Moncks Corner is a town in and the county seat of Berkeley County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 7,885 at the 2010 census. As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, Moncks Corner is included within the Charleston–North Charleston–Summerville Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Settled by indigenous peoples for thousands of years, the area of Monck's Corner was occupied by the historic Edistow people, a sub-tribe of the Cusabo. Its various bands shared a language distinct from that of the major language families in the present-day state: Algonquian, Siouan, and Iroquoian, including Cherokee. Although now extinct as a tribe, Edistow and Catawba descendants make up the eight families of the Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians, a community located between Moncks Corner and Summerville. The 1,500-member tribe were recognized by the state as an Indian group in 2005.
During the colonial era, Moncks Corner became a major settlement area of French Protestant Huguenots, who came to South Carolina between 1684 and 1688 as refugees due to religious persecution in France. Many family surnames in Berkeley and adjacent counties are of French origin. The Huguenots soon began to intermarry with the English colonists.
The town of Moncks Corner, named for landowner Thomas Monck, dates back to 1728. It began as a trading post with a few taverns and stores. The Northeastern Railroad, which ran between Charleston, South Carolina, and Siler City, North Carolina, laid its tracks in 1856, and the train depot became the center of the new town of Moncks Corner. The town of Moncks Corner was chartered on December 26, 1885, and incorporated December 15, 1909.
Moncks Corner was granted the trademark "Capital of Santee Cooper Country" by the South Carolina Secretary of State September 9, 1999, and again October 21, 2004. The trademark is a symbol of its abundant outdoor activities, such as horseback riding, hiking, water sports, boating and the best freshwater fishing in the South. Moncks Corner is also the home of Santee Cooper's corporate office complex.