Dr. Samuel Wingard Bookhart was born November 29, 1829, at his parents’ home in Orangeburgh District,
near the modern town of Elloree. His father was John Nicholas Bookhardt, and his mother was Elizabeth
Entzminger Bookhardt. She was born and spent her earliest years in Richland District, but as a young girl
went to live with her brother Christian Entzminger in Orangeburgh District. Christian Entzminger had no
children, so his nephew Samuel came to live with him as a young boy. About 1839, Christian Entzminger
purchased the estate lands of John Crim near what is now Blythewood and moved his household there. He
sent Sam Bookhart to Mr. Shelley’s preparatory school near Winnsboro. Sam entered the South Carolina
College in December 1846, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1849.
Sam then entered Medical College of South Carolina, graduating in1852 as a medical doctor. He only
practiced for a very few years, concentrating on planting and education. Christian Entzminger, in the
meantime, had become very involved in Baptist Church affairs. He was frequently a delegate to State
Conventions, was a trustee of the Furman College, and as he neared the end of his life, he endowed various
churches and causes with thousands of dollars of bequests. Sam Bookhart continued this service on the
board of trustees for Furman College. In 1854, Christian Entzminger parceled out his remaining real and
personal property to his nieces, nephews, and friends. To Samuel Bookhart he gave over 2000 acres of
land and some sixty slaves. Christian Entzminger died the next year at the age of 79. He was buried at
Santee Baptist Church in Orangeburgh District. Samuel then took up planting and married a local lady of
the Dutchman’s Creek section, Cynthia Elizabeth Durham, on December 11, 1855.
In 1856, Sam joined the Sandy Level Baptist Church, where he maintained his membership until his death
some 57 years later. Sandy Level was building a new building, which was dedicated in December of 1856.
Sam and Cynthia donated $700 towards the building and painting the sanctuary. By 1860, Sam determined
to begin teaching and purchased the “Belle Haven Institute” and moved its operations to Doko. It became
known as the “Blythewood Female Institute” and catered both to boarding students from throughout the
lower South and local girls as well. Several influential Baptists and S. C. College professors lectured on a
regular schedule. The school remained open throughout the War, closing only after Sherman’s Army had
passed through the community. The school buildings were actually set afire by Federal troops, but were
saved by the teachers, students, and servants. During this period, Sam and Asbury K. Durham, the pastor at
Sandy Level, began a Baptist newspaper called The Confederate Baptist that published throughout the war.
After the War Between the States, the Doko community was in dire straits. Many homes had been burned,
(including the plantation house Christian Entzminger had left Sam Bookhart), and those not destroyed had
all been ransacked. Sam Bookhart adjusted to the new realities. He began renting his lands to tenants or
farming it on shares. He also became the agent for several fertilizer companies as farmers realized that
their worn out soil needed rejuvenating. In 1867, the old Blythewood Institute was reopened as a private,
coeducational institution. It continued operations for some fifteen years. In the early 1880’s Sam and his
daughter Minnie went down to his old homeplace in Elloree to start and run the Elloree graded school,
splitting time between Elloree & Blythewood.
Sam had a close family connection around Blythewood. His sister Sallie was married to Rev. William
Elkin, a local surveyor, lumberman, and Baptist minister. He had two brothers, James A. & Luther
Bookhardt who lived in the community. James, known as “Jim”, had moved up from Elloree with his three
children in 1861 after losing his wife in childbirth. He remarried a Fairfield District lady, Harriet M.
Robertson, and reared four more children. James’ oldest daughter, Emma Missouri Bookhardt, married the
Rev. William Arnold Gaines, the pastor of Sandy Level Church in the 1880’s. A son of this union, Francis
Pendleton Gaines, was at various times the president of Wake Forest & Washington & Lee Universities..
Luther ran a plantation and a cotton gin. He married Rebecca Harrington, a student at the Blythewood
Institute, in 1864. He later moved his family to Helena, Arkansas. There were also many Entzminger and
Sharp aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Sam & Cynthia were married for 58 years. They reared a family of eight children, four of whom lived to
adulthood. Minnie never married. Lottie married the Rev. William T. Derieux. Maggie married Thomas
Black. Thomas William married Emma Burden. Their descendants today are scattered to the four winds,
with a few in the Columbia area. Samuel W. Bookhart died October 5, 1913, followed by his wife Cynthia
on April 27, 1914. They lie side by side, surrounded by children and grandchildren, in Sandy Level
Churchyard.