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Orangeburgh District, 1768-1868: History and Records

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This book is an almost indispensable tool for genealogists researching in South Carolina and the area known as the old Orangeburgh District. Lack of official records in South Carolina, especially in the "burned counties," makes it frustratingly difficult to track down the kind of information that fills in the gaps for family historians. Culler's efforts have brought together a wealth of information about the area, not only the bare facts and figures, but the kind of details that make the people and places come alive. Chapters include Nineteenth Century Homes, Churches and Their Influence, Newspapers and Periodicals, Blacks--Slave and Free, Schools Academies and Teachers, Lawyers Legislators and Public Officials, among others. There is also information from the 1850 Orangeburgh District census, listings of Confederate Military Companies, listings of local legislators, and more. While there are occasional factual mistakes, the book is well-researched and generally quite accurate.

Orangeburgh District, 1768-1868, History and Records
by Daniel Marchant Culler

Old Orangeburgh District, in the middle-western section of South Carolina, existed for a century before losing its "h" (and much of its territory) and being transformed into Orangeburg County. The land area originally encompassed by Orangeburgh was vast, taking in areas that were later to become Barnwell District and Saxe Gotha (Lexington), and most of the present-day counties of Calhoun, Orangeburg, and Aiken.
Orangeburgh was inhabited before the Revolution by English, Scotch-Irish, and Irish families, a large group of settlers of German and Swiss origin, some French Acadians from Canada, and colonists, including French Huguenots, from the Low Country. These groups settled in Orangeburgh, Amelia (St. Matthews), and Saxe Gotha townships, and in the areas between the North Fork of the Edisto and Savannah rivers and between the Lower Broad and Saluda rivers. The fertile ethnic mix represented by the pioneer families of the region gave rise to "a society - - - as civilized and well-rounded as any district in South Carolina founded solely on an agricultural or plantation system." By the time of the War Between the States, Orangeburgh District had become one of the greatest cotton-producing areas in the South and even as recently as 1967 was considered one of the foremost agricultural counties in the United States.
Daniel Marchant Culler was a descendant of early Orangeburgh families, a lawyer, judge, farmer, real-estate developer, and civic leader who was also a brilliant scholar and historian. He began work on the history of Orangeburgh District in 1950 and continued his research until his death in 1968. His work was edited by his daughter, Justine Bond Culler, a teacher in the Columbia schools, with the assistance of his wife, Justine Smith Hundley Culler, and grandson, Mason Culler Wolfe, a writer.
The result is a much-needed history of the District which focuses primarily on the period of time between the Revolutionary and Confederate wars and on the sections that later became Orangeburg and Calhoun counties. It is thoroughly researched and scholarly, with ample bibliography and notes, and is also extremely readable, containing an excellent blend of factual information, historical interpretation, biographical data, and items of genealogical interest.
Topics treated in this eight-hundred-page work include: growth and development of Orangeburgh District; Orangeburgh District in 1790 (which includes the 1790 census); roads, bridges, and ferries; villages and resorts; courthouses and jails; nineteenth-century homes (many of which are shown in the illustration sections); churches and their influence; schools, academies, and teachers; lawyers, legislators, and public officials (a long chapter with abundant biographical and genealogical information); doctors, druggists, and medicine (similar to the preceding chapter); newspapers; blacks-slave and free; and "The End of an Era."
Around two hundred pages of appendices include minutes of early public meetings, marriage records, the census of 1850, and other lists which give names of road and school commissioners, alumni of South Carolina College, Confederate military companies, Cherokee War soldiers, local legislators, and district officials.
This volume contains a wealth of information on such family names as: Arthur, Barton, Beard, Brown, Bruce, Bull Chevillette, Collins, Cornelson, Culler, Dantzler, Darby, Dibble, Dreher, Dukes, Dulles, Elliott, Fair, Farrar, Felder, Fishburne, Frederick, Fridya, Gaillard, Geiger, Giessendanner, Glover, Golson, Govan, Gramling, Haigler, Hampton, Hart, Heatly, Holman, Houser, Huger, Humphrey, Izlar, Jamison, Jones, Keitt, King, Kohn, Legare, Lloyd, Louis, McMichael, Minnick, Moore, Myddleton, Parkinson, Peoples, Porcher, Reid, Richardson, Richmond, Riggs, Roach, Robinson, Robison, Rowe, Rumph, Russell, Sabb, Salley, Sellider, Sheridan, Shuler, Smoke, Stroman, Theus, Thomson, Tucker, Wannamaker, Waters, and Williams. This is merely a sample of the individuals and families covered in this book-for an exhaustive list the reader should consult the every-name index, which contains over twelve thousand persons and places.
Oringally copyrighted in 1995, second printing in 2004. Changes only in the dust jacket.