This town is full of wealthy people. Thanks to them, Hartsville has plenty to brag about. City Manager Bill Bruton hardly knows where to begin when asked what's going on in Hartsville now. Then there's the new building planned for the Governor's School for Science and Math. It has outgrown its current site on the Coker College campus, so a bigger, better building has been planned for somewhere else.
Retail is up, unemployment is down.
Dreamer and doer, Coker was also a farmer dedicated to bringing prosperity back to the devastated South after the Civil War. Coker himself was a veteran, sustaining a shattered hip at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. He sang hymns during his imprisonment in Baltimore, then came home to rebuild his life and community. Armed with an education from The Citadel and Harvard University, where he studied botany and agriculture, Coker opened a general store, helped establish a bank and continued to work in scientific farming. Eventually he would start Welsh Neck High School, which later became Coker College, and ensure its continuance with his money.