Anderson-Oconee-Pickens County SC Historical Roadside Markers

SC Historical Roadside Markers

Abbeville to Bramberg Counties

Compiled by: Paul M. Kankula NN8NN

5.5 miles south of Abbeville is the burial ground of Patrick and Martha Calhoun, parents of John C. Calhoun. Patrick was made deputy surveyor, 1756; first representative from Up-Country to Commons House of Assembly, 1769-1772; member of First Provincial Congress, 1775; of the Second, 1775-1776; of the General Assembly, 1776, and frequently thereafter until his death, 1796. His greatest service to his state was his successful fight for the Circuit Court Act of 1769. Across the road opposite the burial ground is his home site.

[Erected in 1950; needs repainting as of June 2009, according to Brian Scott of The Historical Markers Database]

Half mile southeast is Millwood, home of James Edward Calhoun, 1796-1898, son of John Ewing and Floride Bonneau Calhoun and brother-in-law of John C. Calhoun. After serving as lieutenant in the U. S. Navy, he developed Millwood, which ultimately included 25,000 acres. Seeing the value of Trotter's Shoals, a part of this estate, he was among the first to encourage the use of Southern water power.

[Erected in 1953; needs repainting as of June 2009, according to Brian Scott of The Historical Markers Database]

Erected by the descendants of Abraham Bowie, who was born in Scotland and settled in Durham Parish, Charles County, Maryland, about 1700 A.D. The family of his grandson, Rhody Bowie, moved to Abbeville County, South Carolina, about 1800. Eli Bowie, son of Rhody Bowie, established Gilgal Church in 1817. This church is located 2 miles east of this memorial and is the site of the Bowie Reunion each year.

[Erected in 1954 but since replaced by a stone marker with the same inscription]

intersection of N. Main St. and Wardlaw St., Abbeville, 2.5 blocks from Abbeville Town Square

AUGUSTUS J. LYTHGOE, 19 S.C. Inf./Killed Murfreesboro, 1862/J. FOSTER MARSHALL, Orr's Rifles/Killed Second Manassas, 1862/GEORGE M. MILLER, Orr's Rifles/Wounded Spotsylvania, 1864/JAMES M. PERRIN, Orr's Rifles/Killed Chancellorsville, 1863/THOMAS THOMSON, Moore's Rifles/Served Oct. 22, 1861-Dec. 10, 1863

On this land settled by his father Patrick Calhoun in the 1750s, defended against the Indians in the Cherokee War and the enemies of liberty in the American Revolution, John Caldwell Calhoun, American statesman and champion of the old South, was born, March 18, 1782, and nurtured to young manhood.

[Erected in 1962 or 1963; needs repainting as of June 2009, according to Brian Scott of The Historical Markers Database]

As early as 1765, the site 6 miles NW-known to the Indians as Yellow Water and where the Keowee Path crossed the Cherokee line-was called DeWitt's Corner. In 1777, a treaty between S. C. and the Cherokee Indians was signed there. The present town was first called Due West Corner. Here in 1839, Erskine College, the state's first four-year church college, was founded by the Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church.

(Front) When Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, left Richmond after its fall in April 1865, he traveled south, trying to reach and rally the remnants of his army. On May 2, he spent the night at the home of Col. Armistead Burt. In 1971, Burt's great-niece Mary Stark Davis gave this historic house and all its furnishings to Abbeville's Historic Preservation Commission.

Here, at the home of Colonel Burt, President Jefferson Davis held the last Confederate Council of War on May 2, 1865. He met with Secretary of War Breckenridge, Gen. Braxton Bragg, and 5 brigade generals; all agreed the only hope was for Davis to elude nearby U.S. cavalry and escape west. Though Davis passed safely through South Carolina, he was seized in Georgia on May 10th.

(Front) Birthplace of Thomas Dry Howie (1908-1944), World War II hero famous as "The Major of St. Lô." Abbeville High School, Class of 1925. The Citadel, Class of 1929, where he was an all-state football player and was president of his class. Coach and teacher, Staunton Military Academy,
Staunton, Va., 1929-1941. Lt., 116th Inf., Va. National Guard (29th Division), 1941. Promoted to major; served at regimental H.Q. until

July 1944, when he took command of the 3rd Btn. Howie told his men, "I'll see you in St. Lô"-a major Allied objective in the weeks after D-Day. He was killed July 17, 1944, the day before American troops captured the town. In a tribute from his comrades, Howie's flag-draped body was carried into St. Lô on the lead jeep and lay in state on the rubble of St. Croix Church. "Dead in France, Deathless in Fame."

Surveyed in 1762 by Patrick Calhoun and named for Gov. Thomas Boone, this 20,500-acre township was one of four townships laid out west of Ninety-Six as a buffer between white and Cherokee lands. In 1763 Scots-Irish families began to settle in the area near Long Cane, Park's and Chickasaw Creeks. The headwaters of Long Cane Creek are 500 feet south; the Cherokee Path crossed the township boundary one mile south.

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.

Near the foot of this bluff in the old town of Hamburg stood the western terminus of the S.C. Canal and Rail Road Co. Begun in 1830, it was the first steam operated railroad to offer regular passenger service and to carry U. S. mail. Completed in 1833 to this point 136 miles from Charleston, it was the world's longest railroad.

Situated between this point and the Savannah River, Hamburg was a thriving river port and trading center for cotton and tobacco. Founded in 1821 by Henry Schultz, incorporated December 19, 1827, Hamburg became the most important interior port in South Carolina. With changing times and fortunes, prosperous Hamburg declined. Only ruins remain.

U.S. Hwy. 278, at entrance to Redcliffe Plantation State Park, about 2 mi. below Beech Island

This church was built in 1836 by Beech Island Presbyterian Church, organized in 1827 with the Rev. Nathan H. Hoyt of Vermont as first pastor. His son-in-law, the Rev. Edward Axson, was ordained and served here. His daughter, Ellen, wife of Woodrow Wilson, was baptized here. In 1950 the building was consecrated as All Saints Episcopal Church.

(Front) The first North Augusta bridge was built in 1891 by James U. Jackson. The present bridge, built in 1939, was formally dedicated as "The James U. Jackson Memorial Bridge." The building of the 1891 bridge, the Augusta-Aiken street car line, and the magnificent Hampton Terrace Hotel earned him the title "Founder of North Augusta."

A native of Augusta, Georgia, he graduated from Richmond Academy and the University of Georgia. In 1889, he founded the North Augusta Land Company, which built the old 13th Street Bridge. He was the prime mover in the development of North Augusta, S.C. A prominent railroad executive, he secured the Union Railway Station for Augusta.

S.C. Hwy. 230 (Martintown Rd.), 2 blocks S of its intersection with U.S. Hwy. 25 (Georgia Ave.),

In the 1730s, an Indian path from Fort Moore to the Saluda ridge was used by traders going to the Cherokee Nation. Later, a wagon road from Ninety Six to Augusta followed the same route. Named for the Martin family who lived beside it and served well the cause of the Revolution, it was widely used during that conflict by Patriots, Tories, and British.

U.S. Hwy. 278 at its intersection with S.C. Sec. Rd. 2-1139, Beech Island vicinity

(Front) On January 5, 1856, Governor James H. Hammond and eleven other farmers of this area organized the Beech Island Agricultural Club for the diffusion of agricultural knowledge and the regulation of illegal slave traffic. Monthly meetings and barbecues have been held almost without interruption since the club's founding.

(Reverse) In 1883 E. Spann Hammond donated to the Beech Island Agricultural Club a four-acre circular tract of land located less than a mile north of this site. The original club house was destroyed by fire on August 7, 1967. The site of the building is marked by a dedicatory plaque. The new club house was dedicated in June 1968.

Aiken County, created in 1871 from parts of Barnwell, Edgefield, Lexington, and Orangeburg counties, was named for William Aiken, first president of the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company. Older industries in the county today are textiles, and the mining and processing of kaolin. In 1952, the Atomic Energy Commission's Savannah River Plant began operations.

(Front) Forerunner of modern towns and highways and known to the English as early as 1685, this Indian town stood at a major northwestern entrance into S.C. on the trading routes to the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Lower Cherokees. Both town and river were named for the Savannah Indians that lived in the area.

Following the disastrous Yamasee War, Fort Moore, "the most important of South Carolina's early forts," was constructed here in 1716 to protect the province from future attack and to guard the vital trading routes to the major Southern Indians. It was garrisoned until 1766, when the growing settlement of Georgia made it no longer needed.

(Front) Elizabeth Pascalis purchased these 790 acres in 1835, settled here with her son Cyril Ouviere, and brought the orphaned children of her daughter, here, to live. Cyril, a civil engineer, was a resident engineer constructing the Charleston-Hamburg railroad (world's longest when completed in 1833). In 1834 he helped lay out and survey streets in nearby Aiken.

Elizabeth Pascalis willed this house, once know as Pascalina, to her granddaughter, Theodosia Wade, and husband John C. Wade, in 1863. The Wades were living here in February of 1865 when Union general Hugh Judson Kilpatrick used the house as headquarters during the Battle of Aiken. The house remained in the family until 1944.

(Front) Born 1757 in Virginia, this Indian fighter, who later moved to Edgefield District, attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of state troops during the American Revolution. Among the engagements he participated in were: Hanging Rock, Musgrove's Mill, King's Mountain, Blackstock's, Cowpens, Guilford Courthouse, Siege of Augusta, and Eutaw Springs. Hammond served in the US Congress and after the Louisiana Purchase in

(Reverse) 1803, President Thomas Jefferson appointed him Colonel-Commandant of the St. Louis District. He subsequently was elected to the Missouri Territory Council and became its first president in 1813. Returning to SC in the 1820s, he was elected Surveyor General (1826) and Secretary of State in 1830. Hammond died in 1842 and was buried nearby; the grave was moved about 1.6 miles north in 1991.

(Front) This Episcopal Church (cornerstone laid Sept. 5, 1842) was consecrated Aug. 9, 1843. It is the city's oldest church structure, having retained its Greek revival style through subsequent remodeling. Church purchased bell in 1853, Cornish Memorial Chapel completed in 1888, and Mead Hall School opened 1955. William Gregg (1800-1867), an important figure in the textile industry in SC, was one of the church founders.

(Reverse) Buried in the churchyard are John H. Cornish, rector of this church 1846-1869; George W. Croft (1846-1904), SC Senator and US Congressman; William P. Finley, Ordinance of Secession signer; James M. Legaré (1823-1859), poet, artist, inventor who held several US patents; Henry W. Ravenel (1814-1887), SC botanist whose name is perpetuated in many plants; and John F. Schmidt, a church warden in 1843.

