Carolina Ghost Towns

Colonial Dorchester

The colonial town of Dorchester is located on the Ashley River, just north of Charleston.  Settled by Congregetionalists, it was once the third largest town in South Carolina.
Now only the old bell tower of the St. George's Church and the tabby fortifications remain.  Old Dorchester is now a historic site and part of the South Carolina Parks System.
Here are some of the resources used in this episode:
Office SC State Park Website for Dorchester
Wikipedia Entry
Old Dorchester Visitor's Guide
National Register Entry for Dorchester
National Register Entry for White Meeting House
The Town of Dorchester:  A Sketch of It's History
KnowItAll Video - Dorchester
South Carolina Picture Project

Merrittsville - A Village Beneath

Merrittsville was a community in norther Greenville County in what has become known as The Dark Corner.  Once a stopover for travelers, the region was notorious for moonshining and other illegal activities.  Now.  The town lies under the Greenville Watershed Reservois.
Resources:
Blog Post - Remembering Merrittsville
Benjamin Merritt Genealogy
Poinsett Bridge National Register
Merrittsville - Now Only a Memory
Below the Surface
Mann Batson Videos
Poinsett Bridge Traffic
Poinsett Chimney Ruins
State Road
Anne Blythe Videos
Stagecoach Travel
Bishop Asbury
Reverend Malet
Dean Campbell Videos
Greer Museum Presentation
Introduction to Dark Corner
 

Old School Towns

This week we look at three ghost towns.  These towns featured academies that played a large part of the town.  When the academies closed down, the towns went into decline.  This episode looks at the towns of Minervaville in Richland County, South Carolina, which had the Minerva Academy, Slabtown in Anderson County, which had the Thalian Academy, then the Slabtown Academy, and Sievern in Aiken County, which had the Edisto Academy.
Some of the resources I used in podcast are listed below:
Blog Posts
Lower Richland and the High Hills of the Santee
Slabtown, Equality, and the Thalian Web
Chasing the Swamp Rabbit, Part 3 - Sievern and the Edisto Academy

Ellenton and the Atomic Towns

Ellenton, Dunbarton, Meyers Mills, and Leigh were small towns in Aiken and Barnwell Counties that were uprooted to make way for the Savannah River Plant to make atomic and hydrogen bombs.
I used lots of references and audio clips in this episode.  Here are the clips that I used in putting together this story.
Blog post - Hamburg and the Atomic Towns
"I Don't Live there Anymore" - Lawrence Holofcener
Dr. Walter Edgar, South Carolina from A to Z - E is for Ellenton
Acts and Joint Resolutions of the General Assembly, 1880
Samuel Ritchie - That Others May Live:  The Cold War Sacrifice of Ellenton, South Carolina
WJBF - Hometown History, The Forgotten Town of Ellenton
Displaced - The Unexpected Fallout from the Cold War
Ellenton Heritage Trail Opens for Tours
Song - Jesus Hits Like an Atom Bomb
Song - The Death of Ellenton

Manchester, South Carolina

Manchester is a ghost town in Sumter County, on the east side of the Poinsett Electronic Warfare Range.  It was settled in the 1700s, but disappeared in the mid-1800s.
Resources:
Archeological Studies
Wilmington and Manchester Railroad from Wikipedia
Blog Post

Willtown Black Mingo

 
Willtown Black Mingo was on Black Mingo Creek in Williamsburg County.  The terms "Willtown" and "Black Mingo" were used interchangeably.  It was also the site of an important battle in the Revolutionary War.
Resources:
History of Williamsburg County
Black Mingo Historical Marker
 

Willtown or New London

Willtown on the Edisto River was first known as New London.  It was the second planned town in South Carolina, after Charleston.  The remaining buildings are now on the National Register of Historic Places.
 
Here are the resources I used in this episode...
Willtown:  An Archeological and Historical Perspective
Willtown Bluff Study
Historical and Archeological Study
Willtown Past and Present
Blog Post - Paddling to Willtown on the Edisto

Shelton

The ghost town of Shelton is located in northwest Fairfield County, South Carolina, along the banks of the Broad River.  The early settlement featured a ferry, but grew into a town with the coming of the railroad.  The major industries were shipping for the surrounding and the Shivar Springs Bottling Company, located just south of the town.Resources used in this episode:
Blog post on RandomConnections
Shelton photos from 1960s - State Newspaper
interview with Tom McConnell
Ron Chicone's History of Shelton
Shivar cisterns on SC Picture Project
National Register Listing for Shivar
Shelton Cemetery
McConnell Cemetery

Robertville

Henry Martyn Robert - author of Robert's Rules of Order
Robertville is a small farming community in South Carolina, named for a family of French Huguenots that settled in the region.  The community was the birthplace of Henry Martyn Robert, author of Robert's Rules of Order, and Alexander Robert Lawton, Confederate General and one of the founders of the American Bar Association. 
Robertville Baptist Church is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Cambridge and Ninety Six

Ellenberg Homesite
The modern town of Ninety Six hold close connections to my family.  It's where my grandparents lived, as well as some other, more notorious relatives.  Before modern Ninety Six came the college town of Cambridge, named with aspirations of reaching the lofty status of its namesakes in Massachusetts and England.
Resources for this episode:
Finding Your Roots - Season 5, Episode 10 "All in the Family"
Samuel Campbell Clegg
From a National Park Service report - Ensign Samuel Clegg Samuel Clegg (ca. 1740-1779) was a prominent Loyalist and plantation owner in Craven County
and Edgefield District, South Carolina. He was living in South Carolina by 1766 and owned land by 1768. By the late 1770s Clegg owned more than 1,400 acres in South Carolina. At the time of the American Revolution was married to Barbara Marie Flick and they had four children. Clegg served an Ensign in Colonel Boyd’s regiment and he helped to raise recruits and he participated in the battle of Kettle Creek. Clegg, who was considered by the Patriots to be a “ring leader” of the Loyalist uprising, was captured in the battle and marched as a prisoner to Ninety-Six. Clegg was tried for sedition and treason, and hanged at Ninety-Six in late April, 1779 (S.C.D.A.H. 2009; Cann 2004:4-7; Davis 1979b:172-181).
Star Fort - National Park Service
Cambridge Hash blog post
Siloam Baptist Church
Cambridge Tavern:
Cambridge Hall, later Siloam Baptist Church:
AI voices by ElevenLabs