Anderson-Oconee-Pickens County SC Historical Roadside Markers

SC Historical Roadside Markers

Saluda to York Counties

Compiled by: Paul M. Kankula NN8NN

Six miles NE, in a family cemetery at Butler Church, is the grave of Colonel Pierce M. Butler, Governor of South Carolina from 1836 to 1838. During his military career, he was a Captain in the U.S. Army, a Lt. Colonel in the Seminole War, and was Commander of the Palmetto Regiment in the Mexican War, when he was killed in battle on August 20, 1847.

The S.C. Volunteer Regiment in the Mexican War entered service in Dec. 1846 and was part of Winfield Scott's army. At the Battle of Churubusco, its Commander, Pierce M. Butler, was killed leading a charge in the face of devastating fire. The unit was in the vanguard of the final assault on Mexico City and first to plant its flag on the city walls.

Red Bank Baptist Church antedates the Town of Saluda by about a century. The congregation, which is said to have been founded in 1784, was incorporated by the State on December 18, 1802. According to tradition, the first church building was a log house. In 1856, a frame structure was erected, which was replaced by the present brick church in 1911.

Batesburg Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 23/39), near Double Branch Church, between Ridge Spring & Monetta

This site, approximately halfway between Augusta and Columbia, was the location of Jacob Odom's house, where George Washington spent the night of May 21, 1791, on his trip northward through South Carolina. His escort at this time consisted of Colonels Wade Hampton and Thomas Taylor, and Mr. Robert Lythgoe. This stop is noted in Washington's diary.

Newberry Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 121) near Hollywood School Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 41-44), NW of Coleman’s Crossroads

In Pine Pleasant Cemetery, west of here, is the grave of Luther Rice, prominent Baptist clergyman and orator who organized American Baptists on a national scale for support of foreign missions and education. He traveled into all parts of the nation in his work, and his personal influence helped shape Baptist history.

At Chestnut Hill Baptist Church is the grave of Lucinda Horn, Confederate War heroine, wife of Cornelius Horn and mother of William Horn, both members of Company K, 14th S.C. Volunteers. She accompanied her husband and son to the front and remained with McGowan's Brigade during the hardest fighting of the war, nursing the wounded and dying.

At Butler Church, about one mile west, is the burial plot of the Butler family. Among the graves are those of William Butler, Captain in the American Revolution, United States Congressman, and Major General of S.C. Militia; Andrew Pickens Butler, United States Senator; Pierce M. Butler, Governor of South Carolina who was killed in the Mexican War.

Intersection of McCormick Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 378) & S.C. Sec. Rd. 41-65, Limp community, between Owdoms and Saluda

Built in 1932 about ½ mi. NE and stocked with donated books, this library was the first of over 110 libraries founded by W.L. Buffington for rural blacks.

This school, established in 1896 as both a grammar and high school, was built as a 1-room building and was expanded to 3 rooms by 1900. With as many as 4 teachers and well over 100 students in its best years, Delmar School taught over 600 students in its 56-year history. Though the high school (grades 8-10) closed in the mid-1930s the grammar school (grades 1-7) continued to serve the Delmar community until it closed in 1952.

Built in 1948 on the site of Reidville Female College (operated 1871 to 1901), one of two private schools founded in 1857 by Rev. Robert Harden Reid and located on lands given by James N. Gaston, James Wakefield, and Anthony Wakefield. Reidville Male Academy (1857-1905) occupied building ½ mile east. The schools were combined in 1905.

Founded by citizens of Spartanburg in 1889 for the liberal education of women. Named for Dexter Edgar Converse, pioneer textile manufacturer. Opened in 1890 on this site, the grounds of which have been used for educational purposes since 1849.

S.C. Sec. Rd. 42-196 (Stillhouse Rd.), near I-26 & U.S. Hwy. 221 interchange, Moore vicinity

One and a half miles SE is Walnut Grove, home of Margaret Catherine Moore Barry (1752-1823). Local tradition says she was known as "Kate Barry" and acted as scout for the Patriots before the Battle of Cowpens, Jan. 17, 1781. With her parents, Charles and Mary Moore, and her husband, Captain Andrew Barry, she lies buried in the plantation cemetery.

Erected by Descendants of Charles and Mary Moore and the Battle of Cowpens Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1968

at the head of the Willis Road Pedestrian Path, Westside Club, 501 Willis Rd., Spartanburg

This camp, named in honor of Brigadier General James Samuel Wadsworth, U.S.V., was approved June 1917 as a cantonment site. The 27th division trained here from September 1, 1917 to May 4, 1918; the 6th, from May 10, 1918 to June 23, 1918; the 96th, from October 20, 1918 to January 7, 1919.

Erected by the National 27th Division Association, 1969, replacing a marker erected by the American Legion of South Carolina on 11 November 1938

Intersection of Bethany Church Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 42-121) & S.C. Hwy. 417, Poplar Springs

On Dec. 18, 1933, work began on the J. L. Berry Gully, 1.5 miles S.E., as part of the South Tyger River Erosion Control Demonstration Project by the USDI Soil Erosion Service, Dr. T. S. Buie, Project Director. This project was a forerunner of the USDA Soil Conservation Service and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

(Front) William "Singin' Billy" Walker (1809-1875) was the author of Southern Harmony, a collection of religious music employing shaped musical notes to aid those who could not read standard musical notation. He later published the more elaborate Christian Harmony and taught "singing schools" throughout the middle, southern and western states. He is buried in Magnolia Cemetery.

In 1838, Jesse Cleveland deeded 2 ½ acres of this land, including the village cemetery, to the town of Spartanburg for a graveyard. It was enlarged in 1868 by the purchase of 1 1/8 acres from Robert E. Cleveland. The earliest legible inscription is found on the marker to Robert Walker, who died in 1810. Many of Spartanburg's early civic, educational, and political leaders are buried here.

Located nearby, this fort protected early settlers from the Indians and served as camp for a detachment of militia en route to join the 1776 expedition against the Cherokees. The fort was headquarters in 1780 for a British garrison commanded by Colonel Alexander Innes.

Believed built in 1786 by Thomas Moore, Revolutionary soldier, brigadier general in the War of 1812 and a member of Congress, Fredonia was later owned by Andrew B. Moore, earliest known doctor in this region, and Thomas J. Moore, Confederate soldier and state legislator. On the National Register of Historic Places. The house burned in 1977.

Near here on Lawson's Fork, during the American Revolution, the S.C. government as part of the war effort supported Joseph Buffington, William Wofford, and others in the construction of an iron works. It became a well-known landmark and the scene of several skirmishes, notably the "Battle of Wofford's Iron Works" on August 8, 1780.

Glenn Springs Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 150), 1 mi. E of the center of town, Glenn Springs

(Front) The Reverend John D. McCullough was the first rector of this Episcopal Church, which was established in 1848. The original building, consecrated in 1850, stood at the cemetery about ½ mile to the north. The congregation's present house of worship was consecrated in 1897 by Bishop Ellison Capers.

Early recognized by the Indians for the healing qualities of its mineral waters, nearby Glenn Springs became a popular summer resort when the Glenn Springs Co. bought the land from John B. Glenn in 1838 and built a large hotel. This stood until it burned in 1941. In the spa's heyday, its bottled waters were shipped far and wide.

Located one block west, this historic district was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 because of its historical and architectural significance as an example of an intact early-twentieth-century neighborhood. A number of popular architectural styles of the period are represented in the district.

According to family tradition, this house was built in 1854 by the Bivings family, local textile pioneers. In 1869, the house was purchased by John H. Evins (1830 to 1884), Confederate Lieutenant-Colonel, state legislator, mayor of Spartanburg, and U.S. Congressman (1877-1884). The house was placed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

This Presbyterian Church, located about .4 mile SE, was organized soon after 1766 by Scotch-Irish who settled the area. From Revolutionary War days the congregation has been influential in religious, educational, and civic affairs of Spartanburg County. A number of new congregations have been formed from Nazareth whose present building was erected in 1832.

While minister of Duncan Memorial Methodist Church, the Rev. David E. Camak established the Textile Industrial Institute in the dwelling across the street to educate cotton mill workers. The institute opened Sept. 5, 1911, and its operation was soon assumed by the Methodist Church; it became a junior college in 1927. In 1974, the school was renamed Spartanburg Methodist College.

N. King’s Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 261), about 3 mi. S of Wedgefield Post Office between Wedgefield and Pinewood

A flourishing town once stood here; settled before 1799; stage-coach relay; shipping center for cotton traffic by boat to Charleston; a busy point on Wilmington & Manchester Railroad, 1852-1872, (station was 1 mile southeast); noted for its taverns, horse-racing, games of ball-alley, and cock-fighting; raided by Union troops, 1865; and abandoned by railroad, 1872, in favor of Wedgefield.

W Liberty St. Ext. (S.C. Hwy. 763), 100 yds. E of its intersection with Alice Dr. (S.C. Hwy. 120), Sumter

Site of First Methodist Church in vicinity of Sumter. Influenced by Bishop Francis Asbury, Richard Bradford gave land and with others built a wooden chapel in 1787, first called Bradford's Meeting House. Here Santee circuit riders preached until 1827 when church was closed and services held for convenience of the members in growing village of Sumter.

S.C. Sec. Rd. 43-488, (Meeting House Rd.), ½ mi. E of S.C. Hwy. 261, Stateburg vicinity

(Front) Organized by Rev. Joseph Reese, this church was established Jan. 4, 1772. First located on land given by Dr. Joseph Howard (later moved to present site purchased from Gen. Thomas Sumter), it ordained, 1774, young Richard Furman, whose patriotic oratory caused Lord Cornwallis to put a price on his head, and who became one of the outstanding ministers of the gospel of his day.

(Reverse) This church was a leader in the early struggle for liberty, religious and political, and was the mother of many churches. Inspired by Dr. Furman, Rev. John M. Roberts, Pastor here by 1799, opened Roberts Academy, First Baptist Educational institution in this state. Furman Institute followed in 1826, and later, the Southern Baptist Seminary.

N. Brick Church Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 527), about 2 mi. N of U.S. Hwy. 378 and 4 mi. SE of Mayesville

(Front) This house of worship, commonly called Brick Church, was founded by Scotch-Irish settlers in 1759 on land given by Capt. David Anderson. Original log meeting-house was replaced by frame building and named Salem Presbyterian Church (1768). The first brick church was built in 1802 and used until 1846 when the present church was built of brick made on the grounds.

(Reverse) Old session house (1846) in the rear contains large library given by James McBride in 1862. Land for cemetery, dating from 1794, was deeded by Robert Witherspoon in 1830. Among the notable ministers to serve this church was Dr. Thomas Reese, scholar, teacher, and preacher before the Revolution. In 1867 Negro members withdrew to form Goodwill Presbyterian Church.

N. King’s Hwy (S.C. Hwy. 261) at its intersection with U.S. Hwy. 378/76, Stateburg vicinity

This road largely followed an old Indian path (1691). Widened by Public Act, 1753, and called "The Great Charleston Road," it joined that city with Camden and "The Back Country." Over it came Indians, pack-animals laden with hides, drovers, rolled hogsheads of produce, wagoners, and stagecoaches. The armies of two wars passed over it. Like other main roads, it has often been called "The King's Highway."

Millcreek Rd., just SE of its intersection with Camp Mac Boykin Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 43-51), Fulton Crossroads vicinity

(Front) By Act of Assembly St. Mark's Parish was established in 1757. The first Church stood at Halfway Swamp. Others were built near Williamsburg-Sumter Line, near Rimini, and near this site. These four churches were abandoned or burned. Soldiers and Patriots of the Revolution were members of St. Mark's Parish.

(Reverse) The present church, designed by Edward C. Jones and Francis D. Lee, of Charleston, was built of brick made of local clay, on land given by R.C. Richardson and R.I. Manning. The cornerstone was laid by Bishop Thos. F. Davis, Feb., 1854, and the church consecrated March, 1855. Six Governors and many noted citizens worshipped here.

Millcreek Rd., 3 mi. S of S.C. Hwy. 261, at intersection of Milford Plantation Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 43-808) and Camp Mac Boykin Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 43-51), Fulton Crossroads

(Front) Born at Fulton Crossroads, Sept. 4, 1859, David DuBose Gaillard spent his boyhood in this section. He was graduated from West Point in 1884, rising to rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers. During the Spanish American War he organized and commanded the 3rd U. S. Volunteer Engineers. He served on the general staff of the army and on major engineering projects, including the Panama Canal.

(Reverse) Gaillard Cut of the Panama Canal was named for Col. Gaillard as a tribute to his distinguished work there. He planned and supervised the digging through the backbone of the continent at Culebra, acclaimed as a feat of engineering genius. He succeeded in this where others had failed, but gave his life to the effort, dying from the result of overwork, Dec. 5, 1913.

Erected by the Sumter County Historical Commission, 1979, replacing a marker erected by the same organization in 1953

(Front) By Act of 1798, Commissioners were named "To ascertain and fix upon the most central place for the erection of a court house in the District of Sumter", and meanwhile "to fix upon a proper place for the sitting of the court". During 1800-01, court was held in the John Gayle home (N.E. corner Main and Canal Streets) until a suitable court house was ready for use, Jan. 1802, though not completed until 1806.

