Lena (also called Willingham)
is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
in
Hampton County
Hampton County is a rural county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,561. Its county seat is Hampton. It was named for Confederate Civil War general Wade Hampton, who in the late 1870s, with ...
,
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, just east of
Estill.
Geography
Lena is located at latitude 32.7535025ºN and longitude 81.2151029ºW, at an altitude of 108 feet (33 m).
Early history
Lena's history has largely been intertwined with the
Southern Railroad (today's
Norfolk Southern
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...
).
From 1899 until the 1980s, Southern operated a line through Lena and nearby
Allendale,
Tarboro, and
Furman. Called the "Southern Columbia to Savannah Route", the rail also ran through Barnwell and Blackville to the North. Its primary purpose for Southern was to increase north–south passenger/freight traffic by feeding into ACL (
Atlantic Coast Line) at Hardeeville for passage south to Florida or north to Charleston and other points. The rail line was built to compete with another north–south rail line operated nearby by
Seaboard Air Line
The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, t ...
(also called the
Florida Central & Peninsular, later
Seaboard Coast Line
The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was a Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lin ...
, and presently CSX) which ran a different course through Denmark, Fairfax, Estill, Garnett (parallel to
U.S. Route 321) and then into Georgia. Between 1963 and 1970, Southern abandoned its tracks between Furman and Hardeeville leaving Furman as the ending station from Columbia. Finally, in the early 1980s, Southern abandoned its tracks south of Blackville, ending rail service to Barnwell, Allendale, Lena, and Furman. However, by the 1970s, any rail service to Furman (through Lena) would have been a rare event.
Nearby Estill was founded at about the same time as Lena. Estill (originally named “Lawtonville,” was renamed for the president of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad which laid tracks through what is now Estill at about the same time Southern was laying tracks through what is today's Lena.
Lena was named for Allene Thomson Lawton, whose father, Thomas Oregon Lawton, owned land that Southern workers camped on. Since the name Allene was too similar to the nearby established town of Allendale, the nickname “Lena,” which her father called her, was selected as the name of Southern's station in what is now Lena.
References
{{authority control
Unincorporated communities in Hampton County, South Carolina
Unincorporated communities in South Carolina