Echoes & Insights: Laurens County Marks America’s 250th and Carolina Day With Worship, Marker Dedication and Museum Exhibit
June 29, 2026
JUNE 2026 COLUMN
Echoes & Insights: The Laurens County Series. Readers are invited to journey through the history of Laurens County, uncovering the stories, places, and people that have shaped our community. This series is designed to preserve history while sparking conversation about how it continues to guide us today.
We’d like to thank our Founding Sponsors for making this series possible. Their support ensures that the stories of our county are remembered, celebrated, and passed on to future generations.
Last month, Echoes & Insights completed the journey. The series traced all 14 sites of Laurens County’s Revolutionary War driving and biking trail, from Rutledge Ford to Rosemont Plantation, and ended by looking ahead to a single date on the calendar: Sunday, June 28, 2026. Carolina Day. The day the work of nearly five years would finally come home.
That day has now come and gone, and it did not disappoint.
On June 28, hundreds of residents gathered across downtown Laurens to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States and the 250th anniversary of Carolina Day, the commemoration of the 1776 Battle of Sullivan’s Island, with an afternoon of worship, the dedication of a permanent America 250 marker on the Laurens Historic Square, and the grand opening of the Laurens County Museum’s new Revolutionary War exhibit, “Life and Liberty in Laurens County.” Triple-digit heat moved much of the program indoors, but it did not move the spirit of the day. Church bells rang across the county at 4 p.m., just as they had 250 years before in a young nation still fighting to be born.
This is the story of how Laurens County came together to remember, to reflect, and to celebrate the ground beneath its feet.
Photo gallery of the day’s events can be found at the end of the article.
Hundreds of residents gathered across downtown Laurens on Sunday, June 28, to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States and Carolina Day with an afternoon of worship, the dedication of a new historical marker and the grand opening of a Revolutionary War exhibit at the Laurens County Museum.
The daylong observance, organized by the Laurens 250th Anniversary Committee in partnership with the South Carolina American Revolution Sestercentennial Commission, known as SC250, opened with a 3 p.m. service at First Baptist Church of Laurens. Carolina Day commemorates the Patriot victory at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island on June 28, 1776, when defenders at the palmetto-log fort in Charleston harbor turned back a British naval assault, an early win in the fight for independence.
Triple-digit heat, which climbed near 100 degrees by mid-afternoon, and the threat of rain prompted organizers to move portions of the program indoors. Fans and ice water were offered to those attending the church service, and the marker dedication that had been scheduled outdoors on the historic courthouse square was relocated to the second floor of the museum.
A Service of Remembrance and Worship
The Rev. Tim Marsh, pastor of First Baptist Church of Laurens, welcomed the crowd, telling those gathered that the community had much to be thankful for and acknowledging that the nation’s 250-year journey had not always gotten everything right. American Legion Post 25 posted the colors, and the 250th Celebration Chorus performed throughout the service.
The Rev. Terry Richard of Laurel Hill Baptist Church gave the invocation, and Ernie Segars, chairman of the Laurens 250th Committee, offered remarks on behalf of the committee. The Rev. Robbie Shortt introduced a medley of spirituals, including “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Steal Away” and “Soon and Very Soon,” and offered reflections on the songs’ roots in the African American spiritual tradition and their themes of faith, endurance and hope.
The Rev. Jim Pyles delivered the message, titled “Freedom Worth Fighting For,” drawing on Micah 6:8 and its call to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God. He told the congregation that the anniversary lands differently for different people, that honest history includes both courage and contradiction, and that true freedom is rooted in righteousness and lived out through unity. The Rev. Dr. Roland Sigman gave the benediction, and the chorus closed the service with “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Church bells rang at 4 p.m. as part of a countywide bell ringing marking the anniversary.
Dedicating the America 250 Marker
The committee then moved to the museum for the dedication of the America 250 marker, which has been placed on the northwest side of the Laurens Historic Square at the courthouse. The Kingdom Come Quartet performed the national anthem.
Segars outlined the work of the Laurens 250th Committee, which formed in 2021 with the Laurens County Chamber of Commerce and was later designated the county’s official entity for promoting the American Revolution’s anniversary. He described a driving and biking trail of about 14 sites across the county, three of them historic churches, and said the group is working to establish permanent Revolutionary War venues that will remain after the anniversary year.