Post office est. here 1873. Town chartered 1880. Ellenton and surrounding area purchased by US Govt in early 1950s for establishment of Savannah River Plant.

(Front) This church was organized in the Beech Island Academy on January 21, 1832, with Rev. Iverson Brooks as its first minister and Mathias Ardis and Randolph Bradford as its first deacons. This sanctuary, built on land donated by James T. Gardner and Abner Whatley, with lumber, other materials, and carpenters donated by Dawson Atkinson, was dedicated in September 1832; the Sunday School was organized in 1839.

(Reverse) Charter members of Beech Island Baptist Church were Mathias and Louisa Ardis, Dawson and Marie Atkinson, Randolph Bradford, John and Ann Everett, James T. Gardner, Samuel and Rebecca Gardner, Eliza Gray, James Hankinson, Lida Lamar, Jonathan Miller, Pranmore Owens, John and Harriet Swain, Briton and Adeline Ware, Abner and Elizabeth Whatley, and Edmond Whatley.

Organized in 1827 as Kirkland Church, the name was changed in 1836 to Smyrna Baptist Church. Title to the site was conveyed in 1849 by William I. Mixon. Additional land was given by Thomas H. Willingham in 1882 to extend the church property to the Matthew's Bluff Road.

S.C. Sec. Rd. 3-104, 1.2 mi. N of its intersection with S.C. Sec. Rd. 3-41, Barton vicinity

Constituted September 12, 1759 as Coosawhatchie Church, this church became in 1822 Beech Branch Baptist Church. The present lot was granted 1796 and occupied by 1815. The building was remodeled in 1908 and 1960, electricity having been installed and the porch added in 1959, when weekly morning services began. The annex was built in 1962.

Organized in 1833 by Dr. and Mrs. W.R. Erwin and Mrs. U.M. Robert, this was the second Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) founded in South Carolina. Dr. J. D. Erwin, II, served as minister for forty years. The present building was used as a court house in 1865.

This Baptist Church, organized by 1854, built its first house of worship near here on land purchased in 1859 from A. R. Stokes. The congregation obtained the land for its present location in 1910 from G. D. Sanders and had completed a building by 1914. In 1944 the name was changed to the First Baptist Church.

In front of Allendale County Administration Building, U.S. Hwy. 301, Allendale

(Front) In 1810, pursuant to an Act of the South Carolina General Assembly, the state conveyed a 1000-acre landgrant signed by Governor John Drayton to Benjamin and G. Washington Allen. The acreage included the present town of Allendale, which is presumed to have derived its name from the Allen family.

(Reverse) Allendale Post Office was established here July 11, 1849, and Paul H. Allen was the first postmaster. By 1873 the Port Royal Railroad had completed a line through Allendale, and that same year the town was incorporated by the South Carolina General Assembly. The town limits extended in a three-quarter-mile radius from the depot.

E corner of the intersection of S.C. Hwy. 641 & S.C. Sec. Rd. 3-40, .7 mi. W of the Salkehatchie River, E of Sycamore

Lutheran church, org. by 1804, has occupied several sites. Today's structure, built in 1910, incorporates material from the 1884 church and stands about 2 mi. south.

Original site of Allendale, named for its first postmaster, Paul Allen, in 1849. Sherman's troops under Gen. Kilpatrick camped here. Town moved to present site by 1873.

Half mile West on Seneca River the Portman Shoals Power Plant, built by William C. Whitner, began in 1897 the transmission of high-voltage electricity over the longest lines then in use for that purpose in the United States. The success of this plant, now owned by Duke Power Company, caused Anderson to be called “The Electric City.”

1,000 feet due north on a site now covered by Hartwell Reservoir, the Portman Shoals Power Plant, built by William C. Whitner, began in 1897 the transmission of high-voltage electricity over the longest lines then in use for that purpose in the United States. The success of this plant caused Anderson to be called "The Electric City."

2.9 miles south on Rocky River. Anderson Water, Light & Power Co., organized in 1894 by William C. Whitner, was successful the next year in transmitting electricity over the distance of six miles to Anderson. This achievement was a herald of the industrial revolution in the South.

2 miles south Greenville Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 20) at its intersection with E. Main St., Williamston

One of the oldest congregations and the mother of several others in Anderson County, it was organized in 1788 by Elder Moses Holland who served as pastor for 41 years. Dr. James Bruton Gambrell's mother was a member here. Soldiers of five wars lie buried in the cemetery.

Town Green, W. Main St. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 4-29) at N. Mechanic St. (S.C. Hwy. 28), Pendleton

Built 1826-1828/Home of Pendleton Farmers Society./Organized 1815./Within this hall/THOMAS GREEN CLEMSON,/one of the Society's presidents,/first discussed with its members/the plans for the founding of/CLEMSON COLLEGE.

Erected by Anderson County Historical Association and Pendleton Farmers Society, 1958

Oldest Presbyterian church in continuous existence in Anderson County. Organized in 1789. First pastor, Rev. John Simpson. Congregation worshipped at three sites near Generostee Creek, three miles west of Iva. Old cemetery at third site. Sanctuary built in Iva in 1909, 200 yards west of marker. Erected by Anderson County Historical Association, 1958

This London newspaper publisher and defender of a free press emigrated to Charleston in 1783 where he served as state printer and publisher of the first daily newspaper in South Carolina. Later in Pendleton, he founded Miller's Weekly Messenger the first Up Country newspaper. His body lies buried in the Old Stone Church Cemetery.

Erected by Anderson County Historical Association and New Era Pendleton Club, 1960

Organized in 1828, this was the first church in Anderson. A log meeting house built in 1830 on West Benson Street served the church until 1858 when a frame building was erected on this site. A brick church replaced it in 1888. The present sanctuary was completed in 1912, the Education Building in 1928, and the activities building in 1956. The church was named St. John's in 1897.

On May 1, 1865, cadets from the Arsenal Academy at Columbia, under Capt. John Peyre Thomas, who were enroute from Greenville to Newberry to be disbanded, met a band of Stoneman's raiders near here in one of the last engagements of the war, which had begun in Charleston harbor with shots fired from a post manned by cadets from the Citadel Academy.

Founded in 1821, this is the boyhood church and burial place of Olin D. Johnston. He was decorated for bravery in World War I, served in the S.C. House of Representatives, was twice governor of S.C., in 1935-1939 and 1943-1945, and U.S. senator from 1945 until his death April 18, 1965.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, E. Queen St. (S.C. Hwy. 300) between N. Depot St. and S. Elm St., Pendleton

Born Charleston, S.C. 1824. Graduated West Point 1845. Brigadier General, C.S.A., 1861. Commanded 3rd Brigade, Army of the Shenandoah, July 21, 1861, at Manassas, Va. where he gave Gen. T.J. Jackson the name "Stonewall." Mortally wounded, he died July 22, 1861, and is buried in his family plot in St. Paul's churchyard.

Erected by Piedmont District, South Carolina United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1968

Three educational institutions have been in this immediate area: Johnson Female University (1856-63) named for William Bullein Johnson; the Carolina Collegiate Institute (about 1866-90) under W. J. Ligon; and Patrick Military Institute (1887-1900), J. B. Patrick, founder. A Confederate Treasury branch was located here in 1865, and University Hospital in the 1920s.

President of Triennial, Southern, South Carolina Baptist Conventions. Johnson Female University, founded here in 1848 as Johnson Female Seminary, was named for him because of his support for female education. From 1853 to 1858, while Chancellor of the institution, he lived in the house at the south end of this street. His grave is in First Baptist churchyard.

This Baptist church, which was first located about 1.5 miles northwest, was constituted in 1803. The congregation moved to the present 4.4 acre site after it was surveyed December 14, 1822. Two houses of worship were built here prior to 1891, when a third was erected. It was replaced by the present 1949 structure.

SE corner of intersection of Williamston Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 81 N) & Hopewell Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 4-29),

Located 1.09 miles northwest, this cemetery marks the original site of Hopewell Baptist Church which was constituted in 1803. The cemetery contains graves of Revolutionary and Confederate veterans. Some graves are marked by field stones with hand-chiseled initials.

This plantation on the old road to Pickensville has been the home of several prominent S.C. families. Many of its owners were members of the Pendleton Farmers Society, and during the nineteenth century, studies, experiments, and advances in agriculture took place here. The house was built by 1828, enlarged about 1855. Ashtabula was raided by Union Troops in 1865.

This college was founded Feb. 12, 1872, by the Reverend Samuel Lander, DD, Methodist minister. The college building stood on this site until 1939. The school was removed to Greenwood, S.C., Sept. 27, 1904, becoming Lander College in honor of the founder, who died July 14, 1904. From an humble beginning there arose here a Christian institution of expanding influence, keeping faith with its motto: Puritas et scientia.

A native Philadelphian and leading agriculturist, Mr. Clemson was U.S. chargé d'affaires to Belgium, U.S. Superintendent of Agriculture, and the 1868 president of Pendleton Farmers Society. He married the daughter of John C. Calhoun, Anna, and later bought the Calhoun home, Fort Hill. An advocate of the national land grant movement, he left his estate to establish Clemson University. He is buried 50 yards south.

Founded in 1888, Anderson Cotton Mills, later a division of Abney Mills, was the first textile plant established in the town of Anderson. It is said to be the first textile mill in the United States powered by electricity transmitted over long distance power lines. Electricity for the plant was generated at Portman Shoals, located on the Seneca River.

(Front) At this site once stood the town of Moffettsville, originating with the establishment of Moffett's Mill Post Office on February 16, 1818. By 1883, the town had a population of twenty-five with a physician and general store. Mail service here was discontinued in 1901.

James H. Davison Feb. 16, 1818/John Simpson July 15, 1822/Andrew Milligan May 16, 1826/ Archibald Simpson Dec. 7, 1826/Joel H. Berry May 17, 1838/William Sherard April 23, 1842/Robert A. Reid May 21, 1866/Thomas A. Sherard June 5, 1890/William T. A. Sherard Oct. 8, 1895/Discontinued Sept. 30, 1901

U.S. Hwy. 76 & S.C. Hwy. 28 across from Tri-County Technical College, W of Pendleton

Some 200 yards west of here stands Woodburn, built by S.C. Lieutenant Governor Charles Cotesworth Pinckney by 1832. Dr. John B. Adger, Presbyterian missionary to Armenia, bought

Woodburn in 1852; in 1881, Augustine T. Smythe began a model stock farm here. Jane Hunter, founder of the Phillis Wheatley centers for working girls, was born in a tenant house here in 1882. Erected by the Foundation for Historic Preservation in the Pendleton Area, Inc., and Anderson County Historical Society, 1987

Born in 1840, Colonel Simpson, lawyer, farmer, and legislator, drafted and executed Thomas Green Clemson's will, establishing Clemson Agricultural College in 1889. Simpson was first president of the college's board of trustees and once owned land which became part of the Simpson Experiment Station. He died in 1912 and is buried in the Simpson family cemetery here.

