First Families of Marlboro County South Carolina The County of Marlboro was established on March 2, 1785 and originally called Marlboro District. It was named for John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, whose Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, was a gift to him from Queen Anne. Marlboro District was carved from Cheraw District. Later Marlboro, Chesterfield, and Darlington Districts became Counties. When Marlboro District was created, legislation required that each district select a site and erect a courthouse and jail. The site chosen for Marlboro's first courthouse was on the banks of the Great Pee Dee River near Gardner's Bluff. A few years later, it was moved a short distance inland and near the north bank of Crooked Creek where it crossed the old River Road. The county's first town named either Carlisle or Winnfieldville was developed. Its presence is no longer noticeable except for a granite marker denoting the location of the first courthouse as being at that location. As the county's population grew away from the river, settlers requested that a more central location for the courthouse and jail be secured. In December of 1819, the S.C. General Assembly authorized the removal of the courthouse from the river to a more central location along the old stagecoach road. This was on a high bluff above Crooked Creek. That location was the beginning of our current county seat, Bennettsville. During the mid-19th Century, communities throughout the county began around churches, principal roads, and at the county's most famous mineral springs, Blenheim. Planters and farmers continued to find Marlboro County's loamy soils excellent for farming. As the Civil War was waning, Marlboro County was host to every unit of General William T. Sherman's Union Army when it left Cheraw, crossed the Great Pee Dee River, and traveled through this county in route to its final engagement in North Carolina. Bennettsville was captured March 6, 1865, by Major General Frank P. Blair, commanding general of the Union Army's 17th Corps. While here, General Blair used the historic Jennings-Brown House as his headquarters. Today, this home is part of the Marlboro County Historical Museum complex. Although some frame buildings, warehouses, and a few downtown structures were burned, Marlboro County's courthouse was spared, giving this county one of the state's oldest complete set of county records. The Welsh in the Carolinas in the 18th Century SOURCE: http://www.marlborocounty.sc.gov/History/Pages/index.aspx