Although founded in 1787, the courthouse village of Spartanburg was without any independent town or city government until 1831, when the little town of a few hundred residents received its official incorporation from the state government. At that point, eligible citizens within one mile of the courthouse were able to elect an Intendant and four wardens, who …
For close to a century, the textile industry was the dominant economic engine driving Spartanburg County’s growth. It built up fortunes, established new communities, changed the agricultural landscape, and brought thousands of new residents into the county. Even more significantly, the textile industry was interwoven with its employees’ lives to a degree not known before …
Funeral programs, 1957-1991 (bulk 1975-1991), collected by Bessie Norris Wofford, primarily of services in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, particularly Roebuck and Walnut Grove. Also included are a small number of programs for services for natives of South Carolina held in other states and programs for a service to license for Brother Alan W. Ferguson and …
Black history in the Spartanburg area remains obscured by the biases and scarcity of early records. By 1790, the first year with a reliable population estimate, Spartanburg County was home to 866 black slaves and 27 “free persons not white,” representing about 10% of the total population. At the time of emancipation, some 8,300 African-Americans lived in Spartanburg County, around 30% …
This selection of maps illustrates the development of Spartanburg County from an isolated settlement to a regional center as few other historical resources can. In addition to documenting areas rarely photographed, maps can be useful to researchers interested in charting the changes in land use for a given geographic area. Information included in many of …
LGBTQ Studies is a special-topics course taught periodically in the Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Women’s & Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina Upstate. In the spring of 2018, it was offered with a new component designed to introduce an element of High-Impact Practice (HIP) to the classroom through oral history collection. …
Established at USC Spartanburg in October 1998, the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies (CWGS) is housed in the College of Arts and Sciences and serves students, faculty, staff and community members through curricular and co-curricular programming. As part of the USC Upstate commitment to recognizing and supporting diversity efforts on campus, the Center for …
Colin J. McRae (1813- 1877) became the chief financial agent for the Confederate government in Europe from 1863 until the end of the war. An astute businessman prior to the war, he had served as an agent for the Confederate Ordnance Bureau from July 1862 until he went to Europe a year later. On his …
Items in this collection represent annual reports for the extension state and county offices, as well as separate reports for the African American extension agents. Started in 1907 with Dr. Seaman Knapp, an agriculturist and special agent for the USDA, the program was intended to be farm demonstrations to instruct farmers on proper farming techniques. …
With a public service career spanning over 70 years, the speeches of Senator Strom Thurmond document the evolution of his thoughts, opinions, and philosophies in all of the public offices he held – State Senator, Circuit Judge, Governor, and U.S. Senator. These speeches available online are only a small portion of the Strom Thurmond Collection. …