NAMES IN BERKELEY COUNTY

City Directories and History: Old Vat Road goes south of Highway 33, closely paralleling Highway 120 to the west.  Palmer Bridges is the name the Map of the Francis Marion National Forest (edition of 1957) gives to the bridge which Highway 45 crosses over Wambaw Creek on the way to McClellanville from Honey Hill. It is evidently named for the Palmer family who once had holdings in this area. Charity Church community is located just north of Highways 99 and 98 on Highway 98. Its name is derived from the Negro church there. Charity Church Road or CC Road was cut through from Highway 98, by Charity Church, to Highway 41 by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the early thirties.1 Round Pond is an artesian spring located about a mile to the west of the crossing of Round Pond Road and Highway 172. Its water is said to have a sweet taste, but the flow of water is not great as formerly. It was mistakenly plotted on the map to the north of Honey Hill. The reason for its retention as a place- name was that it was a convenient stopping place for thirsty travelers, or so it would seem. It was probably a round pond in shape. Round Pond Road goes east from the Center Line Road, passes the Round Pond Spring for which it is named, crosses Highway 172 about two miles north of Wambaw Creek.

Courtesy of the Wingard Postcard Collection – 2013

Honey Hill Community about three miles north of Wambaw Creek on Highway 45, is said to have been named by I. H. Wilson, Sr., who came from Birmingham, Alabama. With strained honey he bought fifty acres of land, for a summer home. Thus the name.

Ladson is a small town with a consolidated school to serve the three counties of Dorchester, Berkeley, and Charleston in which the town is located. Some form of a community seems to have long been here. In the first part of the 1700’s a small Huguenot church was built in this area. Beginning with the Blue House Tavern, or perhaps even earlier, there was a tavern here which was likely a stage coach stop as well. Mills’ Atlas shows a tavern here in the 1800’s. Ladson as an official place did not come into existence until the Southern Railroad built a station here prior to 1905 on lands belonging to, or formerly belonging to, the Ladson family. The town is located three miles west of the Town of Goose Creek, on U. S. Highway 76.

Quinby Bridge: Image courtesy of photographer Ann L. Helms – 2018

Eleven Mile Creek is the name the Francis Marion National Forest Map (edition of 1957) gives to Grove Creek, a creek on the east side of the Cooper River and, strange to say, it is eleven miles from the junction of the Cooper and Wando Rivers. Grove Creek seems to take its name from the nearby Grove Plantation.Flagg Creek is just south of Grove Creek on the eastern side of the Cooper River. It evidently takes its name from nearby Flagg Plantation. A plat, dated September 10, 1929, in the Berkeley County Mesne Conveyance Office gives the name of the creek as “Cooks, Sanders, or Flagg,” evidently previous owners of Flagg Plantation. Slack Reach or Back Slack Reach, as the Berkeley County Highway Map (edition of 1963) calls it, is the name given to a complete loop in the Cooper River. This was formed in the mid eighteen hundreds or a little earlier by a slave pulling his boat over the mud from one loop in the Cooper River to another. The place where his boat went through the loops is called The Cut. The part cut off is Slack Reach and 6 XI: 14 called so from the pull of the tide. It is just south of Flagg Creek and opposite the Naval Ammunition Depot.Jack Frimous (pronounced Primus) is a community on Highway 119, just north of its junction with Highway 33. It is obviously named for a person. I have heard of Negroes with the last name of Primous, or it could be named for Jacks Promous or Promise, harkening back to the old forty acres and a mule. The old Negroes here say that it has always been called Jack Primous.6-8 Pitch Landing and Pitch Landing Road: Pitch Landing is evidently a plantation landing on Echaw Creek used for ships stores. The road to the landing runs from just north of the junction of Highways 49 and 45 to Echaw Creek, about a mile and a quarter from the Santee River. The road takes its name from the landing. Chicken Creek Road leaves Highway 45 just south of its crossing of Echaw Creek and apparently continues on to Chicken Creek. It is the same as Highway 103. It is said to be named for the Chicken family which once lived in this area.1 Gehlkin is a name which during the twenties and early thirties was applied to a section of land located on Highway 33 just east of the junction of Highways 119 and 33, and may be considered as a community. Gehlkin was a white man who ran a store in this area and briefly left his name as a place name. He died, so I was told, about thirty years ago. Yellow House is a Negro community which is located near the far end of Highway 33, just above Thomas Island. A Yellow House store keeper speculated that it may have been so called from being on top of a yellow sand hill to the north and east of the community, but on the highway. However, Mills Atlas of 1825 locates a tavern in this area on the south side of Highway 33, but the tavern had no name. I am inclined toward the tavern origin of the name. No trace of that tavern now remains. The community is on property which used to be part of the Shingler Plantation. Remley’s is said to be the location of a ferry where Highway 33 reaches the Wando River on Daniels Island. The community is probably named for a family by that same name. Gaillard Lake Road leaves Highway 45 between its two crossings of Du Tart Creek, about three miles south of Jamestown, and goes east then south where it terminates at Echaw Creek within half a mile of the Santee River. It evidently takes its name from the Gaillard family who once lived in this region. Gaillard Lake was or is a swamp lake. Simons (pronounced with a short “i”) Pond community is located to the east of Highway 45, the Gaillard Lake Road and Du Tart Creek, bordering all three. It is obviously named after the Simons family who once lived here or near here.1 Turkey Pond community is located on Highway 104 just off of Highway 45, and is so called from the turkeys which abound, or used to abound, here.