On April 8, 1790, the Justices of the Peace for Pendleton County purchased this land to establish the courthouse town of Pendleton. Once Cherokee Indian land, the town became the judicial, social, and commercial center for what now are Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens Counties. Early Scotch-Irish settlers were followed by SC low country aristocratic families, who built summer homes nearby. Erected by the Pendleton Bicentennial Committee and the Anderson County Historical Society, 1990

Organized by 1789 and sometimes called Simpson's Meetinghouse, this church is one of Anderson County's oldest Presbyterian churches. The Reverend John Simpson was the first minister, and the Reverend David Humphreys served here for 39 years until his death in 1869. Both men are buried in the church cemetery. The present sanctuary was built in 1937.

Three and Twenty Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 4-485), off S.C. Hwy. 88 near Anderson County-Pickens County line, Pendleton vicinity

This land, Cherokee territory until 1777, became the final resting place after the American Revolution for early pioneers who settled the area. A number of soldiers of the Revolution are buried here, including Robert Pickens, who served in the state militia and was related to General Andrew Pickens. Erected by the Colonel John Robins Chapter, Colonial Dames of the XVII Century, 1980

The one-room frame public school, organized shortly after the Civil War, housed 76 students and 1 teacher by 1870. The school term lasted 1 month and 10 days. Jane Harris Hunter, founder of the Phillis Wheatley centers for working girls, attended the school for 3 years. She wrote the book, A Nickel and a Prayer. Vance Street is named after the family of Rev. Augustus Thomas Vance, who served as the school trustee.

Erected by the National Alumni Association, Anderson County Training School and Riverside School, 1995

Grounds of the old Anderson County Courthouse, Courthouse Square, Main St., Anderson

(Front) Anderson was dubbed "The Electric City" in 1895 when William C. Whitner, an engineer and native of Anderson, built a hydroelectric power plant which was the first in the South to transmit electricity over long distance lines. The plant, in McFall's Mill at High Shoals on the Rocky River 6 mi. E, supplied power to light the city and also operated several small industries in Anderson. In 1897 Whitner replaced the

(Reverse) experimental plant with a larger generating station at Portman Shoals 11 mi. W on the Seneca River. The extra power from this plant powered Anderson Cotton Mills and a streetcar line which was the forerunner of the Piedmont & Northern RR. Both plants pioneered in transmitting high voltage electricity direct from the station switchboard. This innovation helped spur the modern industrialization of the Southeast.

3200 block of W. Whitner St. (S.C. Hwy. 24), 3 mi. W of Anderson and 1.3 mi. W of its intersection with S.C. Hwy. 128

The first cotton gin to be powered by electricity transmitted over a long distance stood near this site on the farm of Oliver "Duck" Bolt (1847-1922). In 1897 Bolt, whose gin had previously been powered by a steam engine, contracted with the Anderson Water, Light, and Power Company to furnish electricity for a 20-horsepower electric motor from its new plant at Portman Shoals, 7 mi. W on the Seneca River.

Here on February 3, 1865, the 17th U.S. Army Corps led by Major General Joseph A. Mower and Lieut. Gen. Giles A. Smith attacked the Confederate division of Major General Lafayette McLaws and forced the crossing of Salkehatchie River, after a gallant defense by outnumbered forces which held up for two days Sherman's march through Carolina.

In 1835 St. Bartholomew Lutheran Church moved here from about 1 mile south and changed its name to Mt. Pleasant. It is generally accepted that this congregation was organized ca. 1750 and that John George Bamberg preached there shortly after 1798. In 1873 the S.C. Lutheran Synod met at Mt. Pleasant in a new building since incorporated into the present structure.

Methodist Church established by 1832. Present 1856 house of worship is all that remains of pre-Civil War settlement of Buford's Bridge.

SC Methodists began an institution on this site in 1892 naming it Carlisle Fitting School, for James H. Carlisle, president of Wofford College 1875-1902. It served as a coeducational preparatory institution for Wofford. Col. James F. Risher (1889-1973) leased Carlisle in 1932 and purchased it 1938, renaming it Carlisle Military School by 1943. It educated young men from the US and many countries until closing in 1977.

Abbeville County

(Front) The Greek Revival residence of Thomas Chiles Perrin (1805‑1878), prominent Abbeville District lawyer, planter, businessman, and politician, stood here from 1858 until it burned in 1877. When completed the house was described as "one of the finest and most commodious mansions in the State." Perrin served as mayor, state representative and senator, and for many years as president of the Greenville and Columbia RR.

(Reverse) In December 1860, as chair of the Abbeville District delegation to the Secession Convention, Perrin was the first signer of the Ordinance of Secession. As the Confederacy collapsed in May 1865 President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet held their last council of war across the street at the Burt‑Stark Mansion. Thomas and Jane Eliza Perrin hosted most of the Cabinet here during its brief stay in Abbeville.

McGOWAN-BARKSDALE-BUNDY HOUSE
305 N. Main St. (S.C. Hwy. 28/71), Abbeville

(Front) This 1888 Queen Anne house was the home of Gen. Samuel McGowan (1819-1897) until his death. McGowan, a lawyer, Confederate general, and jurist born in Laurens Co., had moved to Abbeville in 1841. He was an officer during the Mexican War and in the S.C. militia after it. During the Civil War he commanded the 14th S.C. Infantry 1862-63 and commanded a S.C. brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia 1863-65.

(Reverse) After 1865 McGowan bought a house on this lot. Built by Col. James Perrin in 1860, it burned in 1887; this house was built on the old foundation. McGowan served as a justice on the S.C. Supreme Court 1879-93. The Barksdale family bought the house in 1905, and WWII Gen. W.E. Barksdale was the last to live here. In 1989 his nephew J.D. Bundy gave it to the Abbeville County Historical Society as its headquarters.

(Front) This town, established in 1823, grew up around a store owned by Matthew Young (1803-1878), who was also postmaster 1831-43. It was first called Pressly’s Station, for the post office opened in 1823 with David Pressly (1764-1834) as postmaster. The town was renamed Rocky River in 1831 and then Lowndesville in 1836 for William Lowndes (1782-1822), U.S. Congressman 1811-22.

(Reverse) Lowndesville, incorporated in 1839, had about 150 inhabitants then and 150-350 inhabitants for most of its history. Cotton was the major crop in the area, with bales ginned here and shipped by the Charleston & Western Carolina Railway. In 1890 Lowndesville included a hotel, nine general stores, a grocery, a dry goods store, a drugstore, a stable, and three saw mills.

Erected in Memory of Capt. Herman Arnette Carlisle by the Town of Lowndesville, 2006

S.C. Hwy. 184 at the Little River, just NE of its intersection with S.C. Sec. Rd. 1-59, Due West vicinity

(Front) The last action of the Revolution in this part of S.C. was at Pratt’s Mill, a grist mill on the Little River owned by Joseph Pratt. On October 30, 1781, an outpost of 30 Patriots at the mill, under Capt. John Norwood, was surprised by 30 Loyalists and Cherokees under Col. William “Bloody Bill” Cunningham. Norwood, who was wounded, was the only casualty on either side.
(Reverse)

The Patriots fled, leaving behind 30 horses and most of their weapons; the Loyalists burned the mill. The Pratt family later rebuilt the mill, which appears in Robert Mills’s Atlas of S.C. (1825). They later built another mill on Hogskin Creek, about 500 yds. N of the first mill. That mill, which operated throughout the 19th century, was destroyed by a flood in 1908.

(Front) On November 22, 1860, a mass meeting on this site was one of the first held in the South after Abraham Lincoln’s election as president on November 6. A procession from the town square, numbering 2,000 to 3,000, made its way to a grove here, near the Greenville & Columbia RR depot. Many in the crowd wore palmetto cockades as bands played, militia and volunteer companies marched with flags and banners, and some units even fired cannon salutes.
(Reverse) Andrew G. Magrath, arguing “the time for action has arrived,” was typical of most speakers, who called for South Carolina’s immediate secession from the Union. The meeting passed resolutions urging secession and recommended delegates to represent Abbeville District at the Secession Convention in December. This hill, then known as “Magazine Hill” for a powder magazine here, was soon renamed “Secession Hill” and has been known by that name since 1860.
Erected by the Abbeville County Historical Society, 2010

(Front) This church, named for nearby Broadmouth Creek, was organized in 1837 with nine charter members. Rev. William P. Martin was its first minister, and William Long and Noah Riddle Reeve were its first deacons. This tract was purchased from Jesse Gent in 1838. By 1850 the church had 213 members, both white and black. The present sanctuary, the second on this site, was built in 1954.
(Reverse) After the Civil War, former slaves left to organize New Broadmouth Baptist Church. Rev. William P. Martin, pastor here 39 years (1837-1877), was succeeded by Rev. Richard W. Burts, pastor here 33 years (1877-1910). William Pleasant Kay donated the land where the cemetery was first laid out. It contains the graves of early pioneer families, including veterans of several wars.
Erected by the Congregation and the Kay Family Association, 2010

LONG CANE CEMETERY
Greenville St. at its junction with Beltline Rd., Abbeville vicinity

(Front) This cemetery, sometimes called Upper Long Cane Cemetery, dates from 1760. It includes the graves of some of the most prominent families of this area from the Colonial era to the present. The first marked grave is the field stone of John Lesly, inscribed “A.D. 1776.” The granite entrance pillars and stone wall were built in 1935 as a memorial to veterans of eight wars who are buried here. The cemetery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
(Reverse) Among the notables buried here are a U.S. Senator, a U.S. Congressman, a lieutenant governor, a Confederate general, several state senators and representatives, judges, ministers, doctors, and soldiers of wars from the American Revolution to the present. Long Cane Cemetery also features many fine gravestones and monuments by noted 19th-century stonecutters such as J. Hall, Thomas Walker, and John, William T., Robert D., and Edwin R. White.
Erected by the Long Cane Cemetery Association, 2011

(Front) This house, built ca. 1786, is thought to be the oldest house in Abbeville. It was built as a two-story log building by John Quay, who also ran a tavern here. He sold it ca. 1798 to James Wardlaw (1767-1842) and his wife, Quay’s stepdaughter Hannah Clarke (1778-1825). James Wardlaw was the Abbeville postmaster and Abbeville District deputy clerk of court 1796-1800, then clerk of court 1800-1838. Ten of the Wardlaws’ eleven children were born in this house.
(Reverse) Two sons were delegates to the Secession Convention: David L. Wardlaw (1799-1873), state representative and Speaker of the S.C. House, and later a judge; and Francis H. Wardlaw (1800-1861), newspaper editor, state chancellor, and state representative, from Edgefield. This house was later owned by Col. Thomas Thomson (1813-1881), state representative, delegate to the Secession Convention, Confederate officer, state senator, and judge.

