Former Society Hill Mayor B.G. Griggs never slowed down

By: Dwight Dana | SCNow
Published: August 15, 2008

Former Society Hill Mayor B.G. Griggs never slowed down after losing his left arm in a paper mill machine in 1941.

And he’s probably smiling that he’s going to be buried on his 93th birthday at 2 p.m. Sunday at Bethlehem United Methodist Church. He died Wednesday.

Griggs lost his arm at Carolina Fiber in Hartsville when it was caught in a machine that malfunctioned. He never lost consciousness, even while being taken to a Hartsville hospital in the back seat of a car.

Six weeks later, he was back on the job.

Griggs also farmed and logged, working 16 men at the height of his logging career.

He ran a saw, a skidder and drove a straight-drive truck with a floor shift. The wood was loaded by hand and carried out of the woods with the help of two bull oxen named Bill and Buck.

“It’s been so long that I don’t remember having two arms,” Griggs said during a 2004 interview. “I never had the time to sit around and worry about losing an arm.”

“B.G. was a great friend,” said Sandra Jacobs, co-owner of Johnnie’s Truck Stop in Society Hill. “He was a wonderful neighbor who would do anything for anybody. He was a very inventive man. He only had one arm and had to learn how to skin that cat many ways. We are really going to miss him.”

Faye Howle, a longtime waitress at Johnnie’s, said, “B.G. used to come in here every day. I’ve known him all my life.”

Howle said Griggs took care of his late wife, who had a severe stroke and lost the use of her legs.

“B.G. got sick with pneumonia during that time and put her in a nursing home until he got well,” she said. “He went back and got her and took care of her for years with that one arm. He was there for her until she died. You don’t find many men like that anymore.”

“I been knowing B.G. since I was born and I’m 67 now,” Ann Sweatt said. “He was a good friend of my husband and me, and got to be a better friend the older he got. He used to go out and eat supper with us.”

“B.G. was a very faithful servant of Society Hill,” town clerk Jean Reynolds said. “Although I didn’t serve under him, he left a legacy for us to build on. He was an outstanding citizen who will really be missed.”

Griggs bided his time keeping his house, raising chickens and tending his garden until his death.

He also was known for his cooking talents, especially chicken bog, barbecue, fish stews and apple pie.