(Announcer) A production of the South Carolina Educational Television network.

♪ (Mary Long) Until 1772, this area where I am now was not part of South Carolina.

In 1735, the British began a survey which was completed in 1772.

This established the boundaries between the two Carolinas.

It also settled a long-standing boundary dispute.

In 1785, 13 years after the boundaries had been established, the County Court Act was set by the South Carolina legislature.

It is sure that the British would have established a judicial district in this area of the Upstate much sooner, but the American Revolution interfered with those plans.

The largest settlement of the area, however small, is designated as the county seat, and this was called Fergus Crossroads because it was here that three wagon roads from Kings Mountain, Broad River, and Charlottesburg crossed.

A year later, the people called the settlement by the name of the county in which it was, and it began to be known as Yorkville.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The residents of Yorkville and York County were Scots-Irish frontiersmen.

They came to this area in the 1730s, braving the wilderness and hostile Cherokee to establish their settlement.

They were highly independent and cherished their freedom, but they were also of stern Presbyterian stock and given to law and order.

In his "History of South Carolina," McCrady describes the Scots-Irish.

"This race of people had but one set "of moral, religious, and political principles, "working out the whole framework of society... "obedience to the law, moral obligation, "worship of Almighty God, "and the choice of their own teachers and civil rulers, "believing that the magistrates govern by the consent of the people and their choice."

♪ The first thing they built in the 1760s was four churches... Bethel, Bethesda, Beersheba, and Bullocks Creek.

Next they constructed, at the county seat, a courthouse and jail.

Constructed at the same time by the first sheriff, Lieutenant Colonel James Hawthorne, was a pair of stocks and a whipping post.

It's said the courthouse and jail received a great deal of use and the stocks and whipping post even more.

In the early days, Yorkville attracted a large number of lawyers because of its prominence as a judicial district.

One of the attorneys who gained a national and South Carolina reputation in politics was William Smith.

Smith was the first attorney to become a permanent resident of Yorkville.

In 1808, while serving as president pro tem of the South Carolina senate, he was elected judge of the Constitutional Court of Appeals.

He is said to have been one of the sternest judges ever to serve South Carolina.

Debate and controversy followed Smith all of his life.

Even his birthplace has been hotly contested.

Some historians believe he was born in North Carolina in a part that became South Carolina after the boundary dispute was settled.

Having a very low opinion of North Carolinians, Smith insisted he was South Carolina born and bred.

He would become belligerent, even to the point of fisticuffs, if anyone inferred he was a North Carolinian.

Be that as it may, he grew up around here, was a friend and schoolmate of Andrew Jackson, began his law practice in Yorkville, and gained great power through local and state politics.

♪ The best description of Smith is by Dr. Maurice Moore, a resident of Yorkville who knew him.

He said Smith was kind, hospitable, a good companion to those he liked, but highly prejudiced and unforgiving toward anybody who disagreed with him.

He was an eloquent speaker and employed biting sarcasm to cut the feet out from under anyone who opposed him.

If sarcasm didn't work, Smith carried a heavy cane, which, with his fists, he didn't hesitate to employ to bring people around to his way of thinking.

Moore also said that Smith was one of the bitterest politicians he had ever known, that every political setback increased Smith's animosity toward others.

And he had a bitter hatred of John C. Calhoun.

Every honor heaped upon Calhoun was a personal insult to William Smith.

♪ The hatred of Calhoun simply stemmed from differing political beliefs.

But to a man like Smith, this was enough.

Politics was not just a career... it was a personal war.

In 1816, he was elected to the United States Senate where he served capably, albeit controversially, and received national recognition in the intense debates over the Missouri Compromise.

He was not elected to a second term, being defeated by Robert Y. Hayne, a follower of Calhoun and a staunch defender of nullification.

At this point, one can only say, God help the nullificationists, because Smith was not one to take defeat quietly.

His political career, however, was not ended because the people of York County elected him to the state House of Representatives.

It was in the turbulent political arena of the 1820s that William Smith would have his greatest impact.

It's interesting to compare the political beliefs of William Smith and John C. Calhoun because their goals weren't that far apart.

Smith was for states' rights, as was Calhoun.

Some historians credit Smith with beginning the states' rights movement in South Carolina.

In November of 1825, Smith introduced and supported three resolutions in the legislature that were antibanking, anti-internal improvements, and antitariff.

All were intended to limit the powers of the federal government through the constitutional process.

All three were passed by the legislature.

♪ This action was the first step taken toward the antinationalism movement in South Carolina and the first official act of state government that supported the issue of states' rights.

Also, just as Calhoun was, Smith was opposed to the protective tariffs that were passed by the federal government in 1828.

The dissension that arose between the two political leaders was in how the state should deal with those tariffs.

This issue would split the states' rights party into two warring factions.

The nullification party, under the leadership of John C. Calhoun, believed the state of South Carolina to be a sovereign entity independent of federal rule.

If it so chose, argued the Nullifiers, the state did not have to abide by any federal law.

