Below has been provided by F.A. ("Skip") Clarkson, Chapin, S.C., and includes a map, which can be downloaded using the link at the bottom of this post.

Note: The numbers shown below correspond to locations on a South Carolina map, also included in the download. Also note that the Douglas name was originally spelled "Douglass".

History of Fairfield County

The origin of the name Fairfield is not known, but local legend attributes it to a remark by Lord Cornwallis about the "fair fields" of the area. The county was formed in 1785 as a part of Camden District. The town of Winnsboro, which was settled around 1755, is the county seat.

Fairfield County lies between the upcountry and the low-country areas of the state, and it was settled both by Scotch-Irish immigrants from colonies to the north and by English and French Huguenot planters from the lowcountry.

Thanks to Patricia Swearingen (Minton), 1917 Draft cards are attached for Dr. James Edgar Douglass, Dr. Robert T. Douglass, Harold Eugene Douglass, and Thomas J. Douglass.

The files below are PDF document downloads. You may download them and print them out on your printer if you wish to have a paper copy of them.

Source: Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce

In 1785, the General Assembly of South Carolina authorized the establishment of a public market in the town of Winnsborough, Corner and Washington Streets. This market house was a square, wooden building, painted yellow, and was topped with a belfry.

Some years later, probably between 1820 and 1830, this market house was sold to Robert Cathcart for a goodly sum, Mr. Cathcart at the same time, donating to the town his old duck-pond, a small piece of land in the middle of Washington Street, as a site for a new market house. The town council accepted the land and petitioned the legislature in due time for authority to erect the new market-house and town clock. The legislature gave this authority, "Provided the building be no more than 30 feet in width." So the erection of our town clock was begun soon after this, probably in 1822.
The works for the new clock were ordered by Colonel William McCreight who was Intendent of the town in 1837, from Alsace, France. They were imported to Charleston by sailboat, and hauled to Winnsboro in wagons.

"The Watkins Man" visited many of our ancestors.