York County, South Carolina
U.S. County|
county = York County |
state = South Carolina |
seal = |
map = Map of South Carolina highlighting York County.png |
map size = 200 |
founded = |
seat =
York | area = 1,802
km² (696
mi²) |
area land = 1,768 km² (682 mi²) |
area water = 34 km² (13 mi²) |
area percentage = 1.91% |
census yr = 2000|
pop = 164,614 |
density = 93 |
web = www.yorkcountygov.com |}}
York County is a
county located in the
U.S. state of
South Carolina. According to the 2005 estimates by the
U.S. Census Bureau, the county's population stands at 190,097. Its
county seat is
York.
6York County is located in north central
South Carolina, bordered by
North Carolina to the north (specifically
Mecklenburg,
Cleveland, and
Gaston counties),
Chester County to the south,
Lancaster County to the east, and
Cherokee and
Union Counties to the west. Its natural boundaries are the
Broad River on the west and the
Catawba River on the east. All of York County is within the
piedmont region. Although heavily wooded in many rural areas and retaining a predominantly rural character in its western half, York County is considered part of the
greater Charlotte metropolitan region and includes
Rock Hill, the county's largest city, as well as the smaller towns of
Fort Mill and
Tega Cay, and increasing residential
development along
Lake Wylie.
According to the
U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,802
km² (696
mi²). 1,768 km² (682 mi²) of it is land and 34 km² (13 mi²) of it (1.91%) is water.
Pre-Colonial and Colonial HistoryHernando de Soto passed through the area in the
1540s in his search for
gold, and several decades later
Juan Pardo entered what is now York County and recorded his observation of a predominant
Native American tribe, later confirmed to be the
Catawba, in the vicinity of present-day
Fort Mill, on the eastern bank of the
Catawba River. A band of Siouan speakers with a population of nearly 6,000 at the time of first
European contact, the Catawba were primarily agriculturalists who gave much support to their new neighbors.
The
colony of South Carolina was founded in
1670, and it was divided into three counties 12 years later. Craven County, which roughly encompassed the northern half of South Carolina, included the southern half present-day York County, while the top portion of present-day York County was considered part of
North Carolina.
Before the boundary between the two Carolinas was fixed in
1772, the northern portion was part of
Bladen County, North Carolina, and in
1750 it was included in the newly created
Anson County; the first land grants and deeds for the region were issued in Anson County. In 1762
Mecklenburg County, was formed from western Anson County and included present-day northern York County. Five years later, the area became part of
Tryon County, which comprised all of
North Carolina west of the Catawba River and south of
Rowan County. The area would remain a part of Tryon County until
1772, when the boundary between North and South Carolina was finally established.
The first European settlers in the Carolina piedmont, or traditionally called the
Upcountry, were
Scots-Irish Presbyterians. Rising rent and land prices in
Pennsylvania drove them southward down the
Great Wagon Road, and they began arriving in the greater region west of the Catawba River during the
1740s and settled in present-day York County in the
1750s.
The New AcquisitionAfter its transfer to South Carolina in 1772, the much of the area was known as
the New Acquisition. In
1785, York County was one of the original counties in the newly created
South Carolina, and its boundaries remained unchanged until
1897, when a small portion of the northwestern corner of the county was ceded to the newly-formed
Cherokee County.
By
1780, the Carolina Upcountry had an estimated population of more than 250,000, predominantly Scots-Irish Presbyterians, with significant numbers of English, Welsh, native Irish, native Scots, Swiss, French and Germans. 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
"Four B" churches, all Presbyterianâ€"- Bethel, Bethesda, Beersheba and Bullock Creekâ€"- 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 the targets of Native American raids, and the local
militia became an early police force, patrolling the area for possible Native American or
slave troubles and controlling the seemingly numerous outlaw bands which roamed the region. Militia units, or "Beat Companies", enrolled every able-bodied man on the frontier.
Revolutionary WarResidents of the Upcountry were initially slow to take sides in the
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 apture of Charleston, but 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, a direct response to the Waxhaw Massacre, were fought in the New Acquisition, and Lord Cornwallis was forced northward, and ultimately to surrender at
Yorktown, after facing defeat in the Carolina Upcountry.
Early York CountyAfter playing a significant role in the defeat of the British, Upcountry residents enjoyed a greater share of administration in their region and experienced phenomenal growth after the war. In first
United States census, in
1790, York County had a population of 6,604; 923 were listed as slaves, and a quarter of the county's slaves belonged to just nine men. Less than 15% of its population lived in bondage in 1790, while the state averaged 30%.
Establishment of the County SeatA county seat was laid out in
1786 at Fergus's 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 and officially became
Yorkville. In
1823 its population, as recorded by
Robert Mills, was 441 and included 292 whites and 149 blacks. By 1840 the population had reached 600, and in 1850 Yorkville was comprised of 93 dwellings and 617 inhabitants. In the years just prior to the
Civil War, the town gained a reputation as a summer
resort for many
Lowcountry planters trying to escape the
malarial
swamps of the Lowcountry for the moderate climate to be found in the Upstate. By
1860, the population of the town had topped 1,300, an increase of more than 125% in only one decade. During the Civil War, the town also became a focal point for residents from the Lowcountry as a refugee destination during Federal
occupation of their towns.
Antebellum York County and the Civil WarWith the introduction of the
cotton gin in the
1790s, the county's economic prospects increased as the importance of
"King Cotton" grew, and slavery become an integral part of the economy. In 1800, 25% of all white families in the Upcountry owned slaves, but by 1820 nearly 40% were slaveholders. Slave ownership increased significantly in York County between 1800 and 1860, though most slaves worked on small and medium sized farms rather than large 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 slave holdings in York County were relatively small, with approximately 70% of all farms holding fewer than 10 slaves and less than 3% of the farms with 50 or more.
