York County is a county on the north central border in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,090, making it the seventh-most populous county in the state. Its county seat is the city of York, and its most populous community is Rock Hill. One Interstate Highway serves the county, Interstate 77. York County is part of the Charlotte metropolitan area.
History Pre-colonial and early colonial history With a population of nearly 6,000 at the time of first European contact, the native inhabitants, the Catawba, were primarily agriculturalists. Hernando de Soto passed through the area in the 1540s in his search for gold. Several decades later Juan Pardo recorded his observation of a predominantly Native American tribe, later confirmed to be the Catawba, in the vicinity of present-day Fort Mill, east of the Catawba River.
The Province of South Carolina was founded in 1670. Twelve years later, it was divided into three counties. One of these, Craven County, roughly encompassed the northern half of the colony (including the southern half of present-day York County). In contrast, the northern portion of York County was considered part of North Carolina.
The first European settlers in the Carolina Piedmont, traditionally called the South Carolina Upcountry, were Scots-Irish Presbyterians. They comprised the most numerous immigrants from the British Isles in the eighteenth century and the latest to arrive. Rising rent and land prices in western Pennsylvania drove them southward down the Great Wagon Road, and they began arriving in the Upcountry west of the Catawba River during the 1740s. They settled in present-day York County during the 1750s.
North Carolina's rule Before the boundaries between the two Carolinas were fixed,Note: Several boundary changes took place between 1772 and 1805 the northern portion of York County was part of Bladen County, North Carolina, and in 1750 it was included in the newly created Anson County, North Carolina (the first land grants and deeds for the region were issued in Anson). In 1762 Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, was formed from western Anson and included present-day northern York County. Five years later, the area became part of Tryon County, North Carolina, which comprised all of North Carolina west of the Catawba River and south of Rowan County. This area would remain a part of Tryon County until 1772 when the boundary between North and South Carolina in this portion was finally established.Tryon County, North Carolina History, Alfred Nixon, 1910, accessed ???
18th century After its transfer to South Carolina in 1772, much of the area was known as the New Acquisition. In 1785, York County was one of the original counties in the newly created state of South Carolina. Its boundaries remained unchanged until 1897 when a small portion of the northwestern corner (including the site of the Battle of Kings Mountain) was ceded to the newly formed Cherokee County, South Carolina.
By 1780, the Carolina Upcountry had an estimated population of more than 250,000, predominantly Scots-Irish Presbyterians but with significant numbers of other Protestants from Great Britain. The Scots-Irish settled in a dispersed community pattern denoted by communal, clannish, family-related groups known as "clachans", much the same as in Pennsylvania and Ulster, Northern Ireland. The clachans developed around the Presbyterian Kirks, or meetinghouses, and became the forerunners of the congregations. In York County, the "Five B" churches, all Presbyterian—Bethany, Bethel, Bethesda, Beersheba, and Bullock's Creek—are the county's oldest.
Sandwiched between unfriendly natives to the west, Cherokee, Shawnee and Creek Native American tribes, and indifference on the part of English officials in Charleston, who considered residents of the Backcountry uncivilized, the early settlers frequently found themselves targets of Native American raids. The local militia became an early police force, patrolling the area for possible Native American or enslaved rebellions and controlling the seemingly numerous outlaw bands that roamed the region. Militia units, or "Beat Companies", enrolled every able-bodied man on the frontier.
Residents of the Upcountry were initially slow to take sides in the American Revolutionary War, content to remain neutral as long as left unmolested; the conflict was initially viewed as one between the British Crown and Charleston plutocrats. The New Acquisition entered into vocal opposition to Royal authority in 1780 only after three "invasions" of the region: the first by Banastre Tarleton and his "Green Dragoons", and two more by Lord Cornwallis. Most of the state had capitulated to the British after their capture of Charleston. Still, after the Waxhaw massacre in nearby Lancaster County in May 1780, residents of the New Acquisition took part in a regional resistance. Led by men such as William "Billy" Hill, William Bratton, and Samuel Watson, both the battles of Huck's Defeat and Kings Mountain, were fought in the New Acquisition. These defeats forced Cornwallis northward and led to his ultimate surrender at Yorktown.
After the defeat of the British, Upcountry residents enjoyed a more significant share of administration in their region. The area experienced phenomenal growth after the war. In the first United States census (1790), York County had a population of 6,604; 923 were listed as enslaved, with just nine men enslaving 230. Less than 15% of the county's population lived in bondage in 1790, while the state averaged 30%.
