I have received quite a few replies to my question about the separation of the two Carolinas at some point in time. I finally got one from Dr. Louise Pettus, emiriti professor of history, at Winthrop College. She has graciously consented for me to publish the enclosed, which is a speech that she gave on two different occasions, first to the North Carolina Surveyor's Assoc. and then to the South Carolina Surveyor's Assoc. Bill Hughes ©¿©¬ [email protected] http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bhughes/ ========================================= ========================================= NORTH CAROLINA-SOUTH CAROLINA BOUNDARY LINE The first survey of the NC-SC boundary line was ordered by the Board of Trade in London in 1730 and given as instructions to the royal governors of the two provinces. It was 7 years before surveyors were chosen. None had any experience in surveying. The men were directed to follow a northwestern course until they reached the 35th parallel and then to go due west. After months of battling swamps and other hardships the surveyors quit 11 miles south of the 35th parallel. The largest Indian tribe in the unsurveyed area was the Catawba Indians whose villages lay along the east side of the Catawba in what is today Lancaster and York counties of South Carolina. The Catawbas were both a trading and a hunting tribe and ranged widely in their pursuits. They also built strong ties with the English and the planters of lowcountry South Carolina as they were hired to track runaway slaves and to defend against more westwardly Indian tribes. During the French and Indian Wars (1756-1763), Indians allied with the French along the western borders of Virginia and Pennsylvania torched the cabins of frontiersmen (mostly Scotch-Irish and Germans) who fled southward. Many of these frontiersmen purchased North Carolina patents on land that was also claimed by South Carolina (and after the survey of 1772 would be inside South Carolina borders). Thus the boundaries of Mecklenburg (and Anson and Rowan before it) were extended by North Carolina deep into the border counties of Lancaster, York, Union and Spartanburg, S. C. In some cases, North Carolina granted land that reached as far as 50 miles into South Carolina. At the same time, Royal Governors of South Carolina proclaimed that there were to be no land grants (or patents) within thirty miles of Catawba villages. At the end of the French and Indian Wars (1763) various treaties were signed. One of these was the Treaty of Augusta which dealt with various Indian tribes of the southeast. The Catawba Indians, in exchange for their support of England during the wars, were guaranteed a reservation of 15-miles-square, or 144,000 and were allowed to choose which colony they wished to give allegiance to. The Catawbas chose South Carolina. In 1764 another surveying party was ordered to pick up where the earlier group had stopped. Instead of taking the boundary line 11 miles to the north, as originally instructed, the second party went due west for 62 miles before stopping at a place now known as Old North Corner, just south of Andrew Jackson Park in Lancaster County (which also marks the southwestern corner of Union County, N. C.) The Board of Trade in London insisted that the colonies adjust matters for it was obvious that the surveying error had cost South Carolina 422,000 acres of land. It was not until 1772 that commissioners and surveyors from both North and South Carolina were appointed to run a revised line. South Carolina's head commissioner was William Moultrie, a man who, a few years later, would became a Revolutionary War hero. Fortunately for us, Moultrie kept a journal of each day's activities. His first entry was dated May 16, 1772 but the actual surveying did not begin until May 20. The survey was completed on June 2, 1772. Moultrie's party was made up of himself as head commissioner, William Thompson, two surveyors (Benjamin Farrar and James Cook), and chain carriers and blazors (men with axes who marked the trees). Moultrie wrote, "They [North Carolina's surveyors] had tents and a wagon to carry their baggage; after the usual compliments and a glass or two of wine we proceeded immediately to business, by each party showing his commission and instructions to the other." The two groups agreed that a surveyor from each province would attend the compass each day and that the chain would be carried alternately with two blazors from each side behind the surveyors. One commissioner from each province was to supervise at all times. On the 21st of May, at high noon beside the marked "old corner tree", they took an observation. Nearly a hundred men, women and children of the Waxhaws community were present to see them off. That afternoon the party covered four and one-half miles. The Camden-Salisbury road, which had served as the previous boundary, was a winding road that followed old Indian paths. Moultrie remarked, "We took the different courses along the Salisbury road, which made it very tedious." On the second day the party ran into the old blazes from the laying off of the Catawba Indian boundary 8 years before and were able to cover 11 1/2 miles. The third day the party ran 8 miles and crossed Sugar Creek. The 4th day was Sunday so they rested. Moultrie's journal read, "Sunday halted from business; some of us took a ride to Charlotte Town in Meclinburgh County. The Town has a tolerable Court house of wood about 80 by 40 feet, and a Gaol [jail], a store, a Tavern, and several other houses say 5 or 6, but very ordinary built of logs. . . ." Two days later Moultrie wrote that the parties "came to the North and South branch of Catawba River, waited to take an observation, Latitude 35 - 8, from here we were to begin our western course. We took all our Compasses, set them together, and fixed up one to carry the Line throughwith. . . ." On the 27th of May the party ran ten miles and camped two miles from "Kings mount". Moultrie commented that "near this place a waggon road passes through to Charles Town about 180 miles." Four miles on the west side of Kings Mountain the surveyors began to take up thousands of acres of land for themselves. They ended the survey at the Cherokee line, 65 miles from the west bank of the Catawba river. The two survey parties were paid 1,700 pounds by S. C. and 255 pounds by N.C. All of the land they ran off for themselves was not calculated in their final payment. So it was that the North Carolina boundary line was drawn, but drawn imperfectly. The boundary line established as the Camden to Salisbury road was to cause problems for many years. During the Revolutionary War the military actions of Lord Cornwallis and others caused the road to be altered. And there was the custom of abandoning a road that was so deep-rutted that it had become impassable. The road might shift to another ridge as much as a half-mile from the former road. The courthouse was far away and the claims were not always recordedm besides to record land left the claimant liable for taxes. It was 1813 before the two states agreed upon an exact boundary line. A joint commission was set up and William Richardson Davie was appointed as chairman. It was a fine choice. Davie was a native of the Waxhaws just south of Twelve Mile Creek and would later retire across the river from his old home. He had been governor of North Carolina and was founder of the University of North Carolina. And, although Davie's health did not allow him to physically participate in the drawing of the line, the agreement to adjust the line proceeded. So in 1813, beginning at Old North Corner a straight boundary measuring 14 1/2 miles north and then northwestwardly for approximately 8 miles to the Catawba river was drawn, bring an end to a process that had begun 83 years earlier by the Board of Trade of His Majesties Plantations in London, composed of a group of men none of whom had ever set foot on Carolina soil. [By Louise Pettus, Emeriti Professor of History, Winthrop University.] __