Turbeville, SC

Turbeville sits at the meeting of U.S. Highways 301 and 378 in Clarendon County, a town whose name came from a family, whose first economy came from pine, and whose crossroads still carry summer traffic between Columbia and Myrtle Beach. Michael Turbeville bought land near Diles Bay in 1840; his sons William and Clem built homes, a large store, and a turpentine still in the 1870s. When the pine was tapped out, a sawmill and the railroad took over. A station at Coles Crossroads, also called Seloc, brought freight, passengers, and a new reason for the settlement to grow.

Turbeville was laid out in 1912, received its charter on August 14, 1914, and has since rebuilt through fires, the Depression, and changes in the timber economy. The Battle of Tearcoat Swamp, fought nearby in 1780 during the American Revolution, gives the town a much older historical horizon, now recalled by a mural. Clarendon School District 3 serves local students, while volunteer fire and rescue departments remain part of the town's civic machinery. Turbeville is a pine-country crossroads with a family name, a railroad memory, and a modern highway running through the middle of it.