York is a city and county seat of York County, South Carolina, United States. The population was approximately 6,985 at the 2000 census and up to 7,736 at the 2010 census. York is located approximately southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina and west of Rock Hill, South Carolina.HistoryThe first European settlers came to York in the early 1750s, having migrated south from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Of the three major groups settling Pennsylvania, the English came first, then the Germans, and then the Scots. The county names of Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire had been brought from England to Pennsylvania, and then on to South Carolina by the early settlers.Prior to this, the first known inhabitants of York County were the Catawba Indians.The town of York was originally known as Fergus’s Crossroads for a tavern, owned by two brothers, William and John Fergus, that was located at the intersection of the road from Rutherfordton to Camden and the road from Charlottesburg (Charlotte) to Augusta. When the county of York was established in 1785 the state statute required each county to erect a courthouse and public buildings in the most convenient part of the county, with a tax levied to cover the cost of "building the court houses, prisons, pillories, whipping posts and stocks." Fergus’s Crossroads was near the geographic center of the newly formed county and was chosen for the site of the new county seat.
