Spartanburg, South Carolina

Our first stop in South Carolina was Spartanburg. I am moderately into my family genealogy and wanted to scout out a couple old cemeteries. My family settled for a short while in Spartanburg County as they migrated from Virginia and North Carolina to Tennessee. I still have an uncle, aunt, and several cousins living in the area.

I got with my uncle and found one of the two cemeteries I was interested in. This tombstone is in the old family cemetery located on land that was once my great-great-great uncle’s plantation. It was pretty incredible to stand on land that had belonged to a distant relative in the 1700s. We were unable to locate the other cemetery. My research indicates that some of my ancestors were active in the Padgett Creek Baptist Church so I wondered if they might be buried in the church cemetery. We did find the church building, however, it had been relocated several times from its original site. It was too cold and too late in the day for us to search any longer. I’ll put that on my list for our next visit.

At the very northern edge of the state, just a stones throw from North Carolina, is the highest point in South Carolina, Mt. Sassafras. I’m a “high pointer”—just some nut who has the desire to go to the highest point in all the states. This one was easy. It was a drive up except for the last three tenths of a mile. But as high points go it was pretty lame. The USGS marker was a survey marker and didn’t even have the elevation on it. There was a metal box for the summit register, but the register was missing. Eaten by squirrels, most likely. There was a hand full of shredded paper in the bottom of the box. Oh well, they can’t all be great, I guess.

Near Spartanburg is the city of Greenville. We went there to do their volksmarch. It was fantastic with paved greenway along the Reedy River for almost the entire 10 K walk. The walk started and ended on Main Street which gave us an opportunity to search for the life-size bronze mice hiding along the sidewalk. Some cities have cows, Nashville has catfish and guitars, Anchorage has salmon, and Greenville has mice. What fun!