South Carolina: The Comfortable State

THE FORTY-SIX COUNTIES
THEIR ATTRACTIONS AND DISTINCTIONS

Published in South Carolina: A Handbook prepared by The Department of Agriculture, Commerce and Industries and Clemson College, Columbia, South Carolina, 1927. Copyright not claimed.

*The dates of organization of counties given in these sketches generally refer to their beginnings an the legal political unite which wince than they hate continued to be. Originally, about 1682, the colony was divided into the three counties of Berkeley, Craven, and Colleton. A little later Carteret was formed. The limitations of this book do not permit in, tracing, of the history of the “parish system and of the carious organizations of counties election and judicial districts from which the present system of counties finally emerged.

ABBEVILLE COUNTY

In Alphabetical order, Abbeville county, organized in 1798, ranks first among, the counties of upper South Carolina. It seas first in the Confederate war, as it had been at the front in the war for American Independence. It was also lust and foremost in educational initiative and achievement Robert Mills sass in his “statistics of South Carolina”, published in 1824, “Abbeville may he regarded as the original scat of learning in tire upper country, and from it has emanated that light and intelligence which manifested. themselves there previous to and during the Revolutionary scar. Attention to education was coeval with the settlement.”

Tim first important settlement ml Abbeville district was made by Patrick I Calhoun and the families of four of his friends in 1756. They were of the Scottish, or Scotch-Irish, order. This settlement svgs followed in 1764 by tire coming of 211 Huguenot exiles from prance, and from them svgs derived the name of rite district and the strength and character of its people and institutions. Originally, the territory embraced in the district covered an urea of 992 square mile,. In recent years the sire of the county has been greatly reduced, until its present area covers only about one-half it, original territory. In its physical aspects it may he aptly described in biblical form as “a laud of waters, of fountains and springs flowing forth in valleys and hills-a land of wheat and corn and vines and 715 trees–a land of honey.” The great forests by which the lands originally covered hive been removed, although considerable wooded areas remain, covered by the short-leaf pine anti the hard woods native to this region.

Agriculture is the principal industry of the county, although two of the most modern and profitable cotton mills in the state are the mill at Calhoun Balls and the mill at Abbeville Court House. The prevailing soil of the county is of the red clay loam type and possesses great natural fertility. Cotton is the staple crop but the soil is well adapted to the profitable cultivation of all the grain and forage crops. The meadow lands of the county, of which there are many thousand acres, would afford rich pasturage for great herds of cattle and the development of a highly profitable dairying industry. One of the many natural advantages of this region is its even temperature, absence of zero cold in winter and tropical heat in summer, with the result that the growing season in Abbeville county is 235 days the year.

Abbeville county lies in the gold-bearing belt extending from Dahlonega, Georgia, through the states of South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia into Maryland. One of the richest of the “diggings” was the Dorn Gold Mine in Abbeville county. It was what was known as a “pocket mice”, and after yielding $3,000,000 was abandoned, the pocket having been thoroughly picked, and for many years the mine has not been operated. While the mineral resources of the county are practically a virgin field, sufficient prospecting has been done to indicate vast potential wealth, especially in the minerals used for strictly commercial purposes. Awaiting exploitation by even limited capital, there are heavy deposits of feldspar for porcelain and china manufacturers; mica essential in the electrical and radio field; in the state hiocher, the basis of all paint; an unlimited quantity and fine quality of holler’s earth necessary for clarifying and whitening mineral, vegetable and animal oils and fats, and asbestos for fireproofing. Small deposits of iron and onyx have also been found.

Abbeville county is served by the Southern and Seaboard railroads, and parts of the county by the Piedmont and Northern Electric railway. The county also has a fine system of improved public highways.

John C. Calhoun, George McDuffie, Langdon Cheves, the Haskells, James L. Petigru, the Wardlaws, statesmen, lawyers, judges, soldiers, and a host of other eminent men were born in this county.

The population of Abbeville county by the last United States census (1920) was 27,139-white, native-born, 11,670; colored, 15,436; foreign-born, 32; Indians, Chinese, 1. The population in 1925 (estimated) was 28,033. The population of Abbeville city by the local census is about 5,000. The population of the towns in the county follows: Calhoun halls, 897; Donalds, 310; Due West, 702; Lowndesville, 271. There are seven accredited high schools, one college (male) of A rank, one college for women, one theological seminary. The county is richly supplied with churches, all the Protestant denominations being well provided. At Abbeville Court House there is a small Roman Catholic church.

AIKEN COUNTY

Aiken COUNTY, formed from Edgefield, Barnwell, Lexington, and Orangeburg in 1872, territory originally in old Edgefield and Barnwell districts, was named for William Aiken, father of Governor Aiken, first president of the South Carolina railroad, and is situated in the west central sand hills. Its area is 1,100 square miles and the population, estimated in 1925, is 47,684. Aiken is the county seat. The value of real estate and personal property returned for taxation is $12,485,490, on a basis of 42 per cent of actual value.

The railroad mileage, including interurban, is 130. Aiken has about 800 miles of sand-clay highways, acknowledged the best in the state,-150 miles in the state highway system. It has a friable soil varying from a light sandy to a deep fertile loam. The growing season numbers 240 days. Main crops are cotton, corn, melons, oats, sugar cane, fruits and truck. Many carloads of hogs, chickens, peanuts, and potatoes are shipped every year.

The cotton manufacturing industry in Horsecreek valley has assumed large proportions, with mills at Vaucluse, Graniteville, Warrenville, Langley, Bath, and Clearwater. The Gregg Dyeing company, at Graniteville, is the largest sulphur khaki plant in the United States.

The lumber industry is important, a number of big sawmills and a veneering plant being in constant operation.

Kaolins, widely distributed throughout Aiken county, are pure and valuable, are adapted to a great diversity of markets, and the plants make one of the largest industries of the kind in the Southeast.

There are eight accredited high schools for whites.

A full time health department is maintained.

Aiken county was the birthplace of home demonstration work. In 1910, Marie Samuella Cromer Seigler, a teacher, organized the first tomato club and the movement has become world-wide.

Passing through the county and Aiken city is the “old South Carolina Railroad,” from Charleston to Hamburg, once the longest railroad in America. Hamburg was a center of finance, to a short time before the Confederate war, and bank notes of the old Bank of Hamburg were given recognition over those of other banks of excellent security.

In 1865 the battle of Aiken was fought. Kilpatrick’s raiders, sent to destroy the Graniteville cotton mill, the only cotton mill in the South to run uninterruptedly throughout the war, were halted here by Wheeler’s Cavalry.

A few years earlier former Governor James H. Hammond of the Beech Island section of Aiken, later United States senator, declared in Congress that “Cotton is King.”

The Beech Island Agricultural club, organized in 1843, is the mother of all amalgamated agricultural clubs in the South.

Sand Bar ferry, near Beech Island, on the Savannah river, was a famous duelling ground. In July, 1876, occurred the “Hamburg Riot”, which determined the Democrats to nominate a candidate for governor. Many Negroes were killed. Some 60 men were charged with riot and murder and marched into Aiken where they appeared before the circuit judge. The streets were lined with 5,000 mounted men from all parts of western Carolina, many of them clad in red shirts. It was at this time, with these men gathered on Kalmia Hill, near Aiken, to consult with their counsel, that the Red Shirt idea originated. The scene shifted to Ellenton, where, on September 15, 1876, a more serious uprising stirred South Carolina to the depths. Fighting between the whites and Negroes continued three days, and one of the most notable trials in the annals of South Carolina followed at Charleston in May, 1877.

Aiken county bore the brunt of redeeming South Carolina and making it a white man’s country, just as the county has since then been in the fore of progress, agriculturally, educationally, and industrially.

ALLENDALE COUNTY

ALLENDALE is a Savannah river county of the Lower Pine Belt, midway between the fall line and the coast, and is one of the best examples of the low country county. The 435 square miles of its area are almost uniformly level or slightly rolling save to the northwest, where the cool swift current of the Lower Three Runs, flowing into the Savannah, has cut the land into considerable hills. The Sa1kehatchie bounds the county on the east, and the Coosawhatchie has its source in the center, each taking its independent course to the sea. Both these small rivers have swamp areas from a hundred yards to a mile wide, and the Savannah a larger stretch. The alternation of cotton field with lanes of tall trees, or masses of underbrush of the swamp with its dark but clear waters, makes the characteristic and pleasant, even beautiful, scenery of the county.

Most of the area, outside the swamp regions, is Norfolk sandy loam, which is easily cultivated, absorbs rainfall quickly, yet stands drought well. The growing season is long, 245 days, on the average, between frosts. The winters are mild, and the summers tempered by the daily ocean breeze.

Agriculture is the almost universal occupation, about 75 per cent of the population being engaged in it. Approximately 65 per cent of the county’s area is cultivated, although large swamps and shallow ponds, the richest portions of its soil, remain to be made available. Cotton is the main crop, and Allendale stands fifth among the counties in yield per acre. Corn, hay, and oats produce heavily, but are chiefly raised to feed the stock. Watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers, asparagus and other varieties of truck are an important adjunct to cotton, as market crops, and any one of them can be made a main product. The pine forests and swamps of cypress, poplar and gum make lumbering a considerable source of revenue.

Three railroads, with a mileage of 59, two from Columbia to Savannah, and one from Augusta to the coast, were formerly the dependence of Allendale for transportation, and caused the growth of several towns,-Allendale, Fairfax, Appleton, Ulmers, Seigling, and Sycamore, ranging in population from 1,893 to 113. Two towns have electric lights, and Allendale has an excellent sewerage and light system, and a mile of paved streets. Allendale and Fairfax have accredited high schools; the former has recently provided for ii $100,000 high school, and the latter one to cost $40,000.

Dour state highways traversing the county, improved county roads, automobiles, and individual light and water systems, are making country life more attractive. This and the economy of living upon the farm promise more and better rural homes. The tradition of country life is h4, and a number of families are still living in antebellum homes.

Allendale’s population is 16,098, estimated 1925 at 16,215. Most of the Negroes are tenants; a few own their farms. The white population is much the same in its composition as at the end of the Eighteenth century-predominantly English, with a large German and somewhat smaller Scotch element.

The county was formed in 1919, and takes its name from the town, Allendale, the county seat, which had its name from the elder Paul Allen, the first postmaster.

ANDERSON COUNTY

ANDERSON COUNTY is situated about 100 miles, as the crow flies, from the State House in Columbia. It was formed from the lands that were ceded to the state during the Revolution by the Cherokee Indians. These ceded lands were later granted to ex-soldiers of the Revolution in part payment for their services and were largely settled by these. The present population of the county is, to a considerable degree, made up of the descendants of these veterans and the name Anderson is derived from Colonel Robert Anderson, who was one of them.

The county was organised in 1827 and contains an area of 758 square miles. The population in 1920 consisted of 49,887 white persons, 26,312 Negroes, 144 of foreign birth, and only nine Chinese and Indians. The total population at present is probably above 80,000.

The county lies on the Piedmont plateau and enjoys a mild, salubrious, and equable climate. Malaria is almost unknown. The highways are in excellent condition and there are 98 miles of railway.

In addition to the county seat Anderson county contains the incorporated towns of Belton, Honea Path, Williamston, Iva, Pendleton, Starr, and Townville. Of these Honea Path is the largest with approximately 2,000 inhabitants and Townville the smallest with less than 300. Belton occupies the highest point on the railway between Columbia and Greenville.

The schools of the county arc in excellent condition and are efficiently and economically administered. The number of accredited high schools is 12. In 1925-6 the public school enrollment was 14,838 white children and 6,395 colored. Anderson college, an institution for white women under control of the Baptist denomination, is located in the city of Anderson.

Anderson county has many large factories for the production of textiles, the experimental stage in such manufacturing laving long ago been passed. The supply of water-generated electrical power for such projects is ample and cheap, and the cost of living is comparatively low.

Agriculturally, according to the United States Department of Commerce, Anderson county ranks first in the Southeast, second in the South and twenty third in the nation. Cotton, corn, small grain and forage crops arc extensively grown as well as all the fruits and vegetables common to the Piedmont. Cattle, hogs, sheep and bees all thrive well and latterly the poultry industry has risen to considerable proportions, eight car loads of poultry being shipped from the county during the fall and winter of 1925-6.

The soils of the county arc the usual Cecil loams of this section of the state. The growing season is from 215 to 220 days and the rainfall is adequate. The farms number above 8,000 with an average area of 44 acres each. The majority of the farms arc operated by their owners. A progressive county farm agent devotes his entire time to promoting the agricultural interests of the county.

BAMBERG COUNTY

Bamberg area 375 square miles, was carved out of Barnwell in 1897 and named for the Bamberg family, founders of the county seat. A Coastal Plain county in the southwest part of the state, it has 20 types of soil, 15 upland and live lowland. It possesses features of the upper and lower pine belt, is rolling and hilly in parts and flat to the south.

The Edisto, Little Salkehatchie, and Great Salkehatchie rivers, and Lemon creek, flowing parallel southeast toward the coast, drain it. And in these streams the famous Edisto perch, trout, and jack abound. Game, too, is plentiful.

Essentially an agricultural county, cotton is the principal crop, but corn, oats, wheat, peas, yams, cane, asparagus, watermelons, cantaloupes, dewberries and tobacco are profitably cultivated. In late years increasing attention has been given to truck, tobacco, and dairying. Two large dairies are in Bamberg and two in Denmark.

The well distributed rainfall of 48 inches is heaviest in July and August when crops require moisture, and the mean temperature is 64°. Frosts are rare after March 10. Short, mild winters permit uninterrupted farming operations and expensive housing for live stock is unnecessary. Snow seldom falls. Fine pasture land for hogs and cattle is abundant. Farm labor is never lacking.

Bamberg, with 66 miles of railroad, has the best facilities of counties in this section. The Southern (the historic Charleston and Hamburg branch) crosses it east and west; the Atlantic Coast Line runs through it northeast and southwest; the Seaboard Air Line’s main line from New York to Florida traverses it north to south; the Bamberg, Ehrhardt and Western and the Atlantic Coast Line from Ehrhardt to its main line at Green Pond are other than trunk roads.

State highways crisscross the county north and south and east and west, ample county roads supplementing them. Other state highways are in contemplation.

The population was 20,962 in 1920, estimated 22,334 in 1925, of whom less than 50 are foreign born.

Beautiful churches of brick and wood, of various religious faiths are found, as are excellent rural schools. Bamberg, Denmark, Olar and Ehrhardt have accredited high schools.

Land prices run from $10 an acre upward according to location, fertility and improvements.

The town of Bamberg has 2,210 inhabitants. Carlisle school, military, has a plant valued at more than $200,000 and four brick buildings. In the town are a cotton factory, cotton seed oil mills, saw and planing mills, ginneries, two ice plants, and bottling works. The town owns a water system and electric light plant and the bonded indebtedness and tax rates are low. The picture shows Carlisle school buildings.

Denmark, an important railroad junction, is the home of a principal office of the American Telephone and Telegraph company, of the Edisto Public Service companywhich distributes hydroelectric power to 20 towns and is connected with the superpower system of the Southeast at Augusta, and has two saw mills, peanut shelling plant, ice factory, veneering works and bottling works. Voorhees Industrial and Normal school for Negroes, 681 students, under Episcopalian control, is at Denmark. The town owns its water works. The population is 1,254.

The population of Ehrhardt is 495, of Govan 124, of Midway 150, of Olar 500. Bamberg and Ehrhardt have special drainage districts for malarial control, the work being clone by the Rockefeller Foundation and the community. Malaria has been wiped out.

Bamberg’s climatic and labor conditions make it suitable for factories and its forests contain abundance of hard woods now being shipped as logs which could be manufactured at home.

The county is one of the few in South Carolina without a bonded debt, the county tax levy of seven mills is the lowest in the state, and surplus funds are at all times in the treasury. Yet it has kept apace of other counties in roads, schools, and in all progressive fields.

BARNWELL COUNTY

Barnwell County, originally “Winton” district, stretched from the Savannah river on the west almost to the Atlantic ocean. In 1798 the county was organized and named Barnwell in honor of General John Barnwell, Revolutionary leader. Even until Confederate war times, the county reached from the Savannah river to Branchville, and from old Barnwell county Bamberg, Allendale, and Aiken counties have been formed.

Barnwell is the home of the first steam railroad in the world. The old South Carolina railroad built in 1832 reached from Charleston to Branchville and thence on through Barnwell county to Hamburg. Blackville and Williston, county today, were stations on this famous road when it was a journey from early morning till late in the night to travel from the Georgia line to the wide Atlantic and when the well known cry “change cars” was first heard in Branchville.

Of Barnwell’s generous contributions to the Confederate cause, the most distinguished was General Johnson Hagood who later as governor gave to the state one of the outstanding economic and business-like administrations in its history. Soon after his election, one of Hagood’s constituents asked him if he wished to be called “General” or “Governor”. “Call me General,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye, “I fought for that and begged for the other.” The South Carolina poet and novelist, William Gilmore Simms, lived most of his life in the county and his descendants are today among the leading citizens. The county stands particularly high religiously and educationally. Bishop McTyre of the Methodist church, Dr. B. M. Palmer, one of the leaders of the Southern Presbyterians, Dr. C. T. Willingham, called the greatest of all the foreign mission secretaries of the Southern Baptists, and Louis M. Shook, first Baptist missionary ever sent to China, were born in Barnwell county. Mr. Shook is buried in the Baptist churchyard in Barnwell and near his grave has recently been erected a beautiful brick church.

