“H” is for Hamrick, Wiley Cicero (1860-1931). Industrialist, businessman, politician. A native of Cleveland County, North Carolina, Hamrick and his family moved to Gaffney in 1895. He was a leader in the successful effort to form the new County of Cherokee with Gaffney as the county seat. In 1900 Hamrick and other local citizens organized a cotton manufacturing enterprise, Limestone Mills. As the company’s secretary and treasurer, (and later, executive officer) he oversaw the construction of five textile mills in what would become the Hamrick Group. He served in the South Carolina Senate (1910 and 1927-1934). He was a longtime trustee of Limestone College (1899 to 1935). Wiley Cicero Hamrick’s autobiography, Life Values in the New South, examined problems faced by southern textile manufacturers, their worldview, and their values during the early twentieth century.
“H” is for Hamrick, Wiley Cicero (1860-1931)
