Ellenton, S.C. was created as a train stop for the Port Royal Railroad. A section of the railroad line ran through the farmlands of Robert Jefferson Dunbar who gave acreage to the railroad company for their right-of-way. He also gave land for the streets when Ellenton was laid out in 1870. The superintendent of the railroad construction, Mr. Millet, was a boarder at Dunbar’s home and there became fascinated with an attractive nineteen-year old named Ellen. He named the railroad crossing “Ellen’s Town” in her honor and the name evolved into Ellenton in 1873.