A county seat was laid out in 1786 at Fergus' Cross Roads, where several roads converged near the geographic center of the county. The new town was first known as the village of York, or more commonly, York Court House. In 1841, the town was incorporated as "Yorkville." In 1823, its population (as recorded by local architect, Robert Mills) was 441—which included 292 whites and 149 blacks. By 1840, the population had reached 600; in 1850, Yorkville consisted of 93 dwellings and 617 inhabitants. In the years just before the Civil War, the town gained a reputation as a summer resort for many Lowcountry planters trying to escape the malarial swamps of the region for the more moderate climate to be found in the Upstate. By 1860, the town's population had topped 1,300—an increase of more than 125% in only one decade. During the American Civil War, the town became a focal point for residents from the Lowcountry as a refugee destination during U.S. Army occupation of their towns.
19th century Early 19th century through Civil War With the introduction of the cotton gin in the 1790s, the county's economic prospects increased as the importance of "King Cotton" grew, and slavery became an integral part of the economy. In 1800, 25% of all white families in the Upcountry enslaved people, but by 1820, nearly 40% were enslavers. Slavery expanded significantly in York County between 1800 and 1860, with most enslaved on small and medium-sized farms rather than more extensive plantations. In 1800, whites made up 82.10% of the total population in York County, but by 1860, the white percentage of the total population had dropped to 62.50%. Figures from 1860 reveal that enslavement in York County had decreased, with approximately 70% of all farms enslaving fewer than ten people and less than 3% of the farms with 50 or more.
The proportion of York District farms in 1860 was: Less than : 20% 51 to 100 acres (0.2 to ): 23.9% 101 to 500 acres (0.4 to ): 53.9% More than : 2.7%
In 1810, the York District had an increased population of more than 10,000, of which over 3,000 were enslaved. By 1850, York District included 15,000 residents, over 40% enslaved. On the eve of the American Civil War, the county's population had grown to approximately 21,500, with almost 1/2 enslaved laborers. York County was heavily tied to agriculture, with 93% of the workforce raising crops in 1850, while the rest of the United States averaged a 78% agricultural workforce.
In 1825, only three post offices operated in York County, at Yorkville, Blairsville, and Hopewell, but by 1852, York District had 27. The county's first newspaper, The Yorkville Pioneer, was established in 1823 (it ran for little more than a year), and several other attempts followed until The Yorkville Enquirer was first published in 1855 (and which remains in publication today).
Chartered in 1848, the Kings Mountain Railroad Company began construction of a connecting line between Yorkville and the Charlotte and South Carolina Railway at Chester (completed in 1852). Rock Hill, located along the Charlotte and South Carolina route, rapidly developed as a transportation center in eastern York County, boasting 100 residents in 1860.
At the American Civil War outbreak, more than a dozen academies were operating in the county. The Kings Mountain Military Academy in Yorkville was the most famous, founded in 1854 by Micah Jenkins and Asbury Coward.
On the eve of the Civil War, York District was one of the more populated districts in Upstate South Carolina., p. 35 There were 14 infantry companies formed in York County after South Carolina declared secession. Of the 4,379 soldiers enlisted from York County, 805 died, and many more were wounded.Willoughby, Lynn; p. 35 Only one minor battle was fought in the York District, the battle for the Catawba Bridge at Nations Ford in 1865.
Late 19th century Between 1868 and 1871, York County became a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan attacks on African Americans. The Klan had an estimated 2,000 members in the county in 1871. Among their activities was the lynching of Jim Williams on March 6, 1871, led by Dr. J. Rufus Bratton. K Troop of the 7th Cavalry Regiment was charged with suppressing them. To escape the violence, in November 1871, a large group of local blacks, led by Rev. Elias Hill, a disabled anti-Klan activist beaten by Klansmen, emigrated to Liberia.Witt, John Fabian. Patriots and Cosmopolitans: Hidden Histories of American Law. Harvard University Press, June 30, 2009, p85-86, 128–149 York is believed by some to be the setting for Thomas F. Dixon, Jr.'s novel The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan, later made into the motion picture "The Birth of a Nation", and Bratton is said to have been the inspiration for one of its characters.
During the Reconstruction era, many of York County's more prominent property owners were forced to sell portions of their land to smaller farmers. The average farm size in York County dropped considerably while the number of small farming operations increased. Late-19th-century agriculture in York County was characterized by relatively small farm operations, ignorance of soil qualities, and the benefits of diversification, eventually leading to the agricultural difficulties of the 1890s, 1920s, and 1930s.
Railroad development continued in York County after the war's end. In 1880, the Rock Hill Cotton Factory, the first steam-powered cotton factory in South Carolina, ushered in a new era of agricultural expansion and industrial development. The Rock Hill Buggy Company, founded by John Gary Anderson, eventually grew to become the Anderson Motor Company, the first automobile manufacturing facility in the South. Concurrently, Rock Hill's population increased from 809 to over 5,500 from 1880 to 1895.
20th century