Richland County

In 1997 Finney was promoted to the rank of associate professor at the University of Kentucky and also published a short-story cycle, Heartwood, which is about overcoming racial anger, fears, and prejudice in a small community by relying on the soundness of an individual’s duramen or “heartwood.”

Forest Acres flourished as a bedroom community to Columbia and soon posted one of the highest per capita income levels in the state.

By the end of the twentieth century, Fort Jackson was the army’s largest training post for new soldiers.

Fox’s writing, both fiction and nonfiction, is characterized by his pervasive conviction that humor is a saving attitude and that traditional southern storytelling is a high art form.

Despite the racial barriers that hampered African Americans in the early twentieth century, Frederick became a successful lawyer. Before his death in 1938, he appeared before the South Carolina Supreme Court thirty-three times, more than any African American lawyer up to that time.

In June 1781 Emily Geiger volunteered to be a courier for General Nathanael Greene, who needed an urgent message delivered to General Thomas Sumter. Geiger evaded capture the first day, but the British stopped her on the second day. While waiting for the British to bring a woman to search her, she read and memorized Greene’s message and then ate it.

Inspired by her “urge to write,” in 1895 she became the first woman to enroll in South Carolina College (later the University of South Carolina), two years after the General Assembly mandated that women should be allowed to attend the school as special students.

Inspired by the rise of Ben Tillman’s hate-mongering but successful campaign for governor in 1890, Ambrose, Narciso, and their younger brother William, founded the State newspaper in Columbia as an ardent and outspoken anti-Tillman daily.

Hoping to give a voice to the conservative wing of the Democratic Party after Ben Tillman’s election to the governorship, Gonzales joined with his brother Ambrose to found the State Publishing Company in January 1891, with the financial backing of conservative Democrats.

Working under his brother Narciso, William’s career in journalism began to take shape. Narciso had served as William’s greatest supporter and mentor, and his death at the hands of James Tillman in 1903 severely affected William.

Until 1869 South Carolina never furnished its executive officer with a residence. Governors used their private homes to serve as the seat of the state’s executive office.

The governorship of South Carolina is a dynamic office that has changed frequently, and sometimes dramatically, during the past three hundred years. As the biographies of individual governors show, each has faced common as well as unique challenges, often with mixed results.

Graham served one term in the South Carolina House before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives during the 1994 “Republican sweep,” in which the Republicans seized control of both the Senate and House for the first time in forty years.

In 1870 Greener graduated with honors, earning the distinction of being the first African American to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard.

The success of the Anderson and Abbeville spurs inspired the creation of other short routes that extended the reach of the Greenville and Columbia in the upstate. In 1854 the Laurens Railroad completed a thirty-two mile line from Laurens to Newberry.

In the 1990s Greer became involved with journalistic and political writing as well as other nonfiction projects. Greer’s refusal to be typed into one style or genre may have kept him from having the kind of audience that always knows what to expect, but has allowed him to continue to explore and experiment.

Gregg's scholarly interests included botany, ornithology, and astronomy. In 1847 he was appointed major in Milledge L. Bonham’s regiment of volunteers for the Mexican War, but this unit failed to reach Mexico in time to participate in any major battles. He was a member of the Southern Rights Convention of 1852, and in the late 1850s he advocated reopening the African slave trade.

Brick from the Guignard plant were used in many of Columbia’s historic buildings, including the Confederate Printing Plant at the corner of Gervais and Huger Streets.

Obstetrics and pediatrics became the cornerstone of Guignard’s fifty-year medical career. Guignard became an instrumental force in the development of adequate obstetrical facilities at Columbia Hospital. She also established a training program for black midwives.

In the 2010 gubernatorial election, Haley won 51 percent of the vote to become the first woman and the first person of color elected governor of South Carolina.