gcls_WFP_486
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Petersburg--Vienna--Dresden, S.C.
We are indebted to Mr. David Kohn, Sr., for the rock from old Vienna, S. C. The historical sketch was kindly prepared for us by Mr. John S. Taylor, of Greenville, who is well informed on South Carolina history.
"Between 1800 and 1830 there arose upon the banks of the Savannah River in Abbeville County and on the opposite Georgia shores three towns, which reaching a high state of commerical advantage, flourished for awhile and then ceasing to exist, left no trace of their former opulance, save here and there a pile of brick to mark the site of a fallen chimney or a crumbling wall.
At that time the flat-boat trade flourished on the Savanna River, these boats as the name indicates were of flat-bottom construction, some of them being upward of fifty feet in length and capable of carrying large cargoes of baled cotton. Loaded with cotton and other farm products and manned by negro crews, skilled in somewhat difficult navigation of this river, the products were taken to Hamberg where they were sold, and then loading with flour, shoes, dry goods and other similar stores, they made the trip up the Savannah.
Tradition informs us that about 1830, these towns had reached a considerable size. It is said that Petersburg had more than thirty houses and some eight or ten stores, doing a successful mercantile business. The development of the railroads in South Carolina and Georgia, and the failure of the river to compete with this modern mode of transportation deprived these towns of their chief livlhood, viz, the river trade, and they dwindled to final oblivion. How unfortunate it is that so little has been written about these places!
How much romance, charm and mystery lingers about these forgotten cities of the Savannah Valley!"
[Color image of the South Carolina state flag]
THE FLAG OF SOUTH CAROLINA
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