Savannah Town, South Carolina

A thriving business developed around colonial traders, many of them Scots-Irish, who used pack horses to carry their goods and travel throughout Native American communities in what was then considered the interior, western wilderness away from Low Country settlements.

In 1698, Colonel Thomas Welch reached the Mississippi River on a Native American trail, which came to be known as the Upper Trading Path to the Chickasaw homeland (Atkinson p. 25).

In the early 1720s the South Carolina Assembly invited Chickasaw living in northern Mississippi to occupy the area, hoping to encourage trade and use them defensively on the frontier.

Seeking to strengthen ties with the English as a source of guns, a Chickasaw group led by Squirrel King (as he was known to the colonists) came to Savannah Town in 1723, settling along nearby Horse Creek.

These Chickasaw collaborated with the English colonists in defense of this area from other tribes until returning to their Mississippi homeland about the time of the Revolutionary War.

In 1737, 200 settlers from Appenzell, Switzerland colonized New Windsor; descendants of the Tobler, Zubly, Nagel, Sturzenegger, and Meyer families are part of local history.

Due to uncertain political jurisdiction over Savannah River islands and sand bars, this area became a popular dueling ground in the early 19th century.

The black Baptist congregation later moved into Savannah, Georgia during the Revolutionary War, where the slaves could gain freedom behind British lines.