Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path

United States   Migration    Trails and Roads    South Carolina    Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path

The Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path connected the South Carolina colonial British military Fort Charlotte near the Savannah River with several Indian trails, especially the Old Cherokee Path and the nearby Indian town of Tugaloo just across the Savannah River in what is now Georgia. Fort Charlotte was built 1765-1767 to help protect European settlers from Indian raids. Fort Charlotte was near the place where the Middle Creek Trading Path crossed the Savannah River from Georgia into South Carolina. Several other trails also radiated out from this fort. The Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path was probably opened to European traders shortly after 1765. It was not fully open to settlers until the Cherokee were forced out during the American Revolutionary War. It began in McCormick County, South Carolina and ended in Oconee County, South Carolina. The length of the trail was about 70 miles (113 km).

Historical Background
Scots-Irish (that is Ulster-Irish), French Huguenots, and German farmers began settling the area near what would become Fort Charlotte in the 1750s. Some of these early colonists near Long Cane Creek were killed by Cherokee Indians in 1760. As a result, the British military constructed Fort Charlotte between 1765 and 1767 to help protect local colonists from hostile Indians. The fort was then turned over to South Carolina. The Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path probably followed older Indian trails. Fort Charlotte was built at or became the nexus of several trails along the Savannah River in South Carolina and Georgia.

The north end of the Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path was in Oconee County, South Carolina at the convergence of several Indian trails and settler roads mostly leading to the lower Cherokee Indian village of Tugaloo across the Savannah River in Stephens County, Georgia. Tugaloo was built at or became the nexus of several trails along the Savannah River in Georgia and South Carolina. The Cherokee Indians were forced to abandon Tugaloo during the American Revolution. The Old Cherokee Path seems to have begun in Tugaloo, crossed the river into South Carolina, and worked its way north up to Watauga County, North Carolina, through Johnson County, Tennessee, and Washington County, Virginia. There it connected to the Great Indian Warpath or Great Valley Road as it was called in that 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.

Route
The first European colonists settled in counties along this trail (south to north) as follows:


 * McCormick County, South Carolina 1750s by Scots-Irish
 * Abbeville County, South Carolina 1750 by French Huguenots
 * Anderson County, South Carolina 1777 by Scots-Irish, and Revolutionary War Veterans
 * Oconee County, South Carolina 1784 by Germans, and Revolutionary War Veterans
 * Stephens County, Georgia about 1777 by Revolutionary War Veterans

Connecting trails. The Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path links to other trails at each end. The migration pathways connecting in Fort Charlotte, McCormick, South Carolina included:


 * Savannah River pre-historic
 * Middle Creek Trading Path pre-historic
 * Augusta and Cherokee Trail via Fort Charlotte, but mostly in Georgia 1740s
 * Charleston-Ft. Charlotte Trail about 1765
 * Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path shortly after 1765

The migration routes connecting in Oconee County, South Carolina, or in Tugaloo, Stephens, Georgia included:


 * Savannah River
 * Lower Cherokee Traders' Path a pre-historic trail connecting the Lower Cherokee Villages to the Catawba Indians (Charlotte, North Carolina)
 * Old Cherokee Path a pre-historic trail from the Lower Cherokee Villages to Washington County, Virginia on the Great Valley Road (also known as the Great Indian Warpath)
 * Coosa-Tugaloo Indian Warpath was a pre-historic path that went toward Birmingham, Alabama
 * Tugaloo-Apalachee Bay Trail was a pre-historic trail headed for the Florida panhandle and probably Mission San Luis de Apalachee
 * Augusta and Cherokee Trail was a pre-historic trail from Tugaloo originally to Savannah Town, South Carolina and later Augusta, Georgia
 * Old South Carolina State Road 1747 a fork of this road apparently connected Tugaloo, Georgia to Fort Prince George, to Columbia and to Charleston, South Carolina.
 * Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path after 1765 followed the northeast side of the Savannah River from the Old Cherokee Path in Oconee County down to old Fort Charlotte in northwest McCormick County, South Carolina
 * Upper Road about 1783 (overlapping the Lower Cherokee Traders' Path) connecting Fredericksburg, Virginia to Macon, Georgia
 * Unicoi Turnpike opened to a few European traders 1690, but the wagon road was not opened to settlers until 1795 from near Tugaloo headed northwest to the Overhill Cherokee villages and Knoxville in Tennessee

Modern parallels. The modern roads that roughly match the old Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path start in Mount Carmel. Go north on SC-81 to a little north of Iva where it forks left onto Good Hope Church Road. Follow that road onto SC-187/SC-24. Continue to follow SC-24 and it will eventually become the West Oak Highway. Follow it north to Westminster and the Toccoa Highway. That Highway will take you southwest to the Savannah River near where the old village of Tugaloo was at the confluence of Toccoa Creek and the Tugaloo River.

Settlers and Records
The first colonists in the two southern counties along what became the Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path arrived before the fort or trail existed, usually by way of the Savannah River, the Middle Creek Trading Path, or the Augusta and Cherokee Trail. The northern three counties were Cherokee Indian areas until the American Revolution when the Cherokees were expelled as a result of siding with the British.

No complete list of settlers who used the Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path is known to exist. Nevertheless, local and county histories along that trail may reveal pioneer settlers who arrived after 1765 and who were candidates to have traveled the Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path from the Fort Charlotte area.

For partial lists of early settlers who may  have used the Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path, see histories like:

in McCormick County, SC:


 * Bobby F. Edmonds, The Huguenots of New Bordeaux (McCormick, SC: Cedar Hill, 2005) ( WorldCat entry.
 * Bobby F. Edmonds, The Making of McCormick County [South Carolina] (McCormick, SC: Cedar Hill, 1999) WorldCat entry.
 * [Willie Mae Wood], Old Families of McCormick County, South Carolina and Dorn families of Edgefield, Greenwood and McCormick counties ([S.l. : s.n.], 1982) WorldCat entry.

in Abbeville County, SC:


 * Ninety-six District (South Carolina), District Surveyor, Plat books, 1784-1803 ([Charleston, S.C.]: S.C. Dept. of Archives and History, 1973) . No circulation to family history centers.

in Anderson County, SC:


 * Frederick Van Clayton, Settlement of Pendleton District, 1777-1800 (Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, c1988) WorldCat entry. The old Pendleton District embraced the present counties of Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens. Includes plats and their owners taken from the "State Record of Plat Books."

in Oconee County, SC:


 * Frederick Van Clayton, Settlement of Pendleton District, 1777-1800 (Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, c1988) WorldCat entry. The old Pendleton District embraced the present counties of Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens. Includes plats and their owners taken from the "State Record of Plat Books."

in Stephens County, GA:


 * Katheryn Curtis Trogdon, History of Stephens County, Georgia (Toccoa, Ga.: Toccoa Womans Club, [c1973]). WorldCat entry.