Page 13 - Athens Newcomers Guide 2023

Our Communities

Anderson County

Anderson County and its county seat, Anderson, were named
for Revolutionary War General Robert Anderson (1741-1812).

University, Clemson University, and
Tri-County Technical College. With
all of these, Anderson County has
the integrated resources available
to help train and develop a highly
skilled workforce.
Residents have witnessed their
towns and communities flourishing and
evolving in the last 50 years with the
growth of the textile mills and now the
manufacturing industry. Automotive
production and research is gaining
ground here, with Robert Bosch
Corporation producing automotive
components and Michelin North
America producing tires.
Anderson County has nine
Welcome to Anderson districts became counties in 1868. The municipalities within its borders, each
current courthouse was originally a log with its own distinct attributes. Read on
County. Prior to European to learn more about each one.
cabin. Today’s historic courthouse was
settlement in the 1700s, built in 1898 and renovated in 1904, 1939,
this was home to the and 1991. CITY OF ANDERSON
Anderson County contains 718 The seat of Anderson County,
Cherokee nation. square miles in Upstate South Carolina, known as “The Electric City,” Anderson
halfway between Charlotte and Atlanta, was the first city in the U.S. to have
y 1791 the land was the Piedmont area. It is bordered on a continuous supply of hydroelectric
incorporated by the state and the west by the Savannah River and power and first in the world to create
named Pendleton District, Lake Hartwell, on the north by Pickens a cotton gin operated by electricity.
B which is now Pickens, Oconee, and Oconee counties, on the east by Anderson resident and engineer William
and Anderson counties. The state the Saluda River, and on the south by
legislature then split the Pendleton Abbeville County.
District into Anderson and Pickens By the 1900s Anderson County was
counties in 1826. The county seat was thriving with textile mills as the American
established in Anderson. cotton industry was maturing. With
Legend tells us that when the one of the lowest costs of living in the
town founders traveled by foot from United States, the area today is a thriving
Pendleton to the new Anderson County industrial, commercial, and tourist center.
seat, their rest stop was deemed the With more than 15 universities and
location of the Anderson Courthouse. In colleges within 50 miles of Anderson,
fact, The City of Anderson was originally there are many great higher education
called Anderson Courthouse until the options for students including Anderson

2023 Anderson County Membership Directory & Newcomers Guide 9