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"S" is for Springs, Leroy (1861-1931)

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"S" is for Springs, Leroy (1861-1931). Merchant, entrepreneur, manufacturer. At the age of twenty-two, Springs opened his first business, Leroy Springs & Company in Lancaster. Over the next decade he founded a lucrative cotton-shipping firm, established the Bank of Lancaster, and founded Lancaster Cotton Mills—laying the foundation of the family fortune. By the early twentieth century Springs was the president of five mercantile companies, four cotton mills, two banks, a railroad, a power company, and a cotton-compress company serving shippers in South Carolina and Georgia. A volatile personality caused him problems during his lifetime; his relationship with his son, Elliott, was tempestuous at best. At one time Leroy Springs sat on the board of directors for Southern Railroad and eight South Carolina banks and held seats on cotton exchanges in New York and New Orleans.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.