Anderson-Oconee-Pickens County SC Historical Roadside Markers

SC Historical Roadside Markers

Darlington to Fairfield Counties

Compiled by: Paul M. Kankula NN8NN

Cashua Ferry Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 34) near its intersection with Georgetown Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-495), Mechanicsville

Born May 19, 1734/Died March 12, 1802/Served in the militia of South Carolina under General Francis Marion during the Revolutionary War and was for many years deacon of Cashway Baptist Church/is buried in Lowders Hill Cemetery/.2 mile east.

Erected by Major Robert Lide Chapter, D.A.R. and the County of Darlington, 24 September 1960

March 8, 1776-November 17, 1830/Statesman, educator,/pioneer manufacturer,/scientific farmer,/ State Senator, Congressman,/Governor 1814-1816,/Brigadier General in/the War of 1812./His residence, "Center Hall,"/was ½ mile east. His grave is in/the family cemetery 2 ½ miles east. Erected by Darlington County Historical Society, 1962

(Front) Long Bluff, ¾ mile east on Great Pedee River, was the site of the first courthouse and jail for old Cheraws District in 1772. The town was known as Greeneville after the Revolution and remained the seat of justice until the formation of Darlington, Marlboro and Chesterfield Districts. Circuit courts and elections were conducted for a while longer.

(Reverse) At a Circuit Court held here on November 15, 1774, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence, the Grand Jury of Cheraws District denied the right of Parliament to levy taxes on them and declared themselves ready to defend with their lives and fortunes the right to obey only those laws made by their own elected representatives.

Near intersection of Lide Springs Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-29) & Mechanicsville Hwy. (S.C. Sec. Rd.

One half mile east of this site Evan Pugh (1729-1802) is buried at Pugh Field, near his homesite. He moved to this Pee Dee section in 1762 from Pennsylvania and served as a Minister for the Welsh Neck, Cashaway, and Mount Pleasant Churches of the Charleston Baptist Association, 1766-1802. He was an American Revolutionary patriot.

Cashua Ferry Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 34) at its intersection with Georgetown Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-495), Mechanicsville

Owner of many acres north of here, Lamuel Benton was prominent in the Revolution as Colonel of the Cheraws militia under Francis Marion and as forager for Greene's Continental Army. Member S.C. House of Representatives, 1781-87; Delegate to the S.C. Constitutional Convention of 1790; Sheriff of Cheraws District, 1798 and 1791; Member of Congress, 1793-1799.

Near this site stood the home of George W. Dargan, ante-bellum leader of this area, who served as State Senator, 1842-1847 and Chancellor of the S.C. Court of Equity, 1847-1859. He was a trustee of the S.C. College and a member of the Southern Rights Convention of 1852. The mansion burned down on May 14, 1898.

just off Mineral Springs Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-177), at its intersection with Georgeanna Dr.,

(Front) On May 5, 1846, a society was organized for "mutual improvement in agriculture and to promote the planting interest of the country." Most of the annual meetings since that time have been held at this spring. The first officers were W. E. James, Rev. J. M. Timmons, Isaac W. Wilson, Robert Rogers, and Rev. Robert Campbell.

On July 17, 1819, this spring and the surrounding lands were purchased from Henry King by the Darlington Mineral Springs Company, intent upon developing the site as a beneficial spa. The enterprise was abandoned soon after the death of the chief promoter.

This house, home of Jacob Kelley (1780-1874), was used as a Union headquarters on March 2-3, 1865 by Major-General John E. Smith, Commander of the Third Division, Fifteenth Army Corps. During the encampment by Federal forces, the mills near Kelley Town were run for the benefit of the Third Division and foraging parties roamed the area.

The St. David's Society, organized in 1777 and chartered in 1778, built the first public academy in St. David's Parish ¾ mile northeast in 1786. Alexander McIntosh, George Hicks, Abel Kolb, William Pegues, and Thomas Evans were early officers. The academy was removed to this site about 1840 and the present building was erected in 1957.

This house was the residence of Captain Thomas Edwards Hart, who settled on these lands in 1817, and for whom Hartsville was named. He was a Justice of the Peace, Chairman of the Board of Free Schools, planter, merchant, and was appointed first Postmaster when the Hartsville Post Office was established in 1838. He died in 1842 at the age of 46.

Early land records indicate that Samuel Bacot settled in the back country of South Carolina about 1770. He served in the State Militia during the Revolution, was taken prisoner by the British in 1780, but with his companions made his escape, avoiding confinement in a Charles Town prison. His grave is one half mile northeast.

Erected by Darlington County Historical Commission and Samuel Bacot Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1972

S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-49, about ½ mi. from U.S. Hwy. 52 and just N of the railroad, S of Darlington

On March 5, 1865, near the point where the Ebenezer Road crossed the Cheraw and Darlington Railroad, the 29th Missouri Mounted Infantry, of Col. Reuben Williams's command, deployed on either side of the tracks to capture a Confederate train approaching from Florence. The attempt failed when the engineer, discovering the trap, reversed his engine and escaped.

(Front) This church, the pioneer center of Baptist influence in the area, was constituted January 1738 by Welsh from Pennsylvania and was originally located about two miles northeast of here. The first pastor was Philip James. It was incorporated March 17, 1785, as the "Baptist Church at the Welsh Neck on Pedee River."

(Reverse) Seat of worship of this Baptist church was relocated here about 1799, on land acquired from Capt. William Dewitt. The second meeting house on this spot, dedicated in 1843, was destroyed by lightning July 5, 1928 and was replaced by the present structure in 1938.

Erected by Welsh Neck Baptist Church and The Darlington County Historical Commission, 1976

Lake Swamp Baptist Church Cemetery, 6558 Oats Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 403), Lake Swamp community, Timmonsville vicinity

Augustin Wilson, whose grave is about 150 ft. E. and marked by a partially embedded cannon barrel, was born 1755 in Va. During the American Revolution, he served with N.C. troops protecting S.C. against Tories and Indians and as an Ensign at the 1779 Battle of Brier Creek, Ga. He moved to South Carolina before 1820, where he died in 1848.

(Front) Tradition says first meetings of this Baptist Church were held in the home of Laura Brown. A house of worship was constructed on the N.E. corner of present S. Main and Hampton streets on land purchased during 1866-1874. The present site was acquired in 1922 and the building occupied Feb. 3, 1935.

(Reverse) This Baptist Church was constituted when a group of black members led by Rev. Isaac Brockenton withdrew from the Darlington Baptist Church on Feb. 11, 1866. Brockenton became the first pastor and served until his death in 1908. The first trustees were Evans Bell, Peter Dargan, Lazarus Ervin, Antrum McIver, Samuel McIver, Samuel Orr, and Samuel Parnell.

Erected by Darlington County Bicentennial Commission for Ethnic Participation, 1977

(Front) This United Methodist Church was originally named Pearl Street Methodist Episcopal Church. The first trustees were Henry Brown, Abner Black, Wesley Dargan, Zeddidiah Dargan, January Felder, Randolph Hart and Rev. B. Frank Whittemore. Tradition says Federal occupation troops supplied the church bell, which they had taken from nearby St. John's Academy.

(Reverse) In 1866, this United Methodist Church was founded by freedmen with aid from the Methodist Episcopal Church Missionary Society. The first minister was Rev. Liverus Ackerman, and the first building, also used as a school for freedmen, was completed by April 1866. The second house of worship dates from about 1883; the present building was completed in 1960.

1504 Clyde Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-53), near its intersection with S. C. Sec. Rd. 16-23, Clyde community, about 5 mi. NW of Hartsville

(Front) This church, which probably evolved from a branch meeting house built nearby in 1770 by First Lynches Creek Church, was constituted in 1789; Joshua Palmer became minister in the same year. The church held early meetings at Lower Fork of Lynches Creek, Boggy Swamp and Witherinton's Mill. By 1798, the church was located here.

In 1797, David Kelly was deacon and Cornelius Keith was clerk of Lower Fork of Lynches Creek Church. Originally in the Charleston Association and later the Moriah Association, the church joined the Welsh Neck Association in 1837. The name was changed to Gum Branch in 1844, and the present sanctuary was completed in 1955.

After moving to Darlington County in the 1870s, Edmund H. Deas served as county chairman of the Republican Party for a number of years and was a delegate to four national conventions. A black candidate for Congress in 1884 and 1890, Deas was Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue in S. C., 1889-94 and 1897-1901. This house was his residence at his death in 1915.

Erected by Darlington County Bicentennial Committee for Ethnic Participation, 1977

Intersection of Timmonsville Hwy. (S. C. Hwy. 340) & Hoffmeyer Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 19), about 4 mi. S of Darlington

(Front) At this point the Camden-Mars Bluff road intersected the road to Darlington on property granted to the Reverend John Wilson (1790-1869) by the state of South Carolina in 1837. Wilson, a North Carolinian, settled here, and after his death his grandson, Dr. Peter A. Wilson, lived on a portion of the land and practiced medicine.

Peter Wilson (1846-1913) was born in Darlington County and served in the Confederate Army. He graduated from Washington University School of Medicine in Maryland (1869) and upon the death of his grandfather, the Reverend John Wilson, settled near here and practiced medicine. Dr. Wilson is buried in High Hills Baptist Church Cemetery, about one mile north of here.

Erected by The Dr. Henry Woodward Chapter of the S.C. State Society, Daughters of the American Colonists, 1979

E. Seven Pines St. (S.C. Hwy. 19) and S. Center Rd., about 1.5 mi. W of Dubose Crossroads and about 4 mi. E of Oats, SW of Darlington

Born in Darlington County in 1859, William Dowling was a descendant of Robert Dowling, who had settled in S.C. in the Parish of St. David by 1773. William served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, 1899-1900, and was Darlington County Supervisor when the 1902-1903 courthouse was built. Dowling's home stood about one-half mile east of here.

Erected by The Dr. Henry Woodward Chapter of the S.C. State Society, Daughters of American Colonists, 1979

Black merchant and educator Zachariah Wines, born 1847 in Society Hill, represented Darlington County in the S.C. House 1876-78 and was commissioned Captain in the National Guard by Gov. Wade Hampton in 1877. He taught at nearby Waddell School and later served as Society Hill Postmaster, 1897-1904. He died in 1920 and is buried about 1/3 mile northeast.

Erected by Darlington County Bicentennial Committee for Ethnic Participation, 1979

(Front) This area become part of St. David's Parish in 1768, Cheraws District in 1769, and then Darlington County on March 12, 1785. In 1800 Darlington became a circuit court district, and again a county in 1868. Extensive territory was lost in 1888 and 1902 with the creation of new counties.

The first courthouse at this site was destroyed by fire March 19, 1806. A later building, thought to have been designed by architect Robert Mills, burned in 1866 and in 1873 was rebuillt. The subsequent courthouse, built 1903-1904, was in use until 1964 when the present structure was completed.

