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About Union County, South Carolina
Note: Our Robert White Sr arrived Union County SC, about 1788, as the Padgett Creek church records indicate, however, it is likely he arrived earlier, possibly, soon after the Revolutionary war.
1772
Until the border between North and South Carolina was established in 1772, there was confusion about where the area that would eventually become Union County was located. Thus, early Union County land grants can be found in both states.
Below is a list of Counties/Districts that Union County, was once considered part of: When researching genealogical material keep this is mind.
1683 (Old Berkely County, SC)
???? (Old Craven County, SC)
1749 (Anson County, NC)
1757 (St Mark's Parish SC)
1763 (Mecklenburg County, NC)
1769 (Tryon County, NC)
1769 (Ninety-Six (96) District)
1785 (Union County Formed from the Ninety-Six)
1791 (Pinckney Judicial District formed)
In 1791, the Pinckney Judicial District was established, comprising Union, Spartanburg, York, and Chester counties. Discontinued in 1798 to form Union the York Cos.
1800 (Pinckney Judicial abolished)
1800-1868 (Union Co, known as Union District)
1897 (Part of Union Co removed to form Cherokee Co SC)
In 1897, the northern portion of Union County was taken to form part of Cherokee County, SC. This area included Draytonsville and Goudiesville Townships.
Union County is bordered on the east by the Broad River and Chester and York Counties; on the north by the Pacolet River and Cherokee County; on the west by Spartanburg County; on the southwest by the Enoree River and Laurens County; on the south by Newberry County; and on the southeast by the Tyger River and Fairfield County.
As of July 1960, Union County consisted of eight townships. Union Township is located in the center of the county. The remaining seven townships are (clockwise): Jonesville (northwest), Pinckney (northeast), Santuck (east-central), Fishdam (southeast), Goshen Hill (south), Cross Keys (southwest), Bogansville (west - central).
The following are some towns that are located in present-day Union County: Union - the county seat (9,836 population, 1990 census), Jonesville (1,205), Carlisle (470), West Springs (150), Kelton (130), Adamsburg (80), Lockhart (58), and Cross Keys (50).
Union County's changing population reflects its history. The following description is primarily based on information from The Narrative History of Union County, South Carolina by Allan D. Charles.
Migration from VA - PA
The migration of European settlers from Virginia and Pennsylvania into Union County as early as 1751 was encouraged by the availability of free frontier land. This migration was accelerated by the Treaty of 1755 between South Carolina Governor James Glen and Old Hopp (the principal Cherokee chief), which ceded the land to the South Carolina province. The Cherokees made raids on Union and other frontier settlements until they were defeated in the Cherokee War, which ended in 1761.
Economy
During the early years, Union County's economy revolved around subsistence agriculture. However, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793 -- and by 1800, cotton had begun to penetrate Union County, ultimately leading to increased demand for slaves. During the first decade of the 1800s, many Quakers and others left Union County because they objected to the rapid growth of plantation slavery.
Slaves
In 1790, Blacks had accounted for 16 percent of Union County's population (most of whom were slaves). However, by 1810, Blacks represented more than 25 percent of Union County's population. The number of Blacks living in Union County doubled between 1810 and 1820, and Union County's Black population continued to grow rapidly until 1850, with slaves being imported from as far away as Virginia and Maryland.
Reason for migrating out of Union Co
Meanwhile, by the 1820s and 1830s, soil exhaustion began causing a mass emigration of Union County's poorer White population to new lands further south and west -- from Georgia to Texas. Some of the emigrants took their slaves with them. Those who remained began working increasingly large acreages of land, tended by an increasing number of slaves. This pattern continued until the Civil War.
Population content
Blacks outnumbered Whites in Union County from 1850 until 1910, when another major demographic trend began: the Great Migration of African-Americans from the rural South to the urban North. The number of Blacks in Union County declined steadily between 1910 and 1970. Currently, Blacks account for approximately a third of Union County's population.
The following population data from the Federal Census shows some of the changes in Union County's racial composition over the years. Please note: some of those listed in the Census as Black (or Mulatto or Free Person of Color) may have actually had Native American ancestry.
