About The Boonesborough Historical Society

A Brief History

Meetings

Current Projects

Restoration of the Templeton-Drake Log House -
This ca. 1760's log house was originally located on the Henry Templeton plat of Boonesborough Township. The house was later acquired by Drakes who lived in it and owned it at least from the early 1800's until the 1980's . In more recent years the house has been used as a storage shed. By the mid 1990's the house was dismantled and moved to north Georgia. In 1999 the owner of the house contacted Jane Wilson offering to donate the dismantled parts to the Historical Society. Shortly before her death, Jane rented a truck, talked a friend into driving, and rounded up four teenagers to load and unload the logs. The BHS has since committed to restoring the house. D. McDill has donated a plot of land on Highway 184, the Donalds-Due West highway, adjacent to the historic Donalds Grange Hall and the WPA-built Potato House. This section of Highway 184 is part of the South Carolina Heritage Corridor - Discovery Route.

Donations for the restoration of the Templeton-Drake house should be made out to the BHS - Log Cabin Fund.

Past Projects

• Map of Boonesborough Township - Mrs. B.H. Carlton, in an article written for the Abbeville Press & Banner, intrigued the Society's interest in Fort Boone and Boonesborough Township. Using a copy of the original township survey, Barry Dunn converted "chains" and "links" into feet and inches, and drew the Township plat to the same scale as a modern topographical map. Then Newell Bowie, after combining plats from Lewis Johnson, Dr. W.E. Baldwin, Dr. Lowry Ware, and the South Carolina Archives, began the tedious task of siting individual landholder plats on the Township map. Newell Bowie incorporated this map into his book Boonesborough Township: Plats, Trails and Towns, 1763 through 1775 which the Society published in 1993.

• Dr. Wofford E. Baldwin's Research - Dr. Baldwin collected information on Boonesborough, its people, trails and towns, for more than twenty years. He graciously gave permission to the Society to publish a summary of his research in 1993.

• Videotape - There Are No Secrets in Donalds features local residents telling stories about bygone days in Donalds. Storyteller Loralee Cooley, Erskine College and Anderson College helped bring this project to fruition.

• Greenville Presbyterian Church Cemetery and Genealogical Data, 1769 through June 1996 - This project was initiated by Rex Bailey of Fountain Inn, and Howard Nickles gave considerable assistance. Published in 1996, copies of this book are still available. All proceeds go to the Greenville Church Cemetery Fund.

• Dedication of Boonesborough Township Marker - Erected by the Society in 1996, the Dedication / Homecoming ceremony drew over 300 people and featured Billy Kennedy of Belfast as speaker. The marker is located on Highway 184 and reads:
  

  Boonesborough Township (1763) Surveyed in 1762 by Patrick Calhoun and named for Governor Thomas Boone, this 20,500 acre township was laid out west of Ninety-Six as a buffer between white and Cherokee lands. In 1763 Scots-Irish families began to settle in the area near Long Cane, Park's and Chickasaw Creeks. The headwaters of Long Cane Creek are 500 feet south; the Cherokee Path crossed the township boundary one mile south.
  Erected DHS 1996

Publications

Books Our Members Have Written

About Boonesborough Township

The survey of Boonesborough Township was certified 20 December 1762 with the township covering 20,500 acres. The Boonesborough name was in honor of the new Royal Governor of South Carolina, Thomas Boone, who had taken office in 1761. Patrick Calhoun, a pious Scot who had lived for some time in Virginia, was heavily involved in settling this group of Presbyterian Scots who had moved to Ulster (Northern Ireland) from Scotland. The settlers wanted fertile land, watered by springs or fronting on creeks, land described as "lying well". They wanted convenient access to their land and routes to get their farm products and livestock to markets. The land selected for them was bountifully supplied with creeks, lying on the headwaters of Long Cane Creek, and included parts of the watersheds for Chickasaw, Park's and a bit of Turkey Creek.

Boonesborough Township never actually developed into a township as the name implies. The towns of Donalds and Due West eventually became established in the area. Donalds formed in 1842 and is located on what was the north corner of Boonesborough. Due West became a town in the western corner of Boonesborough.

Original Boonesborough Settlers

Links