TOWNS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 689 



colored, pupils. Several thousand bales of cotton, a considerable quantity 

 of rice, naval stores, hides and wax are shipped to Charleston and Savan- 

 nah by rail. The Varnville Messenger is edited by E. W. Peeples. The 

 buildings are of brick and wood, and the population and trade are in- 

 creasing. 



Peeplesville (Township 117) was settled in 18G5, and has now about 

 three hundred inhabitants. It has a hall seventy by thirty-five feet, and 

 there are three churches, and one school, with forty pupils, in the neigh- 

 borhood. The value of the real and personal property is given as $150,- 

 000. One thousand bales of cotton are shipped to Savannah. The yearly 

 sales are, provisions, $30,000; dry goods, $20,000; hardware, $2,000. 

 There is a boarding-house, blacksmith shop, and livery stable, and several 

 saw and grist mills, and naval stores manufactories. Planting, lumber, 

 and naval stores are the chief pursuits. 



Brighton (Township 119). At the close of the war there was one 

 dwelling and one store, with a capital of one hundred dollars, here. 

 There are now eight stores, fifty dwellings, a population of three hundred, 

 two churches and a school. Two barrel makers, who came here ten years 

 ago without capital, are the owners of a steam saw mill, and a gin and 

 grist mill, with a turpentine and rosin still, as the result of their indus- 

 try. There is weekly communication with Savannah by. steamboat. 



Gillisonville (Township 116) was formerly the county seat of Beaufort. 

 The public buildings were burnt during the last war. It has a church 

 and two schools. 



COLLETON COUNTY 



contains twenty-two towns and trading settlements, having in all one 

 hundred and twenty stores, to-wit : White Hall, eighteen stores ; Walter- 

 boro, thirteen stores ; Jacksonboro and St. George's, eleven stores each ; 

 Ridgeville, nine stores ; Saltkehatchie, eight stores ; Rantowles, Smokes' 

 and Green Pond, seven stores each ; Reevesville, five stores ; Ashepoo and 

 Combahee, four stores each ; Bell's, Ross', and Folk's, three stores each ; 

 Ravenel's, Byrds, Cottageville, Rumphtown, Twenty-six Mile, Parker's 

 Ferry, and Maple Cane, one store each. There is one drug store, the re- 

 mainder dealing in general merchandise. Three out of the whole num- 

 ber are kept by colored persons. The estimated wealth of the store- 

 keepers is placed at $383,000. 



Walterboro, the county seat, is located in the centre of the county and 

 has a handsome brick court house and jail. The population in 1880 was 

 six hundred and ninety-one. There is an Episcopahan, a Presbyterian, 

 a Methodist, a Baptist and a Roman Catholic church in the town, with 

 three other churches for colored persons. A school house for colored 



