Calhoun County History

Our beautiful region in the heart of the Palmetto State saw the first tract of land granted in the Province of South Carolina to George Sterling in 1704. By 1735, groups of German and Swiss settlers began arriving.

St. Matthews Parish was established between 1765 and 1768, and in 1775 its priest, Reverend Paul Turquand, opened South Carolina’s Revolutionary Provincial Congress with a sermon. Our County Seat was first known as Lewisville, after Colonel Lewis, a large landowner of the area. The name was changed to St. Matthew’s in 1876. When Calhoun County was established in 1908, and the city name was registered, the apostrophe was left out, so the town officially became “St. Matthews”. The county was named for the much-respected Senator, Vice President and Secretary of State and War, John C. Calhoun.

This area saw considerable activity during the Revolutionary War. In 1781, during the Battle of Fort Motte, Mrs. Rebecca Motte assisted General Marion and Colonel Lee in burning the British out of her own mansion. She obtained for the Continental troops Indian bows and arrows that had been given to her brother, Miles Brewton, and gave permission to Lee’s men to make fire-arrows to torch the structure. She declared that she was “gratified with the opportunity of contributing to the good of her country, and should view the approaching scene with delight”.

The beginning of more than two centuries of the essential enterprise of the state came in 1794 when Colonel Thomas planted one of South Carolina’s first commercial cotton crops on his Belleville Plantation. Cotton remains vitally important to our economy today.

Constructed by hand labor in 1841, the great railroad which runs through the center of St. Matthews brought this area into greater commercial and cultural contact with the rest of the state and the entire South.

Many men of the county fought for the Confederacy. Many gave their lives, others their health and wholeness, while all those who came home, returned to a vastly different land, with the difficult times of Reconstruction ahead. The War Between the States claimed the lives of two of the county’s most prestigious men, Lawrence M. Keitt and Olin M. Dantzler, who were influential in the Secessionist movement.

Calhoun County is rich with historical legacy, cultural, educational, and recreational facilities. Today, with flourishing industries and an exceptional environment for livestock and agriculture, our region remains a vital, growing part of the very heart of South Carolina.