Business and Industry

The clays that formed the deep deposits mined in South Carolina were derived from the weathering and erosion of rocks, many from the high mountains that stood to the north and northwest.

Although Clemson Blue Cheese has never been a profit-making venture, it has earned excellent reviews from food critics and has been a popular public-relations tool, spreading the Clemson name around the globe.

Following the Civil War, the future of Clinton appeared bleak. The railroad ceased operation, and Laurens County was plagued with racial violence. However, prospects rose in the 1870s, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Jacobs and the local entrepreneur Mercer Silas Bailey.

Although Clover celebrated its centennial in 1987, the town’s history goes back to the mid-1870s, when the Chester and Lenoir Railroad placed a five-thousand-gallon water tank at the site of the future town.

It was Charles Coker who brought modern industrial and managerial practice to the family-controlled business. He established an industrial research and development program, developed a dedicated sales staff, and emphasized long-range planning.

From the World War I era until his death, Coker became an agricultural evangelist, promoting diversification, improved farming methods, and his seeds through numerous speeches, articles, and personal visits.

Coker's mill and process had a significant influence on the future development of the southern pulp mill industry. In the years following, Coker expanded the firm as it supplied pulp and paper products throughout the country.

Along with his varied business concerns, Coker took a strong interest in promoting education. Largely through his efforts and financing, Coker College, originally a liberal arts college for women (later coeducational), was established in Hartsville in 1908. Coker’s long and successful career provided a human face to the state’s successful transition from the Old South to the New South.

The longest-running single episode of armed confrontation in the American experience, it proved to have wide-ranging impacts on the people, life, and economy of South Carolina

In 1712 South Carolina’s legislature passed an act appointing its first permanent agent to remove “the pressure which the Trade of this colony now lies under . . . by a fair and impartial representation of the same to the Parliament of Great Britain.” The colonial agent reported regularly to the Commons House on matters of interest to the colony.

While now the setting for state, county, and municipal governments, it took shape in the wilderness near the geographic center of South Carolina, thus answering the demands of the populous upcountry for an administrative authority more “Centrical” than far-off Charleston.

It was one of several canals constructed by the state of South Carolina in the 1820s to improve transportation links between the upstate and Charleston.

By 1992 Columbia Farms had grown to become the largest poultry processor in the state and one of South Carolina’s ten largest privately held companies.

An expansion and upgrade of the Columbia Canal in 1891 by the Columbia Water Power Company had significantly improved the power generation potential of the waterway, making it suitable to power modern, large-scale manufacturing for the first time in its history. The success of the Columbia plant revolutionized textile mills by opening the electric era.

In 1707 the Commons House of Assembly created the Board of Indian Commissioners to regulate the traffic between Indian traders and nations such as the Cherokees, Creeks, and Catawbas.

Conner was among the original directors of the Bank of Charleston when it was organized in 1835. In 1841 Conner was elected president of the bank, a position he held until 1850.

Today, South Carolina’s continental shelf is a passive margin, meaning that it is not colliding with any other land, as it once did millions of years ago. Instead, it is trailing along North America’s active western margin that is presently leading the continent toward Asia.

In addition to establishing one of the most important industrial enterprises in Spartanburg County, Converse contributed to the educational institution in Spartanburg that bears his name.

Convict leasing came to an end in South Carolina in the 1890s. Its origins lay in the economic demands of a war-torn region and in whites’ desire to use the state’s criminal justice system to control a newly emancipated black population. Changing economic circumstances in the 1890s robbed leasing of its financial appeal.

Conwegians have sought to preserve their past even as they enjoy the present. Many historically significant residences, churches, and commercial and public buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.