South Carolina from A to Z

“C” is for Chesterfield County (799 square miles; 2020 population 45,606). Chesterfield County was established in 1785 when the legislature divided the Cheraws Judicial District into three counties. The origin of the name might have been Chesterfield County, Virginia, from which many early settlers came. The earliest settlement was at Cheraw Hill at the head of the navigation for the Great Pee Dee...

“B” is for Blanchard, Felix Anthony, Jr. (1924-2009). Football player, Heisman Trophy recipient. “Doc” Blanchard was in Bishopville. He started playing football as a junior high student in Bishopville. In 1942 he played freshman football at the University of North Carolina. In 1944 he received an appointment to West Point. Blanchard distinguished himself as a fullback on the West Point football te...

“B” is for Blake, Joseph (1663-1700). Governor. Blake was a leader of the Dissenter faction in South Carolina. A native of England, he immigrated to the colony sometime before 1689 when he was active in local politics. Shortly after his arrival he was named a proprietary deputy and member of the Grand Council. In 1694 he purchased the proprietary share of Sir John Berkeley and became one of the se...

“W” is for Wilson, Charles Coker (1864-1933). Architect. A native of Hartsville, Wilson graduated from the South Carolina College and later studied at the Ècole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He established a practice in Columbia and over the next quarter century   (with several partners), he was responsible for numerous buildings throughout the state. Among these buildings were Davis and LeConte Colleg...

“S” is for Sherman’s march. This campaign under General William Tecumseh Sherman is one of the more controversial of the Civil War because of the damage it wrought to civilian property. On February 1,1865 Sherman’s forces began their thirty-mile-wide march into South Carolina. Despite skirmishes, the Union army reached Columbia without much opposition. Along the way some fourteen small towns (incl...

“S” is for Sheriff, Hilla (1903-1988). Physician, public health official. A native of Pickens County, Sheriff attended the College of Charleston and the Medical College of the State of South Carolina. In 1929 she opened a pediatric practice in Spartanburg. From 1933 to 1940 she served as deputy and later chief health officer for Spartanburg County. In 1940 Sheriff became the assistant director of...

“S” is for Shepard, Charles Upham (1804-1886). Chemist, mineralogist, naturalist. Born in Rhode Island Shepard graduated from Amherst and worked at Yale with famed mineralogist Benjamin Silliman. In 1834 the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston appointed Shepard professor of chemistry. A highly respected and popular teacher he also arranged mineralogical collections and botanical facili...

“R” is for Rogers, George Washington, Jr. (b. 1958). Football player. Born in Atlanta, Rogers grew up in Duluth, Georgia where he was a star football player. At the University of South Carolina, he would finish his career with twenty-seven 100-yard plus games. In 1980 he ran for 1,894 yards on 324 carries for a 5.8 y Her efforts to train and license lay midwives in South Carolina Her efforts to tr...

“P” is for Pinkney, Bill (1925-2007). A native of Dalzell, Pinkney began singing gospel songs as a child working in Sumter County’s cotton fields. He would go on to a stellar career performing around the globe as an original member of the Drifters. The group became a rhythm and blues (R&B) pioneer, and in 1954 signed a contract with Atlantic Records. In 1988 members of the Drifters were induct...

“P” is for Pines. Nine native pine species are found within South Carolina. South Carolina pines can be divided into two general groups, white pines and yellow pines. The eastern white pine is the only white pine in the state. The rest of the pines are yellow: loblolly; longleaf; slash; Virginia; shortleaf; pitch pine; pond; table mountain; and spruce. Loblolly and slash are the preferred species...

“P” is for Pine Bark Stew. “Communal stew” is the name that southern cooking authority Stan Woodward gives stews made in big batches and cooked over open fires in large cast-iron pots.  In the 1930 edition of Two Hundred Years of Charleston Cooking , the recipe for pine bark stew was attributed to Captain John A. Kelly of Kingstree, who made it a favorite dish of the Otranto Hunting Club. Most aut...

“M” is for Middleton Place (Dorchester County). Middleton Place is an Ashley River plantation located on the Ashley River Road just outside Charleston. When Henry Middleton married, he acquired the property through his wife. He then expanded the land holdings and began the elegant gardens that have made Middle Place internationally famous. The gardens are renowned for their collection of Camellia...

“M” is for Middleton, Henry (1770-1846). Legislator, governor, congressman, diplomat. Born in South Carolina, Middleton was sent to England by his uncles in the 1780s. In 1799 he returned to South Carolina, to assume management of his family’s properties. In 1802 he began a long career in South Carolina politics representing the Parishes of St. Philip’s and St. Michael’s in the House of Representa...

“H” is for Hollywood (Charleston County; 2020 population 5,339). The automobile bumper sticker declares, “We’re the Real Hollywood.” In fact, no tourist would confuse this crossroads village on the western edge of Charleston County with California’s Tinseltown. In the 1880s Charles W. Geraty began a new farming venture on land five miles west of the Stono River. Truck farming was the community’s e...

“L” is for Longstreet, Augustus Baldwin (1790-1879). Educator, author, clergyman. Born in Augusta, Georgia, Longstreet was educated at Yale and the law school in Litchfield, Connecticut. In the wake of a family tragedy, he became deeply religious and a clergyman in the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1835 he published Georgia Scenes one of the best examples of southern backwoods humor. In 1839 he b...

“C” is for Carolina bays. Carolina bays are elliptical, shallow depressions found on unconsolidated sediments of the coastal plain region of eastern North America from Maryland to Florida.

"A” is for Allston, Washington (1779-1843). Painter, writer.

“D” is for Donaldson, John Owen (1898-1930). Aviator. In 1951 Greenville Air Base was renamed to honor John Owen Donaldson.

“C” is for Charlesfort. A mid-sixteenth century French outpost in Port Royal Sound, Charlesfort was the first French settlement in the present-day United States.

“C” is for Chapman, Martha Marshall, II (b. 1949). Musician. Classified by many as a country-music artist, Martha Marshall Chapman,II, and her style nonetheless have been difficult to categorize.

“B” is for Bethune, Mary McLeod (1875-1955). Educator, social activist, government official.

“W” is for Wilkinson, Marion Birnie (1870-1956). Social reformer, Black women’s club leader.

“S” is for Scarborough, William Harrison (1812-1871). Painter. Examples of William Harrison Scarborough’s works can be found in museums around South Carolina.

“R” is for Rivers Bridge, Battle of (February 2-3, 1865). The battle marked the only major resistance to Sherman’s march through South Carolina.

“P” is for Pickens, Francis (1807-1869). Congressman, diplomat, governor. In 1860 Pickens was elected governor, four days before South Carolina seceded.