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Our new book--Place your order now! And SAVE!

We will provide an attractive free gift certificate for you to give
if you wish to place an order as a holiday gift.

A History of Kershaw County, South Carolina

by Joan A. Inabinet and L. Glen Inabinet
for the Kershaw County Historical Society
Hardbound, over 700 pages of text with illustrations and extensive index

To be released by USC Press Jan.-Feb. 2011

Each book ordered from the Historical Society is $50 total, excluding shipping.

Each book pre-ordered  from the Society provides the purchaser a $10.00 discount award
 toward the purchase of other in-print publications by the Society (excluding the new book).

The Society will host a Special Release Event when books arrive.          
      (You can arrange shipping costs with the Society's secretary if you are unable to pick up books.)       

At a later date, we expect to make available  a limited special edition of about 100 special-bound
copies in the range of $100 to $125 each. Details will be available before pre-orders are picked up.
If you pre-order now and decide later to change to the limited edition, you may do so and have
your $50 credited to the limited edition.      (Time restrictions must be observed with this offer.)

Click here to read what USC Press says about A History of Kershaw County, South Carolina.

Mail your check for $50 per book with your name and mailing address, and with any requests
for gift certificates, to the Kershaw County Historical Society, PO Box 501, Camden, SC 29021.
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Join us at our next Historical Society Program
September 26, 2010    at the Kershaw County Fine Arts Center, Auditorium
Rodger Stroup, retired director of the S.C. Department of Archives and History,
 will present a history of
RAILROADS in Kershaw County and S.C.   

Dr. Stroup is the current chairman of the SC Archives and History Foundation and a volunteer at the South Carolina State Museum.  He is also the curator of the South Carolina Railroad Museum and a certified conductor on the museum’s Rockton, Rion & Western Railroad.

Local dignitaries in Camden in 1937 for opening day ceremonies
at the new Seaboard Air Line Railway station, West DeKalb Street
Photo courtesy of Camden Archives

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An audience of about 75 persons on May 16, 2010, enjoyed the comfortable seating of the beautiful chapel at Camden Military Academy in Camden during the informative and entertaining lecture by Dr. Gilbert S. Guinn on the Southern Aviation School that had operated at that site during World War II.  Specifically, Dr. Guinn focused on the training of British pilots there as part of the Arnold Scheme, topic of a book he authored on the subject. Afterwards, the audience enjoyed refreshments and walked on the airport field to inspect a restored vintage Stearman airplane such as had been used there for training during World War II.
 

Guest Speaker:  Gilbert S. Guinn, Author of
The Arnold Scheme

Gilbert S. Guinn of Greenwood, Emeritus Professor at Lander University and a contributor of the Guinn Collection to Cooper Library, USC, was born and grew up near Woodward Field in Camden. Here the Southern Aviation School operated from 1941-1943. Its traces are still observed at  Camden Military Academy where we will meet and at the Camden Airport. Dr.Guinn's 2007 The Arnold Scheme, includes details about SAS at Camden.

The Arnold Scheme is available from online vendors and may be previewed at Google Books.

More Resources on the Topic

Read here Aviation Special Issue, Fred Ogburn's extensive articles on the Southern Aviation School that appeared as "A Kershaw County Historical Society Special Issue" in the April 28, 2010, Kershaw County Current, with thanks for the PDF provided us by that publication.

Snapshots of World War II training in Camden may be viewed on the webpage journal of SAS British flying cadet Anthony Johnstone.  Although the text at this site includes his journal throughout the war, all photographs were taken at Camden.

More snapshots of training in Camden may be viewed on the webpage devoted to the webpage story of SAS British flying cadet Allan Gent. His son would appreciate any identifications or further information that can be provided. The page also links to a copy of a 1941 publication of Goggles  by the UK cadets, including personal signatures of the some of them.

Built in 1932, Camden Airport hanger used by the Southern
Aviation School. SC Archives and History Center photo.

Despite a cold rain, over 65 persons were at the  Robert Mills Courthouse in Camden  Jan. 24, 2010, to hear the moderated panel discussion "The Homefront Is the Battlefront," the first part of a two-part "BRITS INVADE CAMDEN" presentation. Moderated by Charles Baxley, the panel included Joanna Craig, Glen Inabinet, John Miller, Jim Piecuch, and David Reuwer.  Information about several of these panelists

The Homefront Is the Battlefront
Domestic life during the Revolution

 
Inside the Robert Mills Courthouse, above,
scenes by Claude Buckley depict local
battle actions during the Revolution.


Recent re-enactors at Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site
(above) depict roles of civilians, as well as military participants.

Panelist John Miller, (below) points to a Revolutionary Camden map,
discussed by panelists (row 2) and the audience (rows 3 amd 4).

