History :

Chesterfield, many million years ago, during the later Cretaceous era, was the bottom of an ancient sea. The Sand Hills, which are all around Chesterfield, prove this fact.

As the ages passed, the waters divided; land appeared. South Carolina, of which Chesterfield is a part, came into existence. Large prehistoric animals may have roamed. the fossils of elephants, mastadons, animals resembling camels, a giant sloth, and other such fossils have been found in what is now South Carolina.

Time marched forward. The large animals gradually became extinct. Indians began to inhabit the vast wilderness. Indian Creek, which is the southern boundary for the Chesterfield city limits, was always supposed to be a favorite camping spot for the Indians. Legend also tells that where the present Chesterfield Post Office now stands, Indians lived and camped.

No records have ever been found that show any white settlement in what is now Chesterfield County until about 1730. Up to that time, Chesterfield was part of a large section of land that was called Craven County.

Craven County was created in 1682. In 1731, the Bristish Government ordered that the Township of Queensborough be marked out. An Assortment of tempting bounties was offered to induce rapid settlement.

The bounties soon attracted Welsh Baptists in Delaware, The first of these Baptists came into Chesterfield County in 1736. The bounties were continued until 1743. By then, the number of settlers had greatly increased, most of them still being Welsh. Soon, other settlers of English, Scottish, and Irish descent began to come into the area.

Chesterfield, with an elevation of 290 feet, is located on a long ridge, running in a generally easterly-westerly direction. This ridge for years was known as "Healthy Ridge." Chesterfield was never affected by any serious epidemics of typhoid fever or smallpox. Many people believed that this was true because of Chesterfield being located on "Healthy Ridge,"

Chesterfield, in its early days, even had its share of witchcraft. Probably the last witch trial in America was held in Lancaster, South Carolina in 1813, before Judge David Johnson, who later became governor.

Barbara Powers, an old woman of Chesterfield, was accused of maltreating by diabolical arts a girl from Lancaster. The girl testified, "being fatigued one evening . . . I lay down to rest; Barbara Powers . . . choked me with great violence. After this, she raised me up, converted me into a horse and rode me to Lancaster.

"At Lancaster, she went through the keyhole into several shops, brought our goods of great value, loaded me with them and rode me into Chesterfield with her booty."

"Then she rode me to Cheraw . . . and then rode me back to her residence."

Mill's Atlas, published in 1825, shows the "Stage and Main Post Road." passing only a few miles south of Chesterfield. This road, built about two decades earlier, provided a north-south road for stagecoaches running from New York to New Orleans. Later, the telegraph lines of the Postal Telegraph Company followed its route. Thus, it came to be known as the "Old Wire Road."

By 1826, Chesterfield had become a busy village having about one hundred inhabitants, twelve houses, and two stores. The year 1845 brought a memorable famine to this area. Almost nothing was raised on the farms. The farmers did not raise nearly enough to feed the people and the stock; so, the Chesterfieldians sent sent everything that could walk or crawl to Virginia, where there was plenty.

On Sept. 3, 1925, an article in The Chesterfield Advertiser described W.D. Craig's first visit to Chesterfield during that time. It is reprinted herewith: