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Overview: Anderson County History
The Northwest Section of South Carolina was at one time a
part of Georgia. The line was the Seneca River west to the Tugaloo River,
then north to the North Carolina line. The current state line was
established by a SC/Georgia compact on April 28, 1787.
Warfare between the Whites and the Cherokees were frequent. The few Pioneers
who settled in this section were not sufficient to develop and protect
themselves before the treaty of 1777.
At the end of the Revolution, Andrew Pickens, Col. Ben Hawkins who was the Indian Agent for North Carolina, Joseph Martin of Tennessee, Locklear McIntosh of Georgia and Old Tassel Chief of the Cherokees, with Nancy Ward (who was a friend to the Whites and was the first White woman to make a public address in America). They all met at Due West South Carolina on May 20, 1777 and signed the Treaty of Hopewell. This opened up a whole new section for the Whites. The Cherokees ceded one third of North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee to the Whites in this Treaty.
Large numbers of families from Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and
some from the SC Low Country came to the new territory and settled.
Some large land grants were made to Revolutionary soldiers, who divided it
out and sold to smaller settlers. This section was settled at such rapid
rate that the Capitol was moved from Charleston to Columbia in 1790.
Benjamin Cleveland, a patriot from Wilkes county North Carolina and hero of
Kings Mountain, came from Culpepper County, Virginia with his wife Mary
Graves in 1775 to Wilkes County was granted 3,000 acres on the Tugaloo River
for his part in the Revolution as a soldier.
In 1790 Pendleton village was organized and in the census of 1790 Pendleton
District had 10,000 people. In 1778, lands were set aside between the Keowee
and Tugaloo rivers for Revolutionary soldiers and the land rush was on. Some
squatters had come before the revolution and some came to avoid the
Revolution. Benjamin Cleveland, Bolin, David and Edward Clark, Edward
Vandiver, Joshua Dyer, William Jackson, Andrew Pickens, John Miller, William
Holbert, Henry Clarke, Jim Moffett, Robert Anderson were some of the first
land owners in the District. Elisha Dyer, son of James Dyer of Granville
County North Carolina, came to settle here before going on to Hart County
Georgia, where he died at the age of 90. His descendants came to Walker
County, GA. Edwin Dyer was a very prominent Baptist preacher in this
section.
Anderson County and its county seat, Anderson, were named for Revolutionary War general Robert Anderson (1741-1812). This region was occupied by the Cherokee Indians until 1777, when it was ceded by treaty to the state.
Part of the "Indian Land" became Pendleton District (also called Washington District at one time.) The area was given its present name in 1826, when Pendleton District was split into Anderson and Pickens. Most of the early settlers of this area were Scotch-Irish farmers who moved south from Pennsylvania and Virginia in the eighteenth century. The oldest town in the county is Pendleton, which was founded around 1790; it became a popular summer resort for low country planters in the nineteenth century. Some famous residents of Anderson County were United States senator and governor Olin D. Johnston (1896-1965), business leader Charles E. Daniel (1895-1964), and composer Lily Strickland (1884-1958). (Submitted by: SC State Library / Mary Morgan, 31-Mar-2008)
For hundreds of years the great Cherokee Nation made its home in the Upstate. The Native Americans traveled along the creeks and rivers fishing and hunting for wild turkeys, deer and rabbits. The Cherokee capitol was called Keowee Town. Their Keowee Trail followed the Savannah River from Keowee Town to Charleston. In the Cherokee language Keowee means ‘River of Muscatine’s.’
White and black settlers began arriving in our area in the mid 1700s (250 years ago) after the opening of the Great Wagon Road that stretched from Pennsylvania to Georgia. The Cherokee resented the intrusion on their land, and there was considerable violence between the Indians and the settlers. Following the American Revolution, the Native Americans ceded their land to South Carolina in a treaty administered by General Andrew Pickens in the late 1700s. State officials named the area the Pendleton District, and the town of Pendleton was established as the district seat of government.
In 1826, as more and more people came to the district, state officials split the area in two. The split created Anderson and Pickens Counties. Both counties were named for officers in the American Revolutionary War, General Andrew Pickens and Col. Robert Anderson. The town of Pendleton was very close to the border of the new counties, so it was decided that the county seat for Anderson County would need to be changed. A county courthouse was built in the center of the county in 1826, and soon streets were laid out surrounding the courthouse and the town of Anderson Courthouse {now Anderson} was born. The original building was made of logs. Ten years later a courthouse made of bricks replaced it.
The county’s economy was based on farming. Farmers grew corn, tobacco, and rice. Later, they grew cotton as their cash crop. By the late 1800s, the county became industrialized as numerous textile mills were established. William Whitner, an Anderson engineer, experimented with transmitting electricity, and his experiments made it possible to send electricity through wires over a distance which meant that mills could be established and powered anywhere in the county. Anderson became known as the Electric City.