USA > South Carolina > Aiken County > Graniteville > A history of Graniteville > Part 1
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 03334 8043
GC 975. 702 G76: Steadman, Mac. A history of Granitevilla
Allen County Public Libran 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
A HISTORY OF GRANITEVILLE
by
Mrs. Mae Steadman
I can't think of a better introduction for my remarks today than from the first sentence in "Reflections of Graniteville" by Sharon and Sue Mclaughlin published at the time of the Bicentennial on Graniteville in 1976. Quote:
"There is a beginning for everything" -- and as you read in the 'Journal,' the first inhabitants of Granitiville were the Westo Indians, and from them came the name Horse Creek. "
America itself was young -- only 69 years old, when Graniteville was born. Graniteville's growth has kept pace and adjusted well to all the changing facets of the Nation. Especially the citizens who grew up in Graniteville are proud of our town. We believe it is still standing tall and becoming what its founder intended it to be: a well-educated people, a prosperous town, recognized for a superb product, not only in America, but internationally as well!
We can't think of Graniteville without thinking of William Gregg, for it is to William Gregg that the Graniteville of today owes its beginning. Graniteville is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places, and more and more people are becoming aware of Graniteville. Gregg started out in business in Columbia, South Carolina, as a silversmith and jeweler, and it is said he never took off his workman's apron until he was worth $50,000. Actually, Gregg closed his business in Columbia because of ill health.
Pago 1 -8 1.
Gregg married Marinah Jones of Ridge Spring, and it was her brother, General James Jones, who built a mill in Vaucluse in which William Gregg invested in in 1836, and his career as a manufacturer commenced. Having invested heavily in Vaucluse, he kept a close watch over his investment, and it was here that he began plans for a larger mill with adequate housing for its employees. One thing he had to have for a larger operation was water.
Dr. W. W. Wallace, in his book on Graniteville, said Gregg had determined as early as 1843 to build a great cotton mill and had selected his location. His experience at Vaucluse had revealed to him advantages of Horse Creek Valley. Gregg planned to convert this spot, so little suited to agriculture, from extreme poverty to wealth. In fact, the first farm families called the place "Hard Scrabble" which gives us an idea of conditions there. That wasn't the only reason Gregg chose this place. Immediately at hand were beds of granite, forests of long leaf pine (supplying one of the world's finest building materials), water, and a canal already in use.
From those who came to help in construction, Mr. Gregg chose families he felt would make desirable workers and citizens for his model community. With all this construction, Graniteville became a reality in 1845. Determined to put the comfort of his people first; two churches, an academy, and homes were completed before the mill was built. Mr. Gregg did not sacrifice beauty for haste and economy. Evidence of this still exists in the Gothic architecture found on what was then called "Blue Row." Blue Row has been photographed and written about so much that it
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has become almost synonymous with Graniteville. The quaint, Gothic-style architecture of the cottages and St. John United Methodist Church gives it an air of story-book charm, unique to this town. At one time all the houses on the street were washed in a blue wash, hence the name. The original cost of each house was $400. They were rented to employees only, and maintenance was done by the company. Upon the advent of electricity, the houses were wired and electricity furnished at no cost.
Canal Street is the oldest street in town, named because of the canal which is older than the town. In the words of the Mclaughlin sisters, "It stretched like a liquid ribbon for almost a mile, ornamented in spring by azaleas, and in summer by crape myrtle blossoms. Although it is a very old and beautiful part of town, the canal is most vital to the manufacturing process of the mills."
Certainly Mr. Gregg set out to care for the whole person, so he must have been a psychologist as well as a manufacturer.
Getting back to the houses -- I must tell you that in front of the houses there were wells -- two or three houses using one well -- and the women of the community used the wells for social contact. They were probably too busy to visit unless a neighbor needed help.
I'm told that at the advent of bathrooms, many of the houses were equipped with them even before many people in cities were able to afford them.
