Cheraw, South Carolina
Encyclopedia
Cheraw is a town on the Pee Dee River
in Chesterfield County
, South Carolina
, United States
. The population was 5,524 at the 2000 census and center of an urban cluster with a total population of 9,069. It has been nicknamed "The Prettiest Town in Dixie." The harbor tub USS Cheraw
was named in the town's honor.
of the Pee Dee River
. According to the United States Census Bureau
, the town has a total area of 4.6 square miles (11.9 km²), of which, 4.6 square miles (11.9 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square mile (0.1035995244 km²) of it (0.65%) is water.
of 2000, there were 5,524 people, 2,290 households, and 1,470 families residing in the town. The population density
was 1,197.6 people per square mile (462.7/km²). There were 2,568 housing units at an average density of 556.7 per square mile (215.1/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 52.2% African American, 45.8% White, 0.4% Native American, 0.81% Asian, 0.31% from other races
, and 0.54% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.80% of the population.
There were 2,290 households out of which 31.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.4% were married couples
living together, 25.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.8% were non-families. 33.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.32 and the average family size was 2.96.
In the town the population was spread out with 26.5% under the age of 18, 7.6% from 18 to 24, 24.4% from 25 to 44, 22.7% from 45 to 64, and 18.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 78.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 70.7 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $21,897, and the median income for a family was $31,136. Males had a median income of $27,405 versus $22,003 for females. The per capita income
for the town was $13,801. About 27.3% of families and 32.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 43.1% of those under age 18 and 21.9% of those age 65 or over.
Cheraw is the center of an urban cluster with a total population of 9,069 (2000 census).
American Indian
tribes. The Cheraw lived near the river hill, near present-day Cheraw, but by the 1730s they had been devastated by disease. Survivors joined the Catawba Confederacy for safety and left their name in history. Only a few scattered Cheraw families remained by the time of the American Revolution
. A few European settlers entered their territory in the 1730s, forced upriver when the Welsh
came to claim the Welsh Baptist
lands granted by the English government in the area around Society Hill. Many of the early settlers around the 1740s in Cheraw were ethnic English
, Scots
, French
Huguenots, or Irish
.
By 1750, Cheraw had become an established Anglo-American village with a growing river trade, one of the first inland villages. It was one of only six places in South Carolina that appeared on English maps. In the 1760s, Joseph and Eli Kershaw were granted the part of Cheraw that is now the downtown historic district. The Kershaws laid out a formal street system. By 1830 settlers lined all the streets with rows of elms. The Kershaws originally called the town Chatham, but people never accepted this name, continuing to call it Cheraw or Cheraw Hill.
It was incorporated as a town in 1820. In 1819, the first steamboat
came up river, and along with it a burst of prosperity. The main crops from the Cheraw area were corn
, cotton
, tobacco
, rice
and indigo
. Cheraw had the largest cotton market between Georgetown, South Carolina
and Wilmington, North Carolina
. Because of the cotton trade, the town boasted the largest bank in South Carolina outside of Charleston
before the American Civil War
. Despite a serious fire in 1835, by 1850 the town was prosperous center of trade.
. This lack of organization and unrest was an underlying cause of the resentment people of these areas felt toward the British crown. In the Pee Dee area, planters organized a group called the Regulators
to help bring order to the area. In 1768 the St. David’s Parish, the last Anglican Church built in South Carolina under King George III, was established to help serve the civic and religious needs of the Cheraw area. Later a Judicial District and courthouse were established to help deal with the problem of order. However, there was still much discontent with the ruling authority and in May of 1776 the grand jury of the Cheraws District Two declared its independence from Great Britain
.
Many area men played prominent roles in the American Revolution
. These men included Claudius Pegues, General Henry W. Harrington, the Ellerbe brothers, Keader Keaton, Philip Pledger, and Eli Kershaw. The Benjamin Jackson family was also very active politically during this time. There was much unrest in the area during this time because Cheraw fell into part of the British
strategic line of defense. This British strategic line of defense was where garrisons were built to control revolutionaries and to encourage loyalists. Other towns in this line of defense included Camden
and Augusta
. It also became a strategic point for the Americans
. Military activity was especially heavy in Cheraw and surrounding counties from 1780-1781. During the Revolutionary war St. David’s Church was used as quarters for the South Carolina militia and as a hospital for the British troops under Major McArthur, who under Lord Cornwallis’s command. In December of 1780, just across from Cheraw, American commander General Nathanael Greene
set up a “camp of repose" to rest and train his men.
, Cheraw citizens played a key role in South Carolina’s Secession from the Union. On November 19, 1860 the first call for secession in a public meeting was made at the Chesterfield County Courthouse. John A. Inglis of Cheraw was in attendance. He later introduced the resolution for South Carolina to secede. Inglis was also named the chairman of the committee that wrote the document for South Carolina
’s secession.
