Located on the Reedy River in the Piedmont region near the Blue Ridge Mountains, Greenville was laid out in 1797 and incorporated as a city in 1907. It is a center for agriculture, livestock, and textile processing, with mills, factories, and processing plants manufacturing metals, paper, rubber, vehicles, chemicals, and electronics. Greenville is home to Furman University, Bob Jones University, Greenville Technical College, and a Shriners hospital for children. Tourists visit historic sites, parks, and the Blue Ridge Mountains.
2. Located on the Reedy River, in the Piedmont area near the Blue Ridge Mts.; laid out 1797, inc. as a city 1907. It is a trade and processing center for agriculture and livestock products. There are many textile mills, garment factories, and farm-produce-processing and -packing establishments. Plants there manufacture metals, paper, rubber products, motor vehicles, chemicals, and electronic equipment. Textile Hall is the scene of the biennial Southern Textile Exposition. Greenville is the seat of Furman Univ., Bob Jones Univ., Greenville Technical College, and a Shriners' hospital for children. It has an art museum, a symphony orchestra, a zoo, and the popular Little Theater. Tourists are attracted to a historic park in the city, as well as to the two state parks and Blue Ridge Mts. area nearby. Encyclopedia
3. Story Time The first white settler in present Greenville County was Richard Pearis, an Irishman, who came from Virginia about 1765 as a trader. He married a Cherokee woman and became so highly thought of by the Cherokee tribe that tradition records their repeated gifts to him of land that finally covered a tract 10 miles square. On part of this estate now stands the city of Greenville and Paris Mountain. (Name derived from Pearis).
10. He recognized the potential sources of wealth in the country's climate and water power, and erected on the Reedy River one of the earliest cotton mills
11. He was instrumental in removing Furman University from Edgefield to Greenville in 1851
14. McBee and Vardry Mills Rocks and river in foreground. Two-story brick building at left, two-story structure at right, waterfall between. Several people beside building on left. On verso: holograph note, ""Vardry Mill. McBee Mill in Background. ca.1880. Downstream from falls"". Building at left has been tentatively identified as Camperdown Mill building no. 1.