E. Home Ave., just E of N. 5th St.,, in front of First Baptist Church, 104 E. Home Ave., Hartsville

(Front) In 1845, John Lide Hart (1825-1864) bought a 491-acre plantation here. Along what is now Home Avenue, he built a carriage factory, a store, a steam-powered sawmill and grist-mill, and houses for himself and his workers. Hart also donated land for the First Baptist Church, which he helped establish. The property here left his ownership in 1854. Hart, a Confederate lieutenant, died in action near Petersburg, Virginia.

This example of regional vernacular architecture of the mid-19th century is the last antebellum structure known to remain on the site of John Hart's plantation and carriage factory. Many of Hartsville's leading citizens have owned or lived in the house since it left Hart's ownership in 1854. In 1981, the house was acquired by the Hartsville Heritage Foundation.

Intersection of Wesley Chapel Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-170) and Indian Branch Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd.

Said to be Darlington County's oldest Methodist church, Wesley Chapel, thought to be founded in 1789, was the site of early camp meetings. By 1802, the church was known as Gully Meetinghouse and was located about 1 ½ miles N. The site here was obtained from Jesse & John Clements in 1832; the church renamed Wesley Chapel in 1834; and the present sanctuary built in 1908.

Main St. (U.S. Hwy. 15/401), at its intersection with U.S. Hwy. 52, Society Hill

(Front) Born c. 1840 and a resident of Darlington County by 1871, Lawrence Faulkner was a black school teacher, later merchant, and Society Hill's postmaster from 1877 to 1889. A trustee of nearby Union Baptist Church, Faulkner died in 1898. His store and dwelling were located on this site.

A former slave from Virginia, Brown lived in Society Hill around 1900 and for years was employed by Lawrence Faulkner's widow to work on her farm. His small house was adjacent to the Faulkner house on this site. A gifted story-teller of black folk tales, Brown's allegories were posthumously recorded by the Smithsonian Institution.

(Front) On June 5, 1822, twelve men paid $20 each to purchase books for a library. These men were J. J. Evans; David and Elias Gregg; D. R. W., J. K. and T. E. McIver; Thomas Smith; Alexander Sparks; D. R. and J. N. Williams; J. F. Wilson; and J. D. Witherspoon. On December 7, 1822 the men formed the Society Hill Library Society.

(Reverse) This society was incorporated Dec. 20, 1823 and by 1826 was located in a structure about 900 ft. N. on land given by John D. Witherspoon. Elias Gregg is thought to have been the first librarian, serving until 1844. The library building was moved from its original site on Main St. to the St. David's Academy lot here about 1932. It was taken into the county library system in 1971.

(Front) James L. Coker (1837-1918) came here from Society Hill ca. 1858 as a planter. While serving in the Civil War as a captain in Co. E, 6th Regiment SC Volunteers, he was seriously wounded. Promoted to major in 1864, he was a member of the SC House 1865-66. In 1865 he founded J. L. Coker & Co. and was a founder of the Bank of Darlington (1881); Darlington Manufacturing

(Reverse) Co. (1881); Hartsville Railroad (1884); Carolina Fiber (1890) and Southern Novelty (1899), both now Sonoco; Hartsville Oil Mill (1900); Hartsville Cotton Mill (1900); Coker's Pedigreed Seed Co. (1902); and the Bank of Hartsville (1903). Major Coker's generosity resulted in the founding of Coker College in 1908. His home, which burned in 1922, was located here.

E. Home Ave. between 3rd St. and S. 4th St., on the Coker College campus, Hartsville

Known world-wide for developing new varieties and for perfecting superior strains of agricultural crops (including cotton), Coker, for years was pres. Pedigreed Seed Co., chartered 1918. He was intendant (mayor) of Hartsville 1900-1901; member National Agricultural Advisory Commission; trustee of University SC and Coker College. His 1916 home here is now part of Coker College.

(Front) One of the first methods for producing paper from native pine wood pulp was developed by J. L. Coker, Jr. As a result, he with Maj. J. L. Coker and C. J. Woodruff formed the Carolina Fiber Company, March 20, 1890, to manufacture and market wood pulp and paper. Their mill was on nearby Black Creek. In 1941 the entire operation merged with adjacent Sonoco Products Company.

This enterprise was chartered as Southern Novelty Company in 1899; first directors were: Maj. J. L. Coker, J. L. Coker Jr., D. R. Coker, J. J. Lawton, and W. F. Smith. The name was changed to Sonoco Products Company in 1923. Today Sonoco is a leading global manufacturer of packaging products for major industries and employs approximately 16,000 people in 22 countries.

This Episcopal church, located about 800 ft. N., was incorporated 1833. Early members associated with the church are said to have been from the Dewitt, Edwards, Evans, Hanford, Hawes, McCollough, Williams and Witherspoon families. In 1834 the present structure was consecrated by Bishop Nathaniel Bowen. After many years, the church became inactive and was officially listed as dormant 1931. The building is now maintained by private benefactors.

Erected by Pee Dee Committee, National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of South Carolina, 1993

This silver co., chartered March 5, 1907, manufactured and sold coffee and tea sets, bread trays, bowls, candelabra, and cups. J. L. Coker served as pres., W. F. Smith as vice pres., and C. W. Coker as sec. & treas. By 1908 the company had begun to manufacture classically-designed quadruple plate, some ornamented with cotton blossom motifs. The enterprise, located 3 blocks NE, dissolved Nov. 25, 1909.

Facing Coker College property in front of Allston House, E. Home Ave., Hartsville

(Front) The Welsh Neck Baptist Association initiated this institution as a coeducational boarding school. It opened Sept. 17, 1894, through the generosity of Maj. James Lide Coker, Civil War veteran, local industrialist, and the school's first chairman of the board of trustees. Enrollment peaked at 267 in 1902. When the 1907 public high school act reduced the need for this school, it became a four-year college for women.

The trustees of Welsh Neck High School converted their institution into a non-sectarian Baptist college. It opened Sept. 30, 1908, as "Coker College for Women, founded by James L. Coker." Baptist control ended in 1944, and in 1969, the college became coeducational. The Governor's school for Science and Mathematics opened on the campus in 1988. Throughout its history, Coker has emphasized liberal arts.

Intersection of E. Seven Pines St. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-19) and S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-360,

Birthplace of L. M. Lawson (1873-1943), attorney, farmer, Methodist layman. Served in SC House 1905-10, SC Senate 1911-14, Pres. Darlington Agricultural Soc. 1938-39.

(Front) Members of New Providence and Gum Branch Baptist churches under John L. Hart's leadership began Hartsville Baptist, the first church in town, 16 November 1850. A union Sunday school met on the site as early as July 1849. John L. Hart donated land on which the congregation built a sanctuary in 1851. Rev. J. W. Burn served as first pastor for many years. The church joined Welsh Neck Association in 1851, and the SC General

(Reverse) Assembly chartered the congregation in 1853. By 1906 name changed to First Baptist Church. Dr. E. V. Baldy, pastor in 1909, served as first president of Coker College. New congregations established by this church are: Fourth Street 1906; Eastside (now Emmanuel) 1926; Lakeview 1944; South Hartsville 1951; West Hartsville 1952; and North Hartsville 1959. The congregation completed the present sanctuary 1964.

Butler School, located on this site since 1921, was the second public school to serve Hartsville's black community and operated for over sixty years. Known as the Darlington Co. Training School until 1939, it was renamed for Rev. Henry H. Butler, its principal 1909-1946. The first building on this site burned in 1961; extant buildings date from 1936 to the mid-1960s. Butler School was a junior

3/10 mi. N of the church, Main St. (U.S. Hwy. 15/401) at its intersection with Pressley Ave.,

(Front) Was organized August 12, 1891 with 17 charter members, by a commission of the Pee Dee Presbytery under Revs. J. G. Law, J. G. Richards, and W. B. Corbett. Elders H. A. Womack and J. S. McCall and deacon L .M. Crosswell were appointed church officers. Services were held in the school until the sanctuary was built 1892-93; a manse was built 1922. Rev. J. P. Marion, the first full-time minister, served 1892-1902.

(Reverse) For several years in the early twentieth century the church also sponsored seminary students preaching at as many as six mission stations in the Pee Dee region without financial aid from the Presbytery. Society Hill Presbyterian Church is in the Welsh Neck-Long Bluff-Society Hill Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

(Front) Darlington Raceway, the first superspeedway in NASCAR history, was constructed in 1950 by Harold Brasington, a local race promoter who saw an asphalt-paved track as an advance over the standard dirt tracks and wanted a 500-mile stock car race to rival the Indianapolis 500. On September 4, 1950 the new mile-and-a quarter raceway hosted the first Southern 500, a 400-lap race in which 75 cars raced at top speeds of 80 m.p.h.

(Reverse) The egg-shaped track at Darlington quickly gained a reputation as "the track too tough to tame" and the Southern 500 became one of racing's most important events. The Plymouth which Johnny Mantz drove to win the first race is one of several historic cars on display with other racing memorabilia at the NMPA Stock Car Hall of Fame/Joe Weatherly Museum, which opened here in 1965 to honor the pioneers of NASCAR.

Bear Swamp Baptist Church, 541 Bear Swamp Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 17-56), Lake View vicinity

On December 22, 1801, one acre on the north side of Bear Swamp was deeded for the use of the Baptist Society. Local tradition says that the meeting house that stood on this tract was built in the 1780s and was used as a camp site by travelers between Fayetteville and Georgetown. In 1831, the Baptist Society was constituted as Bear Swamp church.

Erected by Bear Swamp Baptist Church and The Friday Afternoon Book Club of Lake View, S. C., 1970

This house was built in 1890 as the home of James W. Dillon, the father of Dillon County, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Purchased by the Dillon County Historical Society in 1967, it was moved to this site and restored as a museum to preserve a record of those who contributed to the development of Dillon County.

S.C. Hwy. 38, just E of its junction with I-95 Exit 181 and .3 mi. W of its junction with

This cotton press, built in 1798 according to tradition, is thought by many to be the oldest in existence. It was first owned and used by John Bethea, III, and later by Henry Berry. Powered by oxen or mules rotating the beam to tighten the press, it was rendered obsolete by modern machinery. A Berry descendant moved it to this site about 1948 to preserve it.

Intersection of Centerville Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 17-38) & Skillet Rd., (S.C. Sec. Rd. 17-54),

This house, located ¼ mile E, was built about 1857 by Joel Allen, a Baptist minister who organized and served many churches in the Pee Dee area 1838-1884. He represented Marion County in the S.C. General Assembly 1870-1872. His son, W. B. Allen, added a second story to the 1 ½ story dwelling about 1891. The present kitchen was built about 1940 by J. J. Allen.

