Coming into Round O, I hold my breath. I hope the name isn’t obvious. If, for instance, there is only one traffic circle around which the whole town coalesces, then the name will make boring sense. Alas, Round O is a crossroads, not an O.
“I’ve heard two stories,” says Mac McClendon, owner and proprietor of Mac’s Farm Supply (“Round O’s Finest”), a general store that sells hunting supplies, feeds and seeds and home-ground grits. As he starts to talk, I wonder if “Round O” might refer to that iconic Lowcountry accent, but he points across the street.
“Inside them woods there, there was a pretty good-sized Indian encampment. There’s really a good bit of a hill there for this part of the world. And the chief supposedly had some sort of a tattoo in the shape of a circle. That’s one of them. And the other one is supposedly down there where two of them creeks go together, there’s a swirl there, a little whirlpool-looking thing. Round O!”
McClendon goes into the back room and makes me a copy of a typewritten document by A.S. Salley, secretary of the Historical Commission of South Carolina, published in 1926. The document confirms McClendon’s story: “The name preserved that of a famous Cherokee Indian who had a purple medallion tattooed on one shoulder. The English traders found it easier to call him by his ornament than by his lengthy Indian name.”
“I’ve heard two stories,” says Mac McClendon, owner and proprietor of Mac’s Farm Supply (“Round O’s Finest”), a general store that sells hunting supplies, feeds and seeds and home-ground grits. As he starts to talk, I wonder if “Round O” might refer to that iconic Lowcountry accent, but he points across the street.
“Inside them woods there, there was a pretty good-sized Indian encampment. There’s really a good bit of a hill there for this part of the world. And the chief supposedly had some sort of a tattoo in the shape of a circle. That’s one of them. And the other one is supposedly down there where two of them creeks go together, there’s a swirl there, a little whirlpool-looking thing. Round O!”
McClendon goes into the back room and makes me a copy of a typewritten document by A.S. Salley, secretary of the Historical Commission of South Carolina, published in 1926. The document confirms McClendon’s story: “The name preserved that of a famous Cherokee Indian who had a purple medallion tattooed on one shoulder. The English traders found it easier to call him by his ornament than by his lengthy Indian name.”
