Cheraw

History

When the first Europeans arrived in the area it was inhabited by the Cheraw and Pee Dee American Indian tribes. The Cheraw lived near the waterfall hill, near present-day Cheraw, but by the 1730s they had been devastated by new infectious disease inadvertently carried by the European traders. Survivors joined the Catawba Confederacy for safety and left their name in history. A few European settlers entered the area around Cheraw town in the 1730s, and were then forced upriver when the Welsh came to claim the Welsh Baptist lands granted by the English government in the area around Society Hill. Many of the early settlers of the 1740s in Cheraw were ethnic English, Scots, French Huguenots, or Scots-Irish. By 1750, Cheraw had become an established Anglo-American village with a growing river trade, one of the first inland villages. It was one of only six places in South Carolina that appeared on English maps at the time. In the 1760s, Joseph and Eli Kershaw were granted the part of Cheraw that is now the downtown historic district. The Kershaws laid out a formal street system. By 1830 settlers lined all the streets with rows of elms. The Kershaws originally called the town "Chatham", but people never accepted this name, continuing to call it "Cheraw" or "Cheraw Hill". There was a lack of organization and rule during the beginning of the 1740s in the backcountry of South Carolina. This lack of organization and unrest was an underlying cause of the resentment people of these areas felt toward the British Crown. In the Pee Dee area, planters organized a group called the Regulators to help bring order to the area. In 1768 St. David's Parish, the last Anglican Church built in South Carolina under King George III, was established to help serve the civic and religious needs of…

Geography

Cheraw is located in eastern Chesterfield County at the fall line of the Pee Dee River. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.64%, is water. U.S. Route 1 passes through the center of the city, leading northeast to Rockingham, North Carolina, and southwest to Camden. U.S. Route 52 joins US 1 in the center of Cheraw but leads northwest to Wadesboro, North Carolina, and south to Florence. South Carolina Highway 9 also passes through the center of Cheraw, leading southeast to Bennettsville and west to Chesterfield, the county seat. Cheraw has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa) with long, hot summers and short, mild winters. The record high temperature of was recorded on July 23, 1952, while the record low temperature of was recorded on February 14, 1899.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  438
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  375
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  369
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  363
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  342
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  330
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  327
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  321

Most recent

• M 2.72 — 2026-01-20
  5 km ESE of Elgin, South Carolina
• M 2.57 — 2025-04-26
  6 km E of Elgin, South Carolina
• M 2.5 — 2024-09-15
  6 km E of Elgin, South Carolina
• M 2.65 — 2024-03-09
  5 km E of Elgin, South Carolina
• M 2.54 — 2022-10-31
  6 km E of Elgin, South Carolina
• M 3.6 — 2022-06-29
  6 km E of Elgin, South Carolina