Buy or make a cake and place candles on it.
Today is the 150th anniversary of Aiken County.
On March 10, 1871, the Governor of South Carolina, Robert K. Scott, signed the legislative act that authorized its creation.
The date is easy to identify.
Much more difficult to determine, however, is the person or persons who should receive credit for the foundation of Aiken County.
“It’s a complicated story because it was a decades-long process,” said Lauren Virgo, executive director of the Aiken County Historical Museum. “There have been a number of men involved in this over the decades, all with their own reasons why they wanted to found Aiken County.”
In January 2020, Virgo began doing research on the county’s early history and events that had previously occurred.
“I had help,” she said. “I have a great team of volunteers and employees who have been working with me, traveling to Columbia and putting it all together. It was definitely a team effort. “
One of the resources was Isabelle Vandervelde’s book, “Aiken County: the only county in South Carolina founded during the reconstruction”.
It contains a lot of useful and interesting information, but the statement by the title of the book can be contested because Oconee County was established during the same post-Civil War period, from 1865 to 1877.
“When Isabelle was doing all of her work at that time, there was really no website for archival material for the state of South Carolina and now it exists,” said Virgo. “You can go to scmemory.org, and many institutions are starting to put their records online.”
Virgo also researched chroniclingamerica.loc.gov and visited the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.
She and her colleagues studied newspapers and a variety of documents while looking for details.
Based on what they found, Virgo drew up a list with the names of nearly 30 men of racial diversity who she believes played important roles in the foundation of Aiken County.
If she had to choose just one, said Virgo, it would be Charles D. Hayne.
He was born a free-colored man in Charleston. Later, he became a tailor and later a politician.
Hayne was a state representative for Barnwell County when he “introduced” the bill that led to the foundation of Aiken County during the 1870-1871 legislative session.
But “one of the things suggested in Isabelle’s book was an early start in the county,” said Virgo, so she did some research.
Long before the 1870s, she discovered, residents of the current area of Aiken County were submitting petitions to the legislature requesting the creation of a new county.
According to an 1866 newspaper article, “this issue (the foundation of a new county) has been advocated with varying success since 1827.”
Virgo and his associates found two petitions. One, they believe, was written in the late 1820s or early 1830s, at a time when counties were known as districts.
“One of my volunteers examined all the names that were listed as petitioners and found the dates of death,” said Virgo. “Enough was found to confirm that (the petition) was before 1835.”
The other petition, Virgo believes, was filed later, but before the 1860s.
One reason people wanted a new district or county was the distance they needed to travel to the courts.
“If you lived close to the Hamburg area, your court was in Edgefield,” said Virgo. “If you lived in the Beech Island area, your court was in Barnwell.”
A wagon or carriage ride can take a day or more.
Others thought that a new county would increase the value of their real estate investments. And it was also believed that it would help the city of Aiken, founded in 1835, to grow and prosper.
In addition, the increase in political influence was a reason.
Over the years, several bills have tried to establish a new county, but have been introduced and killed.
Virgo doesn’t know exactly why and would like to do more research to find out.
“I have my suspicions, but I still don’t have the backing of primary sources,” she said. “The Edgefield District before the Civil War and the Barnwell District before the Civil War were very powerful financially and politically. They were powerful enough to ensure that their districts were not divided, so this is my theory of work. “
The area that is now Aiken County had some valuable assets, such as fabric factories, a railroad, the port city of Hamburg on the Savannah River and potteries.
But after the Civil War, power changed.
“People who were born into slavery or who were born free men of color now had the right to vote and political opportunities to run for government,” said Virgo. “For the first time, these men, who were deprived of their rights for so long, had a voice. In 1868, the white majority in the South Carolina legislature changed to a black majority. “
This change, in Virgo’s opinion, gave new impetus to the effort to create a new county in this part of South Carolina.
There was still opposition, but a bill introduced during the 1870-1871 legislative session prevailed.
Woodbury was proposed as a name for the new county, as was Randolph before lawmakers “decided on Aiken,” said Virgo.
The legislative act provided for a plan for the appointment of a Council of Commissioners, and members were divided into two groups, which Virgo likes to call committees.
A group was tasked with establishing the boundaries of Aiken County, made up of parts of Barnwell, Edgefield, Lexington and Orangeburg counties.
Fred Arnim was its president.
The task of the other group was to find “suitable” structures that could be used as public buildings or places where such buildings could be constructed.
Samuel J. Lee was its president.
Land and a house near the Aiken Train Depot were purchased from Graniteville Mill founder William Gregg, and the house served as the Aiken County courthouse until 1881.
In addition to Arnim and Lee, other members of the Council of Commissioners included MF Maloney, Prince R. Rivers, JL Jamison, Edward Ferguson, James N. Hayne, EJC Wood, PR Rockwell and JA Greene.
Also on the Council of Commissioners were WH Reedish, Benjamin Byas, Charles D. Hayne, John Wooley, Levi Chavis and JH Cornish.
Some of the men served on both committees.
The legislative act instructed members of the group dealing with limits to select “two competent surveyors” to assist them.
“Several of the people who have become politically powerful in the future in Aiken County came from this Council of Commissioners,” said Virgo
In October 1872, the first election was held for state legislators and local officials in Aiken County, collectively, they were ethnically diverse, based mainly on what Virgo found in the census records.
Charles D. Hayne, who was biracial, won the seat in the state Senate.
The four elected state representatives were Lee, Rivers, Gloster Holland and William B. Jones.
Rivers and Holland were black. Lee was biracial and Jones was white.
“For a long time, Jones was considered a black man (by local historians),” said Virgo. “But a descendant introduced himself last year and said, ‘My ancestor was one of the founders of Aiken County, and he was a white gentleman.'”
Virgo not only accepted the claim of the descendant as a fact. She searched for a secondary source and found it in the state legislative records of the 1930s.
There was an “article,” said Virgo, which was probably included because of the 50th anniversary of the founding of Aiken County. This written account stated that Jones was the only white member of the first legislative delegation in Aiken County.
In 1872, three county commissioners were elected: Edward P. Stoney, William Peel and Samuel B. Spencer.
Stoney was biracial and William Peel was white.
Virgo is not sure if Spencer was black or biracial.
“I need to do a little more research on it,” she said.
Other elected officials included Sheriff Hiram Jordan, probate judge Henry Sparnick, registrar Joseph Quash and auditor James Harling.
Joining them as new officers in Aiken County were treasurer Simeon Beaird, school commissioner John Gardner and coroner Francis L. Walker.
Gardner was black. Beaird was biracial. And Jordan, Sparnick and Walker were white.
Virgo’s census records listed Quash as biracial and also black in different years. She doesn’t know what Harling’s race was.
“I haven’t found him yet,” said Virgo de Harling. “I will continue down this trail.”
Virgo believes that the race of the founders is a relevant part of the history of the creation of Aiken County.
“For me, this is what is so fascinating,” she said. “Six years after the end of the Civil War, you have a group of different backgrounds and races coming together and working together to build this county. It was a time of division and pain, and I think it shows a glimmer of hope in the darkness of this country’s history. It is part of the conversation that needs to be discussed. All of these men, in varying degrees, brought something to the table. “
From a gender perspective, however, the founders of Aiken County lacked diversity.
“Women were left out of the history books during this period, although you know that women had to be involved in some way,” said Virgo. “It was very disappointing not to see any representation.”