For as long as I can remember, my wife has wanted to visit
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, so last week we loaded up the kids and took a
road trip to that vacation hotspot on the Atlantic Coast. Before leaving, I pulled
out my trusty Rand McNally road atlas and began to plan out how I was going to
drive us all there. As I traced my finger along the stretch of Interstate
Highway 20 between Columbia and Florence in South Carolina, the name of one
town in particular jumped out at me – Camden.
Seeing this reminded me that Camden, Alabama actually takes
its name from this town of 7,100 in Kershaw County, S.C. Sources say that
Camden, Alabama was originally named Wilcox Courthouse, but later changed its
name to Barboursville in honor of Virginia politician Phillip P. Barbour. In
1842, Dr. John Daniel Caldwell changed the name of Barboursville to Camden
after his hometown of Camden, S.C.
Today, if you visit the Camden Cemetery, you’ll find that
Caldwell’s grave is marked by a large, distinctive, white tombstone that
reveals much about his remarkable life. According to his headstone, Caldwell
was born in Sumterville, S.C. on Jan. 27, 1807 and died in Camden at the age of
71 on Sept. 21, 1878. Also on his grave marker, you’ll see the following carved
words – “Graduated at the Medical College of South Carolina at Charleston, in
March 1830, married Mary Anderson Bowen June 5, 1833, moved to Linden, Alabama
in 1836, became a resident of Barboursville, Wilcox County, Alabama in 1838.
When the County was incorporated in 1841, as the intendant, he suggested the
name Camden in honor of Camden, South Carolina.”
With all of this in mind on Sunday afternoon, I pulled off
I-20’s Exit 98 in South Carolina for a tank of gas and a good look around. The main
part of Camden, which is the oldest inland city in South Carolina, is actually
several of miles off the interstate, but it’s worth the short drive to see if
for yourself. There you’ll find many of the things you would expect to see in
an old Southern town, including grand old churches, large cemeteries, stately
homes, a well-appointed library, a sizeable high school, a four-columned city
hall, antique stores, a train station, numerous historical markers and wide
downtown streets.
With that said, Camden, S.C. also has many touches of the
modern world, including a Wal-Mart, a Belk store, a Piggly Wiggly, several
chain restaurants, banks, apartment complexes, dry cleaners, auto parts stores,
a video game store, a Tractor Supply store, convenience stores and what looked
like a relatively new courthouse building. Being in the newspaper business, I
was interested to learn that Camden, S.C. is served by The
Chronicle-Independent, which is published twice a week from its offices on West
DeKalb Street.
In the end, this all got me to wondering about other towns
named Camden throughout the United States. A quick search through my road atlas
showed cities and towns named Camden in Arkansas, Delaware, Indiana, Maine, New
Jersey, New York, Ohio and Tennessee. There are also Camden Counties in
Georgia, Missouri and North Carolina. It would be interesting to know if any of
those places take their name from Camden, Alabama just like Camden, Alabama
takes its name from Camden, S.C.
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