From the beginning of the war, Cheraw was known as a place for refuge and a storehouse for valuables. In March 1865, General William T. Sherman brought his Union troops to Cheraw for several days. One Union soldier said that they found Cheraw to be “a pleasant town and an old one with the Southern aristocratic bearing.” Sherman used this as a time to gain more control over his men. No private dwellings or public buildings in Cheraw were destroyed by Sherman and his troops. However, an accidental explosion of captured gunpowder at the river hill burned the Cheraw business district. The county courthouse in Chesterfield
was burned. Thus, it is difficult to date many of the properties.
During the Civil War, St. David’s Church was used as a hospital by both the Confederate
and Union armies. Some troops from both armies were buried there. The first Confederate Monument was erected there in 1867. Originally, the monument did not mention the Confederate soldiers because the area was still occupied by Federal troops.
The Civil War caused great economic hardship in Cheraw, as it did in the entire South. However by the early 1900s, prosperity began to return to Cheraw. The Great Depression again brought change. Cheraw State Park and Sandhills State Forest were both founded in the 1930s. By the 1950s and 1960s the groundwork was laid for industrial growth. By the end of the 20th century, Cheraw had a balanced industrial base while maintaining its historic charm, architectural treasures and natural resources.
(born October 21, 1917, Cheraw, South Carolina; died January 6, 1993, Englewood, New Jersey)
With his great ballooning cheeks and trademark trumpet's bell upturned at a 45-degree angle, Dizzy Gillespie easily has the most recognizable face in jazz.
He is also easily one of the most influential figures in that most American of musical forms, having first revolutionized jazz in the 40s by being one of the acknowledged inventors of bebop; and then again in the decades that followed when he championed the rich rhythms of Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, and Brazilian music that, to a large extent, still dominate jazz to this very day.
Born John Birks Gillespie, Dizzy moved to Philadelphia with his family at age 18 and joined Frankie Fairfax's band before moving on to New York City and Teddy Hill's big band in 1937, Later he played with all the greats—Ella Fitzgerald. Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Earl Hines, and Billie Holliday. He met saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker in 1940 and soon was jamming with Parker, Thelonious Monk, and others. It was in this hothouse atmosphere of creativity that Gillespie and his cohorts astonished the world with their aggressive ornamentations, complex harmonic alterations, and rhythmic exploration that would soon be labeled "bebop." "What they did was like nitroglycerine, electricity," says Quincy Jones. "They broke all the rules, changed the world concert of American music."
Not all audiences and critics fell immediately in love with these new, often strange sounds. Gillespie, however, was a natural public relations man for this music with his hair-raising technical virtuousity, harmonic adventurousness, and most of all, integrating showmanship. He was, in fact, the first jazz artist to be sent abroad under the auspices of the United States government, spreading American goodwill and good music around the world.
Gillespie's legacy is probably best summed up by Gillespie himself in a statement that would sound a bit arrogant if it weren't so probable: "The music of Charlie Parker and me laid a foundation for all the music that is being played now. . . . Our music is going to be the classical music of the future."
And just how did Gillespie end up with that bizarre, trademark trumpet of his? The bent-bell trumpet got its start in 1953 when someone fell on his trumpet stand backstage; Gillespie liked the sound of the altered instrument so much that his trumpets were specially made from then on.
Pee Dee River
The Pee Dee River, also known as the Great Pee Dee River, is a river in North Carolina and South Carolina. It originates in the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, where its upper course above the mouth of the Uwharrie River is known as the Yadkin River. It is extensively dammed for flood...
in Chesterfield County
Chesterfield County, South Carolina
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 42,768 people, 16,557 households, and 11,705 families residing in the county. The population density was 54 people per square mile . There were 18,818 housing units at an average density of 24 per square mile...
, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 5,524 at the 2000 census and center of an urban cluster with a total population of 9,069. It has been nicknamed "The Prettiest Town in Dixie." The harbor tub USS Cheraw
USS Cheraw (YTB-802)
USS Cheraw was a United States Navy large district harbor tug named for Cheraw, South Carolina.-Construction and commissioning:The contract for Cheraw was awarded 2 May 1968...
was named in the town's honor.
Geography
Cheraw is at the fall lineFall line
A fall line is a geomorphologic unconformity between an upland region of relatively hard crystalline basement rock and a coastal plain of softer sedimentary rock. A fall line is typically prominent when crossed by a river, for there will often be rapids or waterfalls...
of the Pee Dee River
Pee Dee River
The Pee Dee River, also known as the Great Pee Dee River, is a river in North Carolina and South Carolina. It originates in the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, where its upper course above the mouth of the Uwharrie River is known as the Yadkin River. It is extensively dammed for flood...
