Anderson-Oconee-Pickens County SC Historical Roadside Markers

SC Historical Roadside Markers

Newberry to Richland Counties

Compiled by: Paul M. Kankula NN8NN

Here in 1830, in the house of Colonel John Eigleberger, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of South Carolina and Adjacent States opened a seminary which grew into the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary now located in Columbia, S. C.

Dennis Dairy Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 36-66), 1.2 mi. SW of its intersection with Mendenhall Rd.

This old cemetery marks the site of the Bush River Meeting House. Settled by Quakers in the 1760's, it was a Monthly Meeting 1770-1822 and a Quarterly Meeting with jurisdiction over all meetings in South Carolina and Georgia from 1791 to 1808. Opposing slavery, the members moved west and settled Quaker meetings in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

This fully accredited Lutheran controlled college was chartered by the General Assembly of South Carolina on December 20, 1856. Dr. John Bachman, noted divine and naturalist, was the first

President of the Board of Trustees. The college was used as a Confederate hospital and a U. S. garrison. It removed to Walhalla in 1868 but returned to Newberry in 1877.

On the wall of the Old Newberry County Courthouse, Town Square between Main St. and Boyce St., Newberry

Designed by Jacob Graves and built by John Damron, Newberry County's fourth court house was erected in 1852. It replaced an earlier building on this site which was probably designed by Robert Mills. The Old Court House is now used as a community hall. The bas-relief, added by Osborne Wells, is said to depict the Prostrate State held by the Federal eagle, the gamecock defiantly representing the Spirit of South Carolina.

This building was erected by the Town of Newberry, and dedicated in February of 1882. An outstanding example of Victorian civic architecture of eclectic design, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. Now housing city offices, the Opera House was for over half a century the center of entertainment for this community. Plays, college commencements, and balls were held in the auditorium upstairs.

Intersection of Garys Ln. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 36-64) & Reeder Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 36-56), SW of Gary

Constituted by Daniel Marshall and Philip Mulkey in June, 1771, Bush River Church is one of the oldest Baptist churches in the up country. The original meeting house stood in the old grave yard, on a tract of two acres willed to the congregation by Samuel Newman, its first minister. Bush River was the mother church of several ante-bellum churches.

Hope Station Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 36-170), .5 mile N of its intersection with Columbia Hwy.

This Lutheran church stands on a royal grant of 100 acres made in 1763 to John Adam Epting and Peter Dickert, elders of the Dissenting congregation on Crim's Creek. The origins of St. John's date as early as 1754, when the Reverend John Gasser settled near here. The church was incorporated in 1794 as "the German Lutheran Congregation of St. John."

St. Luke’s Church Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 36-42), just N of Kinard Creek, S of Newberry

On December 7, 1756, the Council of the Colony recorded a petition of Jacob Hoffman for 200 acres of bounty land. He was granted this acreage on Palmetto Branch in 1758. The building on this tract,

which has long been known as "The Rock House," exhibits details of construction which support the local tradition that it was built before the American Revolution.

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places are Smeltzer Hall (1877-78), dormitory for women and campus reception area, renovated and re-dedicated in 1978; Keller Hall (1894), used as chapel, museum, library, laboratory, and now for student activities; Holland Hall (1904), administrative offices for the college; and Derrick Hall (1924), women's dormitory.

Originally named Countsville, this post office was established in 1823. In 1840, it was renamed Pomaria, probably for William Summer's nearby Pomaria Nursery. By 1851 the Columbia and Newberry Railroad had completed a line through here, and six years later a free school had opened. The town of Pomaria was incorporated in 1903.

(Front) Located about one mile northeast on land conveyed by Edward Finch, this school, the first Methodist educational venture in the state, was established by Bishop Francis Asbury and opened by him, 1795. A number of Mt. Bethel students became the first S.C. College graduates. The first Methodist conference in S.C. outside Charleston met here at Finch's house in 1793.

(Reverse) Among the leading citizens who attended this school, opened 1795 and closed ca.1820, was William Harper, United States Senator and Judge. William Harper was the son of John Harper, who in 1803 founded Washington Street United Methodist Church in Columbia and is buried in the cemetery near the Mount Bethel school site.

Once housing a school for area students, this United Methodist church was located closer to the Saluda River around 1820. The congregation moved to this site after Isaac Herbert, a member of the S.C. House of Representatives (1844-45), donated the land in 1833. The present building was constructed in 1879.

Nance St. (S.C. Hwy. 395), between Burton St. and the railroad tracks, Newberry

(Front) Col. Charles Trowbridge of the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops ordered the execution of Calvin Crozier, former private 3rd KY Cavalry, on Sept. 8, 1865. Crozier, while en route to his Texas home, cut a troop member on the back of the neck during a quarrel concerning two ladies traveling with Crozier. Soldiers of the 33rd arrested an innocent man for the assault, but Crozier identified himself as the assailant. He was

(Reverse) taken to 33rd headquarters, shot, and buried in a shallow grave about 100 yards south. The same day residents of Newberry exhumed the body, placed it in a coffin, and reburied it. In 1891 citizens moved Crozier's remains to Rosemont Cemetery about 1.4 miles west and erected a monument to his memory. The army court-martialed Trowbridge for Crozier's execution.

Newberry Cotton Mills, incorporated in 1882, began operation in 1885. The mill was designed by prominent textile mill architects Lockwood, Greene, & Co. and was one of the first cotton mills in the United States operated by steam power. Z. F. Wright, who served as president 1905-1947, was responsible for several expansions. Newberry Cotton Mills, which also sponsored the Newberry Concert Band 1906-1968, closed in 1982.

Corner of West South 4th St., Seneca, .4 mi. W from intersection with S. Oak St. (S.C. Hwy. 59) &

On February 4, 1938, Mrs. Ploma M. Adams, owner of this farm, assisted by the Upper Savannah Soil Conservation District, initiated the first Farm-Conservation Plan of any district in America.

(Front) On November 20, 1853, St. John's was organized by members of the German Colonization Society of Charleston, S.C. who founded the town of Walhalla in 1850. Services were originally held in a house in West Union which was purchased from Col. Joseph Gresham and belonged to Jacob Schroder. The present structure was begun in 1859 and dedicated on March 17, 1861.

(Reverse) John Kaufmann designed and directed the building of St. John's with the assistance of August Brennecke and members of the congregation. Most of the heart pine timbers were cut from the site on which the church stands. Many of the architectural features are distinctive and unique to St. John's. Except for the stained glass windows, placed in 1910, the church has changed little since 1861.

Intersection of N. S.C. Hwy. 11 & N. Little River Rd., .7 mi. from the intersection of S.C. Hwys. 11 & 130, Salem vicinity

The main trading path to the Cherokee Nation paralleled the route of Highway 11 for several miles at this point. This section of the path was used by travelers going from Keowee, the main Lower Town of the Cherokees, across the mountains to the Middle and Overhill Towns. The botanist William Bartram left a written account of his journey in 1776.

In addition to its importance in the Indian trade, the path played a military role in the Cherokee War and the Revolution. It linked Fort Prince George (1753) on the Keowee River with Fort Loudoun (1756) on the Little Tennessee. Expeditions against the Cherokees were led by Archibald Montgomery in 1760, James Grant in 1761, and Andrew Williamson in 1776.

Founded August 14, 1873, as "Seneca City," and chartered on March 14, 1874, the town of Seneca was named for an Indian village on the Seneca River. Its location was determined by the junction of the Blue Ridge Railroad and the Atlanta and Richmond Air Line Railway. 1880 population: 382/1970 population: 6382.

[Replaced by Marker 37-11, erected by the Wizard of Tamassee Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Oconee County Arts and Historical Commission, 2006]

Last major battle in S.C. of the War for American Independence September 8, 1781.

Edisto Memorial Gardens, 200 Riverside Dr., just off U.S. Hwy. 301, Orangeburg

Named in honor of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Albergotti, Sr., For Their Sustaining Interest in Public Recreation for Children. Their Generous Financial Contribution Made Possible the Establishment of the First City Playground near This Site, 1922. Dedicated to the Youth of Orangeburg.

Began first successful scheduled steam railroad service in America on December 25, 1830, and by 1833 its 136 miles from Charleston to Hamburg made it the world's longest railroad. Now part of Southern Railway System.

This antebellum structure once stood on Orangeburg's Public Square. In 1865 it was occupied by Federal troops. From 1924 to 1955 it housed the first public library in Orangeburg County, organized by the Dixie Club, (1896). Given to the Orangeburg County Historical Society, it was moved in 1955 to its present site-the Pioneer Graveyard-(1749).

Edisto Memorial Gardens, 200 Riverside Dr., just off U.S. Hwy. 301, Orangeburg

Occupying Rifle Pits and manning a small battery in defense of the Edisto River Bridge, at this point less than six hundred Confederates temporarily halted the advance of the right wing of the Federal Army commanded by Gen. W. T. Sherman. On Feb. 12, 1865, the defenders were outflanked by a much larger force and compelled to withdraw and entrain for Columbia, South Carolina.

Erected by the South Carolina State Commission of Forestry, Division of State Parks, 1964

(Front) The British army encamped at Wantoot Plantation, home of Daniel Ravenel, after the Battle of Eutaw Springs. Now under Lake Moultrie, it was about 25 miles southeast in St. John's Parish, five miles west of Bonneau. Major John Majoribanks died and was buried there on October 22, 1781. His grave and marker were moved here in 1941 by the South Carolina Public Service Authority.

Northampton Plantation, residence of General William Moultrie, is now under the waters of Lake Moultrie. It was in St. John's Parish near Black Oak Church about five miles west of the present town of Bonneau. Before inundation, the "Northampton Plantation" marker was moved to its present location by the South Carolina Public Service Authority.

(Front) Settled in the 1840s on higher ground in the healthy pines of upper St. John's Parish, the town of Eutawville was founded by Santee River plantation owners as a summer refuge for their families. In 1886 the railroad was established. The town was chartered December 24, 1888, in Berkeley County and annexed to Orangeburg County in 1910.

(Reverse) Long before the founding of the village of Eutawville, the area immediately to the north and east was an important avenue of trade, using Nelson's Ferry Road, the Cherokee Path, and the Santee River. At Eutaw Springs, a strategic point guarding the British supply line from Charleston, a major battle of the American Revolution took place.

Charleston Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 178) near its intersection with U.S. Hwy. 21 (Rowesville Rd.),

This was the first public road connecting Orangeburg with Charleston and was authorized by an Act of the General Assembly passed March 16, 1737. It was laid out from Izard's Cowpen, about ten miles north of Old Dorchester, and spanned two wide swamps. The early settlers of the area constructed the road and provided for maintenance.

Erected by Moultrie Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, 1970, replacing a marker erected in 1916

The third court house for Orangeburg County was erected on this site in 1826. It was designed by Robert Mills, who was state architect at that time. This structure was destroyed by Union forces during their occupation of February 12-13, 1865. The fourth court house was constructed in 1875 and served the county until 1928, when it was razed and the site converted into a park.

From the time of the first settlement of Orangeburg Township in 1735 until the founding of various denominational cemeteries, this plot of ground was the final resting place for the early inhabitants. The first church in the Orangeburg area was erected here about 1750 by the Swiss and German settlers of the Reverend John Giessendanner's congregation.

THE TOWN OF NORTH

In the year 1891, John F. North, Samson A. Livingston, and George W. Pou gave jointly and equally one hundred acres of land to establish a town and railway depot. The separate tracts joined near this spot. The town was named in honor of John F. North, a Confederate veteran and the oldest of the three men, who was elected first mayor.

Erected by The Citizens of North; Sponsored by the Tricentennial Committee of North, 1970

This house, used as headquarters by General William T. Sherman on February 12, 1865, was built in 1846 by Thomas Worth Glover (1798-1884), Teacher, Lawyer, Legislator, Circuit Judge, and Signer of the Ordinance of Secession. The house has been remodeled several times. It fronted originally on Russell Street.

Belleville Rd., about 65 yds. from its intersection with King's Rd. NE, Orangeburg

Here was the birthplace of Alexander Samuel Salley, who devoted fifty years to the collection, preservation, and publication of the historical records of the state as Secretary of the South Carolina Historical Society, Secretary of the South Carolina Historical Commission, and State Historian.

The first Anglican church in Orangeburg Township was established about 1750 by John Giessendanner, and a chapel at Orangeburg was later provided by the Act of 1768 that created St. Matthew's Parish. Following a long dormant period, the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer was organized. The church building was erected in 1854-55 and was moved to its present site, improved and renovated in 1895.

S.C. Sec. Rd. 38-141, .5 mile E of its intersection with U.S. Hwy. 601, Jamison

This cemetery was the burial site of the Miller family from the early 1800s. The remaining stones were erected in 1836 to John Miller (1750-1814), soldier of the Revolution; his wife, Margaret Ott Miller; and their son, John Miller, Jr. Their genealogical connections with many of Orangeburgh District's oldest families make them historically significant to this area.

Erected by Calhoun County Historical Commission, 1978, replacing a marker erected in 1971 by the same commission

(Front) This community had come into existence by 1848 near the Camden fork of the Old State Road. It was chartered in 1887 in Berkeley County, following the coming of the railroad in 1886. The town was annexed to Orangeburg County in 1910. The post office was established in 1848. The public school dates from the 1880s, and the oldest church from 1890.

(Reverse) Near this site grew the grove of holly trees around which the town of Holly Hill was built. The last tree from the original grove was removed in January 1957. Its age was estimated at 98 years by the State Forestry Department. In April, 1970, a replacement for this tree was planted during South Carolina's Tricentennial celebration.

Five Chop Rd. (U.S. Hwy. 301), 1 mi. E of its intersection with I-26 at Exit 154B, 10 mi. E of Orangeburg

This four acre tract of land with an earlier structure known as the "White Meeting House" was given to the Methodist Episcopal Church on October 1, 1790, by a deed which is said to be the earliest documented record of Methodism in Orangeburg County. In 1801 and 1803 the Society was visited by Francis Asbury, pioneer Bishop of American Methodism.

Bamberg Rd. (U.S. Hwy. 301/601), near Zion Church Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 38-751), SW of Orangeburg and NW of Cordova

Evidence indicates that it was one of the earliest Methodist churches in the Orangeburg area. The original building, built before the Civil War, was replaced in the 1880s. Appointed ministers replaced circuit riders about 1843. Zion was abandoned as a full-time church in the early 1930s when its members moved to nearby Cope and Orangeburg.

Erected by The Committee for Restoration and Preservation of Zion Church and Cemetery, 1974

Landsdowne Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 38-92), 4 mi. S of U.S. Hwy. 301 and just N of S.C. Sec. Rd. 38-692,

This Baptist Church, a branch of Four Holes Baptist Church in present Orangeburg County from 1840 to 1869, was admitted to the Charleston Association in 1869 and joined the Orangeburg Association in 1913. The present building was constructed c. 1883. Foundation sills are pegged together, and the seats and backs of pews are solid wide boards that were hand planed.

Rowesville Rd. (U.S. Hwy. 21) at its intersection with Live Oaks Dr. SW (S.C. Sec. Rd. 38-57), at the entrance to The Methodist Oaks Retirement Home, about 2.6 mi. S of Orangeburg

From 1941 to 1945, 5924 American & French pilots were trained here, totaling almost 330,000 flight hours. Site is 1 mi. NW.

Erected by the World War II Hawthorne Pilot Training Association and the Association Du Personnel Navigant Francais Forme Aux USA, 1991

(Front) Anglicanism was established in Orangeburg Township about 1750. After a period of no recorded activity, efforts were made to rekindle the Anglican tradition resulting in establishment of Episcopal Church of The Redeemer, circa 1850. Catharine C. Palmer donated this land to the congregation where they built a house of worship and consecrated it

(Reverse) in 1857. The frame building, moved on logs to Russell Street in 1895, was later enlarged and brick veneered; it is the oldest church building in Orangeburg. Stiles Mellichamp, rector during the 1860s and 1870s, is buried in the cemetery along with a number of Confederate soldiers and many communicants of Episcopal church of The Redeemer.

Erected by the St. Agnes Chapter Episcopal Church Women, the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 1993

S.C. Hwy. 6 at its intersection with Rocks Pond Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 38-139), about 2 mi. E of Eutaw Springs

House built 1803-05 by Capt. Peter Gaillard (1757-1833), pioneer cotton planter, S.C. Assemblyman 1796-7 & 1812-15. House was moved in 1942 to site .6 mi. N. Burned 1992.

This African-American church, established in 1866, built its first sanctuary 4 blocks SE in 1870. Construction began on this sanctuary in 1928 and was completed in 1944. Trinity, headquarters for the Orangeburg Movement during the 1960s, hosted many civil rights meetings and rallies attended by leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, and Thurgood Marshall.

At the entrance to the South Carolina State University campus, Boulevard St. NE, Orangeburg

(Front) S.C. State University was founded in 1896 as the Colored Normal, Industrial, Agricultural & Mechanical College of S.C., with its origins in the Morrill Land Grant Acts of 1862 and 1890 providing for land-grant colleges. Intended "for the best education of the hand, head and heart of South Carolina's young manhood and womanhood of the Negro race," it became S.C. State College in 1954 and S.C. State University in 1992.

(Reverse) South Carolina State has been called "at least symbolically, the most important educational institution in black Carolina since its founding." Students were also active in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, taking part in sit-ins, the Orangeburg Movement of 1963-64 seeking desegregation of downtown businesses, and the Orangeburg Massacre in 1968.

