The Herald-Journal Willis Collection is the centerpiece of the Spartanburg County Public Libraries’ visual arts holdings. The collection of over 400 historical photographs was donated by the Herald-Journal in 1999. Most of the photographs were taken by Alfred Tennyson Willis, a Spartanburg commercial photographer, and date from the early 1900s to the 1940s. Alfred’s son …
Charles Crosland (1845-1918), who served in the 19th South Carolina Cavalry Battalion, with Company H of the Confederate Army’s Hampton Legion, recounts his combat experiences, his father’s death, and the destruction of the Crosland family plantation in Bennetsville. He also references the sinking of the USS Housatonic by the Confederate submarine, the H.L. Hunley. Lula …