 1973.

There was also a chapter devoted to cockfighting on an island in the Savannah River, and one which examined the life of a European who came to Abbeville and started a vineyard.

Ferguson often turned in articles to The Press and Banner, articles dealing largely with Abbeville County history.

Both Ware and Ferguson

have passed away, but their works remain influential. At least one reporter finds their books to be excellent resource material.

We Appreciate All Our Partners!

Presented by Flexible Technologies

KidZone sponsored by Stoll Industries

Event Sponsors

Self Regional Healthcare

WCTel

Surface Bella Gold Sponsors

Dunn & Shirley

Prysmian

Abbeville First

Hope South

The Renaissance

Abbeville Area Medical Center

Friend Sponsors

Hite and Stone

Village Grill

Artist Guild

Our Travel Partner