Barker's Mill stood here on Jackson Branch as a grist mill owned by William Ransome Barker (1816-1869), a planter in what was then Barnwell District. Barker moved to this area in the 1850s, built a house about 2 mi. north, and established a cotton plantation of 2,000~3,000 acres that he named Sycamore; the town of Sycamore, chartered in 1891, took its name from the plantation. On February 2, 1865, as Gen. W.T. Sherman's Federals advanced toward Columbia, units of Gen. F.P. Blair's XVII Corps clashed with Confederate cavalry at the bridge over Jackson Branch. The Confederates retreated over the bridge, but the Federals did not cross until reinforced after dark. A Confederate withdrawal then opened the way for a Federal advance to Buford's and Rivers Bridge.