Dianah Johnson of White House Plantation

To continue telling a diverse history of the Revolution, the Museum and Berkeley 250 are working to research the lives of the War's Berkeley County women.

Formerly enslaved at White House Plantation in Goose Creek, Dianah Johnson was a teenager when she "ran off" in 1780. In November 1783, Dianah embarked from New York City on the L'Abondance, a British ship used to transport formerly-enslaved Black Americans to Nova Scotia. Nothing else is known of her life, though there is a marriage of a Dianah Johnson and Mingo Leslie in New York City in 1783. The embarkation list for the L’Abondance shows Mingo Leslie's name listed directly above Dianah's.

The image here comes from the "Book of Negroes," a list of nearly 3,000 Black refugees leaving the United States for Canada in 1783. There are several Berkeley County names in the document; more research is ongoing.

WWI Story: Florence Inez Meyers

Florence Inez Myers was born in Cordesville in December 1899. In her youth, she attended Carlisle Academy in Bamberg. Her family were farmers.

In October 1918, Myers enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve in Charleston. By the end of WWI, over 12,000 women served with the USNR. Myers was honorably discharged in July 1919.

After the war, Myers returned to Cordesville and farmed with her family. Within a few years, she had married and moved to North Charleston, where she shows up on the 1930 census with her husband and daughter. The Smiths lived in North Charleston through at least 1970, when Frank Smith, retired superintendent of Texaco, died.

Florence Myers Smith died in 1979 and is buried in Pinopolis.

Did you know Mrs. Smith? We'd love to have a photo to include in our database of WWI servicepeople.

Grave marker photo by Mike & Bushy Hartman on FindAGrave.

WWI Story: Ruth Evelyn Bunch

Ruth Evelyn Bunch was born in Town of St. Stephen, SC in February 1901. Her parents were Edward and Mary Bunch.

By the fall of 1918, Bunch had moved to Charleston. She enlisted as a Landsman, Yeoman (F), U.S. Naval Reserve Force in September; it's possible that she lied about her age, because the "The Official Roster of South Carolina Soldiers, Sailors and Marines in the World War" claims she was born in 1899. Bunch was stationed at the Navy Yard in Charleston until Armistice Day.

Bunch was discharged as a Yeoman (F) 3rd class in June 1920. Her occupation is listed as "civil service stenographer" on the 1920 census, and she worked as a stenographer at the Port Terminal
through at least 1921.

1920 census entry for Ruth E. Bunch (line 73).

By 1930, Bunch was married to accountant Harry Walker and living in Atlanta. Harry Walker had also been in the service, a sergeant in the Quartermaster Corps. Their time in Atlanta must have been brief, because they were living in the Charleston area again by 1935 and through Harry's death in 1967.

Bunch lived a long life, dying in Florida in 1991.