Beginning in 1745, the Lyles family established holdings on both sides of the Broad River near Beaver Creek and became central to the area’s early development, with Lyles Ford serving as an important crossing during the Revolutionary War, a canal begun around 1780 to move flat-bottomed boats around the shoals, and a ferry established in 1796 that linked Newberry and Winnsboro. In the nineteenth century, Thomas Lyles held land near Lyles Ford, owned several grist mills by 1850, and represented Fairfield County in the state legislature, while the surrounding region was affected through most of the Civil War and local men entered military service beginning in 1861. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Broad River entered a new industrial phase as hydroelectric development took shape at Parr Shoals, where surveys began in 1896, corporate control changed hands, construction started in 1912, and a dam and powerhouse with transmission lines went into service on May 30, 1914. Later, the Fairfield Pumped Storage Facility expanded power generation through an upper and lower reservoir system, major dam construction begun in 1976, the creation of Monticello Reservoir, and commercial operation of its generating units in 1978, while enlarging Parr Reservoir upstream.