Aiken County

(Front) The tracks of the S.C. Railroad, operated by the S.C. Canal & Railroad Company, ran here from 1833 to the 1850s. The company, chartered in 1827, began constructing a 136-mile long line from Charleston to Hamburg (near North Augusta) in 1830. Completed in 1833, the railroad was the longest in America at the time and the first to carry the United States mails. Aiken, chartered in 1835, was named for William Aiken (1779-1831), the railroad’s first president.
(Reverse) The original tracks through Aiken, one of the first “railroad towns” in the United States, ran along this street, then known as Railroad Avenue. Railroad Avenue was renamed Park Avenue in the 1850s after the tracks were moved one block south into the “Railroad Cut.” Though the S.C. Railroad flourished before the Civil War, it struggled during Reconstruction and afterwards. It was eventually absorbed into the Southern Railway in 1902.
Erected by the Aiken County Historical Society, 2010, replacing a marker erected by the society in 1962

(Front) This church had its origins at or near this site in 1772 as a plantation chapel, in what was Edgefield District until after the Civil War. Revs. Iverson L. Brookes and John Trapp, prominent ministers in the Savannah River region, preached here from the 1830s into the 1860s; Brookes died in 1865.

(Reverse) Storm Branch Baptist Church became a wholly black church in August 1866 when Mrs. Sara Lamar, widow of planter Thomas G. Lamar, deeded this land to trustee Aleck Davis. About that same time the first permanent sanctuary was built. Rev. Robert L. Mabry, the longest‑serving minister, preached here from 1898 to 1943.

AIKEN INSTITUTE
in the block bounded by Chesterfield St., Whiskey Rd., Colleton Ave., S. Boundary Ave., and

The Aiken Institute, which gave this area the name of "Institute Hill," was chartered in 1888. The main building, designed by I.F. Goodrich in 1891, includes a wing added in 1913. All grades attended the Institute until 1937, when a new high school was built and this became Aiken Elementary School. It was the second oldest school in use in the state when it closed in 1986. The 1913 wing became the Aiken County Public Library in 1990.

(Front) The Hampton Terrace Hotel, an exclusive winter resort, stood atop this hill from 1903 to 1916. The $536,000, 5-story hotel boasted more than 300 rooms and was the dream of James U. Jackson (1856-1925), founder of North Augusta. A private railway connected the hotel to major railroads. This, and its reputation as one of the finest hotels in the South, made the Hampton Terrace a leading destination for winter visitors.

(Reverse) Guests enjoyed orchestra concerts in the music room and dancing in the hotel's magnificent ballroom. Other amusements included riding, hunting, tennis, an 18-hole golf course, billiards, and shuffleboard. Notable visitors included Marshall Field, Harvey Firestone, and John D. Rockefeller. President-elect William Howard Taft was the guest of honor at a banquet here in 1909. The hotel burned on New Year's Eve 1916.

at the site of the school, at the intersection of Hammond Rd. and U.S. Hwy. 278, Beech Island

(Front) Downer Institute, founded in 1843, was originally located 1.5 mi. NE of this site and operated until 1865. It was named for benefactor Alexander Downer (1752-1820), whose will established an orphanage and school at Beech Island. By 1898 the General Assembly, at the request of Aiken County citizens, reestablished Downer School for the community at large; the school reopened in 1899.

Downer Elementary School, successor to the Downer Institute, stood here 1924-1950 and 1952-1986. A one-story school built here in 1924 replaced a two-story school constructed ¼ mi. SW in 1899, which burned in 1923-24. It burned in 1950 and was replaced by a second one-story school built in 1952, which served the Beech Island community until Downer Elementary School closed in 1986.

(Front) This school was founded by the Freedmen's Bureau shortly after the Civil War to educate freedmen, women, and children. In 1868 Martha Schofield, a Quaker from Pennsylvania, came to Aiken and began her long career as superintendent. The school soon expanded to this two-block site and combined academics with instruction in industrial, farming, and homemaking skills. The 1897 Schofield School bulletin declared, "Character building is our most important work."

(Reverse) Schofield School educated more than 6000 students by 1898. Many graduates became teachers and department heads here; others became successful business owners, professionals, farmers, and community leaders. In 1940 alumnus Sanford P. Bradby became its first African-American superintendent. As first a private and later a public school, Schofield has taught children of all races and creeds since 1866. The bell tower nearby once stood atop Carter Hall, built in 1882.

Erected by the Aiken County Historical Society and the Martha Schofield Historic Preservation

(Front) This house was for many years the home of Marie Cromer Seigler (1882-1964), educator and national pioneer in agricultural instruction. In 1910, as teacher and principal of Talatha School, she founded a Girls' Tomato Club, the first of many such clubs nationwide and a forerunner, along with the Boys' Corn Clubs, of the national 4-H Clubs, supported by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.

(Reverse) Marie Cromer said of her efforts to encourage girls and young women interested in agriculture, "I made up my mind I was going to do something for country girls." With the support of Aiken Co. Superintendent of Education Cecil H. Seigler, whom she married in 1912, she established Home Demonstration clubs and created Home Economics courses in Aiken Co.

360 Old Jackson Hwy., Beech Island
(Front) This church, one of the first black Baptist churches in America, grew out of regular worship services held as early as the 1750s at "Silver Bluff," the plantation of Indian trader George Galphin. At first a non-denominational congregation with both white and black members, it was formally organized as Silver Bluff Baptist Church in 1773 with Rev. David George as its first minister.

(Reverse) The church, dormant for a few years during the American Revolution, was revived in the 1780s by Rev. Jesse Peter. The congregation moved from its original site in 1815, again in the 1840s, and for the last time to the present site in 1866. A large frame sanctuary built in 1873 was covered in brick veneer in 1920; it was demolished and the present brick church was built in 1948.
Erected by the Congregation, 2001

(Front) This mill, the largest textile mill in antebellum S.C., was chartered in 1845 and opened in 1847. It was founded by William Gregg (1800-1867), a Virginia native and advocate of industrial development who chose this site for its proximity to waterpower, granite deposits, and the S.C. Railroad. The company provided housing, a school, a store, and land for churches, creating a model mill village. Unlike most early textile mills, it was adequately funded.
(Reverse) Under Gregg's management early Graniteville families lived under strict rules and a rigid schedule, and became a close-knit community. During the Civil War the mill made fabrics for the Confederacy. After Gregg died in 1867 while fighting a flood on Horse Creek the company was run by its board, which expanded its operations. After several changes in ownership Graniteville remains one of the oldest textile manufacturing concerns in the South.

(Front) Aiken, chartered in 1835 and the county seat of Aiken County since its creation in 1871, was an early stop on the railroad line from Charleston to Hamburg. It was named for William Aiken (1779-1831), the first president of the S.C. Canal and Railroad Co. Aiken’s mild climate and accessibility by rail soon made it a health resort for visitors hoping to escape the summer heat or seeking relief from tuberculosis and other lung ailments.

(Reverse) On Feb. 11, 1865, Federal and Confederate cavalry clashed here in the Battle of Aiken. The city’s resort status was enhanced in the 19^th and 20^th centuries with its fame as a “Winter Colony,” created by wealthy Northerners who built houses and sports facilities such as golf courses, polo fields, racetracks, and stables. Aiken later experienced a significant population boom in the 1950s after the construction and opening of the Savannah River Plant.

(Front) This plantation house, first known as “Edgewood,” is an excellent example of Federal-era architecture. Originally near Edgefield, it was built in 1828 for Francis W. Pickens (1807-1869), state representative and senator, congressman, U.S. Minister to Russia, and governor 1860-62 during the secession crisis and the first two years of the Civil War. Lucy Holcombe Pickens was an ardent Confederate and novelist.
(Reverse) In 1929 Eulalie Chafee Salley (1883-1975), pioneer woman suffragist, real estate broker, and developer, saved the house. Salley, architect Willis Irvin (1891-1950), and contractor Byron E. Hair supervised its dismantling, relocation to the Kalmia Hill area of Aiken, and restoration. It was moved here in 1989 when developer Ronny Bolton donated it to the University of South Carolina Aiken.

(Front) This church, formally organized in 1884, had its origins in a Sunday school class organized in 1874. With 16 charter members and Rev. Arthur Buist as its first minister, Millbrook built its first sanctuary here in 1886. The frame church, built by J.V. George, was described as “one of the prettiest and best arranged” churches in this part of the state when it was dedicated.
(Reverse) The original 1886 church was enlarged in 1909 and again in 1952. With the growth in Aiken County’s population during the 1950s the congregation grew dramatically, building the present brick sanctuary in 1962. Dr. W. James Rivers is Millbrook’s longest-serving minister, preaching here 1967-1996. The original sanctuary, renovated in 1979 and 1984, has served as a chapel since 1962.

The town of Aiken, on land donated by Mr. Beverly M. Rodgers to the S.C. Rail Road in 1834, was laid out around a core of 27 city blocks bounded by Edgefield and Park Aves. and Newberry and Williamsburg Sts. This area was surveyed by civil engineers Cyril Ouviere Pascalis (1810-1836?) and Andrew Alfred Dexter (1809-1854), who had also helped survey the route of the new railroad between Hamburg and Charleston in 1832-33.

