On August 13, 1704, the celebrated battle of Blenheim was won by the Duke of Marlborough. This signal defeat proved fatal to the plans of Louis XIV, of France, for the French and Bavarian army was almost annihilated in the battle. The Duke of Marlborough, the hero of a hundred battles, was rewarded by his King for the successful issue of the struggle. The manor and honor of Woodstock were conferred on him by the King, and the Queen ordered that a palace should there be built, to be called Blenheim, and there to-day in Blenheim Castle resides the young Duke of Marlborough, who a year or so ago, came to this country and persuaded (?) an American girl to return with him and act in the capacity of Lady Marlborough. 

Blenheim, a little town lying seven miles south from Bennettsville, was named in honor of the battle of Blenheim, or more properly speaking of the castle of Blenheim. The late Donald  Matheson saw the propriety of so naming it, and suggested the name. He doubtless often wondered why the county seat of Marlboro should have been called Bennettsville, instead of Blenheim, and when the opportunity arose for having a Blenheim in Marlboro, he gladly embraced it. Mr. Matheson was born in Alladale, Ross-shire, Scotland, July 19, 1810, and landed in this country at Charleston, November 29, 1825. He remained there two years or more, spent a year in Sumter, went from there to Marion, and from Marion came to Marlboro. For a while he taught school, both in the Brownsville and Parnassus neighborhoods; and for a few years was employed as a salesman by the Messrs. Townsend near Parnassus, and afterwards by John McCollum at Bennettsville. He married Miss Margaret McLeod, and settled first in Brownsville, but in a few years moved to the place of his late residence near Blenheim. His death occurred a few years ago. He was an intelligent, cultured gentleman, and good blood coursed in his veins. 

For fifty years or more there has been a settlement at Blenheim. Several wealthy planters who owned plantations near the river, built summer houses at Mineral Spring, or Spring Hill (called by both names), where they resided during the summer months. It being unhealthy on the river on the summer, they annually moved out to the Spring for the double purpose of finding a healthy locality and good cold water.  Gen. John McQueen, Dr. Alexander McLeod, Samuel Sparks, and B.N. Rogers, with their families, during the summer months, together with the people living near by, made quite a pleasant, intelligent little community in the years gone by. The old people who formed that ante-bellum settlement have all passed away, but their descendants and others have come upon the ground, opened streets, built houses, and now have the town of Blenheim upon the maps. The Mineral Spring, the pride of the town, was discovered by James Spears, Sr., in the year 1781. 

A.J. Matheson, the merchant prince of the town, is a son of Donald Matheson mentioned above. 

By indomitable energy and close attention to business, he has, while yet comparatively a young man, amassed quite a sung fortune. He is the largest owner of real estate in the county, and plants a larger number of acres in cotton, and makes more bales than any man in the county. He also devotes a large share of his time and attention to mercantile pursuits, and has been more largely instrumental in building up the town of Blenheim than any other person. He was the pioneer merchant of the place, and perhaps "builded better than he knew," when he established the first store there at the Cross-roads.

The late F.B. Rogers shrewdly suspected that Blenheim would by a great point for trade, and built a store on another corner of the cross, and bough the farm of Geo. Dudley lying adjacent, as well as quite a number of other farms in the community. Blenheim is a city of parsonages, three being located there, so that preachers sometimes know how to appreciate a good thing when they see it. 

Forty years ago, living in the locality of Blenheim, and on both sides of the creek, were a class of honest, honorable, intelligent and industrious men, who did not cringe and beg the world for a living, but by hard and well directed licks made their own living. The McRaes, Jack and Phillip; James Spears, and Light Townsend, the father of John R., Mrs. T.E. Dudley, Mrs. John Irby, and Mrs. W.F. Kinney, knew how to make money by farming. Major Drake, on some of his broad acres, may have given his son, Z.J. Drake, valuable lessons in making corn, which he used to advantage in his successful race against the world a few years ago. The Major may not have thought it possible to make 250 bushels per acre, but he doubtless made enough to keep his mules, sheep, hogs and negroes all fat, and a surplus to sell besides. Daniel John taught his sons the possibilities of the Marlboro sil, and they yet know how to make big crops of big potatoes, heavy corn and heavy hogs, and plenty of cotton as a surplus crop. 

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