Until his death in 2009, two weeks shy of his 97th birthday, Simmons fashioned more than 500 pieces of ornamental wrought-iron gates, fences, balconies and window grills that adorn many of Charleston’s homes; some historic and others not so well known. He is best known for his gates. The Smithsonian Institution has his “Star and Fish” gate on display in Washington, D.C. Others are displayed at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia and the Charleston Visitor Center on Meeting Street.
Harold Lincoln’s cousin, the late Philip Simmons is a national treasure.
The Cooper River took Simmons from his birthplace on Daniel Island to Charleston, where he became a nationally known blacksmith and artisan.
“We used to call this Dan’s Island,” Simmons, 93, said in his usual slow, instructive tone of voice in late fall of 2005. “That name hold fast until the Northerners start calling it by its right name.
Everybody on this island made a living either hunting, fishing or farming. Everything we had on the table came from that island. On the farm we cured our meats such as pork, beef, chicken and wild game. Everything in the air, we eat that. Everything in the water, we eat that.”
Until his death in 2009, two weeks shy of his 97th birthday, Simmons fashioned more than 500 pieces of ornamental wrought-iron gates, fences, balconies and window grills that adorn many of Charleston’s homes; some historic and others not so well known. He is best known for his gates. The Smithsonian Institution has his “Star and Fish” gate on display in Washington, D.C. Others are displayed at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia and the Charleston Visitor Center on Meeting Street.
His gates include images of birds, fish, trees and stars — all elements of his boyhood surroundings. The works are accented with whimsical touches and graceful scrolls. Simmons also hammered hot metal into the shape of a gazebo that stands in the lobby at the Charleston International Airport.
The wall of his tiny office in his Blake Street home on Charleston’s east side was crammed with mementos and accolades, including South Carolina’s highest civilian honor, the Order of the Palmetto; a South Carolina Folk Heritage Award; and a certificate noting his induction into the South Carolina Hall of Fame. His office was a mini-museum that included a photo of him with President Ronald Reagan at the White House and another with Peter Simmons (no relation), the man who taught him the blacksmith trade.
That fall in 2005, Philip Simmons reminisced about his early life as he toured Daniel Island by car. The area had changed drastically since he left at age 8 to attend school in Charleston and begin his apprenticeship. Philip Simmons was born June 9, 1912, in his grandfather’s house, surrounded by a field of nutgrass on the Wando River side of Daniel Island in an area called the Furman Tract. His grandparents, William and Sarah Buncombe Simmons, raised him. His grandmother was Cherokee. “I heard that my great-granddaddy was a slave,” he said.
“I worked on the farm as an eight-year-old boy. I picked up white potatoes. We worked on the American Fruit Growers’ farm. There were more blacks than whites on Daniel Island. Black people were making $1 a day. Everything you picked we shipped it north. Back in those days whites and blacks got along because they lived closer together.”
About 100 families lived on Daniel and St. Thomas islands at that time, he said. “A lot of local people worked for American Fruit Growers Company and a lot of people came from elsewhere to work on the farm. They came from St. Stephen, Bonneau and Moncks Corner to get that dollar-a-day job.”
Simmons said he could pick about three bags of potatoes a day, but because he was a boy, he was paid only 50 cents a day plus an additional 10 cents per bag. A horse-drawn plow turned the soil followed by workers who collected the potatoes. Simmons worked in the field for a year. “It was hard work, bending your back all day. We started about 9 a.m., stopped at noon, back at 1 and worked until 5 p.m. I worked during the potato, cabbage and bean seasons. I came (to Charleston) when I was eight years old to go to school. I first went to school on Daniels Island in St. Luke Church and St. James Church. Our parents would go to the school early and start a fire so it would be warm by the time the children got there. I worked more than I went to school.
“I first went to Charleston on the ferry. The 8 a.m. boat from Cainhoy would stop and pick up passengers from Daniel Island. I paid 15 cents to come on the boat. My mother paid 25 cents.”
