The Blenheim post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Three Creeks (1880), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 95 in 18902020 census: 115143 years
Founding year: the first Blenheim post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Blenheim’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 253 in 1930; 115 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Blenheim’s Wikipedia page.
The story so far
Blenheim, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Blenheim yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Blenheim is a town in Marlboro County, South Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, Blenheim had a population of 115. It is named for Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England. Blenheim Palace was the residence of the Duke of Marlborough, after whom Marlboro County is named. Blenheim Ginger Ale was originally bottled in Blenheim, with the local mineral water.
Its first post office opened in 1883. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 154 to 115 (-25%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Blenheim in 1897
Passages that mention Blenheim, cut from the printed page as they were published.
any man in the county. He also devotes a large share of his time and attention to mercantile pursuits, and has been more largely instrumental in building up the town of Blenheim than any other person. He was the pioneer merchant of the place, and perhaps **builded better than.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Great Pee Dee Presbyterian church, now located at Blenheim, is considered the parent church of the Bennettsville Presbyterian church. The old church yet stands five miles from Bennettsville on the public road leading from Bennettsville to Blenheim. The Great Pee Dee church, being inconvenient for the worshippers living at Bennettsville, in 1852 measures were adopted looking towards the erection of a building in Bennettsville. A
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.
Timeline
Blenheim, 1880 to 1972
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
2021
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