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 took its name from an early parish. Palatine Germans settled in the region in 1730-1740; by the Revolutionary era, a number of large plantations had been established to grow sea island cotton. This photograph was taken around 1909.
Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.