Richland County Government Annual Budget Fiscal Year 2009 / 2010

Description of Richland Countymarketability yielded vast sums of wealth, evidentin the homes left behind by plantation owners.With the advent of new technology, such as acanal system in the 1820s, and rail service in 1842,the county proved to be a major player in thestate’s economic health.HistoryRichland County is a 770+ square-mileexpanse of lowland and rollingsandhills that occupies a centralposition in the state of SouthCarolina. Bounded by rivers to the south, east, andwest, the county sits on the fall line, the locationwhere boaters traveling inland from the coastwould encounter the first shoals and falls. Sincethe rivers were impassable at this juncture, thearea served as a natural terminus, and resulted insettlement by various Native American tribes andearly English travelers. These natural features,coupled with the “rich bottom land,” also madethe area attractive to settlers, and are believed tohave resulted in the district’s name – “Rich Land.”The South Carolina General Assembly establishedthe first official boundaries of Richland County in1785. One year later, the Assembly voted to movethe state capital from Charleston to a more secure,and central, inland location. A site was selected inRichland County along the banks of the CongareeRiver, and the new capital city of Columbia, onlythe second planned city in history of the UnitedStates (Savannah, Georgia was the first), was born.By 1794, with the establishment of the courthousedowntown, Columbia also became the countyseat. In the first decades of the 19th century,Richland County experienced steady growth. Thecounty’s population nearly tripled, from 6,000 in1800 to almost 15,000 by 1830. In 1801, SouthCarolina College, later renamed the University ofSouth Carolina, was established in Columbia.Much of the county’s success stemmed from aneconomy based upon cotton, whose internationalAs Columbia became established as an urbanindustrial center in the 1850’s, the remainder ofthe county was dominated by agriculture. Therural population was divided by planter elite, smallfarmers and enslaved workers, the latter of whomoutnumbered whites nearly three to one. The CivilWar would forever alter the landscape of thecommunity, however. In 1865, much of the citywas destroyed by fire while under the occupationof Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.Following the war, therural economy saw asubstantial decline in herdsand agricultural products,and the plantation systemgave way to a substantialincrease in the number of individual farms.With plantation life irrevocably altered, thefoundation was established for a vibrant villagelife. Necessary amenities, such as rail depots andpost offices, were created to serve the ruralpopulation. Although the most troublesome issuesfor Columbia and Richland County in the postwaryears stemmed from race relations, whichcontinued into the 1920’s Jim Crow era, the finalyears of the 19 th century brought advancementssuch as the telephone and electricity,improvements in education and rail travel, thebeginnings of suburban life and mill culture, andorganized leisure activities to the community.Richland County continued to grow into the 20thcentury, increasing in population from 45,589 in1900 to 78,122 twenty years later. By 1920,Columbia boasted suburbs, streetcars and the firstthree skyscrapers in South Carolina. The numberof individual farms reached an all-time high, with60 percent of them tenant operated.During World War I, the federal governmentestablished Camp Jackson as a basic trainingfacility for the United States Army, propellingColumbia and Richland County into nationalsignificance. During World War II, the facility was15