(Reverse) The second court house, designed by Robert Mills, was built of brick and stucco. It was

authorized in 1820, completed in 1821, enlarged in 1848, and in use until 1907, serving also as a place of public gatherings for 86 years. This building remodeled is now occupied by the National Bank of S.C. The present court house, authorized in 1906, was dedicated in 1907.

(Front) Monument to General Sumter stands 500 yards south. Born August 14, 1734, in Hanover County, Virginia, he was a frontiersman and Indian fighter. Coming to South Carolina by 1764, he became a planter. As Partisan leader and later brigadier general of state troops, he harried the British in the Revolution. He served in U. S. House and Senate and died at South Mount, June 1, 1832.

(Reverse) Monument to General Sumter was erected by General Assembly of S. C. and unveiled Aug. 14, 1907, at ceremonies attended by Sumter Guards of Charleston, 300 U. S. Regulars, First Artillery Band and Sumter Light Infantry, with address by Hon. Henry A. Middleton Smith. Chairman of commission and moving spirit in erection of this monument was Col. John J. Dargan of Stateburg.

(Front) Here on Apr. 9, 1865, the day of Gen. Lee's surrender, was fought one of the last battles of the War between the States. 158 Confederates rallied by Col. Geo. W. Lee stopped, for several hours, the advance of 2700 Union troops under Gen. Edward E. Potter. Casualties: Confederate 12; Union 26.

A Confederate homeguard of old men, boys, and convalescents here made a gallant stand in an effort to halt Potter's Raid, an expedition which left Georgetown on April 5, laid waste the country, and by April 21 had accomplished its chief objective—the destruction of the railroads between the Pedee and Wateree.

(Front) This church is the successor to the nearby Chapel of Ease of 1770. Present building is on the site of the old Claremont Church of 1788, built on land given by General Thomas Sumter. Holy Cross is constructed of pise de terre, which is rammed earth. The cornerstone was laid on September 11, 1850.

In the surrounding churchyard are the graves of many distinguished South Carolinians. Veterans of three wars rest here. The Parish House was built in 1956, designed in general to conform to the architecture of the present church structure.

A boarding school for girls located on the northeast corner of Washington and Calhoun Sts. Founded by Laura Fraser Browne and Eliza E. Cooper in 1867. Incorporated in 1888. H. Frank Wilson, president, 1892-96.

(Reverse) This school inspired Sumter's revival from war's desolation. Beginning as a one-room day school, it became a girls' boarding academy, ranking high among South Carolina educational institutions, a center of the social, spiritual, and cultural life of the community during Reconstruction days.

(Front) This forerunner of the modern consolidated rural high school with Colonel John Julius Dargan, noted educator, as founder and principal, offered classes in agriculture, home economics, and music. Day students from four districts were transported by mule-drawn covered wagons.

Acton, built in 1803 on this site by the Kinloch family, housed the Academy from 1905 until 1911 when the building burned. In 1908 the U. S. Department of Agriculture established one of the earliest school demonstration farms here. J. Frank Williams, agriculture teacher, later became the first Sumter County Farm agent.

An early plantation owner in this area, he was a Commissioner of St. Mark's Church who donated land for its construction. He was Magistrate and Delegate to the First and Second Provincial Congresses. In the Revolution he was Colonel in the Snow Campaign and later Brigadier General. Six Governors of South Carolina are among his descendants.

(Front) This noted humanitarian and educator was born five miles north of Mayesville, S.C., on July 10, 1875. She was one of the first pupils of the Mayesville Mission School, located fifty yards west of this marker, where she later served as a teacher. She died on May 18, 1955, and is buried at Bethune-Cookman College.

(Reverse) Mrs. Bethune devoted her life to the advancement of her race. As the founder of Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona Beach, Florida, she directed its policy for thirty years. She founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935. Honored by four presidents, she was a consultant in the drafting of the United Nations Charter.

(Front) Bethel (Black River) Baptist Church was organized in 1780 and admitted to the Charleston Baptist Association in 1782. Its mother church was High Hills Baptist Church. Bethel was

incorporated in December 1823. The Reverend Solomon Thomson served as its first pastor. John China, Revolutionary War veteran, is buried in the cemetery.

(Reverse) The land for this church was donated by Hezekiah and Jesse Nettles. The present sanctuary, third on this site, was erected in 1849, of dense-grained Rosemary pine; all material cut and sawed by hand, the joints mortised and pegged. In 1967 a remodeling preserved the original dimensions, roof line, framing timbers, flooring, ceiling, and gallery.

Horatio Hagood Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 43-37), 2 mi. W of N. King’s Hwy (S.C. Hwy. 261), Horatio

Since before 1808, the Lenoir family have operated a general store at the site of Horatio, S. C. Lenoir's Store is mentioned in the 1808 will of Isaac Lenoir, and later appears on Mills's 1825 map and McLaurin's 1878 map of Sumter County. The present structure was erected prior to 1878 and is maintained by Lenoir descendants as a traditional country store.

Intersection of U.S. Hwy. 378/76 & N. King’s Hwy (S.C. Hwy. 261), Stateburg vicinity

Third Presbyterian preacher of this name, Tennent died several miles south in 1777. He was born in 1740 of a renowned family of ministers and educators. From 1772 he served as pastor of the Independent Church of Charlestown. As a patriot, he prepared the up country for the Revolution and advocated the dissenters' appeal for equality in religious rights.

(Front) Clara Louise Kellogg, said to be the first American-trained prima donna, was born near here in 1842. Her family later moved to New York, where, at age 14, she began to study voice, making her debut four years later. Miss Kellogg soon became world famous. A leading operatic soprano in America and abroad, she sang in such cities as London, Vienna, and Saint Petersburg.

(Reverse) In 1873, Clara Louise Kellogg, world-famous American prima donna, helped organize the English Opera Company, one of the earliest attempts in this country to produce opera in English. At the height of her career, Miss Kellogg included her native Sumter on a concert tour. In 1887, she married her manager, Carl Strakosch, and withdrew from public life. She died in New Hartford, Connecticut, in 1916.

(Front) Organized in 1813 with 13 members, this branch of Stateburg's High Hills of Santee Baptist Church (founded before 1772) became an independent congregation on September 24, 1820. It became known as Sumterville Baptist Church, and among early ministers who preached there were Dr. John Roberts and Dr. Richard Furman, noted pastor, patriot, and educator.

(Reverse) By 1820 this congregation had built Sumter's first church. Subsequent buildings date

from 1854, 1902 (now Brown Chapel), and 1973. Named First Baptist in 1901, the church has been active in Southern Baptist associations and conventions, as well as in missions. It has sponsored four churches and ordained a number of ministers.

At the end of Dodgen Hill Rd. at Benenhaley Rd., .7 mi. S of S.C. Hwy. 441, Dalzell

(Front) Established by the S. C. Baptist Convention in 1825, Furman opened in Edgefield in 1826. Later sites were here at High Hills (1829-1834), Winnsboro (1837-1850), and Greenville in 1851 (now Furman University). In 1859 the theological department became the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which moved to Louisville, Ky. in 1877.

(Reverse) The Rev. Jesse Hartwell was director of this school at High Hills, which took its name from Dr. Richard Furman (1755-1825), noted patriot, theologian, and educator. A native of New York state, Furman moved to High Hills with his parents in 1770. The property here was given to Sumter County Historical Commission by Furman University in 1978.

Sumter Hospital was begun 1904 by Drs. S. C. Baker, Walter Cheyne, Archie China, H. M. Stuckey, and was built shortly thereafter nearby. Renamed Tuomey following purchase in 1913 with funds from will of T. J. Tuomey (1842-1897) which specified that a community hospital be established. Gifts were added by Mrs. Tuomey (Ella Bogin), & Neill O'Donnell, a relative. Generous citizens give their continuing support.

THIS SCHOOL SITE of one acre was given to trustees in 1837 for use in public education by COL. JOHN BLOUNT MILLER (1782-1851), a public-spirited citizen and pioneer in education, attorney, first notary public (1805) of Sumter District, orator and writer, founder of the Sumterville Library Society and Baptist Church, lieutenant-colonel in the War of 1812, and master in equity for Sumter District (1817-1851).

(Front) After the Civil War ended in 1865, a Federal military occupation garrison was located for sometime in this area of Sumter. Known locally as "Yankee Camp," the post contained officers' quarters, barracks, and a guard house. Here sentinels could be seen guarding their posts while prisoners and soldiers performed various camp chores.

On April 9, 1865, the day that Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Federal troops under Gen. Edward E. Potter occupied Sumter. They destroyed railroad property (locomotives, cars, shops, store houses, the freight depot), burned cotton and the jail, ransacked businesses and looted homes. Potter, whose headquarters was at the present courthouse site on Main Street, left Sumter on April 11th.

The Henry Lee Scarborough House was built 1908-09 by Scarborough (1866-1929), a leading Sumter County farmer, businessman, and public servant serving as county treasurer (1894-1902), commissioner of public works for six years and clerk of court (1912-1929). This house, an excellent example of the Neo-Classical Revival style, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

The Elizabeth White House, built about 1854, was for many years the home of Miss White (1893-1976), a Sumter native who was an internationally-acclaimed artist and lifelong patron of the arts. White, who studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, is best known for her etchings of South Carolina scenes. This Greek Revival cottage was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Martinville Church Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 43-12) & Lodebar Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 43-100),Oswego

(Front) Established in 1856 by French Huguenot families with the consolidation of Lodebar, Rembert, Clark, and Sardis Methodist Churches, all dating from the early settlement of Sumter District. The first minister was Rev. Bond English; trustees were James W. Rembert, W. F. Deschamps, Leonard Brown, Dr. Henry I. Abbott, Alex M. Watts, D. A. Foxworth, M. T. McLeod, N. S. Punch, and Rev. Henry D. Green.

(Reverse) Members donated materials and both free and slave labor to construct the sanctuary, completed in 1858 under the supervision of James W. Rembert. Galleries were removed and ceilings lowered in 1887, and Sunday School rooms were added in 1951. This community was first named Lodebar for the nearby camp ground founded in 1787, but was renamed Bethel for this church in 1856. It has been known as Oswego since 1890.

(Front) This congregation was organized before the Civil War and held its services in a brush arbor until 1875 when its trustees bought land near this site from B. W. Brogdon and built a sanctuary there. First church officers were trustees Cuff Brogden, Robert Brogden, and James Witherspoon. By 1880 the church was affiliated with the South Carolina Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

(Reverse) St. Paul A. M. E. Church bought this property in 1886 in conjunction with Pinehill Church, and the parcel was divided between the two churches in 1913. Initially part of a three-church circuit, St. Paul received its first full-time minister in the 1950s. The present sanctuary was completed in 1975 and an education annex was added in 1990.

Whitmire Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 176), just N of Beattys Bridge Rd. near the Tyger River, 9 mi. S of Union

One mile east of this point, built by the pioneers of Union County, was one of several stockades used as refuges during the Cherokee War, 1759-1761. It was probably named for James Otterson, an early settler on Tyger River.

Erected by Fair Forest Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1957 [April 1959]

Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site, 2677 Sardis Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 44-16), E of Sedalia,

Erected in 1828-32 by William Henry Gist (1807-1874), lawyer, planter, legislator, and Secessionist Governor of South Carolina, Rose Hill was named for its landscaped rose garden. Its fanlights, carved doors and spiral staircase are noteworthy. The porches were added in 1860. In 1960 it became a State Park.

Intersection of Cross Keys Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 49) & Jones Ford Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 44-22), Cross Keys

(Front) A post office was established in 1809 at Cross Keys, S.C. In 1812-14, Barrum Bobo erected this house at the intersection of the Piedmont Stage Road and the Old Buncombe Road. During the ante-bellum period, it was the center of a prosperous plantation. The gables of the building contain the cross keys insignia and the dates of construction.

(Reverse) On April 30, 1865, during the retreat from Richmond, Virginia, Jefferson Davis passed through Cross Keys, S.C., accompanied by the Confederate cabinet and his military escort of five brigades. Mrs. Mary Whitmire Davis, who owned the Cross Keys House at that time, afterwards related to her descendants the story of President Davis's luncheon at the house.

Cross Keys Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 49) between Lower Fairforest Church Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 44-77) and Boatman Springs Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 44-78), 8 mi. SW of Union

1.5 miles SW stood the original Fairforest Baptist Church. The members, led by the Reverend Philip Mulkey, came from North Carolina to Broad River about 1759. In 1762, the church moved to Fairforest where, as the first Baptist church in the up country, it established other churches. During the American Revolution, it was in a Tory controlled area.

(Front) The S.C. Board of Public Works had at least fourteen public buildings under contract in 1822-23, when Robert Mills, Acting Commissioner of the board, rejected a partially built jail of inferior brick before proceeding with this one. Experiences like this fitted him for his later career as Federal Architect and designer of the Washington Monument.

