Calhoun County lies between Columbia and Charleston. The area is widely popular with the locomotive and logistical industries due to its proximity to major interstates. The county is also home to the Congaree River, Lake Marion, and a number of hiking trails. St. Matthews serves as its county seat.
The county resulted from the combination of various lands within Lexington and Orangeburg counties in 1908. John C. Calhoun, the county’s namesake, “served as United States vice president, secretary of state and of war, and senator.” It boasts a rich Revolutionary War history.
Recreation and Tourism. Accessed June 01, 2016.
Welcome to Calhoun County. Accessed June 01, 2016.
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Julia Mood Peterkin’ stories of plantation life and realistic African American characters captured the world’s attention. Julia Mood was born in Laurens County on Halloween in 1880. Her mother died...
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L. Marion Gressette was born in Calhoun County in 1902, near St. Matthews. Sen. Gressette fills many roles, such as a Baptist, Mason, member of Phi Kappa Phi fraternity, a fellow in the American...
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In this segment, Jim Welch interviews L. Marion Gressette about his thoughts on the building dedication ceremony, and what Gressette believes were his greatest achievements and disappointments in his...
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A trip through Francis Beidler Forest and an up-close look at its wild creatures. The National Audubon Society and the Nature Conservancy teamed up to preserve about six-thousand acres. The Forest...
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The town of St. Matthews predates by more than a century and a half the 1908 formation of Calhoun County, of which it is now the county seat. Originally a trading post on the Cherokee Path, the town...
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Shipping traffic moving in and out of the harbors along the Carolina coast depended upon a series of lighthouses to guide them through sometimes narrow and treacherous channels in the complicated...
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The Carolina Eastman plant in St. Matthews is a modern chemical industry that manufactures synthetic fibers. Official company photograph, 1983. Courtesy of "The State" newspaper.
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Harvester tipping a load of cotton into a wagon in Calhoun County, September 1968. Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture began experimenting with mechanical cotton pickers in the 1920s, they...
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Ripened bolls of short-staple cotton in the fields of Calhoun County in September of 1968. Cotton still produced in South Carolina dominated agriculture in the state in the first half of the 19th...
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Far too many of South Carolina's historic buildings have met the fate of Peterkin Plantation of St. Matthews, which burned to the ground in a fire photographed by Frances Benjamin Johnston around 1910...
