History

  "U" is for the Union Daily Times, a daily evening newspaper with a circulation of 6,355, published in the city of Union. The paper claims to be the county's oldest enterprise as the successor to the weekly Unionville Journal that began publishing in 1850. The Journal later became the Times, It was a radical states' rights publication with the masthead notice: "The Constitution as our fathers gave it, or separate independence." The newspaper survived the Civil War and several name changes. In 1906 the Reverend Lewis Malone Rice purchased it and turned the weekly paper into a daily.

"P" is for Pike, John Martin [1840-1932]. Clergyman, editor, publisher. A Canadian and ordained Methodist clergyman, Pike was invited to preach at Columbia’s Washington Street Methodist Church. He moved to the state and served churches in in Lynchburg, Sumter, Summerville, and Charleston. In 1893 he became editor of a periodical, The Way of Faith.

"R" is for Rivers Bridge, Battle of [February 2-3, 1865]. On February 2, 1865, the right wing of Sherman’s army attempted to cross the Salkehatchie River at Rivers Bridge—in what is now southern Bamberg County. A strongly-entrenched Confederate Brigade, commanded by Colonel George P. Harrison, repulsed a direct Union assault down the narrow causeway that spanned the thick Salkehatchie Swamp. Other Union forces crossed the river downstream and out-flanked and attacked the Confederate defenders, forcing them to retreat.

" “W" is for Wofford College. A four-year liberal arts college in Spartanburg, Wofford was founded with a bequest from the Methodist minister and Spartanburg native Benjamin Wofford. The General Assembly granted a charter in 1851 and the then all-male college opened in 1854. In the late 19th century Wofford played Furman in the first intercollegiate football game in South Carolina, allowed fraternities on campus, and its faculty participated in the founding of the Association of Southern Colleges and Secondary Schools.

"B" is for Blenheim Ginger Ale. Blenheim ginger ale originated in the Marlboro County town of Blenheim. In the 1890s Dr. C.R. May began adding Jamaican ginger to mineral water gathered from a local artesian spring and prescribing the concoction as a digestive aid. He later joined forces with A.J. Matheson to bottle the nonalcoholic beverage. Though the company developed different flavor combinations over the years—the spicy, ginger-flavored soft drink known as Old Number Three has remained the primary product.