Hemingway is a town in Williamsburg County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 504 as of the 2020 Census.

History

Hemingway was created from a crossroads community named Lamberts in 1911 by Dr. W. C. Hemingway, in an effort to secure a depot for the proposed Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, which was to run from Mullins to Andrews. Land owned by Dr. Hemingway was surveyed and the lots auctioned off. Subsequently, the railroad established a Hemingway depot, and the post office name was changed to Hemingway.

With rail access, Hemingway grew into a market town for local agricultural products. Cotton declined after 1921, when the boll weevil arrived, but was already being replaced by flue-cured tobacco as the primary money crop for farmers. Other local products were naval stores from the pine forests (later replaced by timbering), corn, soybeans, wheat, and vegetables.

Hemingway is near the Pee Dee River, which was the main commercial route for the area until the coming of the railroad. Snows Lake is near Hemingway. This is also a site in the Revolutionary War camp of US war hero General Francis Marion. The river was named by early explorers after the Pee Dee tribe. A major tributary is the Waccamaw River, likewise named.

Pleasant Hill Consolidated School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land.

Demographics

As of the census The factory had opened in April 1976, but layoffs previously occurred of 300 people in 1996 and 250 in 2005.

Hemingway has always been associated with Johnsonville, which, though divided by a county line, is only north, and they are sometimes referred to locally as the twin cities. Hemingway recently completed a new industrial park midway between the two cities, with a deep well and sewer service.

Arts and culture

Hemingway hosts the annual Bar-B-Q Shag Festival held in the spring. This features a cookoff of low country-style pork barbecue, and dancing of the official state dance of South Carolina - the Carolina shag.

Hemingway has a public library, a branch of the Williamsburg County Library.

Notable people

  • Rodney Scott, pitmaster and James Beard award winner.
  • Sylvia Woods, American restaurateur, co-founded Sylvia's Restaurant of Harlem.

References

  • Hemingway, South Carolina: community web page
  • Information on the town of Hemingway from Williamsburg County