York County, South Carolina: 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.
Before the boundaries between the two Carolinas were fixed, 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.
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. …