In 1826, Pendleton District was divided into Pickens District and Anderson District, named for General Andrew Pickens and General Robert Anderson.

The site selected for the courthouse of the Pickens District was located on the Keowee River and became a beautiful hill village. A framed building was constructed which stood for forty years until the Pickens District was divided into Oconee County and Pickens County. The first court was held in this courthouse in 1828 and Major LaFoone Keith of Oolenoy was elected the first court clerk of the Pickens District. He was a veteran of the War of 1812, fighting with Jefferson Davis in the United States Army. He served as Clerk of Court of the Pickens District for 28 years, and died in office.

William LaFoone Keith was the son of the Revolutionary War hero, Colonel Cornelius Keith and Mary LaFoone Keith. He was born and reared at Oolenoy. He married Elizabeth Brown Reid, sister of Joseph B. Reid, the Oolenoy School teacher. Reid had married Keith's sister, Rebecca. Keith and his bride started housekeeping in a well-built log house, with a large rock fireplace, which was built on a slope back of Hoyt S. and Sarah Edens Clarke's home (the old S. B. Edens home). Their family of eight children were born in this house. The youngest, John Randolph, was eight years old when his father was elected Clerk of Court and the family moved to the town of Pickens on the Keowee River. Here Keith built a large brick house and furnished it with rare pieces of Chippendale and French furniture. He accumulated a collection of valuable books.

The records of his office were accurately done and in perfect penmanship. Their children were well educated. They went to school in Oolenoy until the family moved to Old Pickens. They attended the Academy at Pickens. Then to the University of South Carolina and Johnstone Female University at Anderson. Two sons William Calhoun and Elliott Monroe became noted lawyers, Marshall Lewis was a doctor and lived and died in Lexington, Kentucky. Thomas Jefferson and John Randolph were promising young men. Eliza Ann married Dr. J. W. Earle of Greenville. Mary Isabella married Colonel Townes of Greenville. Elizabeth Jane married an Allen of Abbeville County.

The Keith home was cordial and hospitable and this brilliant family set the standard of social life in a truly aristocratic fashion at old Pickens. The Keiths had seen their sons educated and ready for business on their own when the Civil War was declared, Fort Sumter taken, and troops mustered into service. Four sons of W. L. Keith were in one company, the first company called in the roll of Colonel James L. Orr's regiment. The four were lost either in battle or by disease.

William LaFoone Keith accumulated much wealth. He owned 500 slaves [an exaggerated number, I suspect, as it's double Andrew Jackon's total and there's nothing like the Hermitage in the area - ed] and treated them so well that many chose to remain with the family long after they were freed. The fair treatment of slaves seemed to have been the rule with all the Keiths. The story is told of how when the Negroes were being put on the block for sale that young ones would tug at the trouser's leg of the Keiths and beg, "You buy me I You buy me I" Their rule was to give each member of the family a Negro girl, valued at $1, 000 for a wedding gift.

William LaFoone Keith was born September 7, 1791 and died May, 1856. He is buried in Oolenoy Church Cemetery. His wife Elizabeth Brown Reid Keith was born and died November, 1863, and she was buried beside her husband at Oolenoy. A daughter, Elizabeth Jane Keith Allen and two sons, Thomas Jefferson and John Randolph, who died in the War Between the States are buried near their parents at Oolenoy Church Cemetery. The tombs of these sons were shipped from Italy and cost $1, 000