Keowee
Encyclopedia
Keowee was a Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

 town in the north of present-day South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

. It was settled in what is present day Oconee County, the westernmost county of South Carolina, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southern-most...

, just north of Clemson
Clemson, South Carolina
Clemson is a college town located in Pickens County in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 11,939 at the 2000 census and center of an urban cluster with a total population of 42,199...

. Located on the banks of the Keowee River
Keowee River
The Keowee River is created by the confluence of the Toxaway River and the Whitewater River in northern Oconee County, South Carolina. The confluence is today submerged beneath the waters of Lake Jocassee, a reservoir created by Lake Jocassee Dam....

, Keowee was submerged beneath the waters of Lake Keowee
Lake Keowee
Lake Keowee is a man–made reservoir in the United States in the state of South Carolina shaped somewhat like a Christmas tree. It is notable for having been created to serve the needs of a power utility called the Duke Energy company as well as public recreational purposes...

 when the river was dammed in a power project.
).

In the early half of the 18th century, approximately 2100 Cherokee inhabited sixteen towns east of the Blue Ridge Mountains The Cherokee people were geographically divided into three regions: the Overhill Towns
Overhill Cherokee
The term Overhill Cherokee refers to the former Cherokee settlements located in what is now Tennessee in the southeastern United States. The name was given by 18th century European traders and explorers who had to cross the Appalachian Mountains to reach these settlements when traveling from...

, the Middle Towns, and the Lower Towns. For the Cherokee, towns were the most important units of government. There were seven Cherokee villages," of which Keowee was one, and the rulers of each had a substantial amount of authority. Keowee was principal among the Cherokee "Lower Towns". Keowee Town is translated into "place of mulberries." It was also known as "Old Keowee" to distinguish it from other towns of the same name.

Keowee was the birthplace (around 1770) of the father of John Norton
John Norton (Mohawk chief)
The Mohawk Major John Norton played a prominent role in the War of 1812, leading Iroquois warriors from Grand River into battle against American invaders at Queenston Heights, Stoney Creek, and Chippawa.-Early life:...

. Norton, who became a chief of the Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...

s, was of half Cherokee and half Scots
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

 ancestry. His writings provide a rare American Indian perspective of the early 19th century in the United States. Norton spells the town name as Kuwoki.

When William Bartram
William Bartram
William Bartram was an American naturalist. The son of Ann and John Bartram, William Bartram and his twin sister Elizabeth were born in Kingsessing, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. As a boy, he accompanied his father on many of his travels, to the Catskill Mountains, the New Jersey Pine Barrens,...

 visited the town site in May 1776, he noted no Cherokee lived there. Before then the British colonists razed the town in the Anglo-Cherokee War
Anglo-Cherokee War
The Anglo-Cherokee War , also known as the Cherokee War, the Cherokee Uprising, the Cherokee Rebellion, was a conflict between British forces in North America and Cherokee Indians during the French and Indian War...

.

Role during French and Indian War

The Cherokee played a significant role in the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...

 (1754–1763) (also known as the Seven Years War), allying with King George II
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...

 and the British. The alliance came partly as a result of Sir Alexander Cuming, who visited Keowee on March 23, 1730 and soliciting the Cherokee as allies. This alliance resulted in the English building a fort east of Keowee on the Savannah River
Savannah River
The Savannah River is a major river in the southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Two tributaries of the Savannah, the Tugaloo River and the Chattooga River, form the northernmost part of the border...

. During the French and Indian War, Nathaniel Gist urged one hundred Cherokee warriors to attack the Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...

 tribe in the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...

 region, but only if this fort would be built. The fort, ordered to be built by South Carolina governor Glen was named Fort Prince George
Fort Prince George (South Carolina)
Fort Prince George was constructed in 1753 in northwest South Carolina, on the Cherokee Path. It was named for the Prince of Wales, who would later become King George III of the United Kingdom...

.

The alliance collapsed due to mutual suspicion, and during the Anglo-Cherokee War
Anglo-Cherokee War
The Anglo-Cherokee War , also known as the Cherokee War, the Cherokee Uprising, the Cherokee Rebellion, was a conflict between British forces in North America and Cherokee Indians during the French and Indian War...

 (1758–1761), the British destroyed Keowee and most of the rest of the lower towns. Keowee was razed during the first British campaign, under the command of Archibald Montgomery
Archibald Montgomerie, 11th Earl of Eglinton
Archibald Montgomerie, 11th Earl of Eglinton was a Scottish General, and Member of Parliament in the British Parliament. He was also the Clan Chief of the Clan Montgomery. Montgomerie fought in the Seven Years' War, where he served with George Washington...

. A second army under James Grant campaigned through the remaining Lower Towns and into the Middle Towns.

Current geography

The Keowee River has been dammed. The former site of Keowee is covered by Lake Keowee. The river was dammed to create the lake, which provides cooling water for Oconee Nuclear Station. Built in 1970, it was part of a multimillion dollar project to provide energy for upstate South Carolina.. It is the first of three nuclear power plants built by Duke Power.
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