Hampton County · Marker 25-28
Steele Missionary School
146 Zion Fair Rd., Varnville vicinity
Front inscription
Northern teacher Almira S. Steele opened a school for African American children at this site c.1885. Part of the American Missionary Association’s outreach to southern freedpeople, the school was destroyed by fire in 1893. Elizabeth E. Wright, later founder of Voorhees College in Denmark, S.C., subsequently worked to build a new industrial school here. It burned before opening and relocated.
Zion Fair Colored School
In 1914, Zion Fair Baptist Church deeded ¼ acre of land to Tuten School District #3 to build a public school for African Americans in the McNeills community. Known as the Zion Fair or Camp Branch Colored School, the one-room school enrolled approx. 30-40 pupils each year. it closed c.1945. Students then attended a new Antioch-Camp Branch School located ¾ mi. away.