In the exciting Reconstruction days when the white Democrats fought so valiantly to restore the state government to the whites, the county capital played hide and seek between Barnwell and Blackville. The present high school building was built in 1873 as the county courthouse. About this time the five members of the legislature from the county were colored. Simon Coker, killed in the Ellenton riot, was one of these. So unsettled was the location of the county seat that the sheriff in advertising sales would say that they would be held at the courthouse, but name no town. Finally the location of the courthouse was left to a vote and Barnwell won by 12 votes. The accompanying picture is of the ancient sun dial in the Barnwell courthouse yard-certainly the only one of its kind remaining in South Carolina.

Barnwell today is a rather small but forward-looking and hustling county with some of the finest farming lands in the South. Two of the largest single farms in the state are located in the county-the jumper place of nearly 2,000 acres along the Edisto river on the Northern boundary, and the Farrell place at Reynolds station near Blackville, 2,500 acres, now owned by the Reynolds .Farming corporation.

Barnwell has 522 square miles and a population (1920) of 23,081-white native born, 7,444; colored, 15,583; foreign born, 52; Indians, Chinese, 2. The county seat, Barnwell, by the same census had a population of 1,903 and the other towns of the county as follows: Blackville, 1,421; Williston, 854; Kline, 238; Elko, 188; Dunbarton, 187; Shelling, 137. The railroad mileage of the county is 85, of which the Southern has the largest part, the Atlantic Coast Line second, and the Seaboard a few miles of Florida and New York main line.

The growing season is 240 days and almost everything except strictly tropical fruits and vegetables thrive. In Barnwell county asparagus was first grown in this state in a commercial way, and Williston, always the center of this remarkable business, is the headquarters of the South Carolina Asparagus Growers’ association and one of the largest truck basket and crate factories of the South. Of course, cotton is the leading crop, with corn second. Kline, Dunbarton, and Barnwell are shipping points for some of the largest and finest watermelons. Blackville is the largest cucumber shipping point of the state, while asparagus is shipped in quantity from Elko, Williston and Barnwell.

Barnwell has four accredited high schools and five banks. While primarily an agricultural county, the recent coming into the county of high tension hydroelectric power lines gives promise of considerable industrial development.

BEAUFORT COUNTY

Beaufort County was organized in 1768, has an area of 702 square miles, and a population of 22,269 in 1920, estimated at 22,431 in 1925. The railroad mileage of the county is 52 and it has one accredited high school.

The growing season numbers 290 clays. The southernmost county of the state, the winter climate is mild and fresh sea breezes moderate the summer’s heat.

The town of Beaufort, with 2,831 inhabitants, is the county seat, and other towns with their populations are Bluffton, 480 ; Hardeeville 413; Port Royal, 333; and Yemassee, 323.

Before the Confederate war Beaufort, named for Henry, Duke of Beaufort, one of the Lords Proprietors, was the summer home of the planters who cultivated rice and cotton on the nearby plantations. It was proud that it had not a single white person of proper age who could not read and write. They were skillful farmers and raised “Carolina rice”, the finest rice raised anywhere and “sea-island cotton” of wonderfully long and silky staple. So fine was the staple of this cotton that it was always packed by hand in bags, never baled or compressed, and the French silk mills bought most of it before the crop was planted.

But all that is changed now. For years following 1865 the lands remained idle and many was the fine plantation that sold for $1.00 an acre. Pioneer planters of vegetables or truck began planting for sale in the local market; later shipments were made to distant markets and now the development has been so great that special arrangements are made each year by the railroads to handle the heavy shipments to Northern markets. “Beaufort Lettuce” has an established reputation and often sells in the same market at a higher price than the California shipments. Potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, cabbages, peas and other vegetables come, in season, away from the rich fields of Beaufort by the carload-at times by trainloads.

Following the Confederate war it was discovered that the fossil bones and other fossil remains, known as phosphate rock, were valuable as fertilizers. And Beaufort flourished. But the exhaustion of the deposits, combined with the discovery of more accessible supplies in Algiers and Florida, made the industry unprofitable. The day when the phosphate dredges, washers and tugs dashed up and down St. Helena and Port Royal harbors is past; but the fertile lands supply a new industry and the mountains of barrels and crates are now as much a cause for remark as were the great phosphate “works” and the foreign ships.

Beaufort early caught the idea of good roads. The old “shell road” from Beaufort to Port Royal was one of the first hard surface roads in the state, and the gravel-clay road from Yemassee into Beaufort is now one of the state’s best roads. Winding through old rice fields and under live oak groves and through palmetto lanes, this road is picturesque as well as practicable.

The sightseeing visitor may see the historic houses of Beaufort-many of them built before the Revolutionary war-and old St. Helena church, spared in both the Revolution and the Confederate war, which was not the good fortune of Sheldon church, burned in both wars. Good roads leach to the fertile truck farms on Broad river, and in late winter one may drive for miles through continuous vegetable gardens. There arc famous groves of live oaks festooned with grey moss, such as Tomalty and Old Fort. The last is the site of the old “Spanish Fort”, which is not an old Spanish fort at all but was built in colonial days as a protection against the Spaniard. The Spanish raids from St. Augustine were not pleasant experiences for the Beaufort settlers.

On several points on Beaufort Island there have been excavated buildings of some prehistoric race who lived on the Carolina coast before the race of Indians whom the first Europeans found, and there arc still mounds to be excavated.

On Parris Island the United States has a large and important camp for the Marine corps. A large part of the island has been acquired by the government and if the casual visitor to the adjoining island hears what he thinks is thunder on a clear day he has only to remember that thousands of marines sometimes indulge in target practice.

Of new territory to explore there is an abundance. The county is now completing a long and costly bridge from Beaufort to Ladies’ Island and access is thus gained to St. Helena Island as well-the island that protested it wished no turbulent characters when it believed Napoleon was to be sent there, and the island of which the poet Grayson wrote so gracefully.

Across Combahee river there has been completed a fine steel bridge at the famous old Combahee Ferry. On the eastern side the road is an old cause way and the bridge is too high to enable travellers to drink the waters of the Combahee–one of the purest rivers of the world-as the planters in former days would do when crossing in the great flat boat, and drink a toast (with or without) to “God’s country”. On this road the trip by motor to Charleston takes but two hours. And as the new bridge to Savannah has long been open to travel, visitors from that interesting city may visit Beaufort and remember the days when Oglethorpe was beginning the Savannah settlement and the well established Beaufort town sent a welcoming gift of “rum and rice”.

Halfway between Beaufort and Savannah was fought the battle of Honey Hill. The Federal fleet sent an army by boats to cut the Charleston and Savannah railroad. The Confederates stopped them at Honey Hill after a bloody battle.

BERKELEY COUNTY

Berkeley County, in the lower pine belt of the Coastal Plain, the largest county of the state, has an area of 1,238 square miles, and 22,558 inhabitants, virtually all native. The county is level, the maximum elevation being 150 feet. It was established in 1882, but embraces part of the county named in honor of two Lords Proprietors, John, Lord Berkeley, and William Berkeley, established May 10, 1682, along with Craven and Colleton counties. Its present territory was long part of Charleston county. Moncks Corner, the county seat, has 309 inhabitants, Lincolnville 247, and St. Stephens 312.

The soil is of varying kinds and degrees of fertility; the richest being along the rivers and swamps, shading off into light sandy soil, extremely responsive to proper fertilization and cultivation. Technically the soils are divided into six series: Norfolk, Rustan, Coxville, and Portsmouth in the uplands, and Johnston and Congaree in the bottom lands. Norfolk and Rustan are the most important and best drained, and about 60 per cent of their area is under cultivation. The growing season is from 250 to 280 days.

Agriculture developed early under the plantation system, and nowhere was the social and economic life which it fostered more typical, with indigo, rice and cotton as the staple crops. This condition continued to 1860, many of the plantations date from Colonial times, and some are still in the possession of original families. Some of these are of more than local interest, as the original homes of distinguished South Carolinians.

The present crops consist of cotton, corn, peas, oats, sweet potatoes sugar cane and tobacco. Any crop that will grow in the Coastal Plain will flourish here. One of the first crops of long cotton in South Carolina was grown by Gen. William Moultrie on his Northampton Plantation in 1793.

Recent years have seen marked increase of interest in education. Schools have been consolidated, trucks are used, and many modern school houses built for both white and colored pupils. The accredited high school at Moncks Corner in 1915 was a one teacher school with au enrollment of 12 and a building and lot valued at $200. In 1926 this school has 15 teachers, 375 pupils, and a plant valued at $65,000.

The Atlantic Coast Line, the Southern, and Seaboard Air Line railroads, with a total of 76 miles, furnish transportation. The Atlantic Coastal highway 41 follows the Atlantic Coast Line from the splendid Santee river bridge to the Charleston county line at historic Goose creek, and the Old State road, another first-class highway, passes through the western part. Other state highways are under construction and old roads are being improved.

Two banks at Moncks Corner and one at St. Stephens serve the county.

Manufacturing is mainly confined to lumber, turpentine, and a barrel and basket factory with a capital of $100,000 and a capacity of 1,000,000 packages.

Berkeley h4ly appeals to the naturalist and the sportsman, being rich in flora and fauna. Here the live oak, the magnolia and the cypress flourish to perfection, as well as every tree, flower, fruit, and shrub known to this latitude. Here are still found in considerable abundance, deer, wild cat, opossum, coon, fox, rabbit, squirrel, wild turkey, dove, and partridge, and in season wild duck of many varieties. In the streams are black bass, bream, perch, shad, rock fish, and carp.

It was in Berkeley at Liberty Hall plantation that Audubon did much of his work; in St. John’s, Porcher gathered a vast amount of information in preparing, at the request of the Confederate government, his resources of the southern fields and forests; here Ravenel gathered many of his botanical specimens, and here too, in recent years, Herbert Sass and Archibald Rutledge have found inspiration for some of their fascinating stories.

CALHOUN COUNTY

Calhoun County, named for John Caldwell Calhoun, was formed of parts of Lexington and Orangeburg in 1908. The eastern and northern boundaries are the Congaree and Santee rivers. Its area is 391 square miles, divided into three distinct soil-types. The southern and southeastern parts are Coastal Plain type. The central is a narrow strip about seven miles wide, extending in a northeasterly direction, with characteristics of the Piedmont. The northwest, or upper, is the Sandhill section and extends almost to the fall line.

The population in 1920 was 18,380. The predominating citizenship has sprung from descendants of colonists from the northern part of Europe, who came to this section in 1732 and earlier. The forests yield turpentine and lumber. Along the streams are the hardwood forests. Nature soon reforests the cutover land. Woodland fires are rare.

Thirty-four miles of main line railroads furnish quick and easy transportation; the Southern from Charleston to Columbia; the Atlantic Coast Line from Augusta to Florence. The sand-clay roads are excellent and well maintained. Highway 2 from Columbia to Charleston passes through the county 26 miles, following the old stagecoach route, and on it is regular bus service. Highways 32 and 52, of the state system, are also important routes.

St. Matthews, the county seat, is a well-kept, well governed town of 1,780 inhabitants, 34 miles from Columbia and 92 from Charleston. Here are found stores; two banks, state and national; a school, the pride of the town; cotton gins; fertilizer plant; ice factory; bottling plant. There are four churches. Nine miles southeast is Cameron, an enterprising town, having beautiful homes and an excellent school. Fort Motte, named for the Revolutionary heroine, Rebecca Motte, is a shipping point for cotton and hardwood timber. So are Creston and Lone Star. At Lone Star is situated the Calsico Hardwood Lumber plant.

Calhoun has a fine system of public schools, with four accredited high schools. Motor buses carry children to the graded and high school.

Agriculture, dating from the early part of the Eighteenth century, began about 1895 to make great progress. The possibilities are rich for enterprising farmers. Prices for land vary from $10 to $100 an acre. With the advent of the destructive pests to cotton about five years ago, the farmers began to practice diversification, the varied crops and the excellence that marks their production proving their wisdom. With ample transportation facilities and near markets, diversified farming is just in its infancy.

The growing season, 230 days, is long enough to mature all crops. The average rainfall is about five inches a month, or 48 to 50 inches a year. Cotton is the “money crop”, and practically all finances of the county are based upon it, but the soils will grow in paying quantities almost any staple and truck crop. The major crops besides cotton are corn, oats, soy beans, Irish and sweet potatoes, peas, peanuts, wheat, asparagus, and garden and orchard crops.

The county produces seeds for planting of high quality. W. W. Wannamaker, originator of “Wannamaker-Cleveland Big Boll”, has excelled in his breeding work of this cotton. Calhoun county has no outstanding bond issue, and none is contemplated. Taxes are low.

CHARLESTON COUNTY

Charleston County stretches from the mouth of the South Santee to the mouth of the South Edisto river, 91 miles of coast on the Atlantic ocean, and has a total area of 888 square miles. The coast lice is made up of a chain of islands, forming a natural barrier to the mainland, into which reach fingers of the sea, forming numerous small inlets and including, almost in the geographical center of the county, the beautiful bay of Charleston, into which the Ashley and the Cooper, two large tidal rivers, empty.

The seacoast is fringed with palmetto trees, backed by forests of pine, oak and cypress, and the land is rich with loam and produces a variety of food and money crops. The barrier islands have long stretches of fine sandy beaches, are readily accessible and make ideal seashore resorts, while they have from earliest times been the resort of sportsmen. Colonies of sea birds make their homes among these islands and the region is especially interesting to naturalists.

The farm lands of Charleston county have been brought to a high degree of fertility by careful and scientific agriculture and they have produced abundantly of the staple crops of the South, rice, cotton and garden truck. The famous Sea Island cotton, with its silky staple, is indigenous to this particular region, where it was developed to its perfection through a long period of cultivation years. Truck farming is practiced on both an intensive and an extensive scale and the vegetable produce of the county holds a special place in the market. The peculiar quality of the soil, with its high iodine content, and the mellow atmosphere of the coast region give a special value to the truck grown here.

Rich deposits of phosphate rock, on land and in river bed, supplied the base for commercial fertilizer in large quantities and the manufacture of such material has been for many years a major industry of the county. The wooded lands have fine pine timber and varieties of hardwood. The city of Charleston, the largest city in the two Carolinas, is situated on the bay of Charleston. Its natural location on the best harbor on the South Atlantic coast and the energies of its people in developing its resources have made it a notable port of commerce for two and a half centuries. It is one of the most historic cities in the United States and preserves the flavor of its early establishment. Writing of Charleston in 1773, Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts said that “in grandeur, splendor of buildings, decorations, equipages, numbers of commerce, shipping and indeed in almost everything” it far surpassed all he had ever seen or ever expected to see in America, and, in 1926, William Allen White of Kansas declared, in a public speech, that Charleston was “the most civilized town in America.” It does a large import and export business, manufactures fertilizer, is a depot for large quantities of oil, the site of a great refinery, and contains many small industries. It is beautifully situated, is notable for its architecture, is equipped with modern hotels, approached by splendid roads and is fully paved. Its climate is balmy in winter and tempered in summer with sea breezes.

The county has many fine old colonial estates still intact, its forests abound in game and its waters with fish, while its landscape is a delight to the artist.

The county was organized in 1768 but its lines have been altered several times since. It was named for King Charles II of England. Its population, by the census of 1920 was 108,450 and was estimated by the census bureau in 1925 to be 116,048.

Besides Charleston there are three other incorporated towns in the county, Mount Pleasant, McClellanville and Maryville.

CHEROKEE COUNTY

Cherokee County (the name is from the Indian nation) was organized in 1897. It is in the famous Piedmont section of the Carolinas, touching the North Carolina line. Its area is 373 square miles, 238,720 acres.

The last census gave the county a population of 27,570, of which number 18,955 were native born white, and 8,595 colored. The present estimated population is approximately 30,000. There is practically no foreign born population.

Gaffney and Blacksburg are the incorporated towns in Cherokee county. The county seat is Gaffney, located in the center of the county, with a population in 1920 of 5,065. The estimated in 1926 is 9,250.Blacksburg’s population numbered 1512 in 1920.

The main line of the Southern railroad from Atlanta to Washington traverses the county. The total railroad mileage is 48. Highways run in all directions, many of which are paved, and practically all unpaved are sand-clay.

Cherokee county is mainly agricultural. A number of cotton mills are within the borders of this county, all of which are prospering under the favorable labor conditions that obtain. Cotton is the major crop. Corn is largely grown. The soil lends itself admirably to trucking. Fruit growing is increasing, and dairying is receiving the attention of many farmers. The soil and the climate combine to produce favorable conditions for cotton, corn, fruit, and dairying. Poultry raising is also on the increase. The growing season, that is, the number of days between the average late spring and early autumn killing frosts, numbers 215 days.

Both the religious and educational life of the county are constantly developing. Congregations of practically all the Protestant faiths are in evidence. Schoolhouses are numerous, with a constant tendency toward consolidation. In Gaffney, the county seat, are four well appointed buildings for the grades, and a modern $200,000 high school edifice. In Gaffnev is also Limestone college, a senior college for young women, chartered ill 1845. Limestone has a campus unsurpassed in natural beauty.

