John D. Hollingsworth on Wheels
Hollingsworth left his estate, valued at about $300 million, to the Hollingsworth Foundation with the provision that the profits go to various nonprofits such as Furman University and the Young Men’s Christian Association of Greenville.
John D. Hollingsworth on Wheels, Greenville-based manufacturer of steel and flexible wire clothings for cards and other machines for spinning preparation, was founded in 1894. Pinckney C. Hollingsworth of Greenville started the Hollingsworth Company to repair textile machinery. He carried a lathe and grinder by mule to cotton mills in the Carolinas. His son, John D. Hollingsworth, continued the business, which he called J. D. Hollingsworth by Himself. He bought a two-year-old Signal truck in 1919 to haul his equipment, then a few years later he built a large garage-workshop behind his house. Hollingsworth took his son, John D., Jr., along on business trips, and soon the company’s name was changed to J. D. Hollingsworth & Son on Wheels.
After the elder Hollingsworth died in 1942, John D., Jr. expanded the company into a major machinery manufacturer with clients worldwide. Revenues grew from $72,000 in 1942 to $11 million in 1963. Until shortly before his death at 83 in 2000, he worked at the plant almost daily.
Hollingsworth left his estate, valued at about $300 million, to the Hollingsworth Foundation with the provision that the profits go to various nonprofits such as Furman University and the Young Men’s Christian Association of Greenville. In 2004 the foundation owned the Greenville headquarters with 450 employees as well as Verdae Properties, a real estate company that held thousands of acres of undeveloped land across South Carolina.
