Ellenton is a former community that was located on the border between Barnwell and Aiken counties,

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, United States. Ellenton was settled . In 1950 the town was acquired by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission as part of a site for development of the Savannah River Plant, a nuclear plant. All the residences and businesses were acquired, and two new towns, New Ellenton, South Carolina and Jackson, South Carolina, were built. The plant was between the current CSX railroad and the current SC Highway 125, Upper Three Runs Creek, and Four Mile Branch. SC Highway 125 was U.S. Highway 278 in the 1950s.

History

Early history

The settlement began with the construction of the ''Port Royal and Augusta Railroad'', which was later renamed the

Charleston and Western Carolina Railway The Charleston and Western Carolina Railway (C&WC) was formed in 1896 to operate the lines of the former Port Royal and Augusta Railway (PR&A) and the Port Royal and Western Carolina Railway (PR&WC). The PR&A and PR&WC had originally been part o ...

. It was taken over by CSX Transportation. It ran through the plantation of Robert Jefferson Dunbar. Part of his land was for the railroad right-of-way, the train station, and town. Oral tradition of the town tells that Stephen Caldwell Millet, the superintendent of the railroad construction and president of the railroad, boarded with the Dunbar family. He was so struck with the beauty of Ellen Dunbar, the nine-year-old daughter of the Dunbars, that he asked his company to name the station "Ellen's Town." In a note to the O'Berry book, the Savannah River Archeological Research Program indicates that in 1870, when this was supposed to have taken place, Mary Ellen Dunbar was twenty-two years old.

Ellenton Riot

A riot occurred in Ellenton from September 15–21, 1876. The initiation of the Ellenton riot began when a white posse attempted to serve warrants of arrest issued by an African-American Magistrate Prince Rivers for two people suspected of breaking and entering. The events escalated until two white men and 100 African-Americans were killed, despite local leaders downplaying the numbers. Perhaps the most notable fatality was that of Simon P. Coker, who served as a member of the Legislature from Barnwell.

Late 19th century to present

The town of Ellenton was incorporated in 1880. For most of its years, it was an agricultural, trading, and sawmill town. It declined through the downturn of cotton prices after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the Depression of the 1930s. By the early 1950s, Ellenton had a population of about 760, about 190 residences, about 30 commercial buildings, five churches, two schools including Ellenton High School, one cotton gin, a city hall and jail, and the railroad station. Ellenton had the first automatic telephone dialing system in South Carolina. After the bank failures in the Great Depression, Ellenton had the first cash depository in South Carolina.

Exodus

On November 28, 1950, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company announced that the Savannah River Plant would be built on about 300 sq. mi. of Aiken, Barnwell, and Allendale counties in South Carolina. The Savannah River Plant was built for the production of

plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...

and

tritium Tritium ( or , ) or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with half-life about 12 years. The nucleus of tritium (t, sometimes called a ''triton'') contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of ...

for the

H-bomb A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...

. About 6,000 people and 6,000 graves were to be relocated. This included the incorporated communities of Ellenton and Dunbarton and the unincorporated communities of Hawthorne, Meyers Mill, Robbins, and Leigh. In this relatively poor rural area, a significant fraction of those relocated were

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

farmers and sharecroppers. The government purchased or condemned their properties. Many of the residents moved themselves, and in some cases, their homes to the new town of New Ellenton, South Carolina on U.S. Highway 278, which was eight miles north, or nearby

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...

, Beech Island, Aiken, and North Augusta, South Carolina; and

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Georgi ...

. Some moved out of state. Eventually, most of what remained of the former town were the paved streets, curbs, driveways, and walkways.

Geography

Ellenton's location was approximately 33°13'15" N and 81°43'53" W on the Aiken County – Barnwell County line.

Legacy

New Ellenton was developed to replace Ellenton. An annual reunion of former Ellenton residents started in 1973 and continues today. The musical, ''I Don't Live There Anymore: The Ellenton Story,'' premiered in

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1992. It was produced at the Piccolo Spoleto held during the

Spoleto Festival USA Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of America's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due ...

in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1993. Ellenton and its fate were the basis for the account of the town of Colleton in the novel '' ''The Prince of Tides'''' by Pat Conroy.

References

*Cassels, Louise, ''The Unexpected Exodus'', University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC, 2007, . *O'Berry, Lucius Sidney, ''Ellenton, SC: My Life ... Its Death'', Brooks, Richard D. and Browder, Tonya A., eds., Savannah River Archaeological Research Heritage Series, No. 4, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 1999. *Browder, Tonya A., and Brooks, Richard D., ''Memories of Home: Reminiscences of Ellenton'', Savannah River Archaeological Research Heritage Series, No. 2, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 1996.

External links

*Ellenton, SC website �
Ellentonsc.com
– Historical notes and Ellenton Reunion Information
I Don't Live There Anymore website
– has history and pictures
Displaced-The Unexpected Fallout from the Cold War website
– pictures and footage from Ellenton
Savannah River Archeological Project website
– web gallery has pictures and information on Ellenton
''Savannah River Site at 50''
– site selection for the Savannah River Plant from ''Savannah River Site at 50''
William D. Workman Papers, South Carolina Political Collections, Univ. of South Carolina
– has photos and information on Ellenton & the Savannah River Plant {{Coord, 33, 11, 56, N, 81, 45, 21, W, type:city, display=title 1870 establishments in South Carolina 1950 disestablishments in South Carolina Geography of Aiken County, South Carolina Geography of Barnwell County, South Carolina Former municipalities in South Carolina Ghost towns in South Carolina Forcibly depopulated communities in the United States African-American history of South Carolina Savannah River Site Populated places disestablished in 1950 Populated places established in 1870