“G” is for Greenville [Greenville County; population 58,282]. The fourth largest city in South Carolina, Greenville traces its origins to 1797. The chief promoter of the little village was Vardry McBee, who built a store, and opened a pair of mills along the Reedy River. The legislature granted Greenville a municipal charter in 1831. In the late nineteenth century economic development transformed the town into a leading cotton market and a center of the growing textile industry. By 1920 Greenville was well on its way to becoming the self-proclaimed “Textile Capital of the World.” Despite the decline of textiles in the late twentieth century, the city’s economy continued to flourish. Greenville’s location along the “mega-growth corridor” between Atlanta and Charlotte, its interstate highway system, and its business-friendly environment made the area attractive to outside investment.
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.