Following his discharge from the Confederate Army, John James Britton began buying farm property on the Pocotaligo Swamp in 1864. His grandfather, Henry Britton, had come to the Sumter area from Britton’s Neck in Marion County in 1806. By the late 1800s, J.J. Britton had built a large home on this road just north of this location, and farming remained the main business until the early 1900s. Beginning as a large-scale farming operation, John Bossard Britton, grandson of J.J. Britton, expanded the business to include a general store, cotton gin, planing mill, and fertilizer plant. Along the Atlantic Coastline Railroad, which ran one mile east, Britton Siding grew enough to become a regular flag station by 1915.