Images of America: Easley

The Easley Chamber of Commerce sponsored the book "Images of America: Easley."   A committee, consisting of of Dub Fortner, Jim Stewart, Jack Ragsdale, Kent Dykes, and Vicki Fletcher selected Brantli Jane Owens as editor of this local pictorial book on Easley’s history, helped make this book available the end of 2008. They gathered old photographs of local citizens along with captions to create a book showcasing the rich heritage of Easley. The book went on sale week ending November 21 at $22 each.

The photographs in Images of America: Easley demonstrate the unique growth of a small township named for General William K. Easley; to a town comprised of several interdependent mill villages, each with its own culture, churches, schools, and families; to the thriving city of today—rich in history and full of promise for an even greater future.

Through the pages of this volume, local journalist Brantli Jane Owens continues to document and bear witness to the evolution of Easley as her family has done for over 100 years.

The Images of America series celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents the distinctive stories from the past that shapes the character of the community today. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all.

Introduction taken from "Images of America: Easley"

As the country recovered from the Civil War, two men with the pioneering spirit and vision of a promising future picked a largely uninhabited tract of land in the picturesque foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to be the birthplace of  their dreams and what would eventually become Easley, SC. In present-day Pickens County, a few farming families were scattered across a small portion of the upstate (in what had been Cherokee country) in a loose conglomeration then known as Pickensville when General William King Easley proposed that a single rail line be routed through the land north of the headwaters of Eighteen Mile Creek. General Easley, an attorney for the Atlanta and Charlotte Airline Company, rallied citizens of the county  to offer the railway company $100,000 in bonds in exchange for the privilege of access to the railroad and a depot that was the lifeline of American commerce and communication.

As the Industrial Revolution surged the rail became all important in the expansion and growth of America. To have such access to the railway meant having a closer connection to the burgeoning industry and major cities, inducing an almost indescribable economic and cultural impact on the citizenry of the area, as General Easley well knew. He wasn’t the only person to see the potential . Excited by the possibilities, Robert Elliot Holcombe grew impatient for the railroad company to build a depot so, in 1873 he offered to finance, build and donate a depot to the rail company. His offer was accepted and the depot built 2 miles east of the originally proposed location. Not only did he build a depot, but a small dwelling and storeroom: in effect becoming the first “citizen” of Easley. Within months he and a few others that settled close to the rail, surveyed and plotted a one square mile tract of land including the plans for businesses, residences and streets, incorporating them into a small village with the depot at its center. The first use of the soon to be Easley depot was greeted by a few but progressive minded group of residents with an eye towards the future, in April of 1873. When the state legislature convened in December of that year, a charter encompassing that small square mile tract of land was applied for, naming the town in honor of Gen. Easley, and was granted in January of 1874. Widely known as “Col. Holcombe”, his efforts in creating the town were rewarded by being named the first agent of the Easley depot and later, the first “intendant” or mayor.

With a depot as its heart, the railway pumped life into tiny town bringing bountiful commerce in the form of the booming textile industry that was so prominent and important to the South. Easley, like other small southern towns, thrived as the textile trade grew. The first mill, Easley Oil Mill, incorporating a cotton gin, was built in the late 1800’s paving the way for the future of textiles and establishing the tremendous role textiles would play in the life of Easley. At the peak of textile commerce in the 1950’s through the 1970’s, Easley hosted six of the largest mills in operation in the Upstate. Each mill with its own “village” community provided a vast percentage jobs in Easley as well as fostering the growth of a subculture of American society. To be employed at a mill usually meant to live in the housing built by the mill, to use the “company store” and to attend the churches and schools that were specific to each community. A vast percentage of the citizens of Easley were living on “the mill hill”. To this day, older families are remembered by the mill community to which they belonged and it is not uncommon to hear someone say, “So and so is an old mill hill boy” or tell the tales of growing up on the mill hill. Each mill fostered a community unique of itself and at the same time interdependent upon each other as those employed by the mills were loyal to their mill families, as well as, the town at large. Many volumes have been written recalling the sense of family and community spawned by the growth of the ill fated textile trade by providing the school in which one studied, the church in which one worshipped, the neighborhood in which one lived… the very foundation of each soul under the protection of the close knit mill communities. 

During the run of the textile industry and the culture it spawned, Easley grew in size and population. Unfortunately, textile production in the US declined and eventually faded almost entirely. The mills began to close one by one and to date, 2008, only one of the old mills, the Ellison Plant, is still in operation. That plant, however, was built in the mid-1970s, and had no mill village associated with it. The culture of the “mill hill” has vanished into history leaving only memories and popular residential redevelopment areas.

With the demise of the primary catalyst of its economy and job market, Easley had to turn to the retail commerce and growth of the neighboring City of Greenville and Clemson University to support its population. Hwy 123, on the south end of Easley, has become a largely used corridor for commerce and travel. From the 1070’s until the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, the economic center of Easley shifted to the bypass as the downtown and our precious railroad was largely ignored. Clemson attracts students and faculty from all over the world. Greenville, is now home to major international corporations such as Michelin and BMW.It is our “perfect “ central location between the two as well as the natural beauty of the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains, lavish lakes and pristine state parks that have allowed Easley to continue to not only grow, but thrive despite the fall of textile manufacturing. The Chamber of Commerce, The Downtown Business Association as well as prominent and active members of the community have begun the revitalization of the historic downtown area that straddles the railway Repurposing the very buildings that were originally built along the railroad 100 years ago, the heart of Easley is populated with antique boutiques, restaurants and loft apartments with a focus on the tourism industry. 

Although the trains don’t stop in Easley anymore, their whistle can be heard from miles reminding us of our past and still 
contributing to our evolution into the future. The following pages hold dear memories. They are our past; describing the 
details of what was, unfolding the truth of what is and giving us the fortitude to discover what could be.

Text taken from the rear of the book cover.