The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1902-07-02

naVag2tIOQ Oh Gue CoASaieo, ohN wall
the State road from the up country to
Charleston running through it, should
have been selected as a suitable place
for the location of the first judicial
| district. But so it happened that
the old fort town and Saxe-Gotha had
their day.
But Columbia, the beautiful new
capital town of the State, clustered
around Taylor's Spring on the green
hills of Richland, was growing apace,
and gradually absorbing the trade and
| interest of the surrounding country
The thrifty German and Swiss set
tiers of Lexington District, with
other new comers, were pushing out
! their settlements along the large
creeks flowing into the Congaree and
Saluda rivers; and in a. few years
there were many farms and mills,
and many pioneer settlers along both
sides of tn Saluda, as we'll as on the
Edisto rivers and their many large
tributaries, for a distance of more
than twenty-five miles from CRANKY.
The country was slowly but surely
developing, and change in the 10
cation of the court house would soon
have TO be made.
Early in the Nineteenth century
the agitation of the question had con-
vinced a large majority of the citizens
of Lexington that CRANKY was stu
ated too much on one side of their
district for the transaction there OF
public business: that it was q sickly
place, being on the low grounds
on the river, and that it was fast de-
clining in trade and Importance as
town from the fact that it was al
ready, and would soon be entirely,
overshadowed in these respects by
the fast growing town Of Columbia.
The matter having been decided,
preliminary steps were taken for the
removal by the appointment of COM
missioners to select a more central,
suitable and healthful site for the To-
cation of the court house and jail
and new county town of Lexington
District. Whether several places
competed for the honor Of having
the new town or not I am unable
to say, but a place then known
in the locality as the "Tbree Pines,'
because it was famous deer stand
at that day, on the north side of
Twelve Mile creek, twelve miles west
of Columbis, on lands belonging to
Lawrence Charles, was chosen as the
site of the present town of Lexing-
ton. The public square for the new
court house and jail was purchased
from Charles by the commissioners;
and the public buildings were so far
completed by the years 1920 that
the records of the different Offices of
the District were removed from Old
CRANKY to Lexington Court House
and the latter was formerly opened as
the new county seat.
At that time, that is, eighty-two
years ago, this part of the country
was very thinly settled. The pub
lie square of Lexington was laid
off across the Augusta road, and
the public buildings erected in the
woods among the pines and oaks.
At first there were but two dwellings,
in or near the place, that Of Charles,
between the court house and creek,
and that of Mr.. Derrick, who lived
more than half a mile up the creek.
By degrees lots were sold off on the
east and west sides of the public
square along the Augusta road on
which stores and dwellings were
built, until in the course Of some
twenty years or more, Lexington be-
came a considerable village.
Thirteen years after its birth, that
is, on the 25th Of October, 1888, in a
small two story house. which is still
standing on the lot on the north east