I have this romantic notion that when I visit places my ancestors lived, that I will get some divine inspiration or understanding. It has been fun visiting these places but I certainly have not uncovered or learned anything special.
This past April, I took a road trip through South Carolina and visited McCool Ferry’s Road, near Chester SC. If you want to visit, take highway 9 west from Chester, turn left on State Road 535 (Roy Wade Road/Wood’s Ferry Road), then turn right on Worthy’s Ferry Road. Continue about 5 miles to the end of McCool’s Ferry Road. Google (the above link) provides a very good map and one street view (nice!).
The McCool ferry was operated by Adam McCool through the early 1800s. It was located on the Broad River, which you can see on the Google map. This area is part of the Sumter National Forest and is fairly remote.
The above image is from my iPhone GPS program. The smaller road (Wood Duck Road/McCool’s Ferry Road) was gated. I was able to drive to the end of the main McCool’s Ferry Road.
There is one very rough road, unmarked by GPS, ungated but with a Closed to Vehicles sign. I did not explore on foot because it was remote, late in the day, I was alone, and had a rental car. I suspect that this unmarked road goes to the river. Hopefully I will get back to the area and learn McCool history–but I wanted to share this little bit.
Here are some photos I took along the road (click on each to open a super large version):
This is where Wood Duck Road ends and McCool’s Ferry Road begins (my car just came from McCool’s Ferry Road). To the right of the car is the gated road (a public dove field) and the other road is a forest service road.
McCool's Ferry Road looks mostly like this. It is dirt but easy to drive.
This is the unmarked rough road, that probably leads to the river.
Near the end of McCool's Ferry Road
Was really interested in seeing the pictures of the ares of the ferry in Chester co S.C. I am descended from Adam McCool through his son, John who was married to Jane Love. Their son, A. P. McCool(born in 1799) married Lucretia Ratteree –their son was William Love McCool, M.D.(born 1836) who was married to Amanda Tyler. Their daughter was Zepha McCool (my grandmother) who married William Columbus Haltom,M.D. and their son, William Lorenz Haltom,M.D. was my father. Would love to have more pictures from that area and would also like to know where Adam and John were buried.