Palmerville Community was located roughly between the junctions of Highways 45 and 49, and Highways 45 and 104. It was in the main a Post Office for the McCoy or McKay timber company which cut over much of this region. The Post Office or community is said to have existed here during the early part of this century.Sugar Bottom is the name given to a branch which crosses Highway 45 in the old Palmerville area. Origin of the name is not known. Green Bay is a Negro community just north of Shulerville on Highways 45 and 49. It probably takes its name from the Green family. Green Bay Road goes from the Center Line Road, three miles north of Cat Island on the Wando, to a junction with Quinby Bridge Road and Charity Church Road. It, too, probably takes its name from the Green family, or the name could be only descriptive. King Swamp runs through the middle of the Green Bay Community, and is called so for geographical reasons.
Halleluiah Slue, a little stream, is so called from its proximity to the Shulerville Holiness Church in Shulerville.

Shulerville Community is named for die Shuler family, who are presumed to have come from Orangeburg County (where the name is more in evidence) to work for the McKay timber company, just before the turn of the century.1 Charley Bridges is die name given by the Francis Marion National Forest Map (1957 edition) for Highway 49s bridge over Echaw Creek. Who Charley was, can only be guessed at.1 Thompson Branch Road is the name given to that two mile section of Highway 172 between the Charleston-Berkeley County line and Round Pond Road (Francis Marion National Forest Map, 1957 edition). Since Thompson is a family name in this region, it is assumed that it is named after this family. Blue Bird Road is a rather pretty name for a road which parallels Highway 172 to the west for about two miles, between Yellow Jacket Road and Round Pond Road. The origin of the name is self-evident. Halfway Creek community does not exist any more. It is easily found on the county highway maps, for it was in the vicinity of the Halfway Creek Church (still in use) which is located on the Center Line Road about three miles southwest of Highway 172. The creek, from which the community evidently took its name, seems to be the halfway point between Clemends Ferry and Lenuds Ferry on the Santee River, on one of the main roads going north. Halfway Creek Road is the older and better name for Center Line Road, which is the dividing line, for a large part of the way between Charleston and Berkeley Counties. The road evidently is named for the Halfway Creek Community.

