GLENDALE
Long before Joseph Buffington came to Lawson’s Fork, the
area was the hunting grounds of the Cherokee Indians.
After the treaty with the Cherokees
in 1753, settlers came from the low country and from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and
Virginia. They built their cabins and
lived off the land. The land was
fertile for growing crops, and the rivers provided plenty of fish. Hunting and trapping were abundant for the
new settlers.
In 1773, Joseph Buffington came to Lawson’s Fork and set up an
iron works business. It was known as
Buffington’s Iron Works until he lost the business to Williams Wofford a few
years later. It was then known as
Wofford’s Iron Works. In 1778, Wofford
sold the business to the Berwick brothers and the name was changed to Berwick
Iron Works. Iron ore was mined in the
area from the 1770s to the mid 1800s, so the iron works had a good supply.
Gold was also being mined in the
area during this period. Mines were
located around Glendale and the Goldmine (Poole’s Bend) communities.
In 1780, during the Revolutionary War, there was a battle in
the area. Some of the soldiers were
killed and are buried in the northern side of Lawson’s Fork Creek.
Some accounts claim that Colonel William Washington came through
Glendale before the battle of Cowpens in 1781.
His horses were shod at the iron works.
Rumors persist that President George
Washington came from Columbia and stopped here to have his buggy repaired. The confusion may be cleared up in an article
in Sandlapper (Year-end 1991), which describes Washington’s visit in
1791 to William Alston’s Clifton Plantation on the Waccamaw Neck . On this, Washington’s only visit to South
Carolina, he got no further west than Lancaster.
Much of the settlement of this
area was due to the Old Georgia Road, running north to south and leading in to
Georgia. This road ran through the
plantation of William Bagwell. This
plantation was located along the present Dogwood Club Road. William’s brother (Littlejohn) had an
adjoining plantation with over a thousand acres above Glendale.
The first large mill was built in
1832 by Dr. James Bivings. Churches,
houses, shops, and a school were built by the mill. The community then became Bivingsville. A dam was built near the iron bridge to provide water power for
the mill. This house is still standing
but needs restoring.
During the Civil War most of
the mill’s cloth was committed to the military. In 1864, it made six hundred pair of wooden shoe soles a day.
Around 1880, Mrs. Helen Converse (wife of the manager and
principal owner of the mill, Dexter Converse) changed the name of Bivingsville
to Glendale. At one time Glendale had a
streetcar, a park, a pond, a pavilion, and even a swimming pool.
In 1903, flood waters destroyed the dam and some mill
buildings. The bridge was washed away
but no lives were lost. Clifton and Pacolet
were heavily damaged and many lives were lost.
In the early days, both black and white schools were usually
one-room buildings. Most of them had
only one teacher and were heated with pot-bellied stoves. The boys had to build the fires and carry in
the wood while the girls had to sweep and clean the building. The school had outdoor bathrooms and no
running water. Children usually walked
to school or were brought by wagon.
They brought their lunch from home.
White Schools
1900—The first school built by
the mill was a “combination building”.
Later—A second school was
erected at the present site of the Glendale Fire Department. This structure was moved across the street
and is now a residence.
1917—A third school was erected
on the same property and was a two story brick building.
1954—A fourth school was built
on Clifton-Glendale Road. This building
is now the home of the District Office.
1979—A fifth school was built on
Heritage Hills Drive and is called Clifdale Elementary School. It combined students from Glendale and
Clifton.
Black Schools
1900—A two story school was built
on Lewis Chapel Road.
1910—Cedar Hill Academy was
established in the same area by Rev. Coleman and Rev. Kennedy. This building is now a residence.
1920—The mill built a new black
school on Lewis Chapel Road that was used until 1934.
1934—A new building was built nearby and was used until integration in the 1960s.
Glendale
School now District 3 Office
Sources: Joyce Brown, Personal
Interview, February 2001