York County Genealogical & Historical Society Home Page

The York County Genealogical & Historical Society (YCGHS) strives to highlight the role of history as a vital part of the cultural and social fabric of York County, South Carolina. YCGHS is dedicated to preserving, celebrating and educating the public about the county's richly diverse history.

Brief History Of York County

York County is located in the piedmont of South Carolina with an estimated population of more than 210,000. The County includes the communities of Rock Hill, Fort Mill, York, Clover, Tega Cay, Lake Wylie, Hickory Grove, McConnells and Sharon. York County honors its past with several Cultural and Heritage Museums, including Historic Brattonsville, the McCelvey Center and the Museum of York County.

Human habitation of the area began with settlement by the Catawba Indian Nation. They built their homes along the creek and river highlands and made their living by hunting, farming and fishing. The Catawba reservation is located a few miles southeast of Rock Hill.

Early white settlers came up from Charleston, SC and down from Pennsylvania through Virginia. The Germans, English, Welsh, Irish and French came and moved on, but the Scots-Irish stayed. Early settlement centered on Ebenezerville, currently the area of the Herlong and Ebenezer intersection. Residents built cotton plantations and bales of cotton were shipped downstream through Camden and on to Charleston where they were then shipped to the mills of New England and England for processing and weaving. Originally most of York County was part of North Carolina. A 1772, settlement set the boundary and called the area the “New Acquisition” of South Carolina.

Several Revolutionary War battles were fought on York County soil. The Battle of Huck’s Defeat (or Williamson’s Plantation) on July 12, 1780, was the first British defeat since the fall of Charleston some months earlier. The Battle of King’s Mountain was was fought on October 7, 1780 on land that straddles the SC–NC border in northwest York County between patriot forces and loyalist forces. The patriot forces consisted of "Over the Mountain Men" of Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina, local men from what is now Gaston County, NC, who were called the "South Fork Boys", and men from York and surrounding SC counties. This battle was a resounding patriot victory.