Tiger Corner Community at the present time is said to have about three houses and is located about a mile and a half southeast of Highway 41 and about five miles north of Shulerville on the Tiger Corner Road. Logan, in his History of Upper South Carolina, says that tiger is synonymous with panther and the same thing probably holds true here.Breakfast And Dinner Branch is an interesting name applied to two little streams which cross the Tiger Comer Road about a mile southeast of Tiger Comer. Dinner Branch is the northernmost of the two branches and is now the name applied to both. It would be easy to suppose that some one had break 1-2-8 fast, then crossed that branch; had dinner, then crossed that branch. However, I believe the branches are too close together for such an interpretation.Tiger Comer Road, which gets its name from the community, begins at Highway 41, about a mile southeast of Jamestown, and goes southeast to a junction with Highway 49 at Charley Bridges on Echaw Creek.1 Bunch Road turns west off of the Tiger Comer Road about a mile north of its junction with Highway 172 at Charley Bridges, and goes out into Hell Hole Swamp. It evidently is named after a family by the same name.

Moriah, or Mt. Moriah as it was formerly called, is the name given a bluff, mound, or eminence near the Santee River, about two miles north of the present Jamestown. It has been speculated that the name comes from a family of Negroes, a supposed church of unknown date and denomination, or even of biblical derivation. (Moriah is the name used by the present owners of die land.) For the history of this site, see Jamestown following.2 Jamestown is a crossroads community at the junction of (U. S.) Highway 17-A and (State) Highway 41, a couple of miles from the Santee River. This is the third town by this name. The first one for French Huguenots was on Newtown Creek in 1671. After 1672-73 there is no further mention of it and its location seems lost. The second Jamestown, named after a precinct by that same name in Craven County (now Williamsburg) was founded in 1705. This also was a French Huguenot town. It contained both a French Huguenot Church and an Anglican Church. But the French were farmers, not townsmen, and now no trace remains of the town or the two churches.1-9 Lenuds Ferry is located approximately where U. S. Highway 17-A crosses the Santee River. Apparently it was started as a private ferry by a Lenud, a French settler of the region, before 1731. In 1731 the legislature established it as a state monopoly and invested it in Jonathan Skeiene for seven years. In 1739 Skeienes Ferry, as it was then called, was invested in James Kinloch for seven years. Then it apparendy became a private ferry again. In or before 1796 Theodore Gourdine acquired it, for in 1798 the legislature reestablished the ferry as a State monopoly and invested it in him for fourteen years. The author could find no further mention of it after 1796, when it had reverted to its original name of Lenud’s Ferry, until 1825 when die legislature once again invested 9-15 XI: 17 the ferry in Theodore Gourdine for fourteen years. After this date the rest is silence. The only note worthy occurrence at the ferry, found by the author, is that in 1780 Cornwallis with twenty-five hundred men on the road to Camden met American Colonels White, Washington, and Jamison. The skirmish resulted in a British victory, for five American officers and thirty-six men were killed; seven officers and sixty men, horses, arms, etc., captured. The three colonels escaped by swimming.

Gourdine or James House – Image courtesy of the SCDAH / File Photo

Cartwheel Road is said to be in the vicinity of Jamestown. It is not plotted for its location is not known. Origin of the name is unknown.

Dennis Island, a swamp island in Hell Hole Swamp, located about three miles to the west of Shulerville, was so named for during a deer drive in the first two decades of this century a horse threw his rider, a man named Dennis.

Buckle Island Road is the name for a two mile long road which leaves Connifer Road about two miles east of its junction with Farewell Corner Road and ends at Brunson Road. It would be easy to say it was so named because some one lost or found an old buckle there, or that it was named for a family of Buckles. However, its origin is unknown.1 Brunson Road leaves the Farewell Corner Road about two miles north of Halfway Creek Road and goes to, or used to go to, the site of the Halfway Creek Community. It seems to take its name from the Brunson family who perhaps lived on this road.2 Howe Hall is now a part of Goose Creek and is perpetuated only by being the name of the Negro school which stands in the old Howe Hall community. It takes its name from being on Howe Hall Plantation which was so named by Job Howe who acquired it in 1704. The community, however, probably dates from after the Civil War.2 Goose Creek, to the east and north of where Highway 52 crosses the creek by the same name, has been in existence a long time. It began with the granting of plantations along this creek in the late sixteen hundreds. An Episcopal church, St. James, Goose Creek (a sure sign of a year round population) was built there in the early seventeen hundreds. The community declined to almost nothing until after the Korean War when the expansion of metropolitan Charleston caused the rise of the suburbs. Goose Creek now has a mayor and is an incorporated town. The origin of its name, or rather the name of the creek, is another thing. Mrs. St. Julien Ravenel in 1-6 Charleston, The Place and The Peoplein 1922, derived Goose Creek from Goes Creek when he found in the records of the Charleston Probate Court, a transfer of land on a creek called “Goes Creek.” He assumed the name to be Dutch and the name in the Netherlands would be pronounced “Goose.” I think the Rev. Robert Wilson is correct. (Page 8) said it was so named for the curve of the stream suggested a goose’s neck to the early settlers. It has also been speculated that it was due to the great quantities of geese which were found here in the early days. The Rev. Robert Wilson, a largely forgotten local writer and historian, writing.

