Editing Aiken County, South Carolina (section)

==History==
In the colonial era the area that is now Aiken County was part of Edgefield and Orangeburgh Districts. The majority of the population were immigrant farmers.
Most of whom were from the rural parts of [[Lincolnshire]], England; however, very few were from the town of [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]]. Virtually all of the farmers from Lincolnshire came to the colony as indentured servants in the 1730s and 1740s. However, by the 1750s, almost all of the Lincolnshire settlers in what is now Aiken County were living on their own private land, almost exclusively engaging in [[subsistence agriculture]] on [[smallholding]] farms. Many immigrants also came from the rural eastern half of the English county of [[Nottinghamshire]]. Specifically, many indentured servants came from the towns of [[Newark-on-Trent]], [[Winthorpe, Nottinghamshire|Winthorpe]], [[Coddington, Nottinghamshire|Coddington]], [[Balderton]], [[Kelham]] and [[Farndon, Nottinghamshire|Farndon]]. A third group of English farmers settled in the colony, mostly arriving not as individual indentured servants but as entire family units, coming from the [[Derbyshire Dales]] region of the English county of [[Derbyshire]]; these settlers primarily originated in the three towns of [[Ashbourne, Derbyshire|Ashbourne]], [[Bakewell]] and [[Matlock, England|Matlock]] as well as the farm country surrounding these towns. These settlers also settled on lands in between the Savannah River in the west and the towns of Berlin and Jones Crossroads in the east, all arriving in what has since become Aiken County in the 1740s. A numerically smaller but influential migration came to what has since become Aiken County in the form of [[Presbyterian]] immigrants of Scottish ancestry who came from [[County Antrim]] and the northern portion of [[County Down]] in [[Ireland]], as well as small numbers from the town of [[Kesh, County Fermanagh|Kesh]] in [[County Fermanagh]], [[Ireland]]. This population referred to themselves as "Ulstermen" and "Irish Presbyterians" but were known in the colonies as "Scots-Irish" settlers, though this was not a term they self-applied. They too arrived in the 1740s.<ref>Thomas Bell, Ulster Scot, to South Carolina and Allied Families by Dorothy Edmonson and Louis Carr Henry</ref><ref>Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster and America by Charles Knowles Bolton</ref><ref>Lost Aiken County by Alexia Jones Helsley pg. 35</ref><ref>Migrants, Immigrants, and Slaves: Racial and Ethnic Groups in America by George Henderson, Thompson Dele Olasiji pg. 54</ref> The area that has since become Aiken County had a significantly high number of first generation British immigrants who fought for the Patriot cause in the revolutionary war.<ref>South Carolina Loyalists in the American Revolution by Robert Stansbury Lambert</ref>

Both Aiken County and its county seat of [[Aiken, SC|Aiken]] are named after [[William Aiken]] (1779–1831), the first president of the [[South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company|South Carolina Railroad Company]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Federal Writers' Project|author-link=Federal Writers' Project|title=Palmetto Place Names|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c056089075&view=1up&seq=17|year=1941|publisher=Sloane printing co.|page=11}}</ref> Aiken County was organized during the [[Reconstruction era]] in 1871 from portions of [[Barnwell County, South Carolina|Barnwell]], [[Edgefield County, South Carolina|Edgefield]], [[Lexington County, South Carolina|Lexington]], and [[Orangeburg County, South Carolina|Orangeburg]] counties.<ref name="History1">{{cite web |url=http://www.statelibrary.sc.gov/aiken-county.html |title=History |access-date=March 29, 2008 |date=March 19, 2007 |author=Mary Morgan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080220161754/http://www.statelibrary.sc.gov/aiken-county.html |archive-date=February 20, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Prince Rivers]], a [[freedman]] and state legislator from Edgefield County, had been a leader in the [[United States Colored Troops]]. He was named to head the commission that drew the new county's boundary lines. He was dubbed "The Black Prince" by local newspapers, including the ''Edgefield Advertiser.'' He also led the commission that selected the site of Aiken County's present-day courthouse. Other freedmen who were part of the founding of the county were [[Samuel J. Lee]], speaker of the state House and the first black man admitted to the [[South Carolina Bar]]; and [[Charles D. Hayne]], a [[free people of color|free man of color]] from one of Charleston's elite families.<ref name="nesbitt">[http://augustachronicle.com/stories/021604/met_321095.shtml Jim Nesbitt, "County, once booming, now shadows town it used to rival"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120172515/http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/021604/met_321095.shtml |date=November 20, 2008 }}, ''Augusta Chronicle'', February 16, 2004</ref>

Political tensions kept rising in South Carolina during the 1870s, especially around elections. In the months before the 1876 elections, Aiken County was one of the areas to suffer white paramilitary [[Red Shirts (Southern United States)|Red Shirts]] attacks and violence directed against black Republicans to suppress the black vote. Between the [[Hamburg Massacre]] in July and several days of rioting in September in [[Ellenton, South Carolina|Ellenton]], more than 100 black men were killed by white paramilitary groups in this county. Two white men died in the violence.<ref name="nesbitt"/>

In the late 19th century, the county became a popular winter refuge for affluent Northerners, who built luxury housing. The county remains popular with horse trainers and professional riders because mild winters allow lengthy training seasons.

In the 1950s, Aiken County (along with the nearby counties of [[Allendale County, South Carolina|Allendale]] and [[Barnwell County, South Carolina|Barnwell]]) was chosen as the location for storage and production of nuclear materials and various fissile materials, now known as the [[Savannah River Site]]. [[Ellenton, South Carolina]] was acquired and its buildings demolished for its development of this plant. Its residents and businesses were moved north about eight miles to [[New Ellenton, South Carolina|New Ellenton]], and about 5 miles south to the town of [[Jackson, South Carolina|Jackson]] just outside the entrance to the Savannah River Site, Developed during [[Cold War]] tensions, the facility is scheduled for decommissioning of various parts of the site.<ref name="History1"/>