The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-11-13
Tuesday, November 13, 1917
ABBEVILLE COUNTY NAMES.

The Newberry Observer is struck
by some of the names of places IN
Abbeville County, among them Long
Cane, Bethia. Prosperity and Lit
tie Mountain. and inquiries as to the
origin of these names. Brother
Wallace correctly surmises that
Long Cane was so named because of
the fact that long reeds grew
there. But Long Cane was not
originally the name of place. The
name was first given to the stream
which arises in the upper section OF
the old county of Abbeville, circles
the citv of Abbeville and empties
into Little River in the lower sec
ton of the county. 1t was so
named because in the lowlands
along the stream there were great
fields of long Cor talD canes grow
ing. In these in the early days, we
are told in Logan's History of Up
per South Carolina, large herds of
Buffaloes fed. The name has been
given, to one of the townships IN
the county, and that section of the
county is known as Long Cane.
There is no place by the name.
AS to the origin of the other
names, we could only guess, ex-
cept as to Little Mountain, which
is the name usually given to the
mountain seven miles south of the
city, though the real name is Par
sons Mount. Just where the latter
name originated we do not know.
Brother Gardner of The Green
wood Journal does not care so much
about Long Cane and Bethia, Pros
perity and Little Mountain, but ne
would like to know something about
Due West.
In order to further the discussion
we call to the attention of The
Journal that the name was not Due
West Corner originally but prob
ably DeWit's (or DeWitt's) Corner.
The Commissioners from the State
of Georgia, from the state of South
\arolina met with the Indians there
n 1777 and concluded treaty
which gave to the white people the
section now comprised in Anderson,
Oconee and Pickens counties. The
treaty is on file in the Secretary of
States office in Columbia, and the
name of the place is there stated as
DeWit's Corner, at least this ap-
pears to be the name as it is there
written. However on the map
made by Mouzon and others, a copy
of which is to be found in Caroll's
Historical Collections, the name is
given as Duets Corner.
We have no way of knowing
which of the two is most likely cor
rect, nor can we know with GER
tainty just how the name came to
be given the place. The map re-
ferred to, however, shows that the
Indian trail which came down from
the town of Keowee forked at this
point, the one branch leading to
Ninety Six and on to the Congarees
and the other towards Savannah,
and passing through the present
city of Abbeville, and the country
then settled by the French Hugue-
nots in the lower section of the
county. Due West, as it is now call
ed, was then on the very outskirts
of civilization (it is the centre
now in the No Mans Land between
the whites on the one side and the
indians on the other. The forks of
the indian trail furnished such
place as the early traders would
have selected as a trading post for
trading with the indians. We may
easily surmise that some enterpris-
ing trader by the name of Dewitt or
Duett, as the case may be, estab-
lished a trading post at this point
and the place took its name from
him.
It is easy to figure how the
change came from DeWit's or Du-
ett's to Due West. This no doubt
happened just as the name of Cen