Loss of the 'old fields'

EARLY TRADING POST

It’s generally said that the first white settlers arrived in what is now Marlboro County in 1737. But in reality, by the 1720s, Virginia fur traders had established outposts all along the Great Pee Dee River. 

They bartered directly with Indians, trading manufactured goods like iron tools, textiles, and firearms for cured deerskins. The deerskins were weighed – giving rise to the term “buck” for a dollar – and sent to Charleston by boat or packhorse. From Charleston, they were shipped directly to England, where they were used to make clothing, gloves, book bindings, and shoes.

One of these early traders was John Thompson. Little is known of his background, but his name lives on in Thompson’s Creek, which empties into the Great Pee Dee River at Cheraw. And he is a central figure in the displacement of indigenous people from this area.

THE WELSH TRACT

In 1736, the South Carolina colonial government granted 10,000 acres of land along the Great Pee Dee River to Welsh Baptist settlers migrating from Pennsylvania. This land was known as the Welsh Tract.

But when the Welsh arrived in 1737 to claim their territory, they found that Thompson had already claimed much of it, including the "old fields" (old village sites) of the Pee Dee and Cheraw Indians. It’s said that he extended credit to the Indians for manufactured European goods, and if they could not pay the debt in deerskins alone, he demanded their land. This was done without permission of the royal government, under what he called his “Indian Right.”

The Welsh settlers filed a petition against Thompson, complaining that the Pee Dee and Cheraw Indians were “running amongst their settlements under the pretense of hunting,” and expressing fear for their safety.

THE RESOLUTION

As a result, the government officially ruled that private individuals could not purchase or claim land directly from Native Americans without permission, essentially voiding Thompson’s “Indian Right” claim. 

They reached a compromise with Thompson in which he surrendered his claim to most of the Welsh Tract in exchange for being granted a settlement near the mouth of a major Pee Dee River tributary. This stream was designated as “Thompson’s Creek,” and he was permitted to operate his trading post here on the edge of the newly established Welsh boundaries.

These actions made 1737 the turning point for the local Cheraw and Pee Dee Indians. Losing their lands to the European settlers essentially forced them off their homelands to join with the Catawba, migrate toward Drowning Creek (now the Lumber River), assimilate into the white settlements, or retreat to the dense river swamps.