Bowens Corner lies in the comer made by Goose Creek, just across the creek from North Charleston and Hanahan, and quite a distance back in the woods from the town of Goose Creek. A Negro community, it probably derives its name from the Negro family of Bowen. Bee is a dying (three houses in 1952) Negro community a mile or so down the road which goes past the Episcopal Church and its Negro caretaker s house at Goose Creek. Origin unknown.1 Liberty Hill community is a section of North Charleston, located just east of Highway 52 and about a mile south of Remount Road. Specifically, this Negro community is centered on that section of Montague Avenue which lies between the railroad and the intersection of Montague and Mixon Avenues. It is said to derive its name from the Liberty Homes housing project (now section) which was built during the Second World War and without any real significance. Hanahan community perpetuates the name of J. Ross Hanahan, Charleston businessman, who gave the property to the city to be used as the site of the Charleston water works.

Hanahan is located east of Highway 52 and north of Remount Road to, approximately, the United Piece Dye Plant.1 Remount Road, one of the main thoroughfares in North Charleston, and the boundary between Charleston and Berkeley Counties for a few blocks, is said to take its name from the large number of horses and mules kept here by the army during World War I, 8-1 Remount being a fresh or reserve horse. Ten Mile Hill community survives on the edge of North Charleston, where Remount Road and Highway 52 cross. It takes its name from a tavern or stage coach stop located in that area for many years during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Gumville is a community about two miles west of Jamestown on Highway 17-A and evidently takes its name from Gum trees in the region or from the turpentine industry. This locality is said to be the birth place and boyhood home of South Carolina’s Representative L. Mendel Rivers.

Hell Hole Swamp begins about two miles due south of Jamestown (including Jamestown, some people say) and extending a greater or lesser distance depending upon the person doing the talking. In actuality, the swamp is only about sixteen or twenty square miles in area, but represents Berkeley County more than any other locality within its bounds. This is probably due to the lawlessness, real and fancied, which existed from the collapse of the plantation system following the Civil War when survival for the people in the area became paramount, to the bootlegging (or illegal whiskey making) fights of the thirties which Mr. M. C. Orvin talks about in his Moncks Corner, Berkeley County, South Carolina. “Hell Holian” is still a term of opprobrium among certain people in Moncks Corner. The very name Hell Hole itself carries connotations of this type and has lent itself to many speculations. The most recent: It “was so named because its residents made so much white lightnin’ and when imbibed its victims wen crazy and thought they were in hell.” (Names In South Carolina, IX, p. 4). However, I think that the name given to the swamp comes from the unique natural phenomenon called The Opening. The Opening is about half a mile in diameter and is completely surrounded by trees. The Opening, so the Witherbee Rangers of the Francis Marion National Forest tell me, will not grow anything but grass. This would have been inexplicable to the early settlers; therefore, it had to be the Devils work—a “hell hole.” Devil’s Kitchen is the name given to a much smaller.

