WILLIAMSBURG CO POST OFFICES – 1896

City Directories and History:   Click on the MORE INFORMATION / MAPS links, found under the primary picture, to see an enlargeable postal maps (sections North and South), of the county Post Office locations in 1896.  Enter the specific name in R&R’s search box to locate additional information on each of these locations found on R&R’s pages. (Old Postal Maps – Williamsburg County, S.C.)

LIST OF LOCATIONS:

1902 & 1917 SC POSTAL MAPS

Cooper’s Country Store: courtesy of the AFLLC Collection – 2017

Coopers is about fifteen miles from Kingstree on S. C. Highway 261; once a post office existed here for some time at Mr. Willie Barr’s store. It was named for the Cooper family, prominent inhabitants of this section.

Fowler post office was established about 1881 by efforts of James Fowler Cooper and named for a Fowler relative.

Greeleyville was named for Horace Greeley. Tradition says that about the time Greeley was a candidate for president, a wholesale grocer in Charleston, an admirer of the candidate, received an order for goods from S. J. Taylor, operator of a store and turpentine still, at the present site of the town. The grocer marked the goods: S. J. Taylor, Greeleyville. It arrived at its destination so marked and that name has continued to the present.

Hebron community grew up around the Hebron Methodist Church here. Its name, meaning “alliance,” was taken from Genesis 13, verse 18. There was once a post office at Hebron.

Workman, once a post office in the Pudding Swamp section, was named about 1895 for Rev. W. H. Workman, who preached about this time at the Presbyterian Churches of Bethel and Midway.

Heineman, a post office at one time, was a station on the Central Railroad (later Atlantic Coastline) at the point where Murray’s Ferry Road, now U. S. Highway 52, crossed this railroad. This place was named Heineman for John Heineman, who emigrated from Germany and settled at this point about 1879. It is said he left Germany in the days of Bismarck to avoid the military duty required of all citizens. He was a musician in great demand as a fiddler for dances and other social events.

Henry post office, now discontinued, was named by J. J. Snow in 1913 for Walter Henry Andrews, who aided Mr. Snow in getting the Seaboard Railroad to run its line, Hamlet to Savannah, through here.

Boggy Swamp between Workman and Mouzon off Black River, crossed by S. C. Highways 527 and secondary road 287, and another Boggy Swamp off Mingo Creek, crossed by Highways S. C. 261, 39, and 85, between Stuckey and Cades are both well known.

These swamps reputedly contain quicksand where a man can disappear without warning. Broad Swamp’s name was derived from its size; Clapp’s (McGill spells this Klapp) for Gibson Clapp, land owner here in early days; and Pudding Swamp, according to tradition, for the blood and liver puddings made here at “hog-killing” time.

The recipes for these puddings have been handed down to the present generation. Paisley Swamp branches off Black Mingo Creek and is crossed by S. C. Highways 261 and 512. It is named for a family of Paisleys no longer inhabitants of this county.

Headless Swamp is near Nesmith. This name conjures visions of Ichabod Crane and the headless horseman. Alas! no reason was found for this name except that its head water was impossible to location.

Rhems, on the Georgetown-Williamsburg County line, was named for Furney Rhem who came from North Carolina about 1847 to work turpentine. He built up a small empire and at his death was one of the largest land owners in South Carolina.

Dr. McGill mentions a “Clocktown” in his history. Boddie says the name came about because the inhabitants of this community having bought large clocks from a glib salesman and finding the clocks too large for their small homes, nailed them to pine trees outside. This community was supposedly in the Greeleyville section.

Lane, located about twelve miles south of Kingstree, was named for W. K. Lane, an officer of the Northeastern Railroad (now Seaboard Coastline) who moved here from North Carolina and later moved to Georgia. It was said that this town and Waycross, Georgia, were laid out about the same time and Lane was called Crossway. For a time Lane was the junction of three railroads and was the most important small town in eastern South Carolina since through it flowed much of the traffic of the low country. It was the gateway to Georgetown. Building of modem highways changed its status.

Nesmith post office was established in 1907 with R. J. Nesmith as postmaster. This place was named for this old family, first coming from Ireland here.

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

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