(Reverse) This building was completed in 1823 under the supervision of Robert Mills. Campbell Humphries was the contractor. The stone is said to have come from nearby Humphries Quarry. The north and west wings were added in 1954 and 1960 respectively with Robert Gibbes Fant as architect. The jail was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Led by Philip Mulkey, 13 converts of the Great Awakening movement traveled from N.C. to S.C. in 1759, settled on the Broad River, and organized a Baptist congregation, the oldest in the upcountry. Three years later, they moved to what is now Union County and took the name Fairforest. The present site succeeds several earlier ones in Union County.

Intersection of Cross Keys Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 49) & Monument Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 44-51), Cross Keys vicinity

This battle of the Revolution took place on William Blackstock's plantation, 3 miles N. on the south side of the Tyger River, November 20, 1780. Gen. Thomas Sumter commanded the American patriots who repulsed Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton's British forces. Sumter was wounded here, and this prevented his taking an active part in the war for several months.

Erected by Union County Historical Foundation and Daniel Morgan Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, 1986

4865 Hemingway Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 512/S.C. Hwy. 261), about ½ mi. W of Indiantown

Organized in 1757 with John James and Robert Wilson as founding elders. Burned by the British in 1780 as "a sedition shop." Rebuilt after the Revolution. Present building begun in 1890, remodelled in 1919. Maj. John James, Revolutionary hero, is buried in the churchyard.

Sponsored by the Margaret Gregg Gordon Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, and Erected by Williamsburg County, 1967

Gen. Francis Marion and his men defeated the British at this place in March 1781. Advancing from the west and finding the bridge on fire, the enemy rushed the nearby ford, but here they were repulsed by troops led by John James, Thomas Potts, and William McCottry and forced to abandon their plan to invade Williamsburg.

Somewhere northwest of Kingstree on the night of Aug. 27, 1780, while scouting for Gen. Marion, a South Carolina militia company led by Maj. John James attacked a British force sent to ravage Williamsburg District, capturing prisoners and gaining information that persuaded Gen. Marion not to risk a general engagement.

This lot was designated the parade ground in the original survey of the town in 1737. It served as the muster ground for the local militia during colonial and Revolutionary times. The present courthouse, designed by Robert Mills, was built in 1823. The second story burned in 1883 and was repaired. The courthouse was enlarged in 1901 and remodelled again in 1954.

Erected by Williamsburg County, 1964; Sponsored by the Margaret Gregg Gordon Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution

Intersection of S.C. Sec. Rd. 45-34 & 45-40, Crooks’ Crossroads, about 3 mi. NE of Hemingway

This church is said to be the oldest Methodist congregation in present Williamsburg County. It was established prior to 1822 when Samuel Heaselden, in his will, reserved two acres of land for the congregation; in 1837, his heirs deeded this land to the trustees of the church, "which will bear the name of Ebenezer."

(Front) By 1760, Charles Woodmason had established a store near here, following a 1745 Act of the General Assembly that provided for clearing of the watercourses at the head of Black Mingo Creek. Soon thereafter, schooners carried local products to Charlestown; by the early 1760s Black Mingo settlement, later known as Willtown, had developed on the creek.

By 1804 Black Mingo stage stop had a tavern and about twelve wooden houses. About 1843, local merchant Cleland Belin built on his own land the Black Mingo Baptist Church. Now listed in the National Register of Historic Places, this church is all that remains of the early inland settlement.

Intersection of County Line Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 41/51) & Brown’s Ferry Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 45-24), Rhems

(Front) One of the earliest Dissenter congregations in South Carolina north of the Santee River was located about two miles south of here. Its church building had been completed by 1727 when the Rev. Thomas Morritt, Episcopal minister of Charleston, visited the area.

(Reverse) In 1742, this Dissenter congregation of the "Presbyterian Persuasion . . . of Scotland" received 100 pounds currency from Wm. Swinton for a new building. Also in 1742, William Thompson, Jr., willed the Dissenters 100 pounds and 4 acres, and their brick meeting house was soon built. By 1824, the church had dissolved.

Active in the Red Shirt campaign which resulted in Gen. Wade Hampton's election as S.C. governor, 1876, Chandler later served as supervisor of Williamsburg County. He was twice elected to the S.C. House and was known as "an honest and manly Representative" of his people. His home, which burned in 1985, was located here.

Intersection of Thurgood Marshall Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 527) and County Line Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 41), just NE of Black River, Warsaw vicinity, near Williamsburg County-Georgetown County line

(Front) Among the first settlers of Williamsburg County, members of the Witherspoon family sailed from Belfast to Charleston in 1734, arriving about December 1. With a year's provisions, they embarked on an open-boat voyage. Traveling up the Black River, the settlers came ashore near here and lived in Samuel Commander's barn while constructing their "dirt houses."

By 1775, Potatoe Ferry was operating on the Black River about ¼ mile downstream from here. During the Revolution, Brigadier General Francis Marion employed the ferry to transport troops on a planned expedition against British forces in Georgetown. In 1810, Bishop Francis Asbury, pioneer of American Methodism, crossed the river here during his travels.

This Presbyterian church was established 1736 by John Witherspoon and other early Scotch-Irish settlers. Originally located about 1 mile east at Williamsburg Cemetery, the congregation moved here to Academy Street in 1890; the present sanctuary was completed in 1913. A number of congregations have come from this church, which is the oldest continuing ecclesiastical group in Williamsburg County.

(Front) This was the plantation of Capt. William Henry Mouzon (1741-1807), prominent militia officer in the American Revolution. Mouzon, of Huguenot descent, was educated in France as an engineer. He was a lieutenant in the 3rd S.C. Regiment, then raised the King's Tree Company and became its captain. This militia company numbered about 75 men when it was disbanded after Charleston fell to the British in May 1780.

(Reverse) Capt. Mouzon's company reformed in July 1780, then joined Col. Francis Marion. British troops under Col. Banastre Tarleton burned Mouzon's plantation house and outbuildings in August. Shortly thereafter, on September 28, 1780, Capt. Mouzon was severely wounded in Marion's victory at Black Mingo Creek and forced to retire from further active service. He died in 1807 and is buried in the Mouzon family cemetery nearby.

Intersection of W. Alexander Love Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 161) and N. King’s Mountain St. (U.S. Hwy. 321), just N of York

Twelve miles northwest the battle of King's Mountain was fought October 7, 1780. The 900 Whigs were under Colonels Campbell, Shelby, Sevier, Hill, Lacey, Williams, Cleveland; Lieutenant Colonels Hawthorn, Hambright; Majors McDowell, Chronicle, Winston, Chandler. The 1100 Tories were under Col. Patrick Ferguson, Capt. DePeyster, Lieut. Allaire. This brilliant victory was the turning point of the American Revolution.

[Erected by the King’s Mountain Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, 10 February 1938]

Intersection of Lockhart Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 49) & W. McConnells Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 322), Bullock Creek

Under leadership of Dr. Joseph Alexander, pastor 1774-1801, this church, organized in 1769, was a Whig stronghold during the Revolution. Three hundred yards west is the site of one of the earliest academies in upper South Carolina, established in 1787 by Dr. Alexander. One and one half miles southwest is the site of Dr. Alexander's home, used as a hospital during the American Revolution.

[Erected by the King’s Mountain Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, 11 February 1938]

Organized 1824 by the Reverends Wm. Gassaway and Jos. Holmes with former as pastor, Trinity is the oldest M.E. Church, South in York County. The original building was erected on College Street, 1826. The first Sunday School in York County was organized at Trinity, March 2, 1829, by James Jefferys.

(Front) Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet, making their way south from Richmond, Va. with a cavalry escort, stopped at Fort Mill on April 26, 1865. Davis spent the night at Springfield, the home of Col. Andrew Baxter Springs, about 3.5 mi. N; others stayed here at the home of Col. William Elliott White.
(Reverse)

On the morning of April 27, 1865, Davis's Cabinet met here on the lawn to discuss the resignation of Secretary of the Treasury George A. Trenholm, appointing Postmaster General John H. Reagan to succeed him. The group, hoping to join the few Confederates still in the field, left for Yorkville later that day.

Erected by the White Homestead, 2005, replacing a marker erected by Captain Elliott White Springs on 11 March 1940

Having crossed the Catawba at Nation Ford, April 27, 1865, the President of the Confederacy fled south along this road following the fall of Richmond. He was accompanied by the remaining members of his cabinet and a detachment of cavalry under Gen. John C. Breckinridge.

Two miles downstream, prehistoric crossing of Catawba Indians, site of legendary battle between Catawbas and Cherokees. Used by Virginia traders in 1652. Sumter with 500 men had a fortified camp here in July, 1780. Federal cavalry burned the railroad bridge in April, 1865.

This building was designed by Robert Mills and erected in Columbia, S.C., as the stable and carriage house of the mansion of Ainsley Hall; Chapel of Columbia Theological Seminary (Presbyterian), 1830-1927; first home of Winthrop College, 1886-1887. Woodrow Wilson accepted and confessed Christ here in 1873. The chapel was moved to Rock Hill, 1936. Site is 350 yards SW.

(Front) This church was begun in 1834 as Antioch Chapel of Ebenezer Church under the leadership of Rev. John O. Richards on land of the Steales and Workmans, 3 mi. south of Rock Hill. Mission moved in 1858 to this site, obtained from A. T. Black and later paid for by Mrs. Ann Hutchinson White and J. Spratt White. The church was organized on Nov. 13, 1869, with forty-six charter members led by Rev. R. E. Cooper, pastor.

First ruling elders: J. F. Workman, H. H. Hart, R. D. L. McLeod. First deacons: Wm. Whyte, A. H. White, J. N. Steele, R. W. Workman, David Gordon. Three pastors have been moderators of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church in the U. S.: Rev. W. T. Hall, Rev. W. L. Lingle, Rev. Alexander Sprunt. The longest pastorate has been that of Rev. Francis W. Gregg, 1910-1947.

Erected by the Congregation on the Occasion of the Centenary of the Church, AD 1969

Near this spot stood the Rock Hill residence of Robert Moorman Sims, captain, C.S.A., who on April 9, 1865, carried the flag of truce, which led to the surrender of Lee's forces at Appomattox. He later was S.C. senator for Lancaster County, 1868-70, and S.C. secretary of state, 1876-80. He began the beautification of the S.C. State House grounds. He was born in Fairfield County in 1836 and died at Columbia in 1898.

Erected by the Beulah Meredith Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1970

(Front) About 1839, this former plantation house was built by George Pendleton White (1801-1849) and his wife, Ann Hutchison White (1805-1880). It has since sheltered five generations of a pioneer Rock Hill family. During the War of 1861-1865 needy Confederate soldiers were cared for here. The house contains a Prophet's Chamber, reserved for the exclusive use of visiting ministers. The east wing was erected about 1878.

(Reverse) Two renowned sons of this house were the Reverend James Spratt White (1841-1891)

moderator of the Presbyterian Synod of S.C. and founder of the Rock Hill Public Library and of the Rock Hill public schools, and Andrew Hutchison White (1843-1903), intendant of Rock Hill, grand master of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free Masons of South Carolina, and president of the State Agricultural and Mechanical Society.

(Front) Robert Clendinen, Yorkville lawyer and South Carolina senator from York District (1816-30), purchased this land in 1813. The house, which he built here before his death in 1830, was acquired in 1847 by Dr. James Rufus Bratton, a surgeon in the Confederate Army. It was razed in 1956.

Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, spent the night of April 27, 1865, in the home of Dr. James Rufus Bratton, which was located on this site. Davis, in danger of capture and arrest by Federal troops, was attempting to reach some remnant of the Confederate Army in the South or West with which he could find protection and continue the war.

(Front) John L. Rainey, owner of large tracts of land on which Sharon was established, conveyed land to the Presbyterian church in 1889 and 1898, the Methodists in 1897, and the Methodist Episcopal Zion church in 1904. The First National Bank, established here in 1909, was the only bank in western York County to survive the depression. The Hill Banking and Mercantile Company was founded prior to 1915.

(Reverse) The town of Sharon grew up around and took its name from Sharon Associate Reformed

Presbyterian Church, which existed here in 1800. When the Charleston, Cincinnati, and Chicago Railroad came through in the 1880s, John L. Rainey donated land for the station. The town was incorporated by the S.C. General Assembly in 1889.

Intersection of Chester Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 321) & McConnells Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 322), McConnells

After the Kings Mountain Railroad was completed in 1852, the McConnellsville Post Office was established here in 1854. The town, named for the McConnell family, was incorporated in 1906. The first intendant was J. T. Crawford; wardens were J. F. Ashe, S. H. Love, J. O. Moore, and J. M. Williams. The post office was renamed McConnells in 1951.

(Front) Main Street was laid out on Alexander Templeton Black's land by Squire John Roddey in 1851. The post office was established in 1852. The village was incorporated by the General Assembly in 1870 with an area of one mile square; its center was Gordon's Hotel, which stood just west of here. John R. Allen was first intendant and wardens were J. M. Ivy, Dr. Thos. L. Johnston, John Ratterree, and M. W. Russell.