Intersection of S.C. Hwy. 9 & Eli Branch Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 17-38), E of Manning Crossroads

David Satterwhite was granted 177 acres here in 1789 by Charles Pinckney, Governor of S. C. In 1855 this tract passed into the hands of The Rev. James A. Cousar, who added a three-acre tract in 1858 on which he built the present house, gin house, and outbuildings. The name originated from a nearby post office, which was discontinued in 1901.

1495 Catfish Church Rd., near the Intersection of S.C. Sec. Rd. 17-63 (Catfish Church Rd.) &

This Baptist church, constituted in 1802, has ordained eleven ministers, provided a missionary to Brazil, and has helped to establish a number of other churches. The present house of worship, dedicated in 1883 with portico added in 1970, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bradford Blvd. (S.C. Hwy. 9 W), 150 yds. E of its intersection with Harllees Bridge Rd.

This church was established prior to 1803 and was known as Liberty Chapel. The present structure, built in 1871, is significant both for its architecture and as a reflection of Methodism in the Pee Dee area. A Victorian adaptation of the classic meeting-house form, St. Paul's was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

(Front) Originally in colonial Craven County, this area became part of Georgetown District, 1769; Liberty County, 1785; Marion District, 1798; and Marion County, 1868. The movement to separate this county from upper Marion County began some years before the General Assembly enacted the bill creating Dillon County. It was signed by Governor Martin F. Ansel, Feb. 5, 1910, in the presence of Dillon citizens.

James W. Dillon and his son Thomas gave one-half of this block for erection of the Dillon County Courthouse; they also assisted financially in its construction. The cornerstone was laid October 30, 1911. Honoring James W. Dillon as Father of Dillon county, the granite monument on the grounds was unveiled June 29, 1938.

(Front) In 1911 W. C. Allen led a movement for a public library in Latta and was authorized by the town council to negotiate with Andrew Carnegie for funds. After the town complied with conditions set by Mr. Carnegie, he donated $5,000 and C. F. Bass of Latta gave land for the building, which opened as the Latta Library in 1914. Voters in a valid election levied a tax for maintenance. A rear portion and north wing were added later.

(Reverse) This library initially served the Latta area and its schools, but in 1929 extended its service to all Dillon County schools. The cost led the library board to ask the county to provide aid. The county complied, although local control of library service continued. By statutory provision in 1973 a county library providing for countywide control was established; the Latta Library is the base of this operation.

S.C. Hwy. 34, about 1 mi. S of Bingham near Dillon County-Marlboro County line

(Front) About 0.4 mile NW is Reedy Creek Springs, known for the medicinal value of its water. Here, before the turn of the century, William B. Allen laid out a quadrangle of a few acres, planted water oaks, and built a pavilion, hotel, cottages, and stables. The spa became popular as a gathering place for religious, educational, cultural, and social groups from a wide area.

(Reverse) Reedy Creek Springs was a popular Pee Dee area resort for a number of years before and after 1900, and visitors traveled here by train and by horse. As automobiles became common, however, vacationers went further afield and the springs were neglected and suffered the ravages of time. Broken stones now mark the site of this once-popular spa.

Duncan McIntire, a licensed minister who preached in Gaelic for those who could speak no other language, organized this Presbyterian congregation shortly before 1829. The present vernacular Gothic Revival structure was completed by 1851. A number of other congregations had their beginnings in this church.

(Front) Dillon was laid out by civil engineers of the Florence Railroad Company following a plan by John H. David, a local physician. The town was incorporated by the General Assembly on December 22, 1888, and its boundaries extended in a half-mile radius from the railroad depot. The first mayor and postmaster of the town was Duncan McLaurin. In 1893 a freight station was constructed, and in 1904, the present passenger depot was built.

In 1882 the Florence Railroad Company was chartered and authorized to build and operate a line east of Florence northward to the state border. Right-of-way problems here were solved when J. W. Dillon and his son Thomas offered half-interest in 63 acres if the railroad would use the land, build a depot, and lay out a town. The offer was accepted, and the railroad from Pee Dee to the state line was opened in 1888.

Laid out in 1697 as a market town for the Congregationalist colony from Dorchester, Mass., the village contained 116 quarter-acre lots and a town square and commons. An Anglican church was built in 1720, a fair was established in 1723, and a Free School in 1734. Dorchester became a trade center and by 1781 had about 40 houses. The town gradually declined after the Revolution. By 1788 it was abandoned.

Off Dorchester Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 642) in Old Dorchester State Park, S of Summerville

St. George's, an Anglican parish, was erected 1717. A brick church 50 ft. long and 30 ft. wide with a chancel 15 by 5 feet, begun in August 1719, was enlarged in the 1730's. The tower was built before 1753 and in 1766 held four bells. Burned by the British in the Revolution, the church was partially repaired and used afterwards, but as the congregation moved away, it fell into decay.

Off Dorchester Rd (S.C. Hwy. 642) in Old Dorchester State Park, S of Summerville

A brick powder magazine enclosed by a tabby wall eight feet high was built here in 1757. During the Revolution, Dorchester was a strategic point. In 1775 the magazine was fortified and the garrison commanded by Capt. Francis Marion. British troops occupied the town in April 1780. They were driven out by cavalry and infantry under Col. Wade Hampton and Gen. Nathanael Greene on December 1, 1781.

These famous gardens were laid out about 1741 by Henry Middleton (1717-84), President of Continental Congress. His son, Arthur, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, lived here as did his son Henry (1770-1846), Governor of S.C. and Minister to Russia, who introduced the camellias. His son William (1809-83) planted the first azaleas. The original residence was looted and burned by Federal forces in 1865.

Planter, Patriot, Signer/of the Declaration/of Independence./Born here June 26, 1742, Arthur Middleton, after receiving his education in England, returned to make his home here in 1763. He served in the Commons House of Assembly, the Council of Safety, the Continental Congress, the militia, and the state legislature. He died Jan. 1, 1787, and is buried in the garden here.

Erected by S.C. Societies of the Daughters of American Colonists and Daughters of Colonial Wars, 1964 [Replacing a marker erected by the Daughters of American Colonists between 1936 and 1949]

Dorchester Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 642), just W of White Church Ln., Summerville vicinity

(Front) This church was established in 1696 by settlers from Dorchester, Mass., for which the town of Dorchester was named. This brick sanctuary, built ca. 1700, was occupied and then burned by British troops in 1781. The church was reorganized as "The United Independent Congregational Church of Dorchester and Beech Hill" in 1793 and the building rebuilt the next year. A summer church was built in nearby Summerville in 1831.

(Reverse) In 1859 members of the Dorchester congregation established the Summerville Presbyterian Church, which was then admitted into the Charleston Presbytery. The church at this site, often called "Old White Meeting House," was almost abandoned and was in disrepair in 1886 when the Charleston earthquake reduced it to ruins. The cemetery here includes graves dating from the eighteenth century to the present.

(Front) Newington Plantation was established on this site in the 1680s after Daniel Axtell received a royal grant of 300 acres. Axtell died shortly after arriving in the colony and his widow Rebecca built a house on the grant by the 1690s. In 1711 Lady Axtell gave Newington, named after the family plantation in England, to her daughter Elizabeth, the widow of Gov. Joseph Blake. Mrs. Blake's son Col. Joseph Blake (1700-1751) inherited

(Reverse) the plantation at her death in 1726 and built a large brick house on this site, one which was noted for its many windows, brick outbuildings, and rare double-row avenue of live oaks. Newington remained in the family until it was sold to Henry A. Middleton in 1837. The house burned in 1845 and was in ruins by 1876, when Middleton leased Newington Plantation to the United States government for use as an experimental tea farm.

Site of law offices of/ELDRED SIMKINS/Congressman, Lt.-Governor./GEORGE McDUFFIE/ Congressman, Governor,/U.S. Senator./FRANCIS W. PICKENS/Congressman, Governor,/Minister to Russia./FRANCIS H. WARDLAW,/Author of/Ordinance of Secession./JOHN C. SHEPPARD,/ Lt.-Governor, Governor./JAMES O. SHEPPARD, Lieutenant-Governor,/National Head "40 & 8."/Present building given in 1949 to/Edgefield County Historical Society by Miss Anne L. Golightly.

Founded in 1762 by the Reverend Daniel Marshall, pioneer missionary and minister, this was the first church of the Baptist faith in the present Edgefield County./"Mother of Churches"

Erected by Edgefield Baptist Association on the Bicentennial of the church, 1962

(Front) Founded in 1823 as Edgefield Village Baptist Church with Basil Manly, Sr., Pastor, Matthew Mims, Clerk, and Arthur Simkins, Moderator, this church led in the establishment here in 1826 of Furman Academy and Theological Institution. William Bullein Johnson, pastor here 1830-52, served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention 1845-51; Robert G. Lee, a former pastor, served in 1948-51.

Burial place of three S.C. Governors/F. W. Pickens, 1807-1869/J. C. Sheppard, 1850-1931/John G. Evans, 1863-1942/and the families of/Gov. Pierce H. Butler/and Gov. M. L. Bonham./Also buried here are/Francis H. Wardlaw/1800-1861/Preston S. Brooks/1818-1857/Matthew C. Butler/1836-1909/John Lake, 1870-1949,/Missionary to China.

1/2 mile west, on "Cedar Fields" plantation, is buried the family of Captain Arthur Simkins, soldier in the American Revolution and a founder of Edgefield. Born in Virginia on Dec. 10, 1742, he died Sept. 29, 1826. He was a county court judge, a member of the S. C. General Assembly, and was on the commission to divide Ninety Six District into counties.

Erected by Edgefield County Historical Society and Old 96 District Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1969

(Front) The Tutt house which formerly stood on this site is believed to have been the first home at Edgefield Court House. Richard Tutt was one of the party who in October 1775 arrested Tory leader Robert Cunningham and escorted him to Charleston. Later, as a Lieutenant in the 5th S. C. Continentals, he served at Fort Rutledge. In the Siege of Ninety Six, he is said to have worked on the tunnel the Patriots projected under Star Fort.

This family cemetery was located near the Tutt home. Among the seven graves are those of Lieutenant Richard Tutt, born in Culpeper County, Virginia, 1749, died in Edgefield, 1807, and his son-in-law, Matthew Mims (1780-1848), Clerk of Court, 1814. Richard Tutt settled near Liberty Hill before the Revolution, later served in Edgefield as village surgeon and Justice of the Peace.

Erected by The City of Edgefield and 96 Rangers Chapter, Children of the American Revolution, 1976

Old Stage Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 19-76), near its intersection with Yarborough Rd., 6 mi. S of Edgefield

(Front) This church was constituted in 1768 by the Reverend Daniel Marshall, one of the founders of the Baptist faith in this part of South Carolina. Other early ministers of Horns Creek included Hezekiah Walker, Samuel Marsh, and John Landrum. The church was incorporated on January 20, 1790.