Again I'd like to go to Dr. Wallace's account of Graniteville. "Graniteville was instantly recognized as an American plant and certainly the leading textile mill in the
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south. Visitors from both North and South describe with admiration in newspapers and magazines the wonders, the most modern equipment, housed in the most substantial granite building, with its yard blooming with lovely flowers, surrounded by one of the world's model industrial villages, all set down beside a clear stream in the midst of the vast forest of pines, in an out of the way corner of the state distrusting such enterprises -- an enterprise more over not for profit only, but calling to enlightenment and prosperity one of the most neglected populations in the country."
Gregg himself described his town in a letter to Freeman Hunt dated October 22, 1849. "The village covers about 150 acres of ground, contains two handsome Gothic churches, an academy, hotel, 10 or 12 stores and about 100 cottages belonging to the company and occupied by persons in their services. The houses varied in size from 3 to 9 rooms each, nearly all built after the Gothic Cottage order. The property cost $300,000.
We have a large class of white people in South Carolina who are not slave holders and who work for a livelihood."
Gregg personally interviewed each worker for he felt that the maintenance of a moral character was necessary for a model village. The use of alcohol was not permitted in the village and to this day is not allowed to be sold -- however, in adjoining Madison, it was a different story.
There is a tale told by the father of Miss Clara Harrigal that he was with Gregg as they drove towards Graniteville, when a man of not too good repute slipped out of the woods with a jug. "What's in that jug?" demanded Mr. Gregg. "Molasses," said the
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culprit, but circumstances spoke louder than words, and Gregg flooded the road with whiskey as he broke the jug over his buggy wheel. "Now, how much did that molasses costs?" Gregg inquired, and handed the man the amount with the warning that the next time he might get the buggy whip instead of the money. Mr. X (let us call him for his descendants are excellent people), was the expert English machinist, and was the only man in the village whose lapses into liquor Mr. Gregg would tolerate. After his periodic sprees, Mr. X would weep out his repentence to Mr. Gregg and promise never to do it again, and so useful was he that the whiskey-hating president would each time accept the pledge and keep him on his job. It was a boy in this same family who was so rebellious about going to school that his parents confessed their helplessness and complained to Mr. Gregg against having to pay the daily 5 cents for his absence. (I'll tell you about this later) When Mr. Gregg asked if they were willing for his getting the boy to go to school, they consented and the president applied a good stiff dose of hickory stick and had no more trouble.
I mentioned the Graniteville Academy earlier. It was one of Gregg's pride and joys. It was built in keeping with the Gothic style. At first, the curriculum only went through the 6th grade. Later grades 7 through 10 were added. The school provided a 9-month course-October-July; the school day beginning at 8:30 a.m. and lasting until 4:30 p.m., with a 2-hour lunch break so pupils not only could have their lunches, but could carry hot lunches to the mill.
The school had the first successful compulsory attendance rule that worked. Parents were required to keep their children
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under 12 in school. When they didn't, they were fined 5 cents a day if a child did not attend school. Mr. Gregg would go so far as to tell the offending parent his job was in jeopardy if a child did not attend school. It was the first school in the South, and perhaps in the nation, to furnish free textbooks to the pupils. If a pupil was sent to the office, it meant the mill office and not to the superintendent's office. Mr. Gregg visited the school daily and the children loved him although he was very strict with the children. In summer when the peaches in his orchard on Kalmia Hill were ripe, he would bring tubs of them and set them down in the school yard for the children to help themselves.
The first high school class graduated in 1899. In 1922, the academy closed and the pupils marched to the new Leavelle McCampbell School that the company had built.
My father attended the academy, but my mother attended a private school run by Mrs. Anna Hard. After her school was closed, she taught at the academy. I was in her class in the 5th grade.
Today, what remains of the Academy building is used by Senior Citizens as a leisure Club.
From the beginning, school has been a point of pride and one of the most unifying elements in Graniteville.
Implanting the belief in the original settlers that education was the common denominator for growth and achievement, Mr. Gregg provided and supported a school which denied no one, no matter how poor, the right to go to school. I guess the good example set with our forefathers was handed down in the
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Graniteville Schools for attendance has always been good. I know that while I was principal of Byrd School, I had a habit, if a child's name appeared in the absentee list in the a.m., of calling to find out what was wrong. Only occasionally did I find a child not at school because of having overslept if both parents were working. Almost always, they'd come to school, though tardy . Also, from personal experience, I found the parents in Graniteville most cooperative, who wanted the very best for their children. Long before teachers' aids were in schools in Aiken County mothers volunteered to help.
