Study a map of South Carolina to find a city in the western part of that state called “Ninety-Six.” I grew up in the state and heard that the city got its name from being ninety-six miles from the state capital (Columbia). This was not true. Search online for a variety of explanations. One of them is that the topography of that area supported nine streams that ran from East to West and six streams from North to South. I think this explanation is also suspect.

There seems to be some uplift up to Ninety-Six, but there’s no indication that the topography is high enough to support water flowing in different directions, plus I can’t find any indication that Ninety-Six has that many individual natural springs generating these streams. . Supposedly, the name stuck to the early 1700s, so a frontiersman would have named it. A trading post is mentioned, and it seems that whoever put the first trading post there might have given the name.

Search the web for “Cherokee Trail” to learn that the Cherokee natives had a society that spanned several states in the southern US, which had towns, and these towns supported communication and trade through a variety of ways. walking trails. One such trail radiated south from the Cherokee town of Keowee in the highlands of South Carolina. Guess what? Keowee is ninety-six miles to the northwest. The trail was heavily traveled by Cherokees bringing furs to trade for mostly metal tools and firearms.

Probably one or more of today’s rural state roads between Ninety-Six and Keowee were on the sidewalk. Part of State Highway 11 near Seneca, South Carolina is known to be built on top of another similar road leading out of Keowee. The Cherokee could not have imagined how neglected their once prosperous nation could be; how lost are their names and achievements among the people of the future who live in the region. It bothers me, for some reason, to wonder if these people mattered or if their story has been maligned. However, I am grateful to be alive to have that opinion.

In the Christian Bible, search the web for 1 Thessalonians 5:18. The apostle Paul wrote the verse in a letter to members of the early Christian church in Thessalonica around AD 52 (52 years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ). I take comfort in this verse, because it supports the foundation of Christianity, that God has a plan for each of us and wants us to know it. The only question is: Do we acknowledge him as our God, pray to him and seek his grace to help us understand our path through human life? I think he knows our history, he is very interested in our path and walks with us at every step, always wanting us to perceive that he is there.