Lancaster County, SC
History
Originally inhabited by the Catawba, Cherokee and Waxhaw Indians, Lancaster's story began in the early 1750s when a vanguard of Scotch-Irish immigrants seeking inexpensive land and religious freedom moved into the area known as the Waxhaws (now northern Lancaster County) and established a settlement. A second colony was soon developed by English (Welsh), German and Scotch-Irish newcomers from Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania in southern Lancaster County.Lancaster's name can be traced from fifteenth-century England, when the War of the Roses was fought between the House of Lancaster and the House of York, through their first settlement in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and down to the county that was established in South Carolina in 1785 with the red rose, the insignia of the House of Lancaster, as its emblem.
The first court was held in the home of John Ingram, south of Heath Springs, but was later moved to Nathan Barr's Tavern. In 1795, a log courthouse was constructed on the corner of Main and Dunlap Streets; a two-story frame courthouse replaced it in 1802, and the town was named Lancasterville. Source: Lancaster County Chamber of Commerce