Pine Apple was settled by 1816, was originally named Friendship in the 1820s, was later designated Pine Apple by the United States Post Office in 1851, and was incorporated on February 24, 1872. From this area, a wide range of commercial ventures served the community, including an automotive agency, bank, barber, blacksmith, boarding house, butcher shop, cotton gin, drug store, garage and service stations, general store, gift shop, grocery stores, hair salon, hotels, ice house, insurance agency, livery stables, mercantile stores, newspaper, quail hatchery, radio station, restaurant, sawmill-planer mill, seamstress, spoke and handle factory, tannery, telephone exchange, wheelwright, and woodshop. Pine Apple also had a calaboose, churches, civitan club, doctors and dentist offices, fire department, Matheson Library, Masonic Hall, Moore Academy, New Century Club, Pine Apple Depot, post office, public pool and bath houses, and tennis courts. The town experienced the War Between the States, the burning of the town in 1903, and the Great Depression, and sent sons to war in support of this country. Pioneers, founding families, and entrepreneurs active in Pine Apple's civic and commercial life included the Adams, Anderson, Beard, Blackmon, Bloxom, Bonner, Brantley, Burch, Byars, Carter, Chapman, Chappell, Coleson, Compton, Cone, Cobb, Cook, Crawford, Donald, Ezell, Feagin, Fields, Finklea, Frazier, Fuller, Gaston, Gellenthin, Gillian, Girlie, Gravet, Grimes, Guillot, Hale, Hardin, Harris, Harriss, Hawthorne, Heath, Henderson, Hester, Holoway, Huggins, Jackson, Johnson, Jones, Kennedy, Knight, Kyser, Lamkin, Lloyd, Lobman, Lynam, Majors, Maness, Matheson, Maxwell, Mayo, McCrory, McNeil, McWilliams, Melton, Mills, Monk, Moseley, Nail, Norred, Oakley, Owens, Patterson, Pierce, Powell, Preyer, Ptomey, Rikard, Ruth, Sharpe, Shy, Sister of St. Joseph, Smith, Snowden, Stallworth, Stanford, Steen, Steiner, Stone, Strickland, Stuart, Suggs, Thompson, Tucker, Wall, Ward, Watkins, Watson, Watt, Webb, Weeks, Williams, Williamson, and Winters. Over the years, Pine Apple became a regional center for agricultural, recreational, and timber activities.