REVOLUTIONARY SKIRMISH AT HORNS CREEK

Not far from this historic church a skirmish took place in 1781. Captain Thomas Key of Colonel LeRoy Hammond's regiment attacked a party of Tories under the command of Captain Clark. The Tories were defeated, their captain killed, and the entire company captured and paroled.

Erected by Edgefield County Historical Society and Edgefield County Council, 1974

(Front) Organized in 1811, the Edgefield Village Academy was located for many years on this site acquired from Col. Eldred Simkins, in 1825. The South Carolina Coeducational Institute was located here from 1903 to 1913. During Reconstruction, many exciting political meetings were held in the grove near the Academy.

FURMAN ACADEMY AND THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION

This school, founded by the State Convention of Baptists of South Carolina on March 17, 1826, was originally located on this site. The Institution was the forerunner of both Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Erected by The Edgefield County Historical Society and Edgefield County, 1975

(Front) By 1841, this congregation was established and was a member of the Edgefield Circuit. The present structure was dedicated in November of 1892 by Bishop W. W. Duncan. The Reverend Joseph Moore sold to the church the land upon which it is presently built. A member of this church, Jennie Hughes Nicholson, was a missionary to China from September of 1901 until February of 1906.

Moore was an early Methodist minister who was preaching by 1791 and was a circuit rider in the states of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia. He died in Edgefield District in 1851 and bequeathed his estate to the Edgefield Circuit of the Methodist Church. Moore is buried in the Edgefield Village Baptist Cemetery.

Edgefield Rd. (U.S. Hwy. 25) at S.C. Hwy. 37 (Bettis Academy Rd.), SW of Trenton

Established as a result of the inspiration and efforts of the Reverend Alexander Bettis, this educational institution was incorporated in 1889, and provided elementary, high school, and junior college training for blacks. A. W. Nicholson succeeded Bettis as president and served for about fifty years. The school, which was closed in the 1950s, was located about 1 ½ miles southeast.

Intersection of U.S. Hwy. 25 and Long Cane/Sheppard Rd., Sheppard's Crossroads,

In 1828, this property, shown on Anderson's 1816 map as Kirksey's Tavern, was sold by John Kirksey to James Sheppard (1790-1859), state representative, merchant, and War of 1812 veteran. He and Louise Mobley, his third wife, were parents of John C. Sheppard (1850-1931), Governor of South Carolina in 1886. In rear of the house is the family cemetery.

Martintown Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 230) about 1.8 mi. N of I-20, Poverty Hill vicinity

Born 1 mi. E. Cmdr. 1st Corps, Army of Northern VA Confederate States Army; Lee's "Old Warhorse"; West Point graduate; Mexican War veteran.

Erected by 15th Regiment SC Volunteers, Camp # 51, Sons of Confederate Veterans, 1995

Johnston, founded in 1868 as Johnston's Station on the Charlotte, Columbia, & Augusta Railroad and also known as Johnson's Turn Out, was named for railroad president William Johnston. It was first incorporated in 1875 and rechartered with its present name of Johnston in 1897. The Johnston Historic District, a collection of 146 houses, businesses, and churches dating from ca. 1880 to ca. 1920, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

During February 17-19, 1865, General P. G. T. Beauregard, with Wade Hampton's cavalry acting as rear guard, made his headquarters here, telegraphing General R.E. Lee in Virginia news of the evacuation of Columbia, 20 miles south, before retiring to Winnsboro. Following and destroying the railroad, Union troops arrived February 21.

S.C. Hwy. 213, 1.5 mi. NE of its its intersection with S.C. Hwy. 215, Jenkinsville vicinity

On May 9, 1803, the Associate Reformed Synod of the Carolinas was organized here at Ebenezer A.R.P. Church, built in 1788 by a congregation dating from colonial days. The rock wall was added in 1852. Damaged by Union troops in 1865, the church was repaired and remained in active use until 1920.

(Front) Educator, Humanitarian, Religious Leader, College President. He believed that: "The student ought to be educated not simply or chiefly because he intends to be a farmer, lawyer, or statesman, but because he is a human being with capacities, and powers, with inlets of joy, with possibilities of effort and action, which no trade or calling can satisfy or exhaust."

(Reverse) Born in this house on May 24, 1825, the son of William and Mary Ann Carlisle, this noted teacher received his education at Mount Zion Institute and South Carolina College. A delegate in 1860 to the Secession Convention and a legislator in 1864, his greatest service was as the third President of Wofford College from 1875 to 1902, where he had taught since 1853. He died October 21, 1909.

This noted author-theologian, born at this site April 11, 1836, educated at Mt. Zion Institute, the Citadel, and the University of Virginia, served as an officer and as chaplain in the Confederate War. He was rector in Winnsboro and Abbeville, and in 1871 became Chaplain and Professor at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn. He died in 1918.

Parr Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 20-16), 1.1 mi. E of its intersection with S.C. Hwy. 215, Parr vicinity

Two miles west of here at Parr Shoals on Broad River is the first atomic nuclear power plant in the Southeast. In 1954, the Atomic Energy Act was amended to allow the construction of nuclear power plants by private industry. Built by Carolinas Virginia Nuclear Power Associates, Inc., this plant was dedicated on October 24, 1962.

Landis Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 20-48), .9 mi. from its intersection with S.C. Hwy. 213, Jenkinsville vicinity

This two-story brick house was built by James Kincaid (1754-1801), Revolutionary War soldier, who came from Scotland in 1773 and acquired this land in 1775. It was completed according to his plans after his death by his son William Kincaid (1782-1834). Their descendants, the Andersons, lived here until about 1900.

(Front) A center of activity in the Regulator movement to bring law and order to the backcountry, this area in 1769 was made part of Camden District under the Circuit Court Act. In 1775 it formed part of the District between the Broad and Catawba Rivers for election purposes. Laid out as the jurisdiction of a county court in 1785, Fairfield became a judicial district in 1800 and a county again in 1868.

Settled on land of the Winn family, by 1780 Winnsborough had about twenty houses when it was occupied by Cornwallis. On February 21, 1865, it was occupied again, by General W.T. Sherman. Chartered in 1785 by Richard and John Winn and John Vanderhorst, it was made the seat of justice for Fairfield District. Incorporated in 1832, Winnsboro became a social, religious, and educational center of this area.

This courthouse was built in 1822 by Wm. McCreight under the supervision of Robert Mills, South Carolina architect, then serving as Supt. of Public Works. Alterations and additions were made in 1844. It was renovated in 1939 with the addition of two rear wings and the flying stairways in front by G. Thomas Harmon, AIA, as supervising architect.

1/4 mile east stood the home of Thomas Woodward, prominent leader of the South Carolina Regulator Movement, 1768-1769. He was a member of the First Provincial Congress and a Charter Member of the Mt. Zion Society. As Captain of Rangers in 1775-76 he led soldiers from this area in the Snow Campaign against Indians and Tories.

S.C. Sec. Rd. 20-18, just N of its intersection with S.C. Hwy. 215, N of Salem Crossroads.

On May 26, 1780, one of the first victories for the Patriots after the fall of Charleston took place 1 ½

miles east on Little River. A body of Tories gathering at a Baptist meeting house in Mobley's settlement were attacked and dispersed by a band of Whigs under Col. Wm. Bratton, Maj. Richard Winn, and Capt. John McClure.

S.C. Hwy. 215, about 1 mi. S of intersection of S.C. Hwy. 215 & S.C. Sec. Rd. 20-33,

Around 1840, an academy was established at this site by John Feaster, a noted landowner of this area, for the education of female and male students. By 1842, both an academy building and a boarding house (dormitory) had been erected. Mr. Feaster appointed as trustees his sons, Andrew, Jacob, and John M. Feaster.

A social and benevolent group dedicated to the promotion of education, the Mt. Zion Society was organized in January 1777 at Charleston, S.C. John Winn was its first president. By the 1780s the society had founded a school for boys in Winnsboro. Under the leadership of J. W. Hudson, Mt. Zion Institute became an important educational force in ante-bellum South Carolina. It became a public school about 1878.

Mobley Hwy. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 20-20), .3 mi. W of its intersection with S.C. Hwy. 200, 7 mi. N of Winnsboro

Organized before 1785, this Presbyterian Church was originally known as Wolf Pit Church, later as Wateree, and was finally named Mt. Olivet in 1800. The Reverend William Martin, a Covenanter minister licensed by the Reformed Presbytery of Scotland, was an early minister here. The present house of worship was completed in 1869.

(Front) Richard Cathcart purchased this lot from John McMaster in 1829, and it is thought he built the present federal-style house shortly thereafter. The house has had a number of owners including Priscilla Ketchin, who purchased it in 1874. The building was deeded to Fairfield County in 1969 by Ella Cathcart Wilburn and Carrie Cathcart Owings and was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

Born in Virginia in 1810, playwright, poet, and educator Catharine Stratton Ladd married George Ladd, an artist who had studied with Samuel F.B. Morse. The Ladds owned this house from 1852 until 1862. Mrs. Ladd was principal of the Winnsboro Female Institute and during the Civil War was president of the Fairfield District Ladies' Relief Association. She died in 1899 and is buried in Salem Presbyterian churchyard.

(Front) Governor of S.C. (1850-1852), president of the 1852 Secession Convention, and signer of the Ordinance of Secession in 1860, John Means was born near here in 1812. A colonel in the 17th Regiment, S.C. Volunteers, CSA, he died Sept. 1, 1862, from wounds received at the Second Battle of Manassas. He is believed to be buried in the Means Cemetery, about 50 yards east.

A graduate and trustee of S.C. College, William Harper immigrated here from Antigua in 1791. Admitted to the bar in 1813, he served in the S.C. House, was a U.S. Senator, court reporter, Chancellor, and judge of the Court of Appeals. He died in 1847 and is buried 50 yards east. The University of South Carolina's Harper College takes its name from William Harper.

(Front) This grade school and normal institute for blacks was founded in 1869 during Reconstruction by the Northern Presbyterian Church. The Reverend Willard Richardson was principal. In 1880, one- hundred of its students were studying to be teachers and twenty others to enter the ministry. The school closed in 1888 to merge with Brainerd Institute in Chester. The site is located one block west.

Born in Fairfield County, this renowned black educator attended Fairfield Institute, 1878-1880, and won a scholarship to Howard University, from which he graduated in 1886. After graduate work at Johns Hopkins, Miller received his A.M. and L.L.D. degrees (1901 and 1903) and was for many years professor and dean at Howard. His writings on race problems were widely read and used in major universities.

