Situated along the Savannah River, Aiken County shares its name with its county seat. An equestrian-enthusiast’s paradise, Aiken County is home to a polo club and a prominent horse racing scene with its own Triple Crown. The area is also known for agriculture, especially the cultivation of soybeans, hay, peaches, and corn. As of 2010, about 160,000 people resided in Aiken County.
In 1871, lands previously belonging to Edgefield, Lexington, Barnwell, and Orangeburg counties were merged to create Aiken County. The area began to serve as a vacation destination frequented by visitors from the Northern United States in the late 19th century. William Aiken, the county and county seat’s namesake, was the president of the South Carolina Railroad.
Aiken County: About Aiken County. Accessed June 01, 2016.
Audio
"A" is for Asparagus. Asparagus was an important cash crop in South Carolina from the 1910s until the mid-1930s. With cotton prices low and the boll weevil creeping closer, farmers in the "Ridge"...
Audio
“L” is for Long, William Williams [1861-1934]. Agriculturalist. A native North Carolinian, Long worked his family farm before joining the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Plant Industry. He...
Photo
Pebble Lodge in Aiken, home of Miss Elizabeth League, was photographed around 1900. The Queen Anne style of this house was popular around 1880-1910. Courtesy of the Aiken County Historical Museum.
Photo
This log cabin in Aiken, photographed in 1896, has an external stone chimney. Its wooden shingle roof and construction (quite possibly using notched logs) represent the most common folk housing of the...
Photo
The "outside kitchen" at the Bush House in Ellenton, photographed in 1951 by the Savannah River Plant, when all the historic buildings within the plant were documented through photography prior to...
Audio
“S” is for Seigler, Marie Samuella Cromer [1882-1964]. Educator. Girl’s club founder. In 1909, Seigler, an Abbeville County native, heard a representative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture extoll...
Photo
Jane Bruce Guignard (1874-1960) was born in Aiken County, educated at the College for Women in Columbia (see Chicora College), and in 1900 entered the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia. She...
Video
The mansion on the Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site was completed in 1859 by Governor James Henry Hammond. Governor Hammond was governor from 1842 to 1844. The construction was done by Augusta...
Photo
Born in Charleston in 1879, Governor James Byrnes (1879-1972) attended local schools. Because of his father's death, Byrnes had to begin working early in life to help support his mother. He worked as...
