City Directories and History: The historic community of Smith’s Turnout, established on Nov. 15, 1852, at the Chester-York County line was once a busy agricultural and business center for the rural community. The community sprang up due to the coming of the Augusta and Charlotte railroad which further connected Rock Hill and Chester by rail for the first time. Initially, Rock Hill was simply another whistle stop on the tracks just as was Smith’s Turnout. The community prospered and there were several stores, a school, homes, two cotton gins, a grist mill, cotton warehouses, and two churches. In 2012, there is little to remind one of the days when farmers took their crops to this location for ginning, market and visiting doctors from Rock Hill or Chester stepped off the train to help the sick. Frank Strait, Jr., M.D. from Rock Hill would often make visits to the area because it was from this section of the region that his family had originally settled. Curwood Chappell has often stated, ” it was Dr. Strait who he met at the train to drive around the farms of his father to look after their farm hands.”
Smith’s was also a place of education and a post office was located here. Though the school has long disappeared, the Chappell children, and many others from the area, attended a one room school house which was located on the east side of Chappell Road on what is today the Miller farm. Most of the dwellings were frame one story houses or storage facilities for cotton built from the late 19th century to the 1920’s. These buildings were nettled around the railroad crossing that offered transportation for both commerce and passengers.
Besides the Chappell family who’s children attended the school, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Wooten who lived here were also prominent members of the community who owned extensive land as did the Millers, Neelys, and Reid families.
The 1860 census also list Mr. John B. Reid of Smith’s Turnout as a professional cabinet maker.
Informative link: One Hundred Years
Please enjoy this structure and all those listed in Roots and Recall. But remembers each is private property. So view them from a distance or from a public area such as the sidewalk or public road.
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