River Bluff High School Liberty Tree

In 1744, German immigrant Godfrey Dreher journeyed to South Carolina. He received land along Twelve Mile Creek, which was then part of Saxe Gotha Township. There, he established his homestead and built a grist mill. As tension between new American colonist and Native Americans grew, Cherokee warriors attacked settlements as far south as Orangeburg, declaring war in 1759. To fight back, Dreher constructed defensive fortifications.
When the American Revolution began, the Dreher family took up arms for the patriot cause. Godfrey Dreher Jr. and his brother-on-law, Johannes Kinsler, fought alongside one another. After the British captured Charleston, fighting shifted to the backcountry. Kinsler was reportedly killed by a neighbor later that year.
According to family accounts, in July of 1781, British soldiers came to attack and capture the Dreher fort. When family heard soldiers approaching, Dreher Jr. instructed them to go upstairs and make as much noise as possible, tricking the British into thinking many armed men were inside. When the soldiers entered the home, Dreher Jr. shot and killed one; the others fled.