Since they believed the powers of the state were superior to those of the United States Congress, their proposed solution was relatively simple... the state legislature could pass a bill overriding, or nullifying, the federal tariff and simply not pay it.

Smith considered this view absurd.

He and the Unionists, as they came to be called, believed that the sovereignty of a state resided with the American people and the union of the United States.

They believed federal tariffs were unconstitutional because they were revenue measures passed off as protective duties, but they should be corrected through the judicial process because if a state had the right to refuse to obey any federal law with which they did not agree, there might as well not be a United States.

Smith argued that South Carolina had given up rights of nullification when they adopted the United States Constitution.

♪ The bitter debate over nullification lasted through the late 1820s and into the early 1830s, with first one and then the other political party in power.

Every time the nullifications party was in the ascendancy, William Smith's hatred of Calhoun grew.

The majority of the people of York favored Smith's views.

Some said it was more in fear of being struck by his cane.

Smith was reelected to the United States Senate, where he became a strong supporter of his former schoolmate, President Andrew Jackson.

Jackson, himself a South Carolinian, threatened to use force if the federal tariffs were not paid.

However, in 1832, the nullification party gained the upper hand.

On November 24th of that year, the state legislature passed the Ordinance of Nullification, which declared the federal tariffs null and void.

♪ Embittered by his defeat, Judge William Smith returned to his home in York and disassociated himself from South Carolina politics.

It is said that he sat alone and his hatred of John C. Calhoun grew to unmeasurable intensity.

According to a story told by people who lived in York at the time, he was really not alone.

He had a daughter who had died at a very early age, and every time Smith moved to a new home in this area, he would have her buried again in the new location.

In 1833, deciding that South Carolina was not large enough for both himself and John C. Calhoun, Smith moved to Huntsville, Alabama, never to return to the Palmetto State.

While in Alabama, he was offered a position as United States Supreme Court judge by President Jackson, which he turned down.

It seems that he had lost his taste for politics.

Today he lies buried in Huntsville beside his daughter.

[vehicular noise] While Judge William Smith and others were involved in the nullification debates, the town of Yorkville, or York as it came to be known, had grown.

By 1823, the population of York had reached 451.

According to Mills' "Statistics of South Carolina," the town boasted "52 mechanics, 8 lawyers, "2 physicians, and 1 clergyman.

"The town consisted of 80 personal dwellings, 8 stores, 5 taverns, and 1 post office."

Also in 1823, a new courthouse, designed by Robert Mills, was built.

The lower-floor offices were designed to be fireproof.

Mills described the building as an "elegant structure."

The next three decades would be very prosperous for this area.

The town of York was incorporated in 1849.

In 1861, just before the War Between the States, York had the second highest per capita income of any city within South Carolina.

This was due to the large number of wealthy planters, prosperous merchants, and professional people who lived in this area.

Indeed, because of the high standard of living which was enjoyed here, York became known as the Charleston of the Upcountry.

Although South Carolina began the secessionist movement, she contributed very few leaders of high military rank.

Indeed, there were almost none from South Carolina in the military leadership of the Army of the Confederacy.

However, there was one notable exception, a man from York named Daniel Harvey Hill who was described as being "one of the Confederacy's most brilliant and fiery commanders."

♪ D. H. Hill was born July 12, 1821, in York.

He was the grandson of William Hill, Revolutionary War hero and the first to build an ironworks in the Carolinas.

D. H.'s father, Solomon, owned a great deal of land in York County.

Solomon died when Daniel was four.

All land except one small tract had to be sold for debts.

This tract had to support the widow and eight children, of whom Daniel was the youngest.

During his childhood and later years he suffered with a disease, which was unknown, and later he wrote, "I had a spell of sickness in my boyhood, "which left me with a weak and suffering spine.

"I have a very feeble frame and have been a great sufferer."

The Hills were poor compared to many in York, and in spite of his illness, Daniel had to do heavy farmwork from dawn to dusk to help support his family.

True to his Scots-Irish heritage, he was deeply religious and fiercely independent.

On his own, he managed to acquire an education in spite of his heavy farm duties.

In 1838, he was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

In his graduating class of 1842, there were 56, and he ranked 28th.

From 1845 to 1848, he served under the generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott in the war with Mexico.

He was breveted first a captain and then a major for his gallantry in action.

♪ After the Mexican War, Hill resigned from the army, married Isabella Morrison of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and began teaching mathematics at Washington and Lee University in Virginia.

While in Virginia, he resumed his friendship with Thomas Jackson, who would later be known to the world as Stonewall.

They had met during the war, and Hill was instrumental in helping Jackson find a teaching post at Virginia Military Institute.

Jackson confided to Hill that although he was a pious man, he was not a regular churchgoer and lacked the discipline to find his way to church.

So Hill introduced Jackson to the tenets of Presbyterianism.

Jackson also confided in Hill about a relationship that he was forming with a young lady named Eleanor Junkin.

Later, Jackson married the young lady and embraced both his new religion and his new wife fervently.

Jackson was ever grateful to Hill for his assistance.

