Our Story
Our River, Since the 1700s
The Waccamaw, Conway, SC
Here before the county had a name
Our family’s roots run back to the patriots of the Waccamaw. Before there was a Horry County, the Crown granted land along the Lake Swamp, the Little Pee Dee and the Waccamaw to the early settlers. Surveys of the day often called the land “all sides vacant.”
Revolution on the Waccamaw
During the Revolution the people of this country ferried, fed and fought for the Patriot cause. In 1779 Capt. Benjamin Garrell signed for his company’s crossings at Port’s Ferry on the Great Pee Dee: “9 men and 4 horses and 1 cart.” In October 1780 local planters fed “Continental troops commanded by General Marion when Colonel” at Lake Swamp. In 1782 Col. Peter Horry, namesake of Horry County, entered supplies for the Georgetown garrison.
Original held by the S.C. Department of Archives & History, in the same record series that holds Marion’s and Horry’s accounts.
After the war
Once the fighting ended, South Carolina issued state land grants across the Little Pee Dee country, and new plats put local names on the map. The settlements around Bayboro grew up from that land: churches, farms, timber and tobacco, and families who stayed in Horry from the 1700s on.
Sources: SC Department of Archives & History: colonial plats (S213184), Accounts Audited of Claims Growing Out of the Revolution (AA 6031, AA 2673-B, AA 2686) and state plats of the 1780s.
Today
Veteran-owned in Conway, SC. Waccamaw and Pee Dee roots since the 1700s.