Reunion honors thousands of Marines who arrived at Yemassee depot
Roy Hughes doesn't know how many Marines have visited him over the years, but the number has to be in the upper hundreds, possibly even the thousands.
The Yemassee shopkeeper has owned a store across the street from the town's old train depot for 41 years. It's his proximity to the old depot -- and the depot's historic connection with Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island -- that brings in all those Marines. Hughes said they approach eager to talk about their first steps in the Lowcountry, their first steps as Marines.
Since 2003, Hughes and a committee of Yemassee residents have held a reunion for Marines each fall, to honor those who passed through the town on their way to basic training. In a ceremony Oct. 17, a plaque commemorating the depot and the Marines that moved through it will be unveiled outside the renovated depot, Hughes said.
THE REUNION
The depot, which straddles the boundary line between Beaufort and Hampton counties, is now a stop on Amtrak's Palmetto and Silver Meteor lines. But from 1915 to 1965, more than 500,000 recruits passed through the Yemassee Train Depot on their way to Parris Island for basic training.
Many of those Marines came back to "see where they had got off that train," Hughes said. After the train depot closed in the 1980s, they would come into Hughes' store across the tracks on Wall Street to ask if they were in the right place.
"They would come in and ask if that was where they had got off the train," he said. "They knew it was, but they just wanted to start a conversation about it."
Marines on their way to training would head to a receiving station in the town or would stay the night in barracks just north of the station. An old sidewalk and a new flagpole mark the spot where the barracks once stood. Down Wall Street from Hughes' store, a faded mural on the back of a church building reads, "Former Home of Marine Receiving Station."
Hughes said he wanted to hold a reunion after hearing from more and more Marines about their connection to Yemassee. A letter he received read, "My first step on Yemassee soil changed my life forever." That phrase is engraved on the new plaque, Hughes said.
Not all of the Marines that visit came through the depot, Hughes said. Some trek up to the town after Marine Corps graduation to learn the history of the old depot, and Hughes is happy to oblige.
After receiving the town's blessing to hold a reunion at the depot, Hughes and a committee put on the first one in September 2003. In subsequent years, reunions have been held at Parris Island and Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, drawing crowds of about 200 Marines from all over the United States, Hughes said.
THE DEPOT
Yemassee purchased the depot in 2010 from railroad company CSX for $1 and renovated it to resemble the station as it looked in the 1940s.
Since the restoration of the building's exterior was finished about two years ago, lack of funding has slowed progress on the rest of the work, Yemassee Mayor Jerry Cook said. A parking lot behind the station is expected to be completed in the next few weeks, but the facilities and interior space are still in limbo. Last month, town officials asked CSX for help in applying for grants, Cook said.
Hughes hopes to install the plaque next to a door facing the station's train platform. At last year's reunion, the committee asked for donations to fund the plaque. Although they came up short of their goal at the event, a Marine offered to cover the remaining amount after returning home from the reunion, Hughes said.
On Oct. 17 at 2 p.m., Hughes will unveil the plaque. It features a Marine Corps logo and an inscription commemorating the depot and the Marines. It also contains a four-word phrase Hughes finds meaning in: "Where it all began."
"The Marines who passed through here paved the road for all these Marines today," Hughes said.
Follow reporter Matt McNab at twitter.com/IPBG_Matt.
Related content:
This story was originally published September 21, 2014 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Reunion honors thousands of Marines who arrived at Yemassee depot."