What is now Pickens County was mostly wilderness 300 years ago.  It first was settled primarily by the Cherokee Indians in the area that now is under Lake Keowee. 

Easley was named after Confederate Gen. William King Easley.  In the late 1800s, Easley persuaded officials from the Charlotte-to-Atlanta Airline Railroad to lay a track through the town.  The town of Easley was surveyed and lots sold on August 3, 1873, shortly after the railroad was finished.  A charter was granted immediately afterward, the town site being on half mile square. R. E. Holcombe was elected Intendant (Mayor).  The arrival of the railroad helped fuel development of the textile industry in Pickens County.  

As the textile industry began to take shape in the area, Clemson Agricultural College was established at the southwest corner of the county.  Clemson opened its doors to 446 male cadets in 1893. 

In the early 1960s the first of a trio of large reservoirs was developed, with the U.S. Corps of Engineers completing U.S. Corps of Engineers completing Hartwell Dam on the Savannah River.  The dam created Hartwell Lake, which borders Clemson. 

Easley History, from the book cover synopsis "afiles of America: Easley" (used with permission)

Born of the Industrial Revolution, the City of Easley was begun with a single rail line brought to the area by Robert Elliot Holcombe in the mid 1800’s with his promise to build and donate the first depot. That single line expanded and the cotton started to roll in, spawning the textile industrial culture so prominent to small Southern towns. If it was industry that gave birth to Easley, it was the perfect location amidst the breathtaking beauty in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains 
and a feeling more akin to family than simple community that gave the town life. Minutes from gorgeous mountain vistas and lakes, a few minutes more from larger cities and a days’ ride up from the coast made Easley a perfect place to live, work, worship and play year round.

The photographs and illustrations included within this book demonstrate the unique growth of a once one- square-mile township named for General William K. Easley, to town comprised of the several interdependent mill villages; each with its own culture, churches, schools and families, to the thriving city of today – rich in history and full of promise for an even greater future. Through the pages of this volume the author, journalist and hometown girl, Brantli Jane Owens, continues to document and bear witness to the evolution of Easley as her family has done for over 100 years.

Easley History, Adapted from “City of Easley Parks and Recreation Master Plan, pages 1,3”

The area upon which the City of Easley is situated was once part of the great Cherokee Nation. "President Andrew Jackson, whose command and life was saved due to 500 Cherokee allies at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, unbelievably authorized the Indian Removal Act of 1830". It wasn’t until 1786, after the Cherokees were driven from their South Carolina homes, that the area was open for settlement. 

The birth of Easley can be recalled in history books along with bench-mark dates such as the building of the Golden Creek Mill in 1825 and accounts of General William King Easley’s influence to establish the location of the railroad station in  Easley in 1874.

The advent of the railroad helped fuel the development of the textile industry in the area; cotton was king and the textile industry was the backbone of the growing economy. The town was founded months after the railroad’s arrival in 1874, and was incorporated in 1901. The railroad transformed Main Street into a bustling business center and invited new industries to the 
area. Easley Textile Company, later known as Swirl Inc., came to Easley in 1953 bringing jobs, a boost for the economy, and the popular “Swirl” wrap dress. In 1956 Saco Lowell, manufacturer of yarn production equipment, also built a plant in Easley. Infrastructure of the town expanded; the US Army Corps of Engineers built dams, forming nearby lakes for recreation;  and the construction of U.S.. Highway 123, remembered by some as “The Bypass,” brought new business and retail to the City of Easley.