Seneca is a city in
Oconee County,
South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
, United States. The population was 8,102 at the
2010 census. It is the principal city of the Seneca
Micropolitan Statistical Area (population 74,273 at the
2010 census), an (MSA) that includes all of Oconee County, and that is included within the greater
Greenville-
Spartanburg
Spartanburg is a city in and the county seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city had a population of 38,732 as of the 2020 census, making it the 11th-most populous city in the state. The Office of Management and Budg ...
-
Anderson
Anderson may refer to:
Companies
* Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car
* Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer
* Anderson Racing Karts, a manufacturer of Superkart racing chassis
* O.P. Anderson, a brand of aquavit ...
, South Carolina
Combined Statistical Area (population 1,266,995 at the
2010 census). Seneca was named for the nearby
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...
town of
''Isunigu'', which English colonists knew as "Seneca Town".
History
In the antebellum period, this area was part of the
Pickens District, South Carolina. The state had used jurisdictions such as parish, county, district, and county again in its history. Oconee County was not organized until 1868, after the American Civil War.
Seneca was founded in 1873, during the
Reconstruction era
The Reconstruction era was a period in History of the United States, US history that followed the American Civil War (1861-65) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the Abolitionism in the United States, abol ...
, as the railroad town "Seneca City", named for the
Seneca River and a historic
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...
town known as ''Isunigu''. It was called Seneca in a kind of transliteration by British colonists.
Seneca City was developed at the intersection of the
Blue Ridge Railroad and the newly built Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railroad. Both lines are now part of the
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...
. A. W. Thompson and J. J. Norton, who were