Johnsonville, SC

Johnsonville is a Florence County city whose name grew out of Witherspoon’s Ferry on the Lynches River. The ferry served travelers during the Revolution, and local history places Francis Marion’s commission to lead the Williamsburg militia at that crossing. By 1843, Captain William Johnson had settled there, hosted stagecoach travelers, and helped secure a post office; the city later incorporated in 1913. The old ferry route now sits behind a city with Broadway as its main street and an annual Heritage Festival that brings the Revolutionary connection back into the calendar. Johnsonville is the Pee Dee’s ferry-to-city story, with a river, a road, and a name passed down.