The Opening, located about three miles from Jamestown on Highway 41 and over the Seaboard Railroad tracks for a mile on the McKay House Road. It was probably called so for the same reason as Hell Hole Swamp. McKay House Site. McKay, first name and place of origin unknown to the author, was a timber baron who cut over most of the eastern section of Berkeley County. The house site is located on the McKay House Road, about a mile southeast of Highway 41. He left numerous descendants in the area, some of whom take the name to be McCoy.1 McKay House Road takes its name from the McKay House and is located about three miles southwest of Jamestown. The road leaves Highway 41 to the south-east, crosses the Seaboard Railroad tracks, and then turns to parallel Highway 41 to the southeast. It ends at the Farewell Comer Road as little more than an extension of Highway 48. Connifer Road goes from near the Bethera Church in Bethera to the Halfway Creek Church on the Center Line Road. Its name obviously derives from the pines through which the road runs.1 Bob Morris Road goes from the Eccles Church to end at Highway 133 in Ocean Bay. Mr. Morris, after whom the road was named, owned the property through which the road ran during the first part of this century. Guerry Lake is a swamp lake located at or near the mouth of Savanna Creek, about four miles northwest of Jamestown. It is apparently named for the Guerry family. 1-2 Young Car Branch is the name given to that stream which empties into Savanna Creek about a quarter of a mile north of Highway 17-A. Its name is self-evident.

Farewell Comer, located about a mile east of High-ways 48 and 41, has an interesting legend as to its origin. General Francis Marion is said to have bid his British pursuers 2 farewell as he rode off into Hell Hole Swamp. As much as I hate to kill a good legend, I found that the legislature in 1735 had passed an act to establish a ferry “either at the Plantation of John Sullivans, or at Farewell’s Creek.” Not knowing the area that well, I would guess that this creek is near here and gave its name to the vicinity. Farewell Corner was at one time also known as Amen Crossing. The story goes that there was a quick sand bog in the middle of the crossing and if some one should get stuck—amen. In other words, the person stayed there. XI: 20 1-11 Bates’ Still community was named for “old man” W. J. Bates who ran a turpentine still there. The community, which no longer exists, included Eccles Church near Turkey Creek about two miles due east of Highway 41.Camelot Village is the name for one of the Goose Creek subdivision (built since 1960), located on the brow of the hill on the west side of Highway 52 and north of Goose Creek. The name has no local significance.1 Sedgefield is another of the Goose Creek subdivisions, located on Highway 29 about a mile east of Goose Creek on the road to the Naval Ammunition Depot. It probably takes its name from a plantation of olden times.

Savanna Creek is a Negro community located at the junction of Highways 17-A and 45 and includes the New Emanuel Church. The name is taken from the creek by the same name which is descriptive of the creek.  Calestown community is named for the numerous Cales who live there. It is between Highways 17-A and 41, and just to the west of Savanna Creek. It includes the Mt. Calvary Church.

Burned Cane Road is about two miles long and is located about a mile or so east of Highway 41 and a quarter of a mile northwest of Eccles Church. The origin of the name is self-evident. North Hampton Road goes from Highway 402 about a mile due north of Huger to Highway 133 southwest of Huger, possibly continuing to the Center Line Road. It is named for a plantation through which the road passed or skirted.

Caromi Village is another suburb of Charleston which has come into existence in the last four years. It is located about a mile northeast of Ladson on Highway 62. I doubt that the name has any significance beyond that of possibly incorporating the name of, or names of, the real estate promoters.

Bethera is said to have been named by the postmaster at the time, G. B. Davis, who combined the names of the Methodist Berea Church and the Baptist Bethel Church to form the name of the community. Near here lie the ruins and avenue of Jerico Plantation house which has two claims to fame: (1) Mathurin Gibbs, who owned it about 1825, was forced to spend the night in a tree by wolves; (2) four miles from the avenue in an unknown direction lies the site of the plantation summer village of Spring Hill, where the planters of the area retired to avoid summer fever or malaria. Spring Hill might have shifted its location to and become Bethera when the railroad came through.

Razorville is one of those little communities which most people seldom if ever hear about. It is on the east side of Highway 125 and about two miles south of Bethera. Perhaps it commemorates some or a series of lawless acts of times past. Who can say now?