Rock Hill was incorporated as a city by act of the General Assembly on December 24, 1892, with an area of two miles square. Center of this square was a point in the middle of Main Street, opposite the Methodist Church. This marker stands near that point. The first mayor was Dr. John William Fewell and first aldermen were E. R. Avery, W. N. Irby, W. S. Morgan, E. E. Poag, J. J. Waters, W. H. Wylie.

The town of Ebenezer was incorporated in 1893. Dr. W. B. Fewell was the first intendant, and the first wardens were J. W. Avery, A. A. Barron, S. A. Fewell, and J. B. Neely. The post office here from 1890-1911 was called Old Point. Earlier post offices were Ebenezer Academy (1822-1837) and Ebenezerville (1837-1866). The town was annexed to Rock Hill in 1961.

Erected by the York County Culture and Heritage Museums, 2005, replacing a marker erected by the York County Historical Commission in 1980

(Front) The land on which the town of Hickory Grove developed was granted to John McKenney in 1771 by George III of England. The Hickory Grove Post Office was in operation as early as 1831, and a free public school was located here by 1851. In 1888 the Charleston, Cincinnati, and Chicago Railroad completed its line through Hickory Grove, connecting this area to coastal S.C.

(Reverse) At the time of its incorporation in 1888, Hickory Grove was one square mile in size, its center being the intersection of York Street and Wylie Avenue. J. N. McDill was the first intendant and Dr. J. W. Allison, J. W. Castles, T. M. Whisonant, and J. H. Wylie were wardens. The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church maintained its orphanage here from 1897 until 1905.

(Front) Micah Jenkins and Asbury Coward, graduates of The Citadel in Charleston, founded this

Yorkville school in 1855. Closed during the Civil War, it was re-opened in 1866 by Coward, who later became head of S. C. Military Academy. The school closed permanently shortly before 1909, when the property was sold to the Episcopal Church Home.

Micah Jenkins, born 1835 at Edisto Island, graduated from The Citadel with first honors in 1854. Leaving King's Mountain Military School to enter the Confederate Army, he became known as a brave and daring leader, fighting through many significant battles and becoming brigadier general in 1862. He was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia, in 1864.

In 1887 the town of Clover was granted a charter by the General Assembly, its city limits to extend "one-half mile in every direction from the railroad depot." Clover Post Office had been established in 1874 with Zimri Carroll as postmaster. Six years later the Chester and Lenoir Railroad had completed its line here. The town's first textile mill, organized by Captain W. Beatty Smith, was chartered in 1890.

(Front) This two-story frame house with central hall was a typical piedmont farmhouse when built, probably by Stephen McCorkle prior to 1821. Samuel M. Fewell significantly altered the house during his ownership 1867-1890. In 1906 the house was purchased and renovated by Alexander Long. In 1893 some of the land here was given to the state for the development of Winthrop College.

Rock Hill Land and Town Site Company, incorporated in 1890, bought and sold land here. Developing the area known as Oakland were company founders William L. Roddy, James M. Cherry, Richard T. Fewell, W. Blackburn Wilson, Jr., and subsequent associates. The location of Winthrop in Oakland was assured when the company conveyed 30.5 acres to the state in 1893 for the sum of $5. The college opened in 1894.

(Front) Formerly known as Fergus's Cross Roads, later Yorkville, this county seat was established in 1785 on land originally granted to John Miller in 1767. According to Robert Mills, the town in 1826 had eight stores, five taverns, a male and female academy, post office, printing office, and about eighty houses. The coming of the railroad in 1852 brought prosperity, which was reflected in fine homes, public buildings, and educational institutions.

During the Reconstruction period, turmoil in this area resulted in the sending of Federal troops under Col. Lewis Merrill to Yorkville and the declaration of martial law in 1871. Merrill was stationed at nearby Rose's Hotel. During this time the agricultural economy of the area suffered greatly, but Reconstruction ended in 1876 and recovery gradually took place. In 1896 textiles came to the town, whose name was changed to York in 1915.

(Front) Fort Mill was established on land received in 1787 by Thomas Spratt, one of the first settlers in this area. According to local tradition, the 4,535-acre tract in Catawba Indian territory was given Spratt by the Catawbas who were grateful for his assistance in routing the Shawnees from their lands.

(Reverse) Fort Mill is said to have taken its name from Webb's Grist Mill and a Catawba Indian fort

near here. The post office was established in 1811 and named Fort Mill in 1833. Fort Mill Mfg. Co. (now Springs Mills) began here in 1887. Area native Leroy Springs later became its president. By the time of his death in 1931, Springs was a nationally-known textile magnate.

Intersection of Saluda Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 72) and Strait Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 46-739), Ogden vicinity, about 3.7 mi. SW of Rock Hill

About 1 ½ miles south of here on Fishing Creek were a house and mill mentioned on a 1766 royal landgrant to Hugh White. British Colonel Banastre Tarleton and his Legion were encamped at White's Mill for several days in September 1780, during which time Tarleton lay "dangerously ill of a fever."

Hands Mill Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 274), about 4 mi. N of Newport near Nanny’s Mountain

(Front) William Hill, who served in the American Revolution and was present at many battles, built an ironworks near here on Allison Creek about 1776. Hill and his partner, Isaac Hayne, manufactured swivel guns, kitchen utensils, cannon, ammunition, and various farm tools. His ironworks was burned by British Capt. Christian Huck in June 1780.

Rebuilt 1787-1788 near here on Allison Creek, Hill's Ironworks consisted of two furnaces, four gristmills, two sawmills, and about fifteen thousand acres of land by 1795. Around eighty blacks were employed here as forgemen, blacksmiths, founders, miners, and in other occupations. A nail factory with three cutting machines was operating here by 1802.

Intersection of Rock Cut Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 97) and Main St. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 46-11/46-233), Smyrna

This town was named for Smyrna Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, organized ca. 1842. An academy was established here by 1870, and in 1888 the Charleston, Cincinnati, and Chicago Railroad completed its line here. Four years later the post office was established. The town was incorporated in 1895, its limits extending one-half mile in every direction from the railroad depot.

(Front) This church was organized in 1895 with 26 charter members. The sanctuary, completed in 1898 and enlarged in 1911, was designed by Charlotte architect C. C. Hook and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Four pastors have served the church: Dr. A. S. Rogers (1895-1948); Rev. W. P. Grier (1948-1963); Rev. H. L. Smith (1963-1966), and Dr. R. J. Robinson (since 1967).

Dr. Arthur Small Rogers (1869-1964), a native of Newberry, was educated at Erskine College, Erskine Theological Seminary, and Muskingum College. He came to Rock Hill in 1895 as a seminary student and became the first pastor of this church; his pastorate here was one of the longest in the history of the A.R.P. denomination. Dr. Rogers retired in 1948 and died in Rock Hill in 1964 at the age of 95.

(Front) This school, founded in 1920, was the first public school for blacks in Rock Hill. Named for Emmett J. Scott (1873-1957), a prominent educator who was then secretary of Howard University, Emmett Scott School included all twelve grades until 1956 and was a junior high and high school from 1956 until South Carolina schools were desegregated in 1970. The original two-story frame school, built in 1920, was demolished in 1952.

(Reverse) This property is owned by the City of Rock Hill and has been a neighborhood recreation center since the school closed in 1970. Seven principals served the Emmett Scott School during its fifty-year existence: Frank H. Neal 1920-1924; L. B. Moore 1924-1938; Ralph W. McGirt 1938-1959; W. H. Witherspoon 1959-1967; George Land 1967; Richard Boulware 1968; Samuel Foster 1969-1970.

Saluda County

(Front) This church was founded ca. 1805 at the plantation of John Spann, Jr., about 1 mi. N. Bishop Francis Asbury preached there in 1807 and 1811. The first church on this site was built and the cemetery was established ca. 1840. The present Greek Revival sanctuary, built in 1873, is almost unchanged. The church and cemetery were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

Clinton Ward (1828-1905), a member of this church, was a prominent landowner and a state representative 1880-83. The Charlotte, Columbia, & Augusta RR ran its tracks through Ward’s property about 1870. He laid out and planned the town first named Ward’s Depot, then Clintonward, then Wards, and finally Ward. Clinton Ward, his wife Martha, and their daughter Josephine are buried here.

HARE’S MILL
Spann Rd., at Cloud’s Creek between U.S. Hwy. 378 and S.C. Hwy. 391, between Saluda and the traffic circle, Saluda vicinity

(Front) Hare’s Mill, which stood here on Cloud’s Creek, was a large grist mill owned by James Hare (1838-1929). Hare bought the mill from the Rinehart family in 1885 and moved it here. The two-story mill ground both corn and wheat, using water power to grind corn and steam power to grind wheat. It was also an important meeting place for this community over many years.
(Reverse) James and Elizabeth Black Hare had nine sons: John Allen, Samuel Jacob, Noah Ephram, Butler Black, Joseph William, Henry Benjamin, Jemmie Lee, George Tillman, and Sidney Bowles. They helped their father run Hare’s Mill until it closed in 1928, when S.C. Electric and Gas Company bought land on Cloud’s Creek before building Lake Murray. The mill was demolished soon afterwards.
Erected by the Saluda County Historical Society, 2006

(Front) This is the family cemetery of Mathias Jones (1779-1829), planter, merchant, and state representative 1814-17. Jones moved from Virginia to Ridge Spring, in what was then Edgefield District, about 1800. He, his wife Clara Perry Jones (1786-1841), and 4 of their 12 children are buried here. The 1887 will of daughter Elizabeth Watson set up an endowment for perpetual maintenance.
(Reverse)

GENERAL JAMES JONES
Gen. James Jones (1805-1865), the son of Mathias & Clara Jones, is buried here. A partner in textile mills at Graniteville and Vaucluse, he was chairman of commissioners to build the State House 1855-61. Jones also served as adjutant & inspector general 1836-41, chairman of the board of visitors of the Citadel and the Arsenal Academy 1842-65, and state quartermaster general 1863-65.

E. Main St./Batesburg Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 23), just E of Trojan Dr., just E of the Ridge Spring town limits
(Front) This cemetery, dating to the early 19th century, was originally the Watson and Boatwright family cemetery before it was enlarged to become the town cemetery. Many descendants of Capt. Michael Watson (1726-1782) are buried in the walled section, built ca. 1850 by Chloe Wimberly Watson. They include Sarah Pressley Watson (1885-1959), who directed the Foyer International des Etudiantes in Paris 1920

William H. Scarborough (1812-1871), the leading portrait painter in 19th-century S.C., is buried here. A Tennessee native, he came to S.C. in 1836 and settled in Columbia in 1846. His portraits of prominent politicians and others are in collections such as the State House, State Museum, Columbia Museum of Art, and Gibbes Museum of Art. At first buried in Columbia, his remains were moved here by his widow Miranda when she lived in Ridge Spring.

(Front) This school, built in 1934, replaced the Ridge Hill Rosenwald School, a six-classroom frame school built in 1923-24. That school was funded in part by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation, building more than 500 African-American schools in S.C. 1917-1932. It burned in 1934, but the new school was built on the same plan, at a cost of about $8000. Grades 1-11 attended this school until grade 12 was added in 1947. Ridge Hill School closed in 1957.

This building has been the Ridge Spring Star Community Center since 1978. The chimney nearby is all that remains of a Faith Cabin Library, part of a program founded in 1932 by Willie Lee Buffington (1908-1988) to help give small-town and rural African-Americans better access to books. The

library built here in 1934 was the second Faith Cabin Library in the state. More than 100 were built in S.C. and Ga. from 1932 to 1960.

AMBUSH AT MINE CREEK
Old Charleston Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 41-177) at Mine Creek, 1.75 mi. SE of its junction with S.C. Hwy. 121, Saluda vicinity
(Front) On November 3, 1775, Loyalists ambushed a supply wagon nearby, in a prelude to the first land battle of the Revolution in S.C. The Council of Safety sent gunpowder and lead to the Cherokees in an effort to prevent their siding with the Crown. Capt. Patrick Cunningham, with 150 men, overtook the wagon about 1 3/4 mi. SW, where the Old Charleston Rd. crosses Mine Creek.
(Reverse) After Cunningham captured the wagon and escort, Loyalists claimed that the Patriots wanted the Cherokees to wage war on them. Loyalist forces soon outnumbered Patriots in the area by more than three to one. The First Battle of Ninety Six, on November 19, saw the first bloodshed in the Revolution in S.C. The brief truce that followed did little to ease tensions in the backcountry.
Erected by the Gen. James Williams Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, in Memory of Joseph C.M. Goldsmith, 2010

Spartanburg County

(Front) This cemetery, established on this site about 1900 as the Spartanburg Colored Cemetery, includes many graves moved here from the first black cemetery in the city, established in 1849 1 mi. W. and closed by the expansion of the Charleston & Western Carolina RR. Also known as the New Colored Cemetery until 1928 and later known as Freeman's Cemetery, it has been known as the Old City Cemetery since 1959.

(Reverse) Prominent persons buried here include educator Mary Honor Farrow Wright (1862‑1946), for whom Mary Wright School was named; midwife Phyllis Goins (1860‑1945) and policeman Tobe Hartwell (d. 1932), for whom city housing developments were named; city councilman Thomas Bomar (1864‑1904), and educator Annie Wright McWhirter (1885‑1976), first woman to teach at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind.

