Kershaw, originally Welsh’s Station, was founded in 1888 when Capt. James V. Welsh persuaded the Charleston, Cincinnati, & Chicago Railroad to build a depot halfway between Camden and Lancaster on what was then the county line between Kershaw and Lancaster Counties. The town was incorporated later that year and renamed in honor of Maj. Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw, a prominent Confederate general and state senator from Camden. With a population of 500 by 1890, Kershaw grew even more dramatically after an 1897 fire destroyed most of downtown. By 1900, a guide to Lancaster County called it “a pretty and prosperous town of about fifteen hundred inhabitants.” Among its most significant early businesses were the Kershaw Oil Mill, established in 1902, and the Kershaw Cotton Mill, established in 1912. The Benton Hotel on S. Cleveland St. was well known and frequently hosted tourists visiting the nearby Haile Gold Mine.