2021 is a special year for the residents of Aiken County — not only is it a new year of hope after a year of chaos, but it’s also the 150th anniversary of Aiken County’s founding.
In January of 1871, state legislator Charles D. Hayne (Barnwell District) proposed an act to create a new county with Aiken as its seat. On March 10, 1871, the act was formally enacted by the South Carolina state legislature. While Hayne was not the first person to promote the idea of a new county, he was the one to get the bill through the state legislature successfully.
Names for the new county included the proposed names of Randolph and Woodbury. Through a stroke of unique brilliance, the name of Aiken was settled upon as the new county’s name. — That was sarcasm, in case you don’t know our sense of humor.
Formed during the Reconstruction, Aiken County was cut from four counties: Barnwell, Edgefield, Lexington, and Orangeburg. Committees of black, white, and biracial men worked for many years to form the physical and legal infrastructure of this new county. Throughout the process, several curious stories occurred. Here is just one of them.
A rose by any other name…
The new county of Aiken was divided up into seventeen new townships that closely relate to what we would identify as political districts today. Most of the township names were linked to famous men of their areas, such as the Gregg Township that covered the Graniteville area, named after William Gregg, the founder of Graniteville. However, there were some interesting township names whose origins have been lost to time. For instance, the area of Seivern was formerly called the Giddy Swamp Township.
Another curious name was the township of Chinquapin between Monetta and New Holland. Upon researching the name, there is a Chinquapin Creek in the area — chinquapin was a type of indigenous chestnut tree. The Chinquapin Creek was also listed as an original geographic border of the new Aiken County.
If you’re a fan of author Washington Irving, there used to be a Sleepy Hollow Township in Aiken County as well. The Sleepy Hollow Township sat between the cities of Silverton (now Jackson) and Talatha. If you journey out there, you may be able to locate the Headless Horseman’s grave …
Help us celebrate!
The Aiken County Historical Museum, along with cultural centers, museums, and natural history sites throughout Aiken County, invites you to celebrate 150 years with us. Please take this celebration as an opportunity to visit your local historic sites and learn about the men, women, and children who shaped our community. Historic sites capture and interpret the hopes and heartbreaks, the successes and failures, and the lives and deaths of those who have come before us.
Aiken County is full of fascinating stories. There was the movie bandit who became a real bandit in North Augusta. And the Winter Colonist who played hide-and-go-seek with the Hope diamond in her Aiken home. Not to mention the covered Conestoga wagon that represented the state of South Carolina in the country’s 1976 bicentennial celebration. And the detection of the neutrino, a sub-atomic particle, at the Savannah River Site in 1956 — this resulted in the award of a Nobel Prize in Physics. These incredible stories emphasize that history is not just dates and names — it is you and me. After all, one day we will all be history.
Follow Aiken County’s historic and cultural sites on Facebook and Instagram at @aikencountyis150 for events, both virtual and in-person, intriguing stories, and virtual tours. Stay curious y’all!
Newspaper article that noted the introduction of a new county by Barnwell representative Charles D. Hayne. Note that Woodbury was also proposed as the name for this new county. Yorkville Enquirer, January 19, 1871.
A brief biography of Charles D. Hayne states that although Hayne was not the first to propose the idea of a new county with Aiken as its seat, his proposal was the one that was finally approved by the state legislature. Aiken Tribune, November 29, 1873.
