York County lies within the Olde English region of South Carolina. The county and its seat are named in honor of York County, Pennsylvania.
Catawba Indians initially inhabited the region before they ceded control of the area to the United States via treaty in 1763. After this treaty was signed, a great number of Scotch-Irish from both Pennsylvania and the South Carolina Lowcountry began to settle the area.
The county was founded in 1785 within the Camden District. It later belonged to the Pinckney District before becoming its own district. During the Revolutionary War, the battles of Williamson’s Plantation and King’s Mountain took place here.
Initially, the economy relied on small cotton farms. However, over time the economy transitioned from cotton farming to cotton processing and became dependent on the textile industry.
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ETV Endowment - Southern Campaign Tour, Day 3: On the third and final day of the Southern Campaign tour, we visited two battlefield sites: Historic Brattonsville, and King's Mountain. This video...
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ETV Endowment, Southern Campaign Tour- Day 3 The second stop on day 3 of the Southern Campaign tour was Kings Mountain National Battlefield. Kings Mountain is a rocky wooded hill on the border of...
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In 1993, the General Assembly added a special advocacy category to the Folk Heritage Award. The first advocacy award was presented to the Catawba Cultural Preservation Project of Rock Hill. An...
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Marshall Doswell came to Rock Hill as the Managing Editor of The Evening Herald in 1957. After living in South Carolina for a short time, he was made aware of the racial division and tension that...
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In 1993, the General Assembly added a special advocacy category to the Folk Heritage Award. The first advocacy award was presented to the Catawba Cultural Preservation Project of Rock Hill. An...
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When it comes to the event Teen CEO Day, CEO stands for “Career Exploration Opportunity.” Teen CEO Day allows eighth grade students from Chester, Lancaster, and York Counties to talk with...
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If Rock Hill was a war-zone, the most pivotal battle was February 12, 1960. For months before that date, local churches, students, and members of the NAACP planned a mass sit-in protest at lunch...
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In the 1950s and 1960s, Rock Hill, South Carolina, was a thriving mill town, also known as “The Gateway to the Carolinas.” Like most of the segregated South, there were two separate worlds: one black...
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By the summer of 1960, civil rights leaders began to question the effectiveness of these “sit-ins.” Thomas Gaither, a field secretary for CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), along with other civil...
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Life in jail for the student prisoners was grueling. News of these “jail-ins” had reached other civil rights groups, and caught the attention of SNCC (Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee). SNCC...