What is the very early colonial history of drawing European immigrants here?
The pre-revolutionary South Carolina Township Act of 1730 established eight inland townships. Most were within 60 miles of the coast & on rivers. Incentives were created to draw immigrants to form settlements in interior S. C. to act as protective buffers against Indians and others attacking the British subjects around the colonial seaport capitol of Charleston, S. C. Protestants were lured from various European areas & promised 100 acres per head of household and 50 acres for wife and each child above maybe 12 years of age…plus a town lot…plus tools & provisions for the first year. The German & Swiss immigrants were directed to the area of Saxe Gotha (the area of present-day Lexington County). Germany being Deutschland, the north & west area between present day I-20 and the Broad River became known up to the present day as the Dutch Fork (much of the area being in the “fork” between the Saluda & Broad Rivers). As with Jacob Drafts who arrived in S. C. 1743/44 (my wife’s ancestor),
