A Little About Cherokee County South Carolina
Cherokee County South Carolina is located in the
upstate section of South Carolina east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and south of
the North Carolina piedmont. The county was formed in 1897 from parts of York,
Spartanburg, and Union Counties. [See this
1895 map of what is now Cherokee County to determine where your research should
begin.] This makes us a relatively new county without much of the
historical record keeping that some others have. Even so, we are a
community rich in history. We are bordered by our parent counties on three
sides and by the North Carolina counties of Cleveland and Rutherford to the
north. We are reached by Interstate 85 and US29. The county seat is
Gaffney. There is a great picture of the Limestone Street business
district as it was in 1912 on the
Gaffney postcard
page. Prior to about the 1930's, Cherokee County industry was
primarily agricultural. From then until relatively recently the county has
relied on textiles and manufacturing.
The Naming of Cherokee County South Carolina
Cherokee County seems to have been so named for as
much political reasons as any other. It seems to have originally
been a move to encourage a positive vote from the residents of the area around
Cherokee Falls and those of the Cherokee Township to support formation of a new
county with separation from York, Spartanburg, and Union Counties in 1897.
Reasoning that
Cherokee Falls was among the earliest villages in the area and that the area had
been home to the Cherokee Nation before 1750 led
to general acceptance of the name throughout the area.
In a vote on the name of the new county, Cherokee won over Limestone by a landslide...primary
source - The Gaffney Ledger at
A
Slice of History
It is clear from early (pre-1800)
historical accounts of the area, that the Broad River was the western boundary
of the Catawba Nation and that same boundary was the eastern boundary of the
Cherokee Nation. [see
our Native Research
Page for more on this] There are scant indications that either nation
frequented the area, instead considering it "no mans land" between the
two boundaries. There probably should be some archaeological study in the
areas around the Broad River and the known trading path through the county to
determine the influence of the native nations in what is now Cherokee
County. There are anthropological and genealogical indications that
descendants of the early native nations still reside in the communities that
make up Cherokee County South Carolina.
|
|