Hunting Grounds to Mill Town Marker

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Greenville in Greenville County, South Carolina — The American South (South Atlantic)

Hunting Grounds to Mill Town

By Brian Scott, December 7, 2008

1. Hunting Grounds to Mill Town Marker - The Cherokees

Inscription.
The Cherokees
Greenville County was Cherokee Territory before the Revolution. European settlers were forbidden to live here until 1777, when Native Americans were forced to cede this land to the new state. Most of modern day Greenville was hunting land used by the Cherokees, whose main villages were located in modern day Oconee County. A part of the Iroquoian nation, the Cherokees may have set up temporary summer camps along the banks of the reedy River. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Native American artifacts were found along the north bank of the river.

McBee's Mills
Vardry McBee purchased more than 11,000 acres around the reedy River from Lemual Alston in 1815. Although McBee lived in Lincolnton, North Carolina, he wished to develop his Greenville property, and in 1819 he built a brick corn mill on the south bank of the reedy River. In 1829 he added a stone grist mill. The mills attracted farmers from miles around who brought their wheat and corn to be ground by miller Elias Alexander, McBee's brother-in-law, who lived in a cottage above the river. Both mills were dilapidated by the early twentieth century. The stone mill was dismantled to build the Gassaway Mansion in the mid 1920's. One wall of the brick mill remains and is visible from the spot you are now standing.

Richard

By Brian Scott, December 7, 2008
2. Hunting Grounds to Mill Town Marker - Richard Pearis

Pearis
Richard Pearis, Greenville's first white settler, was an Irish adventurer who had settled in Virginia with his wife and family by the middle of the eighteenth century. He developed good trade relationships with the Cherokee, had a son by a Native American woman and in 1770 acquired the title to 100,000 acres of Cherokee land in what is now Greenville County. He set up his "Great Plains" Plantation with a trading post and grist mill on the banks of the Reedy River. Pearis was wooded by both Patriots and Tories when the American Revolution began. When he went with the British, Patriots burned his house, mill and store. He fled to the Bahamas and never returned to Greenville. Paris Mountain is named for him.

Location. 34° 50.683′ N, 82° 24.083′ W. Marker is in Greenville, South Carolina, in Greenville County. Marker is on South Main Street. Click for map. Marker is located on the second level north, under the bridge. Marker is in this post office area: Greenville SC 29605, United States of America.

Other nearby markers. At least 10 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Reedy River Falls (here, next to this marker); Liberty Bridge (here, next to this marker); Harriet Smith Wyche (within shouting distance of this marker); Tate Plaza (within shouting distance of this marker); Falls Place (within shouting distance of this marker); Vardry Dixon Ramseur, III (within shouting distance of this marker); Restoration and Development (within shouting distance of this marker); The Touchstone House (within shouting distance of this marker); Richard Pearis (about 300 feet away, in a direct line); Camperdown Mill (about 300 feet away). Click for a list of all markers in Greenville.

Hunting Grounds to Mill Town Marker - McBee's Mills Photo, Click for full size

By Brian Scott, December 7, 2008

3. Hunting Grounds to Mill Town Marker - McBee's Mills

Related markers. Click here for a list of markers that are related to this marker. Three markers designating the Cherokee boundary between 1767 and 1777.

Also see . . .
1. About Falls Park. Long before white settlers arrived, the Cherokee lived and hunted at present-day Greenville. (Submitted on December 20, 2008, by Brian Scott of Greenville, South Carolina.)
2. Greenville County, South Carolina. Greenville County is a county located in the state of South Carolina, United States. (Submitted on December 20, 2008, by Brian Scott of Greenville, South Carolina.)
3. Greenville, South Carolina. Greenville is a mid-sized city located in the upstate of South Carolina. It is the county seat of Greenville County and the principal city in the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). (Submitted on December 20, 2008, by Brian Scott of Greenville, South Carolina.)
4. Vardry McBee. Vardry McBee is often called the "Father of Greenville." (Submitted on December 20, 2008, by Brian Scott of Greenville, South Carolina.)
5. Children of Vardry McBee. (Submitted on December 20, 2008, by Brian Scott of Greenville, South Carolina.)
6. Richard Pearis. Richard Pearis (1725 – 1794) was an Indian trader, a pioneer settler of Upstate South Carolina, and a Loyalist officer during the American Revolution. (Submitted on December 20, 2008, by Brian Scott of Greenville, South Carolina.)
7. Richard Pearis Will - Bahamas 1795. A transcription of a transcription of the will. (Submitted on December 20, 2008, by Brian Scott of Greenville, South Carolina.)

Hunting Grounds to Mill Town Marker Photo, Click for full size

By Brian Scott, December 7, 2008

4. Hunting Grounds to Mill Town Marker

8. Richard Pearis. The 1987 BellSouth Yellow Pages for Greenville County, Page 2, provides some information regarding Richard. (Submitted on December 20, 2008, by Brian Scott of Greenville, South Carolina.)