RISE UP SO EARLY: A HISTORY OF FLORENCE COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA
Orig. pub. 1981. Print on Demand Edition 2015. (xiv), 452 pp., illus., map, appendix, notes, index. Item #134
ISBN: 9780871523556
Located between the Great Pee Dee and Lynches rivers in the middle coastal plain of South Carolina, the area which forms present-day Florence County is the subject of this history by the late G. Wayne King, who was a professor of history at Francis Marion College. Beginning with the settlement of the area around 1735 by Welsh immigrants from Pennsylvania, the book moves to discussions of the Revolutionary War exploits of Francis Marion, the coming of the Railroad in 1846 (an event which literally created the community of Florence), the Civil War, during which Florence was the location of a stockade for Union prisoners, and Reconstruction which found the area a center of Red Shirt activities. As Florence turned its attention to becoming a part of the New South, the most important event was the creation of the county, in 1888, from portions of Marion, Darlington, and Williamsburg counties. The subsequent history of Florence is one of progress and development in many areas, including commerce, education, cultural life, agriculture, county government, transporation, and entertainment with emphasis placed on the further growth of the railroads and the introduction and growth of the tobacco industry. The Spanish-American War, the Progressive Era, World War I, the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II are treated in separate chapters. The appendix features a long list of county officers from 1888 to the present (1981) and includes other lists of members of organizations, veterans, and officials. An every-name index to persons and places completes the book.
Price: $47.50