Ninety Six is a town in Greenwood County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 1,998 at the 2010 census.
Geography
Ninety Six is located in eastern Greenwood County at (34.173211, -82.021710). South Carolina Highway 34 passes through the town as its Main Street; it leads west to Greenwood, the county seat, and east to Newberry.
Lake Greenwood State Park is northeast of town, and Ninety Six National Historic Site is south of the center of town.
According to the United States Census Bureau, Ninety Six has a total area of , all land.
Etymology
There is much confusion about the name, "Ninety Six", and the true origin may never be known. Speculation has led to the mistaken belief that traders estimated it was from here to the nearest Cherokee settlement of Keowee (it was about ); to a counting of creeks crossing the main road leading from Lexington, South Carolina, to Ninety-Six (a legend proved false); to an interpretation of a Welsh expression, nant-sych, meaning "dry gulch". No one is able to confirm that European founder Robert Goudey (sic) was Welsh, English, Scottish, or German.
Traders passed on information to each other about landmarks and distances along the Cherokee Path, and sometimes created maps. They estimated mileage between streams based on their day's travel. They noted unusual aspects, such as the six creeks that ran unexpectedly south away from the Saluda River and, further west, nine creeks that ran south away from the Savannah River, noting them on maps as "6" and "9". A town in this area and a district both became known as "Ninety-Six", likely related to the evolution of traders' references to 9 and 6, the landmark groups of streams. Using historical accounts and USGS maps, historians have traced the Cherokee Path across present-day Greenwood County, territory that at the time was part of other districts.
Another source suggests the numerical reference was to measuring by "chains", traditional in English parishes. Even so, the origin of the name "Ninety-Six" remains a mystery. Ninety Six has been noted for its unusual place name.
History
Ninety Six was established on the frontier of the early 18th century, roughly around 1730. For a time it was known as "Jews Land" because some prominent Sephardic Jewish families of London bought extensive property there. The Salvador and DaCosta families bought , intending to help poor Sephardic families relocate from London to the New World. They began to settle it.
The settlement became the capital city of the Ninety-Six District when the latter was established in July 1769. Since the late 20th century, the National Park Service has operated the Ninety Six National Historic Site at the site of the original settlement and British fort.
Ninety Six figured prominently in the Anglo-Cherokee War (1758–1761). During the American Revolutionary War, it was a site for southern campaigns. The first land battle of the revolution south of New England was fought here 19–21 November 1775.
On August 1, 1776, American militia forces led by Major Andrew Williamson were ambushed by Cherokee and Loyalists near here in the Battle of Twelve Mile Creek. More than 4,000 Cherokee warriors had waged war on a long front beginning in June, from modern Tennessee to central South Carolina. Francis Salvador, a Sephardic Jewish immigrant from London and a planter, was one of the casualties. He was the first Jew to be killed fighting with the Patriots in the Revolutionary War.
The Cherokee were allied with the British in an effort to expel European-American settlers from their territory. In fall 1776, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia raised rebel militias to retaliate. Rutherford's Light Horse expedition had several units that attacked the Cherokee Lower Towns; the Middle, Valley, and Out Towns; and the Overhill Towns, dealing widespread destruction of Cherokee towns and their stores of food.
In 1780 the British fortified the strategically important frontier town with a star fort. From May 22 to June 18, 1781, Major General Nathanael Greene, with 1,000 Continental Army troops, besieged 550 American Loyalists who were defending Ninety Six. General Greene's chief engineer at the siege was Colonel Tadeusz Kościuszko, a Polish officer who became world-renowned for his role in the Revolution; he was wounded at the siege. The Loyalists survived the siege and relocated after the war to Rawdon, Nova Scotia, Canada, with support from the Crown for resettlement.