Cherokee invites the consideration and investigation of those who may be considering agricultural or industrial pursuits. A ready market is convenient for those who desire to engage in stock raising, poultry, or fruit. Reasonable sites are available for the location of industries.

A county farm demonstration agent, together with a secretary of the chamber of commerce are at the disposal of those who may desire to make inquiry. The progressive spirit of the industrial and agricultural interests of the county are evidenced by an annual county fair.

CHESTER COUNTY

Chester County of which the city of the same name is the county seat, was organized in 1798, has an area of 592 square miles, 378,880 acre., was named for Chester in Pennsylvania from which numbers of its settlers came, which in turn was named for Chester in England. In 1920 it had 13,996 whites aural 19,338 colored inhabitants, 54 foreign born, and one Chinese, the total population being 33,389, estimated in 1925 at 35,635.

Chester is a north central county bounded on the cast by Catawba river and the west by Broad. Great Falls. in Chester, is the site of one of the principal stations of the Southern Power company; two miles south is its Rocky Creek station; five miles north its Dishing Creek station, while its Wateree station is 30 miles; south. Across the river from Great balls is the Dearborn station. Three of these hydroelectric stations generating 173,750 H.P. are in the county and plants of 214,000 H.P. capacity arc within 40 miles of the city of Chester the county seat. Chester county is one of the chief centers of power development in the Southern states.

Of Chester soil 29.9 per cent is Cecil sandy loam, most of it in the county’, eastern section, where it is a gently rolling country. It produces principally cotton, corn, oats and fruits. Cecil clay loam is 21.2 per cent, commonly known as “red clay land”. 1t produces cotton and corn. Iredell clay loam or “black tack land”, 16.2 per cent, forms a wide broken strip through the center of the county in a southeasterly direction, and Cecil coarse sandy loam. much like Cecil sandy loam, is 12.6 per cent and is found in a large belt rimming southwest.

The county has brick clay, soapstone and mad, or bog manganese ill quantities, net now worked but rich in prospects for development. Twenty-five per cent or 99,977 acres of the farm area of the county- is in farm woodland, the short leaf pine being the most common tree, though there are valuable hardwoods, as oak, hickory, and walnut.

The climate mild and healthful, makes open air farming practicable nearly all of the year, and facilitates crop production in great variety. The growing season is 215 days. Sleet or snow is occasional.

Chester has seven accredited high schools. The city of Chester has a population of 5,557. It has three cotton mills with 71,800 spindles and 2,036 looms. Other textile mills in the county have 92,706 spindles and 2,672 looms. Other manufacturing industries of the city are machine and lumber company, ice and fuel company, cotton oil company, tool works, fertilizer works, roller mill, marble and granite company, creamery, ice cream company, a poultry hatchery, bakery, and bottling works.

Chester is one of the typically prosperous and well-settled up-country counties. Predominantly agricultural, it has the advantage of nearness to such markets as Charlotte and Columbia, as well as the great manufacturing districts west of it. Improved and developed lands command good prices, but low priced lands easily brought up are abundant.

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, a name transplanted from Pennsylvania and the old country, was organized in 1798 and was settled principally by Welsh, English, and Scotch, has an area of 837 square miles and had in 1920, 31,969 inhabitants, estimated at 35,180 in 1925.

North Carolina, whence came ancestors of many of its people, is on the northern border; the Great Peedee, its bottoms producing grain and its swamps rich in gum, oak, hickory, poplar, walnut, and ash, is its eastern boundary, and Lynches river and Cedar creek, with rich alluvial lands, bound it on the east and south. The central part of the county is a large tract of typical sandhill land now coming into its own as the great South Carolina fruit, melon and berry section.

The county is 35 miles across, the towns are situated around the border, and 150 miles of state sand-clay roads connect them. In the central section is a considerable area of only partly developed land naturally adapted to cotton, fruit, grapes, and melons. This land can be bought at low prices.

In 1925 Chesterfield produced more than 30,000 bales of cotton. Here the boll weevil has never been as destructive as in the counties to the south, and thus far the cotton crop has never been a failure. The fruit, berry and melon crop rank second. Chesterfield is the leading peach county of South Carolina, and close to Cheraw are the finest peach orchards in the two Carolinas. In the county are 2,000 acres bearing, and the shipments for 1926 are estimated at 200 car loads.One hundred acres are in dewberries and grapes, which are being shipped over the eastern part of the United States. Three thousand acres are in watermelons, and this crop is increasing rapidly and profitably. Seven car loads of chickens were shipped from the county last year.

Four railroad lines with 116 miles of trackage traverse every part of the county, situated 12 hours from Washington. The county has eight accredited high schools.

Of the seven thriving towns, the lively old town of Cheraw, which one time during the Revolution was the capital of the state, is rich in historical interest. Here the British troops were stationed and in the old cemetery are buried soldiers of every war that the United States has taken part in. Down the streets of Cheraw, Sherman fought the retiring Confederates, and Cheraw sent a company of the Thirtieth division to help break the Hindenburg line.

Cheraw had 3,150 inhabitants in 1920, has 3,500 now, four large school buildings, ten churches, three cotton mills, an oil mill, an ice factory, and the largest veneer plant in South Carolina. The town owns its water-works, has available electric power in unlimited quantities and has one of the smallest debts and lightest tax rates of any of the towns in the state. Near the town are two successful brick and tile plants and valuable kaolin deposits are close.

Chesterfield, the county seat, is in the northeast central part of the county, is on the Cheraw and Lancaster railroad, of which Cheraw and Pageland are the termini, and is a flourishing town of 856 inhabitants. Other towns with their populations are: Jefferson, 454; McBee, 417; Mount Croghan, 232 ; Pageland, 521 ; Patrick, 164 ; and Ruby, 290.

Chesterfield has 535,680 acres of land, a million opportunities, and a warm welcome for newcomers.

CLARENDON COUNTY

Clarendon County of which Manning is the county seat, has au area of 391,040 acres, or 704 square miles, is situated in the east central part of South Carolina, in the Coastal Plain region, and is bounded by Sumter, Florence, and Williamsburg counties, and the Santee river.

The county was named in honor of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, once Lord High Chancellor of England, one of the Lords Proprietors. Clarendon county was organized in 1855 with its own county seat, and was divided into 19 districts.

The county seat was named in honor of Richard I Manning, governor, 1824 – 1826. Buildings went up rapidly, and stores, churches, and schools were established. A body of Sherman’s troops under command of General Potter raided Clarendon county early in 1865. The county recovered slowly from the Confederate war, but today finds it prosperous, with a spirit of cooperation manifested everywhere.

Manning is on the Atlantic Coast Line railroad, about 60 miles from Columbia and 80 miles from Charleston, and in 1920 had a population of 2,022. The town is about 150 feet above sea level, and natural drainage gives it an enviable health record. The water supply is obtained from artesian wells, a sit-inch overflow supplying the waterworks. Streets are broad, paved with asphalt, bordered with huge oaks, lighted with a “white way” system and arc lights. The courthouse plaza, on which are the courthouse built 20 years ago and the Confederate monument unveiled in 1914, is in the center of the town.

Five governors have been elected from Clarendon county: James Burchell Richardson, 1802; Richard I. Manning, 1824; John Peter Richardson, 1840; John L. Manning, 1852; John Peter Richardson, Jr., 1886. The Richardsons were father, son, and grandson, and the Manning’s, father and son, were nephew and grandnephew of the first Governor Richardson. Another Richard 1. Manning, grandson of the first, was elected governor from Sumter county in 1914 and again in 1916. The accompanying picture is of Gov. John L. Manning’s home.

Other incorporated towns are Summerton, 957; Pinewood, 338; Paxville, 185 ; Foreston, 115. The population of the county in 1920 was 34,878.

Five banks are operated in the county, three of them in Manning. The county has five public high schools and in Manning is a private college preparatory school. Churches of all denominations are represented and there is a well supplied public library. The Manning hotel has been adjudged by the state inspector among the best. The county has 79 miles of railroad.

Farm lands have a light sandy soil, fertile and productive of corn, cotton, tobacco and diversified crops. Hog raising and dairying are important industries.

Three canneries are operated in Clarendon, one in Manning having a daily capacity of 40,000 cans and employing 300 hands. There are two tobacco warehouses, several lumber and planing mills supplied from the county’s forests, a fertilizer factory, cotton gins, and a factory for manufacturing oil stoves. A poultry show is held annually. A printing plant is shipping its output to other states. Plans are being arranged to establish a feed manufacturing plant. An ice factory serves Manning and vicinity.

Clarendon county has a mild, pleasant climate with an average growing season of 225 days.

The county, with its beautiful and enterprising county seat, will appeal to prospective settlers as a good place in which to live and do business.

COLLETON COUNTY

By order of the Lords Proprietors the province of Carolina was, in 1682, divided into three counties, Craven, Berkeley and Colleton. Colleton, named in honor of Sir John Colleton, Lord Proprietor, is situated in the southeast corner of the province and, as bounded today, embraces 1,126 square miles between the Edisto and Combahee rivers and the Atlantic ocean. Its population, 1920, was 29,897, and was estimated in 1925 as 30,437, of whom about 13,000 are white. With the movement now on foot by state and county to promote immigration the white population is increasing. Its present organization dates from 1798.

Colleton is one of the richest agricultural spots in the whole South; a unique diversity of soil and climatic conditions rendering it a veritable agricultural empire. Because of its sparse population lands are now very cheap, but with the new coming of man-power and money into the South its value will be quickly recognized. Excellent farming lands near shipping points can now be bought at from $10 to $25 an acre.

In upper Colleton near the Orangeburg line is found a sandy loam, slightly rolling, which yields splendid crops of cotton and grain. Around the thriving town of Smoaks much excellent tobacco is grown. The land near Walterboro, Ashepoo, Ritter, White Hall and Jacksonboro is a darker loam and this is a famous producing center of early vegetables. hundreds of cars of beans, peas, celery, lettuce, Irish potatoes and cabbage move from these points during the winter and early spring to Northern consuming centers. Many growers, large and small, are organized into efficient co-operative shipping and selling associations. Two hundred and fifty bushels of Irish potatoes followed by 50 bushels of corn and a good crop of peas, all from the same acre, is not an unusual yield.

Nearer the sea, in a region tempered by the Gulf Stream which runs close inshore, and threaded with fresh water rivers and tidal estuaries, are thousands of acres of former rice fields now being reclaimed and showing luxuriant crops of vegetables, grains and flowering bulbs. These black lands, enriched by the river deposits of the ages, vie with the famous lands along the Nile or the farms of Holland. The uplands in this section are of a fine alluvial loam ideal for the culture of lettuce and Irish potatoes. Wiggins and Greenpond are the chief shipping points for this area. Irrigation is used on many farms, the water obtained from streams or from shallow artesian wells. One well, at Ruffin, with a flow of 650 gallons a minute, supplies a popular concrete swimming pool.

Many large lumber mills operate and vast stores of pine and hardwood remain untouched. Poultry raising is practiced on a commercial scale, several of the most successful farms in the state being located here. Long open seasons and an abundance of natural pasturage make stock raising and dairying profitable industries.

The county is served by the main lines of the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line, both leading directly to the North. The Atlantic Coastal highway, leading along the coast from Calais, Maine, to Miami, Florida, via Raleigh, Charleston and Savannah, runs through Colleton for 37 miles and passes through Walterboro, the county seat.

Walterboro’s population, 1920, was 1,853. Settled in the Eighteenth century by rice planters on account of its cool “pine-land breezes” in summer and its freedom from mosquitoes, it has also a mild winter climate, the palmetto, Satsuma orange, oleander and azalea growing without protection. Excellent hunting and fishing abound in the nearby streams and forests of the coast. With the early hard-surfacing of the Coastal highway it will no doubt become a popular tourist resort.

Walterboro has modern school buildings and good hotels, many churches, city water, lights and power.

Other attractive towns offering inducements to settlers are Cottageville, population 444; Hendersonville (on Coastal highway), 285; .Lodge, 315; Ruffin, 138 ; Smoaks, 132.

The courthouse of colonial design, used at Jacksonboro as a state house during the British occupation of Charleston, was moved to Walterboro after the Revolution. Nearby is the grave of Isaac Hayne, “The Martyr of the Revolution”. Near Wiggins is the spot where John Laurens, “The Bayard of the Revolution”, met death and was buried. The picturesque ruins of many churches, mansions and forts with frequent stately avenues of live oaks and magnolias lend historic interest to the beautiful tidewater region of Colleton, once so splendidly developed and now coming into its own once more.

DARLINGTON COUNTY

DARLINGTON COUNTY, organized in 1798, lying along the west bank of the Peedee river in the rich alluvial plain area of eastern South Carolina, was named, there is reason to believe, for the town of Darlington in England. Darlington, the county seat, had in 1920, 4,669 inhabitants, estimated 5,000 now; Hartsville, home of Coker college for women, 15 miles northwest, had 3,624, now estimated at 4,000; and Lamar had 784, now estimated 1,000.

Of the county’s population, estimated in 1925 at 40,882, 99,3/4 per cent were native born. While the white and colored races are absolutely distinct socially, their relations are friendly, they are united for progress, and Darlington is proud that no lynching or attempted lynching has ever occurred within its borders. With an elevation about 150 feet above sea level the county’s normal temperature is 62.5° and its average rainfall 49.5 inches. The average of days of sunshine is 264 in the year and the days between killing frosts are 225. Many small streams drain the region and pure water is easily obtained from them or by pumps or flowing wells. Natural conditions make it healthy.

In 1777, wile the country was warring for independence, the St. David’s society was organized “to promote learning” and the spirit of the fathers has been handed down to flower in the excellent public schools. As early as 1776 the Welsh Neck Baptist Church was organized and substantial churches are found in all the towns and rural districts.

Of the 605 square miles of alluvial soil 50 per cent is under cultivation and of this approximately 70 per cent is of Portsmouth and Norfolk sandy loam. Cotton, corn, small grain, and tobacco are the chief crops, but soil and climate permit successful growth of forage and grazing crops and truck crops of America, as well as growing of forage and grazing crops twelve months in the year, making conditions ideal for hog raising, dairying, and poultry production. Of the many farmers who have advanced agriculture, D. R. Coker, and E. Mc. Williamson are outstanding for the development, respectively, of upland long staple cotton and corn growing.

The Darlington County Agriculture society, organized in 1846, has held annual meetings except possibly 1864-65. The Mutual Fire Insurance association, organized in 1890, with 300 members and $350,000 of property insured, now has about 1000 members and $2,000,000 of property covered. Insurance cost is 33 cents as compared to former rates of $1.75 to $1.90. All losses have been promptly paid. Darlington men are the officers.

Forest of pine, cypress, oak, hickory, gum, poplar, ash and other woods, with railroads close, are a great source of wealth.

Within the county, yarn, cloth, cotton seed products, fertilizers, wood pulp and paper, novelties, furniture, lumber, veneering, brick and tile, canned goods, flour, meal and grits, are manufactured. Labor is plentiful. There have been no strikes and electric power is available. The railway milage is 116 and shippers are within 20 hours of the Eastern markets. The county has 700 miles of well maintained highways and banking facilities are excellent in the trading centers.

The white population are descendants of Welsh, Scotch, English and French Hugenots.

DILLON COUNTY

Dillon COUNTY gets its name from the well known Dillon family of Ireland. William Dillon, father of the founder of the county, was at an early age apprenticed to an uncle-a London shipbuilder. As a young man he made several voyages to America on his uncle’s ships. On his last voyage he landed at Jamestown, and settled in Marion county, South Carolina.

J. W. Dillon, his son, without capital or credit, established a small mercantile business in upper Marion. He was a man of vision. His business greatly prospered. He established a town which took his name.

Out of upper Marion county was cut one of the richest counties in the state, which also took his name. Dillon is one of the smallest counties in the state, with an area of 405 square miles. Its population of 25,278 is divided as follows; white, 12,580, colored, 12,936.

1n an average crop year, 1925, on 63,000 acres of land Dillon produced 30,000 bales of cotton and 12,000 tons of cotton seed which sold for $3,029,309.

On 7,800 acres it produced 5,811,000 pounds of tobacco which sold for $126 an acre. The total value of its crops in 1925 was $4,641,403. Thousands of acres of Dillon county lands will produce a bale of cotton or 1,200 pounds of tobacco to the acre.

On some of its lands the yield of wheat year after year is from 35 to 40 bushels to the acre. The average for the United States is 12 bushels. Good lands well cultivated are producing from 60 to 80 bushels of corn and oats to the acre. A large pecan orchard is averaging 350 pounds of soft shell pecans to the acre.

Near the coast where the winters are mild and the seasons long, many farmers easily make two money crops on the same land in the same year. Dillon’s lands arc h4 and fertile and crop disasters are unknown. When the boll weevil was doing its greatest damage in South Carolina, Dillon’s cotton crop never fell below 14,000 bales. A normal crop is 35,000.

A double-track railroad gives Dillon a 40-hour freight service to New York; express 18 hours.

Dillon has profitable chicken farms, but the supply is not equal to the demand. Fine pasture lands furnish gracing nine months in the year, yet Dillon’s dairying industry is almost negligible. Milk is expressed through Dillon from Richmond, Virginia, to Charleston, a distance of 400 miles, and Dillon is only 131 miles from Charleston.