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A Ceramic History of S.C.
A Kershaw County Focus

On a part of the old campus, a memorial to Mather is a familiar site
on Campbell Street, Camden, a location on the State Archives’
list of African-American Historical Sites. The school took root
from missionary efforts to educate children of former slaves.

More Mather information is on the Boylan-Haven-Mather Academy Alumni Association webpage.

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Lovely Spring weather added to the pleasures of Society members who joined us in going
BACK TO Boykin, SC March 22, 2009, to continue touring the historic rural community.

"BACK TO Historic Boykin" Spring Tour

Actress Chris Weatherhead enthralls tour-goers at the Terraces
in her noted role as Civil War diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut,
who spent part of her childhood in the lovely plantation home.

High, wide porches offered expansive views of the Terraces'  famous grounds.

A stroll on the grounds of Millway reawakens rural memories.

Sam Dennis fills old Swift Creek Baptist Church
with the full-toned notes of traditional spiritual singing.
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Society members filled the pews at historic Ebenezer Methodist Church in Lugoff  for our Feb. 15, 2009, program on an extensive nineteenth-century public works system that the State of South Carolina built on the west bank of the Wateree River.

The Wateree Canal

A large group enjoyed a lovely day in Boykin, SC, on our Fall Tour Nov. 9, 2008.
Sites included
Deer Hope Lodge, home to Boykin Hunt Club
Boykin Grist Mill, with demonstration
Pear Tree
Old Stockton Schoolhouse
Swift Creek Church
Battle of Boykin, Civil War skirmish site

Historic Boykin Fall Tour


Tille and Baynard Boykin share information about the 1865 battle
 commemorated by the marker behind them.

Inside Swift Creek Baptist Church, Alice Boykin describes its restoration.


Seen through the window of restored Stockton School, groups
outside are engaged in conversation with Boykin area residents.

Jamie Guy tells old hunting stories at Deer Hope Lodge,
grounds of the Boykin Hunt Club.

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An audience of 200 filled the auditorium and gallery at the
Kershaw County Fine Arts Center, Camden, Oct. 26, 2008,
for our first program of this new term of office.

The PROGRAM and ART EXHIBIT Preview, was presented in
in cooperation with the Kershaw County Fine Arts Center

The Life and Art of
Kershaw County Native Jak Smyrl

Sketch above by Jak Smyrl is used by permission from
his book Random Rimes, copyright 2007.

Featured Speaker was Cartoonist Robert Ariail 
 

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A very interested audience of 50 to 60 at the Robert Mills Courthouse
 May 19,2008, heard Val Green discuss his extensive research.

John Lawson's Explorations
of the Catawba Path, 1700-1701


The Catawba Path is traveled in part today by anyone
who uses Broad Street in Camden, where appropriately
the weathervane effigy of Catawba chief "King Haiglar"
tops the historic town tower. (Image from mid-1900s)

Program & tour photos Details here
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 Despite rainy interruptions April 27, 2008, a cheerful crowd of about 50
followed our tour to the end, attentive to lively explanations by our guide

Archaeology & Walking Tour
of Battle of Hobkirk's Hill site



Program Details here
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Our March 2, 2008, program attracted 200 visitors!
Beginning at the Bethune Woman's Club with a short talk, display, and refreshments,
the program included a tour with local experts speaking at various sites
and a map-brochure created especially for this program!

Tour of Bethune, SC

Early nineteenth century swimmers at Big Spring mineral-springs resort in Bethune

Program and 1907 photo Details here

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The Society attracted attention at its booth at the SC Book Festival in Columbia Feb. 23-24.We enjoyed our first time to be part of this popular annual event,
beloved by readers and antique book-collectors. We are looking
forward to next year.  Plan to join us at the next annual Festival!


Ben Shreiner and Charles Baxley, manning the Historical Society's booth at the SC Book Festival, greet one of the customers to the event, Liz Campbell, also of Kershaw County.
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Our Jan.13, 2008, program at the Robert Mills Courthouse was
well-attended, enjoyed by audience and panelists, and
moderated by Don Terrell on the subject :

Pre-Revolutionary History
in Kershaw County


Some of the finer pre-Revolutionary area homes did not differ much from
the 1812 Drakeford House moved to the Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site.
(1970 view)
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The Elgin Centennial was observed in 2008!

We enjoyed our Oct. 2007 program Old Blaney to New Elgin
Thanks to the Elgin Centennial Committee, our hosts

Where Blaney began—A telegraph operator sits in the Western Union window of the Seaboard train depot at Blaney (today Elgin) in the early 1900s.

Thanks so much to Barbie Russ  for this image of her great granduncle Elihu Meares, an early 1900s telegraph operator who traveled in the employ of the Seaboard Air Line Railway. The Blaney depot building, moved to Stephen Campbell Road, now serves as Goff Feed & Tack.