Spring Head is another little community tucked away in the woods about a mile from Highway 125 and almost borders Razorville to the northeast. Its name is self-explanatory, but it sounds like a former plantation summer village. Perhaps it is the same village as Spring Hill which was mentioned above in connection with Bethera. Fourth – of – July Branch. Just south of Bethera Church an unpaved road turns off of Highway 125 to the southeast. This dirt road goes for perhaps a mile before it crosses Fourth-of-July Branch. As to its origin, I will quote one of my many helpful contacts: “Quite a few of these names are recent (I had shown him my map upon which I had some of these names plotted). I can look back over sixty years. There were no roads when I was growing up in the Hell Hole section (of the county). Later when I was old enough, I rode cattle. We named places after 1 what happened there. Most of these names had no meaning to anyone but a very few people. But some of them survived and got on maps . . . later on cars began coming in. A bunch of us were in several cars on the way to a Fourth of July picnic and we got stuck in a branch, so we called it Fourth-of-July Branch. . . -”Fish Brook Road goes about two miles down in the woods to a spring just off of Connifer Road, near its junction with Highway 41 about four miles north of Huger. The origin of the name is obvious.1 Irish Town is one of the oldest documented names for a community found in Berkeley County, so that it is unfortunate that the community no longer exists. The late Judge H. A. M. Smith, in his 2 Baronies of South Carolina, pp. 159-160, states that the name Irish Town attached itself to a grant or number of grants which were aggregated into one plantation by Major Isaac Harleston a number of years before the end of the eighteenth century. Judge Smith speculated that the name may have come from the three Irishmen, John Gough, Michael Mahon, and Dominick Arthur, who had bought the adjoining tract of Cypress Barony in 1707 from Peter Colleton, son of the original grantee. However, the Harleston family came to this country in the late sixteen hundreds from Ireland, where they had resided for about two generations. (They had fled to Ireland when Cromwell took over England). So it is possible that Irish Town was named for Major Isaac Harleston, instead of the other Irishmen.

Irish Town Road, named for the above community, leaves Highway 402 just north of the site of the community and ends at Connifer Road just north of the site of Bates’ Still community. It is also called by the older name of Major Road, probably from a person named Major, or from 12-17 Major Isaac Harleston. An Unknown and unnamed extinct plantation summer village (of which there are many) is located north-northwest by a mile or so of the present community of Huger. All that the author could find out about it was that it was still in existence on an old and also extinct road to Jamestown at the turn of the century or shortly before.2-1 Huger is located at the crossroads where Highways 133, 98, 41, and 402 come together. It is evidently named for the Huger family, but the whys remain something of a mystery. The closest property that that family owned is one plantation on the upper reaches of the Cooper River from the community. Huger Bridge is the name given to the bridge where Highway 402 crosses the Cooper River about two miles north of Huger. This bridge is noteworthy in that the people of this area foresaw the need and built the bridge themselves, which the State legislature recognized by declaring it a public bridge and requiring the county commissioners to see that it be kept in a state of repair. The foundations of this bridge can still be seen in the old road bed just off the picnic area of the Francis Marion National Forest, opposite the experimental area on Highway 402, for the highway has been rerouted.

Beresford Bounty is located about a mile south of Huger, to the west of highway 133. This was the property owned, and from whom it takes its name, by Richard Beresford, a wealthy Englishman. He bequeathed in his will a sum of 6,500 pounds to the Parish of St. Thomas for the support, maintenance and education of the parish. This sum, according to the retired Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina, The Rt. Reverend Albert Sidney Thomas, is still in existence, though considerably impaired by losses.

Quinby Bridge Road goes from Quinby Plantation (on the Cooper River near Huger) to its junction with the Charity Church Road and the Green Bay Road. Formerly the road continued on across the Quinby Creek to, or close to, Huger Bridge. Here, in July, 1781, a battle was fought between 700 men under General Sumter (who lost sixty men) and 700 men under Colonel Coats (who lost 145 men). The American attack failed. It is told that one day after the rural free delivery came in, that the people beyond this bridge received their mail extremely late one day. Upon asking the cause, were told that two men in uniform had clasped hands and refused to let die postman pass. In the old accounts of the battle of Quinby Bridge is found the story that after the battle was over, two American soldiers were found dead. They were lying in such a way that if they had been alive, they would have blocked the bridge for they were holding hands. The bridge is named for Quinby Plantation, named for Quinby Hall in England.

