From Kingsbury to Stoneboro – Rambling in Lancaster County

One of the ghost towns I’ve wanted to explore is Kingsbury, in Lancaster County, South Carolina.  Located on the Catawba River, Kingsbury started out as a ferry town.  It appears on the 1825 Lancaster District Map in Robert Mills’s Atlas of South Carolina.

In the late 1700s Andrew McIlwaine chartered a ferry across the Catawba just below the Great Falls area, where Cedar Creek enters the river.  Kingsbury purchased the rights to the ferry from McIlwaine in 1811, along with a large plot of land on either side of Cedar Creek.

According to an article in The Chester News, Kingsbury built a large stone house at the site of his ferry.  One correction here….Despite what this article says, Kingsbury did NOT build the stone house.  The stone house was purpose built as a lock keeper’s house at Rocky Mount.  In 1970 it was moved and rebuilt on the other side of the river and is now part of Landsford Canal State Park.  The article says…

In the early years of the last century our ferry was known as Kingsbury’s Ferry, from the owner and operator, John Kingsburg.  His residence was the old rock house at  the eastern end of the ferry.  It is told of him that he kept his coffin under his bed for some years before his death.  He died in 1820, and a costly monument marks his grave on the brow of the hill above the house.

There’s just one problem.  The town of Kingsbury never existed.

Yes, John Kingsbury and his ferry were real.  Kingsbury does have an elaborate grave overlooking the Catawba.  Kingsbury’s daughter went on to be a famous opera singer.  Some of Kingsbury’s family DID live in the lock keeper’s house at Rocky Mount Canal, which was across from the mythical town of Kingsbury.

Kingsbury, his ferry, and family were real enough, but not the town.

The late historian Louise Pettus recounted research done by Mark Grier on the SC Genweb site…

Mark Grier, through use of the plats that accompany the various deeds, is able to show that on none of them is there any indication of a village (towns would have to be state-franchised, and none by the name of Kingsberry was ever franchised).

Grier does point out, though there is no evidence of such a village, it would have been an excellent site for one. At the same spot that Mills Atlas places Kingsberry, Barkley’s 643-acre plat shows two roads, one marked “Road to Camden” and the other “to Lancaster Village.” On the opposite side of the river, roads led to Winnsboro and Chesterville. All would have benefitted from the Charleston market.

J. Boykin was the map surveyor who included Kingsbury in the Mills Atlas.  Why he decided to put a town there is unknown.  I’ve found a couple of later maps that also included it as a town. I know Grier has done much more thorough research than my meager sifting, but from what I’ve seen the name Kingsbury doesn’t appear in the South Carolina Archives as a place name, even when I’ve included alternate spellings.  Neither does the name appear in the US Geonames records.  Kingsbury Cemetery does appear in both Geonames and on Find-a-Grave.

The Mills Atlas is known for its accuracy, so it seems a bit weird that this non-existent town appears on it.  I’ve used the atlas for years to locate ghost towns in South Carolina.  To my knowledge no other state has as comprehensive an atlas for this early in the country’s history.  It’s disconcerting that there is an error of this magnitude.

I figured this needed some ground-truthing. I hadn’t had a chance to get out and explore, so now was the time to do it. My plan was to find a way over to the Kingsbury Cemetery and see if I could find it. I also had a few places marked in Lancaster County that wanted to visit, including the town of Lancaster, itself. To my knowledge, I had only been there once.

I drove pretty much straight over to Great Falls. I paused for a bit to look at the new kayak run on the Catawba. I’d love to run it sometime, but I’d want to go with someone who has done it before.

I drove on down to the Cedar Creek landing. It’s down below the Rocky Creek Hydro Station. I’d paddled the reservoir above several times, launching from Stumpy Pond Landing. I’d like to launch down below from Cedar Creek, but I wasn’t prepared for that today.

The landing itself was nice, but trashy. It’s a popular fishing spot, and that always seems to attract folks that just leave their trash about. There were several burn rings for campfires, and a group of young guys had two tents set up nearby.

