SCRoots friends,
The weekend is coming and my weekend goal is to share local history. Most of
this information can be found on my web page...  
SouthUSA's Home Page
Patricia Davis Runey
Charleston, SC

Jasper County
My love of genealogy began when I was young, living in Grahamville, listening
to family members trading stories on back porches. In small southern towns,
visiting was our entertainment, and I am proud to have been raised where
family came first.
I am proud to claim that our family has remained in South Carolina for over
300 years. 

Grahamville is a small community, near Ridgeland, in Jasper County, South
Carolina. Although many South Carolinians may have heard of Ridgeland, they
often question the location of Grahamville. It's a quiet little community a
mile or so southeast of Ridgeland, on Hwy. 278. It's about 30 miles from three
well-know towns...Beaufort, Hilton Head, and Savannah. 
Grahamville was named after Capt. John Graham, and formed in St. Luke's
Parish, after the Revolutionary War.

Purrysburg, a pre-Revolutionary War Swiss settlement, is marked by a cross-
shaped monument of stone on the banks of the Savannah River.

At Old House, you can visit the tomb of Thomas Heyward, one of the signers of
the Declaration of Independence.

Civil War history abounds in this area, marked by the battlesites of the
Battle of Honey Hill, in Grahamville, and the Battle of Pocotaligo, near
Coosawhatchie. 

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church
The historical marker reads:
"This Episcopal church was a chapel of ease in the Parish of St. Luke for a
number of years before it became a separate congregation in 1835.
It is said that William Heyward gave the church land on which the present
building, donated by James Bolan and completed by 1858, is built."
Stories say that Gen. Sherman kept his horses in the church. A large bible was
stolen from the church by his men. It was recovered in a New York woman's
attic in the early 1900's and returned to the church.

Just before the Civil War began, the villagers refused to let the railroad
come within a mile fo town, and so it was built a mile west in an area known
as Gopher Hill. 

The town of Ridgeland was first known as Gopher Hill, not for gophers, but for
small tortoises indigenous to the ridge area. Gopher Hill was the highest
point of ground between Charleston and Savannah. The town celebrates it's
heritage the first Saturday of every October with the Gopher Hill Festival.
Progress in Progress
at the 1998 Gopher Hill ... 
Be sure to stop at the Palms Restaurant for breakfast, dinner, or supper!

In 1912, Jasper County was formed from parts of Beaufort and Hampton Counties.
The name for South Carolina's third youngest county was chosen in honor of
Sergeant William Jasper, a Revolutionary War hero.
Jasper County is the home of Okatie, Good Hope, Davant, Gregorie Neck, and
MacKay's Point Plantations.
 

==== SCROOTS Mailing List ====