Editing Oconee County, South Carolina (section)

==History==
Oconee County was named after a historic Cherokee town and the word ''"Ae-quo-nee"'', meaning "land beside the water." Oconee ({{langx|chr|ᎤᏊᏄ|translit=Uquunu}}){{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} town developed on the Cherokee trading path near present-day Oconee Station State Historic Site along Oconee Creek. The town was located along the Cherokee trading path of the early 18th century between the English colonial Atlantic port of [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] and the [[Mississippi River]] to the west.

Oconee Town did not develop around an ancient [[platform mound]] like those built by ancestral peoples during the period of the [[Mississippian culture|Southern Appalachian Mississippian culture]], approximately 1000CE to 1500CE. In their public architecture, the historic Cherokee built communal [[town houses]] around a central ceremonial pole and council house. The council house was a meeting place for the larger community and council. Through the centuries of their long occupancy, the Cherokee would replace the council house, and maintain and add to nearby mounds, building in distinctly colored layers of earth that are visible to archeologists.<ref>Museum of the Cherokee in South Carolina</ref><ref>Oconee History Museum</ref>

Due to its geographic position, the town was at the intersection of the trading path and the [[Cherokee treaties#Pre-U.S. Constitution|Cherokee treaty boundary of 1777]]. In 1792, the newly formed South Carolina State Militia built a frontier outpost near the town site, and named it Oconee Station.

European-American settlement in this far western area of the colony did not begin until the late eighteenth century. Most did not take place until decades after the [[American Revolutionary War]]. South Carolina jurisdictions were successively called parishes, counties, judicial districts and counties again. Oconee County was not created until 1868, after the [[American Civil War]] and during the [[Reconstruction era]]. It was taken from part of the [[Pickens County, South Carolina|Pickens District]] and named after Oconee Town.

===Post-Revolutionary and 19th-century history===
* 1780s - The rare American wildflower, [[Oconee Bell]], was first recorded by French botanist [[André Michaux]].
* 1780s - Colonel [[Benjamin Cleveland]] and a group of Revolutionary veterans received land grants from the state of Georgia (which then claimed this area according to their colonial charter), in lieu of payment for service, and settled in present-day Oconee County.
* 1787 - Georgia withdrew its claims to the land between the Tugaloo and Keowee rivers by the [[Treaty of Beaufort]] with South Carolina.
* 1816 - Under pressure from encroaching European Americans, the [[Cherokee]] sold their remaining South Carolina land.
* 1850s - The largest town in the county was Tunnel Hill, located above [[Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel]].
* 1868 - Oconee County was formed by the state legislature dividing Pickens County. [[Walhalla, South Carolina|Walhalla]] was designated as the county seat.
* 1870 - Air Line Railroad built a railroad through the county; it stimulated development at stops known as [[Seneca, South Carolina|Seneca]] and [[Westminster, South Carolina|Westminster]]
* 1893 - [[Newry, South Carolina|Newry]] was established as a mill village to house workers of the Courtenay Manufacturing Company, a textile mill that produced cotton, wool, and other textile products.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Project |first=SC Picture |date=December 8, 2010 |title=Newry Mill |url=https://www.scpictureproject.org/oconee-county/newry-mill.html |access-date=August 9, 2022 |website=SC Picture Project |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Present day ===
Current residents refer to Oconee County as the "Golden Corner" due to its status as South Carolina's north-western most county.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ruinard |first=Ken |title=Seneca growing in the Golden Corner of South Carolina |url=https://www.greenvilleonline.com/videos/news/2020/01/28/seneca-growing-golden-corner-south-carolina/4555436002/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=The Greenville News |language=en-US}}</ref>