The proportion of York District farms in 1860 was:
* less than 50 acres (0.2 km²): 20 %
* 51 to 100 acres (0.2 to 0.4 km²): 23.9 %
* 101 to 500 acres (0.4 to 2 km²): 53.9 %
* more than 500 acres (2 km²): 2.7 %
In 1810 the York District had increased in population to more than 10,000, of which over 3,000 were slaves. By 1850, York District included 15,000 residents, over 40% of whom were slaves. On the eve of the Civil War, the county's population had grown to approximately 21,500, with almost 1/2 of the population enslaved labor. York County was heavily tied to agriculture, with 93% of the work force involved in raising crops in 1850, while the rest of the United States averaged a 78% agricultural work force.
In
1825 only three post offices operated in all of York County, at Yorkville, Blairsville and Hopewell. By 1852, however, York District had 27 post offices. The county's first newspaper,
The Yorkville Pioneer, was established in
1823, and ran for little more than a year, and was followed by several others until
The Yorkville Enquirer, which remains in publication today, was begun in
1855. 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 on the Charlotte and South Carolina, rapidly developed as a transportation center in eastern York County, from a crossroads with 100 residents in
1860. More than a dozen academies were operating in the county at the outbreak of the Civil War. The most famous was the Kings Mountain Military Academy in Yorkville, 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. The 1860 white male population of York County was just over 5,500. 14
infantry companies formed in York County after war was declared, and during the war the York District would have the highest death rate of any county in South Carolina. Only one minor battle was fought in the York District, the battle for the Catawba Bridge at Nation's Ford in
1865.
Postbellum York County and early industrializationReconstruction brought changes to established agricultural patterns. Many of York County's larger property owners were forced to sell off portions of their land to smaller farmers; the size of the average farm 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 and an ignorance of soil qualities and the benefits of
diversification, which eventually led to the agricultural difficulties of the
1890s and
1920s and
1930s. Railroad development continued in York County after the war's end, and 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 highly successful
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 centuryCotton production remained the dominant agriculture in early
20th century York County, and the
textile industry continued to develop. Rock Hill became the hub of this industry, while mills blossomed throughout the county. South Carolina's peak cotton crop was harvested in
1921 and thereafter, cotton production began a long and steady decline, due in part to the
boll weevil and
soil erosion. The
New Deal programs of the
1930s prodded farmers into switching to crops, and cotton gradually became less and less important to the economy.
In
1904 the Catawba Dam and Power Plant was completed. The Catawba Power Company had been founded in
1899 by William C. Whitner, Dr. Gill Wylie and his brother Robert Wylie. Construction began in
1900 and when finally completed, the
dam and
power plant were one of the most important engineering accomplishments in the
southeastern United States. The venture eventually led to the formation of
Duke Power Company, and a later series of dams and hydroelectric facilities were built on the Catawba in both North and South Carolina. The Catawba Power Plant sparked the
industrialization of the Catawba Valley; by
1911 more than a million textile
spindles were powered by it.
By the late 20th century, York County faced increasing developmental pressure from Charlotte and the decline of small-scale farming; however, much of York County remains rural in character.
As of the
census² of 2000, there were 164,614 people, 61,051 households, and 44,933 families residing in the county. The
population density was 93/km² (241/mi²). There were 66,061 housing units at an average density of 37/km² (97/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 77.25%
White, 19.16%
Black or
African American, 0.85%
Native American, 0.89%
Asian, 0.02%
Pacific Islander, 0.93% from
other races, and 0.91% from two or more races. 1.96% of the population were
Hispanic or
Latino of any race.
There were 61,051 households out of which 35.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.10% were
married couples living together, 13.30% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.40% were non-families. 21.30% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.90% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 3.05.
In the county, the population was spread out with 26.30% under the age of 18, 9.50% from 18 to 24, 31.10% from 25 to 44, 22.80% from 45 to 64, and 10.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 94.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.20 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $44,539, and the median income for a family was $51,815. Males had a median income of $36,713 versus $24,857 for females. The
per capita income for the county was $20,536. About 7.30% of families and 10.00% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 12.10% of those under age 18 and 9.60% of those age 65 or over.
York County has four public school districts.
District One serves central and western York County, including the town of York;
District Two serves northern York County and the town of Clover;
District Three serves the City of Rock Hill and southern York County;
District Four serves eastern York County and the town of Fort Mill.
York County is the home of
York Technical College,
Clinton Junior College, and
Winthrop University, all located in Rock Hill.
*
Clover*
Fort Mill*
Hickory Grove*
India Hook*
Lake Wylie*
Lesslie*
McConnells*
Newport*
Riverview*
Rock Hill*
Sharon*
Smyrna*
Tega Cay*
York*
York County government official website*
Anne Springs Close Greenway*
Bethel Presbyterian Church*
AAA Charlotte Knights*
City of Rock Hill*
Clinton Junior College*
Clover Chamber of Commerce*
Clover School District*
Culture & Heritage Museums of York County*
Fort Mill School District*
Kings Mountain Battleground*
Paramount's Carowinds*
Rock Hill School District*
U.S. Rep. John M. Spratt*
Stacy's Greenhouses*
Winthrop University*
York County Regional Chamber of Commerce*
York School District*
York Technical College*
The Yorkville Enquirer and The Clover Herald*
Yorkville Historical Society
