Encyclopedia

Woodruff probably gained its greatest recognition in the postwar decades due to the success that the coach W. L. “Willie” Varner brought to Woodruff High School athletics, especially football. Under Coach Varner, the Wolverines won ten state football championships.

Restaurateur, author, businesswoman. Woods was born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 2, 1926, the only child of Van and…

(Greenville). The Woodside Building was constructed on Main Street in Greenville in 1923. At seventeen stories, it was Greenville’s first…

Textile mill owner, entrepreneur. Woodside was born in Greenville County on May 9, 1864, the son of John Lawrence Woodside,…

Physician, Indian agent. Woodward was among the earliest English settlers of South Carolina. Little is known about his formative years,…

Poet, novelist, memoirist. The exact year of Woolsey’s birth is not known–estimates vary from 1895 to 1900–but what is certain…

Journalist, author. Workman was born on August 10, 1914, in Greenwood, the son of William D. Workman and Vivian Watkins.…

When Congress declared war on Germany in April 1917, part of South Carolina was already on a war footing. Charleston…

Prior to the entry of the United States into World War II, the depressed South Carolina economy had already started…

Loyalist. Wragg was born in South Carolina, the son of Samuel Wragg and Marie DuBosc. His father was a prosperous…

Human relations activist. Born in Marion on March 12, 1902, Wright was the first child of the banker Samuel Wilkins…

Educator. Wright was born in Talbotton, Georgia, on April 3, 1872, the seventh of twenty-one children born to the African…

Wright’s prominent role in the state constitutional convention won him wide praise. After narrowly losing the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor at the party’s 1868 convention, Wright was elected to the state Senate from Beaufort County, making him among the state’s first African American legislators.

Historian, library administrator. Wright was born on March 1, 1899, in the crossroads village of Phoenix in Greenwood County, the…

Educator. Born into slavery on August 11, 1862, in Spartanburg, Wright was the youngest of three daughters of Lott and…

WSPA in Spartanburg became South Carolina’s first commercial radio station when it signed on the air at 6:45 P.M. on…

Not only did Wylie bring new ideas into the medical community, by the mid1890s he had become interested in engineering and the process of converting water into electricity. Wylie partnered with James Buchanan Duke to create Duke Power Company, now Duke Energy Corporation.

After Pinckney’s arrival, the French government continued to be hostile to the United States: France determined that it had no need for an American minister on its soil and demanded that Pinckney leave in January 1797.

Despite its name, the Yamassee War also involved the Cherokees, Creeks, and Choctaws in a far-ranging rebellion from the Savannah River to Charleston.

Yarborough finished his racing career with an impressive set of statistics that would make him a legend in his sport. In total he competed in 560 races and compiled a record of 83 victories, 319 top-ten finishes, and 69 starts on the pole position.