How did the Carolinas State Line Form? - Charlotte Rifle & Pistol Club, Inc.

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How Did the Carolina State Line Form?

by Gordon Thorsby

Post office map of Union County late 1800s

Amid the demands of daily living, it is easy to overlook developments that once carried real significance. For example, as you drive up the hill to the Club, the state line between North and South Carolina runs roughly ten feet off the pavement, parallel to the road. It continues behind the trap range before turning northwest. On a broader scale, you may have noticed that the state line between the Carolinas is far from straight yet it does not closely follow natural geographic features. Why is that, and why should it matter to us personally or to the Club? It should matter, and the reasons are more complex than they appear.

It all started when England’s King Charles II in the 1600s granted land to men who had remained loyal to him in the English Civil War, where “the spoils of war go to the victors.” Until 1728 the Carolinas were a private organization of eight Lord’s proprietors who managed their lands, settling some, farming more and selling off others down into what is Georgia. Native American tribes lived across the region as settlers came in. Surveyors spent years documenting boundaries crossing the wilderness by horses and packs all risking disease and indigenous attacks. The line stretched west as far as it could be controlled, potentially to the Pacific Ocean as long as foreign adversaries didn’t object. They did object. The Royal Colonial Boundary of 1665 established the Virginia-Carolinas line from the Atlantic Ocean west to the Appalachian Mountains generally drawn on the 36.30 degree parallel.

The 1729 Map of the Carolina Territory

What about the southern boundary? That was far more complicated and the focus of this note. Some Native tribes coexisted peacefully alongside white settlers while others fought both settlers and rival tribes. The situation was especially severe in the northern part of the Carolina territory Catawba peoples being frequent victims. Officials in low country Charles Town were reluctant to send resources north, while leaders in the north often allowed the violence to continue. Disputes over mineral rights added to the strain. The territory was simply too large for the proprietors in Charles Town to govern effectively, especially when communication depended on horses and boats. In 1712, London decided to divide Carolina into two territories, creating what was intended to be an orderly separation.

Settlers in the border region were sometimes taxed by both territories, making an official southern boundary increasingly necessary. In the years that followed, the English Crown took direct control of the two territories in 1729 with no formal boundary established to make them colonies. King George addressed this in his 1735 decree: “The line shall begin at the sea, thirty miles from the west side of the mouth of the Cape Fear River. From thence, it shall run on a northwest course to the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude, and from thence due west to the South Seas.” The directive sounded straightforward, but there was a problem: drawing an official line required an official survey. But, of course. That is where the real complications began.

The first section of the southern boundary was surveyed as a northwest line from the Cape Fear River toward the 35th parallel. The decree relied on the abstract line rather than geography worsening matters where survey points were often marked with rocks and trees, features that could disappear, shift, or be obscured over time. Additional issues arose when surveyors were often underpaid or not paid at all. Some reportedly worked while intoxicated or abandoned the job in frustration, leaving others to finish the work. In the later Fry-Jefferson survey of 1749–1751 it suffered from limited training, and where surveyors failed to know or realize the difference between true north and magnetic north in the Carolinas. (As a bit of trivia, Jefferson was Thomas Jefferson’s father.)

The magnetic error deciding when the 35th line was reached was identified years later to be in error that they had stopped eleven miles short of the 35th parallel in North Carolina’s favor. This fiasco required redress because North Carolina was taxing South Carolinians who thought they lived in South Carolina under the decree. SC officials thought so too.

The Catawba Nation

Decision makers sought corrections in the 1700s in the current day Lancaster/Union regions. The planned line if implemented would slice through Catawba tribal land where the Catawba wanted to remain with South Carolina. That didn’t sit well with the tribal leaders. The Catawba had sided with the British colonial government in the recent French and Indian War. During that war, the Catawba felt more drawn to the South possibly for protection from the raiding Cherokees (i.e. Fort Mill).

At a pivotal moment, In July 1760, Catawba Chief King “Nopkehee” Hagler also called the "Patron Saint of Camden" negotiated with British officials near modern day Camden. The very next year in the Anglo-Cherokee War, Catawba warriors joined British regulars and South Carolina provincials in the struggle. An additional fort would be built in nearby Van Wyck, a fort never occupied and designed by Samuel Wyly (also spelled Wylie).

The Progression of the Southern State Line

Devastated by repeated smallpox epidemics and relentless settler encroachment, the Catawba feared loss of much of their ancestral lands. The 1760 Treaty of Pine Tree Hill was reached, surveyed by the same Samuel Wyly. Under the agreement, the Catawba ceded territorial claims previously granted by the crown across North and South Carolina and Virginia for a guaranteed homeland of the Waxhaw Old Fields along the Catawba River near the border of North and South Carolina all in the hopes to prevent further settler intrusion. The North Carolina governor at the time worked with Chief Hagler to resolve the line such that Catawba land remained in the south. Agreements were made the north edge along the revised “Indian lands” and cut west again.

So how does it all relate to the club? Fast forward to today, we can probably attribute the Charlotte Rifle & Pistol Club’s western property line to the Catawba agreement of 1772. We could also infer our northern boundary might have been in North Carolina while the club would be in South Carolina, if the proper compass adjustment had been made and that is why it matters to the CRPC Club. It goes to say the founding fathers weren’t perfect. Maybe that is why we often refer to people as Carolinian. North or South Carolinians here cross the lines daily. Many settlers were caught in the same situation confusing to localities in both territories.

Waxhaw as shown before the railroads in the 1700s

Oh, I forgot about the line west of present-day Charlotte. That debate continues. The boundary remains wonky. In some cases, homes are physically split leaving owners subject to taxes from both. Courts address individual cases, but the general resolution is often punted off to future times awaiting clarifying legislation.

Sources:
• Dr. Brett High Riggs, UNC Chapel Hill, NCV
• “The Old Catawba Forts,” Michael C. Scoggins Culture & Heritage Museums August 2005