Erected by the Spartanburg Community Memorial Committee and the African‑American Heritage Committee, 1997

This passenger and freight depot was built in 1896 by the Southern Railway and was originally 1 block N. at Brown & Church Sts. It replaced an 1873 depot on the Atlanta & Charlotte Air Line Railway, later merged into the Southern. This depot served passengers into the 1950s and handled freight until 1967. It was moved in 1982, renovated and opened as the Cowpens Museum & Civic Center in 1985, and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Wofford College, chartered in 1851, was established by a $100,000 bequest from the Rev. Benjamin Wofford of Spartanburg, who envisioned a college for "literary, classical and scientific education" affiliated with the Methodist Church. The college opened in the fall of 1854 and still occupies its historic campus, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Wofford's Phi Beta Kappa chapter, chartered in 1941, was the first at a private college in South Carolina.

Erected by Wofford College, 1998, replacing a marker erected by the Wofford College Class of 1960

OLD RUTHERFORD ROAD
Campobello-Gramling Elementary School, 250 Fagan Ave., Campobello

This old roadbed is the last extant portion of the Rutherford Road, which appears in Robert Mills's 1825 Atlas of the State of S.C. and was one of at least three historic roads in northern Spartanburg Co. named for Rutherfordton, county seat of Rutherford Co., N.C., 20 mi. NE. The road was a significant route for travel, mail, and commerce until well into the twentieth century.

(Front) This church, organized late in the eighteenth century, held its first services in a brush arbor and later constructed a log meeting house. This frame sanctuary, built between 1825 and 1830, was the second building to serve Shiloh. In 1836 Adam Gramling, Jr., donated it and three acres to church trustees William Brooks, Adam Gramling, Sr., John Gramling, and Ruben Gramling.

(Reverse) Shiloh Methodist Church was the mother church of many Spartanburg County Methodist churches and some affiliated with other denominations. It was active until about 1915, when its last 14 members transferred to Inman Methodist Church. The old sanctuary, still an important part of the community, has been the site of an annual homecoming service since 1915.

(Front) This church, established in 1804, grew out of Padgett’s Creek Baptist Church, mother to several area Baptist congregations. Rev. Spencer Bobo (d. 1816), a member there, was given permission to take “as many members as he thinks fit” and organize a new church. Bobo chose a site W of present-day Cross Anchor, near his home, deeding 7 acres for a sanctuary and cemetery.
(Reverse) The first church was a log building known as “Bobo’s Meeting House.” Bobo and Rev. Nathan Langston (1762-1834) preached there until Bobo’s death in 1816 and Langston preached there until 1832. The congregation, renamed New Hope Baptist Church in 1809, built a frame church by 1834. New Hope moved here and built this frame sanctuary in 1924-26. It was covered in brick veneer in 1961.
Erected by the Congregation, 2010

(Front) Mount Zion Baptist Church, founded as early as 1804 as an affiliated branch of Bethlehem Baptist Church, was formally established in 1827. The cemetery here, dating from 1832, includes the graves of many early church families and of several veterans of the American Revolution and the Civil War.
(Reverse) Rev. John Gill Landrum (1810-1882), pastor here 1831-1852 and 1863-1882, also served for many years at First Baptist Church in Spartanburg and at Bethlehem, New Prospect, and Wolf Creek as well. He is buried here, as is his son J.B.O. Landrum (1844-1901), physician and author of an early history of Spartanburg County.

233 North Church St., Spartanburg

Organized in 1837 as the first congregation of any denomination in Spartanburg, when this site was deeded to nine trustees. Services began in early 1838. Original frame meeting house with belfry was replaced in 1854 by a larger brick church. The present Gothic Revival sanctuary, built in 1886 and described as "an ornament to our town," was enlarged in 1897 & 1910.

15^th N.Y. INFANTRY
corner of W.O. Ezell Blvd. (U.S. Hwy. 29) & Westgate Mall Dr., just E of I-26 Exit 21-B, Spartanburg

(Front) The 15^th N.Y. Infantry, a volunteer National Guard unit of African American soldiers, arrived here Oct. 10, 1917, to train at Camp Wadsworth. Race riots that summer in East St. Louis and Houston raised the fears of Spartanburg’s whites about the potential for racial violence if Northern black soldiers trained here. Though the 15^th N.Y. was ordered not to respond to any insults or physical abuse by local whites, tensions rose for the next two weeks.
(Reverse)

The War Dept., fearing that minor incidents would soon escalate, ordered the unit back to N.Y. on Oct. 24 and on to France. As the 369^th U.S. Infantry, it joined the 4^th French Army and its band won acclaim all over France for its concerts. It was the first American unit in combat, and was soon nicknamed “the Harlem Hell Fighters.” It was at the front for 191 days, longest of any American unit in World War I.

(Front) Camp Croft, constructed in 1940-41, was named for Greenville native Maj. Gen. Edward Croft (1875-1938). The pillars from the main gate stand nearby. Camp Croft was one of nine U.S. Army Infantry Replacement Training Centers during World War II. More than 250,000 soldiers took basic and specialty training courses here. Camp Croft contained more than 600 buildings, almost half of them barracks, on a 19,000-acre site between S.C. Hwys. 56 and 176.

(Reverse) Units at Camp Croft were designated as the 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th Infantry Training Regiments. The camp also housed as many as 900 German prisoners of war between 1944 and 1946, who were hired out to work on local farms and forests. Camp Croft was deactivated and sold to the Spartanburg County Foundation in April 1947. 7000 acres of it became Croft State Park (now Croft State Natural Area), while the rest was developed for industries and homes.

551 Hawk Hill Rd., Clifton

(Front) This church, originally called Clifton Baptist Church, was founded in 1881 with ten charter members and Rev. T.J. Taylor as its organizing minister. Rev. W.T. Tate was its first permanent minister. Admitted into the Broad River Association later that year, it was originally a union church, also serving other denominations in the village at Clifton Mill (later Clifton No. 1).

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
This church, the mother of new congregations at Converse and Second Baptist, bought its building from the mill company in 1896; it was demolished in 1904-05 and the present church was built in 1905. It became the First Baptist Church in 1937. About 1945 the 1905 bell tower was replaced in memory of the seven citizens of the community who died in World War II.

CONVERSE HEIGHTS
at the intersection of Mills Ave. & E. Main St., Spartanburg

(Front) Converse Heights is one of Spartanburg’s earliest suburbs, with most of the houses built between 1906 and 1950. This area was originally the antebellum plantation of Govan Mills (1805-1862). In 1906 Mills’ heirs sold the property to Spartanburg Realty Company for development. Mills Avenue is named for Govan Mills. Converse Heights is named for Converse College, the private women’s college across East Main Street, which was founded in 1889.
(Reverse) A mix of modest and larger houses, this area includes examples of the Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Craftsman architectural styles. Governors John Gary Evans (1863-1942), James F. Byrnes (1882-1972), and Donald F. Russell (1906-1998) lived here. Happy Hollow Park, one of the city’s oldest playgrounds, is in the heart of the neighborhood. The Converse Heights Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
Erected by the Converse Heights Neighborhood Association, 2008

Sumter County

(Front) In April 1865 Confederates formed a defensive line along the high ground above Beech Creek to oppose Brig. Gen. Edward Potter's Federals advancing through Stateburg toward Camden. S.C. militia, the 9th Ky. Mounted Infantry, and the 1st Ky. "Orphan" Brigade fought off repeated Federal attacks in almost daily fighting between April 11th and 15th.

A full Federal assault on April 15th pushed the Confederates back but the line held, forcing Potter to bypass the position. He briefly occupied Camden, but returned on April 19th. The 25th Ohio Infantry, 157th N.Y. Infantry, and 4th Mass. Cavalry charged across Beech Creek and drove the 53rd Ala. Partisan Rangers and 11th Ga. Cavalry from the line in the last action of the war in S.C. Erected by the Beech Creek Historical Association and Sumter County Historical Commission, 1997

This church was organized in 1872 by Rev. Benjamin Lawson and held early services in a brush arbor. The first sanctuary, a log building, was built about 1883, during the ministry of Rev. S.B.Taylor; its timbers were reused to build a frame sanctuary in 1905. The present sanctuary here, dedicated in 1972, was built during the ministry of Rev. T.O. Everette, who served Enon from 1958 to 1980.

(Front) Federal troops commanded by Brig. Gen. Edward E. Potter, on a raid through this area in the last days of the Civil War, advanced to Sumter after defeating a small Confederate force at Dingle’s Mill on April 9, 1865. The Augustus Solomon House, which stood on this site, was Potter’s headquarters April 9-11. His troops left Sumter April 11 to carry out the destruction of Confederate trains at Manchester.

Potter’s Provisional Division, Military District of the South: First Brigade (Infantry): 25^th Ohio, 107^th Ohio, 157^th N.Y., 56^th N.Y. (2 companies)/Second Brigade (Infantry): 54^th Mass. (Colored), 32^nd and 102^nd U.S. Colored Troops/Other Units: 4^th Mass. Cavalry (2 companies), 3^rd N.Y. Light Artillery (Battery F), 1^st N.Y. Engineers

(Front) Following the battle of Boykin’s Mill on April 18, 1865, Federal troops commanded by Brig. Gen. Edward E. Potter advanced south to Middleton’s Depot, on the Wilmington & Manchester R.R. below Stateburg. Here, on April 19, they attacked and attempted to flank a Confederate force commanded by Maj. Gen. P.M.B. Young which defended this crossing.

(Reverse) The 25^th Ohio Inf. and 157^th N.Y. Inf., supported by the 102^nd U.S. Colored Troops, skirmished with the 1^st Ky. Brigade (Cav.), 53^rd Ala. Partisan Rangers, 11^th Ga. Cav., Hamilton’s Arty., and S.C. militia. After slight losses on both sides most of the Confederate force withdrew towards Beech Creek.

(Front) This plantation was established in 1735 with a royal grant to William Sanders, who built a house and tavern, or “publick house,” here. That house was either extensively remodeled into or replaced by the present house featuring a central hall, built ca. 1816 by William Sanders IV and further enlarged by his son William Sanders V shortly before the Civil War.

(Reverse) On April 18, 1865, in the last days of the Civil War, this house was the headquarters of Confederate Maj. Gen. P.M.B. Young and was struck by an artillery shell in a brief skirmish. The next day it was the headquarters of Federal Brig. Gen. Edward E. Potter and a field hospital. Renamed “Dixie Hall” in the 1950s, it remained in the hands of the Sanders family until 1981.

(Front) This church was founded in 1881 with assistance from Harmony Presbytery. It had 12 charter members, with elders Cornelius McLaurin and James Caldwell and deacons Dr. Henry J. McLaurin and Edward H. McCutchen. Rev. H.B. Garris, Wedgefield’s first minister, preached two Sundays a month in an old school nearby.
(Reverse) The church sanctuary, often called “the church in the pines,” was completed in 1882 on land donated for the church and cemetery by James H. Aycock. Rev. Garris, the first permanent minister, was installed by Harmony Presbytery in 1885. Rev. Perry H. Biddle had the longest pastorate, serving 1947-1968.

(Front) In April 1865 2,700 Federal troops commanded by Brig. Gen. Edward E. Potter left Georgetown in a raid against the railroad lines between Sumter and Camden. After briefly occupying Sumter Potter advanced to Manchester and remained there for a few days. On April 14 he ordered the 25th Ohio Infantry and 107th Ohio Infantry to advance toward Stateburg in a reconnaissance in force.

(Reverse) The Confederate force here was the 9th Kentucky Mounted Infantry, a section of an artillery battery, and a few S.C. militia. After it drove back the first Federal attack Potter brought up the rest of his division on April 15 and fought “quite a Sharp skirmish” which forced some Confederates back but did not break their lines. On April 16 he bypassed Stateburg and proceeded to Camden.

(Front) This church, the first Lutheran congregation in Sumter County, was organized in 1890 as a Home Mission, with six charter members and with Rev. F.W.E. Peschau as its first pastor. The congregation met in area churches, public buildings, or homes for several years. Its first church, built 1894-96, was a frame building at the corner of Washington Street and Hampton Avenue.

(Reverse) The longest-serving pastors of St. James were Revs. J. Emmet Roof, who served 1947-1963, and Alvin H. Haigler, Sr., who served 1972-1992; the present brick sanctuary was built 1977-78 and consecrated during Rev. Haigler’s pastorate. Six members of St. James entered the ministry between 1956 and 2002, and three members became missionaries to Africa in 1968 and 2002.

KENDALL INSTITUTE
Watkins St. between Manning Ave. (U.S. Hwy. 521) & S. Lafayette Dr. (U.S. Hwy. 15), Sumter

(Front) Kendall Institute, founded on this site in 1891, was one of the first black schools in Sumter. It was funded by the Board of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The institute was named for Mrs. Julia B. Kendall, late wife of Rev. Henry Kendall, secretary of the Board of Missions 1870-1892. It emphasized academics for primary and secondary grades; some students boarded here in a girls’ dormitory or a boys’ cottage.

