HISTORIC OCONEE COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA Subject: Oconee Station & Richards House Version 1.0, 5-Jan-2003, FCH-03.txt **************************************************************** REPRODUCING NOTICE: ------------------- These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, or presentation by any other organization, or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Paul M Kankula - nn8nn Seneca, SC, USA Oconee County SC GenWeb Coordinator Oconee County SC GenWeb Homestead http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/oconee.html Oconee County SC GenWeb Tombstone Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/cemeteries.html http://www.usgwtombstones.org/southcarolina/oconee.html Contributor: Frederick C. Holder, Box 444, Pickens, SC 29671 **************************************************************** DATAFILE INPUT . : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Jan-2003 DATAFILE LAYOUT : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Jan-2003 HISTORY WRITE-UP : Frederick C. Holder in 1989 OCONEE STATION (built about 1792) and THE RICHARDS' HOUSE (completed 1805) Of all the historic sites in Oconee County, Oconee Station is the best-known because of its role in the history of northwestern South Carolina. Although the area of present-day Oconee and Pickens counties was not settled until after the Revolutionary War, the fear of Indian at- tacks on areas many miles distant to the east and south resulted in numbers of small forts (or stations) being erected from the 1750s through 1782. Most of these forts or stations were near settled areas; however, one outpost, far removed from any settlers, was erected in 1782 near the Tugaloo River. The presumed function of this fort was to serve as an advance warning position, and it remained garrisoned for several years after the Revolutionary War. The first permanent white settlers came into present-day Oconee County when Col. Benjamin Cleveland led a group from North Carolina to an area along the Tugaloo River in 1784. These early settlers along the Tugaloo River shared a major problem with their neighbors in nearby Georgia: the threat of attack by groups of Cherokee and Creek Indians. Some of the Cherokee were unhappy about losing lands in present-day Greenville, Anderson, and most of present-day Pickens and Oconee counties in 1777, and about whites constantly trying to move onto their remaining territory. Several small blockhouses or stations (sometimes called forts) were erected along or near the Tugaloo River and probably along or near the Seneca River during the years after 1785 to provide places of protection for settlers. Fort Madison, the name of a small community near the Tugaloo River, is one of the place names from this period. The threat of a major Indian attack all along the South Carolina frontier in 1792 led Brig. General Andrew Pickens to instruct Robert Anderson to begin construction of blockhouses along the Cherokee/South Carolina border. By September of 1792, five of these small stations (or forts) were being constructed and the building of another was projected. Oconee Station, which many assume included wooden structures besides the stone building on the property, was one of those built; and Tugaloo Station, the most important frontier outpost during the 1780s, retained its importance during the 1790s. The exposed frontier extended some forty miles northeast from the Tugaloo River, with some twenty to twenty-five miles exposed to both the Creek and the Cherokee. During the years 1782 through 1796, the Creek remained more troublesome than the Cherokee, and twenty-five to thirty people were killed by Indians. In 1792, the few people living in the Eastatoe Valley were respon- sible for the murder of a Cherokee, possibly a friendly chief who had attended the religious meetings of one of the first Methodist Circuit Riders, James Jenkins. Robert Anderson, the man most responsible for the defense of the frontier, stated that the frontier inhabitants had eradicated "all ideas of Justice" and exhibited animosity against all Indians, without "discrimination." In retaliation, the Cherokee attacked settlers in Eastatoe, killing Richard Farrar, his brother, and one of his sons, and wounding another of his sons. Fearful of additional attacks, men from Pendleton and Greenville counties gathered at Eastatoe, probably in early 1793, with full intentions of going into the Cherokee territory to avenge the deaths of the Farrar family. Only the intervention of Anderson stopped a foray which might have caused a war. Anderson established an out- post at Eastatoe and also at Oolenoy, an isolated settlement not far from the Greenville County line, to protect the small number of families in both areas. The outpost at Oolenoy was maintained for only three months, and the outpost at Eastatoe was discontinued after six months. A man named Daniel Boone was stationed at Eastatoe as a "spy." A spy was a person who would go into the Indian territory to gather information about possible Indian attacks. The role of frontier stations along the Cherokee/South Carolina boundary gradually changed after 1793. Instead of protecting the set- tlers from Indian attacks, the stations protected the Indians from whites coming onto their lands to live, hunt, or steal. Even so, Indians (particularly the Creek) still caused some problems for the whites. In 1795 the Governor of South Carolina believed a guard was still needed on the frontier to protect the settlers "against the inroads of the Indians" and to protect the Indians from being bothered "by designing and evil disposed persons." Oconee Station was apparently the only station in operation as a military outpost after 1796, and by 1799 the threat of a major Indian attack was so unlikely that it, too, ceased to be a frontier station. There is more to the history of Oconee Station than being a military outpost. It also served as an Indian trading post. William Richards bought the property from Brig. General Andrew Pickens in 1793 and lived there until his death. He operated the trading post and a brickyard, and he also loaned money to area residents. Richards com- pleted a two-story brick house in 1805 near the stone building on the property. One account by a member of the Todd family, who lived in the house in the nineteenth century, claims that Oconee County was named for Oconee Station. This statement is probably correct because the station is the most often noted landmark on area maps from the early nineteenth century to the present. Other families lived in the Richards House throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including a sheriff of Pickens District (present-day Pickens and Oconee Counties). One map of the 1840s shows Oconee Station as a stagecoach stop, and a post office was operated in either the Richards' house or the stone building during the mid-nineteenth century. Some of the most interesting people to reside at Oconee Station and the Richards House were the Green sisters, four women who lived there in the early twentieth century. They ran a farm, with each of them doing different kinds of work. Among the many types of work were cooking, blacksmithing, plowing, weaving, gardening, harvesting, picking cotton, preserving food, sewing, and chopping wood. When people began to travel by car, Oconee Station became a favorite stop- ping place in the South Carolina up-country, and the Green sisters often entertained visitors on their front porch on Sunday afternoons. In the 1970s, the Oconee Station property (including the Richards House) was purchased by the State of South Carolina for future development as a state historic park. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Location: Take Highway 11 north from Walhalla/West Union ap- proximately 10 miles to Pickett Post (a crossroads which is on Highway 11 a little over a mile north of Pickens Highway-Hwy. 183.) Follow Oconee Station Road (Road 95) to Oconee Station and the Richards House. READING LIST: In addition to this article, information on the frontier period of ex- treme northwestern South Carolina is found in: Margaret Mills Seaborn, ed., Benjamin Hawkin's Journeys Through Oconee County, South Carolina, in 1796 and 7797(Columbia, S.C.: R. L. Bryan Company, 1973). Margaret Mills Seaborn, ed., Andre Michaux's Journeys in Oconee County, South Carolina, in 1787 and 1788 (Columbia, S.C.: R. L. Bryan Company, 1976). Journals of the General Assembly of South Carolina (some years of the House of Representatives have been published-much informa- tion is in the unpublished journals of the House and Senate.)