Committee Report

March 27, 2025

H. 4215

Introduced by Reps. Collins, Bowers and Hiott

S. Printed 3/27/25--H.

Read the first time March 25, 2025

________

The committee on House Invitations and Memorial Resolutions

To whom was referred a Concurrent Resolution (H. 4215) to request the Department of Transportation name the bridge over Twelve Mile River on South Carolina Highway 183 in Pickens County "General Andrew Pickens Bridge", etc., respectfully

Report:

That they have duly and carefully considered the same, and recommend that the same do pass:

DENNIS MOSS for Committee.

_______

A concurrent RESOLUTION

To request the Department of Transportation name the bridge over Twelve Mile River on South Carolina Highway 183 in Pickens County "General Andrew Pickens Bridge" and erect appropriate signs or markers at this location containing these words.

Whereas, born September 13, 1739, in Bucks County in the Province of Pennsylvania, Andrew Pickens, the son of Scots-Irish immigrants became a towering figure in South Carolina's Revolutionary War and spawned a political dynasty; and

Whereas, the family first settled in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in hopes of finding a new home. The family moved to the Waxhaws on the South Carolina frontier in 1752. Pickens sold his farm there in 1764 and bought land in Abbeville County near the Georgia border. He married Rebecca Floride Calhoun the following year and started a family that would number twelve children of which ten survived to adulthood; and

Whereas, Pickens served in the Cherokee War from 1759 to 1761; became a colonel in the Upper Ninety Six Regiment in 1778 and led the South Carolina militia at the Battle of Cowpens in 1781, a key victory for the Patriots in the Revolutionary War. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier general following this campaign. A devout God-fearing Christian, Pickens was known as the "Fighting Elder" because of his strong Presbyterian faith. He also was a planter and slaveholder, establishing Hopewell Plantation on the east side of the Keowee River; and

Whereas, at the end of the war, Pickens was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives (1781-1794); was a South Carolina delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787; and was elected to the Third Congress (1793-1795) serving as an anti-administration member opposing the policies of US Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamiliton. His son, Ezekiel, was elected lieutenant governor of South Carolina serving from 1802 to 1804; Andrew Pickens Jr. was elected governor of the State, serving from 1817-1819; and grandson Francis Wilkinson Pickens also became governor serving from 1860-1862; and

Whereas, Andrew Pickens died near Tamassee in Oconee Couty on August 11, 1817, and is buried at Old Stone Church Cemetery in Clemson. His Hopewell Plantation is now owned and maintained by Clemson University, and Pickens County and the City of Pickens are his namesakes. With a legacy so richly woven into South Carolina's military and political history, and the celebration of the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence set for July 4, 2026, it is only proper and fitting that this son of the Palmetto State also be honored with a bridge bearing his name. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

That the members of the South Carolina General Assembly, by this resolution, request the Department of Transportation name the bridge over Twelve Mile River on South Carolina Highway 183 in Pickens County "General Andrew Pickens Bridge" and erect appropriate signs or markers at this location containing these words.

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Department of Transportation.

----XX---