Founding of Greer

In the mid-1800s, what is now Greer was part of a large estate owned by Hugh Bailey.

Hugh’s daughter Roseanna married James T. Blakely, who farmed a 190-acre tract forming the northern part of Bailey’s estate for almost two decades.
In 1863, Blakely sold that property to W.F. Thackston for $4,000 in Confederate currency.
(James) Manning Greer bought the land from Thackston (date undetermined). Manning Greer was a “bucker” or woodcutter, and it is uncertain whether he farmed the land or not (or even whether he lived there). [I have not yet seen the documents regarding the sales to Thackston or Greer. The Greenville Enterprise Jan 10, 1872 Page 2 shows an advertisement listing the entire Hugh Bailey estate for sale including the future Greer tract, with the real estate agents being W.C. Bailey and his brother-in-law, O.A. Pickle. This ad does not jive with this information or that information below regarding Greer's sale, unless Bailey was selling the land on behalf of Greer. The reported date of Shumate’s purchase was 1872, matching this ad’s timing.]
On May 11, 1869 there was a public meeting at the Greenville Courthouse to lure railroads to the upstate; a committee of 5 men, including William Terry Shumate, was appointed to work with the railroads. W. T. Shumate was sheriff in Greenville County in the 1860s.
The Atlanta & Richmond Air-Line Railway was organized in 1870, and by mid-1871 surveyors had selected a route.
Manning Greer sold right-of-way along that route to the Atlanta & Richmond in 1871 or ’72 (or very unlikely 1868, as the Walking Tour brochure states), giving 100 feet on each side of the track for $5 plus “benefits and advantages.” It is unclear if there was any plan or discussion for a depot at that time, or if Manning had any knowledge or intention of it including a depot.
Meanwhile William Shumate, evaluating the full surveyed route, theorized that a town would develop halfway between Greenville and Spartanburg, and identified a likely area where the tracks crossed the old State Road and several county roads. This property was that owned by Manning Greer.
Shumate purchased the 200-acre property from Greer in 1872 for $900, and hired surveyor H.P. Johnson to divide the tract into lots ranging from fractions of an acre to 40 acres.
The first transactions happened during late summer in 1873 when John W. Cunningham and William A. Hill put down payments on spots.
On September 13, 1873, Henry V. Westmoreland put a down payment of $10 on one of Shumate’s larger lots. On September 18, the closure of railroad banking firm Jay Cooke and Company caused an economic disaster now called the Panic of 1873: 18,000 businesses failed in a mere two years, including 89 of the country's 364 railroads.
The Atlanta & Richmond Air Line Railway defaulted on debt by the end of September and filed for bankruptcy; this news, with the sudden economic crash, resulted in neither Cunningham, Hill, nor Westmoreland completing their transactions.
Despite the bankruptcy, the first depot on Shumate’s property was completed in October of 1873. The defunct line was reorganized into the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railway, and trains began running shortly after.
The original depot (of which no photo or drawing has been found) was a very small, simple square wood building with either two or three rooms, one of which was the new Greer’s Station Post Office. It was most likely located at about 34.935282, -82.225205.
At that point the future town consisted only of the new depot and the old home of James Blakely, known as the "Blakely Place," with a barn and outbuildings.
The son of Hugh Bailey (that original estate owner), William Clark Bailey, was the first depot agent assigned to the station.
Because there was no town yet (and thus no people or businesses to serve), Greer’s depot was a “flag station” — meaning the train would only stop at the depot if the agent flagged them down. Bailey used a signal lantern for this purpose, which is now in the GHM collection.
As a flag station, no loading or boarding platforms were attached to the station.
In 1874, Shumate was able to sell 9 of his 45 lots, about one-fourth the total acreage. More important than his direct transactions were the secondary deals made by those who bought lots from him. Land speculation fueled interest in the proposed town, creating a small real estate boom and attracting permanent settlers.
In 1876 the fifteen vote-eligible residents of the town voted to incorporate. On March 25, 1876, Act No. 183 of the South Carolina Legislature declared that the “town shall be called and known by the name of Greer’s, and its limits shall be deemed and held to extend one-half a mile in each direction from the Air Line Railroad Depot at said place.”
For the first quarter-century, the term "Greer's Station" was frequently used by residents (see Victoria Bailey personal correspondence) and by newspapers to reference the town, while "Greer's Depot" was typically used in reference to the depot building itself.
By 1879, Greer’s boasted 250 inhabitants, a school, and 4 stores that, according to the Greenville Enterprise and Mountaineer, did “considerable trade.”
The earliest stores in town all sold whiskey, giving Greer a reputation as a place unfit for ladies to walk its streets. The greatest challenges to public order were rowdy drunks.
The Air-Line Railroad did nothing to help when it bought its first refrigerated car, decorated it like a circus car, and used it to bring freshly-brewed beer from Atlanta to every town along the line.
Citizens petitioned the state legislature to make Greers a dry town, which happened on December 11, 1879 — prohibiting the sale of spirits within Greer and 2 miles of the city limits.
In 1881, the Atlanta and Charlotte tracks were leased to the Richmond & Danville, which was the name in use until 1894.
By 1891, the population was 300 with 11 businesses.
In 1894, the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railway became part of the Southern Railway, and the Southern Railway and depot was the anchor of Greer’s railroad industry for nearly a century.

Although the ‘s’ would be dropped informally in the ensuing years, the city did not officially become "Greer" until 1976.