Seated, Bonds Conway descendant Elsie Goins, along with her daughter Felicia and members of KCHS and Historic Camden, watches as the Bonds Conway House is moved to its new site in 2022.
The Kershaw County Historical Society invites you to our society program Sunday, December 14, at 3 p.m. Liberty Hall, Revolutionary War Visitor Center 212 Broad Street, Camden SC
Enlivening the past now for tomorrow An individual’s story, a family’s story, a community’s story— KCHS helps historical preservation in new format
Premiere—the first public screening of Interview in Bonds Conway House with Elsie Goins on gathering family history
Also with her on our program—Hope Cooper, Ken DuBose, Cary Briggs, Tony Scully—each having worked over the years with the preservation and/or research on the house and its history
Our mission prompts study of all times & places of Kershaw County history—highlighting the unfamiliar among the familiar, & covering varied sections, people groups, & periods from prehistoric to present.
We present interesting & informative programs. We research, write, & publish history, promoting scholarship. We support preservation, encourage historical markers, cooperate with related history groups, and “continue the legacy”—keeping our history in circulation.
You are invited! Join the Kershaw County Historical Society for a fascinating afternoon as we welcome you to: A “Ground-breaking” Account 🗓 Sunday, October 5, 2025 🕒 3:00 p.m. 📍 Liberty Hall, Kershaw County Revolutionary War Visitor Center 212 Broad Street, Camden, SC 29020
Topic: The Kershaw County Area — 10,000 Years Ago Presented by: Michael Hartis
Long before roads and railways, before settlements and even agriculture, early Native American hunter-gatherers walked the land we now call Kershaw County. Through years of careful fieldwork and research, Michael Hartis has uncovered archaeological evidence that sheds light on this ancient time—evidence found right here on rural family land, in a part of the county unfamiliar to many.
Many know Michael as a talented craftsman at Boykin Furniture in Camden, or for his work collecting rare historical documents. But on October 5, he’ll share a lesser-known side of his passion: an extraordinary commitment to uncovering and understanding our region’s distant past.
Come be part of this unique exploration into the Ice Age history of our area. The stories, the finds, and the insights might just change how you see Kershaw County forever.
Free and open to the public — we hope to see you there!
Liberty Hall was filled with KCHS members and welcomed others June 15, 2025, to hear from local author-photographer Glen Inabinet on his experiences serving in Vietnam 1969-1970 and to view his photography exceeding his recently published Mekong Memoirs.
Besides sharing friendly conversations and examining some Vietnam War items and purchasing books to be autographed, persons attending the program entered drawings to receive some KCHS books as gifts “to pass on the legacies” of local history, and selected refreshments from bottled water, cookies, and snack packages like those mailed to G.I.’s in the field from home-fronts like ours in those years.
KCHS Program June 15, 3 p.m., Liberty Hall, Revolutionary War Visitor Center, 212 Broad St., Camden.
HearGlen Inabinetspeak & View his photos from his new book Mekong Memoirs.
Vietnam veteran Inabinet, retired Camden High history teacher, a past president of KCHS, is a long-time researcher and writer of our local history. For example, as co-author of A History of Kershaw County, SC and of The World of Jak Smyrl (local artist and World War II vet).
In Mekong Memoirs, Inabinet opens memories made vividly authentic by his camera and by details in letters he wrote home during military service in a nationally troubled time. Program open to the public. Sample Mekong Memoirs reviews on Amazon.com.
Those 3 books available at the meeting for purchase/signing. (Copies already purchased may also be brought for signing.)
Books may be bought from online sellers like Amazon, etc.; or locally at the Camden Archives and at Books-on-Broad. Mekong Memoirs also from publisher mcfarlandbooks.com.
Were you part of the KCHS’s recent Members-Only walking tour of Quaker Cemetery April 13, 2025?
Society members sometimes have members-only tours when crowd-size must be limited due to space or special circumstances. Sometimes members are invited on tours to help provide feedback related to Society goals, or to assist related historical organizations meet their goals.
At Quaker Cemetery, keen crowd interest was awakened in “lesser known or overlooked figures in history” who were called to attention by a tour prepared for us by Quaker Guardian Angels guide Darlene Cantey, speaking beside a number of early nineteenth century gravesites. Planning for additional such tours and research on other such figures has since been urged, so more opportunities like this may become available. Many compliments were paid to the accomplishments of the new volunteer group at the historic cemetery. We expressed appreciation to them by donating a fresh three-volume set of the KCHS-published Kershaw County Cemetery Survey for reference.
More on Society Tour Programming
Additionally, Society members pursuing special interests are sometimes invited to join tours or activities related to those interests in order to communicate with related local organizations or projects and share back and forth with them the information from their groups and ours. Numbers of our members are now and have lately been involved too in SC 250 events and activities at Historic Camden and the battlefields of the Battle of Camden and of the Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill within our town’s limits. We call attention to the Experience Camden website to keep in touch with opportunities. The Kershaw County Revolutionary War Visitors Center provides many displays of interest.
In recent months for example, some involved KCHS members enjoyed arrangements made of closeup views and explanations during archeological activities ongoing in winter 2025 at Historic Camden. In turn, we shared with archeologists some of our KCHS tour guides of the county and publications that describe specific sites of interest to them. We look forward to the group’s scheduled return for more work next year.
Sometimes we use our Kershaw County Historical Society Facebook to report on Society events, so keep in touch with that page too. [For example, review our Facebook on 2024’s Feb. 18 private-property tour of the preserved intact Adamson Indian Mounds within the Camden city limits, followed two months later, April 20, 2024, by an Artifact-Identification Day at the Camden Archives and Museum, co-sponsored by the Archives and KCHS. Chris Judge, assistant director of Native American Studies at USC-Lancaster, led both activities and compiled information gathered here with his research from other areas.