. According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the town has a total area of 4.6 square miles (11.9 km²), of which, 4.6 square miles (11.9 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square mile (0.1035995244 km²) of it (0.65%) is water.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 5,524 people, 2,290 households, and 1,470 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,197.6 people per square mile (462.7/km²). There were 2,568 housing units at an average density of 556.7 per square mile (215.1/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 52.2% African American, 45.8% White, 0.4% Native American, 0.81% Asian, 0.31% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.54% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.80% of the population.
There were 2,290 households out of which 31.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.4% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 25.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.8% were non-families. 33.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.32 and the average family size was 2.96.
In the town the population was spread out with 26.5% under the age of 18, 7.6% from 18 to 24, 24.4% from 25 to 44, 22.7% from 45 to 64, and 18.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 78.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 70.7 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $21,897, and the median income for a family was $31,136. Males had a median income of $27,405 versus $22,003 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $13,801. About 27.3% of families and 32.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 43.1% of those under age 18 and 21.9% of those age 65 or over.
Cheraw is the center of an urban cluster with a total population of 9,069 (2000 census).
Town origins
At the time of European encounter, the original inhabitants of the area were the Cheraw and Pee DeePee Dee (tribe)
The Pee Dee tribe are a nation of Native Americans of the southeast United States, especially the Low Country of present-day South Carolina. Several tribes are recognized by the state, although none has federal recognition. The Pee Dee River and the Pee Dee region of South Carolina were named for...
American Indian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
tribes. The Cheraw lived near the river hill, near present-day Cheraw, but by the 1730s they had been devastated by disease. Survivors joined the Catawba Confederacy for safety and left their name in history. Only a few scattered Cheraw families remained by the time of the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
. A few European settlers entered their territory in the 1730s, forced upriver when the Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
came to claim the Welsh Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
lands granted by the English government in the area around Society Hill. Many of the early settlers around the 1740s in Cheraw were ethnic English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
, Scots
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
, French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
Huguenots, or Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
.
By 1750, Cheraw had become an established Anglo-American village with a growing river trade, one of the first inland villages. It was one of only six places in South Carolina that appeared on English maps. In the 1760s, Joseph and Eli Kershaw were granted the part of Cheraw that is now the downtown historic district. The Kershaws laid out a formal street system. By 1830 settlers lined all the streets with rows of elms. The Kershaws originally called the town Chatham, but people never accepted this name, continuing to call it Cheraw or Cheraw Hill.
It was incorporated as a town in 1820. In 1819, the first steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
came up river, and along with it a burst of prosperity. The main crops from the Cheraw area were corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
, tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
, rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
and indigo
Indigo
Indigo is a color named after the purple dye derived from the plant Indigofera tinctoria and related species. The color is placed on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nm in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet...
. Cheraw had the largest cotton market between Georgetown, South Carolina
Georgetown, South Carolina
Georgetown is the third oldest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina and the county seat of Georgetown County, in the Low Country. Located on Winyah Bay at the confluence of the Great Pee Dee River, Waccamaw River, and Sampit River, Georgetown is the second largest seaport in South Carolina,...
and Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...
. Because of the cotton trade, the town boasted the largest bank in South Carolina outside of Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
before the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Despite a serious fire in 1835, by 1850 the town was prosperous center of trade.
The American Revolution
There was a lack of organization and rule during the beginning of the 1740s in the backcountry of South CarolinaSouth Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
. This lack of organization and unrest was an underlying cause of the resentment people of these areas felt toward the British crown. In the Pee Dee area, planters organized a group called the Regulators
War of the Regulation
The War of the Regulation was a North Carolina uprising, lasting from approximately 1760 to 1771, in which citizens took up arms against corrupt colonial officials...
to help bring order to the area. In 1768 the St. David’s Parish, the last Anglican Church built in South Carolina under King George III, was established to help serve the civic and religious needs of the Cheraw area. Later a Judicial District and courthouse were established to help deal with the problem of order. However, there was still much discontent with the ruling authority and in May of 1776 the grand jury of the Cheraws District Two declared its independence from Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
.
Many area men played prominent roles in the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
. These men included Claudius Pegues, General Henry W. Harrington, the Ellerbe brothers, Keader Keaton, Philip Pledger, and Eli Kershaw. The Benjamin Jackson family was also very active politically during this time. There was much unrest in the area during this time because Cheraw fell into part of the British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
strategic line of defense. This British strategic line of defense was where garrisons were built to control revolutionaries and to encourage loyalists. Other towns in this line of defense included Camden
Camden, South Carolina
Camden is the fourth oldest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina and is also the county seat of Kershaw County, South Carolina, United States. The population was an estimated 7,103 in 2009...
and Augusta
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...
