Andrew Pickens – Backcountry Revolutionary General and Legislator

Andrew Pickens: Backcountry Revolutionary General and Legislator

Andrew Pickens (1739-1817) Pickens County and its county seat are both named in honor of General Andrew Pickens, hero of the American Revolution, state legislator, and U.S. Congressman. The Pickens family arrived in the Carolina backcountry in the mid-18th century. He married Rebecca Calhoun in 1765 and established himself as a trader on a Cherokee path near Abbeville. He and his family survived the Cherokee War only to be caught up in the war for independence from Great Britain. Following the war, he declared it too crowded in Abbeville and moved north to the area of the Pendleton District which would be divided into Oconee and Pickens Counties in 1868. Andrew Pickens died at his home near Tamassee, SC in 1817.