Looking Back

Glimpses of our History by Town Historian Betty Fox Broome

Van Wyck is one of the oldest communities in Lancaster County. It has been said that it is one of the loveliest little villages in the state. When settlers came from Ireland and Scotland in the middle 1700’s Catawba Indians already had a fort here. King Hagler was named Chief of the Catawba Nation in 1750. Samuel Wyly, a surveyor from Camden, South Carolina made a map of the area in 1764 that shows an Indian Fort located at what today would be the intersection of Old Hickory and Steel Hill Roads just South of Twelve Mile Creek. He designated on this map that the Indian fort was already here in 1760. Only a fragment of this map exists today, it is in South Carolina Archives and History in Columbia, South Carolina, and this fragment is the part that shows the Indian fort. At that time what is now Van Wyck was called Cocheeco, an Indian name. In the 1800’s the name was changed to Little Waxhaw, then to Heaths* and finally in 1887 to Van Wyck. *brothers O. P. and A. W. Heath owned a store in Van Wyck. Andrew Jackson’s parents came in 1765. He was born in 1767. The railroad came in 1880. The Van Wyck Post Office was established on June 25, 1889 and has been in operation ever since. In the 1920s the population of Van Wyck was 200. Van Wyck had four stores, two gins, a saw mill, a grist mill, and a large brick plant. There was a large cotton warehouse capable of holding 700 bales of cotton and also a ferry crossing the Catawba River north of Twelve Mile Creek called Ashe’s Ferry. To quote from “Discover Lancaster County” published by THE LANCASTER NEWS “the citizens of Van Wyck are fiercely independent, friendly and community-minded people. Van Wyck occupies the last purely rural portion of the Lancaster County Panhandle.”

OUR HOMES Van Wyck has beautiful old homes including these:

Oakdale located at 8051 Van Wyck Road was built about 1800 by James Miller, Sr. Later it became the plantation home of the Tillman family. It passed into the Yoder family in 1902.

The Massey-Doby House, now known as the Oliver Nisbet house, was built in 1790. (George Washington was president then.) It is believed to be the oldest home in Lancaster County continually lived in as a private home.

The Adam Ivy house located at 8603 Van Wyck Road now known as the The Ivy Place home built in the 1840’s was originally owned by Adam and Anne Ivy. The records Anne kept of her premiums won at county fairs in 1887 may still be seen on a door upstairs. In 1890 the home passed to the Nisbet family and was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. James Douglas Nisbet until 1960. In recent years the Ivy Place has become a working farm and events destination. Lots of weddings are held there.

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The R. H. Massey house located at 5110 Old Hickory Road was built in 1901. Mr. Massey was a Van Wyck merchant. The first Van Wyck School was built next door to the right of this home in 1911.Teachers boarded here and taught at the school. Salesmen traveling by train often spent the night and enjoyed meals at the Masseys.

This home is located at 5090 Old Hickory Road. It was built in 1911 to be the first school named Van Wyck School. It remained in use as the school until it was replaced in 1924 by the large brick school. Later it was moved closer to the road and was transformed into a family home. The hole for the rope used to ring the bell in the tower is still in the ceiling of a room here.

Our Schools Previously there have been two schools named Van Wyck in the Van Wyck community. Beulah Presbyterian (now Van Wyck) Church was used as the school until 1911.

The first Van Wyck School opened in 1911 and closed in 1924 after the second Van Wyck School opened. This first building, now a residence, is located at 6090 Old Hickory Road.

The second school named Van Wyck, a large brick building with wood and plaster walls, was completed in 1924. Wings were added on either side in1935. This building was closed in 1952 and Van Wyck students were transferred to Indian Land or Lancaster schools. The property was purchased by the Van Wyck Community Development Club on September 6, 1957. During the years between 1952 and 1957 when it was not used the building fell into dis-repair and had to be demolished. The Van Wyck Community Building was built on this property in 1963. The location is 5036 Old Hickory Road. The third school named Van Wyck – the new Van Wyck Elementary School was completed in 2018. After receiving suggestions from more than 600 people for a possible name for the new school, the committee and the Lancaster County School Board decided on Van Wyck

CHURCHES Older churches in the community include these:

Van Wyck United Methodist Church was founded in the 1778. This church was built in 1890. The wings were added in 1920.

Van Wyck Presbyterian Church was organized in 1884. The present church was built in 1912.

White Oak AME Church was organized in 1866. Their first church was built in 1928. This is their second building.

NOTABLE CITIZENS OF VAN WYCK

Former Governor of South Carolina, Stephen Decatur Miller was born here in 1787. His home was located off Van Wyck Road behind Oakdale near the Catawba River. It burned many years ago. He was governor of South Carolina from 1828 to 1830. He later served in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. This was during Andrew Jackson’s presidency. (Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828. He was inaugurated on March 4, 1829.)

William “Bill” Ashe founded the Ashe Brick Company in Van Wyck in 1906. He provided employment for a lot of people over the years making beautiful brick that we see in homes all around. He also built and installed the ferry over the Catawba River making it possible for us to get to Rock Hill without going down to Lancaster or up through Fort Mill to get there.

In Recent Years Shawn Crawford: Sprint athlete and U.S. Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist. He won both the gold medal in the 200m event and silver in the 4 x 100m relay at Athens in 2004 and won silver in the 200m at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

How Van Wyck Got Its Name

In the 1880’s when the Seaboard Railway was being built through this section, it was decided to give the stations Indian names through the twenty miles of original Indian territory. This was done starting at Waxhaw, North Carolina, Osceola, South Carolina, Cocheeco (Van Wyck), South Carolina and Catawba, South Carolina. Cocheecho, the original name chosen for Van Wyck, was named for a young Indian chief. By the time the railroad was built, the Indian name was discarded. The community had always been named “Little Waxhaw” and some of the people felt they had been wronged by naming the town with “Waxhaw” in North Carolina. The railroad then named the station “Heaths” for the people who gave the land for the station. Later the name was giving the post office trouble. Heath Spring was in another part of the county, so the names were getting mixed up. The railroad was asked to change it. An official of the railroad was on a routine check-up trip. He explained to the Station Agent, Mr. Reece Massey, and asked him to name the town, and suggested he call it Masseys, South Carolina. Mr. Massey said, “No, I’ll let your wife name it.” She said, “In that case, I’ll be delighted to name it Van Wyck for my family in New York State.” And that is why our community has a Dutch name. Kathleen Bates Belk written in the 1950’s