Hester Store Then and Now

Frank Hester in front of Hester Store
Photo by Down Home

Hester Store is a landmark in Dacusville that stands at the corner of Thomas Mill and Hester Store Road.  Hester Store was only one place of business here.  It was operated for many years by Anne Hester, maiden sister of Frank Hester, who kept a very good line of general merchandise.  After Miss Hester died, he kept the store open on a minimal basis.

The Hester family is a very old Dacusville family.  According to a history of the family that was written in 1964 by Miss Anne Hester, William Hester came down from Virginia to Pickens County around 1814.  They had a farm about two miles south of Dacusville and part, if not all of their eleven or more children, were born there.  They moved up to Oolenoy River after having crop failure during a dry year.  Available records show their children as Anne Hester Williams, Nancy Hester Banks, Betty Hester Hunt, Margaret Hester, Polly Hester, William Hester, Rob Hester, Jim Hester, Alec Hester, Henry Hester, and Joe Berry Hester.  Rob, Jim and William died while serving with Confederate Army.

William Hester was born in 1820 and in 1850 married Louisa Whitmire.  They settled on a farm on the southeast edge of Dacusville.  Their oldest child was Michael W. Hester (1854-1920) who married Nora Ann Boling.  Around 1880, Michael Hester bought about a hundred acres of land adjoining  his mother in Dacusville, and a part of this is now school grounds (1964) He built a store which he operated along with the farm.  Before he married Nora Ann Boling, he built a home near the store.  There he continued to operate the farm and store along with the post office and a cotton gin. In 1902, they bought a farm about three miles south of Dacusville building another store and cotton gin.

When Michael and Nora Hester moved from Dacusville to the present location of the Hester Store, they built a large -two story house.  The front of the house had a porch both upstairs and downstairs. "I remember the banisters and bay windows on the house", said granddaughter Usona Hughey Rochester. When my grandpartents died, Uncle Frank decided to build another house since the old one was just too hard to heat.  He saw a house in Greenville that he liked, so he had the builder copy it.  That's how the gray granite house came about.

The Hester home utilized some modern techniques to make life easier.  Like their neighbors to the west of them, the Lathems, they used a ram for pumping their water supply from a spring located across the road.  In addition to the store and cotton gin, they operated a grist mill in a two-story building.  The mill was upstairs, and there was a pea threshing machine in the basement.  A saw mill and blacksmith shop stood nearby.  At one point in time a Mr. Hinton operated a barber shop in the upstairs room of the store.

Before electrical power was available, Frank Hester installed a boiler system.  Steam from this unit generated electrical power that operated farm tools.  Mrs. Rochester did not recall any household use of this electricity.

While Anne Hester was living, she kept a good business going, said Mrs. Rochester.  She kept a good selection of merchandise, and I remember that she had a good display of clothing and shoes upstairs. After she died, Frank just kept the store open a little.  He enjoyed the social life of the store more than anything else and would just sit and talk forever.  Often when our mailman was late, we would say, "Oh! He's probably up at Hester's Store talking!"

The Hester farm and its many antique furnishings were sold at auction in 1982.  Although no one with the surname of Hester lives there today the family name is embellished in the memory of the older residents and will be perpetuated for future generations in the naming of Hester Store Road.

Article by "Down Home Dacusville Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" A Publication of Dacusville Middle School. 1995.

Rumor has it, Hester Store is haunted by an African American who was hung in the back of the store on an oak tree.  It has been said that you can still see him hanging at night.  It also has been said that you can see an old lady rocking in a rocking chair in the top window.

Photo by Falcone 

Hester Store was recently bought by Falcone Crawl Space & Structural Repair to rehabilitate and turn it into their SC Upcountry office.  On their website they state, "We purchased Hester Store from Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation, with a commitment to stabilize, repair, and reopen a store for the Dacusville Community."  When word got out into our community we were excited to see that someone was going to restore the old Hester Store. This excitement was short lived when the news of a distillery was going to be placed in Hester Store. On Falcone's Facebook page they stated, "In 2015, Hester Store will be home to General Store Brandy, a micro-distillery will craft small batch brandy from in season local fruit.  We will be offering tours and tastings up to three, 1/2 oz. samples."  They go on to say that preserving the history of the building and our dedication to being "Good Neighbors" to the folks of Dacusville for many years to come.

Pastor Paul Turner of Mt. Carmel Baptist church discussing
the distillery with Pastor Melissa Albertson from LIFEchurch 

Mt. Carmel Baptist Church hosted a "Town Hall" type of meeting on September 8th for anyone that wanted to join together for prayer to ask God to prevent the distillery from being placed in Hester Store. The community is concerned about the schools being so close to the distillery.  Release Time allows schools to accommodate their schedules to a program of outside religious instructions. LIFEchurch host Release Time for Dacusville Middle School, each day 80-100 of our children will be passing by the distillery through out the day. 

On Monday, September 8th many churches joined in for prayer and discussion of the distillery. It was announced that a hearing will go before a Judge in Columbia on Wednesday, October 1 to deny the distillery being placed in Hester Store.  Paul Turner, Pastor of Mt. Carmel has called for another prayer meeting to take place on Thursday, September 25th at 7:00 pm to pray before the case goes before the Judge. If you are concerned about a distillery coming into our Dacusville Community please join us for prayer on Thursday.  We as a community want to protect our children and families, and we feel like a distillery in the heart of Dacusville is not a representation of our great community.

For More Information:

Mt. Carmel Baptist Church http://mtcarmeleasley.org/

Falcone's Website http://falconecrawlspace.com/historic/ 

Falcone's Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/hesterstore