Poston Family History: The History of Poston, South Carolina

Front Cover
The Poston Preserve, Apr 23, 2026 - Reference - 156 pages

Poston Family History: the History of Poston, South Carolina traces the Poston family of South Carolina alongside the Florence County community that came to carry the Poston name.

Part family genealogy, part local history, and part documentary archive, this volume follows the Poston line from John Poston in colonial Pennsylvania through the family’s southward migration into the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. It explains the correction of the older John-and-Andrew family tradition to the more accurate John-and-Anthony line, then follows the major South Carolina branches through Hugh Poston, Andrew Poston, John Henry Poston, Louella Poston, Lawrence Chalmers Poston, Harold Chalmers Poston, and the modern family line.

The book places that genealogy within the history of Poston, South Carolina. Before the community bore the Poston name, the area was associated with the older river locality of Ellison along the Great Pee Dee River. In the early twentieth century, Andrew Poston’s connection to railroad development helped move the Poston name from family landholding and local memory into public geography. The railroad boom later faded, but the name remained.

This documentary scrapbook edition combines a polished historical narrative with selected genealogical pages, records, clippings, family notices, source titles, and project materials. The inserts are arranged in historical sequence so readers can follow both the story and the documentary record behind it.

Written for descendants, genealogists, local historians, South Carolina readers, and anyone interested in the Pee Dee region, this book preserves the migration, kinship structure, landholding history, railroad connection, and modern stewardship of one South Carolina family and the community that bears its name.

 

Contents

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2026)

Eric Chalmers Poston is a South Carolina author, editor, publisher, and historical researcher based in Columbia, South Carolina. His publishing work focuses on regional history, genealogy, source preservation, and the documentary record of the Poston family of South Carolina and the Pee Dee region. He is the author and editor of historical and genealogical works including A Poston Family of South Carolina: Its Immigrant Ancestor and Some of His Descendants and Rooted in the Pee Dee: The History of Poston, South Carolina and Its Founding Family. Through his publishing and archive projects, Poston works to preserve family records, local history, and documentary materials connected to Poston, South Carolina, Andrew Poston, the Great Pee Dee River, and the broader South Carolina Pee Dee.