Nocatchum Bay is located probably in the vicinity of Beresfords Bounty and for this reason is not plotted on the map. It is the kind of name which easily lends itself to speculation. But it sounds too close to the spurious folk origin of the Indian word Pocotaligo in Sumter County: “Poke ’e tail, *e go.”

New Hope Community includes the New Hope Church and is located about a mile or so southwest of Huger on Highway 98. This Negro church and community probably get their names from the feeling the Negroes had after the Civil War ended. This is not to be confused with a community by the same name in the western part of die county.

Smith Community, located around the intersection of the Quinby Bridge Road and Highway 41, is a Negro community and takes its name from a Negro family of Smith who live there.

Old Joe Community is just south of the Smith community on Highway 41. The old Negroes there say that the area has always been called Old Joe. Old Joe was evidently a Negro, probably someone’s trusted slave, but why and how and what he did to have this place named for him does not seem to be known. Alvin community covers a large area about ten or twelve miles north of Jamestown and extending out in all directions. It apparently takes its name from the Alvin family.

Wrenn Road is that road which covers all of Highway 134 north of Highway 17-A to its end at Highway 45, about eight miles northwest of Jamestown. It evidently takes its name from the Wrenn family.

Wedboo Community is about eight miles northwest of Jamestown, extending out from the intersections of Highway 17-A with Highways 317 and 134, around the headwaters of a creek by the same name. The name seems to be of Indian origin, but its meaning is unknown.

Walleye Bay is located in a triangle formed by Jamestown, Macedonia, and Bethera, but very close to the Macedonia-Bethera line. Walleye is the name given to a species of bass which perhaps can be found in the bay. The road named for the bay (which it borders) goes from Highways 17-A and 377 (it is actually the latter) to cross Highway 41 where it seems to become the Farewell Corner Road.1 Tanner Road is probably named for the Tanner family and goes from Highway 125 about a mile east of 125 and goes almost due north to join the same highway again in the vicinity of Razorville.

Wrangle Town is a dying community of three houses, two miles west of Bethera on Highway 48. Wrangle, according to 2 Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1951 ed., means to dispute angrily; to brawl; to argue or debate. The Rev. Robert Wilson used the locale in his short story “Hung and Unhung”: “The neighborhood was known as ‘Scuffletown,’ from the frequent fights which took place . . .” thereby stating how it received its name. He also stated that it was in existence at the beginning of the Revolution. However, there is such a thing as writer’s license although I do believe he is correct about the origin of the name.

Malpus Island is a spot of high ground (therefore an island in a swampy area) about two miles north of Witherbee. Its origin is unknown, although it may be a corruption of the name Malphrus.

Witherbee is a community consisting almost entirely of the employees of the Francis Marion National Forest, Witherbee Station. It is located at the junction of Highways 376 and 125 about three miles southwest of Bethera. It has been conjectured that the name is of Indian origin and, if so, of unknown meaning.

King Robin Road is the name given to Highway 125 from near Witherbee to the Huger Bridge. It sounds like the first cousin to Harry Hill Plantation on the Cooper River which was named for King Harry, an Indian chieftain, who had his village there. The origin of King Robin is unknown.

St. James (pronounced “St. Jeams”) is a Negro community and is located about a mile from Alligator Creek on Highway 42 in the direction of Cordesville. It is said to perpetuate die name of the old St. James Parish.

Mermaid Creek is located in the vicinity of the St. James community and crosses Highway 42. It is so called by the Negroes there who say that you can see the mermaids swimming in the waters of the creek. These mermaids are probably a present day version of Cymbees (see under Pooshee), but it is interesting to note that they have continued their female form.

(Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)

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