"D" is for Darlington County [561 square miles; population 67,394]. Darlington County was crated in 1785 out of the southern one-third of the Cheraws Judicial District. Over the years it lost portions of its territory to Florence and Lee counties. The first European settlers in the area were Welsh Baptists from Pennsylvania who took up land near Society Hill in what was called the Welsh Neck.
The county is home to agricultural and industrial pioneering efforts centered in Hartsville with the Coker family and their various enterprises, including Coker Pedigreed Seed Company and SONOCO. A nuclear power station on Black creek near Hartsville helped stimulate industrial expansion in the latter decades of the 20th century. Darlington County is perhaps best known today as the home of the Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics and for its famous raceway.