. It also became a strategic point for the Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Military activity was especially heavy in Cheraw and surrounding counties from 1780-1781. During the Revolutionary war St. David’s Church was used as quarters for the South Carolina militia and as a hospital for the British troops under Major McArthur, who under Lord Cornwallis’s command. In December of 1780, just across from Cheraw, American commander General Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. When the war began, Greene was a militia private, the lowest rank possible; he emerged from the war with a reputation as George Washington's most gifted and dependable officer. Many places in the United...
set up a “camp of repose" to rest and train his men.
The Civil War
Leading up to the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Cheraw citizens played a key role in South Carolina’s Secession from the Union. On November 19, 1860 the first call for secession in a public meeting was made at the Chesterfield County Courthouse. John A. Inglis of Cheraw was in attendance. He later introduced the resolution for South Carolina to secede. Inglis was also named the chairman of the committee that wrote the document for South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
’s secession.
From the beginning of the war, Cheraw was known as a place for refuge and a storehouse for valuables. In March 1865, General William T. Sherman brought his Union troops to Cheraw for several days. One Union soldier said that they found Cheraw to be “a pleasant town and an old one with the Southern aristocratic bearing.” Sherman used this as a time to gain more control over his men. No private dwellings or public buildings in Cheraw were destroyed by Sherman and his troops. However, an accidental explosion of captured gunpowder at the river hill burned the Cheraw business district. The county courthouse in Chesterfield
Chesterfield, South Carolina
Chesterfield is a town in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 1472 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Chesterfield County...
was burned. Thus, it is difficult to date many of the properties.
During the Civil War, St. David’s Church was used as a hospital by both the Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
and Union armies. Some troops from both armies were buried there. The first Confederate Monument was erected there in 1867. Originally, the monument did not mention the Confederate soldiers because the area was still occupied by Federal troops.
The Civil War caused great economic hardship in Cheraw, as it did in the entire South. However by the early 1900s, prosperity began to return to Cheraw. The Great Depression again brought change. Cheraw State Park and Sandhills State Forest were both founded in the 1930s. By the 1950s and 1960s the groundwork was laid for industrial growth. By the end of the 20th century, Cheraw had a balanced industrial base while maintaining its historic charm, architectural treasures and natural resources.
The Arts of Cheraw
- John Birks Gillespie aka "Dizzy" Gillespie
(born October 21, 1917, Cheraw, South Carolina; died January 6, 1993, Englewood, New Jersey)
With his great ballooning cheeks and trademark trumpet's bell upturned at a 45-degree angle, Dizzy Gillespie easily has the most recognizable face in jazz.
He is also easily one of the most influential figures in that most American of musical forms, having first revolutionized jazz in the 40s by being one of the acknowledged inventors of bebop; and then again in the decades that followed when he championed the rich rhythms of Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, and Brazilian music that, to a large extent, still dominate jazz to this very day.
Born John Birks Gillespie, Dizzy moved to Philadelphia with his family at age 18 and joined Frankie Fairfax's band before moving on to New York City and Teddy Hill's big band in 1937, Later he played with all the greats—Ella Fitzgerald. Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Earl Hines, and Billie Holliday. He met saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker in 1940 and soon was jamming with Parker, Thelonious Monk, and others. It was in this hothouse atmosphere of creativity that Gillespie and his cohorts astonished the world with their aggressive ornamentations, complex harmonic alterations, and rhythmic exploration that would soon be labeled "bebop." "What they did was like nitroglycerine, electricity," says Quincy Jones. "They broke all the rules, changed the world concert of American music."
Not all audiences and critics fell immediately in love with these new, often strange sounds. Gillespie, however, was a natural public relations man for this music with his hair-raising technical virtuousity, harmonic adventurousness, and most of all, integrating showmanship. He was, in fact, the first jazz artist to be sent abroad under the auspices of the United States government, spreading American goodwill and good music around the world.
Gillespie's legacy is probably best summed up by Gillespie himself in a statement that would sound a bit arrogant if it weren't so probable: "The music of Charlie Parker and me laid a foundation for all the music that is being played now. . . . Our music is going to be the classical music of the future."
And just how did Gillespie end up with that bizarre, trademark trumpet of his? The bent-bell trumpet got its start in 1953 when someone fell on his trumpet stand backstage; Gillespie liked the sound of the altered instrument so much that his trumpets were specially made from then on.
Educational institutions
- Cheraw Primary School
- Cheraw Intermediate School
- Long Middle School
- Cheraw High School
- Northeastern Technical College
Further reading
- Cheraw Visitors Bureau. Confederate War Sites: Cheraw, South Carolina. Cheraw Visitors Bureau, 2000.
- Cheraw Visitors Bureau. Old St. David's Church. Cheraw Visitors Bureau, 2000.
- Cheraw Visitors Bureau. A Guide to the Cheraw Historic District. Cheraw Visitors Bureau, 2006
- Spruill, Sarah. Cheraw and the American Revolution. Cheraw Visitors Bureau, 2003.