The story
Read it all →How Florence came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Florence.
Florence was created from part of the Town of Camden in 1805.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
–Not graded
History · Florence
Florence’s post office opened in 1823, and 14% of its homes were built before 1940
Below: maps from 1985 on and the census since 1810.
1823first post office
0on the National Register
14%homes built before 1940
Quick answers
How Florence began
When was Florence founded?
1823
The Florence post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name.
First census: 396 in 18102020 census: 1,284203 years
Founding year: the first Florence post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Florence’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Florence’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Florence’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.People over time
Florence, census by census
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1860 and 1950, then more than doubled.
21 censuses, 1810–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Florence’s Wikipedia page.
Timeline
Florence, 1823 to 1985
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Florence, 1879–1891
Passages that mention Florence, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Florence1891 · page 131Read the page →
Read the text
The People having satiated themselves upon the Blood of those two, the Peace was concluded ; the Duke to depart safely himself, and all that belonged to him, for which he was to renounce all his Claim and Authority in Florence, and to ratify his Renunciation when he came. out of the Florentine Dominions to Casentino. The Articles being agreed, on the 6th of August, attended by a multitude of Citizens, the Duke departed from Florence, and arrived at Casentino, where he ratifyed the Renunciation, but so
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The history of Florence1891Read the page →
Read the text
grouping of details into coherent chapters, Machiavelli first shows how the shaping of Italian states, the making of modern Italy, produced conditions that affected from within and from without the public life of Florence. Then he begins in his second book the History of Florence herself, which he brings down to his own time, and closes with the death of Lorenzo de' Medici ; natural end of an epoch in the History of Florence.
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Andersonville1879 · page 522Read the page →
Read the text
Just at dusk we came to the insignificant village of Florence, the junction of the road leading from Charleston to Cheraw with that running from Wilmington to Kingsville. It was about one hundred and twemy miles from Charleston, and the same distance from Wilmington. As our train ran through a cut near the junction a darky stood by the track gazing at us curiously. When the train had nearly jmssed him he started to run up the bank. In the imperfect light the guards mistook
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your albumOn the map
Florence on the map in 1985
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Florence.
1985Utica sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Florence.
Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Florence
Nobody well known was born in Florence itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Florence had its own post office from 1823 to 1953.
Florence
18201920today
Hamlets and corners on the map
EmpeyvilleFlorence Hill
Gone or out of use
School Number 1schoolSchool Number 11schoolSchool Number 12schoolSchool Number 14schoolSchool Number 15schoolSchool Number 3schoolSchool Number 4schoolSchool Number 5schoolSchool Number 8schoolSchool Number 9schoolUnion Churchchurch
5cemeteries and burying grounds inside Florence
DavisGravesGreelyJohnsonSaint Marys Church
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Florence’s history
What year was Florence founded?
The Florence post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.