Bellamy was founded by Evan F. Allison and established as a sawmill town in 1899 with the Allison Lumber Company. It was the home of Sumter County's first hospital, and also a pressing shop, shoe shop, carpentry businesses, library & telephone office, post office, two recreation halls, commissary, filling station, two swimming pools (one for whites & one for blacks), three churches (one for whites & two for blacks), a hotel, slaughter house, opera house, train depot, and gambling house.
As tradition states, the residents of the town decided to break the tradition of naming the town after some prominent citizen or famous person. Instead, they sought out the least respected person in town, Mr. Volney Bellamy, a Union Army veteran, and named the town for him.
The town is located on US Hwy 80 in Sumter County, East of Hwy 17 about 7 miles, and West of where Hwy 28 intersects Hwy 80. Very little of the original town buildings remain, but many of the old original small houses are still there and occupied.
