The original Barnwell (Winton) court records, bound in a unique, shingle-bound manuscript, are preserved in the Barnwell County Archives and date back to 1786. Court was originally held in private homes on plantations. The first courthouse had been built by August 3, 1879, in the Boiling Springs section on three acres of land given by Thomas Wyld and John Mitchell. In 1791 the county seat was moved to Barnwell Village. Court was held here at the house of Benjamin Odom, Sr. In 1799, Benjamin Odom donated five acres of land to the State of South Carolina for the site of a courthouse, which is the present location. The courthouse was built in 1800, but it was a wooden structure of poor quality. Another building was built in 1819, and the original one was torn down. A new courthouse was occupied by 1848. In February 1865, General Kilpatrick’s Calvary burned the village and the courthouse. Immediately after destruction of the courthouse, money was allocated for a temporary jail, and court was held in the Presbyterian Church until 1869, when the county seat was changed to Blackville by an act of the Reconstruction Legislature. Court was held in Blackville 1869-1873. It was returned to Barnwell by legislative ordered referendum in 1874. The final action was taken in May 1875 by public vote. In 1878 the contract was let to J. Whilden Woodward and associates, J. H. Woodward and W. T. Blanton; and the final cost amounted to $16,719.45. The jail was completed in October 1878, and the courthouse was completed in February 1879. The present courthouse building was the fourth building located on the grounds given by Benjamin Odom, Sr.