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- Higher Education
"E" is for Evans, Emily Plume [Died 1942] Suffragist. Club-woman.
Spartanburg
Spartanburg County was founded in 1785 and lies near the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Spartanburg County was founded in 1785 and lies near the Blue Ridge Mountains. Both the county and its seat are named in honor of the Spartan Regiment, a local militia who served the Americans in the Revolutionary War. Notable residents include general William Westmoreland and hymn writer William Walker.
The county was principally settled by Scotch-Irish and other Europeans who moved to the area from Pennsylvania and Virginia in the late 18th century. Historically, the economy relied on small cotton farms, cattle raising, and the Lowcountry tourists that visited the area’s mineral springs. After the Civil War, the region’s economy transitioned to textile manufacturing. Today, Spartanburg County has become an industrial hub. In fact, “the New York Times reports Spartanburg as having the highest per capita international investment in the nation.”
SOURCE: Economic Futures Group. Accessed June 10, 2016.
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6
The interior of a mill village home in Spartanburg around 1920 is a marked contrast to the contents and design of the Victorian interiors of the wealthy (see Interior Décor Of The Victorian Era, Front...
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Mill housing in South Carolina exhibited a variety of styles, but the most widely used was a copy of the salt-box construction of New England mill villages, where the steeply pitched roof helped keep...
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This vernacular house in Spartanburg County, built with a gable front, is a good example of the type of tenant farm house that could have been built anywhere in the state of South Carolina between...
Audio
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"B" is for Blackwood, Ibra Charles [1878-1936]. Governor. After graduating from Wofford, Blackwood read law and was admitted to the bar. He represented Spartanburg in the General Assembly and served...
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St. Luke's Evangelical Lutheran Church and School in Spartanburg. This African-American church Sunday School group was photographed by the WPA in the 1930s. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
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Postcard view of the El Bethel Methodist Church in Spartanburg - "The One Day Church" - built in one day on May 1, 1912. These photos show the progress of construction in the morning and afternoon...
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The WPA provided funds to help build new women's dormitories for a county home for the aged in Spartanburg County. The residents in 1938 seem to like their new rooms. Courtesy of the National Archives...
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Episode
48
Wofford College, founded in 1850 through a gift from local Methodist minister Benjamin Wofford, was one of the several denominational colleges that emerged in competition with the South Carolina...
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Converse College, Spartanburg, in 1909. Converse owes its name and its existence to D.E. Converse, a textile manufacturer from Massachusetts who came to Spartanburg in 1856. Believing that "the well...
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The Arnold gully, four miles west of Woodruff on Buncombe Road, South Tiger Erosion Project. The gully in the photo was measured at 20 feet deep (before treatment with kudzu, it had been 35 feet deep)...
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Erosion photographs taken about 1935 by the Department of Agriculture. The caption says, "Active roadside gully formed in old roadbed. Note new location of roadbed. This is the way many gullies in the...
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Spartanburg County, August 1936. J.T. Hudson's land at Woodruff, South Carolina. "Tractor and grader used to construct terraces. In addition to this machine, Mr. Hudson is operating five teams with...
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Episode
140
William May Wightman (1808-1882) was chosen as the Bishop of the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church in 1866, after a distinguished career as an educator and Methodist minister. Educated at the...
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128
Hilla Sheriff (1900-1988) was a leader in shaping public health policies in South Carolina. She graduated from the College of Charleston, and was one of only three women to receive a medical degree...
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Matthew J. Perry (1924-2011 ), Jr., a native South Carolinian, became a noted civil rights attorney for the NAACP; his legal victory on behalf of Harvey Gantt's suit to be admitted to Clemson...
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Born near Honea Path in Anderson County, Olin D. Johnston (1896-1965) attended local schools, the Textile Industry Institute at Spartanburg, and Wofford College. While in school, Johnston worked in...
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Dr. Matilda A. Evans (1870s-1935) received an M.D. degree from Oberlin College in 1897, the only African-American in her class. She was a native of Aiken, and a student at Schofield Normal School...
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Born in Cokesbury, Governor John Gary Evans (1863-1942) attended Cokesbury Conference School. In 1879, he enrolled at Union College in Schenectady, New York, but withdrew before he graduated to study...
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James H. Carlisle (1825-1909), president of Wofford College from 1850-1904, was responsible for the emergence of this Methodist school as an outstanding liberal arts college by the late 19th century...
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Born in 1878 in Spartanburg County, Ibra Charles Blackwood (1878-1936) attended Furman University preparatory school and Wofford College. Later, he studied law in Spartanburg, and began a law practice...
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The enlistment of men into the armed forces caused a labor shortage in industry and agriculture, which were both rapidly expanding production to meet wartime needs. For the first time, many women...
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A unionization parade for Saxon Mills, Spartanburg, in 1935. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
Video
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In this section, the "Palmetto Special" leaves Columbia and travels to Spartanburg County. At the beginning of the program the Fall Line is defined, along with an introduction to the backcountry, the...
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