South Carolina State...
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South Carolina Counties
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Lancaster County, South Carolina
Lancaster County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
County Seat: Lancaster
Year Organized: 1798
Square Miles: 549 |
Court House: P.O. Box 1809
County Courthouse
Lancaster, SC 29721-1809
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Etymology - Origin of County Name
Lancaster is named for Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Demographics:
County QuickFacts:
Census Bureau Quick Facts
History
Many of the early settlers came to South Carolina from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They had named their county for their
home in England, the region of the House of Lancaster which had opposed the House of York in the struggles of 1455-85,
known as the War of the Roses. The House of Lancaster chose the red rose as their emblem while their neighbor, York
County, boasts the white rose.
The Catawba Indians claimed all the present Lancaster County when the first pioneers came in the early 1750s and settled
between Rum Creek and Twelve Mile Creek. Waxhaw Creek within this area had taken its name from the Waxhaw Indian tribe.
The majority of the new settlers were Scots-Irish from Pennsylvania; others from North Carolina and Virginia joined
them. A second settlement was made in the lower part of the present Lancaster County on Hanging Rock Creek. The first
grant was made there in 1752, and included the huge overhanging mass of rock from which the creek takes its name. About
the time this section was opened up, others came in and settled along Lynches Creek, Little Lynches creek, Flat Creek,
Beaver Creek, and lower Camp Creek. In coming to the Lancaster area, the first settlers had to follow old Indian paths,
which became traveled so frequently, they were coming to be known as roads.
The Rocky River Road is an old route that originated as an Indian path. Along there in the American Revolutionary War,
Colonel Abraham Buford fled from Tarleton and was overtaken a few miles south of the N.C. state line where the Patriot
forces were defeated in a controversial struggle known as the Battle of Hanging Rock, also known as Bufords Massacre to
locals. Today, the Rocky River Road is part of South Carolina Highway 522, the latter following the old thoroughfare
very closely.
Lancaster County and its county seat were named for Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The county was formed in 1785, and
it was originally part of Camden District. A part of Lancaster County was removed in 1791 to form Kershaw County.
Scotch-Irish settlers from Pennsylvania began moving into this upstate region in the 1750s. The Waxhaws settlement on
the border with North Carolina was the birthplace of President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845). During the Revolutionary War
British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton earned his nickname of "Bloody" Tarleton by massacring American troops in this area
on May 29, 1780; the Battle of Hanging Rock was also fought in the county later the same year. Although Lancaster County
has been primarily agricultural, gold mining began there in the 1820s and textile manufacturing sprang up following the
Civil War. Governor and U.S. Senator Stephen Decatur Miller (1787-1838), surgeon J. Marion Sims (1813-1883),
industrialist Elliott White Springs (1896-1959), and astronaut Charles M. Duke, Jr. were all Lancaster County residents.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 555 square miles (1,438 Square kilometres),
of which, 549 square miles (1,422 kmē) of it is land and 6 square miles (16 kmē) of it (1.13%) is water. It is bound
on the west by the Catawba River and Sugar Creek,and on the east by the Lynches River. It is located so that a 3
hour drive takes residents to either the mountains or the oceanside.
Neighboring Counties:
- Union County, North Carolina - north
- Chesterfield County, South Carolina - east
- Kershaw County, South Carolina - south
- Fairfield County, South Carolina - southwest
- York County, South Carolina - west
- Chester County, South Carolina - west
- Mecklenburg County, North Carolina - northwest
Cities and Towns:
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- Heath Springs |
town |
Incorporated Area |
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- Kershaw |
town |
Incorporated Area |
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- Lancaster
(County
Seat) |
city |
Incorporated Area |
County Resources:
Enter County Resources and Information Here
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County Resource Guide
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The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic
features of our country!"
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.
Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally,
act locally." |
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Penn Foster High School
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