PICKENS COUNTY — If you have spent any time driving up and down Pendleton Street in Easley, perhaps you have noticed a time or two a historical marker sitting on the corner of Hale Street marking the town of Pickensville.
What was Pickensville? Where was it? Well, if you happen to live in the downtown area of Easley, it still exists.
Kind of.
Nowadays, “Pickensville” is nothing more than a voting precinct that (depending on where in the city you reside) may or may not be listed on your voter registration card. But at one time, Pickensville was a Court House Town (similar to a present day County Seat) of Washington District — a vast area that included what was to become Pickens, Anderson, Oconee and Greenville counties.
According to articles put forth by the Pickens County Historical Society, during the Revolutionary War, the area known today as Pickens County was Cherokee territory.
The Cherokee, having sided with the British, surrendered the land after their defeat at the hands of the colonists and in 1791 Washington District — which was composed of Greenville and Pendleton counties — was established by the state legislature.
A year later, as the new seat for the Washington District, streets were laid out and buildings began to pop up. Pickensville began to grow, but it was not to last.
In 1798, Washington District was divided into the districts of Pendleton and Greenville and a new courthouse was built in Pendleton to serve as the Court of General Sessions and Common Pleas. In light of Pendleton’s new courthouse, Pickensville, although still the district seat for Pendleton, began to suffer.
Although its lifespan may have been relatively short, Pickensville played a major part in shaping what was to become present day Upstate South Carolina.
In 1828, the Pendleton District was split again and renamed as Anderson and Pickens Districts. This remained largely unchanged up until the Civil War, which due to rampant thievery and plundering from deserters and others who slipped down from the mountains, left the Pickens District, which was mostly agricultural, very poor.
After the war, “districts” were renamed “counties” throughout the state during the South Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1868. Oconee County was established, scooped out of the newly named Pickens County.
The nearby town of Easley, which was officially chartered in 1874, played a large part in the demise of Pickensville as Easley had one major advantage their neighbors (a mere two miles away) lacked—a railroad.
In 1875, Easley’s absorption of Pickensville was complete as the town’s post office, which had opened in 1795, was officially renamed the Easley Post Office.
