Abbeville County · Marker 01-27
Bull Town Fort
Rocky River Presbyterian Church, 2140 Monterey Rd., Abbeville vicinity
Front inscription
East of here is the site of the colonial-era Bull Town Fort. Likely built in the 1760s, the fort was one of many small Backcountry S.C. fortifications used to defend white settlers from Cherokee attacks. Accounts describe it as being of either stone or log construction. Nearby families continued to use the fort for refuge during the American Revolutionary War.
Reverse inscription
The fort was the first place of worship for what became Rocky River Presbyterian Church and was sometimes called the Bull Town Meeting House. In Sept. 1776, Mary Langdon Cheves sheltered in the fort amid a wave of conflict with the Cherokee and gave birth to her son Langdon. Later a prominent politician, in 1814 Langdon Cheves became the ninth Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.