Historic Davis House – One of the beautiful antebellum dwellings that once graced the streets of Chesterfield Co., S.C. One of over 500 historic addresses – sites in Chesterfield County to explore and enjoy on the pages of Roots and Recall!
Old St. David’s Church. Postcard view courtesy of the AFLLC Collection – 2017
Image courtesy of the Segars Collection – 2007
Second Empire Style was first seen in America in the 1850s and flourished after the Civil War. It was so commonly employed in that era that it was sometimes referred to as the “General Grant style.” – The Second Empire style had its beginnings in France, where it was the chosen style during the reign of Napoleon III (1852-70), France’s Second Empire, hence its name. Well-attended exhibitions in Paris in 1855 and 1867 helped to spread Second Empire style to England and then the United States. – Other commonly seen details are a bracketed cornice beneath the mansard roof, round arched windows, decorative dormer windows, an iron crest at the roofline, and columned porches or porticoes. Courtesy of the Penn Arch. Guide – Website
Courtesy of the Wingard Collection – 2013
Image courtesy of the Segars Collection – 2013
Courtesy of the Wingard Collection – 2013
Courtesy of the Segars Collection – 2013
Early postcard view of the church. Courtesy of the AFLLC Collection – 2017
Postcard view of the historic Cheraw Town Hall. Courtesy of the AFLLC Collection – 2017
Image courtesy of the Segars Collection – 2013
Yorkville Enquirer, Wed Eve March 29, 1865: Sherman and Cheraw
This article was copied from the South Carolinian. The writer dramatically described the horrors of Sherman’s progress. In Cheraw only four houses were burned. “Twenty-six store houses [included was the depot] were burned in Cheraw and three or four destroyed by the explosion of powder.” The bank was a hospital and the Presbyterian Church was a ballroom Sunday night. Old and respected citizens had pistols held to their breasts “while the barbarians demanded their money and watches or their lives.” In the country old people had ropes put around their necks to force them to reveal the location of valuables.
Many Negroes were enticed away and some returned. “It really seems to have been best that the negroes should go with their deceitful friends, for it has left a smaller number to be fed.” The people face starvation without help, “yet, thank God, our people are not subjugated. A crust of bread and independence, are preferable to Union and luxury.”
“I have heard of no outrage of a grosser kind upon our defenceless women, than insolence of language and manner besides that already stated.”
