In 1784, brothers Paul and Jacob Walters, seeking refuge from the malaria-ridden rice swamps of the coast, built log cabin summer homes in the pinelands of this area and established the settlement that later became Walterboro. Known today as Hickory Valley, it was the site of the first homes of rice planters from the Edisto, Combahee, and Ashepoo plantations. The Walterborough Society building, originally constructed in 1820 on the present site of St. Jude’s Episcopal Church, became the focal point in 1826 for setting town boundaries extending three-quarters of a mile in every direction when the town was incorporated. The Bedon-Lucas House, built in 1820, stood where Richard Bedon designated the site for relocating the Library Society from the St. Jude’s Church lot. Nearby, Bethel Presbyterian Church traces its history on the site from an original chapel of 1821 to a frame church built in 1860, destroyed by the 1879 tornado, an 1880 white frame church that burned in 1966, and the present structure built in 1969. St. Jude’s Episcopal Church succeeded St. Bartholomew's Parish, established in 1706 near Jacksonborough; its 1852 summer Chapel of Ease was destroyed by a cyclone in 1879, and the present Carpenter-Gothic style building was completed in 1882. Across Wichman Street, St. Peter's AME Church, founded in 1867 to serve former slaves, was also rebuilt after the 1879 cyclone destroyed its earlier building.