YEAR-------------TOTAL---------------WHITE-----------BLACK
1790-----------------7,693-----------------6,430--------------1,263
1820---------------14,126------------------9,786-------------4,340
1840---------------18,936-----------------10,485-------------8,451
1860---------------19,635------------------8,670------------10,965
1880---------------24,080----------------10,516------------13,551
1900---------------25,501----------------10,943------------14,558
1920---------------30,372----------------16,287------------14,076
1930---------------30,920----------------18,540------------12,380
1940---------------31,360----------------20,112------------11,248
Source of Data: South Carolina: A Short History, 1520-1948, David Duncan Wallace, Chapel Hill: Univ. of NC Press, 1951.
Based on land grant records, the first European settlers arrived in Union County during the early 1750s. Some of the earliest land grants are dated 1751 and 1752. Since about a year generally elapsed between the time that settlers selected their land, and the time that they applied for a land grant, this suggests that some families were living in the Union County vicinity as early as 1750 or 1751. Settlement accelerated after the treaty of 1755.
Like their Cherokee predecessors, Union County's early European settlers generally built their homes along Union County's rivers. Many of these families were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who came from the back settlements in Pennsylvania and Virginia. However, there were also English Quakers, Baptists, and others among Union County's pioneer families. Some of the early settlers, such as the HUGHES family, brought slaves with them when they migrated to Union County.
Brown's Creek
The earliest land grant in the Brown's Creek area, located approximately four miles northeast of what is now the town of Union, was issued in 1752. The area was settled by a group of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. By 1755, there were enough families to organize Brown's Creek Church, which soon became known as the Union Church because it was used by several denominations. Some of these families later moved elsewhere, but descendants of many of these families remained in Union County for decades.
Families that settled along Brown's Creek, near the Broad River between 1750 and 1775 include: Jacob and Gabriel BROWN, William LOVE, John and William BRANDON, James BOGAN, George KENNEDY, John and Joseph JOLLY, William MCJUNKIN, John and William SAVAGE, John DAVIS, Edward MCNEAL, James STEEN, Wiliam GILES, William SHARP, the YOUNGs, the VANCEs, the HUGHES, the WILSONS, the CUNNINGHAMs, Peter PHILLIPS, Enoch PEARSON, Robert GREGORY, William GRANT, John ELDER, William FAUCETT, David William GEORGE, William WILLIAMS.
Families that settled along Brown's Creek after the Revolutionary War include: Gabriel BROWN, Alexander CAIN, Job HAMMOND, Daniel, John, William, and Isaac WHITE, Daniel HOLDER, John and William WHITLOCK, Samuel SMITH, Jeremiah LUCAS.
Tinker's Creek
Families that settled on Tinker's Creek in south central Union County in 1755 include: Samuel MCJUNKIN, the BRANDONs, the BOGANs, the YOUNGs, the STEENs, and the KENNEDYs.
Broad River / Fish Dam Ford
Families that settled along the Broad River in southeastern Union County, near Fish Dam Ford during the 1750s, or shortly thereafter include: Thomas COX, Abram and Joseph HOLLINGSWORTH, Isaac COX, Daniel TRAMMELL, John and William ARMSTRONG, Nathaniel ABNEY, John CLARK, John BISHOP, Daniel and James THOMAS, John DICKERSON, John FEEMSTER, James HARDWICK, John, William, and John Peter SARTOR, Adam SKAIN, John MCPHERSON, Thomas SHOCKLEY, William WRIGHT.
Families that received land grants in the Fish Dam community during the Revolutionary War era, or shortly thereafter include: William FARR, Benjamin, Elias, Jacob, Joseph Jr., and William HOLLINGSWORTH, Benjamin Jr., Benjamin Sr., Charles, David, and William JOHNSON, James, William, and John HOGAN, Joseph COMER, Richard COX, William BRUMMIT, Caleb GASSAWAY, Nathan, Bernard, William, Alexander, and Spilsby GLENN, Arthur THOMAS, James JETER.
Tyger River
Families that settled along Tyger River in southern Union County, near Newberry County include: John GORDON, James OTTERSON, William COWDEN, Thomas CURTIS, Thomas MCELDUFF, Ralph HUMPHREYS, William PHILLIPS, Emanuel STEVENS, Hugh HENDERSON, the HAMILTONs, and the MCJUNKINs.