Dillon is an agricultural county, but it has cotton mills, an oil mill, a roller mill and many smaller industries. Its main crops are cotton and tobacco, but trucking is on the increase, and in a short time the volume will be large enough to justify the establishment of a large canning factory.

Dillon’s lauds yield abundantly and her farmers arc prosperous, but the price of good land is within the reach of any thrifty, energetic man who knows how to farm and is not afraid of work.

DORCHESTER COUNTY

Dorchester County, established in 1897 from portions of Colleton and Berkeley, derives its name, indirectly, from Dorchester, Massachusetts, whence came settlers, under Joseph Lord, who, about 1697, founded the town of Dorchester, on Ashley river, about 26 miles from Charleston, and six miles from the present town of Summerville, which is, in a sense, its successor. Dorchester was a thriving community, with good streets and residences, an important fort of “tabby” commanding the river, an imposing church, with tower and bells, serving the Parish of St. George’s Dorchester, and was the scene of considerable military activity, during the Revolution. Today, its fort, in good preservation, the ruins of its church, and old tombstones, constitute the sole physical evidence of its former existence. The county takes its name from this town.

The county’s population was, in 1920, 19,459, estimated, 1925, 20,346; the area 613 square miles, mostly level, and through it flow the Ashley (headwaters in county) and Edisto rivers. Its length, about 35 miles, is about three times its average breadth, and the Southern railway, using the same roadbed as the old South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company, which, about 1830, is said to have operated the longest railroad line in the world (Charleston to Hamburg), runs through the greater part of its length. It serves Summerville, a well known winter resort, with tourist hotels, and golf courses; St. George, the county seat, an active farming and business center, and other towns. Connection is made at Pregnall’s with the Atlantic Coast Line, which serves a section of the county to the eastward. The county has 42 miles of railroad.

Its lands are fertile, climate mild, and both peculiarly adapted to agriculture, which, with lumbering and cattle raising, has been the main occupation about two centuries. Its growing season numbers 280 days. Cotton, corn, oats, tobacco, potatoes, and truck are extensively and profitably raised. Cattle and poultry raising, dairying, and lumber manufacturing, are other important industries. The Coastal Experiment station, ruder Clemson college, and a timber experimental station, conducted by the Southern railway, are in the county.

Dorchester’s schools, primary and high ( 5 accredited), in buildings, equipment, teachers and curricula, are of high standard, and in flourishing condition. Churches of nearly every denomination satisfy spiritual needs, and three h4 and successful banks, two at Summerville and one at St. George, provide ample banking facilities. A lumber plant, with daily capacity- of 70,000 feet, brick plant and ice and electric plant (municipally owned), at Summerville; electric plant and oil mill, at St. George, and lumber plant (rebuilding) at Badham, are among its larger enterprises. Its mercantile business is good, and failures are rare.

The county has many miles of good roads, and a concrete road runs from Summerville to Charleston, about 20 miles.

At Summerville are the Pinehurst Tea Gardens, in which abound azaleas of many and rare varieties, wistaria, and flowering plants and shrubs of every description, while Middleton Gardens, in the county, and the world-renowned Magnolia Gardens, just beyond the county line, both on Ashley river, are approximately half-way between Summerville and Charleston.

The county and its environs have much of historic interest, natural and artificial beauty, and these with good hunting, fishing, and golfing, and a delightful winter climate, attract many tourists and others, who have winter homes in Summerville.

EDGEFIELD COUNTY

On the state’s western edge, along the Savannah, about midway between its source and its mouth, on the high and well drained plateau dividing the Piedmont region from the Coastal Plain, lies Edgefield, with its hill section and its plain section. It was organized in 1798, has 524 square miles and its population, 1920, was 23,928, estimated in 1925 at 24,712, all native except 29. The soils range from light sandy type through the loams to clays and are adapted to a wide variety of crops. Mild winters and pleasant summers, always between the extremes, characterize the climate, and the abundant waters are the clearest and purest in the state. In the northern part are many springs and small streams and for raising there is no better region anywhere. The clement winters, and the soils that make easy the cultivation of legumes and grains, cause good pasturage to be open nine months in the 12.

All varieties of fruits known to the latitude can be raised commercially, and peaches, melons, asparagus, tomatoes, and pecans are shipped. Cotton, corn, oats, peas, sweet potatoes and sorghum have been the principal crops, but the numerous tourist hotels in Augusta, Georgia, Aiken, and North Augusta, South Carolina, and the fine sand-clay roads leading to them have aroused interest in truck raising, now steadily on the increase. The sand and clay, with an ideal kind of top soil close at hand, afford all parts of the county road materials than which no region can boast better. The Dixie highway arid the Black Bear trail run through the county between the Greenwood and Aiken county line. The Southern railway serves Edgefield, the county town, population 1,865; Johnston, 1,101, and Trenton, 271, the mileage being 24, and two power lines traverse the county. Soon the new railroad from Augusta to Greenwood will be open. Prosperous country communities thickly settled dot the county. In mineral wealth, with many deposits of fine clays, fine white silica, sands for all purposes, soapstone, limestone, kaolin of the best, and granite in abundance, the county is rich, and it is not unlikely that the gold mines in the northern part, profitably worked before the Confederate war, will be reopened.

No section of the United States is freer from storms and harsh winds, no one is driven from Edgefield to the mountains for the summer nor farther south for the winter. It is an all-the-year-around climate and the best in the world that blesses Edgefield.

All the principal Christian bodies have churches. There are three accredited high schools, and the population is the wholesome and old Carolina blend. Edgefield is the home of historic families, Butlers, Bacons, Pickers, Simkinses, Bonhams, and Tillmans. Formerly it was a county of great area, but Saluda and parts of McCormick and Greenwood were taken from it.

Land is purchasable at reasonable prices and good people from everywhere are invited to come and see the county, taste its products, drink its waters, know its citizens, and save time and money by establishing homes and becoming Edgefieldians. The county has an excellent health record, it has good physicians, preachers, and teachers, and an efficient county government. Come and see.

FAIRFIELD COUNTY

WHAT FAIR FIELDS,” Lord Cornwallis is said to have exclaimed, when he was making “Wynnesborough” his headquarters from October 1780 to January 1781. Hence, the origin of the name of Fairfield county.

His lordship, speaking to Walter Robertson of that day, added; “I can conceive no finer region, taking into consideration its fertile soil, its mild climate, its long drawn beautiful valleys, and glorious highlands.”

Let the home seeker of today ponder his lordship’s words.

Thirty-five years before Cornwallis was there, the first white settlers came to this land, then a part of Craven county, of the royal province of South Carolina. John and Ephraim Lyles settled on Beaver creek near Broad river on the west, it 1745, and about the same time Richland Kirkland settled near Peay’s ferry, Wateree river, on the east. All came from Virginia. Winn’s borough, as he called it, was settled about ten years later by Richard Winn, afterwards captain and colonel in the war of the Revolution.

The first settlers found this territory used by the Catawbas, Waterees, and probably other small tribes of the Sioux. It was not part of the lauds given over to the whites by the Cherokees in 1755. Eswaw Huppedaw, or Broad river, was the line river.

After the Revolution, it was a part of Camden district, and was erected into Fairfield county in 1798. Its lines have remained unchanged to this day except for a small portion ceded to Richland in 1913.

Mills’ Statistics says that buffaloes, elks, bears, panthers and wolves abounded in the county. James Newton, living in 1824, is said to have killed the last elk. Its antlers were shipped to England. James Phillips is said to have killed a rattlesnake of such size that it was found to contain a fawn. Jesse Gladden, father of General Gladden, is quoted as saying that he had seen droves of wild horses in the county. Exports to Charleston in those days were droves of cattle; beaver, panther and bear skies; buffalo tongues, and hogsheads of tobacco.

“Yon beacon light on the hill,” is a historic saying that Mt. Zion Academy had had a great influence on the life of the county. John Rutledge signed its charter February 13, 1777. Closed during the occupation by Cornwallis it reopened in 1785, somewhat under Presbyterian influences, with a minister at its head, and Howe’s History tells of 13 Presbyterian ministers educated there. It was largely patronized by Charleston folk. The names of Porcher, Gaillard, Porter, Couturier, DuBose, Dwight, Clark, Barker and other prominent low country families are upon its rolls. Many of these established homes in F airfield. General Moultrie had a home there.

Illustrious teachers of Mt. Zion were James W. Hudson, Edward Maturin, Ilenri Narrise, J. Wood Davidson, R. Means Davis, and Patterson Wardlaw.

Fairfield is noted for its inexhaustible supply of outcropping grey and blue granite. The principal quarries arc the Rion and Anderson of the Winnsboro Granite company. Immense quantities of this stone are shipped all over the United States for building and ornamental purposes.

The county has 61 miles of railroad. The main line of the Southern railroad from Columbia to Charlotte follows the ridge in the centre of the county. The other line of railway parallels the Broad river on the western edge of the county.

One of the great cotton mills of the country, at Winnsboro, is owned by New England manufacturers.

The attractions mentioned by Cornwallis induced planters who prospered there and built up great trains of slaves. Though far north of the black belt today it is the third county in the state in proportion of Negroes to whites. Its population in 1920 was 27,159, of which 20,672 were Negroes and 53 foreign born. In 1820 there were 9,378 whites, 7,748 slaves and 48 free born colored. Its area is 705 square miles.

Winnsboro is the county seat with a population of 1,822, which does not include the mill village. Other towns are Ridgeway, Blackstock, White Oak, Monticello, Wallaceville, Jenkinsville and Strother.

FLORENCE COUNTY

ANY CHANGES have taken place in Florence since 1888, when the county, named in compliment to Miss Florence Harllee, was formed from Darlington, Marion and Williamsburg counties. While comparatively new, its people come from the line old stock that long ago colonized the mother counties, and its progress is due to their courage, energy and vision.

Florence today is a garden of Eden. Its area is 699 square miles. Its population (50,406 in 1920 and estimated in 1925 at 58,754) and wealth arc increasing by leaps and bounds, it is as rich in history as in commercial and agricultural resources, and it aliens equally great inducements from asocial and a business standpoint.

Florence is the premier tobacco county of the “Bright Belt”, producing the largest number of pounds and getting for it the largest amount in dollars and cents. In Florence county the present tobacco planting in this state had its beginning and the county has kept the lead.

Florence is the champion corn county of the world, as Jerry Moore with his world record for boys, of 2283 bushels to the acre has abundantly pruned. In live stock Florence is also the champion county of the world, having produced two world record Jersey cows, Sensation’s Mikado’s Millie 568901, and Blue Fox’s Eminent Queen 649491, both developed by Fred H. Young, a Florence county farmer.

Agriculture, of course, because of the situation and productivity of its lauds, is the mainstay of the county. The broad, fertile fields extending far back from the Peedee river are capable of growing any crops profitably except tropical fruits. Diversified farming is fast coming into favor. While cotton and tobacco are still the main money crops, dairying, poultry, hogs and a large variety of small crops, including fruit, truck and grain, are adding to tire prosperity of the county and section.

Not only is the loamy soil productive at a low cost of cultivation, but tire mild climate with the ample rainfall is the farmer’s heritage. Crop failures are unknown, and Florence farmers, having from ten to twelve month, of good growing weather, can produce several crops a year. The rich silt soil, level, easily worked, can be farmed with diversified method, in large units or intensively, with equal success. Oats sown in the fall are harvested in -May or June and followed with corn and cow peas, and a good yield of each is grown with benefit to the land. This is because of the warmth in the lands.

All crops for economic pork production do well in Florence county-peanuts, soy beans, alfalfa, clover and corn. Carpet grass and lespedeza furnish best summer pastures, while rye and crimson clover and rape grow luxuriantly for winter pastures.

Six commercial poultry plants are prospering here now, and others are in prospect. The sweet potato is one of the many profitable crops, a yield of 83 bushels to the acre having been reached.

Florence county is the home of the Peedee Experiment station of Clemson college, the government boll weevil laboratory for the Southeast, the Carolina Cooperative Consolidated, the South Carolina Dewberry association, the South Carolina Peach association, the offices of Clemson college extension service for district and county agents, marketing specialists, animal husbandry and dairy specialists, as well as other agencies including creamery and poultry markets. The county has 110 miles of railroad, and 14 accredited high schools.

Florence county has line roads. Sixteen miles are hardsurfaced and plans are going forward for paving all the main arteries of the county.

Other towns besides Florence, the county seat are: Timmonsville, 1,860 inhabitants; Lake City, 1,606; Pamplico, 452; Olanta, 409; Cartersville, 286; Scranton, 294.

GEORGETOWN COUNTY

Georgetown County, fronting approximately 50 miles on the Atlantic ocean, with a slightly incurved beach line unbroken except by the mouth of the Santee river, Winyah bay, and a few tidal inlets further north, contains 828 square miles, was organized in 1768, and has a population of 21,716. Georgetown is the county seat. Andrews, the other principal town, had a population of 95 in 1910 and 1,968 in 1920, has two tobacco warehouses, two banks, railroad shops, woodworking plants and a cannery.

The county slopes gently from 50 feet above sea level to the sea marshes, and the land is not subject to erosion.

English people, most of them of means, having received grants to vast tracts of land along the rivers from the Lords Proprietors and Royal government, made the third oldest settlement in the colony early in the Eighteenth century and engaged in cultivating rice and indigo, and in cattle raising. These industries produced great wealth. A lauded aristocracy, nowhere excelled for culture in the country, was developed and many plantations are still show places for the visitor. Some are occupied by descendants of the original owners, and others have been purchased by wealthy families and clubs for winter homes, hunting, and fishing. Rice planting began to decline with the loss of slave labor, and the present acreage is nominal.

Georgetown county is full of historic associations. Lafayette and DeKalb landed at North Island, June 13, 1777, where they were entertained by Col. Benjamin Huger. On its territory thrilling engagements were had between Gen. Francis Marion and the British under Cornwallis and Tarleton. Washington Allston, the painter, was born at “Brookgreen” plantation, and at “The Oaks” plantation, on Waccamaw, the last day of 1812, Theodosia, wife of Gov. Joseph Alston and daughter of Aaron Burr, boarded the schooner Patriot to visit her father in New fork, and was never heard from again. The county was the scene of stirring Confederate war incidents, scars of which remain.

The present population consists largely of the descendants of early settlers and their slaves. New blood has been coming into the county gradually. Building of good highways and replacement of ferries by steel and concrete bridges assure progress.

School enrollment for 1926 was 5,805 and the county has three accredited high schools.

Immense rock jetties have been built between North and South islands and a channel 400 feet wide and 18 feet deep is projected for the port of Georgetown.

The Gulf Stream modifies the winter’s cold and summer’s heat, and fresh ocean breezes blow almost constantly in summer. The heavy rains are in the hottest months. Normal July temperature is 80.3°. And for January 48.8°. Clear days average 300 a year, snow is seldom seem, annual precipitation is 50.73 inches.

The Norfolk, Coxville, and Portsmouth series of sandy loams are the principal types of the fertile and easily worked soil. The Georgtown clay, inexhaustibly fertile, soils are known for trucking from Florida to Maine. Average wages are low, strikes are unknown and there is a surplus of labor, black and white.

One hundred fifty refrigerator carloads of truck were shipped in 1926 and truck crops are followed by corn, cowpeas, velvet and soja beans. Besides these corn, cotton, tobacco, Irish and sweet potatoes, peanuts, watermelons, sugar cane, oats and rye are staple crops and winter cover grow to perfection. Fall and winter gardens flourish.

Green pasturage is had the year round and expensive housing is not required for cattle. Nearly all kinds of fruits, including pecan nuts and walnuts grow abundantly.

Since 1900, the manufacture and shipment of lumber has been the county’s main industry. Timber is at present the principal resource. Great manufacturing plants are in and near Georgetown. Woods for paper pulp, veneering and furniture are found in sufficient quantities to attract attention. Naval stores have been important in trade and vast quantities of resinous stumps on cut-over lands are available for by products. Turpentine operations are being resumed.

The Seaboard Air Line with mileage 32 traverses the county, and steamers and sailing vessels provide tonnage as needed from the port of Georgetown. Rapid building of bridges and extension of good roads increase motor truck and automobile transportation.

GREENVILLE COUNTY

With a population of 88,498 in 1920, estimated for 1925 at 99,859, of which approximately half is engaged in or dependent upon manufacturing, Greenville county presents a condition of balance between agriculture and industry not frequently found in the South. Farming has had a notable and profitable stimulation in ready markets provided by the urban and industrial population aggregating about two-thirds of the county’s total.

Cotton spinning and weaving is the county’s primary industry. The investment in textile plants alone today is $27,102,834; there are 25 mills in the county with a total of 771,364 spindles, 15 per cent of the state’s total. The annual product is valued at $40,000,000, the payroll is $7,000,000 and 10,000 operatives are employed. More than 4,500 patterns of cloth are made, from heavy cluck to fancy silks, finest cottons and rayon products. Besides the cotton mills are 49 other industrial plants, with an annual product valued at $9,000,000. The total industrial and railroad payroll is over $10,000,000 annually, and the industrial resources include, besides the cotton mills, bleaching and finishing plants, worsted factory, dyeing and processing plant, sewer pipe works, belting plant and plants making equipment for looms and other textile appliances.

