THE CATAWBA BOUNDARY
In 1762, the Board of Trade finally intervened and asked the colonies to
mark their boundary farther westward through the disputed area. A S Salley,
Secretary of the SC Historical Commission wrote in his pamphlet titled, "The
Boundary Line between North and South Carolina." that the Board of Trade
insturcted both governors the "Commissioners shall then be appointed by both
Provinces to continue it (the boundary line)...due west until it meets the
Eastern limit of the Lands claimed by the Catawbas."

In an earlier treaty with South Carolina, the Catawba Indians were give a 15
mile by 15 mile square tract on the Catawba River. If it still existed
today, it would take in Rock Hill, SC and much of the area east of it to the
NC line. Salley said that South Carolina actually wanted the tribe to remain
at that location.

When other localities were pushing the Indians ever westward, South Carolina
needed the Catawba warriors and trackers because they were "a very useful
Body of Men to keep our numerous negroes in some awe." The heavy labor
needed to clear the silderness farms required a large slave population. The
white settlers were afraid of losing control of the slaves, so they kept the
Indians as an auxiliary militia, as well as using them to track runaways.

Five months after SC Deputy Surveyor Samuel Wyly finished marking off the
Catawba boundaries in G
Feb 1764, a joint North and South Carolina survey team began running a line
From the terminus of the 1737 survey (now near the corner of Richmond and
Scotland counties, and Marlboro County, SC) westward for about 65 miles to
the Catawba lands.

THE LINE STOPS SHORT
Salley reported in Oct 1764 the surveyor commissioners stopped at the Old
Salisbury Rd (a colonial highway that ran from Salisbury NC to Camden SC;
today US Route 521 follows much of the same path). They reported to Lt Gov.
Wm Bull, Jr of SC, "that the Line did not strike the Eastern Bounds of the
Catawba Lands but ran a little southward of that Line..." But, "if continued
(it) will strike their Southwest boundary," Bull wrote in a report to the
Board of Trade.

If the line had been continued, Salley's map shows that it would have hit
the Catawba boundary. But it was never run any farther than the Salisbury
Road. Gov. Bull, in a later letter to the Board of Trade, sugggested that
the state line stop at the road, then follow it northward until it reached
the Catawba lands, through which it passed.

Then, he proposed that it should, "continue along round (sic) the Eastern
Bounds of the Catawba lands
until it strikes the East Bank of the Catawba River and thence up the
Catawba River to its ource in or near the Cherokee Mountains."

The altenatin of the line at Salisbury Road didn't bother NC at that time.
But if SC had been allowed a boundary to the source of the Catawba River,
everything west of Charlotte and south of Hickory (probably including
Asheville) would now be in SC.

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