(Reverse) The pastors of the Second Presbyterian Church of Sumter were also principals of Kendall Institute: Revs. J.C. Watkins (1891-1903); A.U. Frierson (1903-1916); J.P. Foster (1916-1928); and J.P. Pogue (1928-1932). Under Foster’s tenure the institute boasted 272 students in 1918 and added agricultural and industrial classes and athletics. It closed in 1932 after the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. stopped funding its Southern parochial schools during the Depression.

130 Loring Mill Rd., Sumter
(Front) This church, with its origin in a brush arbor where services were held during the Civil War, was formally organized in 1873 with a Rev. B. James as its first pastor. Col. James D. Blanding sold the trustees a small parcel to build their first permanent church, a frame building; church trustees bought additional acreage in 1883. The first Mt. Zion Methodist Church burned in 1913.
(Reverse) The present church, also a frame building, replaced the first church. The cornerstone was laid in 1914; later renovations included the application of brick veneer in the 1980s. Rev. Isaiah DeQuincey Newman (1911-1985), who was pastor of Mt. Zion 1975-1982, was a civil rights activist and state senator 1983-85 and the first African American in the S.C. State Senate since 1886.
Erected by the Sumter County Historical Commission, 2008

(Front) Henry Johnson Maxwell (1837-1906), Union soldier, U.S. postmaster, state senator, and lawyer, lived here from 1874 until his death in 1906. Maxwell, the son of Stephen J. and Thurston Johnson Maxwell, was born free on Edisto Island. After serving as a sergeant in the 2nd U.S. Colored Artillery, he returned to S.C. to teach and work for the Freedmen’s Bureau in Bennettsville.
(Reverse) Maxwell, postmaster of Bennettsville 1869-70, was said to be “the first colored postmaster in the United States.” He was admitted to the S.C. Bar in 1871 and represented Marlboro County in the S.C. Senate 1868-1877. Maxwell and his second wife Martha Louisa Dibble Maxwell bought this 44-acre farm in 1874, raising eight children. He was a longtime member of Sumter 2nd Presbyterian Church.

This two-room African-American school was likely built between 1922 and 1930 for students in grades 1-7. It had 50-100 students and an academic year of four to five months until 1939 and six to eight months afterwards. Janie Colclough and Brantley Singletary taught here from 1932 through 1946. Beulah School closed in 1952 and was merged into Mayesville Elementary School.

(Front) Sumter’s Jewish community, dating to 1815, has long been one of the largest and most influential in inland S.C. Mark Solomons, Franklin J. Moses, and Montgomery Moses brought their families to Sumter District from the old and well-established Jewish community in Charleston. Other families, from Spain, Germany, Poland, Russia, and other European nations, followed. Two organizations founded shortly after the Civil War would later join to form a congregation.
(Reverse) The Hebrew Cemetery Society was founded in 1874, the Sumter Hebrew Benevolent Society was founded before 1881, and the two societies agreed to merge that year. A formal merger in 1895 created the Sumter Society of Israelites, the official name of Congregation Sinai. The first synagogue, a frame building constructed by 1900, burned. It was replaced in 1913 by this Moorish Revival brick synagogue, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

CANE SAVANNAH PLANTATION
intersection of Wedgefield Rd. (S.C. Hwy. 763) and St. Paul’s Church Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 43-40), Cane Savannah

(Front) Cane Savannah Plantation was established in 1784 by a 4000-acre grant to Lt. Col. Matthew Singleton (1730-1787), state representative and officer who had served under Francis Marion during the American Revolution. The plantation is named for Cane Savannah Creek, a branch of the Black River. Singleton had moved from Va. to S.C. with his wife Mary James Singleton in 1753.
(Reverse) Singleton built a house nearby, where he died in 1787.Cane Savannah then passed to his daughter Nancy and her husband Isham Moore (1750-1803), state representative and judge. Their son John Isham Moore (1792-1852) was a militia officer and state senator. The main house burned about 1920, cotton production soon declined, and Cane Savannah was eventually divided into tracts.

(Front) This church, organized in 1808 by Rev. George G. McWhorter of the Salem Black River Presbyterian Church, held its first services in a brush arbor near Concord Springs. The next year Gen. Thomas Sumter donated two acres to the Concord Society to build a “Meeting House,” which was built soon afterwards.
(Reverse) Concord is the mother church of First Presbyterian Church of Sumter (1823). In 1832 noted college president and theologian James Henley Thornwell (1812-1862) professed his faith during a service here, while he was teaching at an academy in Sumter. The present Greek Revival sanctuary was built in 1841.

intersection of Camp Mac Boykin Rd. & St. Mark’s Church Rd.,, Pinewood vicinity

(Front) Millford, 1 mile west, is the finest Greek Revival house in S.C. and one of the finest in America. It was built from 1839 to 1841 for John Laurence Manning (1816-1889), a planter, state legislator, and governor 1852-54, and his wife Susan Hampton Manning, a daughter of Gen. Wade Hampton I. Some contemporaries who thought it extravagant called the mansion “Manning’s Folly.”
(Reverse) The three-story, stucco-over-brick house features a massive portico with six fluted Corinthian columns. Notable interior features include a dome and oculus over a circular stair, and double parlors. Many elaborate interior finishes are designs from Minard Lefever’s Beauties of Modern Architecture (1835). Millford was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973.

Union County

Sims High School stood here from 1927 until the early 1970s and was the first black high school in Union County. It was named for its founder, Rev. A.A. Sims (1872-1965), who was its principal 1927-1951. It included grades 6-11 until 1949 and 6-12 afterwards, and educated blacks from Union and surrounding counties. In 1956 it moved to a new building on Sims Drive. The high school closed in 1970, but that building now houses the present Sims Jr. High.

(Front) This church was founded in 1784 by Revs. John Webb and John Cole, with Barnet Putman and William Wilbanks, Sr. as its first deacons. It was first called “the Church of Christ on Tyger River” and renamed Padgett Creek Baptist Church by 1800. The first sanctuary, a log building, stood about a mile south.

(Reverse) The second sanctuary, a frame building, was completed nearby about 1810. This sanctuary, described as “elegant and commodious” by an early church historian, was built 1844-48. It was enlarged by the addition of a portico and steeple in 1958. The church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

(Front) Union Community Hospital served the black community of Union County and nearby areas from 1932 to 1975. Built as a house ca. 1915, it was converted into a hospital by Dr. L.W. Long in 1932 with the support of several local churches. The building was covered in brick veneer in the 1930s, and a rear addition was built in 1949. The hospital was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

Dr. Lawrence W. Long (1906-1985), a native of Union County, was educated at Howard University and Meharry Medical College before returning to Union and founding this hospital. Long also hosted annual clinics attended by doctors from S.C. and the Southeast 1934-1975. A lifelong leader in medicine and public health who was also active in civic affairs in Union, Long was named S.C. Doctor of the Year in 1957 and National Doctor of the Year in 1958.

(Front) This parish was established in 1855 with the Rev. John DeWitt McCollough (1822-1902) as its first rector. This Gothic Revival church, consecrated in 1859 and called “probably the most exquisite gem of a Church in our whole Diocese” the next year, was designed by McCollough. He adapted a plan by architect Frank Wills, whose St. Anne’s Chapel, Fredericton, in New Brunswick, Canada, is virtually identical.
(Reverse) The inspiration for this church came from Mary Poulton Dawkins (1820-1906) of London, England, wife of Judge Thomas N. Dawkins, and her sister Jane Poulton McLure, wife of Maj. John W. McLure; their families founded this church. The fine marble baptismal font is by the noted American sculptor Hiram Powers (1805-1873). The Church of the Nativity was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

(Front) This Greek Revival house was built ca. 1857 for Benjamin Dudley Culp (1821-1885) and his wife Cornelia Meng Culp (1830-1888). Culp, a Union merchant, owned stores on Main Street with partners J.T. Hill and H.L. Goss from the 1850s through the 1870s. In early 1861 the “Johnson Rifles,” a volunteer company soon to become a Confederate company in the 5th S.C. Infantry, received its silk flag in a ceremony here. The flag is now (2006) in the Union County Museum.
(Reverse) In 1876 Gen. Wade Hampton, running for governor, made a campaign speech from the second-story portico. The house passed to the Beaty family through B.D. Culp’s daughter Cornelia C. Beaty (1864-1892), wife of William T. Beaty (1864-1944). This house, which features massive fluted Doric columns and a full-width two-story portico with large brackets and a pierced balustrade, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

(Front) This cemetery, the oldest in Union, was established ca. 1817 and sometimes called the “village cemetery.” In 1818 a Presbyterian “union” church used by other denominations as well moved here from a 1783 site about 2 mi. E. Alexander Macbeth then deeded the cemetery to the elders for use as a “burying ground of a Presbyterian Meeting House.”
(Reverse) This cemetery includes the graves of many prominent citizens of Union, both Presbyterians and members of other denominations. Governors David Johnson (1782-1855) and Thomas B. Jeter (1827-1883) are buried here. This is also the site of the first Union Presbyterian Church, a frame church built ca. 1819 and which was sold to the Union City School District in 1883.

(Front) A “union” church, one founded as a Presbyterian congregation but also used by other denominations, stood here from ca. 1783 to ca. 1819. The church was founded ca. 1765 at Brown’s Creek, 2 or 3 mi. NE. It met there in successive log churches, but suspended services at times during the American Revolution. The congregation moved here and built a hewn-log church on this site not long after the war, probably ca. 1783.

(Reverse) The church, with entrances on the west and south, featured a high boxed pulpit and was used by Baptists, Quakers, and others. Both Union County, founded as a judicial district in 1785, and its county seat Unionville (now Union) were named for this “union” church. Several veterans of the American Revolution are buried here. The congregation moved to Unionville and built a church there ca. 1819.

(Front) Fair Forest, named for nearby Fairforest Creek, was the plantation of Col. Thomas Fletchall (d. 1789), prominent militia officer before the Revolution and Loyalist during it. Captured in 1775 and briefly jailed, Fletchall moved to Charleston in 1780, then to Jamaica when the war ended; he died there in 1789. After the Revolution his plantation was confiscated and sold at auction.

Col. Thomas Brandon (1741-1802), who bought Fair Forest about 1785, had been a Patriot militia officer and was a longtime state representative and state senator. The Tudor Revival house built in 1923 near the site of the plantation house was designed by Robert & Co. of Atlanta. It was built for Emslie Nicholson (1863-1939), president of textile mills in Union, Lockhart, and Monarch.

in front of Mt. Joy Baptist Church Recreational Building, 657 Pea Ridge Hwy. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 44-13),

(Front) On April 20, 1861, only days after the Civil War began at Fort Sumter, scientist and aeronaut T.S.C. Lowe (1832-1913) landed the Enterprise, a large gas balloon, on a nearby farm. Lowe was on a test flight in preparation for a trans-Atlantic attempt. Southeasterly currents had carried him 800-900 miles by air from Cincinnati to Union District in less than nine hours.
(Reverse) Many locals assumed that Lowe was a Yankee spy, and it was difficult for him to convince them that he was not. He was taken to Union and spent the night there under guard. Taken to Columbia, he was allowed to return north by train after several gentlemen vouched for his reputation as a scientist. Lowe later founded and directed a balloon corps in the U.S. Army in Virginia 1861-1863.

(Front) Sims High School, located here from 1956 to 1970, replaced a 1927 school on Union Boulevard, which in 1929 had become the first state-accredited high school for African-American students in the upstate. It was named for Rev. A.A. Sims, founder and first principal 1927-1951. James F. Moorer, principal 1951-1969, also coached the football team to 93 consecutive conference wins 1946-1954. C.A. Powell, who was white, was the school’s last principal, 1969-1970.

(Reverse) A new school was built here in 1956. Notable alumni include the first black head coach in NCAA Division I-A football, the first coach of a black college basketball team in the National Invitational Tournament, and the first black Chief of Chaplains of the United States Army. Sims High School closed in 1970 with the desegregation of Union County schools. This building housed Sims Junior High School 1970-2009. Sims Middle School opened on Whitmire Highway in 2009.

Williamsburg County

Corner of Main St. (S.C. Hwy. 261) and E. Brooks St., across from the Williamsburg Funeral Home, Kingstree

(Front) Stephen Atkins Swails (1832-1900), U.S. Army officer and state senator, lived in a house on this site 1868-79. Swails, a free black from Pennsylvania, came to S.C. in 1863 as a 1st sgt. in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers (Colored), the first black regiment organized in the North during the Civil War. He was wounded twice and was commissioned 2nd lt. by Massachusetts Governor John Andrew in early 1864.

(Reverse) Swails, one of only about 100 black officers during the Civil War, was promoted to 1st lt. in 1865. Afterwards he was an agent for the Freedmen's Bureau and practiced law in Kingstree. He was a state senator 1868-78 and served three terms as president pro tem. Swails was also intendant of Kingstree 1873-77 and edited the Williamsburg Republican. He is buried in the Friendly Society Cemetery in Charleston.