Byrd School library was started by parents who helped to raise money for books and who gave of their time to man the library until the county furnished us a librarian.
CIVIL WAR
Taken from "Reflections" Grantiville was only 15 years old when South Carolina seceeded from the Union. Company F, of the 7th Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers was composed entirely of Graniteville men and boys.
Because Graniteville was furnishing material for Southern military purposes, General Sherman ordered the mills destroyed, along with a paper mill in the valley. General Joe Wheeler at Aiken, held Sherman's army away from Graniteville and the destruction of the mill.
During this time food was scarce, and Graniteville Company was besieged by beggars in person and by mail. While all possible help was given to those who came, there had to be a
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limit. Mr. Gregg bartered cloth for food for his employees and they fared better than most. In trying to care for his own people first, he received merciless criticism from the press and even from the pulpit because he had turned many away. Down through the ages, Graniteville has contributed not only men and money, but the essentials for uniforms, tents, and other textile requirements for military use.
Mules were a necessity in Graniteville. They transported raw cotton from farms to the mill, they hauled cotton bales to the mill; then moved the oznaburg material from the mill to the nearest shipping point. Wagons pulled by mules were first school buses and they carried the high school children back and forth to Vaucluse. This was possibly a first.
Mules were even used in the first sanitation system: behind the mules were carts loaded with large barrels facetiously nicknamed "honey-buckets" because of the odor of their contents. These honey-bucket carts ran with regularity throughout Graniteville and emptied near where Byrd School is now. However crude it may seem to us now it was one of the first organized collection systems in the country.
NO STRIKES OR UNIONS
There has never been a strike in Granitevile. Probably the reason being that the people feel that they are being treated fairly, or if not, they can settle their own differences. Maybe William Gregg was partly responsible when he hired the right people to live in his Graniteville. One incident told in Dr. Wallace's book which showed that the workers could settle their
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own differences took place when a Mr. Guerry was Superintendent at Graniteville. He fired a very competent and much loved and respected boss of one of the rooms. All the people working under this man immediately walked out, causing the entire mill to be shut down. Down it stayed until Mr. Guerry invited this man back. Then the entire working force returned. It was this same Mr. Guerry who took all the stored records of Graniteville Company to the ballfield and made a bonfire of them. I might add Mr. Guerry remained in Graniteville 13 months!
Another incident showing the workers could handle their own problems took place in Vaucluse when the Union sent workers there to try to organize a Union of the workers. The majority of the workers were so incensed wanting to run the organizers out of town that the National Guard was ordered in to prevent trouble. Needless to say, no union was organized and no strike occurred.
There are certain landmarks in Graniteville that I need to tell you about or at least mention. They are:
The two first churches : First Baptist which burned and has been rebuilt twice. St. John United Methodist Church. The Graniteville Cementery Company Farm Artesian Well Hickman Mill Medical Center
The Graniteville Bell
Speaking of St. John Methodist Church in Graniteville -- there was an article on this church in the Aiken Standard last year that you probably read, where I was baptized as an infant (I still have my Cradle Roll Certificate), attended Sunday School and Church there, and in which I was married. I distinctly remember when the beautiful beams that had been hidden for years
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by a false ceiling were discovered when Babe Yaun and his father went up in the attic to do some work. If you haven't seen the interior of this church, please attend a service there. It was designed by the famous Charleston Architect, Edward Brickell White.
While I was writing the History of St. John's in Aiken, I also did some research on St. John (doesn't have 's like ours ) because at one time these two churches were on the same charge, with St. John in Graniteville being the larger and mother church.
THE GRANITEVILLE CEMETERY
The Graniteville Cemetery was begun about 1855 with Mr. Gregg directing much of the planning and planting of trees and shrubs. A well and later a pump was provided to furnish water for flowers and shrubbery. It was a place of serenity and beauty .