1/2 mi. S of S.C. Hwy. 123 at the junction of Pelzer Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 8) & Cherish Dr. (S.C. Hwy. 135), S of Easley

A town laid out at this site in 1791 called Rockville was officially named Pickensville the next year in honor of Gen. Andrew Pickens. It served as the court house town of Washington District (today's Pickens, Greenville, Anderson, and Oconee counties) from 1791 to 1800 when the district was divided into Greenville and Pendleton.

Erected by Fort Prince George Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1954

in front of Fort Hill, at Fort Hill St. and Daniel Dr., Clemson University Campus, Clemson

Home of/JOHN C. CALHOUN/1825-1850/United States Congressman 1811-1817/Secretary of War 1817-1825/Vice President of the United States 1825-1832/United States Senator 1832-1843/ Secretary of State 1844-1845/United States Senator 1845-1850./Home of THOMAS G. CLEMSON/ 1872-1888/Son-in-law of JOHN C. CALHOUN.

Intersection of Anderson Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 76) and Old Stone Church Rd., 2 mi. SW of Clemson

Among the graves here are those of John Miller, London printer and publisher of the Pendleton Messenger, Andrew Pickens and Robert Anderson, Revolutionary War heroes, and other veterans of the Revolutionary War, Creek War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War and World Wars I and II. Gen. Anderson's remains were moved here in 1958 from his plantation.

Old Cherry Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 39-149) at the Seneca River, just W of its junction with Fants Grove Rd., 3.5 mi. S of Clemson

(Front) Hopewell was the family home of General Andrew Pickens, Revolutionary War hero and Indian Commissioner, and his wife, Rebecca Calhoun Pickens. The son, Andrew Pickens, S.C. Governor, 1816-1818, later owned Hopewell, and it was the childhood home of his son, Francis Wilkinson Pickens, S.C. Governor, 1860-1862.

300 yds. NW on November 28, 1785, U.S. Treaty Commissioners, Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, Joseph Martin & Lachlan McIntosh, met with 918 Cherokees and signed the first treaty between the United States of America and the Cherokee Nation. Similar treaties were signed here with the Choctaws and Chickasaws on January 3 and 10, 1786.

Six Mile Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 133), 1.7 mi. N of its intersection with U.S. Hwy. 123, N of Clemson

(Front) 2 ¼ miles west is the site of Keowee built by John Ewing Colhoun as his upcountry seat in 1792. His sister, Mrs. Andrew Pickens, lived nearby at Hopewell. His daughter, Floride, married her cousin, John C. Calhoun, and lived at Fort Hill, 2 ½ miles south.

This estate was inherited by his son, John Ewing, who lived here and made lavish improvements.

Lawyer, Planter, Privy Councillor, State Legislator and U.S. Senator. Born in 1751 in Virginia, he moved to the Long Canes in 1756. He studied and practiced law in Charleston. He served in the militia during the Revolution and was appointed in 1782 as a Commissioner of Forfeited Estates. He died on October 26, 1802, at Keowee and was buried there.

ASBURY F. LEVER (1875-1940)

Asbury Francis Lever served in Congress, 1901-1919. On May 8, 1914, the Smith-Lever Act, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Lever, was signed into law, providing for cooperative agricultural extension services to be administered by land-grant colleges. Clemson, founded in 1889, has such a service. Rep. Lever is buried here on Cemetery Hill.

Parish organized 1812. Original church dedicated 1814; present church dedicated 1846. In the churchyard lie buried the three Wade Hamptons; Thomas Cooper, educator; Henry Timrod, poet; W. C. Preston, U. S. senator; five governors of S. C.: three Mannings, Hampton, and Thompson; soldiers of the Revolutionary and later American wars, including Colonel Peter Horry, Generals Ellison Capers, John S. Preston, and States Rights Gist.

1322 Greene St., in front of Thomas Cooper Library, University of South Carolna, Columbia

During Federal military occupation of South Carolina 1865-1877, this square was part of the parade ground used by United States troops. The barracks were located on this and adjacent squares.

University of South Carolina Law Center Plaza, Greene St. and S. Main St., Columbia

In April 1786, Alexander Gillon, Henry Pendleton, Richard Winn, Richard Hampton, and Thomas Taylor, Commissioners appointed to lay out Columbia, are said to have met under an oak which grew near here. According to tradition the first court and jury in Richland County also met here.

Erected by the University of South Carolina, 1974, replacing a marker erected in 1938 by the Columbia Sesquicentenial Commission of 1936

Temporary wartime home of Gen. and Mrs. James Chesnut. Here they entertained Jefferson Davis, president, C. S. A., and his staff, October 5, 1864. President Davis addressed the citizens of Columbia from the front steps of this cottage.

at the Carriage House, Robert Mills House and Park, Henderson St., between Taylor & Blanding Sts., Columbia

In 1886, chiefly through the efforts of D. B. Johnson, first superintendent of Columbia public schools, Winthrop Training School, later Winthrop College, was started here in a small brick building which had been the chapel of Columbia Theological Seminary. In 1936 this building was moved to the campus of Winthrop College, Rock Hill, S. C.

Founded 1828 by Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina and Georgia. Located here 1831. Moved to Decatur, Georgia 1925. Woodrow Wilson's father and uncle were among faculty members. Central building, erected 1823, was designed by Robert Mills as home for Ainsley Hall (1783-1823), Columbia merchant.

Built about 1818 by Ainsley Hall. Purchased 1823 by Wade Hampton, I. Inherited by his daughter, Mrs. John S. Preston, 1863. Headquarters of Union Gen. J. A. Logan, 1865; residence of Gov. F. J. Moses 1872-74; Ursuline Convent 1887-90; College for Women 1890-1915; Chicora College for Women 1915-30. The gardens, developed during Hampton-Preston ownership, were adorned with work of Hiram Powers, sculptor.

Trustees appointed by legislature 1792 were incorporated 1795 and served as trustees for male and female academies. School located here 1827 on land given by Gov. John Taylor. Though publicly endowed, the school was conducted as a private academy until 1883 when it was merged with public school system. Hugh S. Thompson, Governor of S. C. 1882-86, was principal of male academy 1865-80.

First Lutheran congregation in Columbia. Church dedicated in this square in 1830 was burned by Union troops in 1865. It was rebuilt 1870, partly through aid of northern Lutherans, and used for Sunday School after present church was completed in 1931.

This square is part of the tract where state fairs were held 1856-61, 1869-1903. The buildings, used 1861-65 for Confederate barracks and hospital, as well as nitre and mining bureau in charge of Joseph LeConte and James Woodrow, were burned by Union troops in 1865.

In this cemetery, 2 ½ blocks south on Gadsden Street, are buried many distinguished Jewish citizens, including two mayors of Columbia: Mordecai Hendricks DeLeon (1791-1849) and Henry Lyons (1805-1858). The Benevolent Society was organized in 1822; chartered 1834.

Arsenal Academy, converted from a state arsenal, occupied this square from 1842 to 1865 when Union troops burned all the academy buildings except officers' quarters, erected 1855. Since 1868 this building has been the Governor's Mansion.

On the SW corner of this square was located the Palmetto Armory, later called Palmetto Iron Works, originally built for converting flint and steel muskets into percussion guns. Arms and munitions were manufactured here during the Confederate War, 1861-1865.

Erected by the City of Columbia, 1966, replacing a marker erected in 1938 by the Columbia Sesquicentennial Commission of 1936

Congregation originated in the Sabbath School for colored people organized by the First Presbyterian Church 1838, later conducted by the Rev. G. W. Ladson. A chapel for the Negro members of that church was built here 1868. Rebuilt 1896. The title was transferred to Ladson Church trustees in 1895.

A fine example of the classic style in Southern domestic architecture. Built in 1820, probably after a design of Robert Mills. For almost one hundred years the home of the DeBruhl and Marshall families.

Erected in 1977, replacing a marker erected 1938 by the Sesquicentennial Commission of 1936

In this square stood the home of Colonel Abram Blanding (1776-1839) for whom this street was named. He was first principal, Columbia Male Academy 1798, a noted lawyer and philanthropist, ably served the state on Board of Public Works 1819-28. Financed and built city's first water works, 1820.

Congregation organized 1809. Original church, built 1811 on Sumter Street corner, was burned Feb. 17, 1865 by Union troops who mistook it for the present church, built 1859, where the Secession Convention had met Dec. 17, 1860. Because of reported smallpox in Columbia, the convention adjourned to Charleston.

On this corner stood the home of Dr. Robert W. Gibbes (1809-66) distinguished physician, scientist, historian, editor, antiquarian; Surgeon General of South Carolina 1861-65. The house with his notable library, art treasures and scientific collections was burned by Union troops February 17, 1865.

After Red Shirt campaign of 1876 Wade Hampton was inaugurated governor of South Carolina at Carolina Hall which stood in center of this square. During the dual government that followed, the Democratic House of Representatives (Wallace House) met here until the Hampton administration gained possession of the State House.

Authorized by legislature 1792, the Columbia Female Academy was located here from about 1820 to 1883, when this property was leased to Columbia Public School Commissioners, two of whom still represent the Academy Board. The remodeled academy became the first Columbia High School, in use until 1915.

A church was built here between 1803 and 1805; another church, erected 1832, was burned by Union troops in 1865 and reconstructed in 1866 of salvaged brick and clay mortar. Present church dedicated 1875. Bishop Wm. Capers (1790-1855), founder of missions to slaves in S. C., was pastor and is buried here.

First congregation organized in Columbia (1795). The churchyard, allotted as a public burying ground in 1798, was granted to this church 1813. Here are buried: D. E. Dunlap, first pastor; Chancellor H. W. DeSaussure; Jonathan Maxcy, first President of S. C. College; Ann Pamela Cuningham, founder of Mt. Vernon Ladies' Association; U. S. Senators F. H. Elmore and Wm. F. DeSaussure, and the parents of Woodrow Wilson.

Wade Hampton, III, born March 28, 1818, was commander of Hampton Legion, 1861, with rank of Colonel; Lieutenant General, C. S. A., 1865; Governor of S. C. 1876-79; U. S. Senator 1879-91. He died April 11, 1902 in this house, given to him in 1899 by a grateful people.

One of the oldest houses in Columbia; built before 1813, probably by Peter Horry (1747-1815), Colonel in Revolution, Brigadier General of S.C. militia. Later home of John Gabriel Guignard (1751-1822), Surveyor General of S.C., 1798-1802.

Maxcy Gregg, Confederate general and leader in Southern rights movement, was born Aug. 1, 1815 in a house on this site. Member of committee which framed the Ordinance of Secession, Dec. 1860, Colonel 1st Regiment South Carolina Volunteers; Brigadier General in 1861. Mortally wounded at Fredericksburg Dec. 13, 1862; died two days later.

The society has been in continuous existence since its organization in 1822. It was chartered 1834. Its charities are administered to the needs of the community without regard to creed or race.

Marker #1: Sumter St. Entrance to the Horseshoe, University of South Carolina Campus, Columbia

Marker #2: Bull St. Entrance to the Horseshoe, University of South Carolina Campus, Columbia

Marker #3: Greene St, in front of the Thomas Cooper Library, University of South Carolina Campus, Columbia

Chartered 1801 as the S. C. College, opened January 10, 1805. Entire student body volunteered for Confederate service 1861. Soldiers' hospital 1862-65. Rechartered as U. of S. C. 1865. Radical control 1873-77. Closed 1877-80. College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts 1880-82. S. C. College 1882-87. U. of S. C. 1887-90. S. C. College 1890-1905. U. of S. C. 1906. Faithful index to the ambitions and fortunes of the state.

SOUTH CAROLINA STATE HOSPITAL

at the entrance to the South Carolina State Hospital Grounds, Bull St. at the end of Elmwood Ave., Columbia

Institution authorized 1821 by General Assembly, mainly through the work of two members, Samuel Farrow and William Crafts, Jr. The original building, on right, designed by Robert Mills, shows a pioneer grasp of the ideas of humanitarian treatment.

Garner’s Ferry Rd. (U.S. Hwy. 76/378) near its junction with Congaree Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 769), Horrell Hill

300 yards north is the site of the Richland County Court House built about 1794; abandoned when county courts were abolished 1798. Corn was ground in 1781 for Sumter's army at John Marshall's Mill, on Cedar Creek, ¾ mi. east. There has been a mill on this creek since the Revolution.

Erected by the Lower Richland Ruritan Club, 1975, replacing a marker erected in 1938 by the Columbia Sesquicentennial Commission of 1936

Land granted to Jno. Hopkins 1765. Minerva Academy located here 1802-34. Old plantations nearby: CABIN BRANCH (Hopkins, Chappell); ELM-SAVANNAH (Adams); LIVE OAK (Gov. J. H. Adams); GREENFIELD (Goodwyn, Howell); WAVERING PLACE (Tucker, Hopkins, Hayne); GROVEWOOD (Weston).

Named in honor of James Gadsden President of the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad. Station built here 1840 was the first railroad station in Richland County. A stage line ran to Columbia until 1842 and to Camden until 1848.

Lightwood Knot Springs, situated about two miles north, a popular summer resort during the first half of the nineteenth century, was later Confederate training camp for recruits. A few miles east was Rice Creek Springs, another early summer resort and the site of Richland Polytechnic Institute, 1830-1845.

Two Notch Rd. (U.S. Hwy. 1), near Covenant Rd., Dentsville community, Columbia

At Barhamville, about ½ mi. west of this point, a famous girls' school, founded by Dr. Elias Marks (1790-1886), was located 1828-65. Among the students were Anna Maria, daughter of John C. Calhoun; Ann Pamela Cuningham, founder of Mt. Vernon Ladies' Association; Martha Bulloch, mother of President Theodore Roosevelt.

First church built 1824; present church 1906. In the churchyard is buried John R. Niernsee (1823-85), Major C. S. A.; architect of the State House. Ursuline convent located SE corner Main and Blanding streets 1858-65; VALLE CRUCIS 1865-87; Hampton-Preston House 1887-90; erected here 1889.

Established March 10, 1862 by a group of Columbia women to care for sick and wounded Confederate soldiers. Supported by voluntary contributions. About 75,000 men were cared for before the hospital was closed February 15, 1865. "From this little nucleus spread the grand system of wayside hospitals."

[Replaced by Marker 40-124, erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 2002]

Completed 1824. Important link in the system of waterways transporting freight between the up country and Charleston. Supplanted by railroads for transportation after 1850. Leased to Confederate government to run powder works. Enlarged 1880-95 and since sold to successive power companies.

Gervais St. (U.S. Hwy. 1) on the Columbia side of the Congaree River Bridge, Columbia

This river took its name from the Congaree Indians, a Siouan tribe which occupied the valley until the Yemassee War in 1715. The first wooden bridge here was completed in 1827. It was burned to delay the advance of Sherman's Army in 1865, and rebuilt in 1870. A concrete bridge was completed in 1927.

[Erected by the City of Columbia, 1966, replacing a marker erected in 1938 by the Columbia Sesquicentennial Commission of 1936]

Corner of Forest Dr. (S.C. Hwy. 12) & N. Beltline Blvd. (S.C. Hwy. 16), Columbia

In this malaria-free sandhill section were the antebellum summer homes of many Columbians: QUININE HILL (Dr. J. M. Taylor, Dr. James Davis); HILLTOP (W. J. Taylor); EDGEHILL (B. F. Taylor); LAUREL HILL (D. J. McCord); COOPER'S HILL (Thos. Cooper); WINDY HILL (Langdon Cheves); ROSE HILL (Arthur Middleton); DIAMOND HILL (Singleton, McDuffie, Hampton).

Forest Dr. (S.C. Hwy. 12), about 100 yds. E of its intersection with Trenholm Rd. and just E of Trenholm Plaza, Columbia

About 1800, Col. Thomas Taylor erected the small building, ¼ mile upstream, where cotton goods were woven for his plantation needs. Here John and Edward Fisher later established one of the earliest spinning mills in Richland County, using slave labor and manufacturing cotton yarn.

Bluff Road (S.C. Hwy. 48), just SE of its intersection with Rosewood Dr., Columbia

1 mi. west was East Granby Landing of Friday's Ferry (licensed 1754) across Congaree River. Floods destroyed two bridges built 1791 and 1796 by Wade Hampton I. President Washington crossed here May 22, 1791 on his southern tour. MT. TACITUS, 3 mi. south, was a plantation of Charles Pinckney (1757-1824), four times governor of South Carolina.

First settlements made about 1740 on this creek, originally called Raiford's, now Mill Creek. Howell's Ferry across Congaree River below creek's mouth was used 1756 through the Revolution. John Pearson (1743-1819) born near here was first known white child born in bounds of present county.

Garner’s Ferry Rd. (U.S. Hwy. 378/76) at Richland County-Sumter County line, Eastover vicinity

River took its name from Wateree Indians, a Siouan tribe which occupied the valley until about 1715. Near this site was Simmons' Upper Ferry, used during the Revolution; later called Brisbanes, then Garner's Ferry. Used until bridge completed 1922.

Intersection of Garner’s Ferry Rd. (U.S. Hwy. 378/76) & Old Eastover Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 764),

Among the early Richland County plantations between the Wateree River and Columbia were: DEER POND and KENSINGTON (Singleton); GOODWILL (Huger, Heyward); NUT SHELL (Bynum, Heyward); THE RAFT and MIDDLEBURG (Clarkson).

A few miles south was the site of original Congaree Baptist Church, organized 1766 with the Rev. Joseph Reese as pastor. Probably first church in bounds of present Richland County. Since 1800 located on Tom's Creek 22 miles south of Columbia.