S.C. Hwy. 901 at its intersection with S.C. Hwy. 52, .5 mi. S of Fairfield County-Chester County line

(A quarter mile east)/Here lie buried many of the Scotch Irish pioneers who in 1772, under the leadership of the Rev. William Martin, founded one of the first Covenanter churches in upper South Carolina.

109 W. College St., Corner of W. College St. and N. Congress St. (U.S. Hwy. 321), Winnsboro

First United Methodist Church was established in 1808 under the leadership of the Rev. James Jenkins, an early circuit-riding minister, and John Buchanan, a captain in the Revolution. Pioneer American Methodist bishop Francis Asbury visited here from 1809 to 1814. This building (1908) is the congregation's third structure; two earlier ones were located about two blocks SE.

(Front) This Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church was incorporated in 1823. Early pastors were the Rev. James Lyle and the Rev. Thomas Ketchin, installed 1825 and 1844 respectively. The old cemetery, located at corner of Fairfield and Vanderhorst streets, is the traditional site of first church building; the second, located across Fairfield Street, was dedicated in 1873. The Women's Benevolent Society was organized 1871 and the Junior Christian

(Reverse) Union in 1883. The congregation, under the Rev. Charles E. McDonald's leadership, moved to this site upon completing the present 1903 building. The Boag Memorial Educational Building, dedicated 1937, was a gift of Mr. & Mrs. James O. Boag. Buried in the cemetery are the Rev. Neill E. Pressly D.D., and Rachel Elliott Pressly, first ARP missionaries to Mexico 1878-1917; and the Rev. Oliver Johnson, D.D., pastor of this church 1908-1945.

Centerville Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 20-67), near its junction with Ridgeway Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 34), SE of Ridgeway

Site of 5 buildings 1897-1986. Enemies of church burned two, tornado destroyed one. 1994 marks 100 years of Mormon presence in this community.

This African American church was organized in 1873 by Simon McIntosh, Henry Golden, Lily Yarborough, Frances Kelly, Lizzie Hart, and others. The first pastor, Rev. Daniel Golden, served 1873-1891. The first sanctuary was built in 1876. The present sanctuary was built in 1893 and remodeled during the pastorate of Rev. C. L. McMillian, who served 1958-1989.

Darlington County

(Front) Established in 1831 as Darlington Baptist Church of Christ, with Rev. W.Q. Beattie as its first minister; joined the Welsh Neck Association in 1832. The first sanctuary, built in 1830 just before the church was formally organized, was replaced in 1859 by a second building. During the Civil War the church offered its bell to be melted down to cast cannon for the Confederacy.

(Reverse) This church, which has licensed or ordained 14 clergymen since 1831, was renamed First Baptist Church of Darlington in 1912; the present brick sanctuary was dedicated that December. The Hardin Building was built in 1924; the Jones Building in 1956, the Illy McFall Memorial Building in 1975, and the E.S. Howle Fellowship Hall in 1983. Additional renovations were completed in 1997.

S. Main St. (U.S. Hwy. 15/401), near its junction with St. David’s St., Society Hill

(Front) This house, built in 1896-97 and designed in the Beaux Arts style by noted S.C. architect Charles Coker Wilson, was the home of Maj. James Jonathan Lucas (1831-1914). An earlier house here, which burned in 1892, had been the home of Dr. Thomas Smith (d. 1875), who married the widow of Judge Samuel Wilds. Lucas served Charleston District as a state representative 1856-1862.
(Reverse)

In 1862, Lucas, a Citadel graduate, organized and became major of Lucas' Battalion of Heavy Artillery, which spent most of the Civil War on James Island near Charleston. Maj. Lucas moved to Society Hill in 1865, and later served as a director of the Cheraw & Darlington RR and Atlantic Coast Line RR. Japonica Hall was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

S. Charleston Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-35), at Williamson's Bridge over Black Creek, SE of Darlington

Williamson's Bridge was built over Black Creek by 1771. In 1780 a part of Brig. Gen. Francis Marion's S.C. militia brigade – the "Pee Dee Regiment" or "Cheraws Militia" under Lt. Col. Lamuel Benton (1754-1818) – clashed with Loyalists here. Benton's militiamen forced the Tories from the bridge, pursued them for some distance, and finally routed them in hand-to-hand combat.

This house, built ca. 1832, was the home of Caleb Coker (1802-1869) and the birthplace of his son Maj. James Lide Coker (1837-1918), Confederate officer, industrialist, and founder of Coker College. Caleb Coker, a merchant, was also a director of the Cheraw & Darlington RR, librarian of the Society Hill Library Society, and a charter member of the Darlington Agricultural Society.

(Front) The Hartsville Oil Mill, founded in 1900 by J.L. Coker, D.R. Coker, and J.J. Lawton, stood here until 1993. A cotton oil mill, it crushed cottonseed to produce cooking oil; meal and cake for feed and fertilizer; and lint for stuffing and explosives. It was chartered in 1909 with Lawton as president, treasurer, and general manager; Albert Jordan as secretary; and C.G. Timberlake as superintendent.

(Reverse) The mill office, still standing at this site, was built in 1915. Under the leadership of president E.H. Lawton, Sr., the mill was converted from hydraulic presses to screw presses in 1954. The mill began extracting oil and meal from soybeans by 1957. The company sold the Hartsville mill in 1981 and moved its headquarters to Darlington. In 2000 it was the last cotton oil mill still operating in S.C.

(Front) Henry "Dad" Brown (1830-1907), a black veteran of the Mexican, Civil, and Spanish-American Wars, is buried 75' N with his wife Laura. Variously said to have been born free or born as a slave who purchased his and Laura's freedom, he was born near Camden. Brown, a brickmason, joined the Confederate army in May 1861 as a drummer in the "Darlington Grays," Co. F, 8th S.C. Infantry.
(Reverse) Brown enlisted as a drummer in Co. H, 21st S.C. Infantry in July 1861 and served for the rest of the war. He "captured" a pair of Union drumsticks in battle. He was also a member of the "Darlington Guards" 1878-1907. Described as "a man of rare true worth" at his death in 1907, Brown was honored shortly afterwards by Darlington citizens who erected the monument nearby.

This church was organized in 1872 by Harmony Presbytery with Capt. Joseph Commander (1800-1883) as its first elder. This sanctuary, built on land donated by Commander, was moved here and remodeled about 1909. Fair Hope, a founding member of the Pee Dee Presbytery in 1889, withdrew in 1969 to become an independent church.

(Front) West Broad Street features several late-19th to early-20th century residences designed and built by Lawrence Reese (1865-1915), a native of Marlboro County who came to Darlington as a merchant by 1887. Reese, who had no formal training in architecture, was a self-taught master craftsman and designer. The Belk Funeral Home, at 229 West Broad, was built ca. 1900 as a residence for Abraham Hyman and was Reese's own favorite of the several houses he designed here.

(Reverse) The West Broad Street Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, features 14 houses designed and built by Lawrence Reese between ca. 1890 and ca. 1910, most of them with elaborate Eastlake, Queen Anne, and other Victorian era architectural elements. Reese also designed and built the South Carolina Western Railway Station on Russell Street, built in 1911 and also listed in the National Register in 1988.

The church organized as early as 1817 and known as "Wright's Meeting House, Black Creek" was the first Methodist congregation in the area. James D. Wright, an elder who was appointed "Exhorter" in 1826, preached here until his death in 1862. Damascus Methodist Church declined after 1893, when Wesley Methodist Church was founded in Hartsville; it disbanded by 1901.

In August or September 1780 Major James Wemyss’s 63^rd Regiment of Foot marched from Georgetown to Cheraw burning and looting Patriot houses and farms. When Adam Cusack, who ran a ferry over Black Creek, refused to take some British officers across he was arrested. Convicted in an extralegal court martial, he was hanged nearby as his wife and children pleaded with Wemyss for mercy.

(Front) This Italianate house, designed by J.L. Clickner, was built 1856-57 for planter Samuel H. Wilds (1819-1867). According to tradition Clickner returned in early 1865 as a Union soldier and persuaded his superiors not to burn the house during a raid in the area. In 1870 attorney B.W. Edwards (1824-1890), later a state senator, acquired the house; it remained in the family until 1999.

Samuel H. Wilds was a member of the Darlington Agricultural Society, a colonel in the antebellum militia, and a state representative 1856-57 and again in 1864. He organized the "Wilds Rifles" (later Co. B, 21st S.C. Infantry) at the outbreak of the Civil War as its captain and rose to major by war's end. This house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

This house was built in 1889 by Charles McCullough (1853-1908), who served as town councilman and later as mayor. It was for many years a recreation center for local youth. The Darlington Memorial Center, chartered in 1946 as a memorial to Darlington men who died in World War II, was funded primarily by area civic clubs. It was acquired by the city of Darlington in 1950.

intersection of E. McIver Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-179/Old Darlington Hwy.) and Pisgah Rd.

(Front) Andrew Hunter (d. 1823), planter, state representative, and county official, is buried in the Hunter family cemetery about 400 ft. south. During the American Revolution he ran a grist mill several miles south on High Hill Creek, supplying meal and corn to the Patriots in the Southern Department. He also served as a scout in the state militia under Gen. Francis Marion.

(Reverse) In 1782 Hunter, scouting in N.C., was captured by Col. David Fanning, a prominent Loyalist. He escaped on Fanning’s horse, taking his saddle, holsters, pistols, and papers. After the war he represented St. David’s Parish (1787-88) and Darlington County (1796-97) in the S.C. House of Representatives and served on commissions for roads, navigation, and a new courthouse and jail.

(Front) In the summer of 1865, just after the end of the Civil War, Federal troops began their occupation of many cities and towns in S.C. Units in Darlington in 1865-66 included the 15^th Maine Infantry, 29^th Maine Veteran Volunteers, 1^st Maine Battalion, and 30^th Massachusetts Veteran Volunteers. They camped on the grounds of the nearby St. John’s Academy and used it as a hospital.

(Reverse) Four Federal privates (Patrick Gately and Ira J. Newhall of the 15^th Maine and George Kinney and John Maloney of the 29^th Maine) who died of disease while stationed in Darlington in 1865-66 were originally buried nearby. This area was called “Yankee Hill” for many years. Their remains were later removed and reburied at Florence National Cemetery.

(Front) This house was built in 1856 for Julius A. Dargan (1815-1861). Built on land acquired from Jesse H. Lide in 1839, the house is a fine example of the Greek Revival style. Dargan briefly taught school and practiced law with his brother G.W. Dargan for many years; he was also a state representative 1850-52, delegate to the Secession Convention, and signer of the Ordinance of Secession.
(Reverse) After Dargan’s death in 1861 the house passed to several owners, most notably A.G. Kollock (1862-1930), editor of the Darlington News, and J.C. Stone (1900-1975), manager of the Darlington Coca-Cola Bottling Company. The house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It was acquired by the City of Darlington in 1999 and restored by the city in 2003.

