Wedding & Event Venue Near Winnsboro, SC.

SOUTH CAROLINA — The South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association recently announced its Hall of Fame Class for 2023. Inductees include Tim Baldwin for Goose Creek High School, Zam Frederick of Calhoun County High School, Frank Moorhead of North Myrtle Beach High School, and Eddie Raines of Winnsboro and Chapin High Schools.

These four coaches were inducted into the South Carolina Basketball Hall of Fame on March 17 in conjunction with the 74th Annual North-South All Star Game Banquet at Seawell’s Restaurant in Columbia.

Of the new coaches, Raines is a Whtimire native. He spent 32 years in education holding numerous positions as a teacher, administrator at both elementary and high school campuses, plus positions at the district office level.

However, the role he most cherished was that of coach. He coached at Wagner (1966-67), Winnsboro (two different stints 1967-76 and 1977-87) and Chapin (1976-77) posting a record of 310-144. His Winnsboro team participated in two state championship games in 1972 and 1973, plus advanced to the upper state finals on three more occasions 1974, 1979 and 1984. He also advanced to the lower state championship one time.

Over his career, Raines teams won six conference titles and finished runner-up seven times. That success led him to being voted Conference Coach of the Year on five separate seasons. In 1978, Raines was selected as the head coach for the North Squad in the Annual North-South All Star Game.

One of Raines passion was improving the quality of basketball in South Carolina, and was a charter member of South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association and served as an area representative in that inaugural year.

Continuing in his role as an ambassador for high school basketball, since retiring in the 1998, Raines served as a member of the Beach Ball Classic Committee for 28 years. His role is chairperson of the All-Tournament Team selection working with former coaches John Smith, Shay Rollins, Jim Suber, Homer Carraway, Hall of Fame Referee Jack Tiller.

As a side note, Raines is also 1-0 in his college career at Newberry College when he and his brother, Irby, filled in for Coach Neil Gordon. Raines flirted with some college opportunities, but felt a more stable lifestyle was best for his family. He also realizes that this honor would not have been possible without his former players, fellow coaches, family, and his his wife Eunice.

WINNSBORO, S.C. — Many of us have heard of the Salem witch trials in 1692. Not as many know that, 100 years later, another happened about 920 miles south of Massachusetts in Winnsboro, South Carolina. This is the so-called discovery and trial of the First Witch of Winnsboro.

Winnsboro was established as a town in Fairfield County in 1799. According to the Fairfield County Museum Director, Pelham Lyles, before becoming a town, it was a frontier settlement. Today, the area is known for a few things, but a witch is not at the top of the list.

“Granite, Fairfield County is known for the longest continual running town clock,” she said.

Lyles said in the 1790s, being different could mean you were a witch.

“And during that period of time, if you happened to be a little bit different from the farmer down the road, you might be suspected of having caused his cow to die,” Lyles said.

According to the Fairfield County Museum Archives, one woman in 1792 was tried for this exact reason.

“A woman named Mary Ingelman was accused of causing people’s cows to die or natural disasters that they need to pin something on somebody,” Lyles said.

As a result of the accusations, Winnsboro residents decided to hold a mock trial. At the time, historians said there wasn’t concrete evidence submitted; instead, the court used what is now known as hearsay.

“Just cause so-and-so said, that was enough,” Lyles said of the evidence used against Ingelman.

But the elderly woman Mary Ingelman wasn’t the only one put on trial. She, along with others, were persecuted.

“They brought in two other individuals who also they wanted to accuse of being witches and decided they were witches and they pushed their feet to the fire of these people and burned the soles of their feet off,” Pelham Lyles said.

While the accusations were never proven, and the trial was determined to be illegal, historians said a trial like this marks a community.

“I think that marks a community in a way, well of course Salem Massachusetts with all of the money they make off of it of the Salem Witch Trials,” Gary Pender said.

According to a submission to the September 2012 Fairfield Genealogical Society Newsletter by Will Kale, Mary might have been a German Christian who came to America for religious freedom.

New apartments and a restaurant could be on the way.

WINNSBORO, S.C. — Downtown Winnsboro is continuing its revitalization efforts and now developers want to bring new attractions to the town.

“What they are proposing is the apartments and restaurant critical, especially in this building,” says Winnsboro Town Manager Jason Taylor.

He says the former Wells Fargo building in the heart of the town has been vacant for almost a year, and Capstone Property, a development company, could soon change that.

“They held an auction on the building, Wells Fargo had a number of buildings across the country they were auctioning of ours being one of them, it went up for bid and closed for $430,000 dollars and they are at this point in the closing process,” Taylor adds.

