The first inhabitants of the Pee Dee Area were the Pee Dee Indians. In 1730 Robert Johnson the first Royal Governor of S.C. ordered eleven townships to be created. Each would contain 20,000 acres, and each man, woman and child who would improve 50 acres would receive the land free. Welch immigrants from Pennsylvania settled in the Pee Dee area. Settlement was slow so the government offered bounties to people who would settle in the area.

The rivers in the area were used for transportation. Life in general was frontier quality. It was a very remote area and isolated from the influence of church and state. Crime was rampant. Lack of schools were a problem also. It was written at the time, that the "lack of education lead to idle, immoral lives- follow hunting, shooting, racing, drinking, gaming,and every aspect of wickedness, more rude in manners than the savages around us".

Regulators were landowners determined to end the lawlessness. In 1768 Regulators and Militia clashed when Regulators seized two Militiamen. Two were killed and after the fight all the Militiamen were lashed fifty times. After the Regulator movement in 1768 the Royal Governor approved a bill establishing a system of courts. In 1772 the first sheriff that was appointed was P.H. Hatley.

The Petition of 1768 acknowledged the lack of education and in December 1777 a group met to form an organization to promote learning.. They decided to educate young people in Latin and Greek, math and other useful areas of learning.

Because marriages could only take place in Charleston or North Carolina, many people lived together outside of wedlock. Someone wrote that, "they quit each other at pleasure - swap wives and children, as they do cattle and horses". In 1738 fifteen Welch settlers organized the Welch Neck Baptist Church. They ordained their first minister in 1743. The Welch had very rigorous standards. Members were excommunicated or suspended from membership for such things as beating a neighbor, murder, adultery,theft,swearing and drunkenness. The Welch church became the mother of other Baptist churches in the Pee Dee. Ebenezer Baptist Church began in 1774 and still exists today. Presbyterians entered the Pee Dee in 1732. Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Claussen (nearby Florence) was organized in 1770 and also is still holding church services.

The Pre-Revolutionary War period was quite prosperous. Cattle and horses were sold to the Northern Colonies. Lumber was an important product and the river system in the area was used to ship the lumber to the coast where it was traded. Indigo (a plant that makes purple dye) was brought in from the French West Indies. In only six years the colony exported over 200,000 pounds of indigo.

The earliest record of slaves in the area was in 1748. By 1757 the number of slaves was about 500 with a total population of 4,300. Most slave owners did not own more than three or four slaves.