Greenville was part of the area ceded by the Cherokee Indians, and was created by legislative acts of 1786 and 1798. Its name is attributed by some to Isaac Green, an early settler, by others to General Nathaniel Greene. It has an area of 761 square miles and a population almost entirely native-born. Of the 88,498 population in 1920, 64,545 were native-born whites and 23,461 Negroes.

Stretching from the Blue Ridge mountains at the North Carolina border to the Piedmont plains eastward, the county has a wide range of elevation. The mountainous area on the west is a beautiful and attractive pleasure resort, the two highest peaks being Caesar’s head, 3,218 feet, and Hogback mountain of a few feet greater altitude. Five miles northeast of the city of Greenville is Paris mountain, an isolated group of peaks, rising to 2,054 feet above sea level.

The soil, mostly of the Cecil series, is adapted to a wide variety of crops. Farming is conducted successfully in all parts of the county, particularly in the fertile region of the eastern half. Cotton is the principal crop, the normal production being upward of 40,000 bales. Dairying, poultry raising, and trucking are developing on a profitable scale; orcharding, begun a few years ago, has reached extensive proportions, 82 cars of peaches having been shipped to outside markets in 1926. Forests, including many varieties of hardwood, abound in the upper half. The average annual rainfall is 53 inches; average growing season 215 days.

Greenville, elsewhere described, is the county seat. Other incorporated towns include Fountain Inn, 1,100; Simpsonville, 566, and Greer, 2,292, all industrial and commercial centers.

The county has 191 schools, including 15 accredited high schools; the enrollment in 1926 was 30,269; the investment in buildings and grounds is estimated at $2,909,750, about 18 times the school investment in 1909.

The Southern railway’s main line, Washington to Atlanta, and its Columbia and Greenville division form a junction at Greenville. The Piedmont and Northern, electric, connects Spartanburg, Greenville, Anderson and Greenwood, and the Charleston and Western Carolina, subsidiary of the Atlantic Coast Line, has a terminus at Greenville. The Greenville and Northern has a line toward the mountains, but is not operating regular schedules.

State and local highways serve all parts of the county. There are 500 miles of well maintained topsoil roads, 50 miles of permanently paved roads, exclusive of city paving, and four important national motor routes (National highway, Dixie highway, Bankhead highway and Piedmont Air Line) pass through Greenville. The county leads the state in cumber of automobiles, having approximately 13,000 registered in 1926.

GREENWOOD COUNTY

ALTHOUGH the site of the first white settlement in Piedmont South Carolina, Greenwood county was not organized until 1897. It was formed from Abbeville and Edgefield counties, original subdivisions of Old Nicety Six district. A Piedmont country county, Greenwood is situated on a ridge between Saluda river on the cast and Savannah river on the west, though it touches only the Saluda, Abbeville intervening between it and the Savannah. The area is 473 square miles and the population, estimated as of 1925, is 36,969.

The county is admirably adapted to farming in staple, truck, and fruit crops.

The lower and middle sections are for the most part of the much desired chocolate soil, selected by early settlers for its great dependability in all sorts of seasons. The upper section has two grades of soil. Around the villages of Hodges and Cokesbury a sandy loam grows line staple crops, melons and, in former times, produced excellent tobacco. This section attracted national notice some years ago because of the transformation wrought in production by the use of crimson clover. This sandy loam produces a bale to the acre of cotton after crimson clover with only a small amount of acid phosphate as commercial fertiliser. The other part of the upper section is h4 red and sandy soils mixed.

Around Ninety Six, a thriving town in the lower section, grain crops have been produced which rank with any yields in the state. A creamery at Greenwood, the county seat, encourages the use of cattle on farms and nearby markets could use much more milk than is now supplied by dairies. Pioneer poultry men are finding the soil and climate just the thing for that business.

Four railroads (total mileage 101) enter the county, Southern, Seaboard Air Line, Charleston and Western Carolina (Atlantic Coast Line unit) and the Piedmont and Northern (electric) with a fifth now assured, the Georgia and Florida extension from Augusta to Greenwood. These railroads with nine highways radiating from the county seat, five to be paved in the state system, make the county one of the most easily traveled of the state and its county seat one of the leading distributing centers. The highways include the nationally known Dixie, Calhoun, Black Bear, and Capital-to-Capital, with others connecting county seats of adjoining counties.

At Greenwood, county seat, are Lander college, Bailey Military institute, a high grade military preparatory school, and a city school system including a modern high school. The city schools last year enrolled 4,500. There are three other high schools in the county. Four hundred thousand dollars was spent in public school buildings in the county in 1926.

Greenwood, with about 250,000 spindles, is one of the leading cotton manufacturing counties. It has large mills at Ware Shoals on Saluda river, at Ninety Six and in Greenwood. The annual payroll approximates $3,000,000. Greenwood ranks second in the state in the per capita value of its manufactured products. The value of all crops, payrolls and manufactured products in 1924 was over $15,000,000. The county has nine banks with resources of more than $8,000,000.

The first white settlement in upper South Carolina was at Old Ninety Six in this county. There was the site of the first court house in the Piedmont country and the spot where the first blood for liberty in the state of South Carolina was shed, on November 19, 1775. A monument erected by the D. A. K. commemorates the facts.

Land is reasonably priced in all sections and no farm in the county is further than two miles from a topsoil highway. The county has had a county farm agent for 15 years, has a home demonstration agent and a chamber of commerce with offices at the county seat. The county and the city of Greenwood maintain a public library with over 5,000 volumes.

Home seekers will find Greenwood a place of congenial people and a section with almost unlimited opportunities for making a livelihood and enjoying life to the full.

HAMPTON COUNTY

In 1878 under the leadership of Governor Wade Hampton, South Carolina was gradually recovering from carpetbagger and scalawag oppression. Hampton county, formed from old Beaufort district in Governor Hampton’s first administration and named for that matchless leader, is in the southwestern part of the state and is served by the Seaboard Air Line, Atlantic Coast Line, Southern, Charleston and W e s t e r n Carolina, and Hampton and Branchville railways, and by state highways 1, 33 and 36. By automobile it is within two to three hours ride from Columbia and Charleston, and from Savannah and Augusta, Georgia. The total railroad mileage is 71. The area is 513 square miles and the population 19,550, estimated 1925 at 19,696.

The county is 50 miles from the coast, is level, has a variety of soils, ranging from sandy to good clay loam, and produces a great variety of crops, the staple being cotton, corn, peas, potatoes, sugar cane, oats, and rye. During the trucking season watermelons, cantaloupes, squash, egg-plant, tomatoes, radishes, beans, cucumbers, lettuce, blackberries, peaches, strawberries, sweet and Irish potatoes are shipped. Conditions are favorable for cattle, hogs and poultry.

Some of the rice fields in the lower part of the county have been drained, dredged and irrigated at the Kress plantation, near Yemassee, where 200 acres are devoted to the growing, under expert care, of the beautiful paper white narcissus, yielding 12 million bulbs annually. The pecan industry is making rapid progress in the county.

Hampton, with 706 inhabitants, is the county seat. Other towns with their populations are Brunson, 699 ; Estill, 1,393 ; Furman, 296 ; Luray, 174 ; Scotia, 269; Varnville, 1,160. The county has five accredited high schools, and has maintained county and home demonstration agents since the work was first introduced. In 1925 the county led the state in contest work for girls’ home demonstration work. Two trips were won to the national boys’ and girls’ club congress in Chicago. A Hampton county girl won first place in the canned fruit exhibit for the Southeastern division of the United States, and third place in the national contest for judging carved products. Other honors won from time to time have been first place in yeast bread, first in canning, second in clothing, and second in biscuit contests. Present enrollment of girls’ clubs is 225.

A similar work has been done in county farm demonstration work, such as organizing boys’ pig and corn clubs and the marketing of farm products.

The timber interests is an important one.

The Salkehatchie and Coosawhatchie rivers flow through the county and afford abundant fresh water fishing. Some of the largest game preserves in the same are situated in Hampton.

The temperature is never too cold, never too hot.

When Moses pitched tent in Rephidin there was no water to drink. With a rod he had to smite the rock in Horeb. Today large cities find the water supply a problem. In Hampton county, anyone can strike the rocks a thousand feet below the surface with the driller’s augur and secure an inexhaustible supply of pure artesian water filtered by nature thousands of miles in its underground courses from the mountains to the sea. The pressure is sufficient to supply whole towns for all purposes-just turn the faucet and let “Nature cut her capers”. These free wells in Hampton, in purity, abundance, and in volume surpass the wells of Isaac. As said in the advertisement of one of the pecan nurseries, Hampton county is one place left where there are no “keep off the grass” signs.

Considering climate, health, water, and productive qualities, land and a home can be owned cheaper in this county than any place in the Union.

HORRY COUNTY

Looking at the map of South Carolina you see that Horry forms the eastern extremity of the state. Its southeastern boundary is that part of the Atlantic shown on some maps as Long Bay. Its area of 1,158 square miles makes it one of the largest counties of the state, extending from the ocean westwardly to the Little Peedee river. It was a part of the ancient All Saints parish and was organized as a county in 1801. Its population in 1920 was 32,077, of which 24,354 were white native born. The census estimate for 1925 was 34,955. It is named for General Peter Horry, famous colonel of militia in the Revolution. The name may not be pronounced correctly by the stranger. He is told that it is the same as if spelled “Oree”. He thinks more of the name after that.

Horry is located in the alluvial soil region of the coast. Only 20 per cent of its area is swamp land subject to overflow. This percentage is ever decreasing by reason of improved drainage. The most of the remaining soil area is made up of the sort known as Norfolk and is good land. There are small percentages of Portsmouth and Coxville soils made available by better drainage, also good land.

The entire soil area in the past has provided great forests of timber. The history of the county pictures it as a region rich in forest products. Later came an increasing development in the use of its fertile soils in raising annual crops, and this goes on steadily. Annual crops of cotton, corn, and tobacco, sweet potatoes, peas, beans, all varieties of truck, flourish in great abundance.

The mild climate provides 240 growing clays in the year. Three crops are produced on the same land during the year.

Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the southeast, and for many years hemmed in by the deep swamps of the Peedee on the west, the county has only in late years become well connected with the rest of the state. The railroad mileage is 61. Development proceeds at a rapid rate.

The Peedees are now spanned by three long bridges, one at Yauhanna ferry, another at Potato Bed ferry, the third at Galivant’s ferry. Forests of virgin timber have long since been utilized as to the first growth. There is a large industry in second and third growth. As the forest industries have declined, agriculture has taken strides forward. There is a great opportunity in the growing of strawberries and other fruit and truck.

Conway, the county seat, is on the Waccamaw river, at the junction of Kingston lake. Its population is 1,969. It has paved streets, public water supply of pure artesian water, and an adequate lighting plant. The Burroughs High school is the equal of any. There are three other accredited high schools within the county.

Two other towns of Horry are Loris, 600 inhabitants, and Aynor, 275, both on the Atlantic Coast Line railroad and growing towns in the midst of rich and fertile sections of broad extent.

The whole coastline is being developed into summer and winter resorts. Lands there are rapidly enhancing in value. The Horry strand bids fair to become one of the great playgrounds of the country.

JASPER COUNTY

JASPER COUNTY, formed in 1912 from Beaufort and Hampton counties, is a part of old Beaufort district. The county is named for the Revolutionary patriot and soldier, Sgt. William Jasper. In the folk-lore of the county, the hero lies buried in the old Swiss cemetery at Purysburg on the Savannah river about two miles from Hardeeville. The exact spot is not known.

Jasper county is bounded on the west by the Savannah river, and this stream with its lateral swamps, together with the Coosawhatchie swamp, the Great swamp and Black Mingo, form its drainage system. The fall of these water-ways to mean low water mark is such as to make the reclamation of the lowlands of the county but another stage in industrial development.

The lands of Jasper are generally a black loam with a stiff clay subsoil, though beginning in the northwestern section and extending beyond Ridgeland, the county seat, is a high sandy ridge, varying in width from three to five miles, the light lands of the county.

The principal industries and resources are agriculture, stock raising, sawmills, and turpentine. The rapidity with which the black pine and the yellow slash pine reproduce themselves and attain commercial value has rendered cut over lands a profitable field for investment and has afforded an inexhaustible source of employment.

The chief crop is cotton; though each year marks a steady encroachment on this domain, and diversification is everywhere evident. Truck farming is carried on to a considerable extent.

Jasper is traversed in length and breadth by the three great railway systems of the South-the Southern, the Seaboard, and the Atlantic Coast Line; its railroad facilities are therefore unexcelled. The total mileage is 84.

Over that great thoroughfare, the Coastal highway, through the county, surges a ceaseless flow of travel and commerce, while from Ridgeland good roads reach out in every direction and link the county with neighboring communities.

The county is divided into school districts in which are primary schools, but the high school is administered by a central board at Ridgeland, the children being transported to and from the school in busses. This high school marks the greatest achievement in the history of jasper county.

Though jasper county is in the “black belt”, the agricultural enterprises are carried on mainly with white labor, the Negro preferring public work, such as is given by the railroads and sawmills.

The population, 1920, was 9,868; estimated, 1925, 9,940. The area is 596 square miles. The population of Ridgeland is 418.

Pure water from artesian wells and the screen against fly and mosquito have solved the malaria problem that for so many years retarded the development of this section, so that good health coupled with the fact that a farmer can gather two crops in a single season should make this section the greatest in the state.

KERSHAW COUNTY

KERSHAW, one of the north central counties, formed from old Craven county, was organized in 1798 and named for Col. Joseph Kershaw, a Revolutionary leader and the founder of Camden. Its limits remained intact until 1902, when a small part on the eastern side was cut off and incorporated in the new county of Lee. It has an area of 673 square miles, or 430,720 acres. The population of 29,398 (census 1920) is 12,284 native white, 17,065 colored, 49 foreign born.

The northern part belongs to the Piedmont Plateau, red hills, red clay subsoil, with out croppings of a superior granite, and productive of a fine texture of cotton. The middle region is in the Sand Hill or Upper Pine Belt, a part of the old Coastal Plain, well adapted to the culture of the peach and the grape, and, under improved methods, making good staple crops. Its winter climate is mild but not enervating. It is dry and health-giving. The southern part is in the river terrace or flood plain region, with level, rich alluvial soil, subject to occasional overflow in the river valleys; here the largest and best plantations are found, including the model State Farm.

There are 18 distinct soil types, the principal ones being the Congaree or First Bottom (five per cent), the Norfolk sands (47 per cent), the Georgeville (eight per cent), and the Cecil clays (11 per cent).

Cotton is the chief crop, but corn, wheat, oats and other grains are successfully grown. The weather bureau reports that, over a period of 28 years, the number of growing days is 245. The average annual snowfall (three inches) is almost negligible.

The Wateree river on the west and Lynches river on the east, with their subsidiary streams, afford ample drainage and water power. The fall lice of the Wateree, a few miles above Camden, is the site of one of the great distributing stations of the Southern Power company.

The main line to Florida of the Seaboard Air Line traverses the county, northeast to southwest; the Southern railway crosses the center, north to south; the Atlantic Coast Line has a spur from Camden to Sumter.

The principal towns arc Camden, one of the famous winter resorts of the South, population in 1920, 3,930; Kershaw, partly in Lancaster county, 1,022; Bethune, 299; Blaney, 156; Westville, 135.

There are seven accredited high schools in the county.

Camden was the most important town commercially in the Up-Country before the coming of the railroad. It was a center of activities in the Revolutionary struggle, two notable battles having been fought in its environs and 14 engagements within a radius of 30 miles, six within the present confines of the county.

Kershaw county troops have fought in every American war. Six generals of the Confederacy were born in Camden: Major-General Kershaw, and Brigadiers Cantey, Chesnut, Deas, Kennedy, and Villepigue.

Of the 78 Congressional medals bestowed for conspicuous gallantry in the World war, six were awarded to South Carolinians, two of them to Kershaw county boys, Richmond Hobson Hilton and John Cantey Villepigue.

Kershaw has also given to the state, Brevard, Withers, Stephen D. Miller, McWillie, Kershaw, Chesnut, Kennedy, and others conspicuous in its civil annals.

LANCASTER COUNTY

Scotch-Irish seeking religious freedom in America and stopping first in Pennsylvania, later moved to and settled in the Waxhaw district of South Carolina and in 1798 Lancaster county, the name traceable to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and further back to England, was organized.

Situated in the Piedmont Plateau and running to the North Carolina line, the Catawba river borders Lancaster 40 miles on the west and on its banks have been built gigantic hydroelectric plants, part of the Duke or Southern Power company interests. The county’s area is 515 square miles and population, 1920. was 28,628, estimated 1925 at 29,749. The soil is well adapted to agriculture, cotton being the chief crop. The county has a magnificent granite quarry; also brick clay, pyrite, and gold deposits.

The textile industry has had remarkable development in the last 30 years, the pride plant being the Lancaster Cotton mills, known all over the United States for the excellent quality of its print cloths, organized in 1896 by Col. Leroy Springs, then and now president, and W. C. Thomson, treasurer. F. G. Cobb is general manager. Beginning with 10,000 spindles the plant now has 140,000 and is one of the largest mills under one roof in the world.