Capstone Property Group wants to bring multiple apartments to the top floor and an affordable restaurant on the first floor, according to Taylor only around 25% of the downtown buildings have active retail currently, and these developers are hoping to change that.

Additionally, they say the coming development of Scout Motors, a new electric vehicle plant being built just down the road in Blythewood, will have an impact even up in Winnsboro. That development is projected by company officials to bring 4,000 new jobs.

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“News of the Scout plant , we expect to see tremendous growth from that Scout plant,” says Webb Yongue with Capstone Property.

“This is still something the town of Winnsboro needs and is missing, in the market, they have to travel 20 minutes just to go somewhere they can get a cocktail at," he said. "We think we’ll be able to fit four apartments .I’ve actually had several people reach out since they’ve heard we plan on doing this who have interest in getting some apartments, I mean everyone wants to live downtown."

The project is to be completed by the end of the next summer, making these apartments the first of their kind in downtown Winnsboro.

Outside of this developer the town of Winnsboro has been looking to move the area forward, they have received state appropriations for revitalization and grant money to develop a plan.

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, S.C. (WIS) - Sheriff Will Montgomery announces the arrest of three adults and one juvenile for a shooting-related incident in the South Winnsboro area of Fairfield County.

On Monday, April 24, 2023, Fairfield County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a shooting incident that occurred near the intersection of Fagan and Doty Roads when a vehicle was struck by gunfire.

Officials say deputies were able to determine the shooting suspects were in a mobile home near where the incident took place and got a search warrant for the residence.

“We are working hard to combat the gun violence that we, along with the rest of the state and nation, have seen increasing over the past year,” said Sheriff Montgomery.

During the search, investigators found 24 firearms (handguns, rifles, and shotguns), several thousand rounds of ammunition, quantities of illegal drugs, including cocaine, cocaine base (“crack”), over 7 pounds of marijuana, a ballistic vest, and over $2,400 US Currency.

Three of the firearms were reported as stolen and several of them had been converted to fully automatic weapons.

The three adults were charged with multiple drug offenses, multiple stolen firearms offenses, and multiple counts of unlawful possession of a machine gun.

“We will continue working hard, using the law enforcement strategies that we have implemented, to keep our citizens safe,” said Sheriff Montgomery.

The juvenile will be charged with the same offenses.

Malcolm Brown, Thomas Grooms, and Wyquan Young were taken to the Fairfield County Detention Center.

The juvenile was taken to Richland County where he was wanted on unrelated charges.

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WINNSBORO – On Saturday, Oct. 28, a 300-year-old cemetery deep in the countryside west of town and the Fairfield County Museum will be the scenes of a daylong celebration of Winnsboro’s Patriots of the American Revolution. There will be a morning event in the formerly named Winnsborough community just west of Hwy. 34, lunch at the Fairfield County Museum, and an afternoon re-enactment of scenes from the American Revolution, complete with cannon fire, in the backyard of the museum.

The day will begin at 10 a.m. deep in the cool, lush Winnsboro woods south of Hwy 34W where The SC Society of the Sons of the American Revolution will host a grave-marking ceremony for Fairfield’s American Patriots buried on property owned by Spencer McMaster.

The graveside ceremony will honor four patriots: Irish immigrant Capt. Robert and Elizabeth Ellison, Major Henry Moore, and Samuel Weldon. Their descendants will honor the patriots by placing engraved granite markers on their graves.

Three of the Ellison’s descendants, Bill, David (Dee) and Robert (Bobby) Ellison, grew up in Winnsboro and will be in attendance. David and Robert live in Winnsboro and are the last of the Ellison family descendants living in Fairfield County. Bill lives in Lexington.

These three and other family members spent time this summer cutting fallen trees and cleaning up access to their ancestors’ burial sites about 1.5 miles west of Winnsboro. Some descendants will attend from as far away as Texas.

The ceremony will include a welcome, posting of colors, a dedication of the grave markers with several direct descendants of the patriots placing the granite markers at each of their graves to honor them.

The cemetery is located on Pine Top Road off Highway 34, about 1.5 miles west of Winnsboro. Directional signs will be posted leading to the cemetery.

Following the ceremony, a luncheon will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the Fairfield County Museum which is located at 231 S. Congress Street in Winnsboro. Those planning to attend the luncheon are asked to RSVP to Museum Director Pelham Lyles at 803-727-5908 or fairfieldmus@truvista.net.

At 2 p.m. that same afternoon a public celebration will be held in the backyard of the museum, where there will be Revolutionary War encampment scenes re-enacted by actors in period costumes. Both General Richard Winn and Lord General Cornwallis will be represented by re-enactment actors. There will be a number of displays of period items. Guns and a cannon will be fired as part of the ceremony.