Fort Moore-Charleston Trail: Difference between revisions

Fort Moore-Charleston Trail (view source)

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 === Historical Background  ===
-Scots-Irish (that is Ulster-Irish), and German farmers migrating along the [[Great Valley Road]] (sometimes called the Great Wagon Road) through Virginia began settling the counties near the north end of the [[Fort Moore-Charleston Trail|Fort Moore-Charleston Trail]] in the 1750s. However, during part of the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763 they decided to leave the Washington County, Virginia area. Some settlers after the war in Johnson County, Tennessee and Watauga County, North Carolina were pushing beyond the Proclamation line protecting Indians from intruders. Many of the re-settlers in the area became involved in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watauga_Association Watauga Association] (a semi-automomous government) starting in 1772.<ref>Wikipedia contributors, "Watauga Association," ''Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia'', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watauga_Association (accessed 8 April 2011).</ref> In turn this led to the tentative and short-lived [[State of Franklin|State of Franklin]].
+[[Charleston County, South Carolina|Charleston]] was founded in 1670 by English and African immigrants from the Caribbean island of [[Barbados|Barbados]]. It became the largest city and capital of the South Carolina colony. Many trails and roads radiated out from Charleston.
-From the first contact with Europeans the [[Cherokee Indians|Cherokee Indians]] had settlements called the [http://sciway3.net/scgenweb/pickens-county/images/sheriff-01.pdf Lower Cherokee Villages] in the northwest part of [[South Carolina|South Carolina]] and part of [[Georgia|Georgia]]. The most prominent was the town of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keowee Keowee] in what became [[Oconee County, South Carolina|Oconee County, South Carolina]]. Another important town was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tugaloo Tugaloo] near what became Toccoa, Georgia. Several important Indian trails converged on these villages, including the south end of the [[Fort Moore-Charleston Trail|Fort Moore-Charleston Trail]]. The Cherokee resisted most European settlement near their villages. However, the Cherokee sided with the British during the American Revolutionary War. By 1777 Patriot forces attacked and drove the Cherokee from South Carolina, and Tugaloo, Georgia. Patriot veterans soon began to settle on former Cherokee lands. Eventually the old Indian trails in the area were improved into migration routes for European settlers.
+The Westo Indians were the first known residents of Savannah Town, South Carolina, observed there as early as the 1670s. However, they were replaced by [[Shawnee Indians|Shawnee (Savannah) Indians]] because of a 1679-1680 trade war. This town became important to the South&nbsp;Carolina colony because it was a prosperous center for the western fur and deer skin trade. The town was just below the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_line fall line], the farthest upriver an ocean going boat could get. Skins from Savannah Town were shipped by boat to Charleston and from there to Europe. In 1715-1716 South Carolina built and garrisoned Fort Moore on the Savannah River to protect this trade from attacks by hostile Indians, Spanish, or French, and presumably about this time opened the Fort Moore-Charleston Trail. In 1730 the area was incorporated as New Windsor Parish and Township. In 1737 about 200 [[Switzerland|Swiss]] from the Canton of Appenzell settled the area.
-As roads developed in America settlers were attracted to nearby communities because the roads provided access to markets. They could sell their products at distant markets, and buy products made far away. If an ancestor settled near a road, you may be able to trace back to a place of origin on a connecting highway.
+An old Indian trading trail called the [[Occaneechi Path]] stretched from the former Indian village at New Windsor toward Camden, South Carolina, then north to Charlotte, North Carolina, and beyond to Petersburg, Virginia. Sometime around 1735 white settlers began using the Camden to New Windsor part of this trail as part of the overlapping [[Fall Line Road]]. Settlers from as far away as Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania may have started appearing in Aiken County via this route. Likewise, the [[Great Valley Road]] through Virginia to Tennessee had a south fork extension that partly overlapped the Occaneechi Path and Fall Line Road and may have brought settlers from as far away as Pennsylvania to Aiken County by about the 1740s.
+In 1735 Augusta, Georgia was founded five miles upriver from Fort Moore. The citizens of Augusta did what they could to deflect the fur and skin trade from Savannah/New Windsor, South Carolina to their Georgia city and their seaport at Savannah, Georgia. In 1740 a ferry service began between the two rival towns of New Windsor and Augusta. However, New Windsor declined in importance. By 1765 the town had vanished and Fort Moore was closed.
+As roads developed in America settlers were attracted to nearby communities because the roads provided access to markets. They could sell their products at distant markets, and buy products made far away. If an ancestor settled near a road, you may be able to trace back to a place of origin on a connecting highway.
 === Route  ===