W. Lydia Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 15), Lydia

The Lydia Rural Fire Department, the first rural fire department in this county, was organized in 1954 after fires destroyed three houses in less than a month. Its organizers met at the store and gas station owned by E. Gay Bass (1913-1997). By mid-1955 the department had received a charter, built a fire station, and bought two trucks. Bass, its first fire chief, served 23 years.

(Front) This cemetery, established in 1890, was originally a five-acre tract when it was laid out as the cemetery for the nearby Macedonia Baptist Church. The first African American cemetery in Darlington, it includes about 1,900 graves dating from the late 19th century to the present. In 1946 Bethel A.M.E. Church and St. James Methodist Church, both nearby, established their own cemeteries here as well.
(Reverse) Among the prominent persons buried here are Rev. Isaac Brockenton (1829-1908), the founding pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church; Edmund H. Deas (1855-1915), prominent Darlington County politician; and Lawrence Reese (1864-1915), a self-taught designer and master craftsman who designed and built several houses on West Broad Street. This cemetery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

near the intersection of Society Hill Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-133) and N. Springville Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd.16-228), Springville, NE of Darlington

(Front) This house was built ca. 1856 for John Lide Hart (1825-1864), merchant and Confederate officer. Hart, who lived in Hartsville, named for his father Thomas E. Hart, founded a carriage and harness factory there in 1851. In 1853 he and partner William Shy founded Hart & Shy, a carriage factory in Darlington. Debts forced Hart to sell out and move here to Springville in 1855-56.

(Reverse) Hart was a member of the Darlington District Agricultural Society and a captain in the antebellum militia. In 1861 he joined the Confederate army as a sergeant in the “Wilds Rifles,” later Co. B, 21st S.C. Infantry. Hart, later promoted to lieutenant, was killed at Drewry’s Bluff, Va., May 16, 1864. This house was listed in the National

near the intersection of Society Hill Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-133) & S.C. Sec. Rd. 16-29, Springville, NE of Darlington

(Front) This Greek Revival house was built ca. 1840 for John Westfield Lide (1794-1858), planter and state representative. Lide, the son of Maj. Robert Lide and Mary Westfield Holloway Lide, was a member of the third graduating class at S.C. College (now the University of S.C) in 1809. He returned to Darlington District, became a planter, and expanded his holdings in the area.
(Reverse) Lide represented Darlington District in the S.C. House of Representatives 1822-25, and was later commissioner of public buildings and commissioner to approve public securities. This house features an unusual wraparound rain porch as well as Gothic Revival and Italianate architectural elements. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

(Front) This community center, the first in Darlington County, was built in 1933 by area citizens. The land was donated by E.M. Williamson of Mont Clare Plantation, the cypress logs and other lumber were cut at T.C. Coxe’s Skufful Plantation, and the sandstone for the foundation was quarried at Skufful Plantation.

(Reverse) The Mont Clare Mission was a nondenominational Sunday School and worship service organized in 1913 at nearby Mont Clare School. It met here from 1933 until Mont Clare Baptist Church was formally founded in 1960. This center, described as a “lovely log building,” has hosted church, school, and other events.

SOCIETY HILL DEPOT
W. Depot St. at its intersection with N. Main St. (U.S. Hwy. 15/401), Society Hill

(Front) This depot, built shortly after the Civil War, features a distinctive architectural design favored by the Cheraw & Darlington Railroad during its history as an independent line. The C & D, chartered in 1849, ran 40 miles between Cheraw and present-day Florence and began service in 1855. The first combined passenger and freight depot in Society Hill was built nearby on West Depot St.
(Reverse) Federal troops burned the original depot, a short distance north, in March 1865. This depot, constructed on the same plans, was built there by 1866. The Cheraw & Darlington RR was acquired by the Atlantic Coast Line RR in 1898. This was a freight and passenger depot until the 1940s and a freight depot until 1973. Now owned by the Town of Society Hill, it was moved here in 2002.
Erected by the Darlington County Historical Commission, 2008

Near the cemetery entrance on S. Warley St., just NW of its intersection with E. Broad St., Darlington

Grove Hill Cemetery, the first public cemetery in Darlington, was chartered in 1889. Citizens founded it “on account of the health of our town but also on account of the great scarcity of space in the church cemeteries.” The original 26-acre tract on Swift Creek was later expanded, doubling the burial space. In 1896 a half-acre tract was designated as “Darlington Hebrew Cemetery.”

(Front) This building, a New Deal project of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Public Works Administration (PWA), was built in 1937 at a cost of $60,000. Called “one of the most modern jails in the South,” it was designed by Rock Hill architect Alfred D. Gilchrist (d. 1944). Its second floor featured separate cell blocks for black and white males and separate cells for black and white females.
(Reverse) The office, kitchen, and jailer’s quarters were on the first floor; hospital and juvenile cells were on the third floor; and cells for minor offenders were in the basement. The jail closed in 1976. Since 1984 it has been the headquarters of the Darlington County Historical Commission. The commission, created in 1965 to maintain a county archives and research repository, also marks area historic sites.

MOUNT PLEASANT BAPTIST CHURCH
Near intersection of Cashua Ferry Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 34) & Georgetown Rd., Mechanicsville vicinity

(Front) Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, organized by 1785, first met in a nearby school. It built a sanctuary here in 1791; that year Cashaway Baptist Church merged with it. In 1818 the congregation moved about 2 mi. S to Mechanicsville, built a new sanctuary there, and was renamed Mechanicsville Baptist Church.

LOWTHER’S HILL CEMETERY
This cemetery was established ca. 1789, after Mount Pleasant Baptist Church relocated here; burials

continued until 1956. Prominent area leaders buried here include Maj. Robert Lide (1734-1802), an

officer under Gen. Francis Marion; Capt. Thomas E. Hart (1796-1842), for whom Hartsville was named, and planter and state representative John Westfield Lide (1794-1858).

(Front) Henry C. Burn (1839-1912), state representative and Darlington County public servant, lived here from 1882 until his death. Burn, born in Chesterfield District, was educated at St. David’s Academy in Society Hill, then at Furman University, before joining the Confederate army. He came back to S.C. and farmed briefly in Chesterfield District but returned to Society Hill by 1875.
(Reverse) Burn represented Darlington District in the S.C. House 1890-92. He was later postmaster of Society Hill 1893-1900, a delegate to the S.C. Constitutional Convention of 1895, and Darlington County Superintendent of Education 1900-08. This house, built as a four-room cottage, was later enlarged by Burn’s son Frank. Henry C. Burn also operated a carpenter’s shop and a blacksmith shop on the property.
Erected by the Darlington County Historical Commission, 2010

(Front) This church, founded in 1869, was organized by 36 black members of nearby Black Creek Baptist Church, who received letters of dismissal to form their own congregation. Rev. William Hart, its first minister, served until his death in 1872. He was succeeded by his son, Rev. Alfred Hart, who served here 1872-79, after representing Darlington County in the S.C. House 1870-72.
(Reverse) The church held its first services in a brush arbor on this site, which its trustees bought from James C. McCallman in 1872. After worshipping under a frame shelter for several years, Mt. Zion built its first permanent sanctuary, a frame building, in 1890. The congregation grew enough to build a second frame church in 1908. The present brick sanctuary was dedicated in 1979.

S. 4th St. (S.C. Hwy. 151), just NW of its intersection with U.S. Hwy. 15, Hartsville

(Front) This company, incorporated in 1914 by David R. Coker (1870-1938), grew out of his pioneering work breeding plants and developing high-quality seeds. At first focusing on helping Southern farmers grow superior upland cotton, it later had great success with corn, wheat, oats, soybeans, tobacco, and other crops.

COKER EXPERIMENTAL FARMS
(Reverse) The trademark of the company was a red heart with the motto “Blood Will Tell.” Coker Experimental Farms, begun on a 220-acre tract nearby, was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1964 and included several thousand acres when it closed in 1988. The Coker Farms NHL Foundation was created in 1998 to preserve and interpret 35 acres of the historic farm complex.
Erected by the Coker Farms National Historic Landmark Foundation, 2010

(Front) This church, founded about 1865, is the first African-American church in Lamar and was long known as Lamar Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. It was organized by Rev. John Boston, a former slave who was its first minister, serving here 1865-67. Boston, who also represented Darlington Co. in the S.C. House 1868-70 and 1872-74, is buried in the church cemetery. The old Boston Township was named for him.
(Reverse) The church held its first services in a brush arbor, but completed a frame sanctuary here about 1866. That church burned in 1906 and was replaced later that year by the present frame sanctuary, a Gothic Revival building. In 1916 trustees donated a half-acree for the Lamar Colored School, later Spaulding High School. Electricity replaced gas lights in 1935 and the exterior was covered in brick veneer in the 1950s.
Erected by the Darlington County Historical Commission, 2011

(Front) This church, with its origins in meetings held in a brush arbor as early as 1804, was organized into a formal congregation in 1812, with Rev. Charles Williams as its first pastor. Its first permanent church, a log building about 2 mi. NE, was replaced by a “comfortable meeting house” on that site about 1832.
(Reverse) In 1850, after the congregation voted not to relocate to a site near Hartsville, some members and some from Gum Branch Baptist Church left to found First Baptist Church in Hartsville. The church acquired this 1.5-acre site in 1890 and built the present frame sanctuary in 1891, with several later renovations. The New Providence School nearby taught grades 1-8 from 1902 to 1913.

(Front) This African-American church was founded in 1877, with Rev. Daniel Jesse as its first pastor. It held its first services in a brush arbor, and acquired a site about 2 mi. SE on Flat Creek Rd. in 1881, building a frame sanctuary there. The church, known through the years as Simmons’ Flat, Summer’s House, the Grove, and Marggie Branch, was renamed Flat Creek Baptist Church by 1927.
(Reverse) In 1913 Rev. Henry Hannibal Butler (1887-1948), newly ordained, came to Flat Creek Baptist Church as his first pastorate. Butler, principal of Darlington Co. Training School / Butler School in Hartsville (renamed for him in 1939), was later president of the S.C. State Baptist Convention and president of Morris College. The congregation moved here and built the present brick church in 2000.
Erected by the Congregation, 2011

(Front) This church, on this site since 1889, grew out of Sardis Methodist Church, a mission station organized in 1887 with a small frame church on Old Camden Rd. 3 mi. E. When that church burned in 1889, its elders accepted a donation of 4 acres here from David Byrd for “New Sardis Methodist Church.” This church was completed and dedicated in 1890 as Bethlehem Methodist Church.
(Reverse) At first on the Clyde circuit, this church, averaging about 250 members in its early years, became the main church of the Bethlehem Circuit when that circuit was created in 1910. A parsonage built that year, on an acre donated by F.W. Howle, served as the circuit parsonage until 1953. Bethlehem School, across the road from the church, was a rural primary school from 1906 to 1913.