Erected by the Henry Tyler Chapter, Colonial Dames of the XVII Century, Jefferson Davis Chapter #2465, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Gen. David Williams Chapter, National Society of the Daughters of the War of 1812, 2004

intersection of S.C. Hwy. 19 and U.S. Hwy. 278 at the entrance to the plant, south of New Ellenton
(Front) The Savannah River Plant (SRP) was built 1950-56 by Du Pont for the Atomic Energy Commission. SRP, a nuclear production plant, produced tritium and plutonium for national defense during the Cold War. Creating a 310-sq.-mi. site in three counties meant moving all residents from their homes in Ellenton, Dunbarton, Meyers Mill, Leigh, and other area communities.
(Reverse) The first reactor at SRP went online in 1953 and the free “neutrino,” a subatomic particle, was first detected at P reactor in 1956. SRP also produced medical and research isotopes and energy sources for NASA. In 1972 it became the first National Environmental Research Park. Renamed Savannah River Site (SRS) in 1989, it is owned by the U.S. Department of Energy.

(Front) Jacksonville School, built by the Jacksonville Lodge in 1895, taught the black children of this community until 1936. Grades 1-7, with two teachers, met in two classrooms on the first floor, without electricity or running water. The Jacksonville Community Commission acquired and renovated the building in 1991-92.
(Reverse)

This building was constructed in 1895 by the Jacksonville Lodge, Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, a black fraternal organization. The lodge was led by Rev. Robert L. Mabry (1867-1943), also pastor of nearby Storm Branch Baptist Churches 1898-1943. The Odd Fellows met here on the second floor for many years.

Erected by the Jacksonville Community Commission, Inc., in Memory of Founding President Erwin M. Robinson, 2005

York St. NE (U.S. Hwy. 1) near its intersection with Richland Ave. (U.S. Hwy. 78), Aiken

(Front) This church, founded in 1805, predates the city of Aiken and was first called Levels Baptist Church. Its first location was a mile south of present-day Aiken. In 1836 the congregation joined with the members of the Wise Creek congregation to build a sanctuary here, on land deeded by the S.C. Railroad and Canal Co. They renamed their congregation Aiken Baptist Church. The frame church burned in 1876 and was replaced in 1878.

(Reverse) The third church, a Gothic Revival sanctuary, was built in 1919. The kindergarten, founded in 1946, was one of the first church kindergartens in S.C. The present Classical Revival sanctuary was built and dedicated in 1958. Aiken First Baptist is the mother of four churches: Hispanic, Marion St., Memorial, and North Aiken. Its cemetery, dating from 1838, includes the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers.

Gregg Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 895), Graniteville

(Front) This cemetery, established about 1850, is closely associated with the Graniteville Mill, the largest and most successful textile mill in antebellum S.C. William Gregg (1800-1867), founder of the mill, laid out the mill village and also helped plan this cemetery. Most of the early wooden grave markers do not survive, and burial records were not kept until 1892, when the Graniteville Cemetery Assn. was founded.

(Reverse) William Gregg was buried here in 1867 and an obelisk erected over his grave. His widow moved his grave and monument to Charleston in 1876. In 1926 a daughter returned the original monument to this cemetery. Notable persons buried here include 83 Confederate soldiers and veterans, as well as many employees of Graniteville Mill. James Wesley Rearden (1861-1959) worked at the mill for 87 years, from 1872 to 1959.
Erected by the Horse Creek Historical Society and the Aiken County Historical Society, 2005

Near the entrance to Hitchcock Woods, S Boundary Ave. SW, Aiken

(Front) Hitchcock Woods, one of the largest urban forests in the United States, is an area consolidated between 1891 and 1898 by Celestine Eustis (d. 1921), Thomas Hitchcock (1860-1941), and William C. Whitney (1841-1904). Described as “the greatest equine playground in America,” this tract of more than 8,000 acres was used for steeplechases, fox hunts, and other equestrian recreation by the wealthy Northerners who belonged to the “Aiken Winter Colony.”

(Reverse) The tract, now comprising almost 2,000 acres, has been owned and managed by the Hitchcock Foundation since 1939, when Thomas Hitchcock and his daughter Helen Clark established the foundation. Landmarks include Memorial Gate; Cathedral Aisle, a portion of the railroad bed built by the S.C. Rail Road in 1833-34; and Sand River, an unusual natural formation. Annual events include the Aiken Horse Show each April and the “Blessing of the Hounds” each November.

AIKEN COUNTY FARMERS’ MARKET
Williamsburg St. SE at Richland St. SE (U.S. Hwy. 78), Aiken

The Aiken County Farmers’ Market, founded in 1951, was originally an open air market sponsored by the Edisto Grange. This building, which opened on May 21, 1954, was designed by Woodrow Jackson and built by the Aiken County chain gang. Farmers and their families built 45 tables, still used today. This is the oldest county farmers’ market in continuous service in the same location in S.C.

Erected by the Friends of the Aiken County Farmers’ Market, the Aiken County Historical Society, and the Historic Aiken Foundation, 2006

NORTH AUGUSTA
John C. Calhoun Park, intersection of Carolina and Georgia Aves., North Augusta

(Front) North Augusta, chartered in 1906, includes the site of two early towns. Campbell Town was a trading post on the Savannah River before the American Revolution. Hamburg, founded in 1821 as a port on the river, was an early western terminus of the S.C. Rail Road. When the line was completed from Charleston to Hamburg in 1833, it was the longest railroad in the world. In 1890 James U. Jackson (1856-1925) founded the North Augusta Land Co. and bought 5,600 acres here.

(Reverse) James U. Jackson built a bridge over the river in 1891, and a trolley line in 1897. By 1902 the trolley ran from Augusta, Ga., to North Augusta, and on to Aiken. The Hampton Terrace Hotel, which stood here from 1902 until it burned in 1916, soon attracted visitors seeking a winter resort, and the population grew to 1,500 by 1913. The opening of the Savannah River Plant in 1950 swelled the population to more than 10,000 and spurred major growth and development.

Erected by the North Augusta Centennial Committee and the Aiken County Historical Society, 2006

(Front) Jefferson High School opened in 1956 as a junior high and high school for African-American students of Beech Island, Belvedere, Graniteville, Jackson, Langley-Bath-Clearwater, and North Augusta, with Herman W.W. Fennell (1910-1996) as principal. After county schools desegregated in 1970 it became Jefferson Junior High School, and in 1980 it became Jefferson Elementary School.
(Reverse)

This was one of three African-American schools in Aiken County named for Rev. Austin Jefferson, Sr. (1881-1966), longtime advocate for education. In 1944 the Langley-Bath Colored School was renamed Jefferson Grammar School in his honor. The original portion of this school was built in 1953 as the Jefferson Elementary School, with Augustus T. Stephens (1903-1992) as principal.

ST. JOHN’S METHODIST CHURCH
Richland Ave. SE (U.S. Hwy. 78), between Newberry & Chesterfield Sts., Aiken

(Front) This church has its origin in 1825 as a Methodist congregation on the Hollow Creek Circuit that predates the city of Aiken. Rev. John Reynolds was the first circuit rider serving St. John’s, which shared a minister with St. John in Graniteville until becoming a separate congregation in 1856. The first sanctuary here, a frame Greek Revival church designed by Dr. E.J.C. Wood, was built in 1857-58.
(Reverse) The 1858 Greek Revival church was demolished in 1961-64 and replaced by the present sanctuary, a brick church designed by local architect John Weems. This church, consecrated in 1964, was built on the site of the old church cemetery. With the consent of their descendants, the persons buried there were exhumed and reburied south of the sanctuary. Their names are engraved on a marble plaque near the chapel entrance.

(Front) One of five production reactors at Savannah River Plant, now Savannah River Site, P Reactor was the site of cutting-edge neutrino research. In 1956, Drs. Clyde Cowan, Jr., and Frederick Reines used P Reactor to confirm for the first time the existence of the free neutrino, a sub-atomic particle of extremely small mass. As a result, Reines won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics.

P Reactor not only generated prize-winning research but also produced plutonium and tritium for national defense. Built from 1951-1954, it was the second of five reactors here to go on line, running from initial start-up, Feb. 20, 1954, until final shutdown in 1988. During that period, it had the best safety record of any nuclear reactor at the Savannah River Plant.

R REACTOR
near the intersection of Roads E & G, Savannah River Site (Not Open to the Public)

(Front) One of five production reactors at the Savannah River Plant, now Savannah River Site, R Reactor produced plutonium and tritium for national defense. Built 1951-53, it was the first of the five reactors to go on-line, with initial start-up on Dec. 28, 1953. The first irradiated fuel left the reactor in June 1954. The reactor continued operation until final shut-down in 1964.
(Reverse) This was the first production reactor to use heavy water as the neutron moderator and coolant. It was also the first to have vertical fuel and control rod assemblies, with more than 600 positions in the reactor tank. Originally rated at 378 MW, R Reactor achieved power levels many times that. It was the largest of the SRP reactors and was a prototype for the other four.

(Front) The Augusta and Aiken Railway, a 26-mile interurban electric trolley line between Augusta, Ga., and Aiken, operated from 1902 to 1929. In Aiken the line began at the corner of Park Ave. & Union St., proceeded west on Park, then north on Laurens St., then west on Hampton Ave., and toward Augusta on what is now Trolley Line Rd. The first passengers paid 24 cents to ride 2 hours one way or 4 hours for a round trip.

(Reverse) In 1906 the railway bought 4 new passenger cars with 52 seats each. Built by the J.G. Brill Car Co. of Philadelphia, they were nicknamed “Big Reds.” Stops between Aiken and Augusta were at Graniteville, Madison, Warrenville, Gloverville, Langley, Bath, Clearwater, Summerhill, and North Augusta. The trolley line struggled with the advent of the automobile and made its last run from Aiken on July 8, 1929.

(Front) This park, laid out in 1904-05, was named for William Collins Whitney (1841-1904). Whitney, a lawyer, Secretary of the Navy 1885-89 under Grover Cleveland, and financier, was also an avid sportsman and a leading member of the “Aiken Winter Colony.” He established the Whitney Trust in 1901 “for the institution and promotion of all kinds of sports and pastimes in the City of Aiken, S.C.” Private and public donations alike paid for Whitney Park.

(Reverse) William C. Whitney, called “Aiken’s most distinguished citizen” at his death in 1904, expanded a small cottage into a rambling vacation house of more than 50 rooms. Joye Cottage, its stables, and squash court are Aiken landmarks. He also helped establish Hitchcock Woods, and the Whitney Trust owns Whitney Polo Field, the Court Tennis Building, Palmetto Golf Club, and the Powder House Road Polo Fields, all associated with the “Aiken Winter Colony.”

