In 1821, Dr. Jacques Bishop purchased a tract of land called Singleton's Crossroads; and by 1828, the village was known as Bishopville. In 1902, Lee County was established and Bishopville flourished as its seat of government and center of activity. Images of America: Bishopville and Lee County is a journey back to a time when Bishopville's Main Street on a Saturday teemed with a crowd so thick that downtown patrons had to weave their way down the sidewalk, and cotton was a booming business not only in Bishopville but in Lynchburg, Elliott, Lucknow, and Wisacky as well.
The South Carolina Historical Marker Program, established in 1936, has approved the installation of more than 1,700 interpretive plaques, each highlighting how places both grand and unassuming have played important roles in the history of the Palmetto State. These roadside markers identify and interpret places valuable for understanding South Carolina's past, including sites of consequential events and buildings, structures, or other resources significant for their design or their association with institutions or individuals prominent in local, state, or national history. This volume includes a concise history of the South Carolina Historical Marker Program and an overview of the marker application process. For those interested in specific historic periods or themes, the volume features condensed lists of markers associated with broader topics such as the American Revolution, African American history, women's history, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. While the program is administered by the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, most markers are proposed by local organizations that serve as a marker's official sponsor, paying its cost and assuming responsibility for its upkeep. In that sense, this inventory is a record not just of places and subjects that the state has deemed worthy of acknowledgment, but of those that South Carolinians themselves have worked to enshrine.
