Poston, South Carolina historical archive seal Poston, South CarolinaHistorical Archive

Railroad Era

Railroad History of Poston, South Carolina

Railroad service transformed an older river locality into the modern Poston community recognized in maps and records.

Poston entity homeSource archive

Railroad-era transformation

The strongest interpretation of Poston is that the railroad did not create the place from wilderness. Instead, railroad development overlaid a new transportation system and a new public name onto an older Great Pee Dee River locality whose contemporary records commonly use Allison / Allisons.

Documented sequence

1912: Plat A/255 records twelve lots at the public-road crossing of the railroad in the “Town of Poston.” A second recorded plan, Plat C/37, is titled “MAP OF THE CITY OF POSTON SOUTH CAROLINA” and depicts the Georgetown & Western R.R., a depot, streets, lots, and railroad right-of-way. “City” is the map’s title language and is not treated as proof of legal incorporation.

1915: The Thirty-Seventh Annual Report of the Railroad Commission of South Carolina, published in 1916, lists Poston as a terminal/station on routes from Hamlet, Andrews, and McBee. On page 1299, Poston appears at 31.0 miles on one route; page 1300 includes a route through Hartsville, Darlington, Florence, Pamplico, Waring, Kingsburg, and Poston.

Railroad-name reconciliation: The same state report explains that the Carolina, Atlantic & Western Railway and Georgetown & Western Railway had been acquired by the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company and were operated within the Seaboard system. Accordingly, the 1912 Georgetown & Western map reference and the 1916 County Record reference to the Seaboard are not inherently contradictory.

1916: The near-contemporary newspaper notice titled “Mr Andrew Poston Dead. Town of Poston on Seaboard Named for Him” states that Andrew Poston gave land to the railroad so that “Poston might be Poston.” The archive keeps that claim attributed to the newspaper while continuing to seek the underlying conveyance or right-of-way instrument.

How this page should be used

This page anchors railroad-related research while keeping the older Allison / Allisons river-locality history distinct from the later Poston railroad name and while distinguishing mapped/platted development from legal incorporation.

Primary source page: 1916 Andrew Poston newspaper notice.

These railroad-history links support the Georgetown and Western, South Carolina Western, Carolina, Atlantic and Western, and Seaboard Air Line context.