In the early 1800s, John Dimery and his wife, Elizabeth, purchased 300 acres of land near Dog Bluff, in Horry County, South Carolina. Soon joined by other families listed in census records as “mulatto”, a catch-all term for people of mixed ethnic backgrounds or non-White, non-enslaved people, they formed a small, insular farming community. According to the Horry Herald, April 23, 1921, “They are mixed as to race, claiming that they have Indian blood in their veins.” Over the years, the Dimery settlement grew to include the Cook, Thompkins, Hatcher, Turner, Cooper, and Elvis families, and constructed two churches and a school.
The Pine Level School, unofficially known as the Dimery School, served an interesting role in Jim Crow era South Carolina where segregated schools were the law, but being neither Black nor White, the Dimery settlement children didn’t fit in existing schools. An article in the Horry Herald from October 18, 1923, explained, “There was a proposition made in line with the petition to set apart what is known as the Pine Level School in the Rehobeth District as a school which could be attended by the Dimery people and their relatives, and by people of the like kind from other school districts in that part of Horry County.”
The Waccamaw Indian People trace their ancestry back to the original Dimery Settlement residents. Though Waccamaw tribal members today live throughout Horry County, South Carolina, and beyond, the Dimery Settlement and the Dog Bluff area of Horry County retain an important place in the history and identity of the Waccamaw Indian People today.