1 ½ mi. south was WOODLANDS, built before 1800 by Wade Hampton, I (1752-1835), Colonel in Revolution, Major General in War of 1812. ¼ mi. north was MILLWOOD, built before 1820 by Wade Hampton II (1791-1858), aide to Gen. Jackson, War of 1812. Boyhood home of Wade Hampton, III (1818-1902), Lieutenant General, C. S. A.; Governor of South Carolina 1876-79. Union troops burned both houses 1865.

Named in honor of Gen. Andrew Jackson. This cantonment site 1 ½ mi. north was approved by the War Dept. June 2, 1917. Maximum strength was recorded in June 1918: 3,302 officers; 45,402 men. 81st Division was trained here Aug. 29, 1917-May 18, 1918; the 5th Division stationed here Oct. 20, 1920-Oct. 4, 1921.Made a training camp for National Guard 1925.

From early days horse racing was a favorite sport in Columbia and many famous horses were bred on neighboring plantations. Columbia Jockey Club was organized by Col. Wade Hampton II and Col. Richard Singleton in 1828. Congaree Race Course was located 300 yards north on present Epworth Orphanage property.

During the Federal occupation of Columbia February 17-19, 1865 commanding General William T. Sherman had his headquarters here.

Early boundary between Cherokee and Catawba Indians. Name first applied about 1745. Faust's Ford, 2 mi. above, used in Revolution. First bridge opened 1829, burned 1865 to delay Sherman's army which crossed on pontoon bridges downstream. Bridge rebuilt 1867, burned 1925. Concrete bridge completed 1930.

In 1786 the State of S. C. bought as part of the site of Columbia the plantation of Colonel Thomas Taylor, Revolutionary soldier, and elected him one of the commissioners to lay out the capital city. The home was situated near the southeast corner of Richland and Barnwell streets. On the northwest corner lie buried Colonel Taylor, his son Governor John Taylor and members of the family.

Erected by the William Capers Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, 5 November 1968

This land was purchased in 1854 by the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church as the site of Columbia Female College, Chartered by S. C. General Assembly Dec. 21, 1854. Classes were held from 1859 to 1865. The college survived the burning of Columbia and was reopened in 1873. In 1905, the school was moved to its present site as the Columbia College. Erected by Columbia College Alumnae Association, 1979, replacing a marker erected by the same association in 1969

affixed to the Carolina National Bank, corner of Main & Washington Sts., Columbia

Richland County's second court house was built in 1803-04 on the northeast corner of Richardson (Main) and Washington Streets. In the 1850s, it was razed and a new court house erected on the same site. On the southeast corner was located the Athenaeum, incorporated in 1856, which contained a lecture and exhibit hall and a library. The Athenaeum and the new court house were both burned by Union troops in 1865.

At this site on 15 November 1942, Maj. Gen. W. A. Burress received the 100th Infantry Division colors, marking the official activation of the "Century Division." After a distinguished World War II record in southern France and Germany, the 100th was reorganized in the Army Reserve. It was the only USAR training division recalled during the 1961 Berlin crisis.

Erected by 100th Division (Tng), USAR, 1982, replacing a marker erected by the division in 1971

(Front) After a brilliant combat record in World War I and 14 years of dedicated National Guard service, the "Old Hickory" Division was mobilized at Fort Jackson, S. C. on 16 September 1940. During World War II, the 30th Division distinguished itself in combat in the campaigns through Normandy, Northern France, the Ardennes, the Rhineland, and Central Europe.

(Reverse) For its illustrious combat record throughout World War II, this "Work Horse of the Western Front" was selected as the outstanding infantry division of the European Theater of Operations. It was awarded two Belgian Fourrageres and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm. On 25 Nov. 1945, it was inactivated at Fort Jackson, resuming its National Guard role.

Activated at Camp McCain, Miss. in 1942, the "Golden Acorn" Division trained at this site in 1944. The division distinguished itself in the Ardennes, the Rhineland, and Central Europe during the Battle of the Bulge, the assault of the Sauer, Moselle, and Rhine rivers, capture of Coblenz, the cracking of the Siegfried Line, and the final assault into Czechoslovakia.

Near this site on 15 March 1943 the 106th Infantry Division was officially activated and became known as the "Golden Lion Division." Although badly mauled in the "Battle of the Bulge," the division stubbornly continued to fight on. The 106th saw action in the Ardennes, the Rhineland, and Central Europe.

Garner’s Ferry Rd. (U.S. Hwy. 378/76) at Trotter Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 40-222), Horrell Hill vicinity

Joseph Reese, pioneer Baptist minister and Revolutionary patriot who died in 1795, is buried 2 mi. SW of here. Born in Pennsylvania, he came to the Congarees in 1745, became a Baptist as a result of Philip Mulkey's preaching and was ordained by Oliver Hart and Evan Pugh. Reese won Richard Furman to the Baptists and was the first pastor of Congaree Baptist Church.

(Front) Columbia's chief business street, Main, was first named Richardson Street, for Richard Richardson (1704-1780). This Virginia native settled in present Clarendon County; served in the "Snow Campaign" of 1775; was commissioned Brigadier General in 1778; was a member of the Commons House of Assembly, the First and Second Provincial Congresses, and the First General Assembly. Six S. C. Governors are among his descendants.

The north-south streets, laid out in the two-mile square of the original city of Columbia in 1786, were named (except for Assembly) for generals and officers who fought in the American Revolution. Most of these were native Americans, but one was the Polish Count Pulaski.

Erected by Columbia Committee, National Society Colonial Dames of America in the State of S. C.

(Front) Named for John Lewis Gervais (c.1742-1798) who was educated in Germany, emigrated first to England, arrived in Charleston in 1764 with a letter of introduction to Henry Laurens. He served in the American Revolution, took part in the defense of Charleston, was a member of the Continental Congress. S. C. Senate member from Ninety Six, he introduced the bill that resulted in the selection of the site of Columbia as Capital of S. C.

The streets of Columbia running from east to west (with a few exceptions) were named for products in the State's economy, for the two Taylor plantations on which the new Capital was located, and for prominent individuals such as Gervais, author of the bill establishing Columbia as Capital.

This street was named for Andrew Pickens (1739-1817). One of three S. C. Partisan Generals in the Revolution, he fought in the battles of Cowpens and Eutaw Springs both in 1781. Pickens served fourteen years in the S. C. House of Representatives, four in the S. C. Senate and two in Congress. From 1785 to 1791, he was appointed several times by Congress to treat with the Indians. He is buried at Old Stone Church near Pendleton.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Richland County Historical Society, 1977

(Front) This street was named for Otho H. Williams, Brig. Gen. of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Williams served as Adjutant General under Southern Army commanders Gates and Greene and saw military action in the battles of Camden, Guilford Courthouse, Hobkirk Hill, and Eutaw Springs. He commanded the light corps which protected Greene during a portion of his retreat across N. C. in 1781.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Columbia Mills, 1977

This street was named for Mordecai Gist, Brigadier General of the Continental Army. During the American Revolution, Gist participated in the Battle of Camden in 1780, and commanded a light corps in an engagement on the Combahee River August 27, 1782, in which Colonel John Laurens was killed. After the Revolution, Gist settled in Charleston, where he died in 1792.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by S.C. Federal Savings and Loan Association, 1977

This street was named for Brigadier General Stephen Bull (c. 1733-1800). Grandson of Lt. Gov. William Bull I, Stephen was a member of the Commons House of Assembly, the First Provincial Congress, the First General Assembly. He saw military action in the Battle of Beaufort and the Savannah campaign and later served in the S. C. Senate and House of Representatives. He is buried at Sheldon Church, Beaufort County.

This street was named for Brig. Gen. Isaac Huger, who fought in the Cherokee War of 1760 and during the American Revolution at Stono, Savannah, Siege of Charlestown, Guilford Court House, Hobkirk Hill. Born 1743 at Limerick Plantation in the parish of St. John's Berkeley, Huger was in the Commons House of Assembly and the First Provincial Congress, and later in the S. C. Senate and House of Representatives. He died in 1797.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by W. O. Blackstone and Co., Inc., 1977

(Front) This street, which is located five blocks north and is the westernmost in Columbia's original plan of 1786, was named for Owen Roberts. He was a member of the First Provincial Congress from the parishes of St. Philip and St. Michael, and was commissioned colonel of the S. C. Continental Regiment of Artillery during the Revolution. Roberts was killed at the Battle of Stono, June 20, 1779.

This street, located several blocks to the north and south, was named for Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. He fought in the American Revolution, became a Brevet Brig. Gen. in 1783, and served in both houses of the legislature. A framer of the U. S. Constitution and a delegate to the 1790 S. C. Constitutional Convention, he was appointed minister to France in 1796 and was also three times Federalist candidate for president. Pinckney died in 1825.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Kline Iron and Steel Co., 1977

Originally named Walnut Street, Blanding Street was by 1869 renamed for Abram Blanding, a Massachusetts native who came to Columbia in 1797 to take charge of Columbia Male Academy. Blanding was admitted to the bar in 1802 and served two terms in the legislature. He built the city's first water works, was a Trustee of South Carolina College, and S. C. Superintendent of Public Works. His house was located on the NW corner of Blanding and Marion streets. Blanding died in 1839.

This street, originally named Medium Street and part of the original 1786 Columbia plan, bisected the area which was to be the campus of South Carolina College. The college, established in 1801 by an act of the General Assembly, later became the University of South Carolina. Medium Street was renamed College Street shortly after 1891.

This street, originally named Upper Street, was the northernmost street in the original 1786 Columbia plan. The plan of the city depicted an area two miles square divided into lots of one-half acre, eight acres were reserved for erecting public buildings. Upper Street was renamed Elmwood Avenue shortly after 1872 for adjacent Elmwood Cemetery, which was incorporated in 1854.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by the Keenan Company, Realtors, 1978

Built by 1872, this house was the boyhood home of Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), twenty-eighth President of the United States (1913-21). It was constructed by his parents, the Reverend Joseph Ruggles Wilson and Jessie Woodrow Wilson, when they lived in Columbia. The Reverend Wilson was a professor at Columbia Theological Seminary from 1870 to 1874 and was minister of Columbia's First Presbyterian Church from 1871 to 1873.

Laurens Street, located one block south, is named for Lt. Col. John Laurens of South Carolina whose father, Henry, was president of the Continental Congress. Young Laurens studied in London several years and in 1777, while still in his early twenties, returned to America and was named aide-de-camp to General George Washington. After distinguishing himself at Germantown and Monmouth, he joined the troops fighting the British in the South.

(Reverse) Lt. Col. John Laurens of South Carolina, for whom Laurens Street is named, was made prisoner at the fall of Charlestown in May 1780. He was quickly exchanged and was named special envoy to France by Congress. With Benjamin Franklin and the French he planned the 1781 campaign, which led to the surrender of Cornwallis. Six months later he rejoined Washington and fought at Yorktown. Laurens was killed in South Carolina in 1782 in a Combahee River skirmish. Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Gibbes Machinery Company, 1978

This street is named for George Washington, commander of the Continental Army throughout the Revolution, first President of the United States, and president of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Early in his presidency, Washington toured the southern states. He visited South Carolina in 1791 and spent May 22-24 in the new capital city, Columbia. While here, he attended a public dinner in the new State House.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Rotary Club of Columbia, 1978

Named Lumber Street by 1793, this street was renamed Calhoun shortly after 1911 for S. C. statesman John C. Calhoun (1782-1850). Calhoun was admitted to the S. C. bar in 1807, was United States Secretary of War 1812-25, Vice President 1825-1832, and Secretary of State 1844-45; he also served many years in Congress. Calhoun is buried in St. Philip's churchyard in Charleston.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Columbia Office Supply, 1978

This street probably takes its name from the cherry laurel (laurocerasus caroliniana) and the mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), both of which are indigenous to South Carolina. Laurel Street is one of the original streets in the 1786 plan of Columbia.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Colonial Life and Accident Insurance Company, 1978

One of the original streets in the 1786 Columbia plan, Richland Street was probably named after Richland County, which had been so designated by an act of the General Assembly in 1785. By November 1786, two town commissioners, Alexander Gillon and Thomas Taylor, owned lots on this street. The Governor's Mansion is located on Richland Street.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Capital Electric Supply, 1978

Part of the 1786 plan of Columbia, this street was first named Plain. It is thought to have been named after the plain of Taylor's Hill, on part of which the city of Columbia was built. Plain Street was renamed ca. 1907 for Wade Hampton, III (1818-1902), Confederate general, South Carolina Governor (1876-1879), and United States Senator (1879-1891). Hampton is buried in the churchyard of Trinity Cathedral in Columbia.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Belk of Columbia, 1978

Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, for whom this street is named, was a division commander in the Saratoga Campaign. In 1778, he became commander of the Southern Department of the American Army and was in command at Charleston when the city surrendered to the British in 1780. After his exchange, Lincoln fought at Yorktown and was present at the British surrender. He served as Secretary of War (1781-83) and returned to his native Massachusetts where he died in 1810.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Wallace Concrete Pipe Company, Inc., 1988

The South Carolina General Assembly created Columbia as the state's capital city in 1786, and Senate Street was named for the upper house of that legislative body. In 1790, the General Assembly, which designated that the town be located on the Congaree River near Friday's Ferry, first met in Columbia in the new State House, designed by James Hoban, who later designed the White House.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Standard Savings and Loan Association, 1978

This street is thought to take its name from the cotton blossom. Cotton became an important commercial crop in South Carolina after the cotton gin was patented by Eli Whitney in 1794. A variety of cotton, known as Sea Island cotton and grown along coastal South Carolina, was especially prized for its long staple.

Erected by the Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Owen Steel Company, 1978

One of the original streets in the 1786 Columbia plan, Lady Street is thought to have been named for Martha Custis Washington, the new nation's first lady whom South Carolina wished to honor. Lady Washington presided over the president's home, Mount Vernon, a national landmark which was saved from destruction in 1859 by South Carolinian Ann Pamela Cunningham, organizer and first regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union.

Erected by Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Allen Brothers Milling Company, 1978

(Front) Richard Winn, for whom this street was first named, was born in Virginia in 1750 and came to South Carolina as a young man. He fought throughout the Revolution (including the battles of Hanging Rock, Fish Dam Ford, Blackstock's) and became brigadier general in 1783. One of Columbia's original commissioners, he later was lieutenant governor and also served in the General Assembly and Congress. He died in Tennessee in 1818.

(Reverse) Maxcy Gregg, native Columbian for whom this street was named ca.1893, was a leader in the States Rights party, a delegate to the Secession Convention, and a distinguished Confederate General. A colonel in the First Regiment of S. C. Volunteers, Gregg was appointed brigadier general, CSA, in 1861. He died in 1862 from wounds received at the battle of Fredericksburg and is buried in the churchyard of First Presbyterian Church in Columbia.

Named for the Taylor family, this street is one of the original streets in the 1786 Columbia plan. Thomas Taylor was a member of the first and second Provincial Congresses, the General Assembly and was a trustee of S. C. College. In 1791 he escorted President Washington into Columbia. Taylor died in 1833. His son, John, was a planter, lawyer, Governor (1826-28), first intendant of Columbia, and a member of Congress (1807-16). He died in 1832.

(Reverse) This street is named for the Taylor family, whose plantations were selected in 1786 as part of the site of the city of Columbia. Thomas Taylor, appointed by the state as one of the commissioners to plan the new town, served in the Revolution as captain and colonel in the militia under brigadier generals Sumter and Henderson. Captured at Fishing Creek, Taylor escaped, and took part in the defeat of Tarleton at Blackstock's.

This street is named for Brig. Gen. William Henderson, who was in the Third S. C. Regiment at the fall of Charlestown in 1780. He was captured, imprisoned, and later exchanged. In 1781, he was wounded while commanding a brigade at the Battle of Eutaw Springs. When General Sumter resigned in 1782, Henderson was named brigadier general of State Troops, a post he held until 1783. He served in the Second Provincial Congress (1775-76) and in the S. C. House. He died in 1788. Erected by the Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by First National Bank, 1978

(Front) A Virginia native who came to South Carolina ca. 1765, General Thomas Sumter was a leader in civil as well as military affairs. He served in the First and the Second Provincial Congresses, in the S. C. General Assembly, as U. S. Congressman and U. S. Senator. South Carolina's last Revolutionary War general, he died in 1832 at his Sumter District home in Stateburg, where he was a large landowner and planter. His tomb there notes him as a founder of the Republic.

(Reverse) This street is named for one of the great Partisan generals of the American Revolution, Thomas Sumter, the fighting "Gamecock." After Charlestown fell in May 1780, Sumter rallied the up country against the British with major victories at Hanging Rock, Fishdam Ford, and Blackstock's. In 1781, Congress cited Sumter for his gallant leadership and military conduct and for the conspicuous courage, perseverance, and patriotism of his volunteer militia.

Erected by the Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by the Columbia Sertoma Club, 1978

This street was originally named Gates for Gen. Horatio Gates. He was commander of the victorious Northern Army in 1777 in the Saratoga campaign which helped bring France into the war. Named commander of the Southern Army, Gates suffered disastrous defeat at Camden in 1780 by Cornwallis. Replaced by Gen. Nathanael Greene, Gates retired to Virginia. He died, 1806, in New York. This street was renamed Park Street shortly after 1940 for adjacent Sydney, later Seaboard Park.