(Front) This significant cultural and architectural example of a 20th-century country store was built in 1937 by Theron Burrows (1910-1973) when U.S. Hwy. 521 was finished from Georgetown to Manning. A combination grocery and gas station with family living quarters on the second floor, it was affiliated with Esso (now Exxon) and had the motto "we serve the needs of the neighborhood."

(Reverse) COOPER'S COUNTRY STORE
Burrows's Service Station sold not only staple goods, fresh meat, and produce, but also clothing, farm supplies, hardware, feed and seed, and automotive products and parts. After Burrows died in 1973 his son-in-law George Cooper bought the business, renaming it "Cooper's Country Store;" it now boasts several second- and third-generation employees and customers.

(Front) This church was founded in 1867 on land donated by Moses and Matilda Watson. It was the first African American church in the Bloomingvale community and was organized by trustees Orange Bruorton, Augusta Dicker, Sr., Fred Grant, Esau Green, Fortune Session, Moses Watson, and Richmond White. It was also mother church to Bruorton Chapel A.M.E. Church, active until the 1950s.

(Reverse) Mt. Zion also sponsored Mt. Zion School, which closed in 1958. The first sanctuary here, a wood frame church, was replaced in the early 1920s by a second wood frame church built by carpenter Rev. W.C. Ervin, Sr. The present church, the third serving Mt. Zion, was built 1948-1954 by carpenter Rev. W.C. Ervin, Jr. It was covered in brick veneer in the late 1950s.

Erected by the United Bruorton/Brewington Family Reunion and the Congregation, 2003

(Front) Cooper’s Academy, built in 1905-06, was a private boarding school for the black children of this community until 1927, and a public school 1927-1958. Founded by Moses Cooper, H.J. Cooper, and Ada E. Martin, it was first called Cooper’s Academy, Normal and Industrial Institute for Colored Youth. The school closed in 1958 when black schools at Battery Park and Cades were consolidated.
(Reverse)

Bethesda Methodist Church, founded in 1879, was organized in a brush arbor. Its first permanent church, a one-room sanctuary built about 1884, stood 1/4 mi. W. The congregation bought a two-acre site here in 1893, and soon built a one-room frame church. The church was rebuilt in 1971, during the pastorate of Rev. J.B. Bowen.

Erected by the Cooper Academy / Bethesda Methodist Church History Committee, 2009

45-17 [should be marker 45-16]

(Front) This church, founded in 1825, is the second oldest Methodist congregation in Williamsburg County. That year Robert Sutton gave the "Methodist Society" of this community a parcel 100 yds. square. Its first church, a frame building, was sometimes known as "Suttons Meeting House." It appears in Robert Mills' Atlas of South Carolina, published in 1825, as "Suttons M.H."

(Reverse) Suttons Methodist Church also hosted several annual camp meetings between 1825 and 1860. The second church, a frame building, was completed in 1884. The present brick sanctuary was built in 1953. The cemetery, established in the first half of the nineteenth century, includes the plots of many early church families.

(Front) This house, with Classical Revival architectural influences, was built ca. 1906 for Edward J. McCollum (1867-1942), African-American businessman and machinist with the Mallard Lumber Company. In 1922, when twelve-year-old Charles E. Murray’s father William died, McCollum and his wife Margaret (1886-1949) took him in. They considered him their foster son and encouraged him to pursue his education.

(Reverse) Charles E. Murray (1910-1999), prominent African-American educator, lived here from 1922 until he died. A graduate of what is now S.C. State University, he taught at Tomlinson High in Kingstree 1929-41 and 1945-60. He was principal of the Williamsburg County Training School (after 1972 C.E. Murray Elementary and High School) 1960-83. This house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Erected by the Dr. Charles E. Murray Historical Foundation of Greeleyville, 2007

(Front) St. Alban’s Episcopal Church has long been the only continuously active Episcopal congregation in Williamsburg County. It was founded in 1879 by Carrie Simons (1849-1938), who persuaded Bishop W.W. Howe to help her organize a mission church with a few communicants. In 1887 Simons moved to Kingstree and married Michael F. Heller. She continued to support St. Alban’s until her death.
(Reverse) This sanctuary, a fine example of the Carpenter Gothic style, was built between 1889 and 1895 and was completed during the tenure of the Rev. Herbert Jarvis. Jarvis, priest here 1894-98, named the church St. Alban’s. The Revs. William Guerry and William Moore, supply priests here 1891-94 and 1940-44, later became bishops. White and black families have worshipped together at St. Alban’s since the 1890s.

Sims Reach Rd. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 45-285), .75 mi. S of its junction with S.C. Hwy. 527, Kingstree vicinity

(Front) John McClary (1760-1833) established this cemetery about 1789, locating it on high ground near Boggy Swamp. McClary’s will, dated 1831, provided for headstones for himself and his three wives: Mary Raphield (1757-1792), Margaret Blackwell (1769-1789), and Sarah Raphield (1760-1815). Many of John McClary’s descendants and other members of the community are buried here.
(Reverse) McClary, born in Northern Ireland, came to S.C. by 1780. He and his brothers served under Gen. Francis Marion during the Revolution. In 1791 he was one of the commissioners who surveyed and laid out the town of Kingstree. A Presbyterian elder, he helped reunite the Williamsburg and Bethel churches in 1828. He was perhaps the wealthiest planter in Williamsburgh District at his death.

(Front) This church was organized in 1857 by members of Williamsburg Presbyterian Church who lived south of Black River and wanted to worship closer than Kingstree, 8 mi. north. William Lifrage conveyed this tract, on what was then Broomstraw Rd., to trustees for the new congregation. The frame church here was built between 1857 and the time the congregation was more formally established in 1863.
(Reverse) In December 1863 thirty members of Williamsburg Presbyterian Church received letters of dismissal to join this church, with Rev. E.O. Frierson as their first pastor. This church, built by that time, has served its congregation for 150 years. A frame building, its interior was remodeled about 1905 and a portico was added in 1947. The cemetery here dates from 1876.

York County

(Front) In 1886 A.D. Holler, who had long owned a wagon and buggy shop in Rock Hill, founded Holler and Anderson Buggy Company with his son-in-law John Gary Anderson (1861-1937). Anderson built a factory here in 1892, with separate blacksmith, woodwork, trim, and paint shops. Renamed Rock Hill Buggy Company, it was known for quality materials and craftsmanship. By 1900 it was an industry leader and sold 6,000 buggies a year.
(Reverse)

The firm became Anderson Motor Company and began building automobiles in 1916. Its first cars were the Anderson Six, a 6-passenger touring car, and the Roadster, a 3-passenger convertible. By 1923 there were 8 brightly-colored luxury cars with innovations such as the first floor dimmer switch. At its peak in 1923 the factory made 35 cars a day. It built the last Anderson in 1924 and closed in 1926. Fewer than a dozen Anderson automobiles still survive.

Erected by the Culture & Heritage Museums of York County and the City of Rock Hill, 2009

S.C. Sec. Rd. 46-165 (Brattonsville Rd.), ½ mi. from the intersection of Brattonsville Rd. and

On July 12, 1780, at Williamson's Plantation about one-fifth of a mile east from here, Loyalist forces under Capt. Christian Huck were defeated by American forces led by Cols. William Bratton, William Hill, Edward Lacey, Richard Winn, as well as Captain John Moffett. Six months after this battle, known as "Huck's Defeat," came the pivotal American victories at Kings Mtn. in Oct. 1780 and Cowpens in Jan. 1781.

(Front) David Edward Finley, Jr. (1890-1977), first director of the National Gallery of Art, was born in this house. Finley moved to Washington, D.C. as a child when his father was elected to Congress and was educated at the University of S.C. and George Washington University Law School. He practiced law, served in World War I, then worked for Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon.

(Reverse) Finley and Andrew W. Mellon worked for years to establish a national art gallery with Mellon's collection as its nucleus, but Mellon died in 1937 just as the project began. Finley directed the construction of the National Art Gallery and was its director 1938-1956, building it into "a treasure trove of art." He was also chairman of the National Trust for Historic Preservation 1950-1962.

(Front) The first services were in private homes and at Rock Hill Academy 1857-1861. The church was organized Easter 1870 with the Rev. Roberts P. Johnson as its first rector. Founders included the families of Col. Cadwallader Jones, Halcott Pride Green, Maj. John R. London, Col. J.M. Ivy, and Samuel G. Keesler. This structure, completed in 1872 with alterations since, is the oldest church building in the city.

(Reverse) The first parish house, built in 1922, contained one of the first gymnasiums in Rock Hill. Under the leadership of the Rev. W. Preston Peyton, it was a center for community activities. It was replaced by the present parish house, built in 1991, which contains a hall dedicated to the memory of the Rev. William W. Lumpkin (1910-1969), rector 1951-1969.

Erected by the Congregation and Friends in Memory of Walter Thomas Jenkins, Jr., 2000

intersection of W. McConnells Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 322) and Blanton Rd., between Bullock Creek and McConnells

(Front) Col. Edward Lacey (1742-1813), prominent officer in the American Revolution in the S.C. backcountry, occupied this hill west of Turkey Creek in the late summer of 1780. Lacey, who commanded S.C. militiamen in the battles of Rocky Mount, Cary's Fort, Hanging Rock, and Fishing Creek in July and August, built a 15-ft. log stockade near this site.

(Reverse) The fort here was sometimes called "Liberty Hill" by patriots but "Patriot's Folly" by Loyalists. It was occupied by S.C. militiamen under Cols. Edward Lacey and William Hill after they participated in the American victory at Kings Mountain 7 October 1780. Gen. Charles Cornwallis, commanding British forces in the South, later camped here briefly in January 1781.

(Front) This bank, built in 1909-10 by W.W. Blair, was the first bank in the town of Sharon, incorporated in 1889. Its first officers were J.H. Saye, president; J.L. Rainey, vice president; and A.M. Haddon, cashier. From 1910 to 1929 the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced national bank notes for this bank. It was the only bank in western York County to survive the Depression.
(Reverse) At the time of its merger with First Citizens Bank in 1986 the First National Bank of Sharon was the oldest continuously operating national bank in York County. The bank, with its distinctive arched corner entrance, is part of the Sharon Downtown Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

Erected by the Culture & Heritage Museums of York County, First Citizens Bank, and the Rainey Foundation, 2008

(Front) A two-story log house built ca. 1771 for John Dickey (1703-1789) stood about 100 yds. NE until 1988, when it was moved to Kings Mountain State Park. Dickey, a native of Ireland, emigrated to Virginia with his wife Martha McNeely Dickey in 1737. They moved to this area after 1770, when Dickey received a grant of about 175 acres. He was an elder at nearby Bullock Creek Presbyterian Church.
(Reverse) In 1844 Richard Sherer (1796-1888) bought the house and 76 acres from the descendants of Martha McNeely Dickey. Members of the Sherer family lived in the house until ca. 1918. In 1988 Ruth Duncan Latham donated the house to the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism. It has been restored and now serves as the park headquarters for Kings Mountain State Park.

Clinton Junior College, affiliated with the A.M.E. Zion Church, was founded in 1894 by Revs. Nero Crockett and W.M. Robinson as Clinton Institute. Named for Bishop Isom C. Clinton, it featured primary and secondary courses as well as a two-year college program. It became Clinton Junior College in 1965. Dr. Sallie V. Moreland (ca. 1898-2000) served 48 years as president of the college from 1946 to 1994.

Piedmont Medical Center, 222 S. Herlong Ave., Rock Hill

(Front) One of the most successful of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), created in 1933. It gave many young men and World War veterans jobs planting trees, fighting forest fires and soil erosion, and building state and national parks. Almost 50,000 men served in S.C. between 1933 and 1942. York County included three CCC camps: Kings Mountain, York, and here at Ebenezer.

Young men, most of them between 17 and 25, lived in camps commanded by U.S. Army officers. The CCC camp here, described as "a busy little city," was named for Thomas L. Johnston, Rock Hill banker and farmer. It opened on August 19, 1935 and specialized in soil conservation. Its 250 men also participated in many educational, vocational, and recreational activities as well. The camp closed on July 27, 1942.

Erected by the Rock Hill Civitans and the York County Culture and Heritage Museums, 2005 [2006]

223 E. Main St., Rock Hill

(Front) The Andrew Jackson Hotel, built in 1926, was funded with more than $250,000 raised by citizens of Rock Hill. Designed by Charles Coker Wilson, it is a fine example of the Beaux Arts style and has been called one of the city’s “greatest triumphs.” In 1938-39 many stars of early country and gospel music, such as the Monroe Boys, Delmore Bros., and S.C. native Arthur Smith, recorded hit songs for RCA in sessions here.
(Reverse) VERNON GRANT

The building also included the Rock Hill Chamber of Commerce before it closed as a hotel in 1970. Vernon Grant, director 1957-65, was a leading American illustrator from the 1930s to the 50s. Best known as the creator of Kellogg’s “Snap! Crackle! Pop!” and Rock Hill’s Glen the Frog, he illustrated thousands of ads and magazine covers. He married Elizabeth Fewell of Rock Hill in 1936. In 1947 Grant moved his family to York County, where he lived until his death in 1990.

