GGO TOWNS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



tine or pliosphate works, they have gained a foothold of their own, draw- 

 inir round them small but growing communities, which find such locations 

 cHgible for the diversified industries and pursuits demanded by civilized 

 life. Originally, the Indian traders, following the trail of the hunters 

 and trappers, opened the interior of the State for settlement. Graziers 

 and stock raisers, known as " cowpen keepers," were the first to follow 

 them. In their wake, and to supplement for their uses the short-comings 

 of the seasons, came the tillers of the soil. These throve and prospered 

 until in the fullness of time they became large planters and great land- 

 lords, supplanting and overshadowing all others. Then came the war, 

 and the destruction of the plantation system. The thirty -three thousand 

 plantations of 1860 are divided out among ninety-three thousand small 

 farmers in 1880. Wholly occuj^ied by their struggle with the soil 

 and the seasons, these small farmers, of necessity, intrust their trading 

 interests to the care of the country storekeeper. And thus the cross- 

 roads store stands again, as stood formerly the Indian trading post, a 

 pioneer in a new industrial departure. The blacksmith, the wheelwright, 

 and the trial justice settle near them, and when two or three stores are 

 gathered together, churches and schools are opened, and a town which, 

 from its very commencement, has instantaneous communication through 

 the telegraph with every quarter of the globe, is admitted into the great 

 felloAvship of cities, and takes its growth. 



The attempt is here made to express numerically the character and 

 distribution of these towns and trading points. As in some sort, a first 

 attempt, it is necessarily defective. The defects are, however, those of 

 omission, and these can be supplied by more accurate enumerations in 

 future. 



In the following statements, trading settlements alone are considered. 

 Health, educational or social resorts, as such, are not included, nor are 

 mills or manufactories entered unless stores are connected with them. 



