The Yorkville Enquirer reported on July 25, 1888 – “In the Bullocks Creek news, it was reported that S.M. McNeal, the popular and successful merchant is speaking of moving to Yorkville this fall.”
City Directories and History: In the latter 1830s or early 1840s, James A. McCool owned and operated a store on the Pinckneyville Ferry Road about a mile or so from where the Bullocks Creek Community now stands. Among the private papers of Osborne Dickson of Lockhart is a document dated in 1845 and is a petition for a public road. The petition asked that a road be constructed that would run from a point near McCool’s store on Pinckneyville Road to the mill of A.
W. Osborne located on Lockhart Shoals. The signers of the petition were: James G. Robinson (1799-1874), John L. Carroll, John Gillmore, Madison Sherer, John Jamison (1787-1851), William Hamilton (1808-1882), John W. Gowan, Hezekiah Sanders, Loftin Sherer, Robin Wilson, William Black, William Sherer, Thomas Sherer, Thomas Love (1814-1873), James M. Love, Samuel Kirkpatrick (1818-1884) and James A. McCool. It is believed this petition was granted and a road was opened on the Pinckneyville Road below the Nelson home through Thomson*s Quarters to the Osborne home in Chester County.
As far as anyone can recall, the first store operated in Bullocks Creek Community was owned and operated by G. L. McNeil. On May 3, 1858, McNeil purchased 176 acres of land from John G. Davidson (1805-1861), this land was located on Love’s Ford Road (now Lockhart Road) and had been part of the original land granted to the Presbyterian Church. This land had been conveyed to Davidson by the Presbyterian congregation on March 2, 1847. Dr. Samuel A. Smith commented on McNeil in his journal, writing: “He is a clever man in many respects: he councils all men for the best.”
In the 1870s, McNeil sold his house and store to W. Banks Good and moved to Cherokee Falls to establish a new business and later locating in York. Banks Good, with the help of his sons, earned a good profit from the business in Bullocks Creek until he sold out to John A. McAlily (1878-1939) in 1918. He sold his home (the McNeil house) and all his holdings on the west side of the road to McAlily, and in the following year he sold the store and his sons house on the east side to Porter B. Good, who moved his family from Thomson Quarters. Porter Good moved his gin from its location (where James Gilchrist now operates a dairy), and constructed a sawmill near the store. In 1929,
the Piedmont Farm House of the Good family burned to the ground, and Good built a large brick home on the same site. In 1963, L. H. West purchased the house and store from the Good estate. West dismantled the old store built by McNeil and built a cement block building and opened the store once again.
When John McAlily purchased the McNeil house in 1918, he built a small store across the road from the Good store and operated it for several years, later renting the building to Turner McCarter, who was a mechanic. In the 1940s this building was moved by the Bankhead family to a location behind their home (the McNeil house) and is now being used as a seed and grain building. The building is 14 feet by 28 feet. Before the McAliley family sold out and went to Rock Hill, Albert Purcell (1862-1914) purchased a narrow strip of land between the church and the McAliley store; here he built a store building. Purcell did blacksmithing, corn-grinding, mechanics and sold a small line of merchandise. It is reported that he even build a two-horse wagon in the shop. After his death, his brother, Homer, rented the building and continued the services until about 1955. In 1970, the church purchased the property and dismantled the building. From the closing of the Purcell store and until 1963 when West opened his business, Bullocks Creek did not have a store.
Throughout the years other small stores were in operation in the area; Haskell D. Cranford ran one out of the rear of his home until the mid 1940s; Lon Dowdle had a small store on Highway 322 until 1923; and, of course, the John M. Sherer store that was inherited by Kell Inman and was operated until the 1920s. Almost from the beginning, the post office of Bullocks Creek has been associated with the local mercantile business. The first record we have shows that in 1853, J. G. Davidson was the postmaster of Bullocks Creek. It is possible that McNeil became the postmaster and had the office either in his home or his place of business. Some of the older citizens can recall that the post office was located for a while in the home of Banks Good after he purchased it from McNeil. Shortly, Good moved the office to the store and it remained there until 1919, when it was then moved to the home of Haskell Cranford.
There it remained until it was consolidated with the post office at Sharon. In 1909, John W. McAlily was the mail carrier and remained the carrier until just before 1919. Will Feemster then took over, first picking up the mail at the Good store and then later at the Cranford home. Due to his health, Feemster retired and Lester Cranford temporarily carried the mail until a new carrier could be found. Tom Sims was the last carrier before consolidation with the Sharon post office. At the turn of the century, the area had several offices: Hopewell, S. C.; Cotton, S. C.; and Gould, S. C.
Article contributed to R&R by J.L. West
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