Colleton County | South Carolina Public Radio

"C" is for Colleton County (1,056 square miles; 2010 population 38, 909). Colleton County was one of three original counties organized in Carolina in 1682. Lying south and west of Charleston between the Combahee and Stono Rivers, this Colleton was somewhat larger than its modern counterpart. By the 1730s, the county had been subdivided into three colonial parishes. The General Assembly created Colleton District in 1800 with Jacksonborough as the courthouse town. In 1817, Walterboro became the county seat. Prior to 1860, the cultivation of rice, indigo, and cotton made the county one of the wealthiest in the state. Its recent growth has been spurred by suburban development. Colleton County is South Carolina’s fifth largest county; it is bordered by Charleston, Dorchester, Bamberg, Hampton and Beaufort Counties—and touches the Atlantic Ocean at its southeastern tip.