Native Americans, or American Indians, were the first known inhabitants of the area now known as Laurens County. The Cherokee Indians, members of the Iroquois nation, lived and hunted in the western and central piedmont of South Carolina. Many Indian artifacts have been unearthed in the areas along the Enoree River, Bush River, and Rabon Creek. Early settlers to the western piedmont area of the Carolinas came down through the backcountry of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia and were Scotch-Irish. The first known white settler to arrive in what is now Laurens County was John Duncan in 1753. From Aberdeen, Scotland, Duncan spent a few years in Pennsylvania before moving south. He liked the lush vegetation and abundant wildlife he found in this area and settled around a creek in the northeastern section of the county not far from the present city of Clinton. John Duncan built a rustic house, a few outbuildings, a distillery, and organized a church. He brought the first African slave and the first horse-drawn wagon into the area. Of course, the creek near which he settled is known today as Duncan's Creek, and the church, still in existence, is the Duncan's Creek Presbyterian Church, the oldest church in Laurens County and one of the oldest Presbyterian Churches in the backcountry

It is difficult to locate exact spots in the county where Revolutionary War military skirmishes took place. Important ones recorded include those at Lindley's Fort, the Battle of Musgrove's Mill on the Enoree River, and Hayes Station.

Part of the old Ninety-Six district, Laurens became a separate county in 1785 being named for the Revolutionary War era patriot Henry Laurens of Charleston. The town of Laurens (known as Laurensville well into the nineteenth century) became the county seat, and the first courthouse was erected in 1786. The current courthouse was built in 1840 and enlarged in 1857. By 1820, the town had become known for its trade of tailor-made clothes. Andrew Johnson, a future president of the United States, and his brother came to Laurens in 1824 and established a tailor shop.

By 1840, Laurens was booming with establishments including medical practitioners, a fancy confectionery and fruit store, carriage, buggy, and wagon shops, tailoring establishments, building contractors, flour and corn mills, and eighty-one registered whiskey distilleries.

The 1888 BUSINESS DIRECTORY OF LAURENS stated that with the rapid growth of the city and with the excellent railroad connections, "Laurens can well be termed the Atlanta of South Carolina".

The town of Clinton, named for local attorney and representative to the South Carolina Legislature Henry Clinton Young, built up around Holland's Store which in 1809 housed the only post office in the eastern part of Laurens County.

In 1864, William Plumer Jacobs, a young minister, came to Clinton and found "a mud hole surrounded by barrooms". He crusaded for temperance, and the bricks from the last barroom to be demolished were used to build a chimney for Jacobs' new home on South Broad Street. Dr. Jacobs is one of the most prominent men in the history of Laurens County in that both Presbyterian College and Thornwell Home and School are products of his vision and effort.

No military action occurred in Laurens County during the Civil War though many native sons who went off to war became casualties of the conflict.

Cotton became an import crop in Laurens County with the invention of the cotton gin. Along with the expansion of cotton came the expansion of slavery. The number of slaves grew from 1,919 in 1800 to more than 13,000 in 1860. The desire to grow more and more cotton depleted forests as land was cleared, and poor agricultural practices depleted the fertileness of the soil.

By the end of the nineteenth century, textiles were becoming very important in Laurens County and the upstate. The Laurens Cotton Mill was established in 1895, Mercer Silas Bailey built the first cotton mill in Clinton in 1896, and the year 1902 saw the establishment of both Lydia Mill and Watts Mill.

The means of transportation over the years has caused life in the county to change. With the building of railroads in the last half of the nineteen century, the towns and communities of Cross Hill, Mountville, Waterloo, Ora, and Lanford grew. But, with the advent of the automobile and the construction of roads in the twentieth century, these areas lost vitality. Even today, our interstate highways make people very mobile causing local merchants and service providers to lose business to surrounding larger communities.

The 1990 Census listed Laurens County's population as 58,092, but the latest estimate (1995) of population is 60,800.

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