Conway

History

Conway is one of the oldest towns in South Carolina. Early English colonists named the village "Kings Town" but soon changed it to "Kingston". The town was founded in 1732 as part of Royal Governor Robert Johnson's Township Scheme. It was laid out on a bluff overlooking the Waccamaw River in what is now known as Horry County. For three decades, from the 1730s to the 1750s, King George II was very popular in the area. The King's birthday was one of the most widely celebrated holidays during that time. However, his successor King George III quickly grew unpopular with the townspeople. By the 1770s, the region of South Carolina in which Kingston was located was overwhelmingly English, though there were also small numbers of Huguenots and Scots-Irish people. English-Americans in Kingston were very sympathetic to rebels in Charleston over the issue of taxation without representation. When the Royal Governor Lord William Campbell fled Charleston, the people of Kingston celebrated. Many area residents fought in the American Revolution, and small engagements were fought near Kingston at Bear Bluff and at Black Lake. Francis Marion, who was known as the "Swamp Fox", had an encampment near Kingston just across the Waccamaw River. The areas of Kingston and Charles Town were communities with a higher population of Tories than many other Colonial American towns during the Revolutionary War era. Horry County was created in 1801, and its courthouse was established in Kingston. The name "Kingston" was later changed to "Conwayborough", to honor local hero General Robert Conway. In 1883, the South Carolina General Assembly changed the name of the town to "Conway".

Geography

Conway is situated on the South Carolina Coastal Plain on the western banks of the Waccamaw River, and is approximately from the Atlantic Ocean. U.S. Route 701, U.S. Route 501, and U.S. Route 378 pass through Conway. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (3.54%) is water. }}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,105
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  3,312
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,143
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  3,083
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,860
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,773
• Eastern Bluebird

  Sialia sialis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,593
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,527

Most recent

• M 3.7 — 2006-09-25
  7 km W of Rowland, North Carolina
• M 3.4 — 2006-09-22
  4 km WSW of Blenheim, South Carolina