The 81st was organized at Camp Jackson, Aug. 25, 1917, where the training area included Wildcat Creek. Soon dubbed the Wildcat Division, the 81st designed and wore a wildcat insignia on one sleeve of their uniforms, thereby becoming the first division of the U. S. Army to originate and wear a divisional patch, now a widespread custom.

Columbia Bible School classes began in 1923 in the towered building which once stood on this site (originally as Columbia Female College, later as the Colonia Hotel). Under the leadership of its first president, Robert C. McQuilkin, the school grew into Columbia Bible College and, in 1960, moved to its present campus NW of Columbia. Its alumni now serve in church-related ministries around the world.

Fork Church Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 40-1314), just W of its junction with Poultry Ln. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 40-56), Gadsden vicinity

(Front) This church building was dedicated in May 1884 by Dr. John L. Girardeau. The congregation of 11 members, including 2 elders and 1 deacon, was organized on the Sabbath Day, November 16, 1883 by the Charleston Presbytery. In 1914, the church became a charter member of Congaree Presbytery, moving to Eastover in August 1922.

(Reverse) The eleven charter members of this church were Thomas and Lula B. Auld, Augusta H. Bates, Joseph and Clair H. Bates, Elise M. Dwight, Peter and Isabel H. Garick, Glenn and Hattie H. Kaminer, and Belton A. Williams.

Beginning in 1883 with services held in nearby private homes by Trinity Church, this Episcopal church then constructed a building on Barnwell Street, was organized into a mission, and became a separate parish in 1886. Rt. Rev. Albert S. Thomas, 9th Bishop of S. C., was lay reader of Good Shepherd, 1893-1900. The church moved to this site after the present building was completed in 1901.

(Front) Brigadier General Francis Marion was born in South Carolina about 1732 of French Huguenot descent. Marion was a member of the First Provincial Congress, served eight years in the S. C. Senate, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1790. He died Feb. 27, 1795, and is buried in Berkeley County at Belle Isle Plantation, home of his brother, Gabriel.

(Reverse) This street was named for Francis Marion, one of the three S.C. Partisan Generals during the American Revolution. The guerilla tactics against the British by Marion and his Partisan band earned for him the name of "Swamp Fox." Congress voted its thanks to Marion for distinguished service in the battles of Parker's Ferry and Eutaw Springs, bouth fought in 1781.

Erected by the Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Southeastern Freight Lines, 1977

In 1786, when Columbia was established as the state capital, the General Assembly decided that two principal thoroughfares should run perpendicular to each other through the center of the town. One of these, Assembly Street, was named for the General Assembly, which first met in Columbia in 1790 in South Carolina's new State House, a building designed by James Hoban, who later designed the White House.

Erected by the Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Cromer's P-Nuts, 1977

This street was named for William Harden, a native South Carolinian. In 1776 he was given command of Ft. Lyttleton near Beaufort by the Second Provincial Congress of which he was a member. In 1781, serving as colonel under Francis Marion, he commanded patriot forces who captured British troops both at Four Holes and Ft. Balfour at Pocotaligo. He died in 1785 while senator from Prince William's Parish, Beaufort District.

Erected by the Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Sears, Roebuck and Company, 1978

Near W side of Pickens St. Pedestrian Bridge, between Pendleton & Greene Sts., University of South Carolina campus, Columbia

Named for Maj. Wade Hampton Gibbes (1837-1903) prominent Columbian who owned much of the land to the east, Gibbes Green consisted of an area of land bounded by Pendleton, Bull, Pickens, and Greene Streets. Acquired by S. C. College by 1838, the land was kept for many years as open space, serving as a playground, ball field, and park for several generations of Columbians. Davis College, which opened in 1910, was the first building in Gibbes Green.

The "Statue of Liberty Division" was reviewed by England's Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt after it was reactivated here in 1942. The 77th fought in World War II Pacific campaigns

of Guam, Leyte, Kerama Retto Islands, and Okinawa. It was inactivated after occupying Hokkaido, Japan, in 1946. War correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed in action with the 77th.

Born in 1902, Paul Redfern at an early age showed a marked mechanical aptitude and excitement for aviation. Shortly after graduating from old Columbia High School in 1923, he built his own airplane and established the city's first commercial aviation company and flying field on this site. Later, Redfern attempted a non-stop flight to Brazil, leaving from Brunswick, Georgia, August 25, 1927. He has never been heard from again.

One of the first black churches after the Civil War, St. Paul AME began as Oak Grove African Methodist Episcopal Church. Local tradition says that the original small congregation worshipped in the 1850s in the "Bush Arbor;" later in the 1880s building a church on present Kennerly Rd. In the 1930s this was moved to its present site 3/10 mi. N.

By 1870 a substantial black settlement had developed in this area of the Dutch Fork Township known as Oak Grove. Prominent in its history have been the families of Octavius Bookman, Miles Bowman, Henry Corley, Moses Geiger, and John Richardson. A number of their descendants still live in the area.

Organized in 1917, the 4th Infantry Division was stationed in this area at Ft. Jackson during World War II and received its final training here for the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy. The division was one of the first on the beaches. The 4th was also in other campaigns, including the Siegfried Line, Hurtgen Forest, and Battle of the Bulge.

Described as "Collegiate Italian Renaissance" in style, this school was designed by J. Carroll Johnson, of Urquhart and Johnson, in Columbia. The cornerstone was laid in 1915 with Gov. Richard I. Manning as a featured speaker. Final classes were held here in December 1975, when Columbia High moved into a new building. Thus came the end of an institution of education and culture that meant so much to so many.

Activated in 1918 and inspected by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lt. Gen. George S. Patton during World War II, the 8th landed in France 28 days after D-Day (the invasion of Normandy) and participated in three other campaigns during the war. The division occupied this area at Ft. Jackson after being reactivated in 1940; they were also here 1950-54.

Erected by all units who served with the 8th Infantry Division in World War II, 1986

States-rights advocate Adley Hogan Gladden, who lived here before the Civil War, served Columbia as postmaster 1841-45 and was later bursar of S. C. College, captain of the Governor's Guard, and intendant of Columbia 1851-52. In 1847 he assumed command of the Palmetto Regiment during the Mexican War and later rose to the rank of brigadier general during the Civil War. Gladden was killed in Tennessee at the Battle of Shiloh, 1862.

Erected by the University of S.C. Chapter, National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1987

Completed in 1874, this superb example of renaissance revival architecture was built of local and Fairfield County granite. The building was designed by Alfred B. Mullett, supervising architect of the U. S. Treasury Dept. and designer of such buildings as the Old Executive Office Building in Washington. Originally built as a U. S. courthouse and post office, this building has been Columbia's city hall since 1937.

Originally built 1907-1910 as the House of Peace Synagogue and located 100 yards south, this building was sold in 1936 and shortly thereafter became a black nightclub known as the Big Apple. A dance by this name originated here and soon swept the country, inspiring the song, "The Big Apple," which was recorded by Tommy Dorsey's orchestra. "The Big Apple" became a best-selling hit in September of 1937.

(Front) In 1890 the Columbia Land and Investment Co. purchased farm land in this area for development, laying out streets and sidewalks in 1893. In 1894 the Columbia Electric Street Railway provided streetcars to the vicinity and built a public pavilion and park near Harden Street. By 1900 the area generally bounded by Woodrow, Wheat, Harden, College, and Greene streets, and Millwood Ave., was known as Shandon, for the Rev. Peter J. Shand.

(Reverse) The town of Shandon, incorporated in 1904, was annexed in 1913 to the city of Columbia. Development of streetcar lines encouraged suburban growth in the Shandon area: Shandon Annex (1906), South Shandon (1910), and Shandon Terrace (1919). By 1906 Shandon School existed, and by 1914 a business district had been developed on Devine Street. Shandon's architectural styles date from about 1895 to the present.

Why this street was named "Green" on the original 1786 plan of Columbia is not certain; but in keeping with presumed original intentions and as a deserved Bicentennial tribute, Columbia City Council added an "e" in 1979, honoring the Rhode Island general, Nathanael Greene. As commander of the Southern Army, Greene masterminded the campaign of 1780-1781, which finally drove the British out of South Carolina.

Erected by the Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Southern Bank and Trust Company, 1979

This street is named for Judge Henry Pendleton, one of the Town of Columbia's original commissioners. He was elected assistant state judge by the Provincial Congress in 1776 and to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1780. In 1782 Judge Pendleton was captured by the British while riding the circuit. One of the authors of the 1785 County Court Act, he died in Charleston in 1788. Pendleton County was named to honor him in 1789.

Erected by the Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by Anchor Continental, Inc., 1977

This street is named for General John Barnwell, St. Helena's Parish. He was elected to the Provincial Congress of 1775-76 and to the 1776 General Assembly. A captain in the First Provincial Regiment, he was major, colonel, and brigadier general in the militia, 1779-81. Barnwell was captured in Charlestown in 1780 and later imprisoned on the schooner Pack-Horse. From 1778 until his death in 1800, he served several terms in the S. C. Senate.

Erected by the Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by South Carolina National Bank, 1977

This street was named for Charlestonian Christopher Gadsden, member of the 1759 Cherokee expedition, the Commons House of Assembly, and the two Continental and Provincial congresses. He also served in several General Assemblies. During the Revolution he became a brigadier general

and later served S. C. both as Vice-President and Lieut. Governor. He died in 1805 and is buried in St. Philip's churchyard in Charleston.

Erected by the Richland County Bicentennial Commission; Sponsored by R. L. Bryan Company, 1977

This street was named for Casimir Pulaski, a Polish count who came to America in 1777 to aid the Patriot cause. In 1777, Pulaski was appointed brigadier general by the Continental Congress and was placed in command of a Troop of Horse. He participated in the defense of Charlestown against Prevost's raid in May of 1779 and in the siege of Savannah where he was mortally wounded on October 9, 1779.

This street was named for Anthony Wayne (1745-1796) of Pennsylvania. Appointed brigadier general in 1777, he fought at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. In 1779 Congress awarded him a gold medal for his victory at Stoney Point, New York. Wayne led patriot forces into Savannah and Charlestown after the 1782 British evacuation and, in 1794, was commander of troops victorious over the Indians of the Northwest at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

BETHLEHEM CHURCH [First Marker]

The organization date of this Lutheran church is unknown. In 1788, however, Bethlehem and fourteen other churches signed the articles of the "Corpus Evangelicum," an early church supervising body. By 1815, Bethlehem's first known building had been built about ca. 5 mi. N. of here. The church moved near Hollinshead Creek, it is said, in 1847, and by 1897 the congregation was located here. Erected by Bethlehem's Bicentennial Committee, 1988

Bethlehem Lutheran Church erected its first known building about 350 feet north of here on a 17-acre tract purchased from George Metz in 1817. According to tradition, the church was first called Ellisor Church after people of this name living nearby. In 1847, Bethlehem sold this site to Alexander Daily and moved near Hollinshead Creek, about 3 miles south of here.

Established after the Civil War, this public school for blacks was located at the NW corner of Hampton & Lincoln streets by 1869 and was partially supported by the Freedmen's Bureau. It is said the

school was named for Oliver O. Howard, commissioner of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands during Reconstruction. Moved here in 1924, Howard School was for many years the only public school for blacks in Columbia.

Erected by the Howard School Community Club and the Arsenal Hill Concerned Citizens Club, 1988

On this site stood Howard School, a public school for blacks established after the Civil War. By 1869 there was a two-story frame building large enough for 800 pupils. Partially funded by the Freedmen's Bureau, the school reportedly was named for Oliver O. Howard, first commissioner, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. For years the only public school for blacks in Columbia, Howard was moved 5 blocks NW, 1924.

Julius Rosenwald, Chicago philanthropist and president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., (1910-1925), helped fund this black school, built 1918. The original two-room structure was named in Rosenwald's honor and the school's curriculum eventually included grades 1-12. It was renamed Richlex in the 1950s, but closed in 1968; Robert Lee Floyd served as principal during this time.

Gov. of S.C. 1854-56, lived near here in his home named Live Oak, which burned ca. 1910. Adams is buried nearby at St. John's Church.

(Front) This house, listed in the National Register of Historic Places and probably built during the last decade of the 18th century, is one of the few remaining houses from this era in Columbia. It was purchased prior to 1860 by the Seibels family, pioneers in the insurance field, and remained in the family until 1984 when Seibels descendant George R. P. Walker donated it to Historic Columbia Foundation.

(Reverse) This house stands on plantation lands of Thomas Taylor, one of Columbia's founding fathers, who is buried two blocks east of here in the old family cemetery. The date 1796, seen on a hand-hewn basement beam by a local historian about 1935, indicates the house was built shortly after the new city's founding in 1786. An early separate kitchen built of hand-made brick stands behind the house.

Erected 1991 by the Columbia Committee of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of South Carolina

Richland County Adult Activity Center, 7494 Parklane Rd., Dentsville community

This Confederate camp of instruction was once located about 1 mi. NW at Lightwood Knot Springs, site of a popular resort prior to the War Between the States.

Erected by the General Wade Hampton Camp #273, Sons of Confederate Veterans and the 20th S.C. Volunteers, 1993

The "Yankee" Division, which saw extensive combat in World War I, was mobilized for active duty in World War II in January 1941. It trained here in 1942-43 and again in 1944, leaving 16 August 1944 for Europe. As part of 3rd Army the division was credited with 210 days of combat in France, the Ardennes, the Rhineland, and Central Europe, and was particularly distinguished for its role in the Battle of the Bulge.

Site of an African-American church organized in 1865 with Samuel Johnson as its first pastor. It met under a brush arbor and in the basement of the Mann-Simons Cottage until its first sanctuary was built in 1875. Calvary helped found Present Zion (1865), First Nazareth (1879), and Second Calvary (1889). After the first church burned in 1945 the congregation built a new sanctuary at Pine and Washington Sts. in 1950.

The "Dixie" Division, created in 1917, spent most of World War II as a training division, with some units training at Ft. Jackson, but later saw combat in the Philippines 1944-45. The postwar "Dixie" Division, composed of National Guard units from Alabama and Mississippi, was mobilized for active service in 1951 and served here as a training division during the Korean War.

Newberry County

This town, founded in 1853 as Peak's Station on the Greenville & Columbia Railroad, was named for railroad superintendent H.T. Peake. In 1865 Federal troops destroyed the tracks here and over the Broad River. Peak, incorporated in 1880, prospered as a railroad town and local center of farming, business, and medical care, in spite of fires in its commercial district in 1909, 1953, and 1978.

Glenn St., Newberry, adjacent to the original Mollohon Mill office

This mill was built and operated by the Mollohon Manufacturing Co. from 1901 to 1926, when it was sold to the Kendall Co.; the mill closed in 1976 and was razed in 1980. Original mill village housing was built 1901-02; new mill village was built 1924. The village also included the Mollohon School for grades 1-4 (1921-73), Mollohon Park, pavilion, bandstand and adjacent baseball park, all opened in 1921-22.

This house, built ca. 1820 for John Adam Folk (1799-1855) is an excellent example of a 19th-century two-story farmhouse. Folk, a farmer and merchant, was also postmaster at Tanner's Hill (now Pomaria) 1829-40. Later the home of Folk's daughter Martha and her husband Thomas W. Holloway (1829-1903), who chartered the town of Pomaria in 1903, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

(Front) This church, with its origins in services held in the 1780s at nearby Wicker's Camp Ground, was formally organized in 1816 with Rev. Godfrey Dreher as its first pastor. A log meeting house was built on this site soon afterwards. In 1830 its third pastor, Rev. John G. Schwartz, founded the first Lutheran seminary in the South here in Pomaria, at the home of Col. John Eichelberger.
(Reverse) In 1855 the S.C. Synod met here and voted to establish a Lutheran college at Newberry. Among the notables buried in the churchyard are Col. John Eichelberger, veteran of the American Revolution; Rev. John G. Schwartz; and Rev. Thaddeus Boinest, who encouraged the German settlement of the Dutch Fork region. The present church, built in 1881-82, was remodeled in 1942 and 1966.

(Front) This church, founded in 1867, was one of the first A.M.E. churches north of Columbia. It was organized when black Methodists in Newberry sent Carolina Brown and Winnie Simmons to Columbia for the third annual meeting of the South Carolina Conference of the A.M.E. Church. They asked Rev. Simeon Miller to serve their new church and later named it for him. Rev. Hiram Young was the first presiding elder.
(Reverse) The congregation first held its services in a cotton warehouse, but acquired this lot and built a church of their own in 1869-70. In 1870, when Miller Chapel A.M.E. Church hosted the first meeting of the Columbia Conference, conference delegates voted to found Payne Institute (now Allen University). This church, later enlarged several times, was covered in brick veneer in the 1970s.

(Front) This school, built in 1925-26 at a cost of $2,900, was one of more than 500 rural African-American schools in S.C. funded in part by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation between 1917 and 1932. The original two-acre lot for the school was donated by James H. Hope, Mary Hope Hipp, and John J. Hope. James H. Hope, then S.C. Superintendent of Education, was its longest-serving head, 1922-1947.

