The old joke about Due West goes like, “Due West of what?”
“I’ve heard Due West of Ninety Six,” says D. McGill at his Due West Supply Store. “I’ve heard there was a Dewitt’s Corner and that kind of passed down to Due West. There are two or three other stories about it, too, so really nobody knows.”
Another of the men chewing the fat in the hardware store says, “I heard due west of Donalds.”
“Yeah,” McGill says. “I heard that, too.”
According to the tract How Due West Got Its Name by local historian Dr. Lowry Ware (which the Due West town hall prints off for me), the name is both a direction and a misinterpretation of DeWitt’s: “The main traffic through and to Dewitt’s Store was from the east. As more and more strangers came to Ninety Six on trading ventures into the Indian areas, they would ask the way to the Indian Camps and were told that they were due west (a direction).”
“I’ve heard Due West of Ninety Six,” says D. McGill at his Due West Supply Store. “I’ve heard there was a Dewitt’s Corner and that kind of passed down to Due West. There are two or three other stories about it, too, so really nobody knows.”
Another of the men chewing the fat in the hardware store says, “I heard due west of Donalds.”
“Yeah,” McGill says. “I heard that, too.”
According to the tract How Due West Got Its Name by local historian Dr. Lowry Ware (which the Due West town hall prints off for me), the name is both a direction and a misinterpretation of DeWitt’s: “The main traffic through and to Dewitt’s Store was from the east. As more and more strangers came to Ninety Six on trading ventures into the Indian areas, they would ask the way to the Indian Camps and were told that they were due west (a direction).”
