GAFFNEY, a town of South Carolina, U.S.A., 2om. N.E. of Spartanburg, on Federal highway 29 and the Southern railway; the county seat of Cherokee county. The population was in in 1920 (25% negro) and was 6,827 in 1930 by the Federal census. It has large cotton mills, with a total (1928) of over 5.300 looms and 185,000 spindles, and is the seat of Limestone college for women (established 1845). The town was founded about 5872 and incor porated in 1874.