In 1785, the General Assembly of South Carolina authorized the establishment of a public market in the town of Winnsborough, Corner and Washington Streets. This market house was a square, wooden building, painted yellow, and was topped with a belfry.
Some years later, probably between 1820 and 1830, this market house was sold to Robert Cathcart for a goodly sum, Mr. Cathcart at the same time, donating to the town his old duck-pond, a small piece of land in the middle of Washington Street, as a site for a new market house. The town council accepted the land and petitioned the legislature in due time for authority to erect the new market-house and town clock. The legislature gave this authority, "Provided the building be no more than 30 feet in width." So the erection of our town clock was begun soon after this probably in 1822.
The works for the new clock were ordered by Colonel William McCreight who was Intendent of the town in 1837, from Alsace, France. They were imported to Charleston by sailboat, and hauled to Winnsboro in wagons. Varied and interesting if not authentic are the reports of the journey from Charleston. One old African American Adam Blake (who is remembered by residents today) declared that it took 50 wagons to do the hauling! This statement is inconsistent with the belief of some familiar with local history that the works are wooden.
Whether of wood, or of metal, the works are undoubtedly superior, for the clock has run continuously for 100 years, the longest continuously running clock in the United States.
The town clock bell was French made also, and is said to have had silver in its composition. Its tone, we are told, was beautiful and silvery. This bell did good service until 1895; during a fire that year two young men were ringing it so vigorously that it cracked and was sent to Philadelphia to J. McShane for repairs. When after some delay it was returned and sounded for the first time, the tone was so different from the old tone that doubt was expressed immediately as to its being the original bell.
In 1875 it was found necessary to repair the clock tower, and the present tower was erected. The carpentry work was done by a African American carpenter of Winnsboro, John Smart.
The old public market occupied the ground floor of the town clock and had a bell of its own. Its tone was not so silvery as that of the clock, but was a very welcome one when its ringing pro-claimed to the villagers that fresh meat was to be had at the market. (It is interesting to learn that this was an old custom, not particular to Winnsboro.) One who was a visitor to the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia, in a description of the old market house there, writes of the recorded ringing of the bell when a boat arrived up the river bringing good things to eat from England and the tropics. When the curfew law prevailed the old market bell tolled the curfew at 9 o'clock every evening. The first floor is now used as meeting space for the Town's various organizations, as a voting location, and as the Artists' Market on weekends. Also housed in the ground-level is Arts & Things, a boutique offering original art, jewelry and gifts. The second floor of the Town Clock is home to the Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce.
South Carolina Railroad Museum
110 Industrial Boulevard, Winnsboro SC 29180
www.scrm.org
Phone: 803.635.4242 or 1.800.968.5909 (toll free)
A PLACE FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY ... How would you like to take your children or grandchildren for a ride on a real passenger train, visit a red caboose or an authentic dining car or even a Pullman car that once ferried earlier generations across the country? YOU CAN! Come spend an afternoon at the South Carolina Railroad Museum. There's something for everyone! Come see freight cars, passenger cars and even a real steam engine on display. And best of all, you can ride the train! We're just minutes from the Interstate, so come join in the fun at the South Carolina Railroad Museum, the official railroad museum of the state! ALL ABOARD!!!
231 South Congress Street, P.O. Box 6, Winnsboro SC 29180
Phone: 803.635.9811
Monday Closed
Tuesday-Friday 1:30pm-4:30pm
Saturday 10:30am-3:00pm
Wednesday 10:30 am - 12:30 pm, closed from 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm, and reopens from 1:30pm - 4:30pm.
The Fairfield County Museum is housed in an elegantly simple Federal style house built for Richard Cathcart in the early 19th century. A three-story brick structure, the house retains its original heart pine floors and hand-carved woodwork.
In 1852, artist George Ladd and his wife Catherine acquired the building to operate a girls' school. Enrollment reached 100 young ladies before the school was forced to close by the War Between the States. Priscilla Ketchin and her family made their home here from the l870's until Mrs. Ketchin's death in 1911. Subsequently, the building became rental property, a public school, a hotel and a boarding house.
In 1969, the property was deeded to Fairfield County to be restored. Restoration was completed in 1974 under the auspices of the Fairfield County Historical Commission and Fairfield County Historical Society, using government and private funds. The landmark Cathcart-Ketchin building. opened its doors on March 15, 1976, as the Fairfield County Museum.
The main floor of the museum is maintained as an historic house with antique furnishings in period rooms. Other floors exhibit collections related to Fairfield County history. Museum collections include 19th century clothing and quilts, Victorian accessories, toys, Indian and military artifacts, tools, kitchen and sewing implements, banking and commerce displays.
Genealogy is an important museum activity. Volunteers maintain an extensive library of wills, estate papers on microfilm, cemetery records, histories of area families and land grant information. Visitors and letters come from across the United States seeking information. The genealogy staff conducts constant correspondence to satisfy these inquiries. The genealogy staff is at the museum on Wednesdays and is available on call.
Traditional events at the museum include community and school art exhibitions and the Candlelight Open House in December. Special exhibitions fill out the museum calendar each year.
Pine Tree Playhouse
230 South Congress Street
Winnsboro SC 29180
Phone: 803.635.6847
www.pinetreeplayhouse.com
Formerly known as Fortune Woods, this garden's "ponds" and resident ducks offer a pleasant contrast to other historic sites. The land that the garden occupies was owned by Captain John Buchanan who gave it to his slave, Pompey Fortune. This was done to show his appreciation for Pompey's accompanying General Lafayette as a body servant during the Revolutionary War.
This grade school and normal institute for African Americans was founded in 1869 by Reverend Willard Richardson (a white minister from Delaware) of the Northern Presbyterian Church. Richardson, the school's first principal, intended for the institute to be a place to prepare African-American men for the ministry. By 1880, however, one hundred of its students were studying to be teachers and only twenty to enter the ministry. Despite the fact that the Fairfield Institute was thought of as a distinguished preparatory school, it suffered severe financial problems. In 1888 the school closed its doors and merged with Brainerd Institute in Chester. The original site of Fairfield Institute is located one block west of this marker.
Camp Welfare
County Road 234
This is one of the two known such campgrounds in the Olde English District and one of only a handful that remain in the state. Founded in 1878, and situated on eleven acres of land in rural Winnsboro, it includes Camp Welfare African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Zion Church, its cemetery, the open-air arbor and many small cinder block or wood houses known as tents. The annual religious and fellowship services or "camp meetings", held in August, are well-attended. The church, like many in the South, was started after the Civil War as a brush arbor church. Please contact before visiting: Mr. Rodgers Hall, Chairman of the Board, c/o: Mr. Willie Brown, Route 2, Box 70, Winnsboro SC 29180.
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