(Front) The first public school for the black children of Hartsville and vicinity operated on this site from about 1900 to 1921. It was renamed Darlington County Training School in 1918. A new school was built on 6th St. south of this site in 1921. Rev. Henry H. Butler (1887-1948) was principal at both sites for a combined 37 years. The 1921 school was renamed Butler School in Butler’s honor in 1939.
MT. PISGAH NURSERY SCHOOL

(Reverse) Mt. Pisgah Presbyterian Church grew out of a Sunday school started on this site by Rev. T.J. James in 1922. The church was organized that same year, and a new church building was erected nearby in 1926. Rev. James also founded Mt. Pisgah Nursery School, which operated in the old graded school here for many years. Rev. James’s family later donated this property to the city for Pride Park, established in 1986.

(Front) This church was formally organized soon after the Civil War. It was founded by 20 black members of Antioch Baptist Church, who received letters of dismissal to form their own congregation in 1869. Slaves and free blacks had belonged to Antioch Baptist Church since its organization in 1830.
(Reverse) This church held its first services in a brush arbor. In 1871 Mrs. Lottie Cosom donated an acre on this site, later expanded to four acres for the church and cemetery. New Hopewell built its first permanent church here in 1886, renovated in 1887 and 1917-18. The present sanctuary was built in 1962.

(Front) The earliest record of this church dates to 1789, when it belonged to the Charleston Baptist Association and had 76 members. It took its name from, and built its first and later churches near, Swift Creek. The congregation grew after a revival in 1829 and the church joined the Welsh Neck Baptist Association in 1831. It soon became a central part of this rural community.
(Reverse) The congregation acquired this site in 1844, during the long pastorate of Rev. William Beck from 1833 to 1876. The historic cemetery here dates from 1878. A large frame church built here in 1903, described by the Baptist Courier as “a model house” when it was dedicated, was replaced by the present brick church in 1950, during the pastorate of Rev. E.B. Bagby, Jr.
Sponsored by the Congregation, 2013

(Front) This church, founded in 1892, built its first sanctuary at West Main St. and Third Ave., where the Dillon County Courthouse now stands. That lot was donated by James W. Dillon (1826-1913), for whom the town and county are named. The original church, a frame building, was moved to the corner of Third Ave. and Hudson St. in 1910 to make way for the new county courthouse, completed in 1911.
(Reverse) The first sanctuary here, a brick cruciform church in the Gothic Revival style, was designed by Charlotte architect Oliver D. Wheeler (1864-1942). Completed in 1914, it only stood seven months before it burned in January 1915. The congregration worshipped in the courthouse until a new church was built. Wheeler also designed the present sanctuary, which duplicates his original design and was completed in 1916.

(Front) In 1792 Major William Ford built a dam at each end of Bear Swamp, creating a millpond and building a grist mill. This area was known as Ford’s Mill for many years. In 1870 Dr. C.T. Ford sold the property to his brother-in-law, Joseph N. Page, who soon opened a large general store. The community was renamed Page’s Mill, and in 1877 a post office was opened with J.N. Page as its first postmaster.

LAKE VIEW
After the railroad came through this area in 1900 the town of Page’s Mill grew from the mill, general store, and post office toward the railroad tracks. The town of Page’s Mill was incorporated February 26, 1907. The Ford’s Mill / Page’s Mill community, part of Marion County since the county was created in 1798, became part of Dillon County when that county was created in 1910. It was renamed Lake View in 1916.

(Front) This church, founded in 1876, was in Marion County before Dillon County was created in 1910. At first on S.C. Hwy. 34, the church acquired this site in 1891 when Alfred Franklin Page (1863-1929) and his wife Laura Willis Page (1886-1963) donated 1.97 acres here. The congregation built a new Pine Hill A.M.E. Church shortly afterwards. This sanctuary was built in 1977.
(Reverse) PINE HILL ROSENWALD SCHOOL

Pine Hill Rosenwald School, one of the first ten Rosenwald schools in the state, was built here in 1917-18. One of 500 rural black schools in S.C. funded in part by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation 1917-1932, it was a frame two-room school. With two to four teachers, it reached a peak of 208 students in grades 1-7 in 1938-39. The school closed in 1957 and burned in 1977.

Dorchester County

near the Dorchester County Department of Public Works, 2120 E. Main St. (U.S. Hwy. 178) between Harleyville and Dorchester

(Front) The first bridge across Four Holes Swamp, a branch of the Edisto River, was built between 1770 and 1780 and was located about 200 ft. N. of the present bridge. The old bridge, on the road from Orangeburg to Charleston, was the site of several actions in 1781 and 1782 where S.C. militia and Patriot forces under Cols. Henry and Wade Hampton and William Harden clashed with Loyalists.

The first post office in what is now Dorchester County was opened in 1803 by William Harley at his tavern, a frequent stop for travelers on the Columbia Road. It stood near the present site of the Department of Public Works. Harley's son James (1801-1867) is buried just N. of the site on U.S. Hwy. 178; the town of Harleyville was named for William's grandson William W. (1825-1906).

201 West Carolina Ave., Summerville
(Front) The Old Town Hall, built ca. 1860, is the oldest public building in Summerville. Rev. Robert I. Limehouse (1815-1881), a Methodist minister and the town intendant, or mayor, purchased the site for the town hall that year. A jail and market place also once stood here. In early 1865, in the final days of the Civil War, the village wardens left a meeting to defend Summerville from a band of raiders and killed one of them.

(Reverse) At least sixteen intendants served Summerville in this building between ca. 1860 and 1892, when a new town hall was built on the Square. The Old Town Hall, described as the "heart of the old village," was later a school, polling place, community center, tea room, and residence. Though badly damaged by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the building was purchased and restored by the Summerville Preservation Society and is now the Society's headquarters and archives.

(Front) Alston Graded School, one of the first African-American schools founded in Dorchester County, stood here from 1910 to 1954. Named for its founder, Dr. J.H. Alston, it included grades 1-11 until 1949 and 1-12 afterwards. The two-story wood frame school, which was designed by architects Burden and Walker of Charleston and built by N.A. Lee, was moved to Bryan Street in 1953.

Alston High School, located on Bryan Street from 1953 to 1970, included grades 1-12. A new one-story brick school built on the new site in 1953 was constructed for about $200,000. It closed in 1970 after the desegregation of county schools. The present Alston Middle School, on Bryan Street, includes grades 6-8.

Old Wire Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 18-19), at its junction with Cowtail Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 18-71), St. George vicinity

(Front) This church was organized shortly after the Revolution and this site was deeded to seven trustees in 1787. One of them, Jacob Barr, was the first minister to serve here. Appleby’s Methodist Church was named for a prominent local family and the Greek Revival sanctuary here was most likely built between 1840 and 1850. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
(Reverse) The cemetery includes plots of the Appleby and other area families, and the graves of some slaves as well. Capt. Morgan T. Appleby’s company was organized here for Confederate service in the spring of 1862, using the churchyard as its muster ground. Later Company C of the 24^th S.C. Infantry, it served in S.C., Miss., Tenn., Ga., and N.C. from 1862 to 1865.

Erected by the Generals Gordon-Capers Camp #123, Sons of Confederate Veterans, 2002

Archdale Blvd., S of Dorchester Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 161) between Lincoln Blvd. and Park Gate Dr., Summerville vicinity

Archdale Hall Plantation was established in 1681 by a royal grant of 300 acres to Richard Baker. The plantation, later expanded to more than 3000 acres, produced indigo and rice. The house which once stood here, built before 1750, was a fine example of Georgian residential architecture. It survived the Civil War only to be demolished by the Charleston earthquake of 1886.

(Front) This house, an excellent example of early Federal era-architecture, was built about 1800 for Joseph Koger, Jr. (1779-1866), planter, state representative 1806-1812, Colleton District sheriff 1813-18, and state senator 1818-1838. Koger moved to Mississippi in 1838 and sold the house to his brother-in-law, John Soule Murray (1792-1844), planter and state senator 1840-43.

(Reverse) In 1865 James Parsons Carroll (1809-1883), chancellor of the state court of equity, bought the house as a summer retreat. Carroll had been a state representative 1838-39, state senator 1852-53 and 1858-59, and a delegate to the Secession Convention. The house has long been called “the Old Carroll Place” and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Erected by the Generals Gordon-Capers Camp #123, Sons of Confederate Veterans, 2003

U.S. Hwy. 15, 5 mi. S of Grover

(Front) This church was founded in the early 19^th century as Murray’s Church and served by ministers riding the Cypress Circuit. It was originally named for the Murray family, which also gave this town its first name of Murray’s Crossroads. The first church here, damaged by a storm in 1878, was replaced by the present church, built of heart pine by Philip and Jim Liston in 1890-97.

(Reverse) Murray’s Church was renamed Grover Methodist Church in 1905, after the Murray’s Crossroads post office was renamed Grover. The church undertook several renovations in the 1960s, covering the 1897 frame church with brick veneer, remodeling an early 20^th century school for its Sunday school building and later a fellowship hall, and moving the 1912 bell from the steeple to a bell tower.

Erected by the Generals Gordon-Capers Camp # 123, Sons of Confederate Veterans, 2006

CYPRESS METHODIST CAMP GROUND
just S of Cypress Campground Rd./Myers Mayo Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 18-182), between U.S. Hwy. 78 and I-26, Ridgeville vicinity

(Front) This camp ground, dating to 1794, is one of the oldest in S.C. Francis Asbury (1745-1816), circuit rider and the first Methodist bishop in America, preached here in 1794, 1799, 1801, and twice in 1803. The camp ground is supported by five local communities: Givhans, Lebanon, New Hope, Ridgeville, and Zion.
(Reverse) “Tents,” or rough-hewn cabins, form a rectangle around the “tabernacle,” the open-sided shelter where services are held. The cemetery nearby includes graves as early as 1821. This camp ground, in session the week ending the fourth Sunday in October, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Erected by the Upper Dorchester County Historical Society, 2009

off U.S. Hwy. 178, just SE of the Orangeburg County/Dorchester County line, St. George vicinity

(Front) This camp ground, established about 1870, is the largest of 4 Methodist camp grounds in Dorchester County. Tradition holds that Ceasar Wolfe and a group of former slaves, caught in a storm, stopped in a grove here for shelter. Rice planter S.M. Knight asked them to help harvest his fields, and after they did so he gave them this spot as a place of worship. They named it Shady Grove.
(Reverse) The group first met under a brush arbor but later built “tents,” the rough-hewn cabins typical of church camp grounds. The first tents burned in 1958 and were replaced; fires also occurred in 1969 and 1976. The “tabernacle” here is the centrally-located shelter where services are in session ending the fourth Sunday in October. A trumpet call on a ceremonial horn opens the meeting.
Erected by the Upper Dorchester County Historical Society, 2010

(Front) This Methodist camp ground, one of four in Dorchester County, was established in 1880. African-American freedmen in this area held services in a brush arbor at the “Old Prayer Ground” nearby as early as 1869. By 1873 they acquired two acres nearby and founded St. Paul A.M.E. Church, building their first permanent sanctuary just southwest.
(Reverse) In 1880 four community leaders purchased 113 acres here and deeded it to trustees for a new St. Paul Camp Ground. “Tents,” or rough-hewn cabins, form a circle around the “tabernacle,” the open-sided shelter where services are held. This camp ground, in session the week ending the third Sunday in October, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
Erected by the Upper Dorchester County Historical Society, 2011

(Front) This town, in Colleton County before Dorchester was founded in 1897, dates to the early 19th century and the origins of railroading in S.C. By 1843, only ten years after the S.C. Canal & Rail Road Company completed its first 133 miles of track from Charleston to Hamburg, the station here was called Ross, sometimes known as Ross’s, Ross’s Station, or Ross’s Turnout. The post office established here in 1854 was called Elmville until Reconstruction.
(Reverse) The railroad, later the S.C. RR and by 1899 part of the Southern Railway, kept a station, a “turnout” or second set of tracks, and a water tower here for more than 100 years. It carried wood, turpentine, pulpwood, and livestock, and was instrumental in the town’s development. The post office here was renamed Ross Station by 1875, then renamed Dorchester in 1903. The town, incorporated as Rosses in 1892, was incorporated again as Dorchester in 1912.

