A HISTORY OF FLORENCE, CITY AND COUNTY, AND OF PORTIONS OF THE PEE DEE VALLEY, SOUTH CAROLINA

Orig. completed Florence SC 1965. Published 2016.. Print on Demand Edition 2016. xxii, 576 pp.

This book was written and completed in 1965 by local attorney Henry E. Davis and the manuscript given to the Florence Public Library. Over the next fifty years it remained in manuscript form in the library and was much used by persons researching the history of Florence city and county. Many times, publication in book form was considered but only now has this become a reality. The book includes information on: Land Records, Division of the Plantations, Railroads, Hamlet to Town to City, County Formation and Government, Highways, Municipal Affairs, Schools, Industries, Military History, Notables of Florence, and Modern Florence City and county. Davis was a successful attorney in Florence for over sixty years. His clients were principally large corporations. In the course of that practice, he abstracted the basic titles to almost all the real property in the City of Florence acquiring considerable information on the history of those properties. Additionally, Davis served as division counsel for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad for approximately twenty years. He represented the railroad in court cases in five South Carolina counties gaining invaluable knowledge which was helpful with this history. Davis was city attorney for Florence for five years and attorney for the Florence public schools for twenty-three years. He represented Florence County in the building of the first bridges across the Great Pee Dee River. He attempted to base this text on either records and documents or his personal knowledge. His principal sources were the public offices of Florence and Darlington counties, state and federal court records, official maps of the city and county, historical books and pamphlets, newspapers, and miscellaneous documents. Davis drew on his own experience and knowledge for chapters on industry. He had represented many of the leading lumber corporations of the state. His ancestors were turpentine operators as early as 1850. Land on which he was raised became a large cotton plantation. A lifelong hunter, he developed a great reputation as a sportsman and became an expert on rifles and shotguns and turkey hunting. That outdoor experiece gave him significant knowledge of the terrain of the Great Pee Dee Swamp and lands adjoining it from Black Creek to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.