137 E. Main St., Rock Hill

(Front) This building, built in 1901, was occupied by McCrory’s Five & Dime from 1937 to 1997. On February 12, 1960, black students from Friendship Jr. College in Rock Hill were denied service at the McCrory’s lunch counter but refused to leave. Their “sit-in” was one of the first of many calling attention to segregated public places in downtown Rock Hill. These protests lasted for more than a year.

Many Rock Hill protesters were arrested, convicted, and fined. On January 31, 1961, ten students from Friendship Jr. College were arrested when they refused to leave McCrory’s. Nine would not pay their fines and became the first Civil Rights sit-in

protesters in the nation to serve jail time. This new “Jail No Bail” strategy by “the Friendship Nine” was soon adopted as the model strategy for the Freedom Rides of 1961.

Erected by the Culture & Heritage Museums of York County and the City of Rock Hill, 2007

(Front) This textile mill, built in 1881, was the first in Rock Hill and the first in S.C. to use steam power. A.E. Hutchison, J.M. Ivy, W.L. Roddey, and A.H. White founded the Rock Hill Cotton Factory to boost the city’s status as a cotton market and to spur further industrial and economic growth. This two-story mill was designed and built by A.D. Holler and modeled after the Camperdown Mill n Greenville.

(Reverse) This was the first of seven textile mills built here from 1881 to 1907. Rock Hill soon became the model of a “New South” city, its population grew from 800 to more than 6,000, and White Street became its “Textile Corridor” and industrial center. This mill, sold and renamed several times before it closed in 1967, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 and renovated into offices in 2007.

Erected by the Culture & Heritage Museums of York County and the City of Rock Hill, 2007

(Front) St. Anne’s Church, the first Catholic church in York County, was founded in 1919 by the Rev. William A. Tobin of Columbia. The first building, erected on Saluda Street in 1920, closed in 1961. St. Anne’s opened its first parochial school in the church rectory in 1951, with 17 pupils in the kindergarten and first grade. A second grade was added in 1952. A new St. Anne’s School opened here in 1956.

(Reverse) In 1954 St. Anne’s became the first school in S.C. to integrate, when it enrolled 5 students from St. Mary’s, the predominantly African-American Catholic church in Rock Hill. The school included grades 1-8 by 1957, and by 1961 had 15 black students enrolled. Worship services for St. Anne’s Church were held in the school auditorium 1982-1994. In 1998, St. Anne School moved to a new facility on Bird Street.
Erected by Culture & Heritage Museums of York County, St. Anne School, and The Hands of Mercy, Inc., 2009

(Front) The Standard Cotton Mill, built in 1888-89, was the second textile mill in Rock Hill. It was promoted by John R. London and financed entirely by local citizens, including schoolchildren, who bought stock for 50¢ a week. Built by contractor A.D. Holler with 200 looms, it expanded to almost 500 looms by 1893, producing gingham cloth, shirting, and towels. The mill was a major factor in the growth and development of Rock Hill for the next 30 years.

The Standard Cotton Mill was sold to a Charlotte firm and renamed Highland Park Manufacturing Company # 2 in 1898. A significant expansion of the mill in 1907 resulted in the corresponding expansion of this mill village as an important community in Rock Hill. The mill, which closed in 1968, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. It was renovated in 2005 as housing for seniors.

(Front) Rock Hill High School has its origins in the Rock Hill Graded School, opened in 1888 for grades 1-9. The name Rock Hill High was first used in 1907-08 for a boys’ school housed in the former Presbyterian High School. A property dispute closed the school after a year; its students returned to Rock Hill Graded School. In 1914 a new coeducational Rock Hill High School was built here with students in grades 8-10.
(Reverse) Grade 11 was added in 1917 and grade 12 was added in 1948. Additions or new buildings were constructed 1923-1952. Agriculture and commercial courses were added to standard courses, as were music, art, sports, and other activities. Rock Hill High and Sullivan Jr. High on Eden Terrace traded buildings in 1965. A new Rock Hill High was built on Springdale Rd. in 1977; the 1914 school was torn down in 1978.
Erected by the Rock Hill High School Class of 1961, 2007

(Front) This building was described as “handsome in every respect” when it opened in 1932. It replaced a 1906 post office and housed a new district court and federal offices. It served as a post office until 1986 and provided offices and headquarters for several U.S. Congressmen, including Thomas S. Gettys 1965-75. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, it was renamed in honor of Gettys in 1997.
(Reverse)

This six-story structure was Rock Hill’s first high-rise office building. Built in 1924-25, it opened in 1926 with Citizens Bank & Trust on the 1st floor. The bank closed in 1927. Rock Hill National Bank opened on the 1st floor in 1941 and remained here until 1976. WRHI Radio, one of S.C.’s earliest stations, signed-on with studios on the 2nd floor in 1944 and broadcast from here until 1977. Civil Defense used an observation deck on the roof during World War II.

Erected by the Culture & Heritage Museums of York County and the City of Rock Hill, 2007

(Front) This area was once part of the 448.5-acre plantation of Alexander Templeton Black (1798-1875), for whom Church Street was renamed Black Street. In 1851 Black deeded land for a right-of-way and depot to the Charlotte & S.C. Railroad. He also created and sold 23 town lots along a new Main Street, fulfilling his dream to establish a town here. The post office that opened nearby on April 17, 1852 was named “Rock Hill” after the hill the railroad tracks cut through.

The 1876 S.C. gubernatorial election was bitterly contested by Republican Gov. Daniel H. Chamberlain (1835-1907) and Democrat and ex-Confederate general Wade Hampton (1818-1902). On Oct. 12, 1876, citizens welcomed Hampton to Rock Hill near this site; this street was later renamed for him. Mounted Democratic clubs led him to Chatham Ave., where he spoke to a crowd of 3,000. The vote in York County and the upcountry was critical to Hampton’s eventual victory.

Erected by the Culture & Heritage Museums of York County and the City of Rock Hill, 2008

HICKORY GROVE SCHOOLS
W side of Wylie Ave. between Wilkerson St. & Oxford Ave., Hickory Grove

(Front) Hickory Grove School, a two-story brick building constructed in 1916 on Peachtree St., was built for grades 1-11. In 1928 Hickory Grove High School, a one-story brick building, was constructed at the corner of Wylie Ave. and Wilkerson St. as a separate high school. The Works Progress Administration built a teacherage, bus shed, vocational building, and lunchroom in 1939.

(Reverse) The high school and elementary school closed in 1975 and 1988, respectively. The 1916 elementary school was demolished in 1998; the 1928 high school was demolished in 1990. The 1939 vocational building, lunchroom, and bus shed are still standing. In 2010 the vocational building houses a magistrate’s office, and the lunchroom houses a senior citizens’/community center.
Erected by Comporium and the Culture & Heritage Museums of York County, 2010

(Front) This house was built ca. 1806 for planter John Springs III (1782-1853), who served in the S.C. House 1828-34 and was a partner in several banks, railroads, and textile mills before the Civil War. His son Andrew Baxter Springs (1819-1886) enlarged and remodeled this house in the 1850s. He served in the S.C. House 1852-56 and was also a delegate to the Secession Convention.
(Reverse) On April 26, 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet, making their way south from Richmond, Va., stopped here. Davis and part of his party spent the night here at the insistence of young ladies who greeted them with flowers. Springfield, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, has been headquarters of Leroy Springs & Company since 1987.

(Front) The first of six railroad depots was built here in 1851 on the Charlotte & S.C. RR, after the citizens of Ebenezer objected to a new railroad yard proposed there. The town that grew up here was named Rock Hill after the flint hill found when the railroad bed was excavated. The six depots built here between 1851 and 1912 served passengers and freight for a combined 122 years. The two-story brick depot built nearby in 1912 was a local landmark until it was torn down in 1973.

From 1891 to 1918 a street railway connected Railroad Ave., the depots, Main St., and Winthrop College. Nicknamed “Rock Hill Electric Railway,” it was pulled by mules named “Lec” and “Tric” for 21 years, then ran on battery power. Its rails were salvaged during World War II. Railroad Ave. was renamed Trade St. by 1920, as the largest retail center in the area. Trade St. was all but eliminated by urban renewal in 1973.

Erected by the Culture & Heritage Museums of York County and the City of Rock Hill, 2008

(Front) The home of James Milton Cherry (1856-1920) stood here until 1974. Cherry was a businessman, public servant, agriculturalist, and real estate developer in Rock Hill for 50 years. He helped found the Young Men’s Loan & Trust Co., one of the first banks here and later the Savings Bank of Rock Hill. Cherry was also a founder of the Rock Hill Light & Power Co., the Land & Town Site Co., and the Rock Hill Telephone Co.
(Reverse) Cherry was intendant, or mayor, of Rock Hill 1890-91 and later a longtime city councilman. A partner in the Rock Hill Buggy Co., he founded the Carolina Traction Co. to power an electric street railway. He was known as “The Alfalfa King” for advocating hay as a cash crop and a national spokesman for diversifying crops. Cherry Road, named for him, was paved in 1920 and was one of the first concrete roads in S.C.

Erected by the City of Rock Hill and the Culture & Heritage Museums of York County, 2008

BETHESDA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
4858 McConnells Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 322), McConnells vicinity
(Front) This church, which held services as early as 1760 about 1 mi. E, gave its name to a Scots-Irish community in this area before the Revolution. It was formally organized in 1769 by Rev. William Richardson. In 1771 John Fondren donated land here for a second frame church, built ca. 1780 after the church 1 mi. E burned.
(Reverse) Rev. Robert B. Walker (1766-1852), the first permanent minister, served here 1794-1834. Bethesda hosted many revivals during the Second Great Awakening. The cemetery dates to 1777, and this brick church was built in 1820. The church and cemetery were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Erected by the Congregation for its 250th Anniversary, 2010

(Front) This church, founded in 1788, predates the present town of Fort Mill and has occupied four sites in the vicinity. The first church, a log building, stood about 2 mi. NE in a community known as “Little York.” It burned in 1804. A log church was built 5 blocks N, where the first church cemetery was laid out. That church burned in 1838, and the congregation moved to a site just E of the current location.
(Reverse) The second church cemetery, laid out nearby, became a municipal cemetery in the 1920s. The third sanctuary, a frame building, burned in 1880. A Romanesque Revival church built here in 1881, featuring a central bell tower, was constructed with bricks made from local clay. It and the historic cemeteries nearby were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. A new sanctuary was built here in 2010.
Erected by the Congregation, 2010

(Front) This church was organized in 1869 with Rev. J.A. Rainey as its first pastor and is one of the oldest black institutions in Rock Hill. With support from Northern Presbyterians, it ran a private school as early as the 1880s and was a mission church until 1912. This Gothic Revival sanctuary, built by church members who were also brickmasons and carpenters, was built between 1897 and 1903.
(Reverse) This church features a three-story tower and pointed-arch and quatrefoil stained-glass windows. The congregation was a center of the local Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Hermon Presbyterian Church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. After the congregation moved to a new church 1 mi. SW on Heckle Blvd. in 1999, this historic church became a community center.

(Front) This site was the winter quarters of the Barnett Brothers Circus, briefly known as the Wallace Brothers Circus, from 1929 through 1945. Founded by Ray W. Rogers (1889-1946), the circus was one of the first to travel by truck instead of by train. That freedom helped it succeed during the Depression and World War II. It began its tour each March or April with a performance in York, then returned in November.
(Reverse)
BENNETT BROTHERS CIRCUS, 1929-1938

A highlight of the York Christmas parade was Santa Claus riding an elephant. In 1929 five sons of C.P. and Olive Bennett, living nearby, started their own circus with encouragement from Ray Rogers, who loaned them his big top and a few animals. All six Bennett sons and two daughters participated, along with other local children. Their circus performed in York, Rock Hill, Clover, and Sharon through 1938.

(Front) Yorkville Female Institute or Yorkville Female College was the first school here, where private schools and then public schools operated 1854-1987. The institute, founded in 1852, opened in 1854 and built a three-story brick school. During the Civil War it housed refugees for a few years as classes were held on and off site. Yorkville High School, a private boys’ and girls’ school, operated here 1882-1888.

Yorkville Graded School, a public school, occupied the old institution 1889-1900. It burned, and a new brick school was built in 1902, with an east wing and theater added in 1922. This became an elementary school after a new high school was built in 1951. In 1973 it was renamed to honor George C. McCelvey (1888-1973), principal 1912-1948. Since the school closed in 1987, McCelvey Center has been used by the community and the Culture & Heritage Museums of York County.

Sponsored by the Yorkville Historical Society and the Culture & Heritage Museums of York County, 2012

(Front) This church was founded in 1764 by Rev. William Richardson, who organized Scots-Irish settlers in this area, from both S.C. and N.C., into a congregation. Incorporated in 1786 as “The Presbyterian Church of Bethel Congregation,” it grew steadily and built its third church building here in 1809. Bethel later became the mother church for eight area Presbyterian churches.

(Reverse) The present church was described as “large and tasteful” when it was dedicated in 1873. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The earliest marked grave in the cemetery is from 1774. The cemetery contains graves of veterans of all of America’s wars, including several Patriots who fought at the nearby battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780.