340 College Street
City Directories and History: The Reidville Presbyterian Church was constructed in 1889.
The Rev. Reid’s home and office. Courtesy of the Charles Payne Photo Collection – 2017
The village of Reidville had its beginning as a center of education in upper South Carolina. During the early days of settlement, this section was known as “back country.” The settlers for the most part were of Scotch-Irish parentage and had come through the ports of Wilmington, Delaware, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the years that followed these people migrated down the slopes of the Alleghenies to the southern slopes of the Blue Ridge mountains. It was easier to travel from this direction than to come up from the port of Charles Town and cross the low country swamps and the difficult terrain leading to upper South Carolina. The first permanent settlements in what is now Spartanburg County seem to have been those on the various branches of the Tyger River in the general area not far from what later became the village of Reidville.
In 1761 a group of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian settlers came from Pennsylvania and chose for themselves tracts of ground along the branches of the Tyger. In this party were families bearing the names of Barry, Moore, Collins, Anderson, Thompson, Vernon, Pearson, Dodd, Jamison, Ray, Penny, McMahon, Miller and Nicholls. Some of these names appear in Jordans Fort Prince accounts kept in 1776. (See A History of Spartanburg CountyAs early as 1765 they had selected a conveniently located site and erected on it a log meeting house which they called Nazareth. Nazareth church was formally organized in 1772 as the first permanent church organization in Spartanburg County. Today Nazareth Presbyterian Church is cherished by descendants of the settlers and newcomers alike for what it has meant to the community for approximately two hundred years. by Fronde Kennedy.) Other families came later bearing the names of Coan, Snoddy, Peden, Alexander, Gaston, Morton and Nesbitt. These latter families occupied the highlands left unclaimed by the first settlers. These two groups soon occupied an area about twenty miles square. Those who settled around the area known as Reidville were people who had been exposed to education and had a full appreciation of its necessity. To advance the cause of education in the “back country” Rev. Robert Harden Reid, then pastor of Nazareth Presbyterian Church, told his congregation that it was the responsibility of the church and community to train its youth. It was Mr. Reid’s sermon that inspired the founding of the two schools in Reidville. Reidville Male High School and Reidville Female High School were chartered December 21, 1857, and opened in 1858. Mr. Reid served as President of the Board of Trustees for forty-two years. In 1871 the female school was raised to college level and operated as such until 1901. The two schools continued to operate under private control until 1905, at which time they were combined and operated as a public school. From 1907 to 1913, the Rev. B. Palmer Reid, son of the founder, operated the Home School for Boys utilizing the dormitory of the former girls school and the facilities of the Reidville Public School. In 1950 the Reidville High School was consolidated with other schools in the area to become a part of the new James F. Byrnes High School located several miles from the site of Reidville near the town of Duncan.
Old Reidville Road Bridge: Images by S.C. photographer Ann L. Helms – 2018
The present building, erected in 1948 on the site of the old Reidville Female College, is an elementary school serving the immediate community. Reidville Presbyterian Church, located beside (he present school, was built in 1889 and was started as an offspring of Nazareth, the mother church to eight Presbyterian churches located throughout a wide area in the up country. The First Presbyterian Church in Spartanburg was one of these off springs of Nazareth.
One day during the Confederate War a Union colonel and his men rode into the village and the soldiers swarmed about the female school. The colonel and his staff were invited into the home of Rev. Robert Harden Reid who insisted that “education of our youth must continue” and so convinced the colonel. On that day the Union soldiers would have sacked the town had it not been for the leadership, courage and determination of Mr. Reid. Naming the town Reidville was most natural and appropriate since Rev. Robert Harden Reid had devoted so much effort to the religious and educational advancement of the community. Students from all parts of upper South Carolina came to Reidville in the early days to secure the educational advantages which Mr. Reid’s schools offered to both young men and young women. The town stands as a monument to this early work in the training of the youth of the day.
Acknowledgements: The above material has been compiled from a number of sources. Much of it is found in “A History of the Anderson Family, 1706- 1955” published by Edward Lee Anderson, “Anderson-Denny History” published in 1914, “A History of Spartanburg County” prepared under the supervision of Miss Fronde Kennedy, and background material for the anniversary celebration of Reidville compiled by Dr. Robert Reid, grandson of Robert Harden Reid, and presented at the occasion by Dr. Reid.
Sloan – Epton’s Spartanburg Co Map ca. 1869. Courtesy of the Cobb Collection – Other Side of the River Museum, 2016
(Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)
Also see PDF: GUIDE TO PRESBYTERIAN NAMES AND PLACES IN SC by J.B. Martin, III – 1989
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IMAGE GALLERY – Bill Segars, photographer.
