Peay's Ferry

Front: A ferry was operated on the Wateree Point, at a point about 4 mi. W, as early as 1775. In 1808 ferry rights were granted to Thomas Starke, Jr. and Austin Ford Peay (d. 1841), planters with property in Fairfield and Kershaw Districts. Peay received ferry rights for another 7 years in 1825. Peay served in the S.C. House between 1812 and 1831 and in the S.C. Senate between 1832 and 1839. Reverse: The road from the Wateree River E to Liberty Hill was known as Peay's Ferry Road by 1820. In 1865, elements of Gen. W.T. Sherman's Federal army crossed the ferry on their way to Camden and Cheraw. In 1919, when the Wateree Power Co. completed a dam across the Wateree River, the ferry site and most of the road were flooded. This is the only extant portion of the old road.