Source Categories
The archive is organized around source categories rather than unsupported narrative claims. Priority should be given to contemporary records, public archives, official records, and clearly identified published family-history materials.
Related Family Document Repository
The Poston Family Archive is the companion documentary repository for searchable Poston family records, scanned source material, OCR text, and publication records. PostonSouthCarolina.com remains centered on the historic place; the family archive preserves the underlying family-document collection.
- Poston family of South Carolina research collection
- 1916 Andrew Poston naming record — preserved scan, OCR, and citation
- A Poston Family of South Carolina — canonical publication record
- Poston surname record index
Newspaper Sources
The 1916 County Record notice is the strongest currently identified source for the naming of Poston. It should remain the anchor citation for Andrew Poston’s role in the railroad-era community.
River and Geography Sources
SCDNR materials concerning the Great Pee Dee River and Allisons / Ellisons / Poston Landing provide important geographic support for the older landing-name cluster.
Genealogical Sources
A Poston Family of South Carolina should be treated as the main family-history reference, with the original 1965 compilation and the 2025 revised edition clearly distinguished.
Railroad Sources
The Georgetown and Western Railroad, South Carolina Western Railway, Carolina, Atlantic and Western Railway, and Seaboard Air Line Railway form the railroad context for Poston’s early twentieth-century transformation.
Newly Identified Florence County and Railroad Records
- 1912 Plat A/255 — twelve lots in the “Town of Poston”
- 1912 Plat C/37 — “Map of the City of Poston South Carolina”
- 1915 South Carolina Railroad Commission report — Poston route/station evidence
- 1918 Plat B/99 — 171.2-acre Andrew Poston estate plat
Together these records improve the chronology of Poston as a platted railroad locality. They do not, by themselves, prove municipal incorporation or identify the exact land instrument described in the 1916 newspaper notice.
Open Record Targets
The principal unresolved documentary target remains the deed, easement, right-of-way, or railroad conveyance underlying the statement that Andrew Poston gave land to the railroad. Additional searches should continue in Florence County Register of Deeds records and South Carolina Department of Archives and History municipal, charter, General Assembly, railroad, Railroad Commission, and Public Service Commission series. Cemetery, probate, census, military, depot, siding, and historical-map records remain useful supporting categories.