Erected by the Aiken County Historical Society and the Historic Aiken Foundation, 2007

(Front) This church, founded in 1858 with 14 charter members and W. Peronneau Finley and John D. Legare as elders, first met in the Aiken Town Hall on Laurens St. Its first permanent sanctuary, a frame building designed by Charleston architect Edward Brickell White, was completed and dedicated in 1859. It stood at the corner of Laurens Street and Railroad (now Park) Avenue until it was demolished in 1924.
(Reverse) The second sanctuary, a Classical Revival brick building, was designed by Aiken architect Willis Irvin and served the congregation until 1969. The church membership tripled during the Aiken population boom of the the 1950s and was renamed First Presbyterian Church of Aiken in 1959. The present sanctuary, designed by the firm of Hallman and Weems, was built here in 1968-69 and dedicated in 1969.
Erected by the Congregation, 2008

WORLD WAR II POW CAMP
Mattie C. Hall Health Care Center, 830 Laurens St., Aiken

(Front) German prisoners of war were held in a camp on this site from November 1943 to May 1946. This camp, one of 21 in S.C., was at first a sub-camp of the POW camp at Camp Gordon (now Fort Gordon), in Augusta, Ga. It was later a sub-camp of Fort Jackson, in Columbia. 250 prisoners captured in North Africa were the first held here. Men captured in Italy and France in 1943-44 increased the total to 620 prisoners by January 1945.
(Reverse) German POWS lived in tents with wooden floors, up to five men in each. Their mess hall was a large frame barracks. They worked 8-10 hours a day, harvesting peanuts or peaches, cutting pulpwood or lumber, planting trees, or working in a fertilizer factory. POWs were paid 80 cents a day in credit at the camp store. When not working prisoners often played soccer, put on plays and concerts, and took night classes.

corner of Highland Park Terrace SW and Highland Park Dr. SW, Aiken
(Front) The Highland Park Hotel, Aiken’s first grand tourist hotel, stood atop this plateau. It was built in 1869-70 and opened in 1870. A four-story Second Empire wing built in 1874 doubled its capacity to 350 guests. Open from November to June, it was at first favored by visitors coming to Aiken for their health and later by wealthy Northerners who wintered here and formed the “Aiken Winter Colony” in the 1890s.
(Reverse) Interior features included men’s and ladies’ billiard rooms and a bowling alley. The grounds included tennis and croquet courts, stables and riding trails, walking trails, and a pavilion. The hotel burned in 1898, and this site became a park. A new Highland Park Hotel, a Spanish Colonial Revival building, opened here in 1915. Originally 80 rooms, it was later enlarged to 125 rooms. That hotel was demolished in 1940.
Erected by the Aiken County Historical Society, 2008

(Front) Wagener, established after the Blackville, Alston, & Newberry RR built its line from Blackville to Seivern in 1887-88, was originally known as Guntersville or Gunter’s Crossroads. When incorporated in 1888 it was renamed for George A. Wagener (1846-1908), a Charleston merchant and president of the B. A. & N. RR. In 1891 the B. A. & N. merged with the Barnwell Railway to form Carolina Midland Railway, which would be absorbed by the Southern Railway in 1900.
(Reverse) George A. Wagener was also president of the Standard Kaolin Company, shipping kaolin clay on the B. A. & N. from mines in Aiken Co. to railroads connected to Charleston and its markets. From 1898 to 1933 a freight and passenger train known as “The Swamp Rabbit” ran from Perry to Batesburg, at first on the Carolina Midland and the Sievern & Knoxville lines but for many years on the Southern Railway. It linked Wagener to several Aiken County and Lexington County towns.
Erected by the Wagener Museum, 2010

(Front) On August 27, 1956, at the Savannah River Plant (now Savannah River Site), Drs. Clyde L. Cowan, Jr. (1919-1974) and Frederick Reines (1918-1999) used P Reactor to detect the neutrino, a sub-atomic particle hypothesized in 1930 but unconfirmed until their experiment, one of the most significant in modern physics.

THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS, 1995
In 1995 Dr. Frederick Reines was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his and Dr. Clyde L. Cowan’s detection of the neutrino at the Savannah River Plant. The Nobel citation called their experiment “a pioneering contribution that opened the doors to the region of ‘impossible’ neutrino experiments.”

THE HAMBURG MASSACRE
U.S. Hwy. 1 / 78 / 25, under the 5th St. Bridge on the North Augusta side, North Augusta

(Front) The Hamburg Massacre, which occurred nearby on July 8, 1876, was one of the most notable incidents of racial and political violence in S.C. during Reconstruction. White Democrats across the state organized “rifle clubs” to intimidate black and white Republicans during the gubernatorial election of 1876. Clashes between groups of armed men were frequent, in some cases even including the militia.
(Reverse) After a dispute between whites and a black militia company, about 200 men from local rifle clubs tried to disarm 38 black militiamen and others barricaded in a warehouse. One white was killed and men on each side were wounded before the blacks fled. Two blacks were killed trying to escape. Whites captured 25-30 blacks and executed four of them. 87 whites were charged in the massacre but were never tried for it.

(Front) The freshwater spring less than 1/4 mi. SW was used by prehistoric Indians. It was deeded to the town of Aiken in 1844 by William Perroneau Finley (1803-1876) and furnished Aiken’s drinking water throughout the 19th century. A regular stop on the stagecoach route from Abbeville to Charleston, it helped make Aiken a popular health resort. William Gilmore Simms described it in 1843 as “a fountain of delicious water, which is equally cold and unfailing.”
(Reverse) The brick springhouse, covered in stucco, dates from the early 19th century and features Greek Revival architectural elements. During the Civil War Confederate soldiers camped nearby, in what is now Hitchcock Woods, were frequent visitors. The springhouse and retaining walls, neglected by the turn of the 20th century, were restored in 1972 after archaeological excavations. Coker Spring was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Erected by the Brig. Gen. Barnard E. Bee Camp #1575, Sons of Confederate Veterans, 2011

(Front) The first public hospital in Aiken, at the corner of Richland Ave. and Vaucluse Rd., was built in 1917 for the Aiken Hospital and Relief Society, with donations from members of the “Aiken Winter Colony.” The City of Aiken donated 3 acres of Eustis Park for the hospital and grounds. The hospital, built by local African-American contractor McGhee & McGhee, featured a hexagonal cupola. It closed in 1924 but reopened in 1927 with additional funding.

The Aiken County Hospital, funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Duke Foundation, opened in 1936. A four-story brick Colonial Revival building, designed by noted Augusta architect Willis Irvin (1890-1950), it was called “the last word in a modern hospital.” After a new private hospital opened on University Parkway in 1976 the building here housed Aiken County offices for many years.

CAMP BUTLER
near the intersection of Wagener Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 302) & New Holland Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 2-21), Aiken vicinity

(Front) This is the site of Camp Butler, a Confederate “camp of instruction” that operated from the spring to the fall of 1861, in what was then Barnwell District. New companies, organized as independent companies or in state regiments, were sent here for training and organization into Confederate regiments before being transferred wherever they were needed.
(Reverse) This camp was described in a letter to The Edgefield Advertiser as “the admiration of every visitor.... every thing in every direction is kept in the nicest order.” Companies of the 2nd S.C. Artillery, 7th S.C. Infantry, and 14th S.C. Infantry, as well as the Chesterfield Light Artillery, trained and camped here from April to October 1861 before service in S.C., Va., and N.C.

Erected by the General Joseph Wheeler Camp #1245, Sons of Confederate Veterans, 2012

(Front) This Classical Revival school, built by the Graniteville Mill in 1921-22, was designed by noted Augusta archiect Willis Irvin (1890-1950) and was called “the finest school in the state” when it was dedicated. An elementary and high school serving Graniteville, Vaucluse, and Warrenville, it was named for Leavelle McCampbell (1879-1946), who was later president of the mill for a brief period in 1924.
(Reverse) In 1954 the elementary students were transferred to the new Byrd Elementary School, and this became a high school, unofficially called Graniteville High School. The Graniteville Mill sold this school and grounds to Aiken County for $124,000 in 1960. It remained a high school until a new Midland Valley High School was built in 1980, and has been Leavelle McCampbell Middle School since.

(Front) This park is the site of Aiken Graded School, a two-story brick school built 1924-25. It was built for black pupils in grades 1-7 and was one of almost 500 S.C. schools funded in part by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation 1917-1932. Black Aiken physician Dr. C.C. Johnson raised $3,500 in the black community toward the total cost of $33,500. Black brick mason Elliott Ball supervised the school’s construction.
(Reverse) The school, described as “one of the best in the state” when it was being built, had ten classrooms, a library, and an auditorium seating 600. It opened in the fall of 1925, with principal W.D. Drake, nine teachers, and almost 300 students. The school, the only black elementary school in Aiken until new schools began to be built in 1954, closed in 1969. It was demolished in 1973.
Sponsored by the Aiken County Historical Society, 2013

Allendale County

Harmony Church Road (S.C. Sec. Rd. 3-40), just E of its intersection with S.C. Sec. Rd. 3-134, Sycamore vicinity

This church had its origins in a brush arbor as early as 1830 but was formally organized in 1878 with Rev. H.C. Smart as its first pastor and W.H. Cone and R.H. Mixon as its first deacons. Named Harmony Baptist Church by charter member Sarah Gooding, it affiliated with the Savannah River Association. This sanctuary, on land donated by Josiah Loadholt, was built in 1880.

on S side of Confederate Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 641), ¼ mi. E of Ulmer Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 3-48)

The original cemetery associated with St. Nicholas Lutheran Church is 1/3 mi. S off S.C. Hwy. 641. The church, originally located nearby, was founded about 1804 in what was then Barnwell District, and the cemetery includes plots of the Platts, Harter, and other area families. The present St. Nicholas Lutheran Church, 2 mi. S, was built in 1910.

(Front) This church was organized in 1851 by Revs. Lewis Parker and John Hoover,

with twelve charter members and Rev. Hoover as its first minister. The congregation has worshipped on this site, on land donated by Mathias Mathis, since it was organized. It first met under a brush arbor, then in a log church built in 1852. The second sanctuary here, a frame church, was built in 1887.

(Reverse) The present sanctuary here, built in 1949, is attached to the 1887 church; it was remodeled in 1984 and again in 1991. Four members later became Southern Baptist ministers: Revs. W.E. Weekley, W.H. Dowling, G.D. Kinard, and W.E. Brant. Pastors with the longest tenures at Bethel were Revs. John Hoover (1851-68) and L.S. Shealy (1917-20 and 1934-47).

