HISTORIC OCONEE COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA Subject: Newry Historic District Version 1.0, 5-Jan-2003, FCH-10.txt **************************************************************** REPRODUCING NOTICE: ------------------- These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, or presentation by any other organization, or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Paul M Kankula - nn8nn Seneca, SC, USA Oconee County SC GenWeb Coordinator Oconee County SC GenWeb Homestead http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/oconee.html Oconee County SC GenWeb Tombstone Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/cemeteries.html http://www.usgwtombstones.org/southcarolina/oconee.html Contributor: Frederick C. Holder, Box 444, Pickens, SC 29671 **************************************************************** DATAFILE INPUT . : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Jan-2003 DATAFILE LAYOUT : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Jan-2003 HISTORY WRITE-UP : Frederick C. Holder in 1989 NEWRY HISTORIC DISTRICT - Buildings date from about 1893 to 1940 The Newry Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, represents an important part of the history of Oconee County and upper South Carolina. By the late nineteenth cen- tury, textile mills had become a major element of industry, commerce, and society in the South Carolina upcountry. Many unsuccessful farmers, for example, turned to the textile mills for employment. The textile industry grew quickly after 1880, and South Carolina was one of the leading textile-producing states in the nation for the next forty years. Because textile mills usually brought more money into an area, many towns in the upstate tried to establish cotton mills if the necessary funds could be raised. The towns of Seneca, Walhalla, and Westminster, for example, all established cotton mills in the late nine- teenth and early twentieth century. Newry was established in 1893 as a mill village to house workers of the Courtenay Manufacturing Company, a large cotton and wool mill. Many of the structures at Newry, including the mill, mill office, post office, store, church, supervisors' houses, and many of the workers' houses, were built between 1893 and 1911. The houses are excellent examples of buildings in a planned textile village. The Courtenay Manufacturing Company was concerned about the welfare of the mill workers living in the village. As a result, their houses had the combined services of a sewage system, running water, and electric lights earlier than most other places in Oconee County. Life within a mill village as isolated as Newry was very different from life in a town or a farming community. Mill workers were usually the only residents of the village because the houses belonged to the company. The workers bought most of their goods and products from the company store with money or special tokens given out by the mill for many years as part of the workers' pay. The social life of the village revolved around the church and the mill baseball team. When the village was first constructed, two housing units (similar to modern apartments) were contained within most living structures, and one family normally lived in each unit. A number of these struc- tures within the Newry Historic District exhibit what is sometimes called a "catslide roof". In other words, the back roofs of these houses were so steep that a cat without a good set of claws might slide off. After a number of years, the company sold all of the houses in the village to the mill workers who lived in them or to other persons who wanted to own property in Newry. Most duplex houses now serve as single family homes, and sections of the internal separating petitions have been removed. Even so, many of the houses retain the two front doors which once served as entrances to the individual housing units. The village has changed in many ways since the miil closed in 1975. The Union Church has been converted to a house, and the mill office now contains space for an artist's studio and a small historical museum. Over the years there have been many different plans for preserving the village and using the mill for businesses; none of these plans were ever fully developed. The houses on Broadway, the main street of the village, can best be seen during the winter months after the leaves have fallen off the trees. The Newry Museum, although currently small, is interesting. Another way to see Newry is from atop the Little River Dam of Lake Keowee along Rochester Highway (Hwy. 103). Location: After leaving Clemson going west on Highway 123, bear right onto the Old Clemson Hwy. (Road 1). The turnoff to Newry, at Old Newry Road, is about three and a quarter miles from the junction of Highway 123 with Old Clemson Highway. From Seneca or the Duke Power World of Energy, follow the Rochester Highway (Hwy. 130) and take the turnoff onto the Old Clemson Hwy. (Road 1). The turnoff to Newry, at Old Newry Road, is only a few hundred feet from the junc- tion of Rochester Highway (Hwy. 130) with Old Clemson Highway. Old Newry Road twists and turns for about one and a quarter miles as it descends toward the village. READING LIST: An interesting article on Newry is found in Jimmy Cornelison's Wide Spots in a Slow Road to Nowhere (Greenville, S.C.: Vannoy House, 1986), 8-11. Though not about Newry, Wilt Browning's Linthead: Growing up in a Carolina Cotton Mill Village (Asheboro, N.C.: Down Home Press, 1990) provides a feel for life - particularly the importance of baseball - in a mill village in Easley, South Carolina. David L. Cariton's Mill and Town in South Carolina (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982) contains little information about Newry, but this work should not be overlooked by anyone seriously interested in mill villages.