Museum Musings
Located at 229 Avenue E in Darlington, the Edmund H. Deas House was named after Edmund H. Deas, who moved to Darlington in 1870. Known as the “Duke of Darlington,” Deas was a very active Republican and served as the county chair of the South Carolina Republican Party in 1884 and 1888. He was delegated […]
Born in Darlington County on January 11, 1931, Kay Patterson represented the 19th District in the South Carolina Senate from 1985 until his retirement in 2008. Senator Patterson also served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1975 through 1985. He was the first African-American to sit on the University of South Carolina’s Board […]
On April 22, 2015, Frank W. McKeel donated a thick book filled with hundreds of movie ticket stubs from the Darlington & Liberty Theaters. Inside the book, on the very first page, Mr. McKeel wrote a message to the Darlington County Historical Commission: Please remember when! Because I got such a kick out of combing […]
In 1845, a twenty-year-old John L. Hart bought from his brother-in-law Colonel T.c. Law some 491 acres of virgin pine forest. Here he established Hartsville Plantation and thus it was known as late as 1913. The Plantation ran along East Home Avenue to U.S. 15, now known as Fifth Street, which dead-ended on Home Avenue, […]
Woodrow Wilson “Buddy” Johnson, a renown jazz and New York blues musician, was born in Darlington, SC, on January 10, 1915. A pianist and bandleader, Buddy performed songs with his sister Ella Johnson. Among his songs that went into the R&B and pop charts were “Let’s Beat Out Some Love,” “Baby Don’t You Cry,” and, […]
I found these in the Darlington Cotton Mill files. Mills, particularly Southern cotton mills, have a complicated history, and I’d like to hear more about them from firsthand sources. So if you’ve got information, an anecdote, pictures, songs, poems, or anything else on the subject, please leave a comment and tell us about it. […]