Place:Kershaw, South Carolina, United States

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Kershaw County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 65,403. The county seat and largest city is Camden. The county was created in 1791 from parts of Claremont, Lancaster, Fairfield, and Richland counties. It is named for Col. Joseph Kershaw (1727–1791), an early settler and American Revolutionary War patriot.

Kershaw County is part of the Columbia, South Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Contents

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Kershaw County was named for Col. Joseph Kershaw (1727–1791), an early settler considered as "the father of Camden". Originally part of Camden District, Kershaw County was formed in 1791 from parts of Claremont, Lancaster, Fairfield, and Richland counties. The county seat is Camden, the oldest inland city in South Carolina. This site was settled around 1732 by English traders and farmers who moved inland from Charleston. Welsh Baptists moved the area in large numbers in the 1740s and 1750s. At the time, in England and Wales Protestants who were not from the established Anglican church were politically disadvantaged in various ways, however, in South Carolina they could still practice freely (provided that they called their churches "meeting houses.") Baptists from Abergavenny, Trap, Carmarthenshire, Llanbedr, Crickhowell, Vale of Grwyney, Abertillery, Griffithstown and Brecon arrived in what has since become Kershaw County between 1740 and 1760, primarily arriving as large family units. They were joined by a similar migration of English Baptists who came from Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, Boston, Lincolnshire, Coningsby, Grantham, as well as Christchurch, Dorset and Lymington. From about 1800 until about 1867, the county was known as Kershaw District.

During the American Revolutionary War, the British occupied Camden from June 1780 to May 1781. Fourteen battles took place in the area, including the Battle of Camden in 1780 and the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill in 1781.

After the state seceded from the Union, six men from Kershaw served in the American Civil War as Confederate generals: James Cantey (1818–1873), James Chesnut (1815–1885), John Doby Kennedy (1840–1896), Joseph Brevard Kershaw (1822–1894), and John Bordenave Villepigue (1830–1862), Zachariah C. Deas (1819–1882). Richard Rowland Kirkland, a Confederate soldier and hero at the Battle of Fredericksburg, was also from Kershaw County. He served under General Kershaw. In the last months of the war, Union troops under Gen. William T. Sherman burned parts of Camden in February 1865, in their March to the Sea.

Under the 1868 South Carolina Constitution, the Kershaw District became home rule Kershaw County with the state representatives also being county commissioners. During the Reconstruction era, some freedmen and other men of color were elected to various political offices. Among them was Henry Cardozo, who had been pastor of Old Bethel Methodist Church in Charleston, South Carolina. He served in the state senate as a Republican from Kershaw County, from 1870 to 1874. (February 1, 1836 – July 22, 1903) was an American clergyman, politician, and educator. When Francis Lewis Cardozo was elected in South Carolina as Secretary of State in 1868, he was the first African American to hold a statewide office in the United States.

During World War I, two Kershaw County men were awarded the Medal of Honor in two separate actions while fighting in France in October 1918. The first was Richmond Hobson Hilton, recognized for actions taking place on October 11, 1918, during which he lost an arm. The second was John Canty Villepigue on October 15, 1918; he was wounded so severely in the action for which he was recognized that he died several months later from his injuries. Villepigue was a descendant of General John B. Villepigue noted above.

Statesman and financier Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965), labor leader Lane Kirkland, and baseball player Larry Doby, the first African-American player in the American League, were each born in Kershaw County. Former South Carolina Governor John C. West was also from Kershaw County.

Timeline

Date Event Source
1782 Probate records recorded Source:Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources
1783 Court records recorded Source:Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources
1787 Land records recorded Source:Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources
1800 County formed Source:Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources
1800 First census Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990
1911 Marriage records recorded Source:Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources
1915 Birth records recorded Source:Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources
1980 No significant boundary changes after this year Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990

Population History

source: Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990
Census Year Population
1800 7,340
1810 9,867
1820 12,432
1830 13,545
1840 12,281
1850 14,473
1860 13,086
1870 11,754
1880 21,538
1890 22,361
1900 24,696
1910 27,094
1920 29,398
1930 32,070
1940 32,913
1950 32,287
1960 33,585
1970 34,727
1980 39,015
1990 43,599

Research Tips

External links

  • Outstanding guide to Kershaw County family history and genealogy resources (FamilySearch Research Wiki). Birth, marriage, and death records, censuses, wills, deeds, county histories, cemeteries, churches, newspapers, libraries, and genealogical societies.
  • www.camden-sc.org/


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