(Reverse) This two-room school, with grades 1-8 taught by two teachers, closed in 1954. In 1958 it was sold to the Jackson Community Center and Cemetery Association, comprised of nine members of the adjacant St. Paul A.M.E. Church. That group maintained the school for many years. It became the Hope Community Center in 2006 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

2496 S.C. Hwy. 773, Pomaria
(Front) This church, founded ca. 1761 by the Rev. Joachim Bulow, is one of the earliest Lutheran congregations in what is now Newberry County. A log church built nearby before the Revolution was replaced by a frame church. A larger frame sanctuary, built ca. 1830 during the pastorate of the Rev. Michael Rauch, would serve the congregation of St. Paul for 108 years.
(Reverse) The Rev. J.A. Sligh (1835-1917), the longest-serving pastor here, served St. Paul from 1865 to 1912 and is buried in the church cemetery. This Gothic Revival sanctuary, built in 1936-38, was constructed of granite quarried near Pomaria and designed by Willie Koon, brother of the Rev. S.P. Koon, pastor here 1916-1934. The first service here was in 1938; the church was dedicated in 1941.

NEWBERRY VILLAGE CEMETERY
Coates St., just S of the Boundary Street School, Newberry

This cemetery dates from 1809, 23 years before Newberry’s incorporation in 1832. George McCreless donated an acre here for a village cemetery, and his brother Lewis was the first person buried in it. The Town Council bought another acre from John Caldwell in 1847. After Rosemont Cemetery was established 1 mi. N in 1863, this early cemetery was neglected. The last known burial was that of Dr. P.B. Ruff, in 1890.

OAKLAND MILL
2802 Fair Ave., Newberry
(Front) This textile mill, which began operation in 1912, was the third mill built in Newberry, after Newberry Cotton Mills (1885) and Mollohon Mill (1901). It was chartered in 1910 and built in 1911 with 20,000 spindles and 500 looms. The mill was designed by prominent textile mill architects Lockwood, Greene and Co. The Oakland Mill village began with the construction of 75 houses and grew to almost twice that number, with a school and three churches.
(Reverse) By 1925, when the mill was sold to the Kendall Co., there were 200 employees. The next year the mill village was called “one of the best and prettiest mill sites in the state.” By 1930 Oakland Mill had expanded to 30,000 spindles and 600 looms. Other major expansions followed in the 1950s and 1960s. The mill closed in 2008. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2011, it has since been renovated for Newberry College student housing.
Sponsored by the Oakland Mill Development Group and the Newberry County Historical and Museum Society, 2012

Oconee County

Tucker Farm Rd., Fair Play vicinity

(Front) Capt. Samuel Earle (1760-1833), an officer during the American Revolution, state representative, and U.S. representative, lived at nearby Beaverdam Plantation. He also furnished land for the town of Andersonville, once 12 mi. SE, at the fork of the Tugaloo and Seneca Rivers. A native of Va., Earle came to S.C. in 1773-74, when his father settled in Spartanburg District.

(Reverse) During the Revolution Earle was an officer in the 5^th S.C. Regiment, then the militia, and then the captain of a ranger company. He served in the S.C. House 1784-88; as delegate to the state convention ratifying the U.S. Constitution in 1788; as delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1790; and in the U.S. House 1795-97. He is buried in the Earle family cemetery nearby.

Erected by the Pendleton District Historical, Recreational, and Tourism Commission, and the Col. Robert Anderson Chapter, National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 2005

(Front) Oconee County Training School, which educated the African American children of this county from 1925 to 1955, was the successor to the Seneca Colored Graded School. This school, also known as OCTS, was founded in 1925 with Rev. B.F. Stewart as its first principal. Funded by local taxes and the Peabody Fund, it was built with 8 classrooms and later expanded to 26 classrooms, for students in grades 1-10 until 1931, grades 1-11 1931-1947, and grades 1-12 1947-1955.
(Reverse) Oconee County Training School taught both academic classes and the trades, and added teachers and offered new classes as it grew during the 1930s and 40s and especially after World War II. More than 700 students attended OCTS between 1925 and 1955, and its last graduating class was its largest. The main building here later housed East End Elementary School 1955-1970 and the Seneca Preschool 1972-1992.

(Front) The Seneca Institute (later Seneca Junior College) educated African American children of this region from 1899 to 1939. It was founded and sponsored by the Seneca River Baptist Association, which in 1898 acquired eight acres here. The first home of Seneca Institute, a frame three-room building, was built in 1899. Its first principal, Dr. John Jacob Starks (d. 1944), served here 1899-1912 before serving as president of Morris College and then Benedict College.

Seneca Institute taught academic courses to primary and secondary students and industrial courses as well to secondary students. Its campus featured a two-story frame classroom building, a two-story frame boys’ dormitory, and a two-story brick girls’ dormitory and chapel. Though it expanded its curriculum to become Seneca Junior College in 1930, it struggled through the Depression and finally closed in 1939.

(Front) Newberry College, founded in 1856, moved here from Newberry in 1868 and remained in Walhalla until 1877, returning to Newberry for the opening of the 1877-78 academic year. The Lutheran college struggled during the Civil War and its aftermath as enrollment dropped and debts mounted. In 1869 it sold its main building and other property in Newberry at auction to pay its significant debts.
(Reverse) Walhalla, with a large community of Germans who were primarily Lutherans, was chosen as a suitable home for the college, which retained the name Newberry. Under Josiah P. Smeltzer (1818-1887), president 1861-77, the college first occupied a building at Main and College Streets and then one at College and North Broad Streets. In 1877 the Synod of S.C. and Adjacent States voted to move it back to Newberry.

(Front) The unfinished railroad tunnel cut into the SE face of Stumphouse Mtn. is the largest of three begun before the Civil War by the Blue Ridge Rail Road, for a line from Anderson, S.C., to Knoxville, Tenn. Work began in late 1853. About 1,500 Irish miners, who lived in the Tunnel Hill village atop the mountain, cut through blue granite with hand drills, hammers and chisels, and black powder. Four shafts meant miners could cut through ten rock faces at one time.
(Reverse) Stumphouse Tunnel was the westernmost tunnel of the three; Middle Tunnel was 1/2 mi. SE and Saddle Tunnel was 1 3/4 mi. NE. The longest section of this tunnel is 1,600’ long, 25’ high, and 17’ wide. Work ceased in 1859 when the S.C. legislature refused to fund more construction. Clemson University acquired the tunnel in 1951 and cured blue cheese here for several years. Stumphouse Tunnel, long a tourist attraction, is managed by the City of Walhalla.
Erected by Oconee Forever and Save Stumphouse Donors, 2010

KEOWEE TOWN
S.C. Sec. Rd. 37-128, 1.6 mi. N of S.C. Hwy. 130, Salem vicinity

(Front) Keowee Town, which means “mulberry grove place,” was the largest and most important of the Cherokee “Lower Towns” in what is now S.C. It was 1 mi. E on the Keowee River, and was already considered a significant Cherokee town when the British took a census of the Lower Towns in 1721. Keowee was also a major town on the main trading path between the British and the Cherokees.

(Reverse) Most Cherokees left Keowee by 1752 amid conflict with the Creeks but asked the British to build Fort Prince George across the river in 1753-54. Keowee was abandoned in 1760, during the Cherokee War, but later resettled. In 1776, during the Revolution, Maj. Andrew Williamson’s S.C. militia burned it and other Lower Towns. The town and fort sites were covered by Lake Keowee in 1971.

Erected by the Wizard of Tamassee Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Oconee County Arts and Historical Commission, 2006, replacing a marker erected by the Wizard of Tamassee Chapters, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1977

OCONEE TOWN
Oconee Station State Historic Site, 500 Oconee Station Rd., Walhalla vicinity

Oconee, also spelled “Aconnee,” was one of the Cherokee “Lower Towns” in what is now S.C. At the base of Oconee Mountain and on the main trading path between the British and Cherokees, it was abandoned in 1752. Oconee Station was built in 1792 as an outpost where the path crossed the Cherokee boundary. This county, created from Pickens District in 1868, was named for Oconee Town.

Erected by the Oconee County Arts and Historical Commission and the South Carolina Heritage Corridor, 2006

Marker 4: U.S. Hwy. 76 just S of its intersection with Brasstown Church Rd., SE of Long Creek

(Front) The Cherokees sided with the British during the American Revolution, and in 1776 Maj. Andrew Williamson’s S.C. militia destroyed their “Lower Towns” in what is now S.C. He then cooperated with the N.C. militia in expeditions against the Cherokees in N.C. and Ga. The Cherokees, seeking peace, soon negotiated with the Patriots to give up most of their lands in S.C.
(Reverse) On May 20, 1777, at Dewit’s Corner, the Cherokees signed a treaty with S.C., moving the frontier boundary line westward into what is now Oconee County. The boundary line crossed the top of Oconee Mountain near here. The remaining Cherokee land in present-day S.C. was ceded in the Treaty of 1816, extending the S.C. frontier to the present state boundary on the Chattooga River.

Erected by the Oconee Arts and Historical Commission and the South Carolina Heritage Corridor, 2006

Jocassee was one of several Cherokee “Lower Towns” in what is now S.C. It was located about 2 mi. E on the Jocassee River and in the Vale of Jocassee, near the modern Jocassee Dam. The town, like other Cherokee Lower Towns, was abandoned and resettled several times during the period 1750-1800. The town site and valley were covered by Lake Jocassee in 1973.
Erected by the Oconee Arts and Historical Commission and the South Carolina Heritage Corridor, 2006

(Front) Walhalla, in what was Pickens District until Oconee County was created in 1868, was founded by the German Colonization Society of Charleston in 1850 and boasted as many as 500 German settlers by 1855. The first school offering instruction in English opened in a frame building on Church Street between mid-1850 and late 1852. It was described in January 1853 as “a good English school on the square attended by twenty German children.”
(Reverse) Prof. G.H.D. Cramer was the first teacher at this elementary school for younger German children. In late 1853, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church was formally organized with Rev. Carl F. Bansemer as its first pastor and as professor at the English school. Bansemer was also professor of a classical academy founded in 1857. When he left Walhalla in 1860, Prof. Cramer resumed teaching at the English school and remained until his death in 1874.

S.C. Hwy. 28 near the Russell Farm Site, Sumter National Forest, Mountain Rest vicinity

(Front) Chattooga was one of the Cherokee “Lower Towns” in what is now S.C. during the 17th and early 18th centuries and was a short distance north in the Chattooga River bottom. Chattooga Town, in a remote location in the backcountry, was the smallest of the Lower Towns in 1721 when it appeared as “Chattoogie,” with only 90 inhabitants, in that year’s British census of Cherokee towns.
(Reverse) Chattooga Town was on a main trading path that crossed the Chattooga River and connected Lower Towns in what is now S.C. to those in what are now Ga. and N.C. Historical and archaeological research shows that the town was largely abandoned by 1740; accounts of expeditions to this area in 1760-61 do not mention it. Walter Adair, the last Cherokee to live here, sold his land in 1816.

CROSS ROADS BAPTIST CHURCH
Intersection of Dr. Johns Rd. and Dales Dr., Westminster

(Front) This church was founded between 1860 and 1880 by Forch Allen (1823-1911) and members of the Allen and Oglesby families, including other descendants of Cherokees who lived in early Lower Towns such as Tugaloo and Seneca. Its first building, completed about 1884, was a log church. The present frame church, built in 1900, was rebuilt in 1973.

Longtime members of the congregation include the Adair, Allen, Jones, Martin, Oglesby, Poole, Ross, Sizemore, Thompson, Walker, and other families. The Cross Roads School, one of several separate Indian schools in S.C. during the early-to-mid 19th century, stood behind the church. It opened in 1921, closed in 1962, and was torn down by the church in 1979.
Erected by the Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois, and United Tribes of South Carolina, Inc., 2008

intersection of Cherokee Foothills Scenic Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 11) and Neville St., West Union

(Front) West Union Graded School, also known as West Union Grammar School or West Union Elementary School, was built here in 1923-24. In 1922 trustees purchased 4 acres from Marvin Phinney for a new school to replace an earlier frame building. This two-story brick school was ready for the opening of the 1924-25 school year with Jerome Douglass as its principal and 5 teachers for about 100-150 students in grades 1-6.
(Reverse)

Miss Clara Smith taught here for more than 40 years, from the mid-1920s until the school closed in 1969. She usually taught two or more grades a year and was also West Union’s last principal from 1949 to 1969. The town of West Union purchased the school from the Oconee County School District in 1969, leasing it back to the school district for office space 1970-1981.
Erected by the West Union School Preservation Association, 2008

Bumgardner Dr. & S.C. Hwy. 11, near the north entrance to Tamassee DAR School, Tamassee

(Front) Tamassee DAR School, founded by the S.C. Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in 1919, was established in an area described as “remote but accessible where the need was greatest.” It has long met the needs of children and families in crisis from the southern Appalachian Mountains. The S.C. Cottage, the first building on campus, was built by volunteers.
(Reverse) At first a boarding school for girls and a day school for boys, Tamassee offers academic, vocational, and citizenship training. As a partner with the Oconee County School District, it served as an elementary and high school until 1965 and has since been an elementary school. The National Society of the DAR began funding the school in 1921 and continues to support its programs.
Erected by Tamassee DAR School, 2009

(Front) This school, often called Retreat Colored School, was built in 1923 for the African-American students in and near Westminster. A two-room, two-teacher, elementary school, it was built by local builder William Walker Bearden of Oakway at a cost of $2,300. It was one of more than 500 schools in S.C. funded in part by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation between 1917 and 1932.
(Reverse) This public school replaced a one-room private school established by Pleasant Hill Baptist Church about 1870. About 50-60 students a year, in grades 1-7, attended Retreat Colored School from 1923 until it closed after the 1949-50 school year. The school was sold to Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in 1950. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
Erected by Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, 2011

Orangeburg County

At the entrance to the Claflin University campus , 400 Magnolia St., Orangeburg

(Front) Claflin College, founded in 1869 as Claflin University, is the oldest historically black college in S.C. and was established to "advance the cause of education, and maintain a first-class institution ... open to all without distinction of race or color." It was named for two generations of the Claflin family of Mass., Lee Claflin (1791-1871), a prominent Methodist layman, and his son Gov. William Claflin (1818-1903), who supported and helped fund the new institution.

(Reverse) The S.C. Agricultural and Mechanical Institute opened at Clafin in 1872 and was the predecessor of S.C. State University, founded in 1896. Claflin, associated with and supported by the Methodist Church, featured in its early years industrial, manual, and agricultural training; primary and secondary education; and college-prep and college courses, including architecture, law, teacher education, and theology. It was renamed Claflin College in 1979.

Watson St., near the entrance to the campus of South Carolina State University, Orangeburg

On February 8, 1968, after three nights of escalating racial tension over efforts by S.C. State College students and others to desegregate the All Star Bowling Lanes, 3 students died and 27 others were wounded on this campus. S.C. Highway Patrolmen fired on a crowd here, killing Samuel Hammond Jr., Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith. This tragedy was the first of its kind on any American college campus.

(Front) This church, founded in 1886, was organized by Revs. D.A. Christie and C. Heyward with Sol Ellerbe and Mordecai Williams as trustees and Galas Culay, Walter Montgomery, and Henry Tilley as stewards. Its first services were in a brush arbor, and its first sanctuary was built nearby in 1887. This sanctuary, a frame building later covered in brick veneer, was built in 1892.
(Reverse) Member Robert Lee Williams (1862-1949) was a community leader and progressive farmer. When he died at the age of 87 Elloree businesses closed in his memory and the New York Times called him “generally and sincerely mourned.” The church also hosted numerous meetings during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s seeking to desegregate local schools and businesses.

(Front) Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875), noted British geologist, visited S.C. in 1842 and described its geology in his Travels in North America..., published in several editions. He named the bedrock limestone underlying this area “Santee Limestone.” Lyell estimated Santee Limestone to date from the Eocene epoch, more than 40 million years ago.
(Reverse)

Many kinds of fossil marine animals are found embedded in Santee Limestone. This limestone, in solution, forms sinks and subsurface caves. Eutaw Springs, now flooded by Lake Marion, flowed from such channels. An impure limestone-based clay known as “Cooper Marl” overlies Santee Limestone throughout the lowcountry. Both are primary raw materials in portland cement produced nearby.

Erected by the Carolinas Geological Society, 2004, replacing a marker erected by the Division of State Parks, South Carolina State Forestry Commission, in 1964

(Front) This church was founded in 1873 with Rev. Dave Christie as its first pastor. In 1877 trustees Emily A. Williams, Richard Howard, and Irwin Mintz purchased a small lot here, on what was then Market Street before Glover Street was laid out. They soon built a frame church, which stood for almost thirty years. Additional acreage purchased in 1909 allowed the congregation to build an addition and parsonage.