The landing is actually at the upper reaches of Lake Wateree. This made me wonder where the Catawba ends and the Wateree begins. Now, the Catawba ends at this dam, and the Wateree starts below the lake, but what was the situation before the lake was built? I checked Mills’ Atlas and saw Catawba through Lancaster District, but Wateree through Kershaw District for the same river.

It wasn’t until I checked the Fairfield District map that I discovered the truth. This map shows both names. The river is called Catawba until its confluence with Wateree Creek, then the river takes on the name Wateree River. Wateree Creek now enters Lake Wateree, so I guess technically Cedar Creek Landing is now where the Catawba ends and the Wateree begins.

Kingsbury Ferry is described as crossing the Catawba, but that was before the lake. The ferry would have been just downstream from where I was standing and the mythical Kingsbury right at this point, across the creek. I knew that the very real Kingsbury cemetery was a short hike up a hill from this point, but I could find no way to get across the creek without a swim or wading. I wasn’t ready for that today. It was time to find a land approach.

The east bank of Lake Wateree from Cedar Creek down to Singleton Creek is all part of the Liberty Hill Wildlife Management Area.

I had spotted what appeared to be some dirt roads leading down to the Kingsbury cemetery. I headed back to Cedar Creek Road and found the road leading into the WMA. When I got to the turn off for the cemetery, the road was deeply rutted and muddy. I trust the all-wheel drive on my Subaru, but not that much. My last option for finding the cemetery is to bring a boat and launch from Cedar Creek, then access it from the lake. That will have to be a future trip.

I knew that this road, Wildlife Road, would eventually come out at the community of Liberty Hill, so I decided just to follow it and enjoy the WMA. The road was dry, but very steep and tricky in places. I never doubted that I’d make it, but it was a long, LONG road and seemed to go on forever.

Eventually the road ended. It was one of the longest, most remote dirt roads I’d been on in South Carolina. The road came out on Cedar Creek Road right next to the Liberty Hill Post Office.

I drove over to the Liberty Hill Presbyterian Church and would have explored the grounds and cemetery a bit more, but there were folks doing clean-up and I didn’t want to get in their way.

Founded in 1851, the current structure was built in 1880 and features a rather unique bell tower. The ropes to ring the bell are exposed outside of the church. Here’s a photo I took on a visit in 2015.

The Liberty Hill Store sits across from Peas Ferry Road. That road is now a dead end, but has a beautiful canopy of live oaks.

Just up the road from Liberty Hill I found another fire tower. I’ve stopped documenting these since so many are now being dismantled. It was good to spot one in fairly good shape. I’d love to find a way to climb one of these someday.

From here I turned onto Stoneboro Road. My plan was to head into Lancaster and grab lunch. I was completely unaware of what I’d find along the way. There was some gorgeous landscape and beautiful farms. I came to one obviously very old house, and found out later that this was the Russell-Heath House, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The columns were made of single pieces of granite and the lower part of the chimneys were made of similar granite blocks. There were also bits of granite placed around the region. It reminded me a bit of the area around Elberton, Georgia, where granite is used for almost all signage.

I came to a crossroads and the main road took a turn to the left. At the crossroads was another old building. It looked like it might have been a school or a store.

I found some conflicting information about this building. Historian Andrea Steen wrote the following in her 1993 book about Stoneboro:

In 1916 the inhabitants of Stoneboro were planning a new school….The new school building was two stories with an auditorium….

The Stoneboro School was discontinued in 1935. When the country store at the Stoneboro Crossroads burned in 1943, the old school building was moved to the crossroads to be used as a store. It stands on that site today.

I really think the book is mistaken. This building doesn’t match Steen’s description at all. Steen goes on to mention the Stoneboro Colored School. I found a picture of that in SC Archives. It looks similar, but still doesn’t exactly match. It is possible that a different old school building was moved to the location.

