Abbeville County is a county in South Carolina, United States, on the state’s western edge along the Georgia line. It had a population of 24,295 at the 2020 census and covers 511 square miles (1,325 km2) centred near 34°14′N 82°27′W.<\/p>\n
Abbeville is the county seat, and its postal code is 29620. The county has one city, six towns, two census-designated places, and dozens of unincorporated crossroads communities. It observes Eastern time and its FIPS code is 45001 — the lowest in the country, since Abbeville is the alphabetically first county or county equivalent in the United States.<\/p>\n
The table below lists Abbeville County’s incorporated places, its two census-designated places (CDPs), and its best-known unincorporated communities. South Carolina has no civil townships, so places are grouped only by type.<\/p>\n
| Place<\/th>\n | Type<\/th>\n | Pop.<\/th>\n | ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abbeville<\/td>\n | City · seat<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 29620<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Calhoun Falls<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 29628<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Donalds<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 29638<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Due West<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 29639<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Honea Path<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Lowndesville<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | 29659<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Ware Shoals<\/td>\n | Town<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Antreville<\/td>\n | CDP<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Lake Secession<\/td>\n | CDP<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Arborville<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Bethel<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Bethiah<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Blue Heaven<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Boneo<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Brick House<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Broadmouth<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Brownlee Crossroads<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Buck Stand<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Cedar Springs<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Central-Shiloh<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Charleston Crossroads<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Clatworthy Crossroads<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Cold Spring<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Darraugh<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Drake<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Fairs Crossroads<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Foxville Crossroads<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Gilgal<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Hester<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Iris<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Latimer<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Level Land<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| MacArthurs Junction<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Millers Mill<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Sharon<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Shiloh<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Smithville<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Vermillion<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Warrenton<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Watts<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| West View<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Winona<\/td>\n | Unincorp.<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n | —<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n One name from the old list is dropped here: “Keowee” duplicates a lake\/river name shared with several unrelated South Carolina places and could not be pinned to a distinct Abbeville County settlement. Honea Path and Ware Shoals both straddle the Abbeville–Anderson and Abbeville–Greenwood\/Laurens county lines; their post office ZIP codes serve the larger portion of each town outside Abbeville County, so no county-specific ZIP is listed for either here.<\/p>\n ZIP Codes<\/h2>\nHonea Path and Ware Shoals use ZIP codes centred on their larger sections in neighboring counties, so they are not listed as county-specific codes above.<\/p>\n Geography<\/h2>\nAbbeville County sits in South Carolina’s Piedmont, between the Savannah and Saluda river basins. The Savannah River, impounded here as Lake Secession and, further south, Richard B. Russell Lake, forms the county’s western border with Georgia. Rolling farmland and pine and hardwood forest cover most of the interior, with the terrain gradually rising toward the Blue Ridge foothills to the north.<\/p>\n Abbeville County borders Elbert County, Georgia to the west across the Savannah River, and within South Carolina it borders Greenwood County to the southeast, McCormick County to the south, Anderson County to the northwest, and Greenville and Laurens counties to the north and northeast.<\/p>\n Demographics<\/h2>\nAbbeville County had 24,295 residents at the 2020 census, a density of roughly 49 people per square mile of land. Abbeville, the county seat, and Honea Path (shared with Anderson County) are its two largest communities. Abbeville County’s median household income runs below the South Carolina median of $67,804, consistent with its rural, manufacturing- and farming-based economy.<\/p>\n Economy & Local Life<\/h2>\nManufacturing is the county’s largest employment sector, with textile, plastics, and metal-fabrication plants concentrated around Abbeville, Ware Shoals, and Calhoun Falls — legacies of the mill villages the Piedmont textile boom built along the Saluda and Savannah rivers a century ago. Agriculture, timber, and Lake Secession’s recreation and lakefront-housing market round out the local economy. Erskine College, a private liberal-arts college founded in 1839, anchors the town of Due West.<\/p>\n History<\/h2>\nAbbeville County was created in 1785 out of the old Ninety Six District and named for Abbeville, France, the ancestral home of an early Huguenot settler. The town of Abbeville is sometimes called the “Birthplace and Deathbed of the Confederacy”: Southern secession was first publicly urged there in 1860, and Jefferson Davis held his last full Confederate cabinet meeting in the town in May 1865. The county’s Revolutionary War history includes fighting tied to the nearby Ninety Six siege, and its mill towns grew rapidly after the arrival of the railroad and textile industry in the late 19th century.<\/p>\n Getting There<\/h2>\nU.S. Route 178 and U.S. Route 72 cross the county through Abbeville, with South Carolina Highway 20 and Highway 71 linking the smaller towns.<\/p>\n
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