(Reverse) This Gothic Revival church was designed by Miller F. Whittaker (1892-1949), a professor at S.C. State Agricultural & Mechanical College (now S.C. State University), one of the first black architects in S.C., and a member of this congregation. The cornerstone was laid in 1919, and the church was completed about 1925. Williams Chapel A.M.E. Church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

GREAT BRANCH SCHOOL AND TEACHERAGE
2890 S.C. Hwy. 4 (Neeses Highway), Orangeburg vicinity

(Front) The Great Branch School, which stood here from 1918 to the early 1960s, was one of the first Rosenwald schools in S.C. A two-room frame school built in 1917-18, it was typical of the rural black schools funded in part by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation between 1917 and 1932.
(Reverse) A three-room addition and three-room teacherage were built in 1922-23; Principal W.M. Jennings lived here until 1933. The school closed about 1954 and was later burned by arsonists. The teacherage, one of only eight Rosenwald teacherages in S.C., was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

(Front) Trinity Lutheran Church was founded in 1849 by German-Swiss Lutherans who came to Orangeburg District from Charleston. The first church, a cypress-log building, was built 2 mi. S on the old Moncks Corner Rd., now S.C. Hwy. 6. By 1880 the center of the community shifted, and the Lutherans and Methodists traded churches. The Lutherans moved to a frame church 2 mi. N, establishing their cemetery there.
(Reverse) Elloree was incorporated in 1886, and the Lutherans built a frame church on this site in 1889. It was struck by lightning and burned in 1913. The present blue granite church, a Late Gothic Revival design by architect J. Carroll Johnson (1882-1967) of the Columbia firm Urquhart & Johnson, was built in 1914 and dedicated on Palm Sunday 1915. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
Erected by the Congregation, 2009

(Front) This church, founded about 1800, is one of the oldest Methodist congregations in this part of the state. It takes its name from Target Branch, a nearby tributary of Four Holes Swamp. The name “Target” is thought to be a corruption of the “tar gates” along the edges of the swamp, where tar, turpentine, and timber were harvested. It held its first services in a brush arbor, with a sycamore stump for a pulpit.
(Reverse) Target Methodist Church was one of several area congregations long served by circuit riders, on the Cypress Circuit 1810-1855, then on the Providence Circuit 1855-1916. Its first permanent church, a log building, was rebuilt as a frame sanctuary in 1830. A second frame church built in 1873 was replaced by the present sanctuary in 1920. The cemetery here includes graves dating as early as 1820.

(Front) Bowman Rosenwald School, which stood here from 1927 to 1952, was one of several African-American schools in Orangeburg County funded in part by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. The school, built in 1926-27 at a cost of $6,000, was a five-room frame building typical of the larger rural schools built by the Rosenwald Foundation between 1917 and 1932. The school burned in 1952.
(Reverse) Bowman Rosenwald School educated about 250 students a year for most of its history, at first in grades 1-8 with five teachers and a five-month session, but by 1948-49 in grades 1-12 with nine teachers and an eight-month session. Its enrollment grew dramatically after World War II, reaching a peak of 576 students in 1951-52, its last full school year.

Erected by the Bowman-Rosenwald Historical Marker Committee, and the Orangeburg Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, 2011

(Front) This church grew out of services held in the area by circuit riders as early as 1806. Its first church, a log building, was built on what is now Vance Rd., 1/2 mi. SW. About 1810 Timothy Shuler donated 4 acres here for a frame sanctuary, built soon afterwards. It was renovated in the 1850s and again in the 1890s.
(Reverse) The present Neo-Classical Revival Church, built in 1919-1920, was designed by Charles Coker Wilson. The cemetery here dates back to 1856 and numbers more than 400 graves, including veterans of most American wars since. The church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
Erected by the Congregation, 2011

Pickens County

(Front) This church, named for the Cherokee chief, Woolenoy—the spelling was changed to Oolenoy in 1827—was organized in 1795 by Rev. John Chastain, who became its first minister. By 1797, with 50 members, it was admitted to the Bethel Baptist Association; it has since been a member of the Saluda, Twelve Mile River, Pickens, and Pickens-Twelve Mile Baptist Associations.
(Reverse) Rev. Tyre L. Roper, the longest-serving minister here, preached at Oolenoy from 1840 until his death in 1876. The first sanctuary, a log building, was replaced about 1830 by a frame church, later enlarged in 1876 and 1899. The present brick sanctuary was built in 1952. The cemetery includes the graves of many veterans of American wars from the Revolution through World War II.

PUMPKINTOWN
Pumpkintown Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 8), near its intersection with Table Rock Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 288), Pumpkintown

This community, settled before 1800, was named "Pumpkin Town" by an anonymous early traveler awed by the sight of the Oolenoy Valley covered with huge yellow pumpkins. It and Pickens Court House (Old Pickens) were the only two towns in present-day Pickens County in 1791. The many tourists who visited nearby Table Rock Mtn. often stayed at William Sutherland's inn at Pumpkintown.

(Front) Clemson University became the first white college or university in the state to integrate on January 28, 1963. Harvey B. Gantt, a Charleston native wanting to study architecture, had applied for admission in 1961. When Clemson delayed admitting him, he sued in federal court in the summer of 1962. President Robert C. Edwards, meanwhile, worked behind the scenes to make plans for Gantt’s eventual enrollment.

(Reverse) Edwards and several leading businessmen, politicians, and others drew up an elaborate plan, described as “a conspiracy for peace,” designed to ensure that Gantt would enter Clemson without the protests and violence that marked the integration of other Southern universities. After a federal court ruled that Clemson should admit him, Gantt enrolled without incident. He graduated with honors in 1965.
Erected by Clemson University, 2003

Marker 1: at the main entrance to the Clemson University campus, Walter T. Cox Blvd. (S.C. Hwy. 93), Clemson

Marker 2: Pendleton Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 93) near YMCA Circle, Clemson University campus, Clemson

(Front) Clemson University was founded in 1889 as the Clemson Agricultural College of S.C., with its origins in the the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 creating public land-grant colleges. It was established by a bequest from Thomas Green Clemson (1807-1888), noted scientist, agriculturist, and son-in-law of John C. Calhoun, whose plantation at Fort Hill formed the core of the new college campus.
(Reverse) Clemson, intended to be “a high seminary of learning” to advance scientific agriculture and the mechanical arts, opened in 1893 as a military school and was sometimes improperly known as Clemson A&M College. It became a civilian co-educational institution in 1955, then became Clemson University, reflecting its modern and expanded mission, in 1964.

Near intersection of Saluda Dam Rd (S.C. Hwy. 36) and Old Saluda Dam Rd., Easley vicinity

(Front) This mill was built about 1880 by Colonel Robert E. Bowen (1830-1909), Confederate officer, state representative, state senator, and Pickens County businessman. Bowen, a prominent advocate for progressive farming, was also active in the railroad and timber industries. In addition to this mill, the complex here included a store, blacksmith’s shop, saw mill, and cotton gin.

(Reverse) The mill passed through several owners in the first quarter of the twentieth century, from Bowen’s son James O. Bowen to Albert B. Kay and Kay’s widow Tallulah, and then successively to R.T. Waddell, Ida S. Johnson, and a Mrs. Shembosky, who sold it to Hovey A. Lark (1890-1968) during the Depression. Lark ground corn here from the early 1930s until about 1965.

in the South Carolina Botanical Garden, intersection of U.S. Hwy. 76 and Pearman Blvd., Clemson University campus, Clemson
(Front) Hanover House, built 1714-16 in what is now Berkeley County and moved to the Clemson College campus in 1941, is a fine example of Dutch Colonial architecture. It was built for French Huguenot planter Paul de St. Julien (d. 1741). St. Julien’s grandfather Pierre Julien de St. Julien had been granted 3,000 acres on the Cooper River in 1688 by the Lords Proprietors.
(Reverse) When the Public Works Administration (PWA) built the Santee-Cooper Dam, Lake Marion, and Lake Moultrie in 1938-1942 Hanover Plantation was in the area inundated by Lake Moultrie. The house was disassembled, moved to Clemson, and reassembled in 1941, then restored 1954-62. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, the house was moved to the S.C. Botanical Garden in 1994.

on the banks of the Seneca River near the Madren Conference Center, 100 Madren Ctr. Dr., Clemson University campus
(Front) Seneca Town, on the Seneca River E of present-day Seneca, was one of several Cherokee “Lower Towns.” On August 1, 1776, Maj. Andrew Williamson’s S.C. militia, on a raid against these towns, was ambushed by Loyalists and Cherokees nearby. The eventual Patriot victory was also notable for the death of Francis Salvador, the first Jewish Patriot killed during the Revolution.

In September 1776, soon after the Battle of Temassee in present-day Oconee County, Williamson returned to build a log fort nearby which he named Fort Rutledge in honor of John Rutledge, President of S.C. The fort and its 300-man garrison surrendered to Loyalists in 1780. The concrete block monument was built in 1908 by Clemson College for the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Erected by the City of Clemson and Clemson University, 2007

(Front) The town of Central, chartered in 1875, grew up along what is now Gaines Street. The post office was called Five Mile from 1851 to 1871. In the 1870s the Atlanta & Richmond Airline Railway built its depot, hotel, offices, and railroad shops at Central. The railroad, later the Atlanta & Charlotte, was acquired by the Southern Railway in 1894. Also called “Centre” and “Central Station,” the town was halfway between Atlanta and Charlotte, 133 miles each way.
(Reverse) Issaqueena Cotton Mill, founded by D.K. Norris in 1903, was later operated by Central Mills, Cannon Mills, and Central Textiles. Wesleyan Methodist Bible Institute was founded in 1906 as an elementary and Bible school. It became a junior college in 1928, Central Wesleyan College in 1959, and Southern Wesleyan University in 1994. S.C. Hwy. 93 was once U.S. Hwy. 123, a main route from Atlanta to Charlotte.

(Front) This house, built ca. 1856, originally sat 14 mi. W in the town of Pickens Court House, then the seat of Pickens District. It was the home of James Earle Hagood (1826-1904), Pickens District clerk of court, state representative during Reconstruction, and U.S. District clerk of court. In 1868, when the district was divided to create Pickens and Oconee Counties, he helped select the site for the "new" town of Pickens.

(Reverse) Hagood moved this house here in 1868. His daughter Frances (1870-1954) and son-in-law Judge Thomas J. Mauldin (1870-1931) later remodeled the house in the Classical Revival style. Mrs. Mauldin, nationally prominent in several historical organizations, hosted an annual picnic for Confederate veterans. This house has been a museum since 1988 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

(Front) This grist mill was rebuilt in 1845 by James Earle Hagood (1826-1904), son of Benjamin Hagood (1788-1865), who had bought it in 1825. James E. Hagood, a planter and merchant, served in the S.C. House and was longtime Pickens District and U.S. district clerk of court. Hagood Mill, commercially operated until 1966, features a 20-ft. waterwheel, one of the largest in S.C.
(Reverse)

PREHISTORIC ROCK CARVINGS
Hagood Mill was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. In 2003 prehistoric Native American rock carvings, called petroglyphs and long buried under a 19th century road, were discovered here and preserved in place. They feature 17 human figures and other carvings, and are among the most significant of their kind in S.C.

Richland County

11733 Broad River Rd. (U.S. Hwy. 176) at Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church, Spring Hill community

This community, named by 1791 for the springs at the foot of the Stone Hill, included Eleazer's Tavern, a post office, schools, grist mills, and Spring Hill Baptist Church before the Civil War. In February 1865, as the war ended in S.C., Federal troops camped nearby looted and burned several homes. Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church was founded in 1873; the town was incorporated in 1889.

This church, organized by 1835, met first in a brush arbor 1 ½ mi. N., then constructed a sanctuary on this site shortly thereafter. Its first pastor was Rev. Anderson Burns, and its original trustees were Joseph and Robert Collins, Barnes Flowers, Saylor Pope, Harkness Smith, and Red Stroy. A later sanctuary, built in 1952; burned in 1981; the present sanctuary was dedicated that year.

(Front) Columbia was founded in 1786, replacing Charleston as the state capital. The first State House here, built in 1789, was a small wooden building just W. of this site. Construction on this State House, designed by John R. Niernsee, began in 1855; exterior walls were almost complete when work was suspended in 1863 during the Civil War. In February 1865 Union troops burned the old State House, shelled this unfinished building, and raised the United States flag over it.

(Reverse) Niernsee supervised postwar repairs and new work until his death in 1885. His partner J. Crawford Nielson succeeded him, followed by Niernsee's son Frank. In 1901 the General Assembly hired Frank P. Milburn, but often clashed with him over workmanship and his design for the present dome, a radical departure from J.R. Niernsee's original design. He was replaced by Charles C. Wilson in 1903. A major renovation by the firm of Stevens and Wilkinson was completed in August 1998. Erected by The Columbia Committee of The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of South Carolina, 1999

Formed 1890 as the Essex Troop of Lt. Cavalry; mustered into the N.J. National Guard in 1893. After World War I service, became 102^nd Cav. in 1921. Reorganized 1940 as 102^nd Cav. (Horse- Mechanized); mobilized for active duty in World War II and trained here 1941-42. Saw more than 300 days of combat in France, North Africa, Italy, the Ardennes, the Rhineland, and Central Europe.

This church was organized in 1835 in what was then rural Richland District. The first sanctuary here, built soon afterwards, burned in a forest fire in 1867; the cemetery dates from as early as 1862. The second sanctuary, built in 1868, was remodeled about 1890. As Forest Acres grew after World War II, the church expanded and built its first brick sanctuary in 1948; the present church was built in 1964.

(Front) From April 1864 to February 1865 Confederate bonds and currency were printed and processed in this building, constructed in 1863-64 for the printing and stationery firm of Evans & Cogswell. That firm, founded in Charleston, produced bonds and currency for the Confederacy throughout the war and moved to Columbia in 1863. The Confederate Treasury Note Bureau moved its headquarters here as well in the spring of 1864.

(Reverse) After 1864 Evans and Cogswell printed almost all bonds and currency for the Confederate Treasury. Many young women were employed here to sign and cut sheets as they came off the press. When Federal troops burned part of the building in February 1865 they carried off the printing plates and “an immense quantity” of currency. The building served as a warehouse for the state liquor dispensary system from 1895 to 1907.

Erected by the Mary Boykin Chesnut Chapter #2517, United Daughters of the Confederacy, 2002, replacing a marker erected by the City of Columbia in 1966

The “Golden Griffon” Division was created in 1946 as the 108^th Airborne Division of the Army Reserve. It was reorganized as an infantry division in 1952, as a training division in 1956, and as an institutional training division in 1993. It has trained Fort Jackson soldiers since the early 1950s and mobilized units here for active service in 1991 and 2001.

(Front) This depot, built by the Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1904, was the third passenger depot built in Columbia, following the South Carolina Railroad Depot on Gervais St., built about 1850, and the Union Station on Main St., built in 1902. This depot and its adjacent baggage room was an alternative to Union Station, which served passengers on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and the Southern Railway.
(Reverse) This depot and baggage room were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 as part of the West Gervais Street Historic District. They served passengers on the Seaboard Air Line Railway (later the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad) until 1991. The relocation of the tracks across Gervais Street was an important step in the revitalization of the Congaree Vista in the 1980s and 1990s.

(Front) This cottage, built before 1850, with alterations and additions throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, was the home of Celia Mann (1799-1867) and her husband Ben Delane, among the few free blacks living in Columbia in the two decades before the Civil War. Mann, born a slave in Charleston, earned or bought her freedom in the 1840s and moved to Columbia, where she worked as a midwife.

(Reverse) Three Baptist churches (First Calvary, Second Calvary, and Zion) trace their origins to services held in the basement of this house. After Mann’s death her daughter Agnes Jackson (d. 1907) lived here; descendants of Agnes Jackson’s second husband Bill Simons owned the house until 1960. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and has been a museum since 1977.

Erected by First Calvary Baptist Church, Second Calvary Baptist Church, and Zion Baptist Church, 2003

Killian Rd., near its intersection with Farrow Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 555), Killian, Blythewood vicinity

On February 18, 1865, the day after Federals under Gen. W.T. Sherman occupied Columbia, Gen. Frank Blair ordered units of his XVII Corps to destroy railroad tracks north of the city. Portions of Gen. M.C. Butler’s Confederate cavalry division, including the 4^th, 5^th, & 6^th S.C. Cavalry, fought a rear-guard action with Blair at nearby Killian’s Mill, then withdrew toward Winnsboro.

Erected by the Hampton’s Iron Scouts Camp # 1945, Sons of Confederate Veterans, 2003

(Front) This warehouse was built in 1913 as the schoolbook depository for the R.L.

Bryan Company. The company, founded in 1844 by R.L. Bryan (1823-1900) and his brother-in-law James J. McCarter (d. 1872), was originally a bookstore and stationery shop on Main St. known as Bryan & McCarter. In 1900 R.L. Bryan & Company merged with the Bryan Printing Company, founded in 1889, to become the R.L. Bryan Company.

(Reverse) In 1901 the S.C. General Assembly, in an effort to improve public education, adopted standardized texts. The R.L. Bryan Company, selected as the statewide distributor, used this building as its depository and warehouse from 1913 to 1973. In 1976 the building was renovated and opened as a restaurant, in one of the first examples of the adaptive reuse of historic buildings in this part of Columbia.

Intersection of McCords Ferry Rd. (U.S. Hwy. 601) & S.C. Hwy. 764 (Old Eastover Rd.),

(Front) This plantation on the Wateree River features a remarkable Italianate Revival house built in 1852-54. Designed by Charleston architects Edward C. Jones and Francis D. Lee, it was built for Matthew Richard Singleton (1817-1854) and Martha Kinloch Singleton (1818-1892). Jacob Stroyer described life as a slave here in his memoir, first published in 1879.

(Reverse) Kensington was owned by members of the Singleton, Hamer, and Lanham families until the late twentieth century, and though the house fell into disrepair the land was farmed for many years. Kensington was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. It was sold to Union Camp (later International Paper) in 1981, restored in 1983-84, and opened for educational programs.

(Front) The Jefferson Hotel, designed and built by Columbia entrepreneur and contractor John Jefferson Cain (1869-1929), stood here at the corner of Main and Laurel Streets from 1914 until 1968. The hotel (also sometimes called the Hotel Jefferson) was built in 1912-13 at a cost of $250,000. Notable features included Indiana limestone on the 1^st and 6^th story exteriors and mahogany, marble, and terra cotta tile throughout the lobby, dining room, and ballroom.
(Reverse) For 55 years the Jefferson was Columbia’s premier hotel, hosting conventions as well as more informal meetings among legislators. It was demolished in 1968. In 1938, during the 48^th reunion of the United Confederate Veterans, former officers and their descendants met here to organize the Order of the Stars and Bars. Now the Military Order of the Stars and Bars, this genealogical society is for descendants of Confederate officers and civil officials.

