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Greenville, South Carolina

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A city and the county-seat of Greenville county, South Carolina, U.S.A., on the Reedy river, about 140 m. N.W. of Columbia, in the N.W. part of the state. Pop. (1890) 8607; (1900) 11,860, of whom 5414 were negroes; (estimated, 1906) 13,810. It is served by the Southern, the Greenville & Knoxville and the Charleston & Western Carolina railways. It lies 976 ft. above sea-level, near the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, its climate and scenery attracting summer visitors. It is in an extensive cotton-growing and cotton-manufacturing district. Greenville's chief interest is in cotton, but it has various other manufactures, including carriages, wagons, iron and fertilizers. The total value of the factory products of the city in 1905 was $1,676,774, an increase of 73.5% since 1900. The city is the seat of Furman University, Chicora College for girls (1893; Presbyterian), and Greenville Female College (1854; Baptist), which in 1907-1908 had 379 students, and which, besides the usual departments, has a conservatory of music, a school of art, a school of expression and physical culture and a kindergarten normal training school. Furman University (Baptist; opened in 1852) grew out of the "Furman Academy and Theological Institution," opened at Edgefield, S. C., in 1827, and named in honour of Richard Furman (1755-1825), a wellknown Baptist clergyman of South Carolina, whose son, James C. Furman (1809-1891), was long president of the University. In 1907-1908 the university had a faculty of 15 and 250 students, of whom ioi were in the Furman Fitting School. Greenville was laid out in 1797, was originally known as Pleasantburg and was first chartered as a city in 1868.