Chesterfield County is located in Northern South Carolina. The economy relies principally on agriculture. Chesterfield serves as its county seat, but Chesterfield County also boasts “The Watermelon Capital of the World”, Pageland, and “The Prettiest Town in Dixie”, Cheraw.
The county was founded in 1785 and named after Lord Chesterfield. However, it remained part of the Cheraws District until 1800. A combination of Welsh, Scotch-Irish, and English settled the area. During the Civil War, Union soldiers occupied the county.
Recreation and Tourism. Accessed June 02, 2016
Video
Patina Miller is a celebrated actress, performer and singer. Born in the small town of Pageland, S.C. on November 6, Miller was raised with music. She grew up singing in her local church’s gospel...
Video
When the opportunity came for a young Dizzy Gillespie to leave Cheraw, he took it. Dizzy moved to Laurinburg, North Carolina, where he went to school at the Laurinburg Institute. While in Laurinburg...
Video
Dizzy Gillespie was awarded the coveted Handel Medal, which is New York City’s most prestigious arts award. Gillespie is also part of the Newport Jazz Festival Program, and introduced friends and...
Video
Jazz legend John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. Dizzy Gillespie, Cheraw's claim to fame, filled many musical roles, such as trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and singer...
Photo
Three generations of African-American men pose in front of their cabin in the Welsh Neck area in 1904. Courtesy of the Darlington County Historical Commission.
Photo
Teenagers dance to juke box music outdoors on a poured concrete floor at Campbell's Pond, the "Negro Area" of Cheraw State Park, on August 2, 1951. Courtesy of the South Carolina Department of Parks...
Photo
This row of four stores on the east side of Second Street in Cheraw is having a sidewalk sale, around 1908. Rocking chairs, bicycles, baby buggies, and rolls of wire are displayed on wooden platforms...
Photo
Market Street, Cheraw, looking west, around 1900. The white columned building at the right is the Lyceum, a library and meeting place for the Cheraw Lyceum Society, built in 1820. Courtesy of the...
Photo
The Town Hall in Cheraw, built in 1858 and photographed here in 1890, is still used as a meeting place for the Masons (who helped pay for it) and for city offices. County seat of Chesterfield County...
Photo
This toll bridge, photographed around 1900, provided a crossing over the Pee Dee River near Cheraw on what is now U.S. Route 1. Courtesy of the Cheraw Visitors Bureau.
