Fairfield County is part of the Old English District of South Carolina. Although the reason behind the county’s name remains uncertain, it seems to have come from Lord Cornwallis. While headquartered in the area during the Revolutionary War, Lord Cornwallis supposedly said that the region had “fair fields.” Cornwallis was not the only important war figure to have left his mark in Fairfield County. General Sherman invaded Winnsboro during the Civil War.
Historically, the county’s economy depended on the production of cotton and a special type of granite known as Winnsboro Blue Granite. Today the county remains rural with an estimated 2015 population of about 26,000 people. Fairfield County was founded within the Camden District in 1785, and Winnsboro serves as its county seat.
Welcome to Fairfield County, South Carolina. Accessed June 03, 2016. http://www.fairfieldsc.com/
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Main Street, Winnsboro, around the turn of the century. Winnsboro, the county seat of Fairfield County, was settled in 1755, incorporated in 1785, and named to honor one of its founders, Revolutionary...
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Most mill villages featured a company store where mill operatives could buy the necessities of life without leaving the town. The interior of this store in the Winnsboro Mill Village in Fairfield...
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A truck coming off of the new assembly line at the Mack Truck plant in Fairfield County. Photo by Doug Gilmore, August 1,1988. Courtesy of "The State" newspaper.
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A granite quarry in operation in Fairfield County, near Winnsboro, in the 1930s. From the files of the Works Progress Administration. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
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V.C. Summer Nuclear Plant, Fairfield County, showing the giant steam turbine at the nuclear station. Photo by Tim Dominick, November 1984. Courtesy of "The State" newspaper.
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Aerial view of the Summer Nuclear Plant, located near Columbia and operated by SCE&G. It was completed in 1984 as an alternative to water or coal generated production to meet growing demands for...
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The Winnsboro Mills maintained a research laboratory as well as a production plant at their Fairfield County headquarters. This laboratory was set up around 1930, and photographed by William F. Cone...
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Raw cotton is carded in sliver, a thick rope of cotton fibers, in the #2 plant of the Winnsboro Mills, around 1930. Courtesy of Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Manufacturing.
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Unloading raw cotton from the train at the Winnsboro Mills, around 1929. Courtesy of Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Manufacturing.
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The Fairfield Cotton Mill, built in 1898, expanded its operation with the construction of this new building in 1918. The original owners sold the plant to Hampton Cotton Mills of Greenville in 1912...
