Calhoun County Museum
Come and enjoy the history of Calhoun County and South Carolina presented with a personal southern touch.
Calhoun County Chronology (cont.)
1785: Lewisburgh and Lexington court counties are established
1786: Belleville and Manigault’s Plantations are considered for the site of a new state capital
1791: Commodore Alexander Gillon of Gillon’s Retreat, is on the committee for entertaining President Washington in Columbia
1791: County courts are suspended1794: Colonel William Thomson pioneers in planting cotton at Belleville
1801: Bishop Francis Asbury holds the Methodist Quarterly Conference at Whetstone’s Meeting House (later called Tabernacle)
1811: Free schools for the poor are set up in South Carolina
1811: Earthquake
1812: War with England; Langdon Cheves is Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives (he later lived at Lang Syne Plantation)
1827: Sand-clay mixture is used in improving State Road at Beaver Creek
1830: Summer village of Totness prospers
1835: Seminole War
1841: Branch line of the pioneer SC Railroad reaches Lewisville
1846: Mexican War
1850: Totness is incorporated
1850: Fort Motte village beginning
1860: Laurence M. Keitt, John C. Geiger, and the Reverend John J. Wannamaker are among the signers of the Ordinance of Secession
1861: War Between the States/Confederate War begins
1861: L. M. Keitt helps to write the Confederate Constitution
1864: Colonels L. M. Keitt and Olin M. Dantzler are among the heroes from the area killed in action
1865: Sherman’s Invasion; Yankees burn Totness and many other homes; Confederate Cavalry attacks Union troops encamped near Savannah Hunt Creek
1865: St. Matthew’s Parish is abolished as a political division
1865: Slaves are now all free; many African American churches begin
1866: “Reconstruction” evils are beginning
1866: Great drought is an additional blow; food is still scarce
1868: South Carolina Districts are changed to counties; Sandy Run section becomes part of Lexington County, while old St. Matthew’s Parish is included in Orangeburg County
1872: Town of Lewisville is incorporated
1874: Masonic Lodge is founded
1875: Fort Motte is incorporated
1876: Lewisville’s name is changed to St. Matthew’s
1876: Wild political campaigns; “Red Shirts” ride the state, but Democrats win the election
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