South Carolina from A to Z

“S” is for Seneca (Oconee County; 2020 population 8,850).

“R” is for Rock Hill Movement. Following the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery and the 1960 lunch-counter sit-ins in Greensboro, African Americans in Rock Hill took the lead in energizing the civil rights movement in South Carolina.

“P” is for Pinckney, Eliza Lucas (ca. 1722-1793). Planter, matriarch.

“P” is for Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth (1746-1825). Soldier, statesman, diplomat.

“M” is for Mennonites. The Mennonites of South Carolina are a Protestant group descended from the Anabaptists of the Reformation.

“L” is for Lowndes, Rawlins (1721-1800). Jurist, governor.

“L” is for lowcountry baskets. Far as long as people of African descent have lived in South Carolina, they have made baskets.

“H” is for Huger, Isaac (1743-1797). Soldier. Isaac Huger was General Nathanael Greene’s second in command of the Southern Department.

“H” is for Huger, Daniel Elliott (1779-1854). Jurist, U. S. Senator.

“H” is for Huck, Christian (d. 1780). Soldier.

“H” is for Howard, Frank James (1909-1996). Football coach. Howard brought attention to the Clemson football program as much as with his colorful, entertaining personality as with his victories.

“G” is for Greer (Greenville County; 2020 population 35,316).

“G” is for Greenwood County (456 square miles; 2020 population 71,074).

“G” is for Greenwood (Greenwood County; 2020 population 23,356).

“C “is for Clemson University. In 1888 Thomas G. Clemson left his Fort Hill property and an endowment to the state in order to create a separate agricultural college.

“M” is for Malaria. Malaria was arguably the most significant disease in the history of South Carolina.

“L” is for Lancaster County (549 square miles; 2020 population 100,926).

“K” is for Kiawah Island (Charleston County; 2020 population 1,626). Kiawah is a small barrier island situated south of Charleston between the mouths of the Stono and North Edisto Rivers.

“J” is for Jamestown. Jamestown was the first Huguenot settlement on the Santee River in what became Berkeley County, across the river form the Georgetown/Williamsburg county line.

“I” is for Iodine. A deficiency of iodine causes an unsightly swelling of the neck and jaw known as goiter. In the late 1920s the South Carolina Natural Resources Commission began a public relations campaign to advertise the high iodine levels found in fruits and vegetables grown in the state.

“D” is for Duke’s mayonnaise. Eugenia Duke mixed her first batch of mayonnaise in her Greenville home sometime in the early twentieth century.

“C” is for Clark, Septima Poinsette (1898-1987). Educator, civil rights activist.

“C” is for Clarendon County (607 square miles; 2020 population 33,415).

“C” is for Claflin University. Responding to the urgent need to educate former enslaved persons, northern Methodists established Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1869.

“C” is for Clemson (Pickens County; 2020 population 17,780).

“H” is for Horry County (1,134 square miles; 2020 population 365,449.

“C” is for Civil Rights Act (1964). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 addressed all spheres of public life--social, political, and economic.

“B” is for Board of Public Works. The national trend toward improving waterways and other public facilities led South Carolina to create the Board of Public Works in December 1819.

“B” is for BMW. BMW in Greer, SC, is the global producer for BMW X3, X4, X5, and X6 vehicles and coupes (and their variants) for more than 140 global markets.

“B” is for Bluffton Movement (1844). On July 31, 1844, under a large oak (the Secession Oak) in Bluffton SC, the first organized political movement with the express goal of South Carolina's independent secession from the United States was born.

“B” is for Bluffton (Beaufort County; 2020 population 28,230).

“B” is for Blues. A powerful form of secular African American musical and cultural expression, blues developed in the South around the turn of the twentieth century.

“W” is for Winnsboro (Fairfield County; 2020 population 3,130).

"S” is for Simpsonville (Greenville County; 2020 population 25,272).

“S” is for Simons and Lapham. The Charleston architectural firm of Simons and Lapham was formed in 1920 by Albert Simons (1890-1980) and Samuel Lapham (1892 to 1972).

“S” is for Simons, Katherine Drayton Mayrant (1890-1969). Poet, novelist, playwright, historian.

“S” is for Simms, William Gilmore (1806-1870). Poet, historian, novelist.

“R “is for Rosemond, James R. (1820 to 1902). Clergyman. Recognized as one of The pioneers of the Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina, James R. Rosemond was commonly referred to as Father Rosemond.

“P’ is for Pocotaligo, Battle of (October 22, 1862).

“P” is for plantations. In the seventeenth century the term “plantation,” which formerly referred to any colonial outpost, evolved to refer specifically to large agricultural estates whose land was farmed by a sizable number of workers, usually enslaved persons, for export crops.

“D” is for Dorn, William Jennings Bryan (1906-2005). Congressman.

“C” is for Chattooga River. For most of its forty miles, the Chattooga forms the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina.

“C” is for the Charleston Riot [1876]. As the crucial local, state, and national elections of 1876 approached, tensions between the races in South Carolina reached a boiling point.

“C” is for Charleston Renaissance (ca. 1915-1940). The Charleston Renaissance was a multifaceted cultural renewal that took place in the years between World Wars I and II.

“B” is for Bishopville (Lee County; 2020 population 2,994).

“P” is for Pinckney, Josephine Lyons Scott (1895-1957). Poet, novelist, civic leader.

“P” is for Pinckney, Henry Laurens (1794-1863). Legislator, congressman, editor.

“M” is for Miles, William Porcher [1822-1899]. Educator, congressman.

“M” is for Milburn, Frank Pierce [1868-1926]. Architect. A native of Kentucky, Milburn established a practice in Charlotte in 1896.

“M” is for Mignot, Louis Rémy (1831-1870). Painter. Some scholars have maintained that Louis Rémy Mignot “was arguably the most accomplished southern-born painter of his generation.”