Topics Related to Macon County

Battle of Echoe (QQ-1)

Location: US 441 Business (Main Street) in Franklin
County: Macon
Original Date Cast: 1964

Large rectangular marker, with map inset, and extended text as follows:

Beginning in 1758, South Carolina engaged in a four-year war with the Cherokee Indians, whose descendants now live in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. This war resulted from French efforts to incite the Southern Indians against the British in the French and Indian War (1754-63).

Mary Lapham 1860-1936 (Q-60)

Physician; innovator in treatment of tuberculosis. Served in Europe, WWI; operated a sanatorium here, 1908-1918.

Thomas Harbison 1862-1936 (Q-55)

Botanist and educator. Pioneer in the study of flora, southeastern U.S. Highlands his base after 1886; taught here.

Silas McDowell 1795-1879 (Q-50)

Botanical and historical writer; horticulturist. Originated concept of a temperate "thermal belt." Home stood 1/5 mi. W.

Cowee (Q-39)

Principal settlement of the Cherokee Middle Towns. Council house stood on mound 300 yds. S. Town destroyed during the Revolution.

Pottery Clay (Q-36)

Wedgwood potteries, England, used several tons of clay taken in 1767 from a nearby pit by Thomas Griffiths, a South Carolina planter.

Andre Michaux (Q-17)

French botanist. First visit to North Carolina to study flora was June, 1787, when he traversed the Highlands Plateau.

Nikwasi (Q-9)

This mound marks site of old Cherokee town, Nikwasi. A council of Sir Alexander Cuming with the Indians here led to a treaty, 1730.

Cherokee Defeat (Q-7)

During the American Revolution, S.C. forces under Colonel Andrew Williamson defeated the Cherokees, nearby, at the “Black Hole,” Sept. 1776.

Cherokee Victory (Q-6)

In the French and Indian War, the Cherokees defeated a colonial and British force from N.Y. under Colonel Montgomery near here, June, 1760.