Diagonally across from this building, whatever it was, there was an engraved granite marker, placed by the aforementioned Andrea Steen. The marker described the history of the area.

While I was reading the marker a Terminix truck pulled up to the stop sign and the woman who was driving rolled down her window. She asked if I was interested in the area and I said that I was. She told me a bit about the Russell-Heath house, but didn’t have any additional information about the school/store across the street. She said that I should get a copy of Steen’s book.

I didn’t get the woman’s name, but I thanked her for the info and continued on my way, with the firm conviction that Stoneboro needed to be added to my list of ghost towns. As I drove on I passed even more stunning farmland. There were large boulders scattered throughout the fields, and I could see how the area got its name. I passed by a famous landmark without realizing what it was. Even so, Anvil Rock caught my attention, so I paused for a minute for a photo.

If I’d known, I would have taken more time and explored it further.

I made it to the town of Heath Springs. Many, many years ago my brother-in-law was pastor of the Baptist church here. I think I visited it once, but had no memory of it. It was an interesting little town, with a restored railroad depot and an old restored gas station.

From Heath Springs I drove on over to Lancaster. Lancaster seemed like a nice town. I drove down the main street looking for a possible place for lunch. At the north end of town I realized I was just a few miles from Andrew Jackson State Park and another stamp in my challenge book. I snagged the stamp, and saw that I was close to the community of Van Wyck, so I headed over there.

Van Wyck is a fascinated little community with large, imposing houses, a couple of historic churches, and the remains of a town. It looked like one of the buildings had been remodeled, and behind it was a brew pub. I guess I can’t really add it to my list of ghost towns.

There was lots of activity, so I didn’t stop at Van Wyck Presbyterian Church for a photo, but here’s one from when Alan Russell and I came through the area in 2020.

It was getting on past time for lunch. An interesting restaurant not far away had caught my attention. I made my way over to the Jerusalen [sic] Honduras Restaurant.

On my quick glance I had seen the word “Jerusalem” and though it would be a Middle Eastern restaurant, completely missing the spelling and the “Honduras” part. When I walked in the place was empty except for a woman behind the bar and three Honduran men seat at the bar chatting with her. I felt a bit… awkward. The woman didn’t speak English, and seemed confused as to why I was there. Fortunately, a friendly young waiter came out and seated me.

There were items on the menu I recognized, plus some unfamiliar dishes. I decided to try something new, so I ordered pupusas with chicken and cheese.

I never got back to explore Lancaster as I’d wanted. I’ll have to head back sometime and not get so distracted along the way. But, I had one last stop before heading home. I realized that I didn’t have a stamp for Landsford Canal in my book, despite kayaking through the area several times. This time I wouldn’t be kayaking, but getting the stamp and looking for the old Lock Keepers House.

I got my stamp and found the old stone house. It seemed smaller than the photos of it I’d seen. This was the house that John Kingsbury had supposedly built at the mythical town, but, as I found it, it was built later at the Rocky Mount Canal and Kingsbury descendants had lived in it. It was moved to this location in 1970. Even so, I wanted to see it since it was part of the Kingsbury mythos.

From Landsford Canal I headed on back home. Over the next several days I did find additional information about the places I’d visited. I found Steen’s book in the South Carolina Room of the Greenville Library, and it provided lots of information, enough to make me realize that it is a place of interest for a podcast episode. The name comes from a quarry located in the area, which explains the granite fixtures in the area. It’s probably where the stone from the Lock Keeper’s House came from.

Speaking of the Lock Keeper’s House, I found some fascinating information about how it was moved. Each stone was numbered so that it could be put back in the proper place.

So, I finished up the trip with ideas for further exploration. I really want to kayak from Cedar Creek on down the east side of Lake Wateree, and maybe try to find Kingsbury’s grave. From the photos I’ve seen, it looks like the family cemetery was made from Stonesboro granite. As for Stonesboro itself, I’m already working on a script for a future episode of Carolina Ghost Towns.