(Front) This building, built in 1863-64 and burned by Federal troops in 1865, was rebuilt in 1872 as a cotton batting factory and warehouse. It burned again in 1897, leaving only the outer walls. In 1898 the S.C. State Dispensary, created by Gov. Benjamin R. Tillman to ensure state control over the production and sale of alcohol, rebuilt it as a two-story building to serve as the State Dispensary Warehouse.
(Reverse) Though the State Dispensary system generated impressive revenue, it also allowed corruption and violence to flourish, and was finally abolished in 1907. Vacant from 1907 until the 1920s, this building served as a warehouse for a succession of businesses for the next fifty years. It was vacant again from the late 1970s until 2004, when it was rehabilitated for a neighborhood grocery store.

(Front) This house, built ca. 1910 for Columbia businessman John Jefferson Cain (1869-1929), was designed by William Augustus Edwards (1866-1939), a prominent regional architect. Cain, who moved to Columbia in 1899, became one of the state’s leading contractors and built such Columbia landmarks as the Arcade (1912) and the Palmetto Building (1913). He also financed, built, and owned the Jefferson Hotel (1913).

(Reverse) J. Pope Matthews, president of the Palmetto National Bank, lived here from ca. 1913 to 1931, when Arthur S. Tompkins bought the house. It remained in the Tompkins family until 1974, when the University of South Carolina acquired it. The house, threatened by demolition for several years, was designated a local historic landmark in 2002. It was renovated and opened as The Inn at USC in 2005.

(Front) Randolph Cemetery, founded in 1871, was one of the first black cemeteries in Columbia. It was named for Benjamin Franklin Randolph (1837-1868), a black state senator assassinated in 1868 near Hodges, in Abbeville County. Randolph, a native of Kentucky and a free black before the Civil War, had been a chaplain in the Union Army, an agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and a newspaper publisher before he was elected to represent Orangeburg County in the S.C. Senate in 1868.

(Reverse) Eight other black lawmakers from the Reconstruction era are buried here: Henry Cardozo (1830-1886), William Fabriel Myers (1850-1917), William Beverly Nash (1822-1888), Robert John Palmer (1849-1928), William M. Simons (1810-1878), Samuel Benjamin Thompson (1837-1909), Charles McDuffie Wilder (1835-1902), and Lucius W. Wimbush (1839-1872). Randolph Cemetery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

Erected by the Downtown Columbia Task Force and the Committee for the Restoration and Beautification of Randolph Cemetery, 2006 [2008]

(Front) This house, built after 1900, was originally a two-story frame residence with a projecting bay and wraparound porch; a fire in 1989 destroyed the second story. Barrett Visanska (1849-1932), a jeweler, bought the house in 1913. Visanska, a native of Poland, was a leader in Columbia’s Jewish community and a founder of the Tree of Life Congregation. In 1938 Dr. John J. Starks, president of Benedict College, bought the house.
(Reverse) Dr. John Jacob Starks (1876-1944), the first black president of Benedict College, lived here from 1938 until his death. Starks was president of Seneca Institute 1899-1912; Morris College 1912-1930; and Benedict College 1930-1944. After World War II this house served as the nurses’ home for Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital, created by merger in 1939. It was later a private residence once more.

(Front) This house was built ca. 1855 for George P. Hoffman (1829-1902), a native of N.C. Hoffman ran a nearby sawmill and became the first postmaster of Doko (as Blythewood was first known) in 1856. This area was part of Fairfield County until 1913, when it was annexed into Richland County. Capt. John L. Kennedy owned the house during the Civil War; his widow Judith owned it afterwards.
(Reverse) This house was one of several ransacked by Gen. W.T. Sherman’s Federals as they advanced through this area in February 1865. Hoffman, a section master on the Charlotte & South Carolina Railroad, owned the house again by 1875. It later housed an antique shop and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. It became the Blythewood Town Hall in 2000.

(Front) This one-room primary school, built about 1925, stood about 1 mi. E, at the intersection of Killian and Longtown Roads, until 2001. There was a school at Killian (also called Killian’s) as early as 1905. From 1913 to 1948 Killian School had two teachers and an enrollment of 30 to 80 students in grades 1-7, with an average attendance of 30 to 40 and an eight- to nine-month school year.
(Reverse) Killian School closed in 1948, and its students and one teacher went to Blythewood Grammar School. In 1954 Richland County sold the school to the citizens of Killian for $100.00 as a community center. The Killian School was deeded to Richland County School District Two in 2000 and moved here in 2001 to be renovated as a museum of 20th century rural education and a conference center.
Erected by the Richland County Conservation Commission, 2007

Russ Brown Rd., near the intersection of N. Melton Rd. & Sandfield Rd., Blythewood

(Front) Twenty-Five Mile Creek Church, a Primitive Baptist congregation, was organized in this area before 1772. It was renamed Sandfield Church by ca. 1830 and the mother church for Cedar Creek, Harmony, Jackson Creek, and Sawney’s Creek. After some members left in 1840 to organize a new church this congregation became Sandy Level Baptist Church in 1843.
(Reverse)

In 1856 Sandy Level Baptist Church built a new church 3 mi. W on Blythewood Rd. The congregation gave this site and the old church to the community provided any organization using it would be Baptist. A second Sandfield Baptist Church, organized here ca. 1870, was disbanded ca. 1938. The cemetery here dates to the second church and is now maintained by Sandy Level Baptist Church.

(Front) Twenty-Five Mile Creek Church, a Primitive Baptist congregation, was organized in this area before 1772. The mother church for several area Baptist churches, it was renamed Sandfield ca. 1830 and stood about 3 mi. E. Sandfield Baptist Church was renamed Sandy Level Baptist Church in 1843 and the congregation moved to this site in 1856.
(Reverse) This frame sanctuary, built in 1856 during the pastorate of Rev. A.K. Durham, was described at its dedication as being the result of “the liberal contributions and unfaltering zeal of this community.” Notable features include its large inset portico and interior gallery. The rear addition was built in 1950 to house the Sunday School and baptistry.

(Front) In 1937 Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University) acquired the Ainsley Hall House, designed by Robert Mills. The students housed here were trained for Christian service around the world. in 1960 CBC moved to its present campus in north Columbia. The Robert Mills House has been operated as a house museum since 1967 by the Historic Columbia Foundation.

The Westervelt Home, for children of Christian missionaries, was founded in Indiana in 1926 and moved to Columbia in 1929. Associated with Columbia Bible College, it was in the Hampton-Preston Mansion 1930-34 and the Robert Mills House 1934-37, then moved to Batesburg in 1937. The Hampton-Preston Mansion has been a house museum since 1970 and operated by Historic Columbia Foundation since 1972.

Carver Theatre, built about 1941, was one of Columbia’s two exclusively African-American theatres during the segregation era of the mid-20th century. It was run by black operators but owned by the white-owned Dixie Amusement Company for most of its history. Carver Theatre also hosted weekly talent shows based on the popular “Amateur Hour” in Harlem. The theatre, which closed in 1971, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2011

(Front) Matthew J. Perry, Jr. (b. 1921), lawyer, civil rights pioneer, and jurist, lived in a house on this site as a youth; the house was torn down in 1997. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, then graduated from S.C. State College (now S.C. State University) in 1948. After graduating in the first class of the S.C. State Law School in 1951 Perry practiced law in Spartanburg, specializing in civil rights cases.

(Reverse) Perry returned to Columbia in 1961 as chief counsel of the S.C. State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). For fifteen years he tried numerous pivotal civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1976 Perry was appointed to the U.S. Military Court of Appeals, and in 1979 he became the first black U.S. district court judge in S.C.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2008

(Front) This is the site of the home of James Miles Hinton (1891-1970), businessman, civil rights pioneer, and minister. Hinton moved to Columbia in 1939 and was elected president of the Columbia branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) that year. He was president of the S.C. State Conference of the NAACP from 1941 through 1958, as it grew from 13 chapters to 80 chapters.
(Reverse) Hinton helped overthrow the all-white Democratic primary in S.C. and helped plan strategy for Briggs v. Elliott, the S.C. case of those that led to Brown v. the Board of Education and school desegregation. He was often threatened, was kidnapped from Augusta in 1949, and had shots fired at his house here in 1956. Hinton was later pastor of Second Calvary Baptist Church in Columbia, and died in Augusta in 1970.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2008

(Front) This house, with Greek Revival and Italianate architectural influences, was built about 1879 by William J. Heidt, builder and contractor who managed Heidlinger’s Steam Bakery. The Heidts lived here until 1912. Mary E. Russell, whose husband Nathaniel was a postman for the U.S. Post Office, bought the house in 1919.
(Reverse) EDWIN R. RUSSELL

Edwin Roberts Russell (1913-1996) spent his early years here. A research scientist, he was one of the few blacks directly involved in the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb. Educated at Benedict College and Howard University, in 1942-45 Russell helped separate plutonium from uranium at the University of Chicago. He returned to Columbia to teach at Allen University, then was a research chemist at the Savannah River Plant form 1957 to 1976.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2008

1507 Harden St., Columbia
(Front) The Lighthouse & Informer, long the leading black newspaper in S.C., was a weekly published here from 1941 to 1954 by journalist and civil rights advocate John Henry McCray (1910-1997). McCray, who founded and paper “so our people can have a voice and some means of getting along together,” published articles covering every aspect of black life and columns and editorials advocating equal rights.
(Reverse) JOHN H. McCRAY

In 1944, after the S.C. General Assembly repealed laws regulating primaries and the S.C. Democratic Party excluded blacks from voting in them, John H. McCray helped found the Progressive Democratic Party, the first black Democratic party in the South. He was an editor for other leading black newspapers in the 1950s and 1960s, then spent many years as an administrator at his alma mater, Talladega College. McCray died in Alabama in 1987.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2008

2317 Gervais St., Columbia
(Front) The Waverly Five & Dime, located here until about 1957, was managed 1945-48 by George A. Elmore (1905-1959), the African American plaintiff in a landmark voting rights case soon after World War II. Elmore ran this store and two liquor stores, and also worked as a photographer and cab driver. In 1946, when he tried to vote in the all-white Democratic primary in Richland County, he was denied a ballot.
(Reverse)
GEORGE ELMORE AND ELMORE V. RICE

In 1947 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sued to end the all-white primary in S.C. Judge J. Waties Waring (1880-1948) ruled in U.S. district court that it was “time for S.C. to rejoin the Union.” Blacks voted in the next S.C. primary, in 1948. As a result of the case, George Elmore endured numerous personal threats and economic reprisals that ruined his business.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2008

(Front) Wesley Methodist Church is the oldest African American Methodist congregation in Columbia. It was founded in 1869 by Rev. J.C. Emerson and was a separate black congregation instead of forming from an established white church. First called the Columbia Mission, it met upstairs in a Main St. building and later built its own chapel. About 1910 the Columbia Mission bought this lot and was renamed Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church.

(Reverse) This Gothic Revival church, built in 1910-11, was designed by noted Columbia architect Arthur W. Hamby, who designed other churches in Columbia as well as in Winnsboro, Bishopville, and St. Matthews. Its high-style Late Gothic design is relatively unusual for an African-American church of its period, and is notable for its two asymmetrical towers, decorative brickwork, and pointed-arch stained glass windows.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2008

BENEDICT COLLEGE
at the entrance to the campus, Harden St. at the end of Blanding St., Columbia

(Front) Benedict College, founded in 1870 by the American Baptist Home Mission Society to educate freedmen and their descendants, was originally called Benedict Institute. It was named for Stephen and Bathsheba Benedict of Rhode Island, whose bequest created the school. Mrs. Benedict donated money to buy land in Columbia for it. The institute was chartered as Benedict College in 1894. Its early presidents were all white Baptist ministers from the North.
(Reverse) By the time Dr. J.J. Starks became Benedict College’s first black president in 1930, its curriculum included primary and secondary courses, college-level liberal arts courses, and courses in theology, nursing, and teaching. This curriculum was streamlined in the 1930s to emphasize the liberal arts and theology. Benedict College was also a significant center for civil rights activities in Columbia from the 1930s through the 1960s.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2011

2025 Marion St., Columbia
(Front) This house was for sixty years the home of Modjeska Monteith Simkins (1899-1992), social reformer and civil rights activist. A Columbia native, she was educated at Benedict College, then taught high school. Director of Negro Work for the S.C. Anti-tuberculosis Association 1931-1942, Simkins was the first black in S.C. to hold a full-time, statewide, public health position.
(Reverse) Simkins was a founder of the S.C. Conference of the National Asssociation for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As the secretary of the conference 1941-1957, Simkins hosted many meetings and planning sessions here, for cases such as Brown v. Board of Education. In 1997 the house was acquired by the Collaborative for Community Trust; it was transferred to the Historic Columbia Foundation in 2007.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2008

BLOSSOM STREET SCHOOL
at the Strom Thurmond Fitness and Wellness Center, Blossom St. just E of its intersection with

(Front) Blossom Street School, at the corner of what was then Blossom & Gates (now Park) Streets, was built in 1898 as the first public school in Columbia south of Senate Street. A frame building, it was originally a school for white children. After it burned in 1915, a brick school was built here the next year. Blossom Street became a school for black children in Ward One in 1929 and was renamed Celia Dial Saxon School in 1930.
(Reverse)
CELIA DIAL SAXON SCHOOL

Blossom Street School was renamed to honor Celia Dial Saxon (1857-1935). Saxon was educated at the Normal School at the University of S.C. 1875-77, during Reconstruction. She taught in Columbia schools for 57 years and was a founder of the Wilkinson Orphanage, Wheatley YWCA, and Fairwold Industrial School. Saxon School closed in 1968 and was demolished in 1974 as a result of campus expansion by the University of S.C.

Erected by the Ward One Families Reunion Organization and the Historic Columbia Foundation, 2008

(Front) This church, founded in 1866, was one of the first separate African-American congregations established in Columbia after the Civil War. It met in buildings on Wayne St., at Lincoln & Hampton Sts., and at Sumter & Hampton Sts. before acquiring this site. This sanctuary, a Romanesque Revival design, was built in 1921 and was designed by noted black architect John Anderson Lankford (1874-1946).
(Reverse) John Anderson Lankford, one of the first registered black architects in the U.S., was later supervising architect of the A.M.E. Church. Bethel was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. In 1995 its congregation moved to the former Shandon Baptist Church on Woodrow St. In 2008 the Renaissance Foundation began restoring the historic church as a cultural arts center.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2008

(Front) The Israelite Sunday School, the first Jewish religious school in Columbia, met in a building

on this site until 1865. It had been founded in 1843 to give Jewish children of the city “an intimate ...

and full exposition of our faith.” Supported by the Columbia Hebrew Benevolent Society, the school had 20-30 students when it was organized in a nearby building, in space donated by a member of the society.

COLUMBIA’S FIRST SYNAGOGUE
In 1846 the Columbia Hebrew Benevolent Society built a frame building on this site for the Israelite Sunday School, which met on the first floor. The society also organized the first formal congregation in Columbia, which they named Shearith Israel (Remnant of Israel), with its synagogue on the second

floor. The building burned when Gen. William T. Sherman’s Federals captured the city in February 1865.

