Sampson and Camperdown Mill

No tour of the mills of Greenville would be complete without coming to the Reedy Falls. Greenville was a small city in the mid 1800s, with its railroad stops, good water from this river, the academies for boys and girls, and Furman University that came in 1851. But the landscape really changed with the arrival of the mills in 1873. Sampson, Hall & Co. was built in 1873--the foundations are still visible all around the park. On the Greenville side, looking up at the falls, Camperdown Mill once stood directly on the falls of the Reedy River. Camperdown Mill was constructed in 1876 when a Oscar H. Sampson and George F. Hall made a deal with Vardry McBee to expand. Soon after, paper and weapons manufacturers, as well as a saw mill, grist mill, and corn mills nearly filled the river in this little half-mile stretch.

This boom, as well as the whole crescent, built around the little streams that flow into the Reedy River, meant the Reedy’s waters would flow many different colors depending on which dye was being discarded into the river on any particular day.

Though Sampson (later called Camperdown #1) and Camperdown (Camperdown #2) brought a lot of neighbors to the falls, Camperdown itself didn’t bring a lot of business or job security for the mill town residents. Camperdown mills experienced many fires, closures, changes in ownership. Due to an increasing import of Japanese fabric and gingham, Camperdown’s production was not needed and the mill ceased operation in 1964.

Contemporary Note: 1964 is also the year of Bennette Geer's death--a fitting close to this era of Greenville's life, as the textile industry shuttered downtown and its leader passed away. It would take nearly four decades for Greenville to bounce back to national prominence, moving from textiles to foreign automotives.

Suggested Reading:

Bainbridge, Judith. The History of Vardry Mill. Greenville News. Nov 16, 2017.

Connor, Eric. "The History of Greenville's Camperdown Mill." The Greenville News. July 29, 2016.

"Flow Chart - a Look at How Greenville, SC's Reedy River Shaped That City." Appalachian History. January 05, 2014.

Tingle, Stephen. "RUN OF THE MILLS." TOWN Carolina. February 04, 2016. https://towncarolina.com/article/run-mills/.

The Greenville News. Greenville, South Carolina. Sun, Sep 22, 1985 · Page 65.

The Charlotte Observer. Charlotte, North Carolina. Fri, Jul 20, 1906 · Page 1.