♪ At one time in Virginia, Daniel and Isabella's daughter Eugenia was critically ill and close to death with pneumonia.

The distraught parents did everything for the girl, but to no avail.

To help her sleep, they held her and paced the floor day and night until they were about to collapse from exhaustion.

One night, they heard a knock on their door.

When they opened the door, there was Thomas Jackson.

He took the girl, said he would care for her, and they were to get some much-needed rest.

All night, holding the girl close to his breast, Jackson paced the floor and prayed.

The next day when the parents retrieved their daughter, they found the still pacing and praying Jackson.

The little girl's fever had broken, and she was well on her way to recovery.

♪ Hill wrote a number of books.

In one, we find the strong anti-Northern sentiments felt by the South following nullification.

It's in a calculus book.

There were no suitable math books, so Hill wrote his own, had them published, and used them in his classes.

His literary wit and feeling toward the North can be found in many problems.

For example, "The field of battle at Buena Vista "is 6 1/2 miles from Saltillo.

"Two Indiana volunteers ran away from the field of battle "at the same time.

"One ran half a mile per hour faster than the other "and reached Saltillo 5 minutes and 54 6/11 seconds sooner.

Required...their respective rates of travel."

And other problems he set range from witch burnings in Salem, Massachusetts, to the number of insane people in New York.

♪ In 1857, Jackson became Hill's brother-in-law.

His first wife had died, and he married the sister of Hill's wife Isabella.

The men became even firmer friends after the marriage.

At this time, Hill was teaching at Davidson College, where he was head of the mathematics department.

In 1858, a group of prominent men in Charlotte approached Jackson and Hill about forming a Southern West Point.

Jackson did not participate, preferring to stay in Virginia, but Hill, seeing the need for such a thing, resigned his post and was soon installed as superintendent of the North Carolina Military Institute.

However, he soon resigned these duties because in April of 1861 he joined the army and was made commander of the 1st North Carolina Volunteers, an infantry unit.

The first battle he saw was at Big Bethel Church near Yorktown.

This was the first land battle of the War Between the States.

Hill is given credit for winning it for the Confederacy.

♪ Hill was ordered to defend entrenchments which would hold back Federal troops coming up the peninsula.

On June 10th at 3 a.m., he was to ld by his commanding officer, John Magruder of Virginia, to see if there were Federal troops approaching.

Hill did not think Magruder a capable officer and later said he was always drunk and giving foolish and absurd orders.

However, Hill followed the orders.

Taking a detachment of men, they marched 3 miles until they saw a large number of Federal troops approaching under the command of General Benjamin F. Butler.

Butler thought it would be easy to demolish this small group of Confederates.

However, Hill and his men stayed just ahead of the Federals in order to lure them toward entrenchments which Hill himself had designed.

They got to the entrenchments and settled in.

Later a Confederate soldier said it was like a turkey shoot because the 1,400 men under Hill soundly defeated the 4,000 men under Butler, thus giving the victory of the first land battle of the War Between the States to the Confederacy.

♪ As soon as news of the victory reached Southern states, Hill became a hero, the first of the war.

He was heralded by Southern newspapers as representative of that breed of Southerner who would ensure a quick, clean end to the war.

He gave credit to God.

Shortly after the war, Hill wrote Isabella, "It is a little singular "that my first battle should be at Bethel, "the name of the church "where I was baptized and worshiped until I was 16.

"The church of my mother, "was she not a guardian spirit in the battle, "averting ball and shell?

"O God, give us gratitude to thee, and may we never dishonor thee by a weak faith."

[vehicular noise] Daniel Harvey Hill was made a general and became one of Robert E. Lee's finest commanding officers.

But Hill had one problem.

He was quick to criticize his fellow commanders if he disagreed with their military actions or if he did not like their personal lives.

This did not endear him to other officers.

Indeed, Hill criticized Robert E. Lee.

This is very interesting because Lee did not permit any disagreement with his actions or decisions.

But he made one exception, and that was for York native D. H. Hill.

When after the war he was asked why was this, Lee said Hill was his most trustworthy and capable general.

At one time during the war, other officers asked Lee to court-martial Hill because of derogatory remarks Hill had made against Lee.

To this, General Lee replied, "This man has the heart of a lion "and the tongue of an adder, but I would not trade him for a full brigade."

[vehicular noise] Although designed to be fireproof, Robert Mills' courthouse was severely damaged by fire in 1894.

It was torn down in 1914 and replaced with this structure.

Just as that first courthouse did in the 1770s, it still stands as the judicial seat of York County.

Today York prospers, as does all of York County, being the second largest growth of any county within the state, as it was just prior to the War Between the States.

Yet as York prospers, it still maintains that atmosphere and charm that made it so attractive to those early South Carolinians who called it the Charleston of the Upcountry.

♪ There are many stories to tell in this small town, but it's impossible to do so in a short span.

Men like William Smith and Daniel Harvey Hill contributed greatly to the city's cultural heritage.

Perhaps we'll meet others as we pass this way again and our paths intersect here, at the crossroads of history.

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