(Front) This Neoclassical Revival house, called “one of the finest” in S.C. in 1920, was built in 1912 for Vernon Cosby Badham (1856-1947) and his second wife Lelia Johnston. Badham, a native of N.C., moved to S.C. in the 1880s and sold sawmill machinery in this area. In 1901 he built the Dorchester Lumber Company, across the highway and on the Southern Railway. The sawmill cut 50,000-100,000 feet of timber a day, hauling it from the swamps by a narrow-gauge railroad.

The sawmill, in operation from 1901 to 1938, employed 500 men at its peak. A large complex here included a company office, company store, worker housing, a school, and a church. The post office active here 1901-1945 was called Badham. Dorchester Lumber Company shut down during the Depression, and all that remains of the old mill across the highway is the brick ruin of the vault from the mill office.

Edgefield County

J. STROM THURMOND BIRTHPLACE
305 Columbia Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 23), Edgefield
(Front) J. Strom Thurmond, by mid-1997 the longest-serving U.S. Senator in history, was born here to J. William and Gertrude Strom Thurmond Dec. 5, 1902. Educated at Clemson College, he taught high school 1923-29, was county superintendent of education 1929-33, state senator 1933-38, and circuit judge 1938-42. As a U.S. Army officer 1942-46, he participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy and won the Bronze Star.

(Reverse) Thurmond, governor of S.C. 1947-51, ran for president on the States Rights Democratic Party ticket in 1948. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1954 as a write-in candidate but resigned his seat in early 1956 to fulfill a promise to voters. He was easily reelected that fall, then again in 1960, 1966, 1972, 1978, 1984, 1990, and 1996. He served as President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate 1981-86 and 1994-present.

A house built for Emsley Lott about 1770, later Lott's Tavern and still later Lott's Post Office, stood here until it was demolished in 1918. Lott soon enlarged his one-room log house to become a tavern on the Columbia road. In 1839 his son John built a front room on the tavern and became the first postmaster of Lott's Post Office, the first post office in present-day Johnston.

(Front) Benjamin Ryan “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman (1847-1918), governor of S.C. 1890-94 and U.S. senator 1894-1918, bought this farm just before he left the governor’s office in 1894. He lived here until his death. Tillman, a farmer himself, grew deeply concerned about the economic problems facing agriculture in S.C. He became politically active in 1885 as the farmers’ principal advocate.

(Reverse) A spirited and controversial orator, Tillman was a champion to the many small farmers who elected him governor in 1890. He called the convention which drew up a new state constitution in 1895 and was also instrumental in establishing Clemson College and Winthrop College and in creating a state liquor dispensary system. He is buried at Ebenezer Church cemetery just south of here.

Erected by the Trenton Development Association and the Trenton Garden Club, 2002

(Front) This church, founded in 1868, was one of the first black Baptist churches in this area. Alexander Bettis (1836-1895), a former slave, established this church with the assistance of three white ministers after the local Baptist association refused to ordain him. Mt. Canaan grew from seventeen charter members to more than 2,000 members in only three years.
(Reverse) This was the first of forty churches Rev. Alexander Bettis organized in Edgefield and Aiken Counties. He also founded Bettis Academy in 1881. He served Mt. Canaan and three other area churches until his death in 1895, and is buried here. Early services were held in a brush arbor. The original frame sanctuary was replaced by the present brick sanctuary in 1961.

at Johnston Elementary School, Lee St. (S.C. Hwy. 121), N of Academy St., Johnston

(Front) Johnston’s first school opened on this site in 1873. The Male and Female Academy was a boarding school, with Rev. Luther Broaddus as its first principal. Alternately a private and public school during its early history, it was reorganized in 1884 as the Johnston Male and Female Institute. It became Johnston High School when it was sold to the town in 1906. A three-story brick high school was built here in 1910; it was torn down when the school closed in 1961.
(Reverse) JOHNSTON EDUCATORS

Henry Simms Hartzog (1866-1953), superintendent of the Institute 1895-97, left Johnston to become the third president of Clemson College. Dr. John Lake, who succeeded Hartzog as superintendent, was later a Baptist missionary to China. Joseph Earle Jacobs (1893-1971), a graduate of Johnston High School who taught there 1914-15, was a career diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service 1915-57, most notably as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1949) and to Poland (1955-57).
Erected by the Ridge Heritage Association, 2008

Main St. & Bacon St., near the Town Hall, Edgefield
(Front) Edgefield was founded in 1785 as the county seat and site of the new courthouse and jail for Edgefield County, created out of the old Ninety-Six District. Also called Edgefield Village or Edgefield Court House, it was described by Robert Mills as “a neat little village’ in 1826, and was incorporated in 1830. Edgefield, with a reputation as a center of politics and law, gave the state many of its most prominent figures for more than 150 years.
(Reverse) Ten governors and five lieutenant governors of S.C. from 1812 to 1951 were natives or residents of Edgefield or the county. Cotton was the major crop in the area for many years. Commercial growth and a new prosperity that followed the arrival of the railroad in 1888 and the opening of the Edgefield Cotton Mill in 1898 lasted until the mid-20th century. The Edgefield Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
Erected by the Edgefield Community Development Association, 2011

(Front) This Federal house with a later Classical Revival porch was the home of two governors of S.C. It was built ca. 1824 for planter Daniel Bird, who sold it in 1829 to Francis Wilkinson Pickens (1807-1869), then a lawyer and planter. Pickens lived here until the mid-1830s, when he deeded the house to his father, Andrew Pickens Jr. (1779-1838). The elder Pickens, a planter, was an officer in the War of 1812 and then governor 1816-18. He lived here until 1836.
(Reverse) Francis W. Pickens, later a state representative and senator, U.S. Congressman, and U.S. Minister to Russia, was governor 1860-62, during the secession crisis and first two years of the Civil War. In 1836 Andrew Pickens Jr. sold the house to John Lipscomb (1789-1856), a planter and merchant who also owned plantations in Florida but lived here. Descendants of the Bates/Hartley/ Feltham family owned Halcyon Grove for nearly 140 years, from 1869 to 2008.
Erected by the Edgefield County Historical Society, 2011

(Front) This Greek Revival house was built for Nathan L. Griffin (1803-1853), lawyer, planter, and member of the S.C. House 1838-39 and S.C. Senate 1846-1853. Griffin’s son-in-law Milledge L. Bonham (1813-1890) lived here with his wife Ann from their marriage in 1845 to 1861. Bonham, after serving in the S.C. House, was an officer during the Mexican War and a U.S. Congressman 1857-1860.
(Reverse) Bonham, a Confederate general and C.S. Congressman during the Civil War, was governor of S.C. 1862-64. In 1863 he sold Darby to George A. Trenholm (1807-1876), Confederate Secretary of the Treasury 1864-65, whose relative Francis S. Holmes (1815-1882) of the Confederate Nitre & Mining Bureau lived here 1864-65. Darby was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Fairfield County

(Front) Organized in 1839 and named for St. John's, Berkeley Parish, this was the third Episcopal church established north of Columbia. The Rev. Josiah Obear became its first rector in 1841, serving 1841-49 and 1875-82. The first sanctuary, a wood-frame building, was built on Fairfield St. in 1842. During the Civil War many families who fled the lowcountry and lived in Winnsboro as refugees worshipped at St. John's.

(Reverse) The original sanctuary was burned by Union troops in February 1865. A second wood-frame sanctuary was designed by a former St. John's rector, the Rev. John DeWitt McCullough, in the Carpenter Gothic style. It was built on LIberty St. in 1869 and burned in 1888. This brick sanctuary, designed by architect R.S. Schuyler in the Gothic style and constructed by contractor George Waring, was consecrated in 1889.

at Camp Welfare, Camp Welfare Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 20-234), just E of its intersection with Ravenscroft Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 20-492), Mitford vicinity

(Front) This camp ground, described by one journalist as “picturesque, rugged, simple, with an overhanging air of festivity,” has hosted an annual camp meeting since 1876; slaves had worshipped here since before the Civil War. The site was purchased in 1879 by trustees Carter Beaty, Charles Green, Jeff Gaither, Henry Hall, and John Hall. It was deeded to Camp Wellfair A.M.E. Zion Church in 1925.
(Reverse) The small wood-frame or cinder-block houses at Camp Welfare are typical of “tents” at church camp grounds. An early 20th century one-room school stood here until it closed in 1955. The site also includes Camp Wellfair A.M.E. Zion Church (built about 1930), an open-air arbor, and a cemetery. Camp Welfare was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

6169 S.C. Hwy. 213, near its intersection with Jackson Creek Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 20-54), NW of Rion

(Front) This early Greek Revival house, built about 1835, is notable for its central double-tiered pedimented portico and double end chimneys. It was named for the oak avenue leading up to it and the oak grove surrounding it. The Oaks was built for Richard A.R. Hallum (1809-1875), who sold it and its 1,000-acre plantation to John Montgomery Lemmon (1829-1906) in 1856.

(Reverse) In February 1865 John M. Lemmon was in the Confederate army in Virginia when elements of Gen. W.T. Sherman’s Federal army advanced toward Winnsboro from Columbia. Foragers looted the plantation, taking food, livestock, and valuables. The Oaks was owned by the Lemmon family or their descendants until the 1980s. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.