Qualla: Greenville County, South Carolina

Greenville County, South Carolina: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit lovinkat, CC BY 2.0. Eugenia Duke ran a sandwich shop in Greenville during World War I. Her sandwiches were popular among soldiers at the local army camp because of her homemade mayonnaise: tangier than commercial brands, yellower from extra egg yolks, with no added sugar. By 1917 the demand for the mayonnaise itself had outstripped the demand for the sandwiches, and she was selling it by the jar. Duke's Mayonnaise was born. More than a hundred years later the company still has its headquarters in Greenville County, and you can still find Eugenia's original recipe in every jar. The county that made it possible has changed almost beyond recognition. But the things that built modern Greenville, ingenuity, manufacturing, and a knack for the next thing, are easier to spot when you know how it all started.

Image: lovinkat | CC BY 2.0

Greenville County, South Carolina: Named for the General Who Saved the South

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Foxe, Public domain. Greenville County was created in 1786 and named for Nathanael Greene, the Rhode Island-born Quaker turned Continental Army general whose southern campaign of 1780 and 1781 broke British control of the Carolinas. The naming was deliberate. The new county sat on land that had until...

Image: John Foxe | Public domain

Greenville County, South Carolina: The Textile Crescent

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0. After the Civil War, formerly enslaved people gained legal freedom, cotton farming expanded, and the textile industry exploded in the Greenville area. The completion of the Southern Railway in 1893 connected local mills to national markets. Within a generation, dozens of cotton m...

Image: DXR | CC BY-SA 4.0

Greenville County, South Carolina: From Mills to Microchips

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit United States Geological Survey (USGS), Public domain. World War II brought another textile boom and then, beginning in the 1960s, the textile industry collapsed as American manufacturers offshored production to cheaper labor markets. The transition that followed is the story of how Greenville reinvented itself. Local business leader...

Image: United States Geological Survey (USGS) | Public domain

Greenville County, South Carolina: Politics, Population, Place

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit -ted, CC BY 2.0. Greenville County voted Republican in every presidential election from 1960 onward, and in all but one election since 1952. It was one of the first South Carolina counties where Republicans broke the long Democratic monopoly on state and local offices. In 2020 something interesti...

Image: -ted | CC BY 2.0