The Lower Cherokee Town of Esseneca was built on both sides of the Keowee River, now Lake Hartwell. In 1775, naturalist William Bartram described the village and its size in detail, including “the number of inhabitants is now estimated at about five hundred, and they are able to muster about one hundred warriors.”
After the Revolutionary War, the former South Carolina Cherokee lands were being developed, and the first Hopewell-Keowee Church opened in 1791. Rev. James McElhenney of Johns Island served as the Presbyterian minister from 1803-1812, living in a four-room house known as Clergy Hall in the summers and fall. At this time, only 12 white men owned more enslaved persons than McElhenney did in the Pendleton District.