“H” is for Honea Path

“H” is for Honea Path (Anderson County; 2020 population 3,690). A water stop on the Greenville and Columbia Railroad in the 1850s developed into a town whose name origin is uncertain. Honea Path may be misnamed for William Honey, an early landowner, or it may be double named by Cherokee Indians, with “Honea” being an Indian name for “path” according to folklore. In 1917, the town was incorporated as Honea Path and it has gone by that name ever since. On September 6, 1934, later dubbed “Bloody Thursday,” a confrontation at Chiquola Manufacturing Company between striking textile workers and armed deputized local citizens resulted in the death of six strikers and the wounding of more than a dozen. Among Honea Path’s claims to fame is that it is the smallest town in the nation with a Carnegie Library.