Florence County Chapter

Florence is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2010 census, its population was 136,885. Its county seat is Florence. The first inhabitants of the Pee Dee Area were the Pee Dee Indians. In 1730 Robert Johnson the first Royal Governor of S.C. ordered eleven townships to be created. Each would contain 20,000 acres, and each man, woman and child who would improve 50 acres would receive the land free. Welch immigrants from Pennsylvania settled in the Pee Dee area. Settlement was slow so the government offered bounties to people who would settle in the area. The rivers in the area were used for transportation. Life in general was frontier quality. It was a very remote area and isolated from the influence of church and state. Crime was rampant. Lack of schools were a problem also. It was written at the time, that the “lack of education lead to idle, immoral lives- follow hunting, shooting, racing, drinking, gaming,and every aspect of wickedness, more rude in manners than the savages around us”. Regulators were landowners determined to end the lawlessness. In 1768 Regulators and Militia clashed when Regulators seized two Militiamen. Two were killed and after the fight all the Militiamen were lashed fifty times. After the Regulator movement in 1768 the Royal Governor approved a bill establishing a system of courts. In 1772 the first sheriff that was appointed was P.H. Hatley. The Petition of 1768 acknowledged the lack of education and in December 1777 a group met to form an organization to promote learning.. They decided to educate young people in Latin and Greek, math and other useful areas of learning.

Because marriages could only take place in Charleston or North Carolina, many people lived together outside of wedlock. Someone wrote that, “they quit each other at pleasure – swap wives and children, as they do cattle and horses”. In 1738 fifteen Welch settlers organized the Welch Neck Baptist Church. They ordained their first minister in 1743. The Welch had very rigorous standards. Members were excommunicated or suspended from membership for such things as beating a neighbor, murder, adultery,theft,swearing and drunkenness. The Welch church became the mother of other Baptist churches in the Pee Dee. Ebenezer Baptist Church began in 1774 and still exists today. Presbyterians entered the Pee Dee in 1732. Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Claussen (nearby Florence) was organized in 1770 and also is still holding church services. The Pre-Revolutionary War period was quite prosperous. Cattle and horses were sold to the Northern Colonies. Lumber was an important product and the river system in the area was used to ship the lumber to the coast where it was traded. Indigo (a plant that makes purple dye) was brought in from the French West Indies. In only six years the colony exported over 200,000 pounds of indigo. The earliest record of slaves in the area was in 1748. By 1757 the number of slaves was about 500 with a total population of 4,300. Most slave owners did not own more than three or four slaves. The Pee Dee area was not too involved in the events that led up to the Revolutionary War because it was so isolated from the large population centers. In 1774 William Henry Drayton was sent to the back country to explain to the people how they were being oppressed by the British. Events in 1775 led Royal Governor Lord William Campbell to flee in September of that year. Little happened during the war in the area until the fall of Charleston in 1780. On August 16,1780 Horatio Gates, sent by General Washington to stop the British drive in South Carolina, was soundly defeated in one of the fiercest fights of the war in Camden. A few days later a British unit taking American prisoners from Camden to Charleston was attacked. The Redcoats were over-powered and over 150 Maryland prisoners were freed. In 1780 Francis Marion began his exploits that would link his name to the Pee Dee. Because of his success in evading the British in the swampy area of the Pee Dee, Francis Marion became known as the “Swamp Fox”. Fighting ended in the area on June 8, 1782

In 1783 the cotton gin was invented and caused a dramatic effect on the South. Soon one half of all U.S. exports was cotton. Darlington district sold 13,000 bales in 1850. This dramatically increased the number of slaves in the area. Land cost 50¢ an acre. Henry Timrod lived on the plantation of Col. William Henry Cannon, who constructed a school for Timrod to teach the plantation children in 1856 and 1857. This school is located in Timrod Park in Florence today. Three railroads were constructed in the Pee Dee. All intersect in what is known today as Florence. Florence began as a railroad depot and an inn. The town started as a plot of 577 acres as a grant from the state. In 1859 Jerome P.Chase, a telegraph operator arrived and became a successful businessman, selling insurance real estate and became known as the "Father of Florence. The City of Florence was named for Florence Henning Harlee, daughter of General W.W. Harlee, president of the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad. In 1860 the first map of Florence was created. Florence was a planned community with seven streets and 96 lots. The early twentieth century saw the city’s rail traffic reach its peak as the country focused on World War I. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, Florence made great education and cultural strides, opening new public schools, a library and a museum. After World War II, the city expanded westward, eventually encompassing almost 10,000 acres. Although the importance of the railroads began to decline in the last half of the century, the role of transportation remains a prominent thread in the tapestry of the city’s development. From the 1950’s through the early 1970’s, Florence’s midpoint location between New York and Miami made the city a popular stop for motorists using US Highway 301. Situated at the intersection of interstate highways I-95 and I-20, the city continues to attract travelers from the nation’s busy eastern corridor. Strategic location coupled with the recently expanded air service offered by its regional airport allows Florence to maintain its role as a transportation hub for the southeast.