Friday, April 24, 2009

Share Your Memories!

Share your memories of life in Cherokee County by clicking on Share Your Memories or one of the other posts and enter a comment. Be sure to read other comments that have been made. Note: All comments will be reviewed by the site administrator before being posted on the site.
Thank you for preserving Cherokee County's past!
A sensory panel on The Betsy Campbell Native American Exhibit at the Cherokee County History & Arts Museum displays how to make an arrowhead. Learn more about the Museum at or call 864-489-3988.


  1. Geronimo!
    There used to be many farms along the banks of the Broad River. When the fields were plowed, anyone who found an arrowhead would yell Geronimo! If you didn't find one, then you were just the loser for the day. The arrowhead's can still be found...but no one plows anymore!

  2. Great story. Thanks for sharing!

  3. The Cherokee County History & Arts Museum has a wonderful Native American Exhibit and collection. Be sure to visit it!

  4. I found this written in the 1929 GHS Tomahawk. It was originally written by Keith Turner.

    Cherokee Folk Lore

    In Cherokee county, about five miles from Gaffney, the county seat, is a gigantic rock situated in a secluded spot on the banks of Thickety Creak. One edge of the rock forms the bank of the creek and narrows the stream, which is normally twenty-five feet wide, down to a thin gushing torrent about eight feet wide. The top of the rock is hollow and resembles a large plate. The bank opposite the rock is about twelve feet high and is formed by a grass covered meadow with a hill rising perpendicular from the ground at a short distance from the edge of the stream. There are many rumors about this rock-- some say it is where the Cherokee Indians once held their war dances or some form of savage ritual; some say that it is merely a freak of nature; but the idea generally accepted as truth rather than fiction is that this rock is where Paul Bunyan, the famous lumber-jack took his meals when he was logging in South Carolina. They attribute the peculiar shape of the bank to the fact that this was the seat where Paul Bunyan rested his bulky form.

    We all are acquainted with this famous captain of a gang of lumber-jacks who rolled boulders down a hill and sharpened their axes by running along side them; and who took two-edged axes and swung them from side to side and cut down the trees very much like we do wheat or other grains with a sythe. These men were not only gigantic in stature, but they were also hearty eaters. At their mid-day meal each man ate about six whole buffaloes and topped it off with a dozen deer and a barrel of wine.

    As Paul was the captain he would not belittle himself by eating with his common men, whose mess hall was about a mile away; a large level plateau half surrounded by a high hill. But instead he had his private eating place in the "territory" described above.

    From the main part of the rock he ate his fare of buffalo and deer meat and on the smaller part of the rock he set his coffee pot. When work was pushing him he would eat very rapidly, taking half a buffalo at a bite, and when he dipped into the stream to get a swig of water to wash his food down, the whole creek below where he was sitting would stop flowing until he removed his " big dipper" and brought it to his lips.

    Paul ate at this very spot for a couple of weeks until they had finished logging South Carolina. However, there was no rest for them yet; for no sooner had they finished this job than they were called to North Carolina to clear the land of timber there for settlers from England had begun coming in so fast that it was impossible for them to clear lands and build houses to meet their ever increasing needs so they offered to give Paul and his men the lumber, free of charge, if they would get it off the land in a short length of time.

    So speedy was the departure of Paul and his gang from this part of the country when they received the urgent call from North Carolina that they took no time to pack their baggage but left cooking utensils and all and started off, with axes in hand, for our neighboring state. This is the reason why this rock now stands where it is, according to the tales they tell us, and these have been handed down orally from past generations.
    --Keith Turner

  5. It used to be very common for people to find cannonballs and musketballs in the Cowpens Battlefield area. Several in the Chesnee area were found lodged in trees and the ground.

  6. Most of us who have lived our entire lives in Gaffney and attended Gaffney Senior High School probably was taught by Mrs. Boozer. Mrs. Boozer NEVER allowed the chewing of gum in her classes. If you took a chance and entered her room with gum in your mouth and were caught you were subjected to her most favorite poem about the chewing of gum.

    The poem is:

    "The gum chewing girl and the cud chewing cow were somewhat alike but different somehow."

    "What is the difference?" Oh! I see it now; it's the calm thoughtful expression on the face of the cow."

    Shared by Frances Elmore

  7. I can remember from 1948 to 1951 I attended Central Grammer School. Sometimes on the weekends as children sometimes do, we hunted adventure. Often we would ride our bicycles to the school with a folded piece of wax paper in our back pocket. We would would ride the old fire escape down to the bottom. That was the first amusement park for us children.