At Kershaw one of the most successful mills in the country was organized in 1913 with Col. Leroy Springs, president, John T. Stevens, vice-president, and J. M. Carson, treasurer, with 10,000 spindles, now grown to 25,000. The Catawba Fertilizer company, Lancaster Cotton Oil company, and Kershaw Cotton Oil company, of which John T. Stevens has been president since their organization, are other industries.

The county has seven banks. The Southern railway, Seaboard Air Line railroad, and the Lancaster and Chester railway, the last owned by local capital, with Col. Leroy Springs president, serve the county and have a mileage of 44. The splendid public school system has three accredited and three standard high schools. In the town of Lancaster three handsome brick school buildings have lately been erected.

Andrew Jackson, seventh president, was born in Lancaster county and is her most famous son. Another, J. Marion Sims, was one of the greatest surgeons the world has produced. Stephen D. Miller, a pre-Confederate war governor and United States senator, and James Blair, elected to Congress in 1833 after a brilliant fight against Calhoun’s Nullification policy, are other sons of whom Lancastrians are justly proud.

The eye of a motorist approaching Lancaster, the county seat, is first attracted by the old colonial courthouse, a gem of architecture, erected in 1823 and recently restored without change in its original beauty of line and symmetry.

Old Waxhaw church and burying ground where lie Gen. William R. Davie, distinguished in civil, military, and diplomatic affairs, governor of North Carolina and founder of the University of North Carolina, and other of Lancaster’s distinguished early citizens, is another interesting spot.

With unsurpassed climate, enterprising business spirit, and an atmosphere of Southern hospitality, Lancaster offers every inducement to the stranger seeking a home in the New Land of Opportunity-the Piedmont section of South Carolina.

LAURENS COUNTY

LAURENS COUNTY was formed from the old Ninety Six district in 1798 and named for Henry Laurens, the South Carolina Revolutionary war statesman, president of the Continental Congress. The county seat also bears his name. The county was settled by thrifty Scotch-Irish in the early days of the state’s history, and many of these descendants still live on the original farms granted by royal favor. Laurens county is the birthplace of Ann Pamela Cunningham, where from her home, Rosemont Manor, situated in the western part of the county, she promoted her plan for the saving of Mt. Vernon to the nation. The county is rich in history; several skirmishes of the Revolutionary war were fought within her boundaries, the massacre of Hays station having taken place in the southern part.

Laurens boasts the favorable location of the “Center of the Piedmont” section of upper South Carolina. It is level in its lower section, gradually rolling to low, wooded hills in the northern part. It comprises an area of 690 square miles with a population of 42,560, all of whom arc native born except 40. Its principal towns are Laurens, the county seat, Clinton, Cross Hill, Gray Court, Mountville, Princeton, and Lanford.

The county is both agricultural and industrial. The soil is favorable to cotton, corn, and grain; peach orchards, recently planted, also thrive and produce well. It has a growing season of 220 days in which are produced, in addition to the money crops, potatoes, melons and vegetables for home consumption.

The Laurens county farmer, if he chooses, can completely live at home on his farm.

Chicken farms on extensive scales are also being promoted and the chickens are marketed through a co-operative association.

Six cotton mills, with a total of 200,000 spindles, are in the county. The Laurens Glass works, one of the few glass factories in the South, is at the county seat.

At Clinton is a large photo-engraving, electrotype and printing establishment. Sufficient power for extensive manufacturing development is available in the county through the Reedy River company, the Blue Ridge Power company, and the Southern Power company.

The Atlantic Coast Line, the Charleston and Western Carolina, and Seaboard Air Line railroads, together with a network of good highways-the Piedmont, the Calhoun, the Black Bear trail and the Jacobs highways-give the county direct connection with all the principal cities of the South and the nation.

There are nine accredited high schools in the county, each served by a fleet of motor busses. The Presbyterian college of South Carolina is located in the county, as is also the Thornwell orphanage, and the State Training school. Laurens has always been dedicated to the cause of education; its system of public schools is the pride of the county.

Laurens county is today the land of opportunity. Her soil offers a good investment to the farmer, her ready power is an inducement to new industries, and her fine climate is available for all who wish to establish homes.

LEE COUNTY

LEE COUNTY was formed in 1902 from parts of Darlington, Sumter and Kershaw counties, and was named for Robert Edward Lee, that peerless leader of the Southern Confederacy who taught his departing soldiers that they were the sons of the eagle that Washington enthroned, and that when they had retired from the conflict they were never to entertain ideas of renewing the contest over the question of secession.

The area of Lee county is 407 square miles. The population consists of 8,753 native born whites, 24 foreigners and 18,050 colored people. The incorporated towns besides Bishopville, the county seat, are Lynchburg and Elliott.

The soil varies from the low, level land, sparsely inhabited, in the southern part, to the higher and fertile region around Bishopville and Stokes’ Bridge, perfectly adapted to cotton cultivation, and the sand hills in the western part. The Spring Hill section consists of hills of red clay with outcroppings of sand rock, and is quite free from mosquitoes, with cool nights prevailing all summer.

Since Lee county has as many as 220 frost-free days, any temperate zone vegetation can be grown. The cotton production has reached as high as 54,000 bales, with a minimum of 35,000 under boll weevil conditions. In 1925 there were planted 77,000 acres in cotton, 30,000 in oats and 5,000 in hay. There are in the county 3,(00 head of cattle; 1,300 milch cows, 8,000 hogs, and 4,700 mules. Oats, rye and pedigreed cotton are to some extent grown for seed dealers.

Lee county has intelligent, reliable, and well-disciplined labor. The large cotton crop is promptly prepared for market by modern ginneries. The cotton of this county has a distinctive reputation for color, length, and strength of fiber, which, in addition to abundant production, attracts many buyers. In 1919 the banks of Lee county, in comparison to their capital and surplus, held the greatest percentage of deposits of the counties in the Richmond Federal Reserve district.

Railroads traverse the county in such a way that no farm is farther than six miles from a station. There are 600 miles of well maintained highways, which place any point in the county within an hour’s ride of the courthouse.

Over Lynches river and its many tributary streams and Black river are substantial two-way bridges of iron, cement or treated timber. The courthouse, its grounds and the Confederate monument are models of lasting beauty. The church buildings show dignity and grace of architecture, most of the peo� pie worshipping as Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists.

In Lee county are seven accredited state high schools with a sufficient number of easily reached grammar schools to care for the 2,764 white and the 5,160 colored pupils. The school property of the county has a valuation of $366,000, not including 80 acres of land sites. There was expended during the school year of 1925-26, to operate the schools the amount of $119,774, and for bond and interest payments and buildings, $236,600.

Lee county citizens hold membership on the trustee boards of the following colleges in South Carolina: Chicora, Columbia, Clemson, Winthrop, the University, and the Medical School.

Among the distinguished sons of Lee are the present United States Senator, E. b. Smith, and former Governor T. G. McLeod. This county boasts of the best politically informed people in the state, the campaign meetings in Bishopville always being more attentive, orderly and largely attended than those in other agricultural sections of the state.

LEXINGTON COUNTY

LEXINGTON, in the west middle section of the state, across the Congaree river from Columbia, is one of the oldest counties, having been organized in 1785 under the act of the Assembly-its present organization dating from an act of 1804. It was named to do honor to the Battle of Lexington. The town of Lexington is the county seat.

Its area is 779 square miles; population 35,676, (estimated at 37,734 in 1925) ; 12 incorporated towns in the county-Batesburg, Brookland, Cayce, Chapin, Irmo, Leesville, Lewiedale, Lexington, Pelion, Swansea, Peake and Summit-contain a total of 9,336 inhabitants. This leaves 26,340, or 73.9 per cent living in the open country.

The early settlers were almost entirely German, and they possessed many of the characteristics of their forefathers; honesty, industry, economy, neighborliness. Cooperation is not a new idea to Lexington people; it is a habit, a social heritage.

Lexington is abundantly blessed in natural resources. Saluda river traverses the upper section, while the fall line, which divides the state into the Piedmont region and the Coastal Plain, runs across the middle of the county from Batesburg to Columbia. The average elevation is approximately 500 feet above sea level, the highest point 660 feet.

The average annual growing season numbers 225 days; annual mean temperature 63.1° ; and annual precipitation 46.36 inches. These conditions make possible almost unlimited agricultural production.

Nearly one-half the area of the county is in woodlands. The long leaf pine is the predominating type. There are also short leaf pine, loblolly pine, oak, gum and poplar in abundance.

Granite is the only mineral of commercial importance, the value of the output amounting to approximately $250,000 annually. The quarry at Cayce is one of the leading of the Southeast.

The situation of Lexington, near the fall line, offers vast possibilities for the development of hydroelectric power. The Lexington Power company’s development on the Saluda is elsewhere described.

While not an industrial area, manufacturing is an important activity of the county. The value of the output is over $4,000,000 annually. Boxes and baskets, brick, fertilizer and flour, mineral and monuments, cotton goods and cotton oil are all made in Lexington.

Lexington is primarily agricultural. The population is composed largely of sturdy small farm owners. Tenancy is not a problem. No county in the state is more self sufficing, none produces a greater variety of crops. A large majority of the farmers raise their own food and feed supplies. The boll weevil has not impoverished Lexington. Trucks are grown in quantities, with a ready sale on the Columbia market. There is truth in the statement that “Lexington County feeds Columbia”. The picture is of the Columbia curb market supplied by Lexington truck farmers, with their cars. General farm crops-cotton, corn, oats, wheat-are grown. Lexington is the leading wheat county of the state.

Fruit growing is of considerable commercial importance, peaches in particular. Lexington boasts of several dairies and a creamery of outstanding success. The “cow, hog and hen” has long been an important phase of the agricultural economy of the county.

Education has made phenomenal progress. During the decade 1915-1925, the total expenditures for public schools increased from $42,471 to $404,724, or 853 per cent. Housing and equipment, length of term, number and quality of teachers and enrollment have shown corresponding growths. The county now has seven accredited high schools. In addition, Summerland college, the Lutheran Woman’s college of South Carolina, is located at Batesburg and Leesville.

All in all, Lexington is a good county in which to live.

MARION COUNTY

Organized in 1798 from a part of old Craven county, Marion is named for Gen. Francis Marion of Revolutionary fame who in impenetrable river swamps so successfully eluded the British that they nicknamed him the Swamp Fox. This historic sobriquet clings to Marion. Situated in the coastal plain, with 529 square miles area, Marion county’s population was, in 1920, 23,721, and estimated in 1925 at 25,921. Great Peedee river forms the west and south boundary lines; Little Peedee and Lumber rivers are its eastern limit, while Dillon county, cut from Marion, bounds it on the north.

Particularly an agricultural county, Marion’s level surface gives unusually large open fields sometimes numbering hundreds of acres; terracing is unnecessary and the use of tractors easy. These ample fields are invariably backgrounded by wooded areas which afford cheap drainage and conserve moisture as well as add definite beauty to the rural landscape.

Mild climate and evenly distributed rainfall adapt Marion to a wide range of farm products. Cotton, tobacco and corn are its principal crops though versatility of Marion’s soil, which ranges from sandy loam to clay with the former predominating, is evidenced by a woman exhibiting at the county fair 240 products and by-products from one farm.

In yield of tobacco an acre Marion leads the state, its average being 670 pounds, and in total production of tobacco it ranks fifth.

The average growing days from late spring to killing frost are 240; this allows two crops to be raised on the same land; corn after oats, or tobacco followed by peas. Trucking could be profitable. Conditions favor raising cattle, hogs and poultry.

Marion’s annual timber cut approximates 67,000,000 board feet with a capital employment of $2,500,000 and 1,200 employees to who annual wages of $1,000,000 are paid.

Three large brick mills run successfully. Further excellent brick-clay deposits exist.

Tests have shown that the waters of the Little Peedee river afford excellent paper mill possibiliites, the year around water supply being suitable and ample. Small gum and pine are conveniently available for such a business.

The Atlantic Coast Line’s main line and a branch of the Seaboard furnish railroad faciliites, with a total of 75 miles. An automobile coastal highway from New York to Florida traverses Marion.

Marion possesses state farmed fishing and good hunting grounds. Nearness to the coast where duck and large game abound increases this pleasant sportsmen’s pursuit.

For her best crop, her future citizens, Marion efficiently cares both physically and educationally. A county health unit composed of a doctor and two nurses has promoted better health among children, while excellent schools, including seven accredited high schools, offer every child its inherent right to an education.

Marion, the county seat, a lovely old town of paved streets, numbered 3,892 inhabitants in 1920. Three large lumber mills outside the corporate limits would swell that total. Marion’s grass-carpeted, tree-shaded public square has the beauty and dignity of some university campus. H4 churches, sound banks, a cotton mill, an oil mill, schools of which she is justly proud, the first tax-supported public library in the state, are among Marion’s assets.

Mullins, the second town in size, has 2,379 people, an up-to-date hospital and in 1925 ranked first among tobacco markets in South Carolina, selling nearly 16,000,000 pounds. There are several smaller towns.

Good land may be had at reasonable prices on easy terms. Both Marion and Mullins chambers of commerce will gladly assist prospective buyers.

MARLBORO COUNTY

Captain Zachariah Jordan Drake, in 1889, in Marlboro county, produced 255 bushels of shelled corn, 239 bushels crib cured, on an acre, winning the prize offered by the American Agriculturist. That was and is the world’s record, but Marlboro’s great fame is as a cotton county, one of the two or three highest acreage production in the United States.

Forty odd years ago when people began to talk about “intensive farming”, Marlboro planters translated the phrase into practice, they adopted high fertilization as their method, and they were years ahead, perhaps a decade or two, of cotton farmers elsewhere. “The economic surveys of the Department of Agriculture show that in normal times in any well established farming area where fertilizers are used the farmers who use the most fertilizers are the ones who on the average are making the highest profits,” wrote A. G. Smith in the World’s Work three years ago, and he uses Marlboro, where are the “highest yields of cotton, the highest priced lands and as prosperous farmers as any part of the whole Cotton Belt”, as evidence of the truth of his statement.

Named for the English Duke of Marlboro, the county, organized in 1798, is bounded on the west by the Peedee river and borders North Carolina, Dillon and Horry, lying between it and the sea. Of its soils 26 per cent are the Norfolk type, 16 Marlboro, 7 Congaree first bottom, and 4 Coxville. Its growing days are 220. The area is 519 square miles and the population, 1920, was 33,180, estimated, 1925, at 35,309. The county has 100 miles of railroad and five accredited high schools. Firstrate topsoil roads of the state and county systems connect all parts, and along the western border paralleling the Peedee runs the Jefferson Davis highway, principal route from Washington to Florida, crossing the river by a steel bridge into the town of Cheraw in Chesterfield.

Marlboro is in every way progressive. It has always been a distinguished county of h4 men of individual qualities of leadership.

Since nearly 200 years ago the region was settled by sturdy Welsh Baptists and reinforced a little later by numbers of hardy, keen-wined Scotch it has constantly given notable men to the political and industrial history of South Carolina. Its records are rich in curious stories and romantic traditions, as those of “Mason Lee’s Will”, “Baron Poellnitz”, and the “Bodiford Murder Trial”, of which Duncan D. McColl has written in “Sketches of Old Marlboro”.

When the General Assembly in 1892 enacted the dispensary law, by which the state operated the intoxicating liquor traffic 14 years, Marlboro, which was already “dry”, by a special act, was the one county (at the instance of its senator, the late W. D. Evans) excepted. Marlboro, therefore, is the historic prohibition county of South Carolina, no intoxicating liquors having been legally sold within its limits except in the days of Negro Scalawag government. In that period, one Negro mysteriously disappeared, and that was the nearest approach to a lynching in the county’s history.

Marlboro district’s first courthouse was placed about 1785 near the Peedee in a village called Carlisle, long ago deserted.

Nearly half a century later the courthouse was moved to Bennettsville, now the county seat, a flourishing little city of 3,197 inhabitants in 1920. Other towns are McColl, 2,129; Clio, 1,009; Blenheim, 234; Tatum, 176.

The seven cotton mills in the county, one in Bennettsville and six in McColl, arc all owned by the Marlboro Cotton mills. They have 46,000 spindles, and a mercerizing plant is included in the group. Two important lumber plants are operated in Bennettsville, Both Bennettsville and McColl have lately paved their principal streets and the two towns have seen an unusual amount of residence construction in recent years.

McCORMICK COUNTY

McCormick County was formed in 1917 from Edgefield, Greenwood, and Abbeville and was named in honor of Cyrus W. McCormick, of reaper fame, who owned thousands of acres of land in and around the present county seat. It is in the western part of the state on the Savannah river, in the Third Congressional district and Eleventh judicial circuit. It has an area of 379 square miles, with a population of 16,444 in 1920, estimated for 1925 at 16,984.

The surface is moderately rolling to level with red clay land in the upper part of the county and sandy soil with clay subsoil in the lower part. The growing season is about 235 days. Little river crosses the county and the Savannah borders it on the west.

Agriculture is the chief industry of the county. Cotton is the principal crop, with other crops, such as corn, grain and hay, growing in importance each year. The lower part of the country is noted for its fine peach orchards. Peaches are shipped south to Florida and as far north as Canada.

The Bermuda pasture lands along the rivers and creeks make sheep raising a profitable business.

There are 56 commercial poultry farms shipping thousands of dozens of eggs and chickens by truck, express, and car lots.

