County Past
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Dorchester County, South Carolina

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
11historic places
—earliest paper
1897formed
161,540pop. 2020
47cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 11 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1969; 1 is also National Historic Landmark. Most listings are in or near St. George, Summerville, Ridgeville.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for South Carolina is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Dorchester titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

5 of 11 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

11 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Appleby's Methodist ChurchSt. GeorgeBuilding1978
Carroll PlaceSt. GeorgeBuilding1974
Cypress Methodist Camp GroundRidgevilleBuilding1978
Indian Fields Methodist CampgroundSt. GeorgeDistrict1973
Middleton Place NHLSummervilleDistrict1971
Newington PlantationStallsvilleSite1974
Old DorchesterSummervilleSite1969
Old White Meeting House Ruins and CemeterySummervilleSite2005
St. George Rosenwald SchoolSt. GeorgeBuilding2018
St. Paul Camp GroundHarleyvilleDistrict1998
Summerville Historic DistrictSummervilleDistrict1976

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Dorchester was formed in 1897 (1897-02-25) from Berkeley, Colleton.

DORCHESTER created from BERKELEY and COLLETON.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Dorchester County population from 1900 to 2020 (Census historical series).

162k89k16k19001920196020002020
19001920194019501960198020002020
16,29419,45919,92822,60124,38358,76196,413161,540

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

47 cemeteries and 7 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 47 of 47 listed
NameLatLon
Appleby Cemetery33.1371-80.65148
Beech Hill Cemetery32.97155-80.36732
Bethel Cemetery33.12849-80.54982
Bethel Cemetery33.20766-80.65704
Beulah Cemetery33.16043-80.71287
Boone Hill Cemetery32.99822-80.21676
Calvary Cemetery33.15516-80.46843
Cooke Cemetery32.94961-80.19565
Cummings Chapel Cemetery33.07377-80.35954
Cypress Cemetery33.10211-80.29176
Dorchester Cemetery33.1546-80.38732
Dukes Cemetery33.17405-80.58815
Duncan Chapel Cemetery33.29488-80.56176
Givhans Ferry Cemetery33.031-80.38954
Good Hope Cemetery33.20533-80.59214
Hagerman Cemetery33.13682-80.67371
Harleyville Cemetery33.20071-80.45176
Harper Cemetery33.21182-80.53759
Heaton Cemetery33.17154-80.66815
Indian Ferry Cemetery33.24738-80.53148
Jedburg Cemetery33.05933-80.24176
Johnson Cemetery33.04294-80.38454
Limestone Cemetery33.14738-80.36482
Magnolia Cemetery32.98822-80.30704
Magnolia Cemetery33.19821-80.64787
Middleton Place32.90017-80.13759
Moore Cemetery33.23404-80.50509
Mount Zion Cemetery33.22349-80.44593
Muckenfuss Cemetery33.04655-80.38982
Murray Cemetery33.03322-80.24537
Murray Cemetery33.09627-80.56204
Proctor Cemetery33.12988-80.56065
Reeves Cemetery32.89628-80.38482
Rosom Hill Cemetery32.94211-80.29148
Rumph Cemetery33.08405-80.48149
Saint George Cemetery33.18571-80.57565
Saint James Cemetery33.19738-80.5626
Saint Marks Cemetery33.1196-80.54621
Salters Cemetery32.96489-80.19454
Seigler Cemetery33.11877-80.57704
Shepherd Grove Cemetery32.9235-80.37149
Summerville Cemetery32.99905-80.21537
Utsey Cemetery33.10044-80.59371
Wallace Cemetery33.09849-80.57815
Walters Cemetery33.1521-80.57371
Westbury Cemetery33.12127-80.59121
Whitestone Cemetery33.16654-80.66926
Historical populated places — 7 of 7
NameLatLon
Cattle Creek33.20572-80.72204
Cow Tail33.15211-80.60815
Dorchester32.95017-80.1712
Inabinetts33.11044-80.34287
Laurence33.06378-80.25621
Waringville32.93517-80.2776
Winwright32.88184-80.28788

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Dorchester County, South Carolina

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.