Enoree River / Cross Keys
The earliest settlers in Cross Keys between the Enoree and Tyger Rivers, located in southwestern Union County (near Spartanburg and Laurens Counties), arrived during the 1750s. Families that settled in the Cross Keys area included: Barrum and Lewis BOBO, BOYCE, Jesse DODD, FLOYD, GORDON, HOLCOMBE, JACKSON, MARTIN, MARTINDALE, MURPHY, RAY, SMITH, Samuel SIMPSON, SKELTON, William RHODES, Andrew TORRANCE.
Early Quaker Families
Quakers entered Union County in the mid 1750s and settled throughout the southern parts of the county, from Cross Keys and Sedalia in the west to what later became known as Santuc and Carlisle in the east. The Quakers established two churches: Padgett's Creek (at Sedalia) and Cane Creek (at Santuc). Many of Union County's Quakers left between 1800 and 1810 and went to Ohio and Indiana because they objected to the large-scale plantation slavery that was being developed.
Union County's early Quaker families who left the area included: ROBERDS, WHISTON, ADINGTON, MINTON, DODD, MILHOUSE, HASKIT, NEDERMAN, MARTINDELL, SPRAY, and KENWORTHY.
Union County's early Quaker families who remained in Union County, and eventually joined other denominations (Baptist, Methodist), included: the FINCHERs, GISTs, HAWKINS, WILSONs, SARTORs, MOREMANs, and COMERs.
Other early Union County Quaker families included: COOK, CLARK, HUNT, LAMB, RANDEL, SMITH, PARNELL, AND HOLLINGSWORTH.
Fairforest Creek
The earliest settlers along Fairforest Creek in northwestern Union County (near Spartanburg County) were a group of Presbyterians who arrived in 1751. In 1756, a log church was erected that eventually was organized into Fairforest Presbyterian Church. Early families that settled along Fairforest Creek include: James MEANS, Thomas MITCHELL, John DICKEY, James HARRIS, James MCILWAIN, George STOREY, the KELSOs, the DOGANs, Samuel YOUNG, James MAYES.
John MCDOWELL received a land grant for 640 acres on both sides of Fairforest Creek in 1752 near the present day Nicholson place.
Dining Creek / Fairforest Creek / Padgett's Creek
A group of Separate Baptists arrived from North Carolina and settled on Broad River in 1759 and incorporated into a church. In 1762, the congregation moved up Fairforest Creek to the Dining Creek area in southwestern Union County. The Fairforest Baptist Church was the first Baptist church in the South Carolina up-country, and is the mother church of many up-country Baptist churches. Families in this group included: Philip MULKEY, Obediah and Stephen HOWARD, Benjamin GIST, Charles and Thomas THOMPSON, Joseph BREED, and Rachel COLLINS.
During the conflict between Whigs and Tories that emerged during the American Revolution, some of the members scattered while the main body of the congregation moved further north on Fairforest Creek, close to Rocky Creek near the Ben BLACK estate. By 1794/1799, the Fairforest Baptist Church was located near Duck Pond.
Some former members of the Fairforest Baptist Church who lived in the Tyger Creek / Padgett's Creek area formed the Church of Christ on Tyger River in 1784, which later became known as Padgett's Creek Baptist Church.
Pacolet River / Grindal Shoals
Families that settled along both sides of the Pacolet River, and in the surrounding area along Mill Creek, Big Sandy Run, and Thickety Creek, during the early 1750s included: Elijah CLARK, David PARKS, and John STEEN.
Grindal Shoals, a ford on the lower Pacolet River, was a favorite camping spot of the armies in the vicinity during the Revolutionary War. Early families that settled in the Grindal Shoals area and vicinity included: NUCKOLLS, POTTER, GOUDELOCK, BECKHAM, MABRY, HODGE, NOTT, SIMS, DAWKINS, COOK, JEFFRIES, EISON, REED, GOUDEY, MEANS, NORRIS, THOMPSON, HUMPHRIES, HENDERSON, LITTLEJOHN, FOWLER. Some of these families lived in what eventually became Cherokee County.
Gilkey Creek
The Gilkey Creek and Gilkey Mountain area was originally in Union County, but is now in Cherokee County. The earliest land grant for this area, which was located at the northernmost tip of Union County (near York County and Spartanburg County) was issued in 1753. Families that settled in the Gilkey Creek area included: Jonathan, Samuel, and William GILKEY.
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