Image of the Lockhart Ferry in 1897 – Courtesy of the Osborne – Powell Collection, 2014
An early view of the Town of Lockhart, S.C.
Confederate President Mr. Jefferson Davis – Sketch shown in the Yorkville Enquirer ca. 1900. Jefferson Davis would have traveled through Pinckneyville following his ferry ride over the Broad River. He may have lodged in the area for the night but by noon was eating lunch at the Wallace’s Home in downtown Union, S.C. See the attached History Thread.
Image of the Pinckneyville Jail building – date unknown. Courtesy of the Union County Historical Museum
HISTORY OF PINCKNEYVILLE – By Louise Pettus
When the Revolutionary War was over and the state of South Carolina was created, the state was divided into counties not larger than forty miles square. The counties were then to be a part of seven court districts named Ninety-Six, Camden, Cheraws, Georgetown, Charleston, Beaufort and Orangeburg. The court district of Camden was made up of the counties of Clarendon, Richland, Fairfield, Claremont, Lancaster, York (or New Acquisition) and Chester.
Each of the counties had what was called an “inferior court” which is defined as any court whose decisions can be appealed to a higher court. County courts came into existence in 1785 and it was not until 1791 that higher courts were created. There were two layers of higher courts. The next higher level was called General Sessions and Common Pleas Courts. The courthouse in Camden served as the location for cases that came from Lancaster, Kershaw (a new county in 1791), Claremont, Clarendon, Richland, Fairfield and that part of York County on the east side of the Catawba river (now Fort Mill township). And what about that part of York county on the west side of the Catawba river? A new district was created to take in York west of the Catawba, Chester, Spartanburg and Union. The new district was called Pinckney., named in honor of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a signer of the U. S. Constitution. Just as the legislature had decided that the county seat of each county must be in the geographic center of the county, they decided that the district courts must be seated in the exact center of the district. The exact center of Pinckney District was determined to be on the southwest side of the Broad River within one mile of the mouth of the Pacolet River. This turned out to be in present Union County at a spot 13 miles northeast of the town of Union and a mile from Pinckney’s Ferry. Commissioners were assigned to create the village. The streets were named for Charleston streets: Meeting, Broad, Water, Trade, etc. The courthouse and jail were brick. Expectations were that Pinckneyville would become the commercial metropolis of upper South Carolina.
A committee of U. S. congressmen, when seeking a spot to establish the U. S. Military Academy, visited Pinckneyville as well as the Great Falls area, both places losing out to West Point, N. Y. Thomas Suggs came down from Connecticut and set up a clock factory and Seth Thomas, another clockmaker, owned about six acres nearby. In 1797 the S. C. legislature bestowed a charter on Alexandria College, named for the Rev. Dr. Joseph Alexander the first minister of Bullocks Creek Presbyterian. The college was intended for Pinckneyville but it was never built. In 1800, the county courts were abolished and each of 28 counties became a district court. This caused a shift in names as the former counties became Chester District, Lancaster District, York District, etc., a designation that lasted until 1868. So, in 1800 Pinckneyville lost its function as a courthouse town and had no reason to have either a courthouse or jail. Both structures no long exist but the jail lasted longer, probably because the brick wall was 18 inches thick. The size of the building was 14 x 20 feet. It has been described as plastered inside with 2 doors and 2 windows. The shutters and doors were “double planked and thick with nails well clinched.”
There was an inn visited regularly by a stage coach. The coach driver would blow one long blast as he approached the Pinckney ferry to give warning that he was coming. Then he blew a short blast for each passenger so that the inn keeper would know how many guests he would need to feed. When railroads came the era of stage coaches came to an end and with that event Pinckneyville died. Courtesy of the author and the YCGHS, June 2004
Confederate President Mr. Jefferson Davis – Sketch shown in the Yorkville Enquirer ca. 1900.
This building was constructed to the west of the Opera House #127 East Main Street.