Simmons left Daniel Island with his friend Reuben Mitchell, who was five years older. “I can’t remember what I had for dinner yesterday, but I can remember all of my friends. I was following him. He was like a big brother to me. Our parents decided to send us to Charleston for a better education. I left Daniel Island during Hoover time and moved to 9 Vernon Street in the city. I lived with my mother, Rosa Simmons.”
Simmons was glad to leave Daniel Island in 1920 because he wanted to live “in the big city.” Rosa Simmons enrolled her son in Buist Elementary School at the east end of Calhoun Street, not far from the Cooper River. Philip was one of about 700 students on the first day of classes at the new three-story brick school. After graduating from Buist after the sixth grade, he went to the Burke school on the west side of Charleston’s peninsula. Charleston had about 15 blacksmith shops when Simmons arrived in the city from Daniel Island. Not only was he excited to see the city but the blacksmith shop sparked his interest even more. “The horses and wagons! The horses were kicking up! There was Peter (Simmons) and another man, Jim Davis. They were partners.”
Peter Simmons opened his Calhoun Street business in 1890 on Charleston’s east side. He was one of nine black men employed in the trade and one of four in a five-block area along the waterfront. Peter Simmons was part Cherokee, too. “He was like a father to me. His blacksmith shop was near Vernon Street. He wouldn’t hire me at eight years old … Peter was careful. He said, ‘Boy, I can’t hire you until you get to 13, when you can take care of yourself.’ ”
So, Philip Simmons went to school, sold the Charleston Evening Post newspaper and shined shoes until he was old enough to learn blacksmithing. “The paper cost a nickel, the same price for a shoeshine.”
When he reached 13, Philip returned to Peter’s shop, which had been moved closer to the river. “I had it made then. I used to come out of school and go into the blacksmith shop. The first thing I made was an ice pick.” Years later, Simmons fashioned hand-held hooks that dock workers used to load bales of cotton on cargo ships.
Peter turned the business over to Philip in the early 1930s and moved across the Cooper River where he set up another shop in Mount Pleasant near Shem Creek. After working in his Calhoun Street shop, Philip would take the ferry over to help Peter in Mount Pleasant. Peter died in 1953, two days shy of his 98th birthday.
Philip Simmons was on his own when the country went to war. “Ididn’t go into World War II. I think one of the reasons is that I was in the blacksmith shop and they needed all of the tradesmen here. I think that’s transportation, it had a direct affect on his business. He was 16 years old when the John P. Grace Bridge across the Cooper River opened in 1929, linking Charleston with Mount Pleasant and beyond. “I thought that was the best thing that could have happened,” although most blacksmith shops closed as cars increased in popularity. “People asked me, ‘What are you going to do now?’” Simmons began to make iron gates. “The first gate I made was for (Charleston clothier) Jack Krawcheck in 1944.”
Do you have a gate in Cainhoy?
“Let me see. In ‘Cain Hi’ I have a step railing up there,” he said, referring to those at Guggenheim’s mansion at Cain Hoy Plantation. After Harold Lincoln introduced Simmons to Guggenheim, the millionaire commissioned the blacksmith to make the railing. Upon completion in July 1963, Guggenheim paid Simmons $18.
Do you have a gate on Daniel Island?
“I have an entire park!” Simmons boasted.
Philip Simmons Park is at Seven Farms Road and River Landing Drive and features a large iron gate.
“I designed the gate, but I didn’t build it,” Simmons explained as he walked around the park with his hands clasped behind his back. He said he was honored that the Smithsonian purchased one of his gates and even more so to have a park named after him on Daniel Island. “This is home.”
What is the significance of the fish design in the Daniel Island gate? “I don’t know… I am a lover of fish,” he said with a laugh. “I am a lover of birds. I am a lover of wild game.”
Simmons turned and looked beyond the island’s towering tennis stadium in the direction of where his grandfather’s house once stood, surrounded by nutgrass.
He was silent.
This is Part 3 of a 3-Part Excerpt Series. You can read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here.