Durant Ashmore, a preservationist, historian and committee member, traced Laurens County’s role in the Revolution. He highlighted the Little River Regiment, which he said fought in dozens of engagements across the South and stood on the front line at the Battle of Cowpens under Daniel Morgan against Banastre Tarleton’s British Legion. Ashmore called the Battle of Musgrove Mill a turning point that came days after the Patriot defeats at Camden and Fishing Creek in August 1780, and he recounted the victory at Hammond’s Store in December 1780, when militia under James McCall joined Lt. Col. William Washington’s dragoons. He noted that the site near Ninety Six known as Fort Williams changed hands six times, and he described the county as a divided district scarred by the feud between the Williams and Cunningham families, including the killings of bound prisoners at the Hayes Station massacre. The heritage, Ashmore said, is one residents should take pride in.
Matt Brownlee, vice chairman of Laurens County Council, urged attendees to look deeper at the county’s history, pointing to the newly renovated courthouse across the street and the exposed 1838 brick visible inside it as a reminder that history is built on the work of ordinary people. He said the farmers, families and neighbors of the South Carolina backcountry were participants in the Revolution, not spectators, and that their values of family, community and responsibility still shape the county.
Dianne Culbertson, a member of the SC250 Commission and the Daughters of the American Revolution, spoke about the historical marker placed on the courthouse square. She said the national DAR established its America 250 marker program to recognize the Patriots who achieved American independence, with the goal of placing at least one in each state, and that South Carolina now has 18. The Sullivan-Dunklin Chapter, based in Laurens, raised the funds for the local marker and obtained permission from Laurens County Council to place it on the square. Because of the heat and possible rain, the formal unveiling was deferred, and Culbertson invited residents to visit the marker on their own.
Opening “Life and Liberty in Laurens County”
The observance concluded with a 5 p.m. ribbon cutting at the Laurens County Museum, 116 S. Public Square, for its new Revolutionary War exhibit, “Life and Liberty in Laurens County.”
Teresa Noble, president of the museum’s board, welcomed visitors and recognized the museum’s volunteers and the Laurens 250th Committee. Executive Director Connie Post thanked funders and supporters, including the Bailey Foundation, the Artist Preservation Group of Virginia, the Laurens County 250 Committee, museum members and donors, and credited a major grant awarded by SC250 in 2025 as the exhibit’s largest funding source. Post recognized the design team at Emanate Brands, led by Bill Donahue, and the museum staff, including Chris Pennington, Darleen Timmerman, Turner Hunt and Jayden Post, who she said carried the work forward while she recovered from an accident about five weeks earlier.
International artist Jorge Perez Rubio, who spent hours on the county’s battlefields with Ashmore before interpreting those stories in artwork displayed in the museum lobby, was recognized as one of the project’s storytellers.
Laurens Mayor Nathan Senn offered a prayer of thanksgiving, recalling the defenders at Sullivan’s Island and at King’s Mountain, Cowpens and Hammond’s Store, and asking that the community remember its history rightly, honoring courage without pride and cherishing liberty with humility.
“Life and Liberty in Laurens County” guides visitors from the museum’s Native American collection through first European contact and the colonial era into the Revolution, mirroring the committee’s countywide driving tour through stories and an interactive display. The grand opening also showcased updates throughout the museum, including the refreshed Witherspoon bedroom, a new education exhibit and upgrades to the Ann Pamela Cunningham exhibit, along with a traveling exhibit on pirates on loan from the South Carolina State Museum. Visitors signed a copy of the Declaration of Independence, posed with a Liberty Bell display and browsed a merchandise table offering exhibit shirts and hats and ornaments honoring the courthouse’s grand reopening last month.
Now open to the public, “Life and Liberty in Laurens County” stands as a lasting reminder that the fight for American independence was waged not only on distant battlefields but on the farms, roads and crossroads of the South Carolina backcountry. Residents and visitors are encouraged to experience the exhibit firsthand at the Laurens County Museum at 116 S. Public Square in Laurens, to walk the committee’s driving tour of Revolutionary War sites across the county, and to see for themselves the courage and sacrifice that helped shape a nation now marking 250 years.
