Before there was an inn and a fountain, the present town of Fountain Inn was half Indian Territory bisected by the "Old Indian Boundary Line." It was established in 1766 by a treaty made between Old Hop, the head of the Cherokees, and Gov. James Glen of the province of South Carolina. The Cherokees used this area--a region of dense forests, canebrakes, and springs of water--for hunting deer, turkeys, panthers, bears, wolves, wildcats, and even buffalo. Only a few settlers had moved to the territory prior to the Revolutionary War. The Fairview Presbyterian Church community was not settled until 1786. Around 1830, a stagecoach stop was established where there was not only an inn but also a spring of water that gushed two feet in the air like a fountain. In time, the stop became known as Fountain Inn. After the War Between the States, Noah Cannon, a resident of the Greer area, bought up huge tracts of land, and so began the village that was chartered in 1886.
Lists various McDowell immigrants, chiefly to Pennsylvania. Thereafter lists early McDowell families and their descendants in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Iowa, Missouri, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York and elsewhere.
"Five Petticoats on Sunday" was originally published in 1962. The book was a collection of columns written by Caroline S. Coleman containing stories her grandmother told about the Fairview community and the South Carolina Piedmont. Coleman's granddaughters, Millie Coleman and Caroline Sherman, have expanded the book with recipes, history and genealogical resources for an enthralling look at the lives of Scotch-Irish residents in the area from Reconstruction until the 1900s. Find out why most homes in the area had a Prophet's Room. Sit with the children as they wait for the "second table" during visiting season and learn exactly why they wore five petticoats on Sunday. Sherman and Coleman examine a time and lifestyle far away from today's modern conveniences but complete with warmth of family.