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“B” is for Bishopville

“B” is for Bishopville (Lee County; 2020 population 2,994). In 1790 Bishopville, Lee County’s seat, began as a small settlement, Singleton’s Crossroads. In the early nineteenth century the village was renamed Bishopville. The Seaboard Air Line Railroad extended its main line from McBee to Bishopville in 1887, and the town was incorporated the following year. Aside from its role as the seat of Lee County government, the town has also served as a business and cultural center throughout its existence. Two blocks of Main Street are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Opera House (ca. 1900), which originally served as the county courthouse, was later restored as a community cultural center. In 1994 Bishopville opened the South Carolina Cotton Museum, a center to preserve and present the cotton heritage of the town and Lee County.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.