Situated halfway between the Broad and Catawba Rivers in upstate South Carolina, the area of present-day York was inhabited by Native Americans for several thousand years before immigrants from the British Isles arrived in the late 1740s. When the American Revolution began, York's early settlers almost overwhelmingly supported independence, and two important Patriot victories--the Battles of Williamson's Plantation (Huck's Defeat) and Kings Mountain--were fought nearby in 1780. York County was established in 1785, and the town of Yorkville became the county seat. Agriculture made up much of...