Lumbering is an important industry. Lumber and cord wood are shipped daily. The abandoned mines of manganese and gold have yielded nearly a million dollars worth of ore.

The Charleston and Western Carolina railroad traverses the county, and a branch line runs through the western part from the county seat. The total railroad mileage is 52. Topsoil roads connect all towns with the state highway which crosses the county at its longest point. There are 55 miles of topsoil road in the county.

McCormick county has two accredited high schools, one at Plum Branch, the other at McCormick. The McCormick school operates four busses. A consolidated school is in the lower part of the county.

A number of historic places are in the territory included in McCormick’s borders. New Bordeaux was settled by the French Huguenots 94 years after Charleston was settled. One of these settlers, Dr. John De La Howe, left an estate of 1,700 acres and his home place, “Lethe”, to be used as an industrial school for orphans of the county. This, the John De La Howe Industrial school, near Bordeaux, possibly the first of its kind in the country, is now controlled by the state. A new building was recently added to the plant. De La Howe’s tomb, in a lonely place on Little river, has riveted on its iron door an inscription in French and the date, 1797.

The place of the Calhoun massacre by the Indians in 1760 is in the western part of the county. Prominent in the early days were the Calhouns, Petigrus, McKies, Middletons, and others.

The towns are along the railroads. McCormick, the county seat, is the largest town, with a population of 1,284 in 1920. It is also the largest town between Greenwood and Augusta. The citizens have recently completed another high school building and installed lights and water. The Southeastern Egg Laying Contest grounds, where 1,000 thoroughbred hens are housed, is here.

The undeveloped water power of the Savannah and Little rivers offers opportunities for manufacturing interests. A great project on the Savannah is described elsewhere in the article about water power. The climate and soil are suitable for nearly all kinds of agriculture and a county agent is ever ready to assist the farmers and encourage diversification.

NEWBERRY COUNTY

NEWBERRY, of the lower tier of Piedmont counties, was carved out of Ninety Six district, under an ordinance passed in 1783, and organized under the act of 1798 ; in March, 1789, John Coate made a present to the county of two acres on which to erect public buildings, at Newberry, the county seat. It is probable that the name is that of a captain of Sumter’s state troops; it is certain that the county was a camping ground of Tarleton on his memorable march to Cowpens.

It is bounded on the northeast by the Enoree and on the south by the Broad, which rivers and many other small streams water it. The area is 601 square miles, the population in 1920, 35,552, estimated 1925 at 36,098. It is a rich and prosperous agricultural region with 61 per cent of its soils of the Cecil variety, 11 Appling, eight Meadow, and five Georgeville. It ranks high in the production of cotton, as well as corn, oats, and cover crops. In a competition in 1925 amongst eight Southern states, Willie Pat Boland, a Newberry boy, won the prize for the best ten ears of corn. The growing season is 215 days. Interest is developing in dairying, and in the marketing of a fine quality of granite.

The county maintains an excellent health unit, and efficient home and farm demonstration agents. Clinics are regularly held to take care of the health of school children.

In Newberry city (population 1920, 5,894), is Newberry college, a standard institution. There are Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Episcopal churches. In the county’s ten cities and towns are graded schools. Rural schools have made more progress in the last five years than in all preceding. One-teacher schools were reduced from 28 to eight; high schools increased from four to nine; state accredited high schools from one to five.

The Southern, the Seaboard Air Line, and the Columbia, Newberry and Laurens railroads, with a total mileage of 79, serve the county. Amazing progress has been made in highway building. State highways run through it from the capital to the Piedmont and busses run daily over them. Ample banking facilities are in the towns, including three h4 institutions at the county seat.

In 1925 three cotton mills at Newberry and one at Whitmire, having an aggregate capital of $4,500,000, with 181,472 spindles manned by native white labor, consumed 117,590 bales of cotton.

Whitmire has 1,955 inhabitants; Prosperity, 748; Helena, 435; Little Mountain, 399 ; Silver Street, 297 ; Pomaria, 288 ; Kinards, 236; Chappels, 207 ; Peake, 160.

In morals, in religion, in industry, in business, in education, the county is sound and conservatively progressive. And it is markedly hospitable to newcomers and new enterprises.

OCONEE COUNTY

1868 Dickens district, named for Gen. Andrew Pickens, soldier of the Revolution, was divided into Oconee and Dickens counties, and Oconee (the came of Indian origin) is the state’s extreme northwest county, on the 34th parallel of north latitude. Its area is 650 square miles, of which 200 square miles are mountain and 450 are undulating terrain, the soil belonging mainly to the Cecil series. The mean altitude is 1,060 feet.

The official readings of the weather bureau show for the last eight years an annual mean rainfall of 61.8 inches; mean temperature of 60.3 degrees; a maximum of 101.5 degrees, and a minimum of 8.5 degrees. The growing season is 210 days.

The population is, white, 23,719; colored, 6,398.

Walhalla (Garden of the Gods), population 2,068 in 1920, estimated now at 2,500, is the county seat. Other towns are Seneca, 1,460 (estimated 2,000) ; Westminster, 1,847 (estimated 2,200) ; West Union, 306 (estimated 500).

The double track Washington-Atlanta main line of the Southern runs 25.70 miles, by Seneca and Westminster, through the county. The Blue Ridge railroad, of which Walhalla is the northern terminus and Anderson the southern, has 19.45 miles in the county, crossing the Southern at Seneca.

Forty miles of paved highways are under construction or approval and there are 25 miles of waterbound macadam and 70 miles of topsoil. In the county system are 1,800 miles of road. Appropriations for road construction, 1926-27 amount to $1,237,000. The Piedmont Air Line traverses the county along the main line of the Southern railroad and the Wade Hampton Memorial highway from Walhalla to Cashiers, N. C., is to be paved in 1927.

Clemson college, on the homestead of John C. Calhoun, is in Oconee. The county has nine accredited high schools, 60 graded schools for whites and 31 for Negroes. The school term is seven to nine months. At Tamassee is the D. A. R. Industrial School for Girls. Long Creek academy is for both boys and girls. At Seneca is a junior college for colored girls and boys. The school enrollment last year was about 12,000.

Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Seventh Day Adventists, and Roman Catholics have churches.

In the county are five cotton mills with approximately 130,000 spindles, and 2,500 employees. Three oil mills, three planing mills, two ice plants, one handle factory, 30 saw mills, are operated. Lumbering is an important industry. Pine, oak, poplar, hickory, ash, walnut, dogwood, persimmon, chestnut, maple and locust are marketed.

Nantahala Forest Reservation embraces 40,000 acres of forest-covered mountain land on which the government practices scientific forestation. Cut over lands yield new crops of timber trees in 25 years.

Gold and copper have been mined. Mineral-bearing tracts are being acquired for future development.

The chief industry is diversified agriculture. Four-fifths of the area is adapted to successful farming. Cotton, corn, wheat, rye and forage, are the principal crops. Cattle, hog and poultry raising is on the increase. Dairying is profitable. Apples, peaches, pears and berries are in their native element. Commercial orchards are multiplying. Oconee apples have taken highest prizes at the state fair for years. Farm and home demonstration agents are employed annually.

Keowee, Seneca and Whitewater rivers are on the east, Tugaloo and Chattooga on the west, with numerous small tributaries. Here nature has been prodigal in her bounties, and the mountains through and among which these crystal waters wind embody more of beautiful prospect and romantic situation than art can figure to the eye, or language convey to the mind. Here the smoke of the wigwam fires once mingled in the skies, and here was laid the scene of Jocassee, that beautiful Cherokee legend so graphically told by Wm. Gilmore Simms.

The streams afford abundance of trout, both brook and rainbow. The forests abound in quail, pheasants, turkeys, squirrels, foxes, deer, raccoons, opossums, wildcats, groundhogs. Game and fish protection is enforced by state officers in cooperation with the wardens of Tri-State Country club, which has its club house on Whitewater river, 22-miles north of Walhalla.

About three miles to the south and on this river is the Jocassee Camp for Boys and Girls, the only camp of its kind in the state. Representatives from ten states attended the camp for periods of four successive weeks this summer.

Oconee county invites those who seek a home amid attractive surroundings, in an equable, invigorating climate, where the soil, adapted to diversified farming, yields ample reward, the mills and shops furnish employment to thousands and the scenery delights and inspires.

ORANGEBURG COUNTY

Listed by the federal agricultural department as one of the 26 best agricultural counties in the United States, Orangeburg, named in honor of William, Prince of Orange, son-in-law of George II, organized in 1768, is a leader among South Carolina counties for its manifold and valuable field products. It is a coastal plain county in the southwest central part of the state, the Edisto river bounding it on the south west, with an area of 1,131 square miles and a population, 1920 of 64,907, estimated in 1925 at 70,102. The white native born population is 22 060. The large Negro population makes labor abundant.

The county has 131 miles of railroad and 14 accredited high schools.

The county began to have many settlers in 1735, when 161 Swiss came up from Charleston to occupy the fertile, virgin lands, and its people of today have the inheritance of their habit and tradition of thrift and industry. Only 129 of its citizens are foreign born.

Orangeburg produced wealth in 1925 estimated by the national department of agriculture’s statisticians at $15,000,000 value, of which $12,500,000 was farm crops and $2,500,000 from lumber and manufactured products. The county leads the state in the total value of crops and live stock production. For crops affected by frost the growing season is 245 days, but there are other crops which may be and are grown the full 12 months in the year.

In the report of the statistician of the agricultural department, Orangeburg is given the leadership of South Carolina counties in the production for 1925 of cotton and cotton seed, of corn, of oats, and of sugar cane.

The county was second in the production of peanuts and third in sweet potatoes. In ownership of mules on farms it ranked third, in horses first, in hogs first, and in milch cows fifth.

In the valuation of crops made by this report, cow peas, soy beans, velvet beans, and poultry products were not included, and Orangeburg has taken a conspicuous part in the development of soy bean cultivation. In the same year 1925, more than 50,000 pounds of poultry were shipped in carload lots and considerable quantities in addition were shipped by express and sold directly to consumer. More pecans are grown in Orangeburg and in Calhoun, most of whose area was carved from Orangeburg, than in all the rest of South Carolina. The accompanying picture is of a pecan grove.

Scattered about this great county and situated on its steam railroads and improved state and county highways are the following 17 villages with their population in 1920:

Bowman, 733 ; Branchville, 1,814 ; Cope, 266 ; Cordova, 133 ; Elloree, 925 ; Eutawville, 285; Holly Hill, 522; Livingston, 159; Neeces, 289; North, 700; Norway, 474 ; Parler, 165 ; Rowesville, 425 ; Springfield, 798 ; Vance, 124 ; Woodford, 144 ; Bowyer, 87.

Branchville derives its name from the fact that when the South Carolina railroad was built in the early 1830’s from Charleston to Hamburg, before the end of the decade the construction of a branch beginning at the village to Columbia was begun. Branchville is said to be the oldest railroad junction in the world.

The city of Orangeburg, the county seat, is described elsewhere.

PICKENS COUNTY

Pickens County, formed by the constitution of 1868, lying between Saluda river on the east, Keowee river on the west, North Carolina on the north, and Anderson county on the south, is in the Third congressional district and the Thirteenth judicial circuit. It was named for Gen. Andrew Pickens.

The area is 529 square miles, 338,560 acres the population for 1920 was 28,329 and was estimated in 1925 at 29,975. In 1920 there were 23,391 whites, 4,931 colored, and 7 foreign bore. Mountainous in the northern part with fertile valleys productive of core, hay and small grain, the hill soils are adapted to apples and other fruits. The lower part produces cotton and truck, as well as grain, and food stuffs, peaches and many other fruits. The growing season averages 210 days.

The hills are covered with hardwood and other timber, some of which is being judiciously cut and marketed in lumber, tan bark, and acids., A fine clay soil provides a foundation for great productivity. The county includes a part of the Clemson college property.

Numerous bold streams lead into the border rivers, furnishing water power for corn and wheat mills, cotton gins and electricity, and on these streams are rich bottom lands. Thirty-six miles of double tracked main line of Southern railway traverse the county and Easley is connected with Pickens by a branch line of nine miles.

Pickers, the county seat, in 1920 had 895 inhabitants, now estimated at 1,150. It is the highest incorporated village in the state, 1,162 feet above sea level, and has water works, sewerage, paved streets, electric lights and power.

Easley, population 3,568 in 1920; Liberty, 1,705; Central, 898; Calhoun, 450 (railroad station for Clemson College) ; Norris, 206, and Six Mile, 134, are towns on the Southern railway. Six Mile has a growing Baptist school and a well ordered private hospital.

Eight prosperous cotton mills owe their success largely to the intelligent, industrious operatives drawn from the mountains. Nine banks serve the business needs. There are six accredited high schools and the county has the lowest percentage of illiterates in the state.

On Keowee river is the site of Fort Prince George, English trading post established in 1755, after Governor Glen’s treaty with the Indians. Sassafras Mountain (3,548 feet) is the highest elevation in the state. The county is rich in history not generally known or appreciated.

Baptists are the most numerous denomination, though Presbyterians, some of the “Wesleyan Faith,” and Methodists are active. The county has excellent topsoil roads and 36 miles are being hard surfaced. Rocky Bottom camp, for annual encampments of boys and girls organized in corn, cotton, pig, tomato and canning clubs, is situated in a high altitude on the picturesque highway No. 14, leading to Brevard, N. C. Pickens county- boasts the largest and most effective corn club in the United States.

Many farmers and specialists are succeeding in the poultry industry, in which they are aided by good roads and closeness to markets. The state “Hi-Y” (high school Y. M. C. A. boys of the state), Camp John B. Adger, has a home near Mount Pinnacle and is occupied annually by boys from many sections. Lands may be had at reasonable prices and home seekers are welcome, especially those who have succeeded in enterprises adapted to a comparatively undeveloped agricultural community which is beginning to realize its own possibilities. The county has only a small bonded debt and the tax rate is low.

RICHLAND COUNTY

Richland capital county of South Carolina, may have been given the name by reason of the lands along its rivers. It was organized in 1799. It is a great county of 751 square miles lying in the middle of the state, a little closer to the northern boundary than to the southern apex of the South Carolina triangle. The Wateree bounds it to the east and the Congaree to the southwest, while the Saluda and the Broad which form the Congaree at Columbia, cut through it northwest and north.

Nearly all kinds of South Carolina soils help to make Richland. The sand hills run through the county and divide it from a point near Columbia to the northeast. Red hill lands are in the north and northwest and wide valleys and swamps to the south and east. Thirty-five per cent of the lands are of the Norfolk soil type, 14 per cent Congaree first bottom, three per cent Johnston first bottom, four per cent Orangeburg, three per cent Marlboro and 18 per cent Georgeville. Anything and everything from the finest cotton to the finest peaches, berries, melons, grains and grasses grow. In the swamps are noble timbers and for everything produced the growing city of Columbia, county scat and state capital, is an excellent market. From Columbia paved roads run in all directions, sand clay roads supplementing the system.

A century and a quarter ago a planter of Richland, the first Gen. Wade Hampton, produced 600 bags of cotton, weighing from 250 to 300 pounds, without fertilizer within six or seven miles of Columbia. That was a year or two after the invention of the cotton gin and this great planter was one of the first in the South to perceive its significance. Farmers of vision and enterprise have never failed the county. That part of Richland in the hills of “the Dutch Fork” between Broad and Saluda rivers is peopled by a race of small farmers who sustain themselves at home and set an example to others everywhere. On a tract of some 2,400 acres owned by the state six miles north of Columbia one could see a field of 135 acres, sandy land, on which this year was growing a crop of 30 to 40 bushels of corn to the acre and it has produced annually since it was brought into cultivation after the clearing of the black jack timber about 20 years ago from 20 to 40 bushels an acre. This field is cultivated by the State Hospital and on similar sand hill land, also cultivated by the State Hospital, Dr. J. W. Parker, the superintendent, in 1857 gathered 359 bushels of corn on two acres, of which one acre gave 200 bushels and 12 quarts. A long time Dr. Parker’s crop was a world record. The tract still produces mighty crops. The county has 230 crop growing days.

The history of Richland is interwoven with the history of Columbia. , The southern section of it contained extensive plantations whose owners dispensed the typical hospitality of the South in fine old houses in groves of oak and approached by avenues, some of which remain. Outside of Columbia are State Park on which is a part of the buildings of the State hospital occupied by Negro patients. Another section of this property is the hospital for tuberculosis patients maintained by the state, while in the hills west of the Broad are two state reformatories, three miles apart, for youthful delinquents, one for colored boys and the other for white girls.

Twelve miles northeast of Columbia the Clemson college experiment station of central South Carolina is now beginning operations. It has a tract of more than 500 acres and is expected to be especially valuable as a center of instruction in the fruit growing to which the sand hills are so well adapted.

Other towns of the county besides Columbia are Arden, 924 inhabitants, and Eau Claire, 2,566, suburban to the capital; Eastover, 326; White Rock, 88.

The county has five accredited high schools, and 130 miles of railroads. The population of the county 1920, was 78,122, estimated 91,146 in 1925.

Columbia is headquarters of hydroelectric power developments and of these Richland county is the beneficiary. Power for factories may be had anywhere.