The gazebo in this cemetery is one of Graniteville's oldest landmarks and was used to store coffins when it was too rainy for burial.
There are many legends and stories connected with this cemetery. Probably one of the oldest and best known is in the oldest section of the cemetery -- an inscription on a little tomb reads "The Little Boy" -- 1855. The legend is told of a little boy traveling alone on a train who became ill and was taken off the train at Graniteville and cared for by the good women of Graniteville. His high fever made him too sick to tell his name or where he was going. When he died in October 1855, the good women who had collected scraps of satin and silks from Christmas
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wrappings, lined a coffin made by the menfolk, gave him a Christian burial in their cemetery and from their nickels and dimes bought a simple little tombstone.
I often wondered from where the flowers that are still placed on the little grave were coming and recently I found out. They are being removed from other graves. At least someone still cares .
THE COMPANY FARM
After you turn off Breezy Hill Road going to the exit to I-20, you will pass evidence of Gregg's model company farm where cotton was grown for the mill, and vegetables for the employees, as well as various fruits and pecans trees. Also, there was a Smithy Shop and Stables for the horses.
There were 8 houses there for the farm families and I'm told, some of the old barns still standing contain relics that are fast deteriorating.
ARTESIAN WELL
We must not leave out the Artesian Well which was drilled about 1900, according to Monroe Hamilton, a long-time resident of Graniteville and now deceased, by a man known as "Klondike. " It is said he drilled the well using a steam engine for power. It was always a nice place to stop to get a cool, sweet drink of water on the way home from school or work on a hot day.
It was restored and enclosed inside a granite structure in 1973 to retain its historical value and to provide a host of fond memories to many who live in this area.
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THE HICKMAN HALL
The Hickman Hall was the town's recreational center and now the Employment Center. It had bowling lanes, a swimming pool, the town Library on the first floor and the top floor was used for dances and parties. I'm sure I must have read every book in the library. My aunt who was librarian lived with us, and many times she found me asleep between the stacks exhausted.
In the summer, Gregg Park was the recreation center until Gregg Civic Center took over the old Aiken Outing Club. In the summers, there were Community Watermelon picnics, ice cream get-togethers, band concerts, walks to Flat Rock, etc .-- Gregg brought in lecturers for culture.
In W. E. Woodward's book, "The Way Our People
Lived" -- Woodward grew up in Graniteville -- , he said people had watermelon every day for a 20-pound melon sold for 5 cents.
Land cost about $3.00 an acre. From this same book, I learned about the first bicycle in Graniteville in 1887 and how every one came out to see Dick Ross learning to ride his high front wheel bicycle.
GRANITEVILLE MEDICAL CENTER
Graniteville, as early as 1849, had a medical plan Mr. Gregg organized a sick fund to which each family made a trifling contribution, and from which the doctors fees were paid. (The conception of such a medical plan, like so many of Gregg's ideas, was way ahead of other manufacturers of the day. )
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One of the earliest medical care centers was in St. Paul's Episcopal Parrish House. With the equipment in the basement, an operating table and medical supplies, minor surgery could be performed. A trained nurse and an aid carried on valuable medical services in the community.
Today, Graniteville has a medical facility built by Graniteville Company that is a credit to the town.
THE GRANITEVILLE BELL
Not many of the workers owned an alarm clock -- I suppose they really didn't need one. The original Granite Mill had 2 towers, and in one hung a huge bell. (It's still there. )
The bell was rung to awaken people, to signal the time to report to work, the time to go to lunch and return, and the time to quit in the evening. It was also used for special occasions, ringing in the New Year, the end of wars, as a fire alarm, and upon request it tolled the age of an esteemed citizen at death. In other words, it was the communication system for the community in its early years.
Carrying out Gregg's passion for educating youth, in 1941 the Graniteville Company established the Gregg Foundation which began awarding scholarships to worthy students whose parents live in Graniteville or whose parents work for the Graniteville Company. Since that time, from 2 to 22 scholarships have been awarded each year.
