Originally called Russell Place for Irish immigrant William Russell, who settled near here on a branch of Beaver Creek in 1768, this community was passed through by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1865 on his way to North Carolina. James Robert Magill moved here in 1871 and served in the S.C. House of Representatives from 1887 to 1888 and the S.C. Senate from 1889 to 1894; for several years around the turn of the 20th century, the post office here was called Magill. In 1906, Stewart William Heath moved here, operated the Southern Granite Company, and built his own railroad, the Central Railroad of South Carolina, which ran from the quarry to Heath Springs. Italian immigrant John George Sassi lived here for several years and, as the quarry's stonecutter using Stoneboro Granite, sculpted the Confederate monument that stands in front of the Lancaster County Court House.