Erected by the Beth Shalom Synagogue, the Tree of Life Temple, and the Jewish Historical Society of S.C., 2008

(Front) Allen University, chartered in 1880, was founded by the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church. It had its origin in Payne Institute, founded in 1870 in Cokesbury, in Greenwood County. In 1880 the S.C. Conference of the A.M.E. Church voted to move Payne Institute to Columbia. It opened in Columbia in 1881 and was renamed in honor of Bishop Richard Allen (1760-1831), founder of the A.M.E. Church. The first university building on this site was in use by 1888.
(Reverse) Allen University, founded to educate ministers for the A.M.E. Church, also had primary and secondary courses, and college-level liberal arts courses. It also offered courses in the arts and had one of the few black law schools in the South before 1900. Its primary and secondary programs ended in the 1920s and 1930s. Allen was also a significant center for civil rights activities in Columbia from the 1930s through the 1960s.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2011

(Front) The North Carolina Mutual Building was built in 1909 by the N.C. Mutual and Provident Association, a black-owned life insurance company with an office here until the mid-1930s. Built as a two-story commercial building, with a third story added after 1927, it was part of the Washington Street business district, an important part of Columbia’s African-American community for most of the 20th century.
(Reverse) This building had stores on the first floor and offices on the upper floors. First-floor tenants included barbers and beauticians, tailors and dressmakers, and restaurants. Second and third floor tenants included insurance agents, doctors, and lawyers. The Palmetto Grand Lodge owned the building from 1927 to the early 1940s. The N.C. Mutual Building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2011

(Front) Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital, created in 1938 by the merger of two older hospitals, served the black community of Columbia for 35 years. It merged Good Samaritan Hospital, founded in 1910 by Dr. William S. Rhodes and his wife Lillian, and Waverly Hospital, founded in 1924 by Dr. Norman A. Jenkins and his four brothers. The hospitals competed for the same doctors, nurses, and patients for several years.
(Reverse) By the mid-1930s the Duke Endowment and the Rosenwald Fund recommended a merger of the two hospitals to improve the quality of health care for blacks in Columbia and surrounding counties. This building, the first in Columbia built specifically as a hospital for blacks, opened in 1952. After the new integrated Richland Memorial Hospital opened in 1972, Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital closed the next year.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2009

(Front) Dr. Matilda A. Evans (1872-1935), black physician, public health advocate, and civil rights advocate, lived here 1928-1935. Evans, a graduate of the Schofield School in Aiken and Oberlin College, received her M.D. from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1897. She moved to Columbia that year and founded the first black hospital in the city in 1901, in a house at Taylor St. and Two Notch Rd.
(Reverse) Taylor Lane Hospital & Training School for Nurses, described in 1910 as “a monument to her industry and energy,” burned in 1914. Evans soon opened St. Luke’s Hospital & Training School for Nurses, which closed in 1918. She served in the U.S. Army Sanitary Corps during World War I and later founded the S.C. Good Health Association. Evans, elected president of the black Palmetto Medical Association in 1922, was its first woman president.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2011

This Greek Revival cottage, built ca. 1872, was the residence and business of Caroline Alston, a black businesswoman who lived and ran a dry goods store here as early as 1873. She purchased the house in 1888, becoming one of the few black business owners in Columbia during the period. Alston, known for the “esteem and confidence” of her black and white customers, sold the house in 1906. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2011

(Front) Waverly has been one of Columbia’s most significant black communities since the 1930s. The city’s first residential suburb, it grew out of a 60-acre parcel bought by Robert Latta in 1855. Latta’s widow and children sold the first lots here in 1863. Shortly after the Civil War banker and textile manufacturer Lysander D. Childs bought several blocks here for development. Waverly grew for the next 50 years as railroad and streetcar lines encouraged growth.
(Reverse) The City of Columbia annexed Waverly in 1913. Two black colleges, Benedict College and Allen University, drew many African Americans to this area as whites moved to other city suburbs. By the 1930s this community was almost entirely black. The Waverly Historic District, bounded by Gervais, Harden, and Taylor Streets and Millwood Avenue, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2011

(Front) The Fair-Rutherford House, a Greek Revival cottage, stood here from ca. 1850 until it was demolished in 2004. Built for Dr. Samuel Fair, it passed through several owners before 1905, when William H. Rutherford (1852-1910) bought and enlarged it. Rutherford, an African-American businessman born a slave, taught school, then made lodge regalia and supplies and briefly co-owned a local cigar factory.

The Rutherford House was built in 1924-25 for Carrie Rutherford, daughter-in-law of W.H. Rutherford. Her son Dr. Harry B. Rutherford, Jr. (1911-1980) and his wife Dr. Evaretta Sims Rutherford (1910-1978) were prominent educators, he as a teacher and principal and later a dean at Benedict College, and she as a professor and department chair at Benedict College and Howard University. The house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2011

(Front) Sidney Park C.M.E. Church was founded in 1886 and has been at this site since 1889. It grew out of a dispute among members of Bethel A.M.E. Church, who left that congregation and applied to join the Colored Methodist Episcopal (now Christian Methodist Episcopal) Church. The congregation acquired this site in 1886 and built its first sanctuary, a frame building, in 1889. That church burned by 1892.
(Reverse) This Gothic Revival brick church, built in 1893, was constructed by members who provided materials and labor. In the 1930s many members joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the church later hosted many meetings during the Civil Rights Movement. Sidney Park was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2011

(Front) Richard Samuel Roberts (1880-1936), a photographer who documented individuals, families, and institutions in Columbia’s black community and across S.C., lived here from 1920 until his death. Roberts, a self-taught photographer, moved his family from Florida to Columbia and bought this house at 1717 Wayne Street for $3,000. Roberts and his wife Wilhelmina Williams Roberts (1881-1977) raised their children here.
(Reverse) Roberts, who was a full-time custodian at the main Columbia post office, first used an outbuilding here for his photography studio. From 1922 to 1936 his studio was downtown at 1119 Washington Street. Roberts often advertised in the Palmetto Leader, the leading black newspaper in S.C. Some of Roberts’ best photographs were published in 1986 in A True Likeness: The Black South of Richard Samuel Roberts.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2011

(Front) Nathaniel J. Frederick (1877-1938), educator, lawyer, newspaper editor, and civil rights activist, lived here from 1904 until his death. This house was built in 1903 by Cap J. Carroll, a prominent businessman and city official whose daughter Corrine married Frederick in 1904. Frederick, who was educated at Claflin College and the University of Wisconsin, was admitted to the S.C. bar in 1913.
(Reverse) Frederick argued more cases before the Supreme Court of S.C. than any black lawyer of his day. He won national attention for defending clients accused of murdering a sheriff in State v. Lowman (1926), but his clients were later lynched. Frederick was principal of the Howard School 1902-18 and president of the State Negro Teachers Association. He edited the Palmetto Leader, the major black newspaper in S.C., 1925-38.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2011

Bethel Baptist Church was founded in 1884 by black members of nearby Sandy Level Baptist Church seeking to organize a separate congregation. They met at first in a brush arbor, then built a frame sanctuary here in 1892. It was covered in granite veneer in 1952. The church also sponsored the Bethel School, which stood behind the church. The present sanctuary was built in 2003.

(Front) This African-American school, built nearby before 1900, was originally New Hope School, a white school affiliated with Union Church. It closed about 1914. In 1921 Rachel Hull Monteith (d. 1958) opened Nelson School as a black public school in the Hyatt Park School District. With about 100 students in grades 1-5, it later became a 3-teacher school with Monteith as its principal and added grades 6 and 7.

(Reverse) Nelson School was renamed Monteith School in 1932 to honor Rachel Monteith. A civil rights activist, she was the mother of prominent civil rights activist Modjeska Monteith Simkins (1899-1992). By 1936 her daughter Rebecca (1911-1967) also taught here; she became principal when her mother retired in 1942. The Hyatt Park School District was annexed into the city in 1947, and the school closed in 1949. Moved here in 2003, it now serves as a community center.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2009

(Front) The two-story main building at Booker T. Washington School, built in 1916, stood here until 1975. At first an elementary school with grades 1-10, it became Booker T. Washington High School with grades 9-10 in 1918, added grade 11 in 1924, and added grade 12 in 1947. Columbia’s only black high school from 1917 to 1948 and for many years the largest black high school in the state, it closed in 1974.

Booker T. Washington High, one of the first black high schools accredited by the S.C. Dept. of Education, was also one of the most significant institutions in Columbia’s black community for more than fifty years. Notable principals included C.A. Johnson, 1916-1931; J. Andrew Simmons, 1932-1945; and Harry B. Rutherford, 1950-1965. The University of S.C. bought the property in 1974 and demolished the main building in 1975.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2009

in front of the Hood Street Elementary School, Hood St., Fort Jackson, Columbia

(Front) Fort Jackson Elementary School was one of the first public schools in S.C. to desegregate when classes began on September 3, 1963. The first school on post and one of the first permanent buildings at Fort Jackson, it was built in only three months. A new federal policy required all schools on military bases to admit African-American students instead of sending them to separate schools off-base.

This school opened under Principal Thomas Silvester with nine civilian teachers and 245 students in Grades 1-6. A newspaper article described it as “operated without regard to race, creed or color.” Fort Jackson Elementary School, later renamed Hood Street Elementary School after additional schools opened on post, has served the families of Fort Jackson servicemen and servicewomen for more than 45 years.

(Front) This garden was established in 1944 by the Garden Club of South Carolina. It was the first memorial garden in the U.S. created by a state garden club in honor and in memory of those who served in World War II. Sarah P. Boylston donated part of her own garden for it, and noted landscape architect Loutrel W. Briggs (1893-1977) donated his landscape design. It opened in 1946 and was dedicated at its completion in 1957.
(Reverse) This garden was described in a 1946 award citation from the National Council of State Garden Clubs as “expressed in terms of beauty, a place apart.” It has long hosted events on Memorial Day and other occasions. The Garden Club of South Carolina, founded in 1930, was incorporated in 1945. It and its member clubs and leaders promote education, beautification, and environmental awareness.

(Front) Kingville, a rural community, was established in 1840 as a station on the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Charleston Railroad, on the line from Charleston to Columbia. In 1848 the S.C. Railroad extended its line northeast from here to Camden, making Kingville a significant railroad town. By 1860 it boasted a hotel, post office, shops, offices, and several residences.
(Reverse) Kingville is thought to be named for its status as “king” of the railroad line between Charleston and Columbia and between Columbia and Camden. In February 1865 Gen. William T. Sherman’s Federals burned the depot, hotel, and sheds and destroyed 3,000 ft. of track. The railroad line was rebuilt in the 1880s and a sawmill was built about 1900, but the area declined by the mid-20th century.

intersection of Cabin Creek Rd. & Minervaville Rd., Minervaville (Hopkins vicinity)

Minervaville, between Cabin Branch and Cedar Creek, was an early 19th-century community. Named after the Minerva Academy, founded in 1802 with William J. Bingham as its headmaster, Minervaville appears on Robert Mills’s Atlas of S.C. (1825). It was later a station on the S.C. Railroad, with a post office 1831-1835. The area declined after the Minerva Academy closed in 1834.

intersection of Lower Richland Blvd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 40-37) & Barberville Loop Rd., Hopkins vicinity

(Front) In 1872 Samuel Barber (d. 1891) and his wife Harriet (d. 1899), both former slaves, bought 42 1/2 acres here from the S.C. Land Commission, established in 1869 to give freedmen and freedwomen the opportunity to own land. Barber, a well-digger as a slave, was a farmer and minister after the Civil War. The Barber family has owned a major portion of this tract since Samuel and Harriet Barber purchased it in 1872.
(Reverse) Samuel Barber’s wife Harriet (d. 1899) received title to this land in 1879. This one-story frame house was built ca. 1880. The Barbers’ son Rev. John B. Barber (1872-1957) inherited the property in 1899. He was a schoolteacher and pastor of St. Mark and New Light Beulah Baptist churches. This house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

intersection of Back Swamp Rd. & Lower Richland Blvd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 40-37), Hopkins

(Front) This rural community grew up around the plantation of John Hopkins (1739-1775). Hopkins, a native of Virginia, settled here in 1764. A surveyor and planter, he was later a delegate to the First Provincial Congress of 1775. Between 1836 and 1842, when the South Carolina RR line from Kingville to Columbia was completed, a turntable was named “Hopkins’ Turnout” for the family.
(Reverse) The Hopkins’ Turnout post office opened in 1849. After the Civil War many freedmen, freedwomen, and their families settled in the area, some farming land they had purchased during Reconstruction from the S.C. Land Commission. The completion of the Wilmington, Columbia, & Augusta RR in 1871 expanded area markets, until the agricultural depression of the 1920s weakened the local economy.

(Front) Eastover, so named for being “east and over” from Columbia, was a small rural community of the mid-19th century that grew into a town after the Wilmington, Columbia, & Augusta RR completed its line through this area in 1871. The town, chartered in 1880, was incorporated in 1907 with its limits designated as one-half mile in each direction from the tracks through the center of town.
(Reverse) Railroad lines to and through Lower Richland County allowed local markets to expand and farmers and merchants to prosper. By 1910 Eastover, then the only incorporated town in the county outside of Columbia, boasted a post office, a bank, several stores, and a cotton gin. In 1984 Union Camp, later International Paper, opened a pulp and paper plant near the town.

(Front) The Robert Weston Mance House, built in 1903, stood here at the corner of Pine and Hampton Streets until 2008. A two-story American Foursquare frame house, it was later clad in brick veneer. It was built for grocers Thomas J. and Ida Roberts, whose store was next door. Rev. Robert W. Mance (1876-1930) acquired the house in 1922. After his death Dr. Robert W. Mance, Jr. (1903-1968) lived here until 1957.
(Reverse) Rev. Robert W. Mance, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, lived here while he was president of Allen University 1916-1924. Dr. Robert W. Mance, Jr. was a physician, superintendent of Waverly Hospital, and civil rights activist. Three Allen University presidents lived here from the 1950s to the 1980s. A new dormitory project here resulted in the relocation of the house two blocks E to Heidt Street in 2008.

Erected by the Historic Columbia Foundation, the City of Columbia, and the S.C. Department of Transportation, 2011

(Front) This school, built in 1923 at a cost of $2,500, is one of 500 African-American schools in S.C. funded in part by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation from 1917 to 1932. It is a two-room school typical of smaller Rosenwald schools. From 1923 to 1950 an average of 40-50 students a year attended this school, in grades 1-7.
(Reverse) This school closed after the 1949-50 school year, when many districts were consolidated. It was sold to the Pine Grove Community Development Club in 1968, then to the Richland County Recreation Commission in 2002. Pine Grove Rosenwald School was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
Erected by the Richland County Recreation Commission, 2011

CURTISS-WRIGHT HANGAR
at Jim Hamilton / L.B. Owens Airport, Jim Hamilton Blvd. near its intersection with Airport Blvd., Columbia

(Front) This hangar, built in 1929 by the Curtiss-Wright Flying Service, was the first building at Owens Field, a municipal airport then 3 mi. S of the city limits. Curtiss-Wright built and operated numerous airports across America for the next two decades, also offering flight training. The airport, named for Mayor Lawrence B. Owens (1869-1941), was dedicated in 1930 with an airshow seen by 15, 000 spectators.
(Reverse) Regularly scheduled flights began in 1932, and civilian flight training began in 1939. Observation flights of the U.S. Army Air Corps began in 1940, and military training by the U.S. Army Air Force continued through World War II and beyond. In 1962 the city transferred the airport to Richland County, which has owned and operated it since. This hangar was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

(Front) This city park, established in 1911, was named for Confederate general Maxcy Gregg (1814-1862). It was one of several parks in Columbia proposed by landscape architect Harlan P. Kelsey of Boston, whose 1905 plan was commissioned by the Civic Improvement League. The park, donated to the city by George R. Rembert (1875-1913), was the central portion of a tract originally bounded by Bull, Wheat, and Greene Streets and the Southern Railway.
(Reverse) The park was later divided by Pickens Street in the late 1930s and by the extension of Blossom Street in 1939. The Woman’s Club of Columbia (1941), across Blossom Street, was built in what was then still part of the park. The Memorial Youth Center, dedicated in 1948, was demolished in 1987. A swimming pool and bathhouse were dedicated in 1949. Recent additions include the Capital Senior Center (1995) and Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Survivors Garden (2003).
Erected by theMaxcy Gregg Park Centennial Committee and the City of Columbia, 2011

(Front) Isaiah DeQuincey Newman (1911-1985), Methodist minister, civil rights leader, and state senator, lived here from 1960 until his death. Born in Darlington County, he attended Claflin College and was a graduate of Clark College and Gammon Theological Seminary. Newman, a long-time pastor, was also a major figure in the Civil Rights Movement in S.C. for more than forty years, beginning in the 1940s.

(Reverse) In 1943 Newman helped found the Orangeburg branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. State field director of the S.C. NAACP 1960-69, he later advised governors and Congressmen on poverty and on improving housing and medical care in S.C. In 1983 Newman became the first black member of the S.C. Senate since 1888. He resigned in 1985 because of ill health and died a few months later.

(Front) This is the site of Redfern Field, established in 1923 as the first commercial airfield in Columbia. Paul Rinaldo Redfern (1902-1927?) had shown an early interest in and aptitude for aviation, building his first full-scale airplane in 1916, while still a student at Columbia High School. Though he soon left high school to gain experience working on and flying planes, Redfern returned in 1919 and graduated in 1923.

Redfern built his own plane, opened his airfield here, and flew passengers all over S.C. before barnstorming across the Southeast for a few years. In 1927 businessmen in Brunswick, Ga., financed Redfern’s attempt to make the first solo flight from North America to South America. On August 25, he took off in the monoplane Port of Brunswick from that city, bound for Rio de Janeiro. Redfern, last seen over Venezuela, was never heard from again.

(Front) This church, organized in 1762 by German colonists, is one of the first Lutheran congregations in the Dutch Fork region. Incorporated in 1788 as “the German Lutheran Church of Bethel on High Hill Creek,” it first met in a log church 3.5 mi. S, near the juncture of that creek and the Saluda River. It built later churches ca. 1800, in 1843, and in 1881 further up High Hill Creek.
(Reverse) An original member of the South Carolina Lutheran Synod when the synod was organized in 1824, Bethel was forced to move when Lake Murray was constructed. In 1929 it merged with Mt. Vernon Lutheran Church, organized in 1893 at White Rock, to form a “new” Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church. This Gothic Revival church, designed by J.B. Urquhart of Columbia, was dedicated in 1930.

(Front) This African-American church was organized ca. 1865 when four men left Sandy Level Baptist Church, founded before the Revolution with both white and black members, to form their own congregation. They elected Rev. Joe Taylor as their first pastor and held early services in a brush arbor nearby.
(Reverse) The first permanent church here, a log building, was replaced by a frame church 1907-1922, during the pastorate of Rev. T.H. McNeal. It was covered in brick veneer in 1941, then extensively renovated 1964-1978, during the pastorate of Rev. A.J. Grove, Sr. The historic church cemetery dates to the 1880s.

Sponsored by the Richland County Conservation Commission and the Congregation, 2013

THE TOWN OF NORTH

ASBURY F. LEVER (1875-1940)

SOUTH CAROLINA STATE HOSPITAL

BETHLEHEM CHURCH [First Marker]

Newberry County

Glenn St., Newberry, adjacent to the original Mollohon Mill office

Oconee County

Tucker Farm Rd., Fair Play vicinity

Orangeburg County

Pickens County

Richland County