History

Before the arrival of European civilization, Cherokees farmed along the clear, cold rivers and took their game from the meadows and towering forests of what is now Pickens County. Spanish explorers followed the trails and rivers into the Southern Highlands in the sixteenth century, and other nations soon followed.

In 1670, England made a settlement on the coast and named the land Carolina for King Charles. Naturally, European traders were not long in finding paths to the Lower Cherokee capital on the Keowee River. In these hills and river valleys, fortunes in hides and furs could be secured in exchange for European tools and firearms, pipes, housewares, beads and clothes.

In 1791, the state legislature established Washington District; an area composed of present day Greenville, Anderson, Pickens and Oconee counties.  In 1798, Washington District was divided into Greenville and Pendleton Districts.  Pendleton District was composed of  what later became Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens.  Due to the growing population and poor transportation facilities in the Pendleton District, in 1826, the legislature divided it..  The lower part became Anderson District and the upper part became Pickens District (which included  all of the present day Oconee and Pickens Counties).  Pickens District was named for the American Revolutionary was hero, General Andrew Pickens.  Commissioners named to select a site for a town were authorized to buy a tract of land from one to 400 acres, near the center of the Pickens District.  The spot they selected was high on the western bank of the Keowee River, where the town of Pickens, now called "Old Pickens" was laid out and developed.   In 1868, the Pickens District was divided into Oconee and Pickens Counties and the new town of Pickens was started.

Forty years after the formation of the Pickens District, following a Civil War that saw more than its share of locals serve bravely, the district was divided into Pickens and Oconee Counties. The town of Pickens was moved, brick and board, 14 miles east to its current site. All that is left standing of "Old Pickens" is the sturdy brick Presbyterian Church, now quite literally "the little old church in the wildwood." Several buildings that stood on the "Old Pickens" site are still in existence in Pickens and Oconee Counties, including the Hagood-Mauldin house just off Main Street in Pickens.

Cotton was the undisputed king of the red hills in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The coming of the Richmond and Danville (later Southern) Railroad in 1873 not only made it easier to haul cotton out, but to bring in machinery as well.

Big industry was first represented by the Norris Cotton Mill (1895). Five years later, Pickens County boasted three cotton mills, 37 sawmills, 10 shingle mills, four brick mills, two railroads and two banks. There were 26 churches, each at the heart of a community which also usually included a school.

Country life is still a popular choice in Pickens County, although the family farm has mostly given way to diverse jobs and careers in the ever-widening variety of business and industry. We are an increasingly cosmopolitan community. Still, many in local businesses and professions take pride in roots that go back to a settler's cabin on Oolenoy or Twelve Mile, back to a time when the Cherokee cooking fires were barely cool.

Excerpts from: Pickens County - A Brief History - Anne Sheriff