Paris Mountain and Reedy River
A Land of Generosity, Hospitality and Entrepreneurship
First these blessings flowed through the Cherokees to a settler named Richard Pearis – around 1770, he married a Cherokee woman and received 100,000 acres in the once-forbidden Cherokee Hunting Ground. In that land Pearis established a plantation on the Reedy River which is now downtown Greenville and built a couple of mills and a trading post – it is said he lived the life of a prince.
After the Revolutionary War, portions of the land changed hands a couple of times until 1815 when it was sold to Vardry McBee of Lincolnton, NC who became known as the father of Greenville. Although McBee was an absentee landlord, he understood how to grow a community. “He gave land for the first schools (the Greenville Male and Female Academies), for the first four churches (Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian), and he established a brick yard, rock quarry, and saw mill, in addition to corn and grist mills, a tannery, and a large general store. Seven miles south of town he built a paper factory and cotton and woolen mills. Alston’s former home became a boarding house for the summer visitors who were making the little village a summer resort.” (Excerpt from Greenville SC.gov)
So we started our prayer journey at Paris Mountain named after Richard Pearis. Continue reading May 2016 – Greenville County SC – Releasing the Blessings of Generosity, Hospitality & Entrepreneurship →
