Appalachian History

The Keil Farm is significant as an example of the evolution of an antebellum farm house from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century, and also symbolizes the role that a German immigrant family played in the settlement and development of Walhalla and Oconee County in SC. John Henry Keil, Sr. (1817-1900), was born Johann [...]

William Ganaway Russell had the good fortune to buy a farm exactly halfway between Walhalla SC and Highlands NC. In 1849 an industrious group of Charleston German businessman were looking for a suitable parcel on which they could create a new settlement in SC, and formed the German Colonization Society to do so. Their plan [...]