Aiken County, S.C.
Sandhills, Thoroughbreds, & Cotton Mills
African American Research
The Center for African American History, Art, & Culture is located on York street in the city of Aiken.
Pine Lawn Memorial Gardens, formerly known as the Aiken Colored Cemetery, is one of the oldest known African American oldest cemeteries in Aiken County having been established in 1852. You can find more information about this cemetery at:
During the Reconstruction Era, five African American men were instrumental in the forming of Aiken County:
- Prince R. Rivers - 1880 Federal Census Aiken Co. - born into slavery in Beaufort County in 1824 - 1861 ran away and eventually joined the Union Army.
- Charles D. Hayne - 1880 Federal Census, Aiken Co. - a freeman who had served in the Confederate Army and was also Aiken’s postmaster
- Samual J. Lee - unable to find on Aiken County census records, a freeman who had served in the Confederate Army and the first black man admitted to the S.C. Bar.
- Gloster H. Holland - very little information is known about him - 1870 Federal Census Barnwell County.
- William B. Jones - very little information is known about him - death certificate that might be him.
Photos of Rivers, Hayne, and Lee are in the link Aiken Standard newspaper article. Ancestry family pages also has photos. Linked images above are very large files extracted from US Federal Census Records and archived SC death certificates.
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