Annually Expanding Tour Opportunities
Each spring KCHS members are eligible to attend at reduced expenses the highly regarded three-day Landmark Conference of the Confederation of South Carolina Local Historical Societies. KCHS continues long-time membership and participation. Each year the Landmark Conference meets in a different SC town, which displays its historical pride and opens sites both public and private to attendees. Programs and tours are included, as well as an awards program which often recognizes our area through our nominations. This year, March 27-29, 2025, Landmark met in Sumter.
Check out KCHS Facebook for our area’s top award winners—Tony Scully and Rickie Good—in last year’s 2024 Landmark honors awards March 21-23 in Orangeburg.
Hope you will be making plans to consider attending the next Landmark in spring 2026, to be advertised then.
Enthusiasm was high among the nearly 100 attendees at the KCHS’s first-time History Fair Jan. 26 which was planned to highlight the many historical interests of Society members as we celebrated passing 70 years of existence. Moving among the many individual exhibits set up by members for the occasion prompted conversations sharing mutual interests of presenters and viewers alike.
One of the exhibits—depicting members Lon and Donna Outen’s 2024 trip to London—is expected to carry over into another KCHS program to be scheduled later in 2025. Although they had contributed to exhibits, a “bug” the Outens caught just before the Fair was the culprit preventing them from being present to make remarks about what many were interested in hearing more about—their vacationing side-trip to the Camden History Society in Camden Town, London, England, which followed long-term KCHS participation with that Society’s global project seeking out origins of “Camden” placenames world-wide.
Fairs invoke fun activities for prize winners, and our History Fair was no different. Drawings rewarded some winners with prizes like vintage metal KCHS historical signs or special history books. No one had to leave this birthday party empty-handed, however, for a table of our local-history booklets written over the years invited each member to select a copy of a title of interest to take home or share with an interested person. Book sales also offered a selection of titles. Our goal as always is to keep history alive and its stories circulating! A large specially decorated birthday cake celebrated the Society’s passing its 70th birthday of doing just that.
Join Us for the Kershaw County Historical Society’s Grand Happy-Birthday History Fair!
Caption: Camden High 1940 yearbook art by student Jack (“Jak”) Smyrl.
Sunday, January 26, 2025, 3 p.m. At Liberty Hall, 212 Broad Street, Camden
Looking Backward and Forward. Now 70 years old, the Society begins its 71 st year with fun and vigor! Enjoy birthday cake. Circulate around the room to converse with local folks about their history interests on display.
The History Fair presents exhibits overseen by their local creators.
Exhibits include: A table of Kershaw County high school yearbooks of various years. Silent screen video “Our Home Town” 1940s faces and places. Postcards. Larry Doby items. Holly Hedge. Hobkirk Inn. Campbell Street corridor. Old publicity, directories, items from yesteryear businesses. Wateree River Bridge, Ferry, and navigation. Native American artifacts locally found. Northern KC’s turpentining tools. Bethune and area pottery. Boylan-Haven-Mather Academy. George Washington’s 1791 visit here. Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill. Camden-London.
Persons displaying exhibits: Dr. Ernestyne Adams, Davie Beard, Michael Hartis, John Miller, Sarah Murray, Ally Mrozowski, Peggy Ogburn, Lon Outen, Pam & Ben Schreiner, Kat Spadacenta, and others.
Birthday Presents go to members attending and a Drawing for more fun!
Some Books for Purchase will be offered at meeting. Thank you for 2025 dues already paid. (These may be paid at meeting if desired.)
In April a planning committee of the Kershaw County Historical Society visited the spacious and beautifully revived landscaping of an historic garden of winding woodland paths on an artfully terraced hillside that slopes beside an early ninteenth-centuty plantation home, The Terraces. Today a private residence, it is less than 10 minutes from downtown Camden in the Rembert community.
“You just missed the blooming of the 100-year-old azaleas,” we were told. As we noted countless other varieties of unfolding spring plants and foliage, we also learned that in May quite a number of other blooms would appear beneath the arboral greenery. Yearlong, a compatible mixture of historic and recent plantings provides an everchanging tapestry of nature to enjoy.
Recently, additional information. was emailed to KCHS members and interested persons who had supplied email addresses.
🌿 The Dargans—Hugh and Mary Palmer Dargan—Present: “Cultivating the Spirit of Place—Landscape Perspective for Historic Properties & Homes”
Hugh and Mary Palmer Dargan
The Kershaw County Historical Society invites you to join us for an enlightening afternoon with Mary Palmer Dargan, a landscape architect, teacher, and author. Dargan and husband Hugh now have a home in the rural Camden area as well as a renovated historic farmhouse in Cashiers, NC. The award-winning couple have long worked in historic landscape architecture and promoted outdoor spaces to enhance health and longevity. An inspiring program is anticipated!
📅 Event Details:
Date: Sunday, January 21, 2024
Time: 3 p.m.
Venue: Liberty Hall, Revolutionary War Visitor Center, 212 Broad Street, Camden, SC
🛍️ KCHS Memorabilia:
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn about KCHS memorabilia soon to be available for purchase!
🌺 Looking Ahead:
Save the Date: May 26, 2024, for “A Springtime Tour of a celebrated Garden at the historic ‘Terraces’”
Exclusive Members-Only Event: A tour and talk at a local site renowned for its impressive views. Date and details to be announced.
💳 Membership Reminder:
A heartfelt THANK YOU to all who have paid their 2024 dues! For those who wish to pay dues at the upcoming meeting, this option is available.
📰 In Case You Missed It:
In case you missed our December column on the “Camdens World-wide Project” from London, England. Don’t miss the news.
Kershaw County Historical Society 