Baptists from the Welsh Neck Church came to Bennettsville in 1832, followed by Methodists in 1834 and Presbyterians in 1855. It was replaced in 1852 by a twin-towered structure that survived occupation by Union troops in March 1865. A Robert Mills–designed courthouse opened in 1824. A third site near the creek became the county seat of Bennettsville in 1819. Marlboro County’s first courthouse stood at Gardner’s Bluff on the Pee Dee but later moved slightly inland to the northern bank of Crooked Creek at Carlisle. Another skirmish occurred near Cashua Baptist Church in April 1781.

Colonel Abel Kolb’s tomb commemorating his murder by Tories is situated in Marlboro, as is the site of the Battle of Hunt’s Bluff, where patriots captured a barge filled with ill British troops en route to Georgetown. Near the modern town of Wallace, General Nathanael Greene established his “Camp of Repose,” where he assumed command of the Continental army in the South in December 1780. At Pegues Place plantation near the North Carolina border, a cartel for a prisoner exchange was signed on May 3, 1781. David’s Society added an academy to the Welsh Neck community.ĭuring the Revolutionary War inhabitants divided among patriots and Tories. English, Scots-Irish, and French settlers arrived soon thereafter. Here, the first Baptist church in the backcountry, Welsh Neck Baptist Church, was established in 1738. During the 1730s the British government encouraged settlement along the Pee Dee by enticing Welsh families from Pennsylvania with land grants, tools, and seeds. The Cheraw Indians occupied the region before European settlers arrived. Retaining the same general dimensions throughout its existence, Marlboro County is bounded by the Great Pee Dee River on the west, North Carolina on the north and northeast, and Dillon County on the southeast. Marlboro County was formed on March 12, 1785, and named for John Churchill, first duke of Marlborough. The South Carolina Governor's School of Math and Science, one of only 12 residential high schools in the nation dedicated to advanced study in STEM fields, is also within a 30-minute drive.Īn energetic workforce with a unionization rate of only 2.0%, pro-business environment, and small-town charm create a community where business and people prosper.(480 sq.

Nearby Florence-Darlington Technical College and Northeastern Technical College, part of the South Carolina Technical College System, work with new and expanding industries to provide a well-trained workforce. Seven colleges and universities are in close proximity to the county. Marlboro County and the surrounding areas offer a variety of public and private, colleges, academies and universities. The county has easy access to I-95, a county owned rail system serving existing industry, and is a half hour from Inland Port Dillon. Located on the border of South Carolina and North Carolina, Marlboro County is centrally located within two hours of Charlotte, Raleigh, and Wilmington, NC and 90 minutes from Myrtle Beach. Marlboro County sits in the middle of the powerful business sector of the southeastern United States, with impressive infrastructure connecting this rural southern area to global business for pennies on the dollar.

Marlboro county