In addition to their normal scholarship program, Graniteville Company made an outstanding contribution to the academic progress of the community and the State of South
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Carolina by a gift to furnish the rare-book section in the library at the University of South Carolina in Columbia to be known as the Graniteville Room.
Though proud of its past, Graniteville's face is turned toward the future. The houses in Graniteville are now owned by individuals, many are not kept up as they were when the company owned them. Since Mr. Posner took over the Company there is no longer a police force, but I understand there has been and are still being improvements. Many descendants of the original settlers are still living in Graniteville, and I'm sure they won't allow anything bad to happen to their town if they can prevent it.
Mrs. Mae Steadman
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HARDSCRABBLE
Hardscrabble was a very small neighborhood of farmers prior to 1845 when William Gregg chose the place to build his mill.
One of the few homes in Hardscrabble in 1845 was occupied by an old couple whose name has long been forgotten. It was a log cabin with a wooden and mud chimney. The cabin was built under a poplar tree that stood at the north end of "Blue Row" later known as Gregg Street.
The couple, according to legend, sold their land to William Gregg when the 5000 acre tract was acquired for the mill.
Note: According to a plat of the original owners of what is now the Platt property, "Blue Row' was "Gregg Street' first.
Many other nicknames were used out of Gregg's hearing. Some of these were "Punken bully", "Skillet Alley', 'Mocking Bird Branch', "Sweet Gum Hollow", and "Shake Rag'.
Gregg determined as early as 1843 to build a great cotton mill and had selected his location as Horse Creek Valley. It had many advantages - building materials, fuel, water power, and a railroad only a mile away - then a rare convenience.
March 20, 1843, he and his wife's brother, James Jones, bought for $2500.00 from John Bausket II, 423A containing Vaucluse Mill and most of the subsequent Graniteville Land. Gregg used the southern portion of the land for another and larger mill (Graniteville). Nineteen out of thirty-one stockholders were from Charleston. Capital paid $300,000.
Gregg planned to convert this property to great wealth and to educate the "hillers'. There had long been mills at the rapids of Horse Creek. These rapids had long been used to sam or grind for the neighborhood. Two of these wills were Glover's Mill near the Graniteville Factory and Richard's Mill on Bridge Creek.
Gregg's son had a letter dated July 9, 1844, "Hardscrabble". The place was made a Post Office February 4, 1848, with Enock B. Presley as Post Master.
CEMETERY
SUMMER HOUSE
The summer house in the cemetery is one of the last landmarks. It was built in 1856 shortly after the cemetery was begun. Someone had died, and the people not knowing just where to bury the body carried it to the woods on top of the hill. That marked the beginning of one of the oldest public cemeteries in the state. The summer house was used for shelter, concerts, and memorial services.
b) THE LITTLE BOY'S GRAVE
Tradition has it that a little boy, too young and too sick to travel, was put off the train here in 1855. He was cared for by the proprieter of the hotel until his death. No one ever knew his name or where he came from.
The people of Graniteville "nickled up" to have a coffin made and a tomb stone put on his grave. It can be found in the cemetery with "Little Boy 1855' on it. Some mysterious person has kept flowers on his grave ever since.
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VAUCLUSE MILL
The Vaucluse Mill was originally built several years before the Graniteville "Old Mill' was built and is believed to be one of the first in the South.
In 1836, William Gregg acquired a few shares in the Vaucluse Mill some miles from the home of his Jones in-laws. He intended to enter extensively into the manufacturing of cotton but ill health prevented his purchasing that establishment when it was sold.
1
The granite wall that is still standing was built of granite quarried near by. It was built in 1832 and now foras a part of the modern dan.
A tradition is that there was a former mill which was burned. This fact is sustained by a deed of April 23, 1831, on Big Horse Creek 'on which said tract a grist mill, a cotton factory, and saw mills are erected." Doubtless the property was deeded back to its original owners after it was burned, and they began the erection of the mill. The corner stone is dated 1832 and still stands on the foundation of the present mill which was erected in 1833. It was burned January 3, 1867, and was rebuilt in 1877.
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