Fort Mill South Carolina
The recent growth in this area has been phenomenal. From 1990 to 1998, the township's population rose from 17,300 to 25,000. When we reach the year 2015, our projected growth will be 35,219. From the resort community of Tega Cay to the small-town charms of Fort Mill to the unspoiled rural stretches of Indian Land, people are finding it the ideal place to call home. It's no wonder, since Fort Mill Township has a rich history that enlivens the community.
Much of the area's history stems from the Catawba Indians, the only surviving Native American tribe in South Carolina. At one time, 30,000 Catawbas roamed this area. Unfortunately, few records exist about the tribal nation before 1760, when smallpox and other European diseases diminished it to 1,000. The oldest artifact dates to about 600 A.D. In 1763, the English gave the Catawbas 144,000 acres as a reward for helping them defeat the French in the French and Indian War. That original reservation sprawled both the township, originally called Fort Hill, and Indian Land. The Catawbas began leasing that land to settlers soon afterward, renting between 30 and 1,000 acres to each.
Both settlers and Catawbas used the ancient Nation Ford Road, which dates back to at least 1650, to travel and trade from Pennsylvania to Charles Towne (now Charleston). The trail passed through the Catawba Nation's five villages and crossed the Catawba River where the railroad trestle now exists. Parts of the trail can still be seen, especially on the Anne Springs Close Greenway. Settlers opened a post office in 1820. By 1826 the Catawbas had rented all their land out, an event that forced them off their own reservation. In 1840 the Catawbas signed the Treaty of Nation Ford and sold the land to the state, which ended their control over this area.
Because there was another Fort Hill in South Carolina, settlers changed the name to Fort Mill around 1830, after an old grist mill near Steele Creek and a small garrison fort built by the British in the 1750s, just south of the town limits. In 1852, the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad first traveled through the area, with a station in Fort Mill. The trestle over the Catawba River, built in 1851, burned down during an 1865 Civil War skirmish and was rebuilt a year later.
Courtesy of the Fort Mill Times
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