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| Add Photo — Add Link — Add Commentary — Correct this page — Print | | Gaffney in Cherokee County, South Carolina — The American South (South Atlantic) |
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Michael Gaffney
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By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | | 1. Michael Gaffney Marker | | |
Inscription. 1775 - 1854
Michael Gaffney
Founder
City of Gaffney
Memorial Wall Erected 1976
by City of Gaffney
Leonard Hope, Mayor
Ben L. Clary, City Administrator
Ray Clary, Frank Guyton, Fred Kirby
John Q. Little, Vernon Sanders,
J. Chad Sarratt
Councilmen
Cherokee Historic Preservation Society
Marker by Ruth and Hickson Jones
Erected 1976 by City of Gaffney.
Location. 35° 4.482′ N, 81° 39.067′ W. Marker is in Gaffney, South Carolina, in Cherokee County. Marker is at the intersection of North Logan Street and West Floyd Baker Boulevard (South Carolina Route 11), on the right when traveling north on North Logan Street. Click for map. Marker is in this post office area: Gaffney SC 29340, United States of America.
Other nearby markers. At least 10 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Gaffney (about 500 feet away, in a direct line); a different marker also named Gaffney (about 600 feet away); Michael Gaffney Home (approx. 0.2 miles away); Cherokee County Veterans Monument (approx. 0.2 miles away); Col. James Williams (approx. 0.2 miles away); Carnegie Library (approx. 0.2 miles away); Cherokee County WW I Rememberence (approx. 0.2 miles away); Cherokee County Confederate Monument (approx. 0.2 miles away); First Baptist Church (approx. 0.2 miles away); Gaffney Cornerstone (approx. 0.2 miles away). Click for a list of all markers in Gaffney.| | | | 
By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | | 2. Michael Gaffney Marker and Memorial Wall | | The Gaffney Family Cemetery is located behind the pumpkin displays. | | |
Also see . . .
1. Gaffney, South Carolina. Gaffney is a city located in the Upstate of South Carolina. (Submitted on October 23, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.)
2. City of Gaffney. Official website of the City of Gaffney, SC. (Submitted on October 23, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.)
3. Small town charm. Big city conveniences. In 1803, Michael Gaffney established a store where two Indian trails crossed - the current intersection of the highways U.S. 29 and S.C. 11. (Submitted on October 23, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.)
4. Gaffney. In 1803 Michael Gaffney established a store where two Indian trails crossed. (Submitted on October 23, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.)
Additional comments.
1. Michael Gaffney Day
The city of Gaffney celebrates her founder on the fourth Saturday of September. The celebretation takes place at the Gaffney cabin from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. — Submitted October 23, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.
2. Gaffney
Gaffney, seat of Cherokee County, is a textile manufacturing town and marketing center for farmers. On "Sales Monday" the town resembles an Eastern bazaar; people gather from the surrounding | | | | 
By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | | 3. Gaffney Family Cemetery | | Located on the knoll west of the memorial wall. | | |
countryside to trade eggs, butter, and livestock for brogans, coffee, and snuff. Held the first Monday in each month, the occasion was known for years as "swap day," "trade day," or "bone yard day." Like poor Jack in the old fairy story, some farmers bring a cow to the market and go home with things less useful than a handful of beans.
Previously called Gaffney's Old Field, the town was named for an Irishman, Michael Gaffney, who settled here in 1804. Hardly had the first little frame shacks been grouped together around the crossroads, than promoters took over Limestone Springs, which they ballyhooed as the South's Saratoga. It was the heyday of mineral therapeutic treatment and plantation owners in the Low Country, plagued every summer by malaria, which they called "country fever" and believed was caused by "miasmas," flocked here to drink the water. A $75,000 hotel was built in 1835, and the town assumed the characteristics of a gay resort. Wealthy patients paid through the nose for the sumptuousness to which they were accustomed at home; the corks of champagne bottles popped at night and race tracks were crowded in the afternoon. the town also became noted for its tilting tournaments, cockfights, and gander pullings, the last a cruel sport in which a plucked and greased gander was suspended mid-air and exposed to competing horsemen who tried to snatch off its head while | | | | 
By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | | 4. Gaffney Family Cemetery | | |
riding past at a hard gallop. (Source: South Carolina: A Guide to the Palmetto State by the Federal Writers' Project (1949) pg 349.) — Submitted October 23, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.
3. Michael Gaffney's Description of the Up Country
The country for about one hundred and fifty miles from Charleston is extremely low and unhealthy. The people looked yellow, poor, and sickly. Some of them lived the most miserably I ever saw any poor people life. We arrived at our new home in six days. I expected to see a fine country but was surprised to find it poor, sandy, rocky and hilly. The people are poor. Their dress generally is a hunting shirt and trousers of coarse cotton yarn...The women of this country life the poorest lives of any people in the world. It is directly opposite to Charleston; there they must do everything from cooking to plowing and after that they have no more life in them than indian squaws. (Source: From Michael Gaffney's Diary, quoted in Dixie's Forgotten People: The South's Poor Whites by Wayne Flynt (2004) pgs 6-7.) — Submitted October 23, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina. |
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By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | | 5. Gaffney Family Cemetery | | |
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By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | | 6. Cornelius J. Gaffney Tombstone | Born July 3, 1818
Died Dec. 22, 1883 | | |
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By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | | 7. Melinda B. McNeel Tombstone | Who departed this life
July 4th, 1830,
in her 21st year. | | |
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By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | | 8. Jane Henderson | Who died May 23rd 1836,
aged 31 years
11 months & 23 days. | | |
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By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | | 9. James Gaffney Tombstone | | |
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By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | | 10. Michael Gaffney Tombstone | | |
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By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | 11. Michael Gaffney War of 1812 Marker
Located at the Base of Gaffney's Tombstone | | |
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By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | 12. Michael Gaffney Marker
Located at the Base of Gaffney's Tombstone | | Michael Gaffney, born in the town of Granard, Longford, Ireland, September 29, 1745, died September 6, 1854. He was a man of unusually strong mind. Strength of appetite and passion where its natural features. After a life of many trials, considerable worldly success and long continued struggles with the sins and evils of the world around, he died a well established member of Providence Baptist Church of this neighborhood with the triumph of faith on his lips. | | |
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By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | | 13. Mary Gaffney Tombstone | | |
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By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | 14. Mary Gaffney Marker
Located at the Base of Gaffney's Tombstone | | |
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By Brian Scott, October 3, 2009 | |
| | | 15. Jane Gaffney Tombstone | | |
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Credits. This page originally submitted on October 23, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina. This page has been viewed 740 times since then. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. submitted on October 23, 2009, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.
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