Gazebo Park, at the intersection of 7^th St. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 3-18) and Sumter Ave. S, Fairfax
(Front) Fairfax, chartered in 1893 and incorporated in 1896, grew out of an early community centered around Owens’ Crossroads, where a store was established in 1814, and later including Bethlehem Baptist Church (now First Baptist Church), founded in 1852. When the Port Royal RR was completed through this area in 1873 a depot and post office were built 1 ½ mi. E and named Campbellton.

(Reverse) By 1881 W.J. and J.F. Sanders ran a store and post office ½ mi. from the original Owens’ Crossroads, and the area was soon called Sanders. After the South Bound RR completed its line through this area in 1891, it crossed the previous railroad line. The crossing became the center of Fairfax, named when a local child drew that name from a hat belonging to a railroad official.

Buford’s Bridge Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 321 at Tuten’s Mill Pond), 1.5 mi. S of Sycamore

(Front) Barker’s Mill, which stood here on Jackson Branch, was a grist mill owned by William Ransome Barker (1816-1869), a planter in what was then Barnwell District. Barker moved to this area in the 1850s, built a house about 2 mi. N, and established a cotton plantation of 2,000-3,000 acres which he named “Sycamore.” The town of Sycamore, chartered in 1891, was named for the plantation.

On February 2, 1865, at Gen. W.T. Sherman’s Federals advanced toward Columbia, units of Gen. F.P. Blair’s XVII Corps clashed with Confederate cavalry at the bridge over Jackson Branch. The Confederates retreated across the bridge, but the Federals did not cross until reinforced after dark. A Confederate withdrawal then opened the way for a Federal advance to Buford’s and Rivers Bridges.

(Front) This church, founded in 1885, was named Speedwell for a stagecoach stop and the first post office in the vicinity, now Millett. In 1884-85 Ogreta Brabham Dunbar and Savannah Barker Bates raised funds for a new congregation, in what was then Barnwell County. In 1885 Mary Dunbar Lafitte and her husband John H. Lafitte donated a five-acre tract here for the church.
(Reverse) The first church on this site, built about 1885, was replaced by the present church, begun in 1922 during the pastorate of Rev. W.R. Jones. It remained unfinished during the Depression but was dedicated in 1941 during the pastorate of Rev. J.A. Graham. Attendance declined in the 1960s, and regular services ended by 1970. Homecoming are still occasionally held here.

(Front) This church, founded soon after the Civil War, held its first services in a brush arbor in the Woods community of what was then Barnwell County. It built its first permanent church, a frame building, in the Zion Branch community near Old Allendale, and adopted the name Zion Branch Baptist Church. The church bought this site in 1875, built a new frame sanctuary here, and was renamed Happy Home Baptist Church.
(Reverse) Rev. Jacob S. Daniels served the church for almost thirty years, and the congregation grew from 86 members in 1877 to 258 members in 1890. By 1902, his son, Rev. George C. Daniels, succeeded him as pastor, and the church had 379 members. In 1911, during the pastorate of Rev. S.J. Rice, the church received a state charter and built its present church, a brick Gothic Revival building.

Anderson County

Honea Path is the smallest town of the fourteen South Carolina communities with libraries funded by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. Dr. John Wright, Mayor John, and Miss Jennie Erwin were leaders in obtaining the $5000 grant. The Honea Path Library Association was established in 1907 and the library was opened in 1908. It was renamed the Jennie Erwin Library in 1958, when it became part of the Anderson County Library System.

Erected by the Honea Path Merchants Association, Honea Path Civitans Club, and Honea Path Lions Club, 1999

Milwee Creek Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 4-58), near Sandy Springs United Methodist Church, just E of Sandy Springs

(Front) This Methodist camp ground, named for the large spring nearby, dates to 1828, when a fifteen-acre site was purchased from Sampson Pope for $45. Early meetings were under a brush arbor until a central wooden shelter and cabins were built about 1838. Entire families participated in revival meetings, held here for two weeks every September until the last camp meeting in 1897.

Col. James L. Orr's 1^st Regt. S.C. Rifles (Orr's Rifles) was organized here on July 20, 1861, in a field adjoining the Sandy Springs camp ground. Ten companies—four from Pickens, three from Abbeville, two from Anderson, and one from Marion District—trained at Camp Pickens before serving first on the S.C. coast and then in Va. Veterans held annual reunions here for many years.

Erected by Anderson County Historical Society and Palmetto Sharpshooters Camp #1428, Sons of Confederate Veterans, 1999

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, E. Queen St. (S.C. Hwy. 300) between N. Depot St. and S. Elm St., Pendleton

(Front) Confederate Brig. Gen. Clement H. Stevens (1821-1864) is buried nearby in the Bee family plot. Born in Connecticut, Stevens moved to S.C. after his father's death in 1836. In 1861 he invented the first ironclad battery, which was built on Cummings Pt. near Charleston and helped bombard Ft. Sumter. As an aide to his brother-in-law Brig. Gen. Barnard E. Bee, he was wounded on 21 July 1861 at First Manassas.
(Reverse) In 1862 Stevens and Ellison Capers formed the 24^th S.C. Infantry, with Stevens as col. After commanding the 24^th in battles from S.C. to Ga. such as Secessionville, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga, he was given a S.C. brigade and promoted to brig. gen. in early 1864. Stevens was mortally wounded on 20 July 1864 at Peachtree Creek, near Atlanta, and died 25 July. First buried in Charleston, he was reinterred here.

(Front) This parish, organized in 1851 with the Rev. Benjamin Webb as its first vicar, grew out of occasional Episcopal services held in Anderson as early as 1844. The first church here, a frame Carpenter Gothic building, was completed in 1860 on land donated by Daniel Brown. Housing Anderson's first pipe organ, a tower was added in 1883, and stained glass windows in 1888. An 1890 fire did moderate damage.
(Reverse) The second church, a brick Gothic Revival building first used on Easter Sunday 1904, incorporated windows from the original church and a fine collection of Art Glass nave windows. Several bishops have served here, including Ellison Capers, Theodotus Capers, and Rogers Harris. In recent years, the parish sponsored outreach efforts such as the Sunshine House, Interfaith Ministries (AIM), and Meals-on-Wheels.
Erected by the Parish, 2001

(Front) This church, the first Associate Reformed Presbyterian congregation in what is now Anderson County, was organized about 1790 about 1 ½ mi. SW of this site. Rev. Robert Irwin, its first regular minister, served from 1803 until his death in 1823. The first sanctuary on this site was a log building, replaced in 1828 by a frame sanctuary which served the congregation until 1897.

(Reverse) The 1897 sanctuary burned in 1985 and was replaced by the present building, the fourth on this site and the fifth in church history, in 1986. Generostee was the mother church of three congregations: Midway, later called Concord, active 1796-1844; Grove, active 1877-1947; and Iva, founded in 1895. The cemetery here includes the graves of many early church families.

just off Parker Bowie Rd., in the triangle formed by its junction with Warren Watt Rd. and Old Bell Rd., 3 mi. N of Iva

(Front) This cemetery, dating from the early 19th century, is at the third site of Good Hope Presbyterian Church, founded in 1789. A frame sanctuary was built here in 1856 during the tenure of Rev. David Humphreys (d. 1869), who preached here 1821-1869 and was Good Hope's longest-serving pastor. In 1909 the congregation moved to Iva, three miles east, and built a new brick sanctuary there.
(Reverse) The sanctuary built here in 1856, the third to serve Good Hope, was demolished in 1924, years after the congregation moved to Iva. Rev. Richard Cater Ligon (1845-1906), buried here, was pastor of Good Hope 1876-1902; his son Rev. J. Frank Ligon was pastor 1947-49. The church cemetery also includes plots of the Beaty, McAlister, McMahan, McKee, and other early families.

(Front) Dean is named for the Dean family, whose cemetery is located about a mile west. Samuel Dean came to South Carolina from Maryland in 1786 and settled here in the Mountain Creek area along with the Cummins and James families. Dean and his wife Gwendolyn James raised a large family and his descendants have lived here for more than two hundred years.

A depot was built at Dean in 1886 by the Savannah Valley Railroad (later the Charleston and Western Carolina Railroad). Described by the Anderson Intelligencer in 1896 as “a very pretty little town,” this rural community included the depot, a post office, several stores, a gristmill and sawmill, a blacksmith shop, a school, churches, and several residences.

(Front) This is the first known site of Townville Presbyterian Church, founded in this area in 1803 as Nazareth on the Beaverdam Presbyterian Church. The church held its services at members’ homes until 1849, when the congregation purchased a frame building and half-acre site here for $1.50.

In 1877 the congregation built a new sanctuary in Townville, 2.5 mi. W. The church was renamed Townville Presbyterian Church in 1885. The cemetery includes the graves of many early church families. In 2002 the Stevenson family donated this site to the Old Nazareth Cemetery Preservation Organization.

(Front) This church, founded in 1803, held its first services in the home of John Wilson and was first known as Wilson’s Chapel. That year the congregation bought two acres here from George Head; the first church on this site was built in 1810. St. Paul’s early ministers were circuit riders, as it was part of the Saluda District until it joined the Pendleton District in 1871.
(Reverse) The second church, a frame cruciform building, was built here in 1897; it served St. Paul’s until it was torn down in 1982. The present brick sanctuary, built in 1984, includes several architectural elements from the 1897 church. The cemetery, with graves as early as 1842, includes the plots of many early families as well as graves of veterans of seven American wars and conflicts.

Erected by the Congregation and Friends of St. Paul United Methodist Church, 2008

(Front) The Greenville & Columbia Railroad, founded in 1845, began construction in 1849. It reached Greenville in 1852, with a branch at this point to Anderson – the Blue Ridge Railroad. The town of Belton grew up around the junction of the two railroads, which later merged after the Civil War. The two rail lines made Belton the hub of passenger and freight service for Anderson District.
(Reverse)

Belton, incorporated in 1855, was named for Judge John Belton O’Neall, president of the G&C RR. Its square was laid out around the first depot. The Blue Ridge RR was acq uired by the Southern Railway in the 1890s, and this depot was built in 1908-09. With an electric rail line added in 1902 and the arrival of the Piedmont & Northern RR in 1912, as many as 85 trains passed through Belton daily.

