480 A SKETCH OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



tices and minors, gradually increased in prosperity until 18(Jl, when its 

 liall was burned. In 1870, it placed its books on the shelves of the 

 Charleston Library, and in 1874 the new society was fully merged into 

 the elder. 



A handsome catalogue (1876) gives full information regarding the 

 library. 



THE SOUTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



was organized at Charleston in 1856, " with the design of tracing out 

 those minor points in the history of our State which have escaped the 

 notice or eluded the grasp of our historians,, and more particularly to 

 record the history of local events which, however, strikingly illustrative 

 of social life, are generally considered unworthy of notice. It proposes 

 to collect information respecting every portion of the State, to preserve 

 it, and when deemed advisable to publish it." In that year and for three 

 years thereafter the Legislature appropriated five hundred dollars annu- 

 ally to aid the society in its publications. Three volumes of publications 

 were issued up to 1860, but of the last volume only a few scattering 

 numbers survived the war, the greater part not having been distributed. 

 Some years after the war the society was reorganized. It now numbers 

 about one hundred members, of whom one-third reside in the interior of 

 the State. The publications and manuscripts of the society are deposited 

 in the Charleston Library. Sufficient material is now^ on hand for a 

 fourth volume, which will be published when the society is able to meet 

 the expense. Its revenues are about $200 per annum. The present 

 officers are Prof. F. A. Porcher, president ; Rev. C. C. Pinckney and S. P. 

 Ravenel, vice-presidents, and Messrs. Yates Snowden and C. A. McHugh, 

 secretaries. 



THE THORNWELL ORPHANAGE. 



Bordering on the thriving village of Clinton, in Laurens County, is a 

 farm of a hundred and twenty-five acres, the property and site of the 

 Thornwell Orphanage. On the 1st of October, 1872, a number of gen- 

 tlemen met and discussed the plan of an orphanage conducted under 

 Presbyterian auspices. To-day that plan is in successful operation. Two 

 handsome concrete buildings, and other wooden structures, accommodate 

 the officers of the institution and the thirty-two orphans under their 

 charge. Another building, the Orphans' Seminary, is now in course of 

 construction, on the completion of which there will be accommodations 

 for a hundred children. Besides the literary instruction, the boys are 

 practised in farming, printing, carpenter work, house-painting and shoe- 

 making. The girls are trained in domestic duties. This orphanage has 