The climate is invigorating and the sand hills have been health resorts from the early days of the county’s settlement. Whatever Camden, Aiken or Southern Pines have in fresh and dry winter air to invite fugitives from biting Northern temperatures the Richland sand hills offer.

SALUDA COUNTY

SALUDA COUNTY, formed in 1895 from Edgefield county, which in turn had been laid out from the Ninety Six district, is situated northwest of the central part of the state, with an area of 435 square milesabout 278,400 acres. The name is from a tribe of Indians who lived on the Saluda river from 1695 to 1712. The county is in the Piedmont Plateau, except a few indentations from the Coastal Plain on the southeastern border.

The soil is mostly whitish or reddish clay, with some sand on the southern side, and is classified with the following percentages; Cecil, 74; Norfolk, three; Meadow, three; Orangeburg, three; Durham, 16.

The hills are low, gradually sloping, well rounded, fitted for the growing of crops, easily adapted to cultivation, and not subject to washing into gullies.

Big Saluda river skirts the northern edge, with the little Saluda emptying into it a few miles above the Lexington county line. Little Saluda is formed by a junction of Red Bank and Mine creeks at Saluda court house, with Burnets, Richland, Big, Indian, and Clouds creeks joining at regular intervals. These streams with their branches give the county an excellent water supply, much undeveloped power, and fine bottom lands, little subject to overflow, which produce corn, oats, cane, and grasses without the aid of fertilizers.

The uplands are adapted to wheat growing and other grains, if put in early in the fall. The number of growing days is from 215 to 240. Severe cold between March 15 and November 10 is unusual.

The county is agricultural entirely, with almost no waste land. Corn, cotton, grain, watermelons, potatoes, strawberries, asparagus, cantaloupes, and all kinds of truck are grown with ease and profit with the minimum of fertilization.

Fruit growing is successful and Saluda orchards have long been favorably known.

The sandy foams, the chocolate, and clays give the farmer the right variety needed for the production of crops.

On the average 75 acre tract eau be found an elevation suitable for a dwelling, and a variety of bottom and uplands for the production of any kind of crop.

Excellent gardens can be had the year around. The country is naturally adapted to cattle raising; with grasses growing wild, forage crops, legumes, and good winter and spring grazing of bermuda grass, rye, and clover, in abundance. For poultry it cannot be surpassed, and hatchery facilities are good.

The county has three accredited high schools. The population in 1920 was 22,088, all native born except 11, and was estimated at 22,738 in 1925. The railroad mileage is 25.

The highways are of the best type of topsoil.

The people are law-abiding, hard working, and support excellent schools and churches. The Broad River Power Company’s lines furnish cheap light and power to the county seat and eastern sections of the county. There are fine forests of merchantable pine and hardwoods.

The county offers an inviting field for manufacturing enterprises-with water power and fuel-and also for small farmers with a moderate amount of capital, who aim to make a living out of the soil.

A county farm agent is employed.

Saluda, the county seat, has 1,203 inhabitants. Other towns are: Monetta (partly in Aiken county), 137; Ridge Spring, 597; Ward, 234.

With its attractive landscapes, it offers many sites for country homes with excellent water and health.

SPARTANBURG COUNTY

Hardy Scotch-Irish pioneers blazing their trail into the northwestern section of South Carolina a century and a half ago, thinking, perhaps, of the type of manhood most admired in those times, christened the region they settled “Spartanburg,” and in 1798 Spartanburg county was organized.

Today, Spartanburg county is peopled by prosperous descendants of these trail blazers. The population in 1920 was 94,265, estimated for 1925 at 100,382. Three years ago the county achieved the distinction of being ranked twenty-eighth among the 3,069 counties of the United States in value of agricultural products.

Spartanburg is first in population to the square mile and second in total, population of South Carolina counties. It ranks first among South Carolina counties in white, American born population, in rural population, in value of manufactured products, in value of agricultural products, and in number of looms and spindles.

The county contains 765 square miles of lands unsurpassed for fertility in the Southeast. Of the 489,600 acres, 39.9 per cent is Cecil sandy clay loam, and 32.2 is Cecil sandy loam. The growing season is 210 days, and the rainfall ranges from 45 to 50 inches. Practically all of the county is more than , 875 feet above sea level. Farm products in 1925 were valued at more than $15,000,000. Two agricultural agents are employed.

Of crops that flourish are alfalfa, asparagus, cabbage, watermelons, carrots, clover, grass mixtures for hay, cucumbers, peas, beans, corn, wheat, oats, rye. peanuts, sorghum, soy beans, spinach, strawberries, sweet potatoes and velvet beans. Prosperous orchards dot the gentle slopes of the county, and many carloads of peaches and apples are shipped annually and dozens of young orchards are nearing maturity.

Four railroads (mileage 126) cross the county, which is linked with the three great railroads serving the South-the Southern, the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line-rendering vast markets easily accessible to both farmers and manufacturers.

Spartanburg is covered with a network of power transmission lines, totaling 250 miles. Four power companies operate within the county.

Many hundreds of thousands of dollars have been invested in Spartanburg county by New Englanders. Local and outside capital has built cotton mills, operating 25,000 looms and 950,000 spindles. Thirty-five million dollars is invested in the plants, which produce an annual output valued at $40,000,000. The picture is of a typical home of a textile mill worker, in Percolate village.

Iron and steel fabricating plants, railway repair shops, machine shops, oil mills, fertilizer plants, lumber mills, cement pipe, creosoting, and many other industrial enterprises flourish. The annual output of eight cottonseed oil mills is valued at more than $1,000,000.

Thirty prosperous banks and seven building and loan associations contribute to prosperity.

There are more than 70 churches in the county, and 104 public schools, of which 19 are high schools.

Wofford college, for young men, and Converse college, for young women, are in Spartanburg city. The South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind is in Spartanburg county.

Along the excellent highways traversing the county are attractive and substantial farm homes. Lighted with electricity, many of these rural homes are equipped with waterworks and most of the other conveniences to be found in urban residences.

Spartanburg is rich in history. Congress now has under consideration a bill to convert into a national military park the Cowpens battle ground, where Tarleton was repulsed by Daniel Morgan and his riflemen. Other spots made famous in the Revolutionary or Confederate wars are in the county.

SUMTER COUNTY

SUMTER COUNTY ( named for Gen. Thomas Sumter, whose home was at Stateburg), in the Upper Pine belt, was organized in 1798, has an area of 574 square miles and a population of 43,040 (census of 1920). Native born whites number 12,421 ; Negroes, 30,508; foreign born, 100; Indians and Chinese, 11.

Between Lynches river on the east and Santee-Watere and bisected from north to south by Black river, with the high hills of the Santee stretching across the northwestern quarter and overlooking the fertile and picturesque valley of the Wateree, Sumter is well watered and drained. The varied terrain and soil types have characteristics of the three sections of South Carolina-heavy black lands of the alluvial plain, sand hills, and high red hills. The altitude ranges from 107 feet on the southern border to 450 feet on the crest of the high hills, a miniature mountain range.

The predominant soil types are Norfolk sandy loam, Portsmouth sandy loam and Orangeburg clay, constituting 73 per cent of the area, the remainder being classified as swamp and Congaree first bottom. These soils are well adapted to cotton, corn, tobacco, small grains, legumes and also all varieties of truck for shipment to northern markets and for canning factories that are in successful operation in the county.

In yield the acre and low cost of production on account of the fertility of the soil, ease of cultivation and uniformly favorable climatic conditions throughout the long growing season of 230 days, Sumter county challenges comparison with any other part of the South Atlantic section. In the hills superior peaches are grown on a commercial scale, and in all sections pecans are profitably produced. Onions are grown as a staple crop on the Orangeburg clay soil of Wedgefield, the acreage having been increased steadily the last four years.

Tobacco is the major crop in the southeastern section, the Puddin Swamp bright tobacco being the standard of excellence in the state’s markets, and is profitably raised as a supplemental crop in all parts of the county. A few farmers have demonstrated that asparagus can be produced at a profit.

Dairying has passed the experimental stage, and two creameries have been in successful operation for the last four or five years.

The supply of pure water is abundant and never failing. Except in the northern and western parts of the county bored wells 40 to 200 feet deep supply artesian running water to the homes. Everywhere pure, soft water is obtainable from ordinary wells of moderate depth, from springs and spring fed streams.

The county has a wealth of clay from which face brick arc manufactured and shipped to all parts of the United States and Canada. From known deposits of clay high grade fire brick have been made, but they are not now utilized. Extensive beds of gravel for highway construction and concrete work await development.

The outstanding manufacturing industry is dependent upon the forests of pine and hardwood that are years from exhaustion. A number of mills, large and small, are producing building materials, furniture stock, and veneer. The greater part of this output is shipped to other states, and there is opportunity here to develop a furniture manufacturing industry of magnitude.

The county is served by the Atlantic Coast Line, Southern, Seaboard Air Line, and Northwestern railroads, their lines, with a total mileage of 144, traversing all sections of the county.

The strikingly progressive feature of Sumter county is the hard-surfaced highway system completed in 1924 at a cost of more than $4,000,000. It includes the ten main highways radiating from the city of Sumter (the county seat), as shown in the picture, paved to the county line, standard concrete and asphalt surfaced construction, of a total mileage of 137.6. No resident of the county is more than five miles from a paved highway.

Supplementing the hard surface system are about 425 miles of sand-clay and topsoil roads. The paved roads are linked with the state highway system, and three of the state’s major highways pass through the county, intersecting at the city of Sumter.

The county is well provided with churches and schools. The rural schools are as good as any in the state, and there are six accredited high schools.

UNION COUNTY

Union County is situated in the Piedmont Plateau of South Carolina within 40 miles of the Blue Ridge mountains. It is almost surrounded by rivers, with the Pacolet on the north, the Broad on the east and the Enoree on the south, and is traversed by Tyger river and many smaller streams; the elevation above sea level varies from 500 to 700 feet, and the climate is ideal for a year-around home, the winters being short and mild and the summers pleasant and never oppressive.

This section was the original home of the Cherokee Indians and was later settled by immigrants from Virginia and Pennsylvania. In the Revolution the territory of Union was a battle ground in the struggle between the Patriots and the British and Tories. Then and always its sons and daughters have been loyal to state and country. The county was formed from the old Ninety Six district in 1798, and gets its name from “Union Church”, erected about 1765 near the present site of the city of Union, and used in common by Episcopalians and Presbyterians. The area is 492 square miles, or 314,880 acres; the population (1920) is 30,372, estimated 1925 at 30,632, less than one per cent being of foreign birth.

Union, the county seat, is the largest municipality, with a population (1920) of 6,141, increased by suburbs to 11,000. Its industries are cotton and hosiery mills, cannery, creamery, cotton oil mill. Several smaller towns and villages are in the county, among them Jonesville, 1,209; Carlisle, 376; Lockhart, Buffalo and Santuc.

Two railroads traverse the county-the Southern and the Seaboard-with a mileage of 82; while there are two intra-county short lines connecting with them. The population is less than 24 hours from New York, 15 from Cincinnati and six from Charleston, the chief port of the state.

Through Union county are 800 miles of public roads, 250 miles being of modern topsoil variety, some of which will soon be hard surfaced. Crossing the county are the great Appalachian and Calhoun highways.

Union county’s six large cotton and two hosiery mills consume many times the cotton it produces. There are other manufacturing plants on a smaller scale. Several large water power developments provide electric power for industries.

There are four accredited high schools in the county and a public school is in easy reach of all. In education, as in road building, Union has made marvelous progress in the past few years.

The county offers a soil that responds richly to cultivation. It is of 15 distinct varieties from residual upland to alluvial river and creek bottoms, Cecil sandy loam and Cecil clay loam predominating. A wide variety of crops can be successfully grown-cotton, corn and other grains, various forage crops and truck. With the varied industries of the county and adjacent territory, a ready market is provided for truck and farm products. Cattle, hog and poultry raising are on the increase. On account of the long growing season, a minimum of 210 days but often much longer, live stock can be raised at a good profit, requiring little shelter and short winter feeding. Farm and domestic demonstration agents are employed and their services are offered to new settlers. Union county invites, and is inviting to, the home seeker. Its situation in the heart of a great textile centre means continued industrial development. Its level and slightly rolling lands, well drained and productive, to he had at reasonable prices, mean profit. These advantages added to au excellent geographical location and a splendid climate appeal to those in search of a year-around home of health, happiness and profit.

WILLIAMSBURG COUNTY

Loyally in 1932 the descendants of Scotch Presbyterians will celebrate the coming of their forefathers to Williamsburg in search of religious freedom. Williamsburg, in the lower pine belt, “the gate to the Santee section” was named for Prince William, son of George II, was organized in 1804, has an area of 927 square miles and a population of 38,539, estimated in 1925 at 39,058. Kingstree (population 2,074) is the county seat and other towns with their population are: Greeleyville, 645 ; Hemingway, 371; Lane, 308; Trio, 149; Johnsonville, 271. The county has 79 miles of railroad trackage and the number of accredited high schools is five.

Williamsburg is, first of all, agricultural, but great forests of pine and hardwood make lumbering profitable. There are numerous building supply companies and plants associated with the lumber industry. Cotton is the principal crop but the county is a leader in producing tobacco. Kingstree is an important tobacco market, truck growing employs numbers of people and beans, strawberries, and green peas are among the crops that grow abundantly from the rich loamy soil.

The county is well and generally, not thickly, settled throughout it, borders by a population notably law-abiding, faithful to religion and good morals.

Winters are never severe and nearness to the Atlantic coast, from which ocean breezes blow, tempers constantly the summer heat. There are few weeks in the year when it is not comfortable to let fires go out and leave windows open.

The county is famous for its hunting and fishing. Deer, found in the forests, and duck, bobwhite, squirrels and opossums are abundant. The redbreast and bream of Black river, (“Wee Nee”, the Indians called it), are fish beloved of gourmets, and warmouth, trout and many other varieties are abundant.

At some seasons bass fishing in Black river is a great source of profit. The region is eminently healthy, as the statistics prove, and old notions to the contrary have been completely dissipated.

Hydroelectric power is available in all parts of the county and Florence, Charleston and Sumter are cities and markets within easy reach. The coastal highway, the paving of which is already planned, will run through Kingstree and the noble bridge spanning the Santee has placed the county in close touch with Charleston. The bridge over Black river, near Kingstree, is shown in the picture.

The county is not fully developed. Fertile lauds at low prices are abundant and there is no end to the crops they will produce.

Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and Episcopal churches are found in numerous villages and settlements.

Kingstree has a flourishing consolidated high school, and a well equipped hospital. In Kingstree is a swimming resort attracting people from other counties and furnishing keen enjoyment for the home folks.

YORK COUNTY

York County, formed prior to 1750, organized 1798, was known as the New Acquisition, and was settled for the most part by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who came from Pennsylvania and gave to their new home the name of a county in their mother colony. A Presbyterian minister named Richardson, graduate of Princeton, organized Bethel church in 1764 and in 1769 Presbyterian churches were organized at Bullocks Creek, Bethesda, and Ebenezer. The Rev. Joseph Alexander, noted teacher and patriot, was pastor of the Bullocks Creek church. The people of the Scotch-Irish county were h4, morally, mentally, and physically. They were industrious, self-reliant, deeply religious, and in their descendants these characteristics are perpetuated. To build an enduring and prosperous nation they perceived they must have school houses and churches. They proceeded to establish them, and their posterity has most liberally maintained these institutions since the county’s earliest days. In 1920 York had a population of 50,536, estimated at 52,133 in 1925, and Rock Hill, its chief town, had 8,809 inhabitants in 1920, but, with those living in the environs, the number is estimated at a much higher figure now. Fort Mill’s population by the last census was 1,946; Clover’s people numbered 1,608; Hickory Grove had 301; McConnells, 247 ; Sharon, 419 ; Tirzah, 160 ; Smyrna, 101. York, with 2,731 inhabitants, is the county seat and is a town of rare and distinctive beauty, so visitors say. In the Carolinas is no other town like York.

The county has 651 square miles. North Carolina borders it on the north, the Catawba river runs through its northeastern side and forms its southeastern boundary. The Southern railway, Seaboard Air Line, and Carolina and Northwestern railway, with a total of 101 miles, traverse the county. It has nine accredited high schools. Its fertile soil yields an annual average of 30,000 bales of cotton, and an abundance of wheat, oats, rye, corn, peas, cane and other crops of the Piedmont country. A number of commercial peach orchards have been planted and promise to be lucrative.

The Wateree Power company on the Catawba and the Southern Power company at Great Falls and at Ninety-nine Islands furnish abundant hydroelectric power not only for manufactories now operating but sufficient for great and progressive expansion of industries.

One million dollars has lately been expended for the construction of 45 miles of hard surfaced roads and another million of bonds has been voted to complete the hard surfaced county system, and the topsoil roads are extensive and well maintained.

Last year 15,319 children were in the public schools, of whom 8,225 were white and 6,994 colored. Every year $400,000 is used for the maintenance of these schools and the value of the school buildings in the county is in excess of $1,000,000.

No county in South Carolina has a citizenship of sturdier virtues and greater intelligence. Along its northwestern border runs the Kings mountain range and the Kings mountain battle field and battle monument (shown in picture) are in York county’s territory. Ancestors of many York families fought in the battle and many another engagement of the Revolution. Their virtues live in their sons.