(Front) This church, founded as Nazareth on the Beaverdam Presbyterian Church, was established in 1803. It met in members’ homes until they paid $1.50 for a half-acre tract and built a small frame church 2.5 mi. E. The founders’ cemetery there includes graves of early church families. The congregation moved here in 1877.
(Reverse) The church was renamed Townville Presbyterian Church in 1885. This sanctuary was called “a handsome wooden edifice” at its dedication in 1877. In 1954 it was covered in brick veneer, with a new narthex and rear addition. Townville Academy, which stood behind the church, became a public school in 1902.
Erected by the Congregation and Friends of Townville Presbyterian Church in Memory of Mel Woody, 2010

(Front) This area was a hub of African-American life from the late-19th to mid-20th centuries. Anderson County Training School, built ca. 1922 as a Rosenwald school, closed in 1954 under the equalization program for black and white schools. It burned in the 1960s. The agricultural building is now a community center. The Faith Cabin Library, built ca. 1935 by a program to give black schools their own libraries, is one of only two such libraries still standing in S.C.
(Reverse) A frame store built nearby by Benjamin Horace Keese (1881-1975) and long known as the “Keese Barn” was a favorite gathering place for many years. Built ca. 1900 as a grocery store, it was later expanded and served as a cafe and antiques store/auction house. In 2003 Clemson University architecture students dismantled the Keese Barn and reused its historic materials to build the Memorial Block, to honor the store and its significance in Pendleton.

(Front) This church, formally organized by about 1800, is thought to be the oldest Methodist congregation in Anderson County. Circuit riders and other itinerant ministers held early services in a nearby brush arbor. Its first and second churches were small log buildings. A frame sanctuary, built by church member Samuel Emerson before the Civil War, was the first built on this site.
(Reverse) Church trustees acquired this site in 1839, purchasing 3 acres from Amaziah Rice and George Manning for “a House or Place of Worship.” The present frame church, built in 1909 by church members according to plans by Joe Hembree, features a double entrance with gabled porticos. The historic cemetery here includes graves of veterans from the American Revolution to the present.
Sponsored by the Congregation and the Kay Family Association, 2012

(Front) This site, on a lot donated by Dr. George Brown, was the location of a school for more than a century. Belton Academy, a private school with a classical curriculum, opened ca. 1851 as the town grew up around the new railroad junction. Brown’s nephew, Dr. William Carroll Brown, was the academy’s first professor. The academy stayed open during the Civil War but became a public school after it. A new frame two-story school for grades 1-10 was built here in 1893.

The enrollment in Belton’s schools grew rapidly after Belton Mill opened in 1899, and trustees approved this two-story brick school, called Central School, for grades 1-10. Built in 1908, it was designed by Anderson architect Joseph H. Casey. In 1922, when a new Belton High School was built, this school became Central Grammar School, for grades 1-6. It closed in 1973, was sold to the town of Belton, and was renovated and rededicated as Belton City Hall in 1976.

(Front) Anderson’s Jewish community dates to the antebellum era but grew significantly after 1900 with the arrival of several families from Eastern Europe. This congregation was founded as Temple B’nai Israel (Sons of Israel) as early as 1911. It held services in the Masonic Temple on the square and a number of other buildings in downtown Anderson before the construction of this synagogue in 1948.
(Reverse) After World War II, with the Jewish population of Anderson almost doubling in number since 1937, the congregation needed a permanent home. This 150-seat sanctuary, with classrooms, a social hall, and a kitchen, was completed in 1948, when the congregation numbered 20 to 25 families. B’nai Israel’s first Torah, from Russia, had belonged to Sam Poliakoff’s maternal grandparents.

Bamberg County

S.C. Sec. Rd. 5‑93, between Ehrhardt and Rivers Bridge State Park, SW of Ehrhardt

(Front) This church, established 1829‑30, was first named Three Mile Creek Church and held early services in a brush arbor 4 mi. W on the Salkehatchie River. In 1839 it moved to this site donated by George Kinard, and was renamed St. Johns Baptist Church. A permanent sanctuary was soon built, some of which is still extant within the present sanctuary, renovated in 1865, 1938, and 1961.

(Reverse) In February 1865, near the end of the Civil War, Federal troops took up the floorboards for a bridge over the Salkehatchie River and stabled their horses in the church; the U.S. government reimbursed the church for damages in 1912. Two of St. Johns' most prominent ministers were Rev. E.W. Peeples, who served 1877‑1908, and Rev. E.W. Hollis, who served 1933‑1961.

at the entrance to the Voorhees College Campus, E. Voorhees Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 5-12), Denmark

(Front) Voorhees College, founded by Elizabeth Evelyn Wright in 1897 as the Denmark Industrial School, was an effort to emphasize a vocational curriculum for rural African American students on the model of the Tuskegee Institute. The school, with funding from philanthropist Ralph Voorhees, was renamed Voorhees Industrial School for Colored Youth in 1904, Voorhees Normal and Industrial School in 1916, and Voorhees School and Junior College in 1947.

(Reverse) Voorhees, supported by the Episcopal Church since 1924, changed its mission during the first half of the twentieth century and in 1962 became Voorhees College. In 1967 it became a senior liberal arts college. The historic portion of the campus was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as the Voorhees College Historic District.

This Georgian Revival building, completed in 1923 at a cost of $300,000, was the third Denmark office of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. In 1898 long-distance lines from Va. to Ga. and from Ala. to Charleston crossed here, making Denmark an excellent choice for a switching station. This building, described as "the most modern telephone plant in the south" when it opened, carried calls from N.Y. to Fla. and from Ala. to the East Coast for many years.

Burton’s Ferry Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 321) and Buford’s Bridge Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 301) at the Salkehatchie River, Ulmer

(Front) Buford’s Bridge, the earliest settlement in what is now Bamberg County, was established as early as 1792, when William Buford maintained a bridge and operated a ferry over the Salkehatchie River. It grew throughout the nineteenth century, with several residences, four stores, two taverns, a boarding house, a Masonic lodge, and Mizpah Methodist Church here by the 1850s.
(Reverse) On February 3-5, 1865, as Gen. W.T. Sherman’s Federals advanced toward Columbia, units of Gen. J.A. Logan’s XV Corps approached Buford’s Bridge. Gen. Joseph Wheeler’s Confederate cavalry burned the bridge, then evacuated the earthworks here before Logan arrived on Feb. 4^th. Federals destroyed most of the buildings in the area to build bridges and left only Mizpah Methodist Church intact.

Confederate Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 641) at the entrance to Rivers Bridge State Historic Site, Ehrhardt vicinity

(Front) On February 2-3, 1865, as Gen. W.T. Sherman’s Federals advanced toward Columbia, units of Gen. F.P. Blair’s XVII Corps attempted to cross the Salkehatchie River at Rivers Bridge. The Confederate defenders there, in Gen. Lafayette McLaws’s division of the Dept. of S.C., Ga., and Fla., delayed the Federals for almost two days. Each side lost about 100 men killed, wounded, or captured.

In 1876 local men reburied the Confederate dead in a mass grave a mile from the earthworks and formed the Rivers Bridge Confederate Memorial Association. Their annual services commemorated the battle and the Southern dead. The Association also preserved the battlefield, deeding it to the state in 1945 as Rivers Bridge State Park, now Rivers Bridge State Historic Site.

Heritage Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 78), near its junction with Gilmore Rd., Midway vicinity, about 3 mi. S of Bamberg

(Front) Woodlands was the country home of William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870), the most prominent and prolific writer of the antebellum South, from 1836 to his death. A novelist, poet, historian, critic, and essayist best known for his novels about colonial and Revolutionary S.C., Simms was described as “the ornament and the pride of the State he loved so well” at his death in 1870.

(Reverse) In 1836 Simms, a widower, married Chevillette Roach (1817-1863) of Barnwell District. He and his wife moved to this 4,000-acre plantation owned by her father, Nash Roach. The house burned in 1862, was rebuilt, burned again in 1865, and rebuilt on a smaller scale in 1867. Woodlands, described in a Simms poem as “these grand old woods,” was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975.

at the intersection of Main Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 301) and Heritage Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 78), Bamberg

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. It was later part of the Southern Railway 1894-1982, and then Norfolk Southern Railway 1982-1996. The tracks were removed in 1996.

Erected by the City of Bamberg, 2006, replacing a marker erected by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1970

(Front) Mountain Home Plantation, named for the hill on which it is located, was established before the Civil War. In 1859 Samuel J. Hartzog (1823-1890) bought the plantation from his brother Joseph (1826-1862), and built this two-story brick house that same year, at a cost of $2,993.08. It was originally a Greek Revival house with a full-width two-story portico and turned posts.

(Reverse) Cotton grown and processed here was hauled by wagon to the railroad at Graham’s Turn Out (now Denmark). Samuel and Mary Hartzog’s sons Henry Simms Hartzog (1866-1953), born here, was the third president of Clemson College (now Clemson University), 1897-1902. In the 1940s the house was remodeled in the Classical Revival style, with a second-story balcony and columns.

Erected by the Historical Society of Bamberg County and the Frank J. and Lucy C. Hartzog Memorial Foundation, Inc., 2006 [2007]

SALEM METHODIST CHURCH
Old Salem Rd., at its junction with Juniper Creek Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 5-366), about 3 mi. NW of Govan

(Front) This church, founded by 1818, held its early services in a brush arbor; the first permanent sanctuary was built nearby. In 1848 Capt. J.D. Allen sold this 4-acre site to the trustees for $1.00. The present church, built soon afterwards, has been renovated several times since. The cemetery dates from 1856; its first burials were young children of Henry and Mary Ann Hartzog.
(Reverse) Four members later became ministers: Revs. Charles Wilson (1802-1873), Jeremiah W. Collins (1824-1880), Holland Nimmons McTyeire (1824-1889), and B.T. Huggins (1922-2008). McTyeire, born on a farm nearby, was a Methodist bishop from 1866 until his death but is best known as the father of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, which he founded in 1873.

Erected by the Historical Society of Bamberg County and the Frank J. and Lucy C. Hartzog Memorial Foundation, Inc., 2009

(Front) This plantation was the home of Maj. William Seaborn Bamberg (1820-1858), planter, merchant, and the founder of Bamberg. Maj. Bamberg, a native of what was then Barnwell District, returned to this area from Georgia in the late 1840s. The town of Bamberg, called “Lawrey’s Turnout” or Lawreys, was little more than a stop on the S.C. Railroad before a post office opened there in 1850.
(Reverse) William Seaborn Bamberg, who built a store and depot at Lawreys by 1850 and built a hotel there in 1853, was the town’s first mayor. Lawreys was renamed Bamberg for him in 1854, and chartered in 1855. W.S. Bamberg died before the present house at Pinewood was